Use Your Imagination

Alright everyone, just pretend that I've been regularly calling/texting/emailing/messaging you over the past month and you know exactly what's going on in my life.

As I've completely failed to keep in touch, this blog is my way of saying "I'm sorry". Don't be offended that I'm not communicating with everyone I know personally, because a.) I wouldn't have enough time and I'd end up not communicating with anyone, and b.) this is more polite than copying and pasting, which I have been known to do on Facebook.

Now to the point. I spent this summer working as the Assistant Director at Skymeadow Girl Scout Camp near my home in PA. Like every other summer at camp, we were all overworked and underpaid, but I had an amazing time and wish I could to back. (I think there's photos floating around Facebook somewhere. Check out Ace's gnome, he tells all.)

I flew to London on August 9th and started work on the 10th. I spent the first and third week of my training at a posh (to use the British word) training center in Guildford. I was with 20 ITRA grads from across the UK and Ireland. Photos do exist, but most aren't very flattering. Please don't look for them.




Oh yeah, you may not know what ITRA means. Officially I'm an Associate with Ernst & Young -> Advisory -> IT Risk and Assurance. I help make sure that program controls are doing what they should do. For anyone not lucky enough to have CSB 311, in short, I do walkthroughs and testing of all of the controls between the user and the data for any application that has a material effect on a firm's financial statements.

This past week I was managed to get chargable work helping with a TAS (Transaction Advisory Services- different world than Advisory) project for McKenzie. Despite being told many times that EY only advises firms and never implements anything, I discovered that exceptions do exist. I spent the week fixing a few bugs and identifying far more in a .NET project. :-D

Last week James and I moved into a few flat in Blackheath. It's a sweet little town only 12 minutes by train from London Bridge (where my home EY office is), and our flat is just up the street from the station. If anyone wants pictures, tell me. The flat is still a work in progress. We're missing a few crucial pieces of furniture and kitchen supplies. Most of my decorations and homey stuff are under the basements steps at home in PA.

Will I stay at EY forever? Probably not, ask again in a few years. Will I stay in London forever? Probably not, ask again in a few years.