While studying abroad in London I hope to learn more about international marketing in my class, revenue control in my internship, and culture in London over my six-week stay in England.

So far I am enjoying both my class and internship. My professor is very passionate about marketing and he makes the 3.5-hour class go by quickly. I also really like how the class is set up. My international marketing class is project based so we submit papers and give presentations rather than taking exams. I am happy the class is structured like this because I know I will learn more in this type of class setting. I’m looking forward to creating a marketing plan for my final project.

I’m also enjoying my internship at the Marriott County Hall. When I found out about my internship placement I was very excited to work in such a beautiful hotel and for such a successful company. I’ve only worked three days so far, but I have already learned so much about revenue control for Marriott. I am currently working on management checks, doing covers, and organizing a lot of paperwork. Although my work is pretty boring, I have learned how important these tasks are when looking at the whole picture. If I don’t do my job correctly, the numbers will not be accurate for the financial forecast for the upcoming year. One cool perk of working at this hotel is they have free lunch, coffee, and snacks! This is really helpful because buying food out in London everyday gets very expensive.

I live about 40 minutes from my work in a neighborhood called Shepard’s Bush. It is really nice to be in walking distance of a huge mall, restaurants, grocery stores, and a tube station. I live with one roommate in my flat who also goes to Pitt! We share a room, but luckily our flat is pretty spacious. The hardest part about living in this flat is that there is no air conditioning. We’ve had some pretty hot days, but the fan I bought really helps.

My daily commute to work is 40 minutes on the tube. I only have to switch lines once, so it isn’t too tricky. This is very different from how I get around at Pitt. During the school year, I walk almost everywhere and just take the busses if I have to get groceries. I definitely prefer the tube to the Port Authority buses because the tube comes every minute or so, but the busses at home can sometimes take 20 minutes to come. My best tip for students trying to get around London is to use the City Mapper app. I heard about the app from locals and I have found it gets me to my location quickly!

So far London has been great! I can’t wait to see what these next few weeks bring 🙂