Work, play, and some delicious food.

October 21, 2013

Hello again all! As mentioned in my last update, I am interning at the InterContinental Sydney. I finished up my first week this past Friday and I will be starting my second week tomorrow. Between my internship and class, I have still been trying to explore Sydney, though sometimes I am falling into my old habits of hiding in my room and watching TV or reading...oops.

Many people have asked what my internship consists of. Honestly, I do not know exactly what I am. For half the day, I work with either the Chief Concierge, Dave, or the Chief Engineer, Andy. The other half of the day, I work with the General Manager’s Personal Assistant, Kim. During the first few days, I entered data for a project to improve and create consistency in training and knowledge of InterContinental Sydney (ICS)’s colleagues. It was pretty interesting to see what types of questions guests ask, and additionally, what questions the colleagues recorded. It explained a lot about the hotel and the guests who visit.

When I was working with Kim, my assignments varied day by day, or really, whenever I finished the task she had assigned me. I wrote responses to guest satisfaction surveys, recorded distributed gift certificates, and prepared picture frames for the colleagues who performed exceptionally well during Sydney’s version of fleet week. The tasks seemed pretty random, but I could understand the importance of doing each of them.

After my work week, my friends and I wanted to just hang out and explore. On Friday, we headed to the Night Noodle Market, which is a part of Good Food Month, where there were dozens of food stands. There were also small exhibitions, including a really pretty display of lanterns. After the Night Noodle Market, we headed out to Opera Bar and shared a cocktail jug of “Summertime.” Afterward, we went back to the Night Noodle Market, bought dessert, and headed back to the dorm, where we called it a night. I think most of us were tired from the week due to work and class, so it was no surprise.

On Saturday, Inez and I decided to visit the Powerhouse Museum, which has a focus on gadgets and trains. I think the building used to be a major station. Anyway, it was pretty cool. They had an awesome light exhibit with lasers and projections, and a video game exhibit with old fashion games (PacMan, etc.). There were also other exhibits with robots and typical science museum objects and activities. Additionally, there was a strange furniture exhibit, which made me feel like I was in Ikea, except I could not touch anything, boo. After the museum, we headed back to the Night Noodle Market, and I actually bought some (DELICIOUS) food this day.

Sunday was the 40^th birthday of the Sydney Opera House. The venue was open for the public to walk through, which Denise, Laura, Kunchy and I did. It was pretty nice, though not the most spectacular thing I have seen. When we exited, they gave us mini cupcakes, which resembled the fake giant cupcake placed outside the building. The cupcakes were surprising yummy! After this, we walked to the Royal Botanic Gardens and Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, which provides a stunning view of the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Harbour Bridge behind it.

October 22, 2013

Whoops, I never finished the post. Well, that was about it for my weekend anyway. Had steak for dinner at Abercrombie (not the clothing store) last night; it was pretty good. Started week two of my internship today! I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. As always, thank you for reading!