The castle in Colchester...

Yesterday the Readings family took me into Colchester and showed me the sites. We viewed the Colchetser Castle, gardens, and marketplace. As is becoming a pattern in England it was all quite beautiful.

Ancient churches in the English Countryside...

Last night I attended a church barbecue with the Readings family. The church is around 800 years old and is absolutely beautiful. Also, I was able to visit another church in a surrounding town this evening that is 1,000 years old. Here are a few pictures of these wonderful pieces of history...

Brightlingsea

Today I went with Nick, Pam, and Richard down to Brightlingsea. Unfortunately the water became quite rough and I was unable to capture us in our full wet suit gear. However, I was able to snap a few scenery pictures before mother nature intervened.

Once the water became rough we stopped at an island that was built up completely of sea shells and had a little lunch. After going inland, Richard took me to a 1,000 year old church with a beautifully painted interior. Pictures to follow in the next post.

Greenwich Jazz Festival...

While taking a boat down to the Greenwich jazz festival, I was talking to David and Mark about the blog. They posed for this photograph so that I could specifically share it with all of you. Hope you enjoy...

Walk along the Thames...

Back by popular demand...

The last five days have been absolutely incredible and it would be an understatement to say otherwise. I began work at ISG on Monday and was actually able to make the morning commute without and real trouble. It is fascinating to see so many people out and about walking through London first thing in the morning. I don't think I have ever seen so many people in one place.

I did manage to make one idiotic error that was quickly realized upon arrival at ISG. In my hotel room there was a nice little basket of coffees and teas. Beside the basket there was this contraption that obviously held water and was intended to make said coffee/tea. Once I figured out how to open in it I began a diligent search for the area in which you put the coffee. Only, there wasn't an area for that. So, I read the package and it only stated that the coffee was water soluble. Therefore, I assumed (and you know what that does) that you simply put the coffee and the water into the contraption and go abracadabra. That's logical right? After turning it on and waiting it began to make the horrible hissing sound like an airplane about to take flight. I actually stood on the other side of the hotel room waiting for the pot to go airborne. But, that never happened and afterwards I poured myself my first cup of English coffee. It was dreadful! But I drank it anyway. Once I got to work I was properly instructed on how to make coffee and at that point the entire story became quite laughable and I felt inclined to share it with anyone that wanted to hear. Luckily, the British have a great sense of humor and found it just as funny as I did. The "contraption" is actually a kettle and it is used to boil water only. You then put the coffee or tea into the cup and add the hot water. In hindsight that does make sense. Needless to say I have become relatively proficient in making coffee and tea as it is an all day affair.

On the work front: ISG is an amazing octopus of a company involved in many exciting projects. They also seem to have an adventurous attitude and are not simply settled on working only one side of the industry. The bulk of the business seems to be centered around runoff companies as they purchase other businesses when they are reaching insolvency. Typically, these are reinsurance brokerages. The whole idea is fascinating and necessary. They also show great interest in watching the horizon for innovative new ideas. I have luckily been assisting with a research project involving the health care industry in the United States. Regardless of the outcome, it is eye opening to see where these ideas begin. It is also nice to be a part of something that could potentially affect us all back home.

On Tuesday a wonderful Brit named Denis took me on a tour on London. We walked along and he showed me the amazing sights right around where we are working on St. Clare street. I was able to see Tower Bridge, which is absolutely beautiful, the Tower of London, remainders of the wall, and All Hollows church. After a little sight seeing when went down to Lloyd's of London and I was able to walk the underwriting floor. But was that an awe inspiring experience. It actually felt surreal seeing as we have a great deal of time discussing Lloyd's in college. It really is as I expected it to be. There are these huge open floors with loads of desks and international business going on all around. It looks as if I will spend some time working there at Lloyd's and should have more to say about that experience later.

One evening after work I decided to go walking along the Thames. There is actually cobblestone streets that run the entire length of the river. People wander all up and down. There are pubs and museums lining the way. It is really an amazing experience. That evening I went down to the Tate Modern museum and I plan to post pictures soon.

Friday after work I accompanied a few colleagues to a jazz festival in Greenwich. I did not realize this but Greenwich is actually where time is set. Apparently all of +1, +2, etc. is set off of Greenwich time. We took a boat from London down the Thames in order to reach festival. It was a positively beautiful boat ride with buildings lining the rivers edge for the entire length. The jazz festival was also a load of fun. Strangely enough the headlining group played American classics. If you did not hear the accents you would almost think you were in New Orleans.

Saturday morning I checked out of the Premier on Old Kent Road . I took the bus to the Liverpool Street Station and then caught a train to Marks Tey. Believe it or not public transportation is quite easy to navigate in this country. I spent yesterday and today in Marks Tey and surrounding towns with my boss Nick and his family. They have been absolutely wonderful. Yesterday they were hosting a barbecue at their church here in Marks Tey. I helped out as best I could. However, to me, this was not a normal barbecue. I suppose because it was in an 800 year old church that looks like something out of a fairy tale. The countryside of England is to die for. I couldn't imagine anyone ever being sad in a place this beautiful. I also plan to post pictures of this but no matter how many I take it just does not seem to do it justice.
Oh and I just remembered - I went sailing on Thursday. It was a ton of fun. I will definitely be making time to that again. My team actually came in fourth but we enjoyed ourselves the entire way.

Feel free to comment and let me hear your thoughts. I miss you all.

Pictures from my window.

Here are a couple pictures I snapped during the sunset. This was right before I blew up my camera charger. No worries tho, I have found a new way to charge it up and will be posting more pictures soon!

The first two days...

First off, a little about me. I am a senior level student at ULM majoring in Risk Management and Insurance. It is due to the wonderful staff and incredible insurance department at ULM that I have the opportunity to work in London now.

I arrived in London Saturday morning and since I truly wish for this blog to be a thorough account of this experience I plan to back up four days and start at the beginning. The plane ride over was quite lengthy but enjoyable none the less. I have found that any opportunity can be a chance to learn something new and I approached it with that attitude. My flight connected in Dallas. I wasn't quite sure of how the grouping would go since we were flying to London on a 767 and there were plenty of passengers waiting to board. However, they called for group two and that included me. While in line I glanced at the ticket of the woman in front of me to make sure that I was in the correct line. Strangely enough her ticket read 38A and I was holding 38B. She turned out to be a very nice Brit living in Dallas. Imagine that! I am heading off to England to work and she has moved to Dallas to work. And I thought...all the blondes want to be brunette and all the brunettes want to be blonde. =) It does get even more interesting from there. She actually works for AIG handling medical malpractice claims as she was formerly a nurse. So, this led to quite an enjoyable flight over with lengthy conversations regarding England, the States, the insurance market, global economy and red wine.

After arriving in London I did feel quite a bit of jet lag. I honestly had not anticipated the six hour difference to really slow me down that much. Boy was I wrong. I made my way to the Premier on Old Kent Road and it was lights out until Sunday. However, Sunday had a purpose and I intended to fufill it. I needed to figure out how to navigate this massive city and be capable of finding my way to work by 9:00 a.m. the following morning among the early Monday hustle and bustle of 7 million people. Easy enough right?

So...Sunday morning I bought a map and jumped on the bus. Yes, the red double decker bus. I even sat on the top. I decided to hop off of the bus at Tower Bridge and wander around for a bit. During this stop I popped in to the Tower Bridge Station and picked up an oyster card. This card allows you to ride all public transport for a much better price than simply paying for each individual ticket. At this point it was getting time for lunch so I went off in search of something authentic to eat. It is really fun to order off of a menu and not know what anything is. Sort of like treating yourself to a surprise. Along the way I noticed a sign stating that a restaurant was below. It said to simply follow the steps down and take a left. I figured that was as good as anything. The steps went down in between two brick buildings and it would have been difficult to know that anything was there if there were no sign. So, I wandered on down and lo and behold it was almost like another city under the city. There were cobblestone streets and ornate buildings. I picked a place called the Mudlark and had my first English meal.

During lunch I studied the map of London. Of course the one street I needed to get to was not on the map. But, I was able to narrow it down and make some sort of educated guess. I decided to roll the dice and take the train that I beleived would get me into the vicinty. Once the train stopped I jumped off, looked left, looked right, decided on left and began walking. Can you believe it...two blocks down I was looking right at the building where I was set to work. Good karma I suppose...

After my sunday outing I decided to head back to the hotel in South London and prepare for work the next day.