I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It is now about the end of the year and school is winding up. Balancing work and school is now challenging with all the projects and presentations that are due. At work everyone is just as excited for the holidays. The office has been decorated and christmas party plans are already underway. Unfortunately, the party is scheduled during the finals week and I cannot attend. Work has been going on well. On Monday my supervisor has been going through the monthly reconciliations that I do and it was nice to get some feedback. There are some things that I overlooked like the arrangement of detail in one of my reconciliations but because I now know how my supervisor wants to present my work I am able to do a better job for her next time! I am hoping to working two to three times a week so that I can focus on my studies more during the finals week.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break. I most certainly did and it was much needed! I worked twice before break, Thursday and Friday. Thursday was a slow day; I feel like al lot of people stayed indoors because of this weather! Friday was Mac Friday in which Cupcake participated. With every 25 dollar purchase the customer was given a Michael Stars bag. It was neat to see how the various stores participated in this event! We have a lot of new stock that has come in; lots of cute clothes for the winter time. Winter clothes are some of my favorites because they are always so comfy. :) Anyways, I plan on working twice again this week. We are nearing the end of our semester! Hope everyone has a great next few weeks.

Goodbye Washington!

Today is officially my last day at the department. I am going to miss working here because its become a routine for me and I really enjoy doing the work. It is going to feel weird going back to Portland because I got so used to living in D.C. I love the environment here and the possibilities for a career in politics are endless. However, I have missed my family and friends a lot and I will be happy to see them again! It's time to slowly pack up and head out. My experience at the department has been amazing and I look forward to working here again. Hopefully, after school this career is what awaits me. Now I need to focus on finishing up my last semester at Linfield, and taking my foreign service officer test.

Goodbye Washington!

Hospital

This week, I have gone twice, and worked in the medical surgical unit, and the emergency department. I am starting to like the emergency department more becuase i get to be around more patients and in a way take care of them. Although, i cant help them with anything physically, but i make sure they are comfortable and get them hot blankets or anything they want. However, i was kind of grossed out when i had to take a large container, that was full of pee and dump it down a special sink/toilet. That was definatly not my highlight of the day.

Hey everyone! So last week I worked on Tuesday and Friday. The store has been decorated for Christmas time and if you happen to be walking down third street you should check out the display window because it looks super cute! We got in a lot of new merchandise and there are a lot of things on sale at the moment. You can tell it is holiday season because more people have been coming in. I am excited to see how things go more towards the holiday season and I just love the atmosphere of being in the store around this season! Hope everyone has an amazing week :)

week of november 7-12

This week I worked three days at Red berry. It was interesting because the owner talked to me about the financial part of the business. Small businesses like hers and many on third street cant afford to pay employees. My manager just recently got interns (me) and said it has helped a lot with finance part of the business. She explained that she use to have to pay another girl for working here all the time and it was putting her in debt. This week was crazy at school and I was able to do my homework. I had a huge paper due on Thursday and I had to work on Thursday but I was able to work and do my paper.

Week 9!!!

This is my last day for Week 9 since Veterans Day is this Friday and we have the day off. This week I spent a lot of time doing administrative work since the person who usually does it is out of the office. I am glad I was able to do this because it taught me how to communicate effectively with people. I also attended a couple of events at the John Hopkins University that discussed the economic stance in Bosnia and predictions of our economy in 2020. This is one advantage in living in D.C. You can attend many events and seminars that discuss a broad number of issues. I enjoy doing this because it’s better than doing research online. Other than that the week has been pretty ordinary with the same type of work. Next week is my last week at the department before I head back home. Time has passed by quickly and I finally feel that I am really getting in the swing of everything.

Week 7

The past two weeks has been awesome! Its amazing how time flies by so fast.

My supervisor was gone for about a week and I needed not to go to work as often as I normally do. The times that I went to work, I had to be disciplined enough to do all my work with pretty much no one to help me. I went through the whole week without any problems. Surprisingly, one of the staff accountants came to me asking some questions he had and I glad that I was able to help. As a student, I did not expect to see myself knowing something that someone who already is in the industry does not know. Its amazing how much I have learned since I started my internship.

My responsibilities have been gradually increasing, but now my work is mostly repetitive. I hardly have enough time to learn new stuff and at the same time be able to finish my daily tasks.

ER

I began interning at the Emergency Department and I really enjoy being there. I get to interact with some of the patients coming through, but also with the doctors and nurses. I want to become a doctor and interning in this type or environment seems to be making me want to pursue my dream even more. I also work on the second floor of the hospital, medical/surgical unit. I feel as if I interact more with the patients there because they are lonely waiting in the beds. Moreover, I am having a good time at interning at the Willamette Valley Medical Center.

Grape Sorting

This past week the vineyards in the area have been busy with harvest.  Vista Hills has finally started picking and hopefully will be done soon.  On Friday we spend a few hours at Panther Creek Cellars sorting grapes, this was a fun hands on experience.  Tons of grapes were delivered to the cellars and all of them had to be processed through the conveyer belt and our hands.  We looked for any signs of mold on the grapes, under ripeness, tainted grapes and items other than grapes (leaves, rocks, bugs...).  We had to work fast and not be afraid to get wet, cold and dirty.  Compared to the tasting room work this was an incredibly different experience.  Though by the end I could barely feel my hands from cold it was a lot of fun and a great first hand experience of another stage of wine.

red berry boutique

I have been working at Red berry boutique for over a month and i still enjoy interning there. I'm starting to understand and experience the business part of owning and managing your own business. Not only do I learn customer service aspect of it, but also from the owners perspective. The paperwork that I fill out each night when I close is making more sense to me. I am excited to learn more about how to operate your own business.

Hey guys! So I am interning at Cupcake Couture a designer boutique on third street. So far my experience has been positive and I absolutely love it. This is my first real job that I have obtained so it is exciting for me to work and learn new things and just grow as a person. I am planning on majoring in business so working at this boutique and learning how they manage it as well as working with clothes; I don't think it gets any better than that! The people I work with are great as well and I have made new friends there as well. I worked on Linfield Student night, which was a big success and I gained a lot of experience and knowledge. As the holiday season is coming up the store has some great gifts, and Linfield students receive 10% off ;). It has been interesting read the rest of your guy's blog and I look forward to hearing more from you! Have a wonderful rest of the week. :)

Week 8

Time is flying by! This is officially my 8th week as an intern. This week has been slow and I haven’t had much to do. I did however go to a couple of museums and I am attending a tour at the American University on Friday. I am excited since I have not toured a Graduate program yet. Other than that work is smooth and I have had the time to work on some stuff for school. I recently started an outline for my presentation which is due when I get back to Linfield. Since I only have two more weeks left I need to make the most out of my time and truly enjoy D.C. I am currently surfing for jobs in the D.C. and New York area.