Some Events

This year my uni has really encouraged us to attend as many events as possible to learn about different industries and most importantly, network.  Some of them were really interesting and fun!

Professors and our class representatives have planned several Marketing Symposiums each semester. Different speakers have come just to speak to our program!

Some pictures: (I actually got these from the blog: (http://mbsmarketingthinktank.blogspot.com/)

In the past few weeks I also attended:

Technology for Marketing and Advertising Exhibition 

We talked to different venders, and heard several different speakers. The two I enjoyed most were Boots and Acuity.

Boots is basically an equivalent CVS or a Rite Aide. They have cosmetics, pharmacy, grooming products, odds and ends like that. At home, Target actually carries "Number 7" make-up.  The Boots speaker told us all about their loyalty card program which was really interesting.

With information they collect on the cards they are able to figure out who is shopping in their stores and want they want!  They know so much they offer different specials tailored to each location.

This is the Boots ad I have seen the most:

Acuity http://www.acuity-ets.com/

is a company that specializes in eye tracking! They use glasses to follow what your eyes focus on when you look at an ad. 

Last week I attended the the  international food & drink event (IFE). One of the professors at University of Westminster had a stand promoting a beverage called fresco. I had the best time! Different vendors brought their products from literally all over the world. I made the mistake of not eating lunch before but by the end I was actually full from trying different samples.  Some pictures:

London Fashion Week

Finally, an update!

Two weeks ago I had the chance to go to a really exciting event, LFW!! It was held at Somerset House which is huge & beautiful. Here's a link to learn more about the actual building, http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/about_somerset_house/. 

 I was really impressed with all the lights & I am searching for more pictures!  

Entrance to Fashion Week:

Of course, all the important people see the real runway shows in the daytime during the week, so sadly, no celebrity sightings.  The show we saw featured 3 popular designers & one of them actually made the costumes for the movie Black Swan!! (On a side note, I really enjoyed that movie and if you haven't seen it... you should!!)

One of my favorite things that I learned about is "color blocking" which is really in! It is when you wear very bright colors that clash. Since my absolute favorite pieces in my wardrobe are LBD's this was a little new & I decided to try it! 

Models Color Blocking

ME! color block-ing on the runway

As you can see from the picture room was pretty small so we had a really good view! It was interesting to see the models. The presenter made a point to tell the audience that the designers had deliberately chosen to use models of all sizes. This was probably in response to the Size 0 Debate as fashion designers received negative attention for only using very very very thin models.  

After watching the show & seeing the women up close we all decided that we are glad we are not models. It seems very difficult and honestly, they were not as glamourous or pretty as we were expecting. After watching Victoria Secret 2011 Fashion Show I felt a little fat & depressed but in the up close & real life fashion show... I was really glad I had just eaten a huge hamburger! =)

We chose to buy "Gold tickets" which came with free gift bags! Slightly disappointing the contents were a lot of dental products but I love the actual bag :)

SOTU 2011

I watched/read the transcript of the 2011 State of the Union Address this morning. I am always struck by how the President is SO articulate. One of my favorite quotes:

‎"We are part of the American family. We believe in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled."- President Barack Obama

I MISS EVERYONE !

CV's

Recently,  I began working on my "CV" which stands for "Curriculum Vitae"! In Latin this means "course of life" and (at first) I believed it is a synonym for the American word "resume". However after researching online and a discussion with some  friends I found out that there are some pretty significant differences.

Some people informed me that a complete CV requires some personal information. I was shocked! ONE extreme example: I found CV that revealed a person's martial status, age, health status, and hobbies.

This one is completely fictional:

D. Buckham
Contact:
Buckingham Palace, La, CA
db@gmail.com
900-092-9929
Nationality: English
Languages: English and conversational spanish
Marital Status: married
Birthday: 10/8/1970
Health: multiple knee injuries
Hobbies: watching Manchester U.  and designing purses with my wife

After speaking with another person (not from UK) I learned in some countries it is now common practice to add an image of yourself on your CV!

Hobbies can show off your desirable strengths or traits.  My fictional candidate's hobby could reveal an interest in the arts and creative ability.... (?) A picture helps employers remember a perspective employee's name/face after an interview.  In the states, there are very strict laws during the application and interview process.  Despite the some of the positive aspects of the detailed CV's, I think the costs might outweigh the benefits of this practice. This story just was in the news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12161045

Regardless, if I include my hobbies, I think my altered resume/cv has improved in 2011!

Abbreviations

Hi Everyone!
Sorry I am behind. However,  I am waiting for SOMEONE to send me some pictures so I can properly fill you in on my Christmas break!

I am working on responding to emails and procrastinating. One of the things I have realized recently is  that I have conflicting feelings about abbreviations. This is probably because my mother hated them so much. I was taught to say, "Yes" instead of "Ok" because that word was not "proper" English. What does OK even stand for? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay] If the word "Whatev" came out of my mouth I would probably be grounded depending on the context and how I innotated.

This, of course, was all before the prevalence of the internet & before me or any of my friends had cell phones. In the year 2009 (...I am being generous) when my mom figured out how to text she has changed her stance on this issue.  For example, I receive "When R U coming home?" pretty frequently.

After being surrounded by people who are not native speakers of English (and English people for that matter!!) I am frequently exposed to abbreviations on a daily basis. Many of them I never knew existed!
When typing and texting I often have to consult friends to decipher the meaning of some responses I receive.

I have discovered two categories of abbreviations:

The first I consider to be Necessary Abbreviations. This is the style of abbreviations that I feel comfortable using. An example would be the text above, or many are acronyms. The main reason for using these would be to save time in a realtime chat (fbook, gchat), or maybe to simplify a fast text message.  I am not a fabulous writer, and I cannot spell!!!! The abbreviations have a purpose for making things easier and messaging more efficient. To me, there is a significant difference in typing "over the top" and simply putting OTT.

Some examples:
fb=facebook
brb= be right back
wtf= "welcome to facebook"
smh=shaking my head
ott=over the top  (This one is British! It's really fun to use, try it!)
omg= oh my gosh
bff=best friend forever (bf= is boyfriend , which is is why this is different)

Ones I use... but probably should not:
ppl= people
u=you

The second category are Unnecessary Abbreviations. They completely baffle me.
Some examples based on an anonymous & completely random messages I have received via text or Facebook.

1. miss ya loadz!, hpe u gud thoug!


-loadz- not an abbreviation, but WHY the z and not the s?
-hpe=hope*
-gud=good
-thoug=though*

Some more: 
ve=have
dem=them
da=the
ma=my
ya=you
wat=what

I have never heard anyone say "da" instead of "the".  It is just one letter short of the real word so why not just type "the"?  Changing "my" to "ma" doesn't really make sense to me either. Why not just put the correct letter? 


I suppose "ve" instead of "have" you are saving typing two characters. 

Can anyone explain this to me?

Well,  I am now off to a virtual group meeting via Skype. I am pretty excited to see how this works!

I miss everyone back home. xoxo

more fun stuff: going out!

When we are not in the common room, or eating... we are out!!

London is similar to DC because there are a lot of fun places to go!

My new friend Mark, our social director, promotes for different clubs!

mark & me 

My favorites so far:

http://www.chinawhite.com/

http://www.embassylondon.com/embassy/london/

Fun stuff!

So what do we do when we're not in the common room?? We eat ALOT and party!

Sometimes people host dinner parties! Yum! <3 It's really fun because each person is from a different country & lives in a different part of London. 

Some pics!!

THANKSGIVING!! I actually celebrated twice which was nice! I really missed this holiday. It's a little hard to explain Thanksgiving it's so fun!   

Throw back pic: Thanksgiving 2007 at the Mounts! 

Classes of course were not cancelled so it was a normal day, until 5:00PM! Kailee, my friend from NY, who is an amazing cook hosted Thanksgiving at her apartment! It was amazing & we had all the LOTS of the traditional food. English stuffing tastes a little different but overall it is still good!! Between us we had a lot of wine :)

On Saturday we hosted a thanksgiving dinner at ours!!

THREE desserts.

this is my mom's favorite tablecloth. it is from the 70's, can you tell? it is NEON green and orange.

i made this!