Mission... ...success!

Yesterday was a long day. I got up at 6:30 to get to Zürich airport in time for my flight - I arrived a bit early, but we flew out at 10:10 on schedule, everything great. I got to London around 10:50 (London is 1 hour behind Switzerland). The lady at the National Rail ticket counter got me what seemed like a good deal, £11.50 ($18.50) for an all-day train ticket from Gatwick to London, and throughout London. Unlike Switzerland and Germany, in London you often have to go through a turnstile or through little door (which will only open after you put your ticket it, it determines your ticket is valid, and then spits your ticket out again) in order to get to the trains, underground, etc. So, it was really useful that I had that day-pass.

I did a little bit of exploring throughout London, but not too much. I did see a bunch of little restaurants that smelled really good. The whole day, I was coping with the idea that they drive on the wrong side of the street. I didn't get used to it in the few hours that I was there, especially not when I was in the bus going from one terminal to the other. Also, no one in London obeys Walk / Do not walk signals. As soon as cars stop, or there's a break in the cars, people just plow across the street.

Walking through the city, I was continually reminded of how old London is. Even though it's bristling with modern technology (I saw ads for broadband for £5.99 / month), there were tons of old relics and architecture that gave the city an old feel to it as well. Take that mix of old and new, add millions of people, and there you've got bustling London. It seems like there's really a lot to explore.

Here are a couple pictures that I took.

Here's the view from London Bridge, I assume the one from the song...

This was the best shot of St. Paul's Cathedral that I could get without stepping into traffic or taking too much time.





London School of Economics. Maybe I'll do an exchange semester here during my Master's.


There was a signal disturbance on my way to the interview, so time got pretty short, and I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of Canary Wharf, which is where Nomura is located.

The interviews went alright. My various interviewers asked me about hedging and financial stuff, the financial crisis, some math / logic problems, and even one guy asked me about programming. I left feeling like it went alright, but not perfectly. After the interview, I jumped onto the train back to Gatwick, and of course I picked the train that took an hour to get there instead of the one that only takes 30 minutes (but left 20 minutes later). As I ran through the security area and got in... I saw that my flight was delayed 45 minutes.

So, I sat down and got a British cheeseburger and chips (actually not bad), and then ended up meeting this other guy, Martin, who was there for an interview (with MacQuarie, an Australian bank) and was flying back to Zürich. Martin's a German, working part time in Zürich, and going to school in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. We both talked about our interviews, and had some good conversation. On the plane, we gave some advice to the woman next to us, whose husband now works in Zürich and is trying to find a way to get a job for herself in Zürich.

After arriving back in St. Gallen, I called up my group partner, and we finished our paper. So, it was a long drawn out day, but definitely a good one.

Oh, and I just got the call a couple of hours ago that I got the internship! They'll be mailing all of the info to me (in the US, I made sure), so I'll find out all of the details then!