Recap of one crazy week

How could I have ever thought that I'm good at handling stress??! The only reason for that.. is because I haven't had real stress until now.

Up till Thursday morning, I've just been busy preparing my end-of-summer intern presentation. Super-ultra nerve-wrecking I tell you. Can you imagine 80 people showing up to see what I've done so far, and probably half of them have the power to decide whether I get a full-time offer or not. Not to mention that because of the extremely well-done presentations of yester-years, everyone has HIGH hopes for this year's interns as well. So now not only do I have to show that I do know what I've been doing for the past 12 weeks, I also have to be funny. All these while trying hard to hide how nervous I actually am.

Thankfully, everything went WELL. :) Our individual presentations were good, and I actually managed to make the audience laugh. Okay, to be honest, I'm pretty pleased with how I did. Especially since it was better than the ones I practised. But the highlight of the whole thing was our finale. A spoof of 2 movies, making fun of the interns' experience at Mercer. We parodied choice scenes from Office Space and Napoleon Dynamite, and the full-timers LOVED it.

For me, I'm just relieved that this whole unbelievably stressful episode is over. And it ended quite good after all. Seriously, I've got to have more confidence in myself. Thanks to all who told me I would do well. You know who you are. ;)



The day before our presentations, HR organized a scavenger hunt for all interns and 3 full-timers, one each from HR, Retirement, and Healthcare. It was soooooooooo fun!!!!!! We went all over downtown Chicago, finding clues, picking up random stuff, taking funny pictures and walking around like a bunch of crazy people. That day was really hot, too, and all of us ended up sweaty and plain gross.

The best thing about the Scavenger Hunt: my team managed to get into the set for a famous talk show!!! There were 2 things on the list that were high value items (meaning if we can get them, first place is almost guaranteed). One of these 2 was "infiltrate the set of one of the 2 famous talk shows in Chicago". Can you guess which 2 shows?

Okay, we didn't go to Harpo Studios, but somehow we got into the Jerry Springer Show!! My team was hanging around the lobby of NBC Tower, begging the unyielding receptionist to let us in. Then Jerry Springer's publicist came down and asked us if we were doing a scavenger hunt and if we wanted to visit the set. We said yes, and amazingly she agreed. The set looked exactly like it is on TV, except smaller. I've got photos to prove I was there. :P

So naturally, we won the competition. For that, all I got was a t-shirt that said "US Scavenger Hunt Company". *_* It did NOT even say "Best Team". Geez. Made me wish that we were worst team, at least they got pretty little trophies with golden cups and marble pedestals. Since I complained, my intern manager gave me his trophy from 2 years ago because he got the cup twice in a row. :)



Yesterday Emily (another intern who sits next to me at work) and I had a back-to-school shopping spree. I've never spent soooooooooo much money shopping at one go. We shopped and shopped and shopped for 8 straight hours. Came back super-tired but extremely happy. Spending money is the nicest thing to do in the world. :) And New York & Company has now become my favorite store. All their clothes fit me. Which is a RARE thing for me since I came to the States.

Anyway, so I've now got 14 new tops, 2 jeans, a skirt and a new watch. Did not get any shoes or bags, which I really need. Found a pair of delicious red boots yesterday, but didn't buy because I had already spent so much money. Regretting now, maybe I should go back and get them. *sigh* I need shoes. And I need work pants for winter. Hehe, finding reasons to go for another shopping spree. :P