Hello

Peace, Love and Curry: Our First Week in India – SEWA Internship

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After three long flights, we finally landed in India. None of us had ever been to India before, and some of us even Asia so we were all anxious and excited for what lied a head. The first thing we noticed about India was that they definitely drive differently than we do in the UK and the USA. There seems to be little regard for traffic laws, which makes every rickshaw ride exciting. The second, was the heat! The first thing we did when we got to our apartment in IIM-A was to turn the air conditioning and fans on full blast.sewa

On our first day, we ambitiously decided to head out of campus to a mall nearby to get a few essentials such as water. While it was only a five minute walk, darting through traffic and asking for directions seemed to be easier said than done. We soon realised after speaking to our teammate Garima that most people in India don’t actually walk, especially in the middle of the day when the sun is at its hottest.

Without Garima we would have been completely lost on the first day of work. Even with the address and google maps, we still got lost and had to take two rickshaws. We’ve gone to work without Garima most days this week and we’re proud to say we’ve only gotten lost once. Our Rickshaw adventures are definitely one of the highlights of the day as every time we’re out on the road we see animals ranging from camels to cows to even elephants.

While our first meal in India was a McChicken sandwich from McDonald’s (how adventurous!), we’ve since tried a number of different Indian dishes. Some we liked and some we thought were… interesting but all-in-all we’ve enjoyed trying the variety of Indian food, which is a big part of Indian culture.

Overall, our first week has been a great beginning to our adventure and learning journey through India.

Peace, love, and curry,

GEO SEWA Interns

Mumbai Calling – Week One with the RBI

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rbiweek1Soon after landing at Mumbai airport we were greeted by the welcoming faces of the RBI staff. We were quickly introduced to the Boston students over a much needed coffee, before heading off on the four hour drive through the mountains to Pune, on India’s chaotic roads. We made a brief stop half way through at a local service station, for our first taste of the Maharashtra cuisine, before continuing on to the RBI’s College of Agricultural Banking beautiful campus.

Our first day at work consisted of a tour around the campus, and a guided tour of the RBI museum and archives, where we were taught about the origins of the Bank and how it has changed over the years. The guides also gave us much insight into the Indian culture and values, and also the disparity between the different regions of the country.

On Tuesday evening after work, we decided to explore other parts of Pune, so we piled into a few rickshaws and set off to Mahatma-Gandhi Road. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by a stray buffalo wandering through the traffic, before finding a tree enclosed garden restaurant a few streets away for dinner.

On our third afternoon of work we were privileged to be invited to join a retirement celebration for a man who had worked within this campus for 37 years. Although some of the group were reluctant to join in, the celebration proved to be lots of fun. It was our first attempt at copying the locals’ dancing, which was hilarious and showed us that we were definitely not yet used to the Indian humidity or heat.

We were invited to attend a conference “Credit flow to the priority sector: Policy + Implementations” held by the RBI for bankers from all over the country on Thursday afternoon. It was a very interesting experience to see the bankers questioning the panel on the new proposals for micro-finance.

Everyone has had the most amazing first week in India, the RBI staff have all done their utmost to make us all feel welcome and at home, and we are all eagerly excited to see what the  next five weeks entail.

GEO RBI Interns

Vicky Liao – London Internship – Management Track

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Vicky at Big Ben

Vicky at Big Ben

Interned in accounting and finance at the Crowne Plaza’s London Docklands on the London Internship Program in fall 2015.

Internship:  I interned at Crowne Plaza London Docklands’ Accounts Department. Every day I posted credit, commissions and remittance invoices on Crowne Plaza’s internal server for payment processing/documentation. Additionally, I collected cash from all hotel cashiers to verify the amount matched with what was reported. I also checked daily credit card reconciliations to ensure zero variance on the balance sheet.

I Learned: From this experience, I learned both cooking and how to adapt to a country with a different culture. It was difficult in the beginning because the London campus was not as big and convenient as the BU campus. It was hard to find food and stores near to the London campus. One cultural difference I found was that most British don’t like to stock up on groceries the way that most Americans do. Instead, they prefer to buy groceries every day or every other day. Eventually, I started to get used to it and buy supplies at the grocery store in the train station every day after work.

Hardest Part: The hardest part for me was finding time to focus on studying. I had my internship, and I wanted to spend weekends travelling to other places. As a result, it was hard for me to keep my mind focused on studying because traveling and my internship used up most of my energy.

Best Part: Traveling to other cities in UK and to other European countries were the best experiences ever. It was great to see all those places and learn about their cultures.

My Tips: If you are planning to travel a lot, then plan it way ahead of time and be aware of the timing of your courses. Also, I took the course AH381. It was a London Architecture and Urbanism class. It was the best class I had in London because the class was half lecture and half field trip. In this class, I learned a lot about London’s history and got to go to many famous attractions. I would definitely recommend this class to students who are interesting in learning more about London.