Intern Musings

There has been a long line of predecessors that have walked the intern line, I don't know if it is a straight line, but a pathway nonetheless. There has been the famous temp from The Office who rose to the heights of management, there have been interns on boats performing various labors as depicted in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and there have been countless of real interns all over the world getting that oh so precious on the job training. As an intern I have made some observations. 1. If you do an internship in HK everyone will assume you are British. As far as I can tell, out of the 3,000 employees at my place of work I am the only young American boy. In fact, I have been accused of being the famous Prince William on more than one occasion. I have endeavored to learn British to cover for my Western drawl. Words such as peckish, lift, rubbish, brilliant, and cheers have entered my word arsenal throughout the day to assimilate me into the British role I am assumed to be playing. 2. Interns can ask any question and do anything. In the short period that I have been here I have asked every stupid question that you could possibly think of and will only continue to do so. "So, do you like work?"; "Those guys fly the planes, right?"; "What time do we leave?" Most of these questions are followed by me smiling and the other person laughing. Brilliant! I really am getting the hang of this. 3. Interns get special privileges. So in this week I have been to airplane simulations, watched flight attendant trainings and briefings, witnessed where the meals and items are prepared before the flights, and many other things. I know what ISM, FP, and Y3 stand for. I know protocol and procedures, safety and service standards. It has all been a wonderful opportunity. 4. Interns sometimes go a long time without talking to other humans. Finishing work at six and heading home leaves me with few options. I get to my flat at a retirement/wealthy community and my options become limited. I could take an hour bus into the city, read, run, or write blogs. All enticing options, but monotonous after a few days. I think I regularly go 10-12 hours without talking to anyone. Dreadful, but it opens up a lot of time to reflect and ponder. All is well. Those are some of the intern scrutinies and joys that I have found in this first week. Cheers!