Issue 8 – Sparks from the Smithy

As most of you know, I spent my summer in London, England this year. I’m writing this to let you all know what I did while I was there, and what I’m doing now that I have returned to the States.

Why Did I Go to England, Anyway?

Earlier this year, there was a job fair at BYU for students looking for work in the computer industry. I attended and gave out as many resumes and got as many addresses to mail more of them out as I could. One of the companies that I approached was EDS, or Electronic Data Systems Corporation. I had to talk to several of the recruiters before I could find out anything about EDS’ interest in hiring me for the summer, and I was told that they really didn’t have any kind of an internship program set up, but there was the possibility of some international internships. My first reaction was that I probably wouldn’t want to leave the country for a summer job, but I sent in my resume anyway since I was sending them to anyone I could.

A few months later, I got a phone call from EDS saying that they wanted to send me to Europe for ten weeks to work for them. They would pay for flight over, my housing, my public transportation pass while there, and provide a modest salary as well. I was surprised that they had selected me entirely by my resume and cover letter, but was excited about the opportunity offered. Especially since I didn’t have any offers from the other companies I had applied at. So EDS flew me to Dallas, Texas for an orientation meeting one Saturday, and on May 27th, I was on my way to London.

Who Is EDS?

EDS is a company that provides information technology services for other companies. That sometimes involves operating that company’s computer equipment, and other times EDS lets that company use the computing resources they have at various information processing centers. EDS also writes software to meet the needs of clients they have.

The company is a subsidiary of General Motors, and provides all of the computing services for them. To give an idea of the size of EDS, they employ around 60,000 people worldwide, and are IBM’s biggest customer apart from the federal government. There are about 2,000 EDS employees in the United Kingdom.

What I Did For Them

I was sort of the victim of bad planning for a while, unfortunately. My first few weeks were very frustrating because I didn’t have any challenging work to do, and sometimes very little work at all to do. Eventually things picked up, and I worked hard to do whatever was given to me.

I was working in the Pan-European Technical Resource Acquisition department. We coordinated the buying, relocating and leasing of computer hardware and software to keep the European information processing centers running smoothly. My responsibilities included maintaining the technical library, building spreadsheets to report on negotiations or business with vendors, some product research, gathering information from the regions we coordinated, and many other little things.

I also did work for other departments, including some Portuguese translation, and some programming. The program-ming was the work that I enjoyed most of all, because it was the most challenging, the most fun, and the most related to my interests and studies. Everyone I did work for seemed pleased with the results, and my manager was occasionally surprised/ impressed. So despite the slow start, it was a good experience for me.

Living In London

Although the office where I worked was actually in the city of Uxbridge, to the west of London, I lived right in central London. I occasionally commented in letters that I was living in luxury, and location was one of the things that contributed to that. I actually lived in two different flats while there, but they were both just off of Baker Street. Baker Street is where Sherlock Holmes ‘lived’, so I bought a copy of the Sherlock Holmes novels from a store on Baker Street to read while there. The Baker Street Underground station is over 100 years old, and was part of the world’s first underground train system. Regent’s Park and Madame Tussaud’s famous wax museum are about a five minute walk away. Hyde Park and Oxford Street (a famous shopping street) are about ten minutes away by foot. I was also about a mile from Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, etc. In short I was right in the middle of it.

The other things that contributed to my luxury were the “niceness” of the flats (queen size bed, TV, VCR, well decorated, washer/dryer, nice furniture) and the fact that there was a housekeeper to clean it all up. So, with the combination of location and amenities, it cost 50 pounds a night for me to stay there, or about $80. In a way, that’s kind of silly since it is more than I was getting paid, but it really was a great place to live.

The Arts

Some of the things I liked most about London were the art galleries, the architecture, and the theater. I saw paintings by famous painters like Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, Renoir, Michaelangelo, Monet, etc. There are so many amazing buildings–St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminister Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. etc. And I saw six theatrical productions: “Macbeth”, “Henry the Fourth part 2”, “Miss Saigon”, “Me and My Girl”, “The Comedy of Errors”, and “The Phantom of the Opera”. They were all excellent, but “Henry IV” was hard to follow, not having read the script first, and “Miss Saigon” was kind of immoral. But the theater was definitely one of the most powerful experiences for me while there.

The British

I found the British to be very much like myself in many cases: Kind of distant at first, but very friendly once you get to know them. Of course people are people anywhere you go, and there were all kinds. Still, in general, I felt a certain kinship with them.

History

There are so many interesting stories to be told about London, and being on the spot where those event occurred makes them all the more poignant. I was fascinated with the Tower of London, and spent four or five hours there. The Imperial War Museum, dedicated to the World Wars, left a strong mark on me, too. I felt transported in time to the Battle of Britain, and was just amazed at the heroism of the British as they fought for their country. And when I was in the Museum of London, looking at displays from World War II of bomb shelters and pictures of German buzz bombs, I was amazed at how Londoners could live while the city was being constantly bombed. Then a couple came up to the display, and they would say, “I remember that.”

Britannia Ward

I went to church in a singles ward that met at the Hyde Park chapel. Being an American there was nothing novel for them, since the BYU Study Abroad students attended that ward as well. But the BYU students didn’t seem to integrate very well with the natives, so when I did get involved, it was kind of unique. I found the young people in the ward to be friendly, devoted to the gospel (though a little liberal with their interpretations at times), and missionary minded. They also liked to have fun, so there was a party practically every week. The family home evening discussions we had were especially interesting because at various times we had members from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, America, Hong Kong, Nigeria, the Phillipines, Russia and Lithuania, and it was interesting to hear their comments and perspectives. I made a lot of friends, and even went on a few dates with girls in the ward.

Outside of London

I did get a chance to do a little traveling. I went to the Cotswold District, where there are a lot of little villages amid the pleasant pastures of rural England. I also went to Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon, and the Salisbury area to see Stonehenge. My only trip to the continent was a weekend In Paris. It was a real budget trip, costing me only around $160 including air fare, but I saw most of the touristy things and had a good time.

Back Home In Korea

On August 28th I flew to Los Angeles to visit with my best friend and roommate Sang Kim. Sang’s parents immigrated to the States when he was twelve, but they haven’t picked up too much english in the time that they have been here so his home was very Korean still. Korean is the language of the house, and the food was also of that nationality, so it was more foreign to me than the foreign country I had been living in all summer. Sang and I went to BYU’s first football game of the season, which was at Anaheim Stadium, and despite our cheers, they lost. Oh, well. We also went to Magic Mountain for a day and rode the coasters until they lost most of their thrill.

Vivant Academia

The summer ends with the return to Provo, and starting classes again at BYU. This past week was the first week of class, and my first week at a new apartment complex in a new ward and a new stake, and with new roommates, so it was quite a time of change. These are the classes that I have: Technical Writing, Beginning Gymnastics, Brazilian History, Programming Environments, Introduction to Computational Theory, Database Systems, and Men’s Chorus. I’m really excited about being in Men’s Chorus, because it is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but have been unable because I had to work while taking a full load of classes. I’m not working this semester, so money could be pretty tight, but I want to get my grades up a little, and enjoy myself a little too.

Thanks for the birthday cards, everyone, and the financial contributions as well. I also enjoyed the chance to talk to many of you yesterday, and look forward to seeing you probably around Christmas.

Love,

Eric James Smith, Ed.