The End of the Road

Tonight is our last night in Cambridge together. With finals behind us, and with most of us having completed our final papers, tonight has been a celebration of a truly great summer. We met Pavel for a drink at the Avery, a nice pub just off of Parker's Piece, before meeting our Cambridge Professor, Solomos Solomou, and his wife for a final group dinner at Brown's. It was a great opportunity to speculate on this year's Premiership winner, joke about the debate over Britain's infamous 2% growth path, and reflect upon our time together in Cambridge, the UK and Europe.
Tomorrow most of us will be heading back to the states. Some will stay to do some additional travelling, with family or independently. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the Cambridge Economics Seminar is truly a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience, and that I would recommend it to any Carleton student, whether they are an econ major or not. If you are interested in going to Cambridge with this seminar in the future and would like to find out more about it, there is a list of students on the left-hand side of this page, and any of us would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Bain, The Globe, and Alumni Dinner

With one week left in the UK, our group made one final trip south to London. Our first stop of the day was the London office of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm based out of Boston, Massachusetts. There we met with one of the partners of the firm, John Ott '81 P'07. He briefly explained what consulting firms do, what he does, and how he got there, before opening up for questions. We once again used this opportunity to get a better idea of how to prepare for and get into the business world.
After the Bain visit, we crossed the Thames for a nice South-American lunch on the south bank before proceeding to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for a matinee presentation of King Lear. The atmosphere at the Globe was incredible. The stage is open-air and a majority of the audience stands on the ground in the middle of the theatre. We were lucky enough to have seats in the upper circle, which gave us great views and better yet, protection from the rain. Despite the poor weather, the talented and determined cast pushed through and gave a spectacular performance.
After the show, we met a small group of Alumni at Zizzi, a British Italian restaurant, for dinner. This afforded us yet another valuable opprtunity to network, and to hear their collective experiences and advice.

UBS and the British Parliament

For our second-to-last excursion, during our second-to-last week of classes, we again hopped on the morning train south to London. Our first stop was the London office of UBS, a Swiss Financial Management firm, and the second largest bank in Europe. There we met with currency strategist Geoffrey Yu '06. He gave a short presentation consisting of an overview of UBS as well as his particular dealings in the foreign currency markets. The most valuable part of the meeting however was a candid discussion in which Geoffrey shared with us his experiences as a recent Carleton grad, and advice on how to best take advantage of all that Carleton has to offer to prepare us for potential careers in the financial world. Geoffrey was full of extremely useful and interesting information for us and we probably could have sat and talked with him well into the afternoon. Unfortunately, the finance world is a busy place and eventually Mr. Yu had to leave us.
After departing UBS and picking up a quick lunch, the group returned to Westminster for a guided tour of the British Houses of Parliament. It was was quite amazing to walk through a space with such a rich history, to see where the kings, queens and lords went about running the British Empire. We were not allowed to sit, but we even got to stand behind the benches in the House of Commons where we could only imagine the raucus atmosphere that must be present during a session. When we had seen all the guilded ceilings, churchill statues and Henry VIII portraits we could handle, we headed back up to Cambridge for an extravagant dinner at Pavel's house (Domino's Pizza), in honor of our guest, the professor leading the 2009 Cambridge Seminar, Radek Szulga.

Trains, Planes and... Cruise Ships?

        Well, here we are back in Cambridge after a week and a half on the continent.  Popular destinations included Italy, France, Germany and Spain, in particular the cities of Roma, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and Amsterdam, among many others.  Some people travelled by plane, others by rail, and yes one group even took a cruise ship from Italy to Spain, but regardless of mode of transportation, the many great cultures of europe were experienced by all.  Unfortunately, there are too many stories for me to tell here, so you'll have to ask your friends/sons/daughters to share their individual experiences with you.

Brussels, Belgium

        The last three days have been a a blur.  Wednesday morning our bus left Shrewsbury and stopped briefly in Cambridge to repack before continuing south to London's St. Pancras International Train Station, where we caught the afternoon Eurostar to Brussels.  The quick trip under the English channel took only about three hours, and before we knew it, we were surrounded by people speaking French and driving on the right (read, proper) side of the road.  We spent the first evening settling into our hostel and exploring the surrounding area.

        Thursday morning we met Pavel for a guided bus/walking tour of the city.  We visited the Atomium, a steel structure built for the 1958 worlds fair, the Cinquantenaire Triumphal Arch, the European quarter, and the old city center.  At the old city center, where our tour ended, we were able to sample the fine offerings of authentic belgian cuisine, namely chocolate and beer.  One particularly fun finding was Cafe Delirium, a pub that boasts a menu with over 2500 different kinds of beer from all over the world.  After a solid afternoon of taste-testing, a majority of the group found it's way to the hostel pub, and then to a fine Irish establishment back in the city center for a karaoke marathon.  The highlight of the night, led by our own Rodney Kuhl, was a performance of Pavel's personal favorite, Gangster's Paradise by Coolio.

        Friday morning we returned to the European Quarter for a visit to the offices of the EU Commision.  We were given a series of presentations, giving us further insight into the structure of the European government, as well as the political and economic challenges facing the EU moving forward.  After dragging Pavel away from a heated debate on the merits (or lack thereof) of agriculture subsidies, we split up for lunch in the EU neighborhoods.  Then after lunch, our group visit to Brussels officially came to a close.  Some stayed in Brussels for the night, and others set out on their 9 days of independent travel.  After going our separate ways, we will return to Cambridge for class on August 4th.

The Midlands

        With the first (more than) half of our classes, and one midterm behind us, the last five days were spent getting a more experience based education on the industrial revolution period, and the lives of those who lived in England during that time.   We moved to the town of Shrewsbury, on the Welsh border, as a base for our daily excursions.  Our first stop, not necessarily having to do with the IR but certainly to the delight of all, was the Cadbury factory in Birmingham.  After obtaining a thorough knowledge of how Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate was invented and produced, and subsequently filling our bellies with the many samples provided, we managed to escape the Cadbury grounds without giving into the temptation to buy the 5 kilo (that's 11 lbs) bars in the gift shop.

        Saturday, we rode the bus back towards Birmingham, to the Black Country Living Museum near the town of Dudley.  The museum's website gives the following description of the area:

The Black Country is the industrial region to the west of, and separate from, Birmingham in the Midlands of England. It gained its name in the mid nineteenth century due to the smoke from the many thousands of ironworking foundries and forges and the nature of the countryside which had been covered by dark spoil from the working of shallow and relatively thick (30ft) coal seams.

The region was described as 'Black by day and red by night' by Elihu Burritt, the American Consul to Birmingham in 1862 and other authors, from Dickens to Shenstone, refer to the intensity of manufacturing in the Black Country and its effect on the landscape and its people.

Our day at the museum included a walking tour of an old coal mine, a boat ride through a series of limestone mines/caverns, and presentations of the many craftsmen's shops and homes.

        Sunday, we visited the small town of Ironbridge, where they have... you guessed it, an iron bridge.  Actually it was the first iron bridge ever built, a product of the new technology of malleable iron.  We also visited the ruins of the iron foundries, where the giant furnaces separated the iron ore from the rock surrounding it.

        Monday, we travelled northeast to Stoke-upon-Trent, to the Gladstone Pottery Museum.  The museum has preserved a set of four bottle-shaped pottery kilns and the complex surrounding them.  Our tour included demonstrations of the pottery making process, and examples of the conditions under which the men, women and children of the mid-19th century worked and lived.

       In the prior three days we had seen the relics of several industries that were of great importance to England during the industrialization period, but the most important industry for the british economy was the textile industry.  Tuesday we travelled north to Manchester to the Quarry Bank Mill.  This textile mill, which still works to this day, also contains a museum that wonderfully illustrates the evolution of textile producing technology, and the effect that these changes had on the working population.

        Tuesday afternoon, we concluded out tour of the midlands with another lighter visit, this time to the home of the Manchester United Football Team, known as the "theatre of dreams", or more properly, Old Trafford.  We toured the ManU museum, were given a tour of the stadium, and found out that Pavel can kick a soccer ball really, really hard (though still not as hard as Cristiano "I'm a huge baby" Ronaldo).

        After a fun and interesting five days in the midlands, we now prepare for our trip to the continent.

  

London Corporate Visits

        Today we left our home in Cambridge and returned to London to gain some insight on the state of global commerce and finance from two of the largest multinational firms in the world.  Our first stop was the UK headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell, the world's second largest energy/oil company.  We were given a fairly thorough overview of the current oil market, as well as projections of how the world's demands for different types of fuel and energy sources will change in the near and medium terms.   The presentation was interesting and engaging, and our presenters were happy to continue chatting with us over lunch afterwards.

          After leaving the Shell Center, we took the tube to Canary Wharf, a bustling financial area, and home of the Barclays PLC, the world's 4th largest financial services provider.  There we were given a presentation by Carleton alum John Winter, head of European Investment Banking and Debt Capital Management, regarding the current state of the world's financial markets and institutions, particularly how they were recovering following the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S. and it's spillover into the world economy.  He and a member of their University recruiting team also gave advice on how to prepare for, and how to get a job in the investment banking industry.

After the corporate visits, a small group celebrated Michelle's birthday with an Italian dinner and a visit to Queen's Theatre for a showing of Les Miserables.