El Seconde Dyad (Also read as part 2)

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The Second Week

At, the risk of sounding pretentious and entirely too self-important I decided to entitle this blog in  broken Italian; make no mistake- I'm doing this purely because it sounds cool (asethetic purposes) and not for any educational purpose whatsoever. 😂 This week was anything but dull. It kicked off with us recapping our weekend amongst ourselves and then we immediately divulged into our work. This week was definitely a step up from last week- demand wise- but I still enjoyed it, due to how rigorous some of the tasks were, the rewards were pretty well matched. To truly sum it up in one word this week was intense but anyone who gets to know me will know how much I value intensity and passion.

7/8/17, Monday (TGFV)

This was Crop Over and I enjoyed it. All work and no play, makes Jack a dull lad afterall😌

8/8/17, Tuesday (Falling into a routine)

This day started off calmly; usually I am the first person to open up the office but when I arrived Kibwe and Jenifer were sitting quietly hacking away at their computers. Swiftly we broke the silence and started talking and productively having fun, as I acquired the numbers for some potential clients for Animecon. I encouraged everyone in the office to take a personality quiz and then we compared our various results- obviously deciding for ourselves if they were accurate or not. Falling into the (new) natural pattern of routine, a debate broke out but all was forgotten and I was promptly energised and ready to start focusing on the tasks at hand! Kibwe and I, also quickly realised that as much as we liked each other, we're stark opposites especially in the way we think and our motivation for doing things. Erica and I however have a quite a few similarities, with us both being bubbly outgoing and dramatic types😉😏. I however think she's a tab more free-spirited than I am aha, (in the most amusing and entertaining way, she’s definitely a ball of energy) and as the opposite must be true according to physics- I lean more towards being an idealistic visionary with a strong will.

  Erica and I then made a plan, detailing the outlets we were going to visit for the day; which was to go to Booksource (the bookstore) and re-acquire the quotation to send to the government and to go to The Waterfront Cafe and have a meeting with Nadia.  Nadia is a Canadian- Jamaican children’s author of a successful book series chronicling “Malaika as she explores carnival in her native home (and in the sequel )Canada.” The plot introduces, Malaika a young black creole girl who has to suffer through poverty and manages to make the best of it. Whilst being a children’s book, it details themes of poverty, racial hostilities and optimism in the face of loneliness- all through the eyes of little girl. Nadia specialises in writing diverse books- this is a vastly growing and Caribbean dominated😏 market- which as you could guess are books staring black and other ethnic characters as they go through different experiences. It is most certainly inspiriting to see this revamp in the book market of successful lead characters, atypical from the whitewashed set that is so often displayed.

I loved the contemporary artsy feel of the restaurant! The wall to wall mirrors were also a gorgeous touch, adding to the on the pulse asethetic. I felt like, I was in a modern Indie movie, staring as an up and coming painter who was struggling for success and happiness, whilst barely making enough to sustain herself and the twelve children entrusted in her custody due to a lavish fire which took the lives of all of her family and this- This day of relaxation was how I blew our rent money. (Lol, jk my imagination does get quite over-active)

This meeting took place at lunchtime, and as much as I enjoyed it, I do believe that SEED should allow us to receive a Stipend- if our workplace is willing to give it to us. It is very financially taxing, for uncompensated interns to continue to enjoy the worklife or even survive it without any form of finances. These are some amazing oppertunties that we (the interns and especially myself) have been exposed to but it is impratical for us as young adults to be able to sustain ourselves. (I'm dipping into my life savings guys)😞😅. I don't think that we even need the money in our hand so much, but we should be reimbursed for lunch money (only to the amount we spent) and possibly transportation if we needed to take the bus or simply allowing the workplace if they indicated that they were willing to allocate petty funds to us. It is more pragmatic and needed than money allocated elsewhere. I’m honestly sorry, if I sound presumptuous but as someone experiencing how expensive it is to continue to work at maximum potential -with how expensive the cost of food, and utilities are- it is not affordable and I do not think that what I am suggesting is unreasonable considering we have put in maximum effort and in most endeavors have reaped results.😉 At this lunch meeting, I did the polite thing by not ordering a meal from the opulent and expensive menu in order to not expense the company(I must admit though, everything sounded pretty good).
On a more positive note, Kibwe and I got a semi-promotion aha we GOT NICE CONFERENCE CHAIRS, they are so comfortable and stylish. I'm channeling Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada in them.

9/8/17, Wednesday (It’s Crunch Time)

I took this day to internalise all of the lessons I learnt from Tuesday’s business meeting. At the business meeting at the cafe- Jason and Erica dived right into seducing Nadia by telling her what they could offer her and of course what impact she would have on the Caribbean (which after conquering the North American market is now her main focus). It, was quite interesting to watch them in action (they are pretty badass sharks !!)- Jason enticed her with his connections by being the national/regional rep for Scholastic. Nadia and Jason bonded over this as she has a deal with Scholastic's French Canadian branch and they seemed to hit it off pretty well! I remembered and am grateful for her giving me her publisher's contact information, after we spoke about my novel and my blog and she pretty impressed with me. She also divulged to us that Angelina Jolie (one of my heroines) is working with her publisher to produce a movie! I do believe that I have learnt the art of negotiation (though I have been told that I naturally had this skillset anyways aha). I shared my notes on what happened in detail with Erica, as I had jot down bullet points under the table as everyone spoke (it must be the lawyer in me😉😆) and Erica followed up with Nadia.

For the latter part of the day, Kibwe and I did an oral report to the CEO (along with the rest of the team) and she gave me her stamp of approval (she seems to like Kibwe's quiet confidence a lot!! Kudos to you Kibwe!). Erica and I bonded even more and I hope that we stay in touch even after this internship! I really like her! I also got to talk more to Jennifer-Kibwe's boss- she's very quiet but nice :D, I think she has a lot going on in her mind and I like that she's started to have one earphone off to listen to our conversations and subtly interject when she disagrees with something. As the day wound down, I had to go back to the fairly monotonous job of detailing the target market stores for Gerylin. Then it was time to go home and prep for the Carifesta meeting.

10/8/17, Thursday (I GOT PROMOTED😎!)

THIS DAY WAS BEYOND EPIC! WOW, how do I even begin to detail this, there are no words that fully exemplify how happy I was on Thursday. First thing, first I got to do my favourite thing, dress up in a pretty dress and go on an excursion to the mall! It was actually for Carifesta and I was allowed access into a confidential meeting furthermore- Erica consulted her mum and I was given the position as Assistant Consultant for DataLore INK at Carifesta! This was a huge deal (which I’ll further go into), mainly because all of the other Assistant Consultants at Carifesta are literally more than twice my age!!!

Erica, prepped me for this prominent meeting and as we walked in and were seated, I got more information on how significant Carifesta really was! It is an arts (fine arts specifically) festival which is rotated amongst various fine arts festivals. It's held every two years and this is the first time in decades that Barbados is hosting it.

Sidebar:I made sure that I also upped my social media game of Chattel House's new Instagram as well as upping their promotion! (I soon will be revealing my social media goal for the business 😉😏 ).

During this meeting, Erica and I got familiar with the layout, got invited for an insiders only tour of Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre and met our team of volunteers. Erica monopolised the conversation with her chirpy babble and soon everyone was all caught up with what they were expected to do. Erica, let everyone feel at ease and know that they had the right to be assertive whilst also telling them concisely that she was the boss and I was her second lol. It was rather amusing because ¾  of the team was older than me and fairly successful in their own right (I must admit, I quite like being in charge though aha😆😏😉). Then we all got offered a snack and refreshments and I met up with one of the mentors from SEED- Allison Millington and believe it or not, we have the same position and level of authority as Assistant Consultants!!! She was very sweet and friendly and we exchanged contact information (so I guess I did learn a thing or two from the training session on networking💭😃).

11/8/17, Friday (Winding Down with the Work Load Going Up)

Friday was a relaxing day, quiet yet very demanding. Erica tried really hard to help shoulder the burden of the montonous task of working on a new list of books (This one being 1000 books long 😡😖) but I knew she had more important things to do (in preparation for Carifesta) and that it was my duty so I requested that I take over. (Man, was that a decision lol) At the end of the day though, it all got done and whilst typing I started talking to everyone, to speed up the process (this worked as I forgot how bored I was lol) and soon everyone was chiming in and playing games and debating and it was pretty lit. Then when everyone double checked their work, we played two games!! Then we worked some more (after hours because we are dedicated :D) then we went home. All in all, it was a good week. I'm sorry that I was unable to make the talent show but I showed my support by viewing the stories on Instagram and watching another intern's live video. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and thank you for these exciting opportunities SEED #stepupwithmm indeed!! and #chattelhousebarbados