Life as an intern

So I know I haven't updated in a while, as lately I haven't been on any exciting international trips or thrown any parties. I have however started my internship at an accounting firm. It's an audit internship, so I've been assigned two different clients for which I will be doing financial statement audits. My first client is located in San Antonio, so this past week I stayed in a hotel in San Antonio in order to work on that client. It was definitely an interesting experience.

However, having to drive to SA did have its perks. For one, I got to meet up with my boyfriend who I hadn't seen in 3 weeks! He's still in school in San Marcos, and I am now working in Houston so it's hard to coordinate our schedules and see each other, even on weekends as he works in a museum so usually works on the weekends, whereas I work long hours during the week.

I arrived Sunday night so he came and met me in San Antonio. We walked around La Cantera, a very nice shopping mall which was close to the hotel I stayed in. I bought some tops from Ann Taylor & Banana Republic, then we were both hungry so we went to dinner. I have an app on my phone called HappyCow, which shows you all of the vegan & vegetarian-friendly restaurants in your nearby area so I used the app to find a great pizza place that made vegan-friendly pizza with Daiya cheese. The place is called Fralo's Art of Pizza, and although we were in San Antonio it actually says it's in Leon Springs, TX. It's a nice place right off the feeder with indoor & outdoor seating. We chose outdoor as it was a lovely evening and there was live music outside.

We started off by ordering a bottle of Starborough, a New Zealand sauvignon blanc.
I decided on the vegan pizza with daiya mozarella, topped with zuchinni, spinach, mushrooms, and fresh garlic.
Sean opted for a very non-vegan pizza which consisted of double cheese (I believe parmesan & provologne?) with Italian sausage and green peppers.

We were both very happy with our orders.

And also very happy to see each other.
All in all it was a great night out.

The next morning I started work at my first client.
The work consisted of going through endless excel spreadsheets & data... I worked on auditing the cash & capital assets of the company. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Living in a hotel for a week was a slight adjustment as well since I'm very used to preparing all my own meals. I went to Whole Foods on the first night and bought myself a good selection of fruit, veg, bread, snacks and spreads to keep in the fridge. I ate cold oatmeal with a banana most mornings, ate lunch out everyday with my team, and for dinner ate the veggies I had bought from WF.

One of my latest obsessions/new toys is this loose leaf tea maker I purchased online from thenecessiteas.com. I also bought some of her homemade loose leaf teas (a black tea called Mint Chocolate Chip & a green tea called Cinnamon Bear). I must admit I went to Teavana later in the week and bought four, yes FOUR more flavors of loose leaf tea because that is how much I am loving it. I've used my loose leaf tea maker every day several times a day since it arrived. It's a wonderful thing.

In the picture is a rooibos tea called Zingiber Ginger Coconut from Teavana. I also purchased a two herbal teas: Caramel Almond Amaretti and Honeybush Vanilla. And a white tea called Youthberry. All delicious.
There's two ways of making the tea in it. I'm not going to bother trying to explain all of it, if you really want to know the details you can watch the video here. The tea infuser has 3 parts: the lid, the infuser/strainer in the middle, and the glass container on bottom which is actually a layer of glass with a layer of plastic over it, so you don't even feel the heat of the tea when you're carrying it. Excellent design.

It also features a cool very zen-like design on the top of the lid. I'm very happy with this purchase. It was about $25 I believe and like I said, I've used it several times a day every day since I got it in the mail. It's already paid for itself.

I left San Antonio last night and am back in Houston for three nights, I go back to SA again on Sunday to work on the same client again next week.
Like I said though, driving has its perks as our mileage reimbursement is more than generous.

I took this picture of the sunrise on my last morning in San Antonio over loop 1604. It was of course much more amazing in person, but I wanted to capture it.

So I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll leave you with one final thing which my boyfriend picked up for me in San Marcos and gave me when we met up.... very exciting... drum roll please...

My diploma from Texas State University!
Double major in Accounting & Finance!
Yipee. Nice to have the actual piece of paper.

That's all for today folks.

Champagne Reception

Yesterday afternoon we held a champagne reception at my mum's house in Houston to celebrate my graduation and the start of my career in audit. It was a nice party, the guests consisted mainly of my mum's friends and there were a few families that came that I have known for years so it was nice to see everyone and catch up. 

I wish I had taken pictures of the food spread, but I wasn't the photographer (as you can tell, since I'm in every picture...) We had a completely vegan reception as it wasn't a meal, just hors d'oeuvres and little finger foods to nibble on. We quite a lot of Mediterranean food from a restaurant & market that I love called Phoenicia Deli. From there we bought several different types of dolma (stuffed grape leaves), hummus, babaganouj, roasted red pepper dip, sweet almond thins, olives, and pita bread. We also had a raw organic vegetable tray with cauliflower, cucumber, celery, carrots and bell peppers. We made a tomato, basil & balsamic bruschetta that was served hot, as well as an artichoke, red roasted red pepper, caper & lemon bruschetta that was served cold- both on rustic French bread from Foody's Gourmet market. Then we made 2 different pizzas- one was caramelized onion, fig, and arugula with a balsamic & brown sugar glaze, and the other was a radicchio and truffle oil pizza. We bought a vegan cookies 'n' cream cake from Whole Foods which was amazing, and also had a bowl of berries, some date & almond rolls, dark chocolate squares, and dinner mints in the sweet section.

YUM! Everyone loved it. And like I said it was completely vegan. 

Oh.. and I can't forget.. there was champagne flowing all day of course. 

Here I am with Tina, one of my mum's good friends who she lived in Nigeria with. Tina is very kind and generous, and actually at one point she pulled me aside and told me how proud she was of me, etc etc and she actually started crying. Wow. Guess I did something right.

My stepdad, Mike, and me.

Phil and me. Phil has known me since I was in diapers. I love him and his wife, they are so kind, thoughtful and generous. Truly a wonderful family to have in my life. 

Here my mum is presenting me with the vegan cookies 'n' cream cake as everyone was singing "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow"... how embarrassing. But sweet. 

Andy and me. Apparently his wife was there when I was born... which means he might have been as well but honestly I don't remember.

Woody, myself, and his wife Shelley. Friends of my mum's from the tennis club.

Maddie, Angela, and me. Angela is Phil's daughter, and I've known her for what seems like forever. She used to babysit me, and I remember the first time I ever saw the movie Clueless was at her house. Maddie is one of Angela's two beautiful daughters. 

Okay this is horrible but I forgot the girl on the left's name. I just remember she came from Australia and is staying with the girl to her right, Emily, for six weeks. Emily's mum is next to her, and then in the pink is my grandma Betty who I like to call Queen B.

This is Diego, who I have also known since we were very young. We grew up together all around the world with our dads both working in the oil service industry. Now he's a chemist who tests things in a lab. I'm also good friends with his sister, Laura, who is also a vegan and sadly couldn't be there to enjoy the feast as she was working at the hospital. I did send her brother home with a little plate for her, complete with a slice of that amazing cake.

Maddie, Phil, Angela, Dawn & Kathey. The grandparents, the mother, and the two grandchildren. This family has been in my life for a long time as well, and we also lived in Malaysia with them many years ago. Phil & Kathey are truly two of the kindest people I know.

My friend Chris came for some free bubbly. I've known him since I was about sixteen. He looks like Santa Claus now.

And here I am with a group from the party. Really I just wanted to showcase my shoes with this picture.

All in all, it was a success! And everyone seemed to enjoy the vegan spread and of course the champers. CHEERS!

Colombia

Christmas present from my dad: trip to Colombia. // Regalo de navidad de mi papa: viaje a Colombia. 

Agua de panela con queso

Arepa con chocolate

Castillo de San Felipe, Cartagena

Horseback riding / montando a caballo "la doctora" en la finca

Fresh fruit // fruta fresca

Taking photos in Cartagena// sacando fotos en Cartagena

From the tree// del arbol....

.....To my glass // a mi vaso

Hotel Agua, Baru

With my aunt at Nevado del Ruiz // con mi tia en el Nevado

Ceviche de corvina con patacones

Monumento en el parque de chicamocha

Swimming in Baru

Plow pose

Camel pose

Wheel pose

Diving into the Caribbean sea

Christmas Eve dinner on the beach

Paragliding in San Gil

Graduation

This weekend I graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos with a double business major (BBA) in Accounting and Finance.
Here come the cheesey pictures.

Afterwards, I had a dinner at the Root Cellar, San Marcos.

I don't have many pictures from this dinner unfortunately my dad has most of them. Here are just a couple.

My boyfriend, Sean and myself.

My dad, who came all the way from Kuwait to be at my ceremony, and who sponsored my college education. Gracias papito.

Senior Pictures

My boyfriend, Sean, shot some pictures of me this weekend to put in my college graduation announcements. The pictures were taken around the Texas State University campus in San Marcos, TX.

These pictures are completely untouched/unedited/raw.