Today was a very rewarding day. I had to take a train to St. Albans, which is around 40 minutes outside of London. Yesterday, when I went to pick up my ticket, the guy told me the wrong platform. So, this morning when I got to "the right platform," I didn't see my train on the board. So I asked and the sent me to the very bottom floor. But, when I got down there, I saw my train time, but it said it was headed to Luton. I started to freak out, but as the time got closer, below Luton is said "Calling to" with a bunch of towns, so I assumed that meant "stopping at" since St. Albans was one of them. I waited for a while and finally boarded my train, still hoping it was the right one. About 15 minutes through my ride, a worker came through to check tickets. All he said was "thank you very much" so I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew he would have said something if I were on the wrong train. It was another 20-25 minutes and I reached St. Albans. On the train ride there, I had received a text from Sandra with directions to the store. Since I'm TERRIBLE at directions, I was freaking out a bit. I tried to find my way out of the station (which took a while) and then I went up to the bridge she told me to walk over. Apparently, it was the complete wrong way because there was nothing down the way I went. I turned around and spotted a police officer. I knabbed the chance and he told me that main high street was about a 15 minute walk up the hill. So, I started walking until I got to what looked like a small square with lots of shops. However, I was looking for the actual street name "Main High Street" because I assumed that was a real street. I guess that's what the British call just a regular street with lots of shops and things, so I was totally confused for a while. I went down the wrong way once again and finally decided to turn around. And, after a couple minutes, there it was!! I don't think I've been that excited and relieved for a while. I was so proud of myself though for getting the right train and finding my way to the store, completely on my own!
When I got there, they told me to put my stuff up in the break room. You could tell the building used to be something different than just a store. There was the store floor, and then the stairs to the break room was a winding staircase and the break room was more like a little home. There was a kitchen, bathrooms and a bunch of other rooms. The actual stock room was a long hallway, all tutor style with creepy old windows and then a large room with a big fireplace with a bunch of stuff stacked against it. As soon as I got down to the floor, they were like "You know this place is haunted right?" I was totally freaked out! Supposedly, the building used to be a pub and a little boy had fallen off the balcony and died. He now haunts the top floor of the store and they even bought him toys; how creeeppyy! I guess the whole town of St. Albans is supposed to be known for hauntings. Anyway, I then had to reset a whole wall, which meant I had to go upstairs by myself and gather all of the metalwork that I needed. I was SO freaked out because it took me a while to sort through everything and make sure I had enough of the pieces. I swore if I saw a little boy standing in the corner watching me, I was outta there! Haha, I'm such a dork, but it really was freaky.
Anyway, the rest of the day, Sandra, one of my bosses, and I moved the entire floor around to make the store more impactful. We moved certain colors to different walls and reworked the store fixtures to create a better layout. We also categorized the sale to make it easier to shop: tops, casual dresses, skirts, knitwear, and "smart" dresses, which is the British way of saying more "dressy" dresses. Kind of funny to hear and I had to ask what smart dresses meant. It sounds like a smart phone, like the dress has internet or GPS capabilities or something. ;) Then we broke for lunch. I explored the town a bit and then chose a street vendor to grab lunch and take it back to the store. I decided on a ham and cheese toastie (a grilled ham and cheese),chips (fries), and a fizzy drink (soda, because they didn't have water). It was really good, but I was so full I couldn't finish it. After the break, we worked on the store aesthetics. We made the "up-tops" or glass shelves above the hangbars look presentable with scarves, necklaces on jewelry stands, or images in picture frames. We also have a skirt featured in Vogue, so I dressed a torso in the skirt and the table in front displayed the magazine page along with a color story to make it more impactful. We then straightened up the store and put everything in color order. Here's how it turned out!
The vogue table :)
Our navy and fuschia color story.
Our newly organized sale section.
It was around 5 when we left the store, and then it was another ride back to London. It was a lot faster on the way back though, because I rode with Sandra. It was nice to have someone to talk to. After I got home, I made dinner and now I'm starting on homework once again. Can't wait until this internship class is over!! Going to bed early tonight since we have to be at the showroom at 8 am in the morning, which means leaving our flat at 7:15!
Well, that's all for today. Bye! :)
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