July 26

Tuesdays visit was to Willis Towers Watson and Lloyd's of London. At Willis we met with 3 guys, in this huge office, to talk about the company. They were all really sweet and they kept it interesting. John took us across the street for a tour of Lloyd's of London, where his daughter works as an underwriter. The Lloyd's building is really interesting. The outside was designed to look external, it is not your average building, and most people don't like the outside look of it. The inside is just as amazing, though. The desks are set up, like a library style, I guess. There are 4 floors of desks, upon desks. Each underwriter has their own area and the brokers come to them, files in hand (yes, the paper kind) to negotiate. If they need more floors for the Lloyd's market, the inside is designed for the glass panels, on the 5th floor, and above, to be able to be removed and another escalator added. It was just, wow.




We went back to Willis for lunch, which was super weird. They had salmon, this bread filled with minced meat and a piece of a hard boiled egg, cold potatoes covered in sour cream, a pastry that looked like it contained cranberries, but it was really just beets, and a really delicious strawberry and cream dessert. It felt way too fancy, I would have rather just had a sandwich, like the kind we have at afternoon tea.

It was our last pizza night, and nobody was there, so my apartment stole 5 pizzas this time around. I went on a night run, through the populated part of the city, the Southbank to be specific, because that's my favorite walking/running spot in London. It's this really nice paved area across from Westminster, probably constructed for photo ops, but it's really nice. When I returned everyone was discussing where to go out, for our last "real" Tuesday night in London. We ended up at O'Neils, and by we, I mean most of the FYA's, and a few other FSU students, but we had a good time.