Since the seven strategies for trading forex document consists of 261 pages it might take me some time to get through the entire theory. I am eager to learn and understand the context however, I have to confess this feels like studying for an exam.

Waking up and following the routine as I will be leaving home is helping me to gather motivation and work from home which is great. I also see the theories I read at the moment as a helpful tool to help me with the Mathematics B I want to pass by the end of the Term.

I created a questionnaire on ‘Telecommuting and satisfaction’ as i was asked and send it out to all of my colleagues to gather information on how everyone is dealing with the current situation, their motivation and how the situation could be improved. This task felt like a huge responsibility given to me especially, because i also got the access to all my colleague emails and data. My supervisor has shown to trust me over this information and I will not fail him. I have reported the combined final results to my supervisor and received feedback on how to improve my reporting skills in the future, such as; graphs with excel, use colors to make it appealing to the eye, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you don’t know how to work with excel. I will definitely not hesitate tp ask for help next time, I just felt like i should have been done to do it myself. Next time I will definitely incorporate my supervisors feedback.

Moreover, I was active on LinkedIn however the situation is not getting any better and less than a few people travel mostly just to get home.

I have very much underestimated all of the reading that comes with actually understanding the financial analysis. It is rather interesting since I can compare all the theories read to the current situation where all the stock collapsed last week. Right now I am trying to understand the seven strategies for trading forex and in case of little understanding, I will contact my supervisor for a more personal explanation and can as well discuss the topic with Bart.

As for the HR I have been involved in finalizing the documents needed for the Turkish student to submit at his institute and counselor, the situation is rather very vague as we don’t know if the strict quarantine is going to last until August longer or shorter. The Spanish authorities said two months so in case of extensions of travel restrictions/ban the internship will, unfortunately, be cancelled.

The first day of the third week and the time seems to be slowing down every hour. You can definitely start to notice the difference in the amount of work due to the changing global situation. In my opinion, the HR department does not meet my expectations, and I have decided to mail my supervisor to ask him if I can partially integrate into the financial department just like Bart.

Bart did mention he is very optimistic and satisfied with his switch to the financial department and also I do like to use my time both efficiently and effectively and gave me a sense of hope as I am afraid for my internship will be unsufficient.

Together with my supervisor, we agreed that I will start the day off with all personnel-related work as I still am excited and want to learn still from the HR department. My supervisor has forward some theories which are important for me to understand the financial sector, investments and how to deal with unexpected fluctuations. That is what I will partially focus on in the upcoming weeks as well from now on.

The situation is improving which gives me a sense of relieve, next time I will make sure to not exclude different departments of a company and put all of my 100% focus at just one. Staying openminded is the way forward.

Also, have I been involved in contacting a Turkish embassy and counseling on the different steps to be taken to help a Turkish citizen obtain the Erasmus

I have been told that a few companies actually participate in recruitment outside of the EU as it comes with a lot of paperwork. However, Vision Factory takes on the challenge.

I spoke with one of my friends who works at the headquarter of Bruna about how she deals with motivation for working from home. She advised me to keep my normal routine meaning; wake up, shower, get dressed and drink a cup of coffee, this way you will be more motivated to start the day. That is something I would advise others who struggle to work from home in the morning.

I have been focussed on reaching out to interested candidates for internships after the summer. Via mail, we discussed their favourable position within the company, working hours, etc. I had to write down all of the details and make sure I also reported my progress to my supervisor at the end of each week from now on. In my opinion i feel like all the work that i will conduct will be checked and criticized. I think so because i have to report all my findings. However this feeling might also be wrong and aggravated by the fact that i have no physical contact with my supervisor. Moreover i think that this is a human reaction and as i progress in my internship things will change. If i find myself in a situation like this in the future I will make sure to not overthink and go with the flow.

Through access to all templates, I could easily create an agreement to confirm the internship to people who need clarity, as the internship is a part of their curriculum for some. 

Waking up and starting to work from home has turned out to be harder than I initially expected. I notice that I lack motivation from home and am still sleepy when I open up my laptop. However, after a few cups of coffee, I started to shake off my sleep.

Today I continued working on researching different companies and adding them to the companies database based on criteria such as; industry, size, lifespan, etc. Also adding the contact person of the company for our marketing department to contact after the database has been finalized and double-checked. 

I have noticed that working on a computer really can exhaust your eyes especially when you wear contacts. I will switch to wearing glasses when staring/looking at my screen for so long.

Together with Piotr via WhatsApp, we agreed to have a phone call to discuss what my further steps should be towards an effective internship from home. As I already expected many participants withdraw from projects and events the company conducts because of COVID-19. 

As for my interest in the event management internship, there are currently no projects in which I could participate as all events and traveling have been temporally cancelled. This has made me very anxious and I actually thought I would face a study delay. Even though the amount of participants has seen a sharp decline there are still people who want to get involved with the company after the situation has cooled down. This al is not exactly how I expected my Spanish internship to be, back in the Netherlands. However, i decided to be resource-full and joined the Humane Resource department. The next steps for me are to take care and contact those who are still interested and will help with preparing; acceptance letters, agreements, recommendations letters, forms for embassies, etc. I could have waited till next year for my dream event internship to take place. However, I am satisfied with my decision and would take same steps if I would find myself in same kind a situation ever again.

I have received all templates via mail which I have to work with and emails of future participants to communicate about their interest.

Today with most of the voluntary form the breakfast club we have had an online brainstorm session on how to raise some money for the BFC during the quarantine, unfortunately, no clear actions are taken since we could not agree on many things.

It was very late when I fell, asleep around three or four in the morning since I was super hungry and chatted with my mom a little. She has been super worried for me and it felt very relieving to be able to finally hug her.

I have informed my supervisor about my trip back home and all the delays which I had encountered. I apologized for not being able to start at 8:30 in the morning and reach out to him as soon as I woke up.

Together with my supervisor, we agreed to video chat the following day to see how to continue my internship at Vision Factory. Piotr has been very supportive towards everyone in these very hard times and this way gave me a boost to be more involved in minor stuff although I am a thousand kilometres away.

During the weekend a lot has happened, the situation in Spain has gone from bad to worse. Many shops including retails, restaurants and fast-food chains closed down due to government restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On Sunday I decided to book my flight back to the Netherlands because, of measures taken by HU. Asking all Dutch students who are staying abroad to come back as the situation in the EU is worsen or to sign the liability-act removing all rights to the insurance provided by HU.

I reached out to my supervisor to inform him and seek his opinion, Piotr was very supportive and expressed his regards for letting him know. I was still very confused and spoke to some other students who currently reside in Barcelona, many of them left to home already on Friday and did not bother to let their supervisors know. In all chaos, I booked a ticket on Monday while I wanted to come back earlier on Sunday. I informed my supervisor about my decision to discuss further possibilities regard the continuation of my internship. He was very supportive and already mentioned a week ago ‘for those who decide to go back home and want to continue their internship measures will be taken to work from home’.

The trip back home was exhausting with all the delays and waiting it took me more than 10 hours to get back home in the Netherlands from Barcelona. I left at 14:30-ish and arrived home in Utrecht at 02:00-ish. 

From my stay which was supposed to last 3 to 4 months, I spent a full 7 days in Barcelona.

Overnight the situation is Spain went from 0 to 10 in terms of worries about the coronavirus and its effect. The lead generation which I have worked on yesterday with some colleagues has been postponed till after the summer and my supervisor told us to continue to work on the lead generation since the event is being held on another day after the summer. 

The people working in the company are multicultural and multilinguistic, which is perfect for me to work on my persuasive communication skills. I believe my attempt to bond with two of my colleagues from the Philippines has not worked as I planned. Although I am optimistic and there is plenty of time the upcoming weeks for me to bond with my new colleagues. 

The rise in new corona cases seems to worsen every day in Spain….

Today through in my working mail I have been invited to access various databases of the company regarding already approached clients, and potential clients. I was asked to work on lead generation as the deadline for this project was upcoming Monday. I was of course, happy to help out although it did not exactly was of importance for my department. There is a tense feeling in the air regarding the coronavirus entering Europe although in the streets you do not seem to notice a lot of difference. My supervisor has told us that a lot of clients are pulling out of the project as the free movement of people in the EU is tightening up.