Necessities

I learn how to write VBA macros, sew patches on a t-shirt and receive a bag from Denmark .
This week I have become involved with the most hated project at Winkle right now. It is a project for a 'difficult' client, who seems to always want something other than what is delivered. The unusual requests are a problem, because they make it impossible to present the data using the normal, automated procedure. Making the data presentable manually is a tedious task, which my colleagues seemed to think were fit for a new intern. Great... A boring task with no way of showing creativity or learning new things. Not exactly what I was hoping for. Being dropped into a corner of the project, I didn't really understand what was going on in the beginning, but I did know that excel is not a program that is meant for a lot of clicking. So, I decided to try to automate the process and make my task a little easier, faster and more fun (I like to come up with new methods much more than I like executing the methods). First I tried using excel formulas and conditional formatting and even though my speed improved and the risk of mistakes disappeared, I was still far from a good solution. As I started using VBA macros I discovered that there was huge potential here. In two days, I got a crude code written, that could select the whole sheet and do my tasks in about ten seconds (a good improvement over the 40 minutes of manual work/sheet I started with). This was such a success, that I have been asked to present the method on the weekly meeting for the whole office. I feel particularly good about this, because I thought it would be such a lousy task, but ended up enjoying it quite a lot and learning how write VBA macros.
Aside from working I have been planning my introduction trip with Orionis. The student sailing organization starts each year by welcoming the new members for a whole month. That means a lot of events are going on all of them leading up to a weekend of sailing in Friesland (renowned to be a great place for sailing). Also, I expect there will be a lot of beers and fun games involved. One of the games is a contest of who has pimped their Orionis t-shirt the most. To me, that felt like a good challenge, so I went ahead and spent today sewing patches on my t-shirt (yes, I spent a full day doing that). I kept the shape completely original, I didn't even make a v-neck, but I think that might actually help my shirt stand out. Most of the girls quickly got rid of the sleeves and some have also opened the neck of the t-shirt to make it look like a top. However, I don't think that would be very fitting for a boy and I was also concerned that my execution would be so poor that it would disturb the look of the shirt. So instead I opted for a safer option of sewing on patches. On the shoulders I now have two good-looking (in my opinion) Danish flags. The rest of the shirt looks mostly unchanged at first glance, but when you look closer you can see some stitches in rectangular patterns many places on the shirt. The thread is red on the blue t-shirt. If you turn it inside out, you can see that the stitches are not just for show, they also hold white patches in place. The idea is, that I will ask people to write messages inside the white squares, much like the notes you can write inside a student cap. I bet it will turn out great and end up as a famous t-shirt (in case you don't know, I'm always this optimistic about the future).
In relation to that same trip, I anticipated the need for sailing clothes and sent a message home. The same week I received a bag filled with all of my sailing clothes and a glass of homemade blackberry jam (thanks mom!).