I´m in Spain!

7 December 2008
Hola from Spain! I arrived in Barcelona around 10 tonight and came straight to my hotel so I haven´t seen much of the town yet. I´ll only be here for about a day and a half so I´ll probably take a bus tour tomorrow so I can see everything. I´m a little worried about not knowing any Spanish, but hopefully I´ll get by. I won´t be in Spain too long and then it´s back to France before heading home.

I spent the past couple of days with Flore, a French girl who Elyse stayed with when she went on the high school French trip and then she came to stay with us for a week and a half over the summer. It was really great seeing her again and seeing someone familiar. I met her at her school in Montpellier and went to some of her classes with her. I went to a geography class where they were talking about the U.S. (I didn´t understand much of it), an English class (I understood a lot more), and her Spanish class (I didn´t understand anything). I got to see some of the town where she goes to school and then on Saturday we took the train to her hometown of Beziers. I got to meet her parents and see her house. Her mom made some wonderful food and we ate a lot. I had a nice time with them and will see them again in Paris since they will be going there on the same day I am!

It´s almost midnight here now, so I better get some sleep so I can go out early tomorrow and see the city. I´ll try to write again soon.

Bonjour from France!

I'm in France right now in Aix-en-Provence. I just got here this evening so I have not been able to explore the town yet. I came from Nice and I loved it there! I spent about 2.5 days there and loved being on the Mediterranean sea, it was beautiful and I want to go back soon!

Before Nice I was in Italy. I started off in Rome and then went to Florence. It was difficult trying to learn Italian, but I loved the food and the art there. I ate lots of pasta, pizza, and gelato and had the best tiramisu my first night in Rome. I saw all the main things in Rome: the pantheon, trevi fountain, colosseum and all the Roman ruins around the colosseum, the Vatican museums including the Sistene chapel, St. Peter's basilica, the Spanish steps, and some more squares and churches.

In Florence I went to the Duomo and climbed somewhere between 400-500 steps to see views of the city from the top. It was beautiful! I did that on Thanksgiving and also took a tour to the Chianti region of Italy where we toured a castle that makes wine and had a wine tasting. It was a lot of fun and of course I had to buy a bottle of the wine. It was really good, but now I have to carry it with me the rest of the way. I also went to the Uffizi gallery and another museum in Florence to see Michaelangelo's David. That was awesome! He was amazing to see and so much bigger than I expected!

I don't think I have much time left on this computer and it's really hard to type on a french keyboard, so that's all for now. I'm going to visit a friend who lives in Montpellier, France on Thursday so I will try to write again soon! I can't believe I will be home in 2 weeks. I love everything I've been doing, but can't wait to get home and see everyone again!

Last weekend in London

I had a very busy last weekend in London doing everything I still wanted to do before I leave. I went out to see the botanical gardens in Kew, a town outside of London, on Friday. The gardens were huge so I didn't get to see it all, but I did see a lot of nice plants, trees, and flowers and it was very pretty and peaceful out there. Friday night I finally made it to the theatre to see The Lion King. It was AMAZING! I loved it! The show was awesome and the costumes were outstanding. It was so cool how the actors played animals, they looked and moved like the animals would. I'm going to see another show tonight so I'm really excited for that too.



On Saturday I went on a London Walk around the Holland Park and Notting Hill areas, they are both within walking distance from where I live, so it was nice to see the area from a different perspective and learn a little about the history there. I saw lots of homes where famous people lived or used to live, an artist house where the Sex Pistols once recorded, and the hotel where Jimmi Hendrix was found dead in. Since it was around Notting Hill, we heard a lot about the movie and saw some of the places made famous by the movie. I went into the Travel Bookshop, the store where Hugh Grant's character (from Notting Hill) worked was based on. It was a really nice shop and they had lots of newspaper and magazine articles about how the store became famous after the movie. It made me really want to watch the movie again and look for the places I saw. The walk ended at another famous London market, Portobello Road Market, so I walked around there for a while. If I haven't already said it, I love all the markets they have around here and I enjoy spending the afternoon wandering the markets and shops.



The main thing I saw on Sunday was The Tower of London. It was a cold and rainy day, but that didn't stop me from exploring the Tower on my last Sunday in London. I took a tour with one of the Beefeaters who work there to learn some history of the Tower. I also saw the Crown Jewels...

I didn't have time to finish all of this, but I want to post it anyway because I'm leaving London tomorrow and don't have a computer with me. I'll try to post when I can get access to a computer and update everyone on how my travels are going.

Museums and More

I just realized that I haven't written about what I've been doing in a while and I've been doing a lot! I have less than 2 weeks here and I'm trying to do and see everything I can before I leave for Europe.


I've been to lots of museums lately. I saw the National Portrait Gallery and saw a great exhibit there by Annie Leibovitz. I went to the Victoria and Albert museum, which had all kinds of things, but I especially loved the jewelry and fashion there. This past weekend I went to the Natural History Museum. I liked it, but it was so crowded (it was a Saturday AND raining!). They had dinosaurs, birds, and other animals, and some great Earth exhibits. There was so much there that I didn't get to see it all (like almost every museum I've been to here!). I also checked out the Science Museum for a little bit and saw some psychology and medicine exhibits.

On 2 November I took a boat ride on the Thames to Greenwich, a small town not far from London. It was a little chilly, but a very pretty day. There are all kinds of buildings and architecture and history along the Thames. I went to a market there ( I love exploring different markets, trying the food, and looking at the different things for sale). I went to the National Maritime Museum, a museum about ships and river travel and had stuff from Admiral Nelson and the battle of Trafalgar. It was a really cool museum, and again I would have liked to have spent more time there. I also saw the Royal Observatory (where time is set from). It was way up on a hill so I could see some great views of Greenwich and the Thames. There was an astronomy museum there and it's where the Prime Meridian is so I stood with one foot in the Western hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern hemisphere. I also went to the Queen's House there, which was just an English art museum (not too exciting). The boat ride back to London was one of the highlights of the day. It was so pretty on the river at night with everything all lit up in the dark. I loved it and was happy to be there and in London.

This past weekend I went to Kensington Gardens. It was a cold and cloudy day and rained a little bit. All the parks are definitely one of my favorite things about London. They're so big and pretty and I love all the statues and memorials. I wish we had more parks like the ones here in Iowa City. I saw the Prince Albert Memorial and the Peter Pan statue in the park and saw Kensington Palace from the outside.

I have just one more weekend to do as much as I can in London and then I'm off to Rome!

Election updates from across the pond

First, I am happy to say that I will be returning home since Obama was elected the next President of the United States (I would not have been coming back if it went the other way).

I really wished I were back in the U.S. yesterday and I could have volunteered for the election and gone to an election party. I felt like I was missing out a little bit on the biggest Presidential election in a long time. I was thinking about how this is the second Presidential election that I've voted in and both times I've been out of my home state and had to vote absentee. Last time I was at school at Miami U. and now I'm in London and not even in the U.S.

The election was big news here. They had been talking about it in the news and in the papers every day recently. People at work have been asking me about it, as well as my flatmates. I read in Tuesday's paper that there were lots of election parties at (mainly American) bars and restaurants and a big one at the U.S. Embassy. Some of them costing a lot to get into. I didn't go to any parties, but watched the coverage from my flat along with my Italian flatmate who was really interested in the election as well. It didn't start until around 11.30 here and they didn't report any results until after midnight. I kept track of who was winning each state and stayed up until a little after 3am when they announced the results from Iowa. I was so happy that we went for Obama, especially after going Bush in 2004.

When I went to bed I was pretty sure the news would be good and then around 4am I got a call from Dad saying that it was official, Obama had been declaired the winner! I got up and turned on the TV to see it for myself. I was hoping to catch some of Obama's speech, but the TV anchors were just talking about how the excitement won't last very long and he will have a lot of problems to sort out and things to work on. I went back to bed and soon after got a text from Elyse. She wrote "We did it! You can be happy when you wake up. WE DID IT!" I am very happy (and so are the people over here) and I feel better about saying I'm American now. Also, I've met the next President of the United States, Barak Obama!!!

One more thing, thank you so much to everyone who has sent me a card! I really love getting them at my flat and I have them all hanging up on my wall over my bed.

To clairfy on the video...

The video I posted is not what we actually do at Rehab UK on a day to day basis. It was a workshop we did with an drama and storytelling company. Rehab UK is working with them to try to put on a production early next year and this was just a fun workshop we did. We have drama sessions similar to this each week for the clients to participate in (and some staff usually go too). They are a fun way for the clients to get involved, learn a little bit, and develop new skills.

Internship at Rehab UK

I've been doing my internship at Rehab UK in London now for about 6 weeks and I'm really enjoying it and learning a lot. Rehab UK is a non-profit organisation that helps people who have had a brain injury get back into work, they call it a vocational rehabilitation programme. Clients come here from Monday through Friday for 5 hours a day and have various sessions they attend. There are different elements that the clients are in, Element A and Element B, depending on the client's needs and the rehabilitation that he or she has already received. They usually begin in Element A, which lasts 12 weeks and attend various sessions including: cognitive skills training, stress management, brain injury awareness, communication skills, client meeting, essential skills-literacy and numeracy, information technology, and vocational profiling (helping them find the right job). In Element B they continue on with some of the same sessions, but focus more of searching for jobs, working on CVs, cover letters, preparing for interviews, etc.

My job here has been kind of like a support worker with the clients. I spend a lot of time attending a variety of sessions with clients and supporting them with their work in the sessions. I work one-to-one with some clients who need additional support with their work here. I have also been able to lead a few sessions. The one I usually do is client meeting (although this is mostly client led). It's kind of like a debate, where they choose a certain topic and discuss it. One person is the chair of the meeting and my job is to support them, give them feedback, and make sure the meeting goes ok. I have gotten to lead only one other session, Communication Skills, where I introduced a new project for them to begin working on. I hope I will be able to lead a few more sessions in the last few weeks I have left.

I've also been doing some research while here, updating information on careers and decision making for the vocational profiling session. I find it really interesting and I'm thinking about trying to get a job in a career center. I've worked with clients on their CVs, searching for jobs, analysing job ads, helping them figure out their interests, skills, values, needs, etc. from a career.

I've learned a lot about brain injury and the effects of it from working here too. There are many different ways a brain injury can occur and they can have different effects on people. Physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects are all common with people who've had a brain injury. There are also many difficulties in returning to work after a brain injury, which is one of the main things Rehab UK strives to assist people with.