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.
Friday, 31 October 2008
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
A few pictures and a movie
I sent my first set of pictures I posted on the Kodak Gallery website, but thought I'd put a few of them on here too. Like I said I will try to get more up if I can, but it took forever to upload them to Kodak Gallery so I might try something else. At the bottom is a link to the Rehab UK Open Rehersal on You Tube. It was a drama and storytelling workshop we had with an acting company at the Tate Modern Museum at the end of my first week here. Watch the video and look for me:)
A view of the Thames river and St. Paul's Cathedral.
Picadilly Circus
Me at the rose garden in Hyde Park.
The Tower Bridge
With one of the guards to St. James' Palace, where Prince Charles, William, and Harry live.
A view of the Thames river and St. Paul's Cathedral.
Picadilly Circus
Me at the rose garden in Hyde Park.
The Tower Bridge
With one of the guards to St. James' Palace, where Prince Charles, William, and Harry live.
Monday, 27 October 2008
Weekend in London
So, I finally got to do some exploring around London this weekend. Saturday was a beautiful, but a little windy, fall day. I tried going to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, but they weren't doing it that day, so I walked around St. Jame's Park instead. It is a beautiful park, probably my favorite one I've been to so far here. It's small with a lake running through it. There are lots of weeping willows, flowers, and animals. It's especially pretty now with all the leaves changing. People were going crazy over the squirls there too, watching them, taking pictures of them, and feeding them. I also saw some huge pelicans.
I walked to Covent Garden after I left the park and loved it there too. It's an area with lots of shops and eateries, a market and street performers, and it's one of my favorite places in London. I watched a performer juggling knives on a ladder in a kilt and a sextet orchestral group that played very well and kept wanting people to give them money. They told the kids watching that if their parents loved them they would buy them a CD of the orchestra's music! They would also block people trying to walk somewhere and were just funny to watch. I went into one area of Covent Garden called Neil's Yard that has more shops and places to eat and discovered a wonderful restaurant called World Foods. It was a small place with only 3 big tables and a counter surrounding the cooking area. There were only 4 women working and preparing all the food. They had vegetarian food from all parts of the world and the menu was written on a chalk board. I ordered the West African, which was sweet potato cooked in sauces and peanut butter and served with rice, salad, and a banana. It was so good and I want to go back sometime before I leave.
On Sunday I explored one of the markets here, Borough Market, and they were having Apple Day. I bought 20 apples for £1, so now I will have to make an apple pie or something with all those apples. It was really crowded there and there were many vendors selling delicious looking food. Later on in the day I went on the Harry Potter London Walk. It was a guided walk around London where the guide talked about Harry Potter and how J.K. Rowling was inspired by various things around London when she wrote the famous Harry Potter series. I thought we would see more things from the books/movies, but we didn't really. It was also more of a show for the kids, as there were a lot of them on the walk. It was alright though.
I think that's about all for now. I will try to write about my internship this week.
I walked to Covent Garden after I left the park and loved it there too. It's an area with lots of shops and eateries, a market and street performers, and it's one of my favorite places in London. I watched a performer juggling knives on a ladder in a kilt and a sextet orchestral group that played very well and kept wanting people to give them money. They told the kids watching that if their parents loved them they would buy them a CD of the orchestra's music! They would also block people trying to walk somewhere and were just funny to watch. I went into one area of Covent Garden called Neil's Yard that has more shops and places to eat and discovered a wonderful restaurant called World Foods. It was a small place with only 3 big tables and a counter surrounding the cooking area. There were only 4 women working and preparing all the food. They had vegetarian food from all parts of the world and the menu was written on a chalk board. I ordered the West African, which was sweet potato cooked in sauces and peanut butter and served with rice, salad, and a banana. It was so good and I want to go back sometime before I leave.
On Sunday I explored one of the markets here, Borough Market, and they were having Apple Day. I bought 20 apples for £1, so now I will have to make an apple pie or something with all those apples. It was really crowded there and there were many vendors selling delicious looking food. Later on in the day I went on the Harry Potter London Walk. It was a guided walk around London where the guide talked about Harry Potter and how J.K. Rowling was inspired by various things around London when she wrote the famous Harry Potter series. I thought we would see more things from the books/movies, but we didn't really. It was also more of a show for the kids, as there were a lot of them on the walk. It was alright though.
I think that's about all for now. I will try to write about my internship this week.
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Feeling like home
Yesterday after work I decided to go to the National Gallery. When I got out of the tube station in the middle of Trafalger Square I took out my camera to take pictures of the Gallery and Trafalgar Square and I felt like a tourist again. As I left the Gallery I was walking around Leicester Square and saw all the restaurants, shops, theatre, statues, and signs and I realized again that I'm in London. This may sound like an odd relaization as I've been in London for the past month, but it's easy to forget sometimes. Every day I go to work and go home and I usually take the tube so I don't see any of the city. I go grocery shopping and the other night my main concern was doing a load of laundry. I'm living here rather than just being a tourist, which is exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to come over here and stay in one place for a while and see what it's really like to live in another country instead of just seeing the sights and being a tourist (although that will come later). I enjoy seeing the sights and doing the touristy things, but it's also really great to be working and living here. It's nice to have a home-like place here, especially after spending 2 weeks in a hostel and another week and a half in a place I didn't like staying. I still miss my home in Iowa City (my own big room, bathroom, a washer and dryer, my kitchen, the space and only having to share with one person). But now I feel more like I have a home here and I will appreciate my condo in Iowa City much more when I return.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Email posts
Since it took me so long to finally get a post to my blog I thought I'd go back and post some of the emails I sent out since I've been here. There's a bit more detail of what I've been up to the first month.
I'm at my hotel in London right now using the computer for £3 for an hour so I thought I would send you an email. It was great talking to all of you who I talked to today! I just slept most of the day after I got here and then called (some friends of my mom's friend) Dan and he and his dad, Mark, took me out for dinner so it was a good night and I wasn't too lonely. I am meeting Dan again tomorrow so he can show me around a bit and I can hopefully start getting familiar with this huge city. I am starting to learn my way around on the bus and tube so I won't have to take £60 taxis anymore :). Well, I think that is about all for now. I will try to check my email as often as I can and I'll talk to you later! I love you all!
21 Sept.
Hi again everyone,
Thanks for all the emails and updates from back home, and thanks for the pictures Angela! I checked out of my hotel this morning and I'm at the hostel now, but can't get to my room until 2:00pm so I thought I'd get on the computer. The hostel seems pretty nice, I haven't seen the rooms yet, and there are lots of people close in age, but I wish I didn't have to stay here so long. I'm ready to move into my apartment and get settled. I'm feeling a bit lonely today and missing home. I'm just ready to get started with the internship.
22 Sept.
My meeting with Rachelle (the London internship coordinator) went well this morning and the interview was fine too. The job sounds pretty interesting and I will get to work with and shadow everyone who works there. My meeting didn't last very long this morning and I will start tomorrow morning at 10:00am. It's really close to the hostel I'm staying at so that's good for now, but it will probably be further once I get my permanent housing. I went on a bus tour this afternoon and saw a lot of the sights I saw a few days ago, but it was still good. I could get off at various stops and did a couple of times to eat and get coffee. It started raining a bit this afternoon while I was on the tour though, and got a bit colder today.
23 Sept.
As you know I had my first day at my internship today. It was all very interesting. A group of new clients started today so I got to meet all of them. They started with doing introductions and ice breaker activites. They went over administrative procedures, took a tour and talked about safety, and did an online questionnaire in the afternoon. I also got to sit in on a session where they started working on a poster about coping with a brain injury. The people there are all really nice too. My supervisor took me to lunch and to a pub for a beer after work. He is also going to get me in touch with the other intern from the US so I can meet her and her friends and have more people to hang out with. He is also trying to get me to see a lot of places around here and in England. Dad, my job is at Rehab UK and is in Southwark near the London Bridge tube station. It is on St. Thomas Street and near Guy's hospital.
I do not yet know where I'm going to be living come October 4 and probably won't find out until Oct 1. I really wish I could get in there sooner as I am not really enjoying the hostel. A couple of my roommates are in bed before 9pm and were still asleep when I left for work this morning a little before 10am. It is also very difficult living out of my suitcase and I have had to open the big suitcase. I've also had to get out my coat as it got pretty cold today. I would kind of rather go back to the hotel, but it's also nice being so close to my job and at least around other people. Only 11 more nights here and then I get into my apartment.
27 Sept.
The move (out of my hostel room) went fine and I moved out again this morning and I think I move again tomorrow and Monday...It will really make me appreciate it when I finally get to move into my flat. The one good thing was I had a room to myself last night and it had a TV in it, but it only got 3 channels. I'm back in a 4 person room tonight and then back to a 2 person room.
I don't really have plans for the weekend. Last night we had a drama and storytelling workshop for work over at the Tate Modern and then a lot of us went to a pub. Today I'm thinking about going to the British Museum and might do something with the other intern from the US that I finally met yesterday. She is here with her school doing study abroad so she knows lots of other people here.
29 Sept.
I just finished up day at work and thought I would send an email from here. I sat in on sessions all day again today and I'm really enjoying it. We had some stress management sessions this morning, another about brain injury awareness, and then the clients started vocational profiling (figuring out what type of job/voluntary work they want to do). I've been listening to sessions and talking with the clients and helping them out with what we are doing.
If I haven't talked to you lately, I went on a London Walk on Saturday at the British Museum. It was just a highlights tour so I spent some more time there afterwards, but will have to go back again to see everything, as it is so big. I also tried fish and chips and it was not so bad! On Sunday I went to lunch with Mark and Dan again over near where they live. I got to see their house too. It was a really nice house and built in the 1880s. We ate at an Egyptian themed restaurant and had an English Sunday lunch, roast beef, yorkshire pudding, potatoes, and green beans. It was very good.
Haven't been up to too much else, just moving hostel rooms a lot. I'm finally in a room for 4 nights now and won't have to move again until Thursday and that will be my last time until I move out!! I'm in a 2 person room right now and had the room to myself last night. Wouldn't mind if I had a roommate, but it's a much smaller room with barely enough room for my 2 suitcases. I will hopefully find out Wed. where I will be living and I will let you all know as soon as I find out.
6 Oct.
Hi family!
I'm just finishing up another day at work and thought I would send an email before I leave, especially now that I don't have the same access to email as I did in the hostel. I hope you all had great weekends, except for the Iowa loss of course :(. My weekend was frustrating getting moved into my flat. I had to go to London Solutions (the rental place) to pick up my keys and pay my deposit. The deposit was £200, but the ATMs would not let me take out that much so I had to go cash my travellers checks at a bureau de change (the one bank that was open wouldn't do it) and got £124.24 for $250! After I got my keys I had to take both my suitcases on the tube to get them to my flat since I couldn't get out any money for a cab. That was a mess and then getting into my flat was a bit of a shock. It is a hallway with 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet, and a room with a shower and sink coming off of it. There is no living room and the kitchen is the only common area. The place is not very clean, freezing, and people smoke in there. The kitchen only has a fridge and a stove. The oven I guess is broken and there is no microwave or toaster. Everything in there is dirty too and people do not like to clean. Everyone buys their own food so the fridge is crowded and their own toilet paper. I had planned on cooking at the flat a lot to save money from eating out all the time, but it doesn't look like I will be able to do much of that. Anyone have suggestions of what I can cook on the stove besides pasta and rice? The one good thing is that I have a place to unpack my stuff.
I have 5 other flatmates, 3 guys and 2 girls. 3 of them are French, including my roommate, and they don't speak much English at all. The other guy is Italian (also doesn't speak a lot of English) and the last girl is from Amsterdam and speaks the best English. Some of them are there studying and some are working or trying to find jobs.
After I got settled in Saturday I went over to Ally's flat (the other U.S. intern I work with) since she and her flatmates were having people over. She lives with 2 other friends from her college and their place is SOOOOO much nicer and they pay the same rent as me, they really got lucky. Didn't do too much Sunday, got groceries and other things I needed around the flat.
Work is still going well and I think I will be doing more soon including leading a session or two. Also, I'm going to Ireland this weekend! Ally and her 2 flatmates have fall break beginning this weekend so they're going to Ireland this weekend and other countries next week. Since I wanted to go to Ireland while I'm here they said I could come along, and now I have people to go there with. We're flying to Dublin on Thursday night and I will fly back here Monday. We also plan on going to Galway for a day. I'm really excited!
17 Oct.
Hi family!
If I haven't already talked to you a bit, I had a great time in Ireland. We got in late Thursday night and walked around Dublin for a bit. We went to a pub for a little bit and stayed in a hostel in Dublin. On our first full day there we started off by moving hostels. For the rest of the weekend we stayed in a coastal town that was about a 15 min train ride outside of Dublin. It was called Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Lawry) and it was really nice there. We took a bus there the first time, which took a lot longer, but stuck with the train the rest of the time. We walked around Dublin some more that day and tried to find Trinity College. We saw parts of it, but did not get to go to the library. We also saw the Dublin Castle and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was really pretty and we stayed for the Evensong (a choir sung evening mass), which was really good too. After that we went to a restaurant/bar for some Irish stew. It was really filling and delicious! We ordered 3 between the 5 of us and barely finished. There was about a half a roast in each! We heard some live traditional Irish music in the pub after we ate and went to another bar to hear some more. On Saturday we went to Galway for the afternoon. We had hoped to stay the whole day, but it took almost 3 hours by train and then we had to leave by 6:00 to catch the last trian back to Dublin. We had a good time though. We met up with Mom's friend Ryan who went to Iowa and is doing his master's in Galway and he showed us around the main streets. We also walked around by the water and took lots of pictures. It was really beautiful and it really is as green as people always say it is! On Sunday we visited the Guinness factory and took a tour to see how the beer is made. It was fun and at the end we got a free pint of Guinness. I had never really had it before and wasn't sure I'd like it, but I did. We met an interesting group of people at the hostel where we stayed too, I will have to tell you about them some other time. The other girls left early Monday morning to fly to Madrid and I flew back to London a little later.
I got moved into my new flat last night! I had not expected it to happen so soon, but I like it so much better. There is a little less space in the room and bathroom, but there's a table with chairs in the living area, a microwave, an oven that works, a kettle for making tea or coffee, and my flatmates are much friendlier. I share my room with an Italian girl named Luana, but she is moving out a week from Saturday. Another Italian guy, Tomaso, has his own bedroom and a Spanish woman, Jema, has her own room and shares our kitchen. Most of them are there to study and learn English and they were excited to have an American living there when I moved in. There is a French girl who lives downstairs too. She works for London Solutions and showed me the flat. It's in a house that has been converted into flats (the other place I was in was more like an apartment building) and it's really cute.
21 Oct
I spent the majority of my weekend outside of London. On Friday night the Spanish guy in the flat downstairs cooked a Spanish meal since it was his last night, for his flatmates and me and one of my flatmates joined them. It was really good and I enjoyed spending some time with my new flatmates and neighbors. Half of them speak French and half speak Italian (or both in some cases) and they all speak some English. It's great how multi-cultural it is living here.
On Saturday I went on the BUNAC trip to Bath and Stonehenge. We were supposed to go to Stonehenge first, but the bus driver took us to Bath first. It was beautiful! I toured the Roman baths, which was pretty cool and walked around a lot and saw a lot of old architecture like the Royal Crescent (look it up if you want). I also went to the Assembly Rooms where rich people used to go in the 18th century to have tea, play cards, and have balls. I saw the Jane Austen museum too, but didn't have time to tour it. After Bath, we went to Stonehenge, but got there just as it was closing! They thought it closed later and we would be able to get in, but we couldn't. We just had to look at it from outside the fence. At least I got to see it, but it would have been better to get a bit closer and walk around it and see how big the stones really are. They're giving us a refund for it though.
On Sunday my roommate, the two girls from downstairs, two more friends, and I took a bus to Cambridge. That was a really pretty town as well. We spent the afternoon there walking around and we saw some of the colleges. It was a pretty nice day, but a little windy. There's a small river that goes around a lot of the colleges and tons of people were out there on boats. I really wanted to go on a boat ride, but it was a bit more than we wanted to spend.
I think that's about it for the weekend. I plan on staying in London this weekend since I haven't been here for the past couple of weekends and I still have so much to see before I leave.
19 Sept.
Hi family,I'm at my hotel in London right now using the computer for £3 for an hour so I thought I would send you an email. It was great talking to all of you who I talked to today! I just slept most of the day after I got here and then called (some friends of my mom's friend) Dan and he and his dad, Mark, took me out for dinner so it was a good night and I wasn't too lonely. I am meeting Dan again tomorrow so he can show me around a bit and I can hopefully start getting familiar with this huge city. I am starting to learn my way around on the bus and tube so I won't have to take £60 taxis anymore :). Well, I think that is about all for now. I will try to check my email as often as I can and I'll talk to you later! I love you all!
21 Sept.
Hi again everyone,
Thanks for all the emails and updates from back home, and thanks for the pictures Angela! I checked out of my hotel this morning and I'm at the hostel now, but can't get to my room until 2:00pm so I thought I'd get on the computer. The hostel seems pretty nice, I haven't seen the rooms yet, and there are lots of people close in age, but I wish I didn't have to stay here so long. I'm ready to move into my apartment and get settled. I'm feeling a bit lonely today and missing home. I'm just ready to get started with the internship.
22 Sept.
My meeting with Rachelle (the London internship coordinator) went well this morning and the interview was fine too. The job sounds pretty interesting and I will get to work with and shadow everyone who works there. My meeting didn't last very long this morning and I will start tomorrow morning at 10:00am. It's really close to the hostel I'm staying at so that's good for now, but it will probably be further once I get my permanent housing. I went on a bus tour this afternoon and saw a lot of the sights I saw a few days ago, but it was still good. I could get off at various stops and did a couple of times to eat and get coffee. It started raining a bit this afternoon while I was on the tour though, and got a bit colder today.
23 Sept.
As you know I had my first day at my internship today. It was all very interesting. A group of new clients started today so I got to meet all of them. They started with doing introductions and ice breaker activites. They went over administrative procedures, took a tour and talked about safety, and did an online questionnaire in the afternoon. I also got to sit in on a session where they started working on a poster about coping with a brain injury. The people there are all really nice too. My supervisor took me to lunch and to a pub for a beer after work. He is also going to get me in touch with the other intern from the US so I can meet her and her friends and have more people to hang out with. He is also trying to get me to see a lot of places around here and in England. Dad, my job is at Rehab UK and is in Southwark near the London Bridge tube station. It is on St. Thomas Street and near Guy's hospital.
I do not yet know where I'm going to be living come October 4 and probably won't find out until Oct 1. I really wish I could get in there sooner as I am not really enjoying the hostel. A couple of my roommates are in bed before 9pm and were still asleep when I left for work this morning a little before 10am. It is also very difficult living out of my suitcase and I have had to open the big suitcase. I've also had to get out my coat as it got pretty cold today. I would kind of rather go back to the hotel, but it's also nice being so close to my job and at least around other people. Only 11 more nights here and then I get into my apartment.
27 Sept.
The move (out of my hostel room) went fine and I moved out again this morning and I think I move again tomorrow and Monday...It will really make me appreciate it when I finally get to move into my flat. The one good thing was I had a room to myself last night and it had a TV in it, but it only got 3 channels. I'm back in a 4 person room tonight and then back to a 2 person room.
I don't really have plans for the weekend. Last night we had a drama and storytelling workshop for work over at the Tate Modern and then a lot of us went to a pub. Today I'm thinking about going to the British Museum and might do something with the other intern from the US that I finally met yesterday. She is here with her school doing study abroad so she knows lots of other people here.
29 Sept.
I just finished up day at work and thought I would send an email from here. I sat in on sessions all day again today and I'm really enjoying it. We had some stress management sessions this morning, another about brain injury awareness, and then the clients started vocational profiling (figuring out what type of job/voluntary work they want to do). I've been listening to sessions and talking with the clients and helping them out with what we are doing.
If I haven't talked to you lately, I went on a London Walk on Saturday at the British Museum. It was just a highlights tour so I spent some more time there afterwards, but will have to go back again to see everything, as it is so big. I also tried fish and chips and it was not so bad! On Sunday I went to lunch with Mark and Dan again over near where they live. I got to see their house too. It was a really nice house and built in the 1880s. We ate at an Egyptian themed restaurant and had an English Sunday lunch, roast beef, yorkshire pudding, potatoes, and green beans. It was very good.
Haven't been up to too much else, just moving hostel rooms a lot. I'm finally in a room for 4 nights now and won't have to move again until Thursday and that will be my last time until I move out!! I'm in a 2 person room right now and had the room to myself last night. Wouldn't mind if I had a roommate, but it's a much smaller room with barely enough room for my 2 suitcases. I will hopefully find out Wed. where I will be living and I will let you all know as soon as I find out.
6 Oct.
Hi family!
I'm just finishing up another day at work and thought I would send an email before I leave, especially now that I don't have the same access to email as I did in the hostel. I hope you all had great weekends, except for the Iowa loss of course :(. My weekend was frustrating getting moved into my flat. I had to go to London Solutions (the rental place) to pick up my keys and pay my deposit. The deposit was £200, but the ATMs would not let me take out that much so I had to go cash my travellers checks at a bureau de change (the one bank that was open wouldn't do it) and got £124.24 for $250! After I got my keys I had to take both my suitcases on the tube to get them to my flat since I couldn't get out any money for a cab. That was a mess and then getting into my flat was a bit of a shock. It is a hallway with 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet, and a room with a shower and sink coming off of it. There is no living room and the kitchen is the only common area. The place is not very clean, freezing, and people smoke in there. The kitchen only has a fridge and a stove. The oven I guess is broken and there is no microwave or toaster. Everything in there is dirty too and people do not like to clean. Everyone buys their own food so the fridge is crowded and their own toilet paper. I had planned on cooking at the flat a lot to save money from eating out all the time, but it doesn't look like I will be able to do much of that. Anyone have suggestions of what I can cook on the stove besides pasta and rice? The one good thing is that I have a place to unpack my stuff.
I have 5 other flatmates, 3 guys and 2 girls. 3 of them are French, including my roommate, and they don't speak much English at all. The other guy is Italian (also doesn't speak a lot of English) and the last girl is from Amsterdam and speaks the best English. Some of them are there studying and some are working or trying to find jobs.
After I got settled in Saturday I went over to Ally's flat (the other U.S. intern I work with) since she and her flatmates were having people over. She lives with 2 other friends from her college and their place is SOOOOO much nicer and they pay the same rent as me, they really got lucky. Didn't do too much Sunday, got groceries and other things I needed around the flat.
Work is still going well and I think I will be doing more soon including leading a session or two. Also, I'm going to Ireland this weekend! Ally and her 2 flatmates have fall break beginning this weekend so they're going to Ireland this weekend and other countries next week. Since I wanted to go to Ireland while I'm here they said I could come along, and now I have people to go there with. We're flying to Dublin on Thursday night and I will fly back here Monday. We also plan on going to Galway for a day. I'm really excited!
17 Oct.
Hi family!
If I haven't already talked to you a bit, I had a great time in Ireland. We got in late Thursday night and walked around Dublin for a bit. We went to a pub for a little bit and stayed in a hostel in Dublin. On our first full day there we started off by moving hostels. For the rest of the weekend we stayed in a coastal town that was about a 15 min train ride outside of Dublin. It was called Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Lawry) and it was really nice there. We took a bus there the first time, which took a lot longer, but stuck with the train the rest of the time. We walked around Dublin some more that day and tried to find Trinity College. We saw parts of it, but did not get to go to the library. We also saw the Dublin Castle and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was really pretty and we stayed for the Evensong (a choir sung evening mass), which was really good too. After that we went to a restaurant/bar for some Irish stew. It was really filling and delicious! We ordered 3 between the 5 of us and barely finished. There was about a half a roast in each! We heard some live traditional Irish music in the pub after we ate and went to another bar to hear some more. On Saturday we went to Galway for the afternoon. We had hoped to stay the whole day, but it took almost 3 hours by train and then we had to leave by 6:00 to catch the last trian back to Dublin. We had a good time though. We met up with Mom's friend Ryan who went to Iowa and is doing his master's in Galway and he showed us around the main streets. We also walked around by the water and took lots of pictures. It was really beautiful and it really is as green as people always say it is! On Sunday we visited the Guinness factory and took a tour to see how the beer is made. It was fun and at the end we got a free pint of Guinness. I had never really had it before and wasn't sure I'd like it, but I did. We met an interesting group of people at the hostel where we stayed too, I will have to tell you about them some other time. The other girls left early Monday morning to fly to Madrid and I flew back to London a little later.
I got moved into my new flat last night! I had not expected it to happen so soon, but I like it so much better. There is a little less space in the room and bathroom, but there's a table with chairs in the living area, a microwave, an oven that works, a kettle for making tea or coffee, and my flatmates are much friendlier. I share my room with an Italian girl named Luana, but she is moving out a week from Saturday. Another Italian guy, Tomaso, has his own bedroom and a Spanish woman, Jema, has her own room and shares our kitchen. Most of them are there to study and learn English and they were excited to have an American living there when I moved in. There is a French girl who lives downstairs too. She works for London Solutions and showed me the flat. It's in a house that has been converted into flats (the other place I was in was more like an apartment building) and it's really cute.
21 Oct
I spent the majority of my weekend outside of London. On Friday night the Spanish guy in the flat downstairs cooked a Spanish meal since it was his last night, for his flatmates and me and one of my flatmates joined them. It was really good and I enjoyed spending some time with my new flatmates and neighbors. Half of them speak French and half speak Italian (or both in some cases) and they all speak some English. It's great how multi-cultural it is living here.
On Saturday I went on the BUNAC trip to Bath and Stonehenge. We were supposed to go to Stonehenge first, but the bus driver took us to Bath first. It was beautiful! I toured the Roman baths, which was pretty cool and walked around a lot and saw a lot of old architecture like the Royal Crescent (look it up if you want). I also went to the Assembly Rooms where rich people used to go in the 18th century to have tea, play cards, and have balls. I saw the Jane Austen museum too, but didn't have time to tour it. After Bath, we went to Stonehenge, but got there just as it was closing! They thought it closed later and we would be able to get in, but we couldn't. We just had to look at it from outside the fence. At least I got to see it, but it would have been better to get a bit closer and walk around it and see how big the stones really are. They're giving us a refund for it though.
On Sunday my roommate, the two girls from downstairs, two more friends, and I took a bus to Cambridge. That was a really pretty town as well. We spent the afternoon there walking around and we saw some of the colleges. It was a pretty nice day, but a little windy. There's a small river that goes around a lot of the colleges and tons of people were out there on boats. I really wanted to go on a boat ride, but it was a bit more than we wanted to spend.
I think that's about it for the weekend. I plan on staying in London this weekend since I haven't been here for the past couple of weekends and I still have so much to see before I leave.
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
London Life
I can't believe I've been in London now for a month. It seems like I've been here a lot longer and the time is beginning to go quicker now. I'm on my fifth week of my internship and I'm really enjoying it. I've seen a lot of London and am starting to get the hang of things around here. I was really excited, but also nervous to come here since I was coming completely on my own. I have started to meet people from contacts of friends, work, the hostel I stayed in, and just doing things around London.
Things have been a little crazy with my living situation. For about the first two weeks I was here I stayed in a hostel. Then I moved into a flat that I did not like at all! It was just a hallway with 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet room, and a shower/sink room. The only kitchen appliance we had was a stove and the flat was always dirty. I was sharing it with 5 other people from around Europe and I was the only one from the United States. I shared a room with a French girl and she didn't speak much English at all, we communicated in Franglais. She did't like the flat either. I was looking for a new place to live and just last Wednesday I found one and moved in. It is so much nicer and cleaner and in a better area. I only have 2 flatmates and another girl who shares our kitchen. I share a room with an Italian girl, but she is moving out this weekend. There is another Italian guy who has his own room. I have been getting to know these flatmates and our neighbors and like them a lot better than the last people I lived with. They were all very excited when I moved in to have an American living there too and they want to practice English with me.
I'm really enjoying my time in London as well as my internship. I have seen many sights like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. I've also been to the Tate Modern Museum, The British Museum, and saw a play at the Globe Theatre. A couple of weekends ago I went to Ireland with another intern I work with from the U.S. and a few of her friends from school. We went to Dublin and Galway and it was amazing! It was so pretty there and I would love to go back someday. Last weekend I visited Bath and saw the Roman Baths. I also saw Stonehenge and went to Cambridge University with one of my flatmates and her friends. I plan on staying in London this weekend since I still have so much to see here and only 4 more weekends to see everything in.
Things have been a little crazy with my living situation. For about the first two weeks I was here I stayed in a hostel. Then I moved into a flat that I did not like at all! It was just a hallway with 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet room, and a shower/sink room. The only kitchen appliance we had was a stove and the flat was always dirty. I was sharing it with 5 other people from around Europe and I was the only one from the United States. I shared a room with a French girl and she didn't speak much English at all, we communicated in Franglais. She did't like the flat either. I was looking for a new place to live and just last Wednesday I found one and moved in. It is so much nicer and cleaner and in a better area. I only have 2 flatmates and another girl who shares our kitchen. I share a room with an Italian girl, but she is moving out this weekend. There is another Italian guy who has his own room. I have been getting to know these flatmates and our neighbors and like them a lot better than the last people I lived with. They were all very excited when I moved in to have an American living there too and they want to practice English with me.
I'm really enjoying my time in London as well as my internship. I have seen many sights like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. I've also been to the Tate Modern Museum, The British Museum, and saw a play at the Globe Theatre. A couple of weekends ago I went to Ireland with another intern I work with from the U.S. and a few of her friends from school. We went to Dublin and Galway and it was amazing! It was so pretty there and I would love to go back someday. Last weekend I visited Bath and saw the Roman Baths. I also saw Stonehenge and went to Cambridge University with one of my flatmates and her friends. I plan on staying in London this weekend since I still have so much to see here and only 4 more weekends to see everything in.
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