My mom and sister

My mom and sister flew in on Thursday night and the next day we went to see the changing of the guard, which was really cool. Then we went to Madame Tussaud's, the wax museum, and walked around the different areas for a while, where we got to see people like Justin Timberlake, Orlando Bloom, Zac Efron, the royal family, and met some of the greatest political masterminds and leaders of all time. They also had a room which had figures of some of the murderers/forms of execution from London and had a haunted house sort of thing. The museum also had a ride that talked about the history of London.
Yesterday we went on the London Eye and the view from the top was really cool. It was so beautiful. On our way to the Eye we saw people protesting the G20 summit. It was interesting to see the massive amount of people protesting as well the amount of things people were concerned about. We also went to one of the markets (the one where George Orwell's house is located) and walked around there. It was raining on and off all day, and there were a few occasions where it hailed as well, so our trip to the market wasn't the greatest.
Today we went to go see the Cambridge/Oxford boat races which I thought was a pretty neat experience. We were at the beginning of the race and we couldn't see the screen that showed us the rest of the race the greatest, but it was cool to at least say that we've seen it. Then we went on a scenic boat ride down the Thames, where we saw a lot of London. It took us down past Greenwich which was really cool to see from the water. The ride was very peaceful and a great way to end the day. So far I've been having fun with my family and I hope they've had fun while they've been here. I'll be sad to see them go on Tuesday.

Sorry I'm not very good at updating...

I'm writing this update on the past week as I wait for my mom and sister to arrive in London. On Monday the 16th, my theatre got to tour the globe theatre then we got a workshop from one of the people who works at the globe. It was really cool and I learned a lot about Shakespeare that I didn't know before.

My week was uneventful after that until friday the 20th when we took a class trip to Brighton. Brighton is a city on the English channel and is about 2 hours by train. When we got there we got to tour the Royal Pavillion. This is an old castle. It was really cool and everything in it was elaborate. The time period in which the castle was built, used a lot of oriental design, so that was cool to see. My favorite room in the whole castle was the dining room. This may sound strange to some of you, but the chandlier was elaborate with a dragon holding it up. Everything else in the room was

elaborate as well, but the dragon chandlier was the coolest

part of the whole palace. I want one in my house some day. Just kidding, but it was still really cool. The bedrooms had a lot of trap doors which was cool. We got to walk around with one of those audio guide things where you type in the number and can hear more than you ever wanted to know about anything, which I found really interesting. I think I listened to every one of the audio pieces including the extras. Then we headed down to the pier. At the end of the pier there was amusement park type rides, so a bunch of us went on them. After that we just hung out on the beach for a little bit, but it wasn't a warm day so the water was cold and sitting in one place for a long time made you cold. We didn't stay on the beach for very long because of this.

Me and Lauren on the Tumbler at Brighton Pier

The next day my friend Severa and I took a bus to Cambridge where we hung out for a few hours. Neither of us had realized that Cambridge had so many colleges associated with it (there's about 20) and had always thought it was college. We walked around some of the campuses greens which were beautiful. We happened to be there while a graduation for students in the masters programs. It was really cool to see people walking around in these long capes, it felt like something out of Harry Potter. Then we ended our trip to Cambridge by going on a punting tour of the colleges. Punting, works a lot like a gondola, where you have someone in the back pushing the boat. At first it was a little scary because boats kept bumping into each other, and we're so close to the water that I felt like we were going to fall over. It was really relaxing and a peaceful and great way to end a good day.

This is what a punting boat looks like.

On monday my theatre class went to a show called Entertaining Mr. Sloane. The main female character, Imeda Staunton, played Professor Umbridge in the last Harry Potter movie, and the cool thing is she's coming to talk to our class next Monday. I think that's pretty cool.

On Tuesday our program took us greyhound racing, which was really cool. I lost some money betting but I won the last race, and made two pounds, so I cut my losses by two pounds.

Yesterday I went to the Parliament building and watched the House of Commons debate about Iraq which was really cool and probably the highlight of my trip so far. I also attended a Foreign Affairs committee meeting about Afghanistan. That was cool, but they don't debate bills in committees when the meetings are open to the public, so it was only a discuss which got a little boring after a while.

That's been an update on my adventures of the past week. Hopefully you're all having a great week and I'll update you on my time with my family when I get a chance.

Amsterdam

This past weekend I went to Amsterdam with a bunch of people. It was cool, but the group of people I chose to go with only wanted get high the whole time we were there. One of the boys was celebrating his birthday last friday so we went to the Anne Frank House and everyone else went to get high and then we went to the Heineken Brewery. It was sort of cool, but I got left behind by the group several times because I wanted to learn about things and they just wanted to find the free beer that we got on the tour. In the room where the boil the ingredients together all the machines were gold and shiny and I felt like I had walking into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. I was half expecting Oompa Loompa's to come running around the corner. Then I spent the rest of the night "coffee shop" hopping. Coffee shops in Amsterdam are the places where you buy drugs and space cake. Trust me, I didn't buy or try any, it wasn't my cup of tea. Even though one of the girls here has proceeded to tell everyone that I got high with them and I've tried to tell people it's not true and they don't really seem to believe me. Then I went back to the hostel and sat in our room reading my book while everyone else went to a strip club in the Red Light District. Again, that's a little disgusting and not really something I was willing to pay 25 Euros to go see. The next day, I was up and ready to go sightseeing at around 8 am, the rest of the group who was hung over, didn't even roll out of bed until noon, meaning that we wouldn't even be ready to go anywhere until 2 pm ish. This means that we just spent the day walking around shopping and "coffee shop" hopping and finding a grocery store where we could buy alcohol for cheap. Again, didn't participate in that since we had an early flight to catch the next morning. The hostel that we stayed at, we had booked an 8 person room, well apparently this means throwing an extra matress on the floor of the room in order to make it 8 person. I didn't really care where I slept so everyone else called the beds and made fun of me for having to sleep on the floor. Honestly, I don't have a problem with sleeping on the floor until step on my bed with dirty shoes or wake up in the middle of the night hung over/high and decided the fastest way to the bathroom is by stepping on the bed, which at this point contains me. I also was not happy with the fact that the other girl who went on the trip claimed one of the beds and didn't even sleep there any of the nights. She's been fooling around with one of the boys here (he broke up with his girlfriend of four years for her) and slept in his bed every night. Personally, if you know that you're not gonna be sleeping there, why claim the bed and let someone else have to sleep on the floor. I thought this was a little inconsiderate. In end, I don't think I plan on going anywhere with this group again because I'm only here once and want to see as much as I can while I'm here.

Refugee Awareness Training

Today, I went to a training for the British Red Cross called Refugee Awareness Training. Before I got there, I had to create an IAP (Individual Action Plan). It felt weird to create an IAP for myself, I mean, I've created IAP's for some of my clients at ABC in the past, but never for myself. I thought it was going to be 6 hours of boredom and dreaded going, but I really enjoyed the training. It was interesting to learn about the difference between Refugees and Asylum Seekers as well as legislation that benefits refugees and asylum seekers that has been passed in the UK. It was interesting to learn about how the Red Cross actually helps refugees and what kind of services they provide. For lunch I recieved a voucher to eat in the cafeteria, which had really good food. I tried a potato gnocci and I throughly enjoyed it. I meet a lot of really cool people from all over the UK who work for the Red Cross. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would enjoy it and found it interesting to learn about refugees and asylum seekers. Pop quiz: What group of people are most likely to be overstayers (staying past their visa's experation date)?
The answer: College Students. Anyways, I thought that was an interesting fact that you would enjoy.

Canterbury

On Friday we went to Canterbury. It was one of the required trips and I wasn't sure if I would enjoy spending five hours in Canterbury since I felt like there wouldn't be a whole lot to do. We got there and got to tour the Canterbury Cathedral which was really cool. It was huge and very pretty on the inside. I got really photo happy during the tour and took almost 60 pictures of the Cathedral itself.

Some of my friends and I decided to visit this Canterbury Tales museum. It was a lot cooler than I thought it would be. It was cool because you had a little thing that you put up to your ear and then a narrator comes in and tells the story. Then you move to the next room when the narrator tells you to and hear a different story from different characters as they travel on their way to Canterbury. The stories were funny and entertaining and we all enjoyed it. On our way out they had two of the character models and a bunch of dress up medieval style clothes, so we decided to dress up and get our pictures taken with the characters. It was a lot of fun. After we left the museum we decided to get something to eat so we settled upon "hotdogs" from a street vendor. The hotdogs were more like brats, but it was still tasty. The guy selling the hotdogs to us was interesting. He was really funny to talk to and I had a good time in Canterbury.

Football Match and National Archives

So the football match yesterday was awesome. We sat on the netural side though so it was harder to get into the game because the crowd wasn't as rowdy. The underdog won the game which was really interesting. Today I went to the National Archives just to see what it was like. It was huge and I found it really interesting. Everything is going good her. Anna's cousin is visiting this weekend so we have all our extra floor space taken up by a huge mattress.

My Week

This past weekend I stayed in because the doctor had told me that I couldn't drink if I wanted the pills to work. I think it was better that I stayed in anyways because we had a paper due for our theatre class on Monday which I finished on Friday night. Most people in the class ended up writing it late Sunday night. A bunch of people were also in Rome for the weekend so it was quiet on our floor as well. On Monday I took the last of my pills and even though I still have a disgusting cough sometimes, I feel much better. On Monday I also went to see a show called England People Very Nice that dealt with racism and immigration. It was an interesting play and has received a lot of critism because some view it as racist or discriminatory. I thought it okay, and I didn't get a lot of the jokes that they made because I didn't know the history of immigration here in London. I thought that it showed how many different ethnic groups all went through the same thing and how each time other ethnic groups were just as racist towards the incoming group as the people before them.
Yesterday and today I went to work and was able to make it through the whole day without getting sent home or to the doctors office! I'm about ready to start calling and visiting some of the places on my list of organizations. For those of you that don't know I'm researching organizations that have a support group for refugees/asylum seekers or women and then talking to them about how their support groups are run. This is because the Red Cross is hoping to modify, scrap or start a new women's support group. After I've visited a few places and called several others, I then compile the data into a report and if everything goes as planned towards the end of April I present my findings and my recommendation to the board of directors or whatever they are at the Red Cross headquarters.
Tonight I am going to a football (soccer) match with the group. It was an optional activity but since I'm too cheap to fork over an arm and a leg to see a Manchester United game, I figured 10 pounds to go see a premiership league game isn't too bad and might be the only chance I get to see a game while I'm here. (the premiership league is the league that Manchester plays in, it's the top league in the country. Usually Central doesn't go to a Premiership league game because it's too expensive and instead to go a lower level league game, but we were somehow able to get discount tickets to the game). I'm really excited to see the game. Hopefully it will be a good one.