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Good night and Good Luck

Wow. Really, what else can I say? I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm going home in two days. This is the last time I will ever sit at this desk. The last 2 hours I will be in room B.2.07 in the National Assembly of Wales. The last time I will write a blog when I'm supposed to be doing something related to Alun Davies.

It has been an unbelievable journey. I could not be more thankful for my experiences here. Really - it's harder to leave here than it was to leave home.

My desk is clean. My hard drive is cleared off. I've printed things for my portfolio. I've left notes of explanation for tasks left unfinished. I've done all I can here. And now it's time to move on, back to my homeland, to build the rest of my life.

Looking back, I feel foolish to admit that I was so homesick. I feel foolish for crying on the phone to my mom because I wanted to come back to Ohio so badly. I feel silly for saying that I wanted to leave here. It's really starting to hit me now.

I've been having my pre-flight anxiety for the past day or so - worrying about the possibilities of troubles while travelling. I will say it again, SOMEONE needs to develop a teleporting mechanism. But, until that happens, I'm stuck travelling for 20 hours to get back to my wonderful home in Crestline, Ohio.

I feel like I should make a list of things I'm going to miss here. But I honestly cannot pick out specific things. I was asked what I'd miss the most last night, and my response when something like this:
"Everything."

I'm nervous to arrive back home. It's been three months since I've been on American soil and I'm scared to see how much it's changed since I've left. I've been living a fabulous life over here, not really worrying about much of anything, except for minor things involving job searching, paper writing and money spending. I'm afraid to go back to real life.



I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading this blog. It has been a pleasure to share my life with you over the past few months and I'm so thankful for your readership. I would also like to thank all of the wonderful people that I've met here that have been such incredible friends and makeshift family members for the past few months. You have no idea how much I will miss you.

If you'd like to keep track of me and my thoughts, please visit my personal blog, which I will pick up again upon my return to the States. You can view it at http://kadimcd.blogspot.com/. I will be writing an online column for The Post during the winter, and you can view that at www.thepost.ohiou.edu.

I look forward to your further readership on both of these sites and wish you all luck in your endeavors. Thank you for being a part of mine.

As Mr. Edward R. Murrow signed off, I will do the same. Good night...and Good luck.

Kiss me, I'm Irish

Last weekend, after planning a few weeks in advance, I took a train over to Bristol to catch a short plane ride to Dublin, Ireland.

I spent the entire day Saturday cleaning the apartment and napping in preparation for my evening of travel. I left the apartment around 4:30pm to get down to the train station in time to get a cup of tea and relax a bit before getting on the train. I had completely forgotten that the Australian Rugby team was in town for the day, as well as about 50,000 fans. The train station was overflowing with drunken idiots chanting "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaales Waaaaaaaaaaaaales Waaaaaaaaaaales" and "Oggi Oggi Oggi! Oy Oy Oy!" as they stumbled to the queues marked with their destinations.

I looked for one marked for Bristol and quickly took my place behind a group of blabbering idiots. Some young gentlemen took their place in the queue right behind me and, after I realized they were wearing Australia scarves, I started chatting them up. They were both originally from Sydney and were now living in Bristol and were quite upset with the Australian loss, although it had been a very close game. They asked about my trip and told me they thought the train was going to Parkway instead of Temple Meads, which was a severe inconvenience for me considering I had to catch a bus from Temple Meads to get to the airport. I panicked and then was reassured once I boarded the train that I was headed for Temple Meads.

My train got in just after 6 and I quickly exited the train in hopes that I wouldn't have to stand in the absolute freezing cold for more than 5 minutes. Much to my joy, the airport link bus pulled up just a few minutes after I sat my bags down at the stop. I boarded the bus and nestled in to the cozy little seat. The bus driver weaved through the narrow streets of Bristol and after a half hour's worth of twists, turns and tiny pubs passing by, we reached the airport.

My flight was due to leave just after 9pm and I grabbed a chair in a deserted part of the terminal to listen to music and work on my research for my paper. After about an hour or so, I walked over to check the status on my flight, which, just my luck, had been delayed for about an hour. I waited with the rest of the passengers as the uncertainty kept growing and finally we were able to board the plane. The fog that had rolled in was so thick you could barely see the end of the wing, and naturally, I was terrified that we'd be flying in this condition.

Much to my surprise, the take off and the flight went rather smoothly and the landing only jolted my adrenaline when we broke through the fog just a couple hundred feet above the ground. We landed and I rushed through the terminal to catch my bus into the center of Dublin. I arrived at my hostel around midnight and checked in. The lobby was bright and filled with chatty guests, some of which were boozing around a small bar. I got the key for my room and headed up to get ready for bed. I walked in to meet a woman from Spain, who was sifting through her suitcase. She immediately extended her hand to shake mine and introduced herself as Eva. We talked about where we were from, how long we were in Dublin and what we planned to do before both of us started yawning and decided to call it a night.

I climbed into my small bottom bunk and nestled down under the comforter with a shoddy red duvet to cover it. I immediately got the creepy crawlies, which I typically get the first time I sleep in a hotel bed. I grabbed my iPod and flicked on some Norah Jones to relax me. It wasn't long (around 2 am) when two girls burst through the door of the room and began rummaging through their belongings, clearly a bit intoxicated. I woke up and offered them the flashlight on my phone to sift through their bags, mostly because I wanted them to shut up. About an hour and a half later, a couple came through the door, obviously just arriving on a bus. The guy made a ton of noise as he selected his bunk and violently dropped his bags and climbed up the ladder. The girl used the toilet and left the light on as she shook my bed to climb the ladder to the top bunk. I finally settled back in after it appeared the two were done making noise and all the beds in the room were filled. Much to my horror, loud guy began snoring. And not like, a cute little snore, a snore that literally echoed off the walls. I covered my head with my thin pillow and cranked Norah up a bit. Somehow, I fell asleep around 5:30am. Great. 3 hours of sleep.

I woke up at 8:30, washed my face, brushed my teeth, got dressed and headed down to the kitchen for the continental breakfast the website reviews had boasted so much about. There was one kind of cereal (Corn Flakes) and a couple loaves of bread with a toaster. I made some tea using one of the smallest tea bags I have ever seen and chatted with two Australian women, a German woman and a man from Denmark who told of his travels in Afghanistan. I left the group and caught a bus back out to the airport to pick up my DublinPass so I could gain entrance to all the attractions.

I looked at my GuideBook, and since it was Sunday, realized that I'd have to do a little walking around before I could go where I wanted. Normally, this would have bothered me, but the weather was so beautiful and the skies so clear that I didn't mind walking around the city for a couple hours.




This picture is taken just across the street from my hostel. It is the view of the O'Connell Street Bridge, one of the main bridges in Dublin.


Next, I walked past Temple College to find a small park surrounded by iron fences. I walked around and enjoyed the trees and bright green grass.

I kept walking and then noticed that it was just about 12:30 - the time they can start serving alcohol on Sundays. I grabbed my GuideBook and checked my route to the Guinness Factory. I began the trek across the small city to the one place where I wouldn't mind being a factory worker - the Guinness Factory.



On the way, I saw a really beautiful church with a gorgeous little courtyard in front of it. Much to my surprise, there was an old sign above the door that had my last name on it. I was pretty excited about it.



I finally made it to the Guinness Factory and learned much about the construction of the world-famous beer. I could smell the barley and the hops almost a mile away from the brewery and picked up my pace as I imagined myself enjoying that complimentary pint on the top floor in Gravity Bar, a bar 7 stories up with a view that overlooks the entire city of Dublin. Lukily, it was GORGEOUS outside, so I could see for miles - even out to the mountains.

My next stop was the Jameson Distillery. Since most of the other attractions closed early on Sunday, I decided to make it my drinking day. I arrived at the Old Jameson Distillery being a little terrified of the complimentary whiskey I'd receive at the end of the tour - I'm not much for whiskey and I was nervous that I'd throw up or something in front of a bunch of people.



When we began the tour, our guide asked for 4 women and 4 men to be 'official whiskey taste testers' at the end of the tour. Being a good OU girl, I quickly raised my hand and was selected to sample a type of Scotch, some Jack Daniels, and of course, Jameson.

We took the tour and I learned a lot about the distilling process of Jameson and also the aging process of whiskeys. It was really interesting. When we arrived to the bar, there were 8 chairs set up at a table with three shots on a placemat in front of them. We all grabbed our chairs - I sat next to an American boy, Ariel, originally from Texas, who was visiting Dublin for the weekend from Holland, where he'd been studying for his law degree for a few months. We finished the whiskey testing (I ended up mixing my Jameson with some Coke) and our tour guide presented us with 'diplomas' that claimed we are official whiskey taste testers.

Ariel was staying at a hostel near mine and said he'd walk back with me since we were in a sketchy area of Dublin. We decided to stop off at "Ireland's Oldest Pub, The Brazen Head, established in 1198" and have a Guinness and some dinner. I had quite possibly the LARGEST serving of fish and chips I have ever had in my life.

He walked me back to my hostel and we decided to meet up at The Porter House, a microbrewery in Temple Bar, for a few beers later. Much to our surprise, they were showing American football and the two of us, so relieved to see it, knocked back a few pints of the microbrewery's specialties and enjoyed wonderful conversation.

I headed back to the hostel around midnight and went right to sleep. I woke only a few times during the night and got up around 9:30 the next morning. I set off for the Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison on the outskirts of Dublin, and took a lovely and informative tour.



The prison was so fabulous. Such an interesting place to visit and see the architecture and history stemming from a long time of Irish rebellions.



After the Gaol, I headed back into the center and went to the Dublin Castle and then through City Hall before heading to Henry Street to get some food and do some shopping. I grabbed a cup of tea at a coffeeshop inside of a bookstore and watched as Obama selected Hillary as his Secretary of State.

I caught a bus to the airport around 5:30 and waited for my plane. I made it back to Cardiff around midnight and went right to bed after such a long and exhausting weekend.

Next weekend, Jen England, a friend from school, will be arriving to London to take an Art History class through OU. I'll be going to London to get her and also see Toby one last time before leaving the country. Will update soon!!

Hope all is well!

Please vote for me!!!

Hey everyone! Please go to http://www.thedailyshuffle.com/profiles/blogs/capture-campus-life-entry-2, join the blog, and leave a comment on my photo! If I get the most comments, I get $100! Would be nice to have that when I get home!!

THANKS!!!

Thanks for the memories, United Kingdom

November 27, 2008 - the fourth Thursday of November - 3 more days left in November - less than a month left until Christmas - Oh! And it's Thanksgiving!



My, my has time flown by. I can't believe it's Thanksgiving. Yes, the time has traveled quickly, but I more or less can't believe it's Thanksgiving because I'm typing this from my desk at work.

Last night, I spent my evening peeling, coring, and slicing apples for my first attempt at a purely made-from-scratch and made from my own recipe apple crisp. I spent just over 2 1/2 hours on this dish. It has been quite an adventure for me since signing up to bring dessert to the Intern Thanksgiving celebration. Assuming I'd be able to find a can of pumpkin puree' at the local market, I volunteered to make a homemade pumpkin pie for the celebration. After searching markets in Cardiff, Swansea and even London, I was left pumpkinless.

I spoke with my mom last night, boasting my success on an absolutely incredible apple crisp. I could hear the disappointment in her voice as she uttered, 'I miss you,' and hung up the phone.

Thanksgiving is, as it is in most familes, one of the largest and most important holidays. Everyone is typically around on Thanksgiving. For the most part, cousins that are married are with our family for Thanksgiving and are with their spouse's family for Christmas. This is the holiday that we all get together, eat in the early afternoon and spend the rest of the evening in a food coma, watching movies, playing games and drawing names for the Christmas secret Santa exchange. It's the holiday where my cousin takes out the good dinnerware and we eat in the dining room instead of at the kitchen table. It's the holiday where we go to bed early that night so we can get up early to help the retail world move into the black on Black Friday.

Although I'd rather be spending this holiday with my family and friends in good old Ohio, this isn't the last place I'd want to be. The shared feeling of homesickness is present in all of us, at least for today. I'm rather excited to eat turkey...even if it wasn't prepared by a relative.

So what am I thankful for? I'm thankful for the opportunities I've been given here; the things I've seen; the places I've visited; the friendships I've made; the friendships I've maintained; the family that I have and love; and this meal I'm just a few short hours away from eating.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope your day is truly blessed!

It's amazing how much the weather changes things

This past weekend, I went back to London. After my trip prior, I vowed not to waste my time returning to London, as I was appalled by the wind and rain that ruined two pairs of shoes and left me feeling cold and dirty.

However, Marie, a friend from high school who is studying in Italy, flew out to London with some mates from her program for the weekend. Obviously, I was not going to miss out on seeing her in a foreign city and I quickly searched train timetables and started a countdown on my Facebook status.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and dashed to the Cardiff train station to make the 8:25 train that would bring me into Paddington around 10:30. I was set to meet Marie and her friends in Piccadilly Circus at 11 and caught the Bakerloo line just in time to meet them outside of the station. We grabbed some coffee since they've been deprived in Italy and headed off toward Buckingham Palace.

We walked through Green Park and saw some of the largest pelicans I have ever seen.








We eventually made it to Buckingham, and because the skies were clear and the weather was delightful, I could see Big Ben peaking up through the trees.







We walked back past the park and headed towards Westminster Abbey and Parliament to get a better, more close up shot of Big Ben. The skies were so blue and beautiful that Ben's toffee color contrasted beautifully.




The sun set while we were on the train heading for the St. John's Wood Underground stop to walk the short walk to the legendary Abbey Road crosswalk where The Beatles crossed to get to their Abbey Road recording studio. We stopped traffic to walk in Paul's bare footsteps and smiled as we imagined George, Ringo, John and Paul walking back and forth every day.



I made plans to meet up with Toby, a friend from camp, later in the evening so we made the trek back toward King's Cross to meet him for a drink. We crossed the footbridge near the London Eye to take some photos of the River Thames and the London sky in the dark.

We met up with Toby around 8:15 for drinks at a little pub in Covent Gardens. I met his girlfriend Alexa and we all giggled and chatted about the beautiful weather in London that day. I had to leave just after 9pm to catch the Tube back to Paddington to make the last train back to Cardiff at 10. Proved to be one of the best daytrips I've taken while I've been here and I'm so glad that I was able to have a good taste of London, rather than a rainy and windy one.

Sunday, Dianne and I woke up early to catch a train to Swansea for the day. We'd heard much about the beauty of the beaches there and wanted to experience them firsthand. Praying hard for bearable weather, we grabbed the slow train to Swansea and made it there just after 12. Swansea's train station was about a 15 minute walk from the city centre so we headed down to the centre to look for the bus station. We grabbed a bus to Mumbles, the birthplace of Catherine Zeta Jones and were taken aback by the beauty of the coastline.

The water was choppy and chilly and the smell of saltwater danced through the air. I smiled as I realized that this was the same ocean that touched the States. It excited me to think that this was the final angle I needed to see the Atlantic from.

The wind picked up and a dark cloud came over the top of the mountains. Dianne and I ducked into a waterfront cafe' and grabbed a tea and some cake while the short rainstorm passed over the area. We walked back outside to find a rainbow diving into the water.


We kept walking toward a pier we saw off in the distance and found a small, secluded beach set at the end of a giant cliff. The waves crashed onto the sand and water sprayed, stinging my windburnt face just a bit.


We noticed several paths heading up to the top of the cliff. We climbed to the top, unsure of what we'd see to the other side. We looked out over the ocean and looked down on another beach.




We climbed down to go look around at the beach. The view was breathtaking. I was standing in a Utopia. My own little slice of Heaven on Earth. The chilly wind blowing through my hair, the icy water splashing onto my shoes. A perfect world of blue skies, turquoise water and deafening wind. I closed my eyes and breathed deep, filling my lungs with the pure, cold air. I snapped back to reality as Dianne stumbled on some stones a few feet away.

***

The trips this weekend made me realize how much I'm going to miss it here. The beauty. The purity. The culture. The life.

Why I love being a Bobcat...

Here I am, on the home stretch. I've come to realize a few things since my last post. Yes, I really am going to miss it here. Plain and simple. I'm going to miss my friends, my job, my apartment. I'm going to miss the tea, the Welsh cakes and the quick and (basically) easy travel. But oh how much I can't wait to get back to Athens.



I spent much of my day today rekindling some of my favorite YouTube videos through the use of My Favorites on my own YouTube account. I found the video shot from a dorm on South Green during a ridiculous lightning storm my sophomore year. I can remember watching the same lightning storm with Kelsey and Rachel out the window of our Scott Quad triple and seeing the electric bolt hit just a few hundred feet from our window. We nearly peed our pants.



I came across some videos of the OZONE doing chants at basketball games. And my personal favorite, I came across one I remember happening during MillFest last year - some idiot riding a razor scooter down the road and flipping into a blow up pool.



I then decided to search videos tagged with Ohio University to kind of keep up with what some of my fellow students have been up to while I've been gone. I came across many videos from this year's Halloween celebration (as expected) and I came across videos of the event my friends couldn't stop talking about - the Oaktoberfest 2008 street fires.

Now let me preface this by saying that my friends are not a bunch of arsonists and are not responsible for these fires - they just happen to live on the street. While some may find my friends to be rather irresponsible and stupid, I find them quite interesting. I can't say what I would have done had I been present for these fires, but I will say I wouldn't have reacted in the same way as a couple of idiots, caught on video, did by trying to jump through the 8 foot high flames. Please do not assume these morons are my friends and please do not assume I would ever be THIS stupid.




Aside from those videos of my fellow students being complete and total idiots, I discovered a couple that had been put together to mock the NBA's "Where Amazing Happens" commercials. I will not tell a lie, a tear came to my eye. As a near-graduation senior, I can't help but be sentimental about EVERYTHING that I've experienced while at Ohio University.





I can remember trying to make the choice between Ohio University and Ohio State University. I had already made plans to be a Buckeye - and then the acceptance letter from Scripps came in the mail. I took it as a sign from God that I was going to graduate a Bobcat. And to be completely honest, I thank God every day for that letter. Had it come a day later, the title of this blog would be 'Why I love being a Buckeye...' and I'd talk mostly about jumping into Mirror Lake, football and staying so close with high school friends.


I am so proud to be a Bobcat for all of the above reasons. I'm proud to call people who cheat death through their alcohol consumption, crazy antics and drunken shenanigans my best friends, acquaintances and classmates. I'm proud of everything Athens has to offer and everything that Athens doesn't have to offer. If I walk into an interview later on down the road and they say, 'Oh, you went to OU. That's quite the party school.' I'll say, 'Yes. Yes it is,' and keep my head held high. I will NEVER be ashamed to be a Bobcat and I'll never let anyone from the outside try to degrade my intelligence and dedication because I learned how to handle my booze while I was in school.

I have made the best friends, the greatest connections and had the best time - all thanks to Ohio University.

A month from today...

A month from today, I will be boarding a plane.
A month from today, I will have officially been away from home for 3 months and 5 days.
A month from today, I will be jumping into the arms of my parents, who will probably cry and hug me at the same time because they missed me too much to take turns.
A month from today, I will be happy.
A month from today, I will be sad.
A month from today, I'll sit next to three more strangers, all with different stories and destinations.

***

It's so interesting to look back on the last 2 months and think about my experience. I've made so many mistakes here, some I'm too embarrassed to even publicly admit, and some that were just silly. I've met so many people from so many walks of life. I've been on TV, on the radio, in newspapers. I've travelled to places that most people can only dream about travelling to. I've taken beautiful pictures and taken everything in the best I can.

Two months ago, when I was waiting for a connecting flight in the Amsterdam airport at 6am, a gentleman took a seat next to me in a pretty sparsley populated terminal. After exchanging stories and company, we parted ways, thinking we'd never see one another again. I exercised my amazing Facebook stalking skills and found him. After exchanging numbers, we agreed to meet for coffee and have spent at least one evening a week together since. Two months ago, I met the guy who has been my closest friend and breath of fresh air here. We laugh about it all the time, watching TV together, about how we met on a plane. How cliche'. How surreal. How perfect. Of course we'll miss eachother when I go back, but we know we can't spend the next month dwelling on it. We've got 30 more days to be ourselves, being just as mean and silly to each other as we have been since we met.

Two months ago, I walked into a quiet office to meet my boss (so weird to call her that). After about 5 minutes of gossiping, we realized how much it is that we have in common and I've never looked back. We've developed a communication mechanism that is secret to anyone else and invisible to the naked eye. We've talked about the tough stuff and our love for Britney Spears. We've laughed and we've cried. And after the passing of her father, I remembered what it was like to be sympathetic and available to a friend who has just lost something so important. It feels good to know that I've made such a great friend in Rhi. I will miss her at home just like I missed my friends from home while I've been here.

Two months ago, I moved into a "flat", terrified that it would be no match for my apartment back at school. I moved in with a roommate who I really knew nothing about and who was completely different from anyone I've ever lived with before. Not only have we made it work, but we enjoy it. And let's not even talk about how much I'm going to miss the flat once I'm back in the States.

It's strange to think that I've built a life somewhere besides home. It's even stranger to think that I've built this life with a deadline on the end of it, all the while living more for the moment and not for the duration. I've adopted a sense of apathy toward certain consequences, yet have paid more attention to most consequences because I'm growing up.

This post may not make any kind of sense - mostly because I'm so overwhelmed with different emotions about the conclusion of this trip. But there is one thing to be sure of - I cannot wait to see what it is that life has in store for me next.

A sense of self

I know I'm supposed to leave this as a travel blog, but sometimes there is more emotion associated with travel than there is actual exciting happenings.

With just over a month left until I pack my bags, board a plane and dive back into the arms of my parents, I have set my mind on figuring out one thing before I leave: myself.

I had a conversation with one of my best friends back at school about the fashion here in the UK. I told her, referring to a recent purchase of "shoobs" for £6 at Primark, that she and all of my friends were going to be completely terrified of my fashion sense upon my return to the States. After 2 months here, I have transitioned into a high-heel-dress-and-tight-and-scarf-wearing kind of girl. Before I left, the thought of buying a pair of cheap and uncomfortable high heels made me cringe and actually wearing them made me even more uneasy. But I find myself creating outfits assuming that I'll be wearing heels with them.

Prior to my trip here, I very rarely wore anything besides a comfortable pair of skinny jeans, an American Apparel unisex V-neck and a pair of flip flops or TOMS to go with. Now, I find myself wearing dresses from H&M and Top Shop along with matching tights, shoes and accessories - and that's on a pretty close to daily basis.

But as I was walking to work yesterday morning - wearing a pair of black skinny dress pants, a purple turtle neck and a mint green jacket with a pair of black high heels, I thought about how strange it was of me to be wearing high heels on my walk to work. I started to feel as though I was finally stepping into the career woman light and that high heels were no longer a barrier or an obstacle. At school, the only time it is appropriate to wear high heels is for a dressy night at the bar and you would never catch me trying to manoeuvre my tipsy stumbly self around the brick streets and sidewalks of Athens - yet I was attempting to manoeuvre around the brick sidewalks and stone streets of Cardiff.

I thought to myself, 'Wow - maybe I'll be able to wear heels out back in Athens! I'm doing just fine on these bricks!' As I was thinking this, I started to cross the street and while looking around for cars, I noticed that a dapper looking young man with an Ipod in his ears had been following close behind me. I immediately flipped the switch to include a sexy strut with my heels in order to catch his attention. As I started across the road, my heel caught a stone and my ankle rolled, causing one of the loudest scuffing noises I have ever heard in my life. I cringed with embarrassment and let the young man walk past me while hiding my face. But it was at this moment that I realized I haven't changed one bit since I've been here.

I came into this situation and opportunity thinking I was going to come out of it as a completely different person with a whole new agenda and mentality. I thought I'd return to Athens with no desire to go to the bars with my friends during the week and more of a desire to stay in and read a book or watch TV or something. I thought I'd adopt a lot of the British way of life - being proper and graceful and thin (I've lost a few pounds here, by the way) and healthy.

But, much to my surprise (and relief), I still find myself belching at the most inopportune moments, tripping over non-existent hazards, drinking in excess whenever possible and skipping my workouts on a day to day basis to just sit on the sofa and eat junk food. I find comfort knowing that while the time has changed and a few months have passed since I've been in the States, I'll return and will have no trouble going back to my old ways.

Along with that, I think I have done a pretty good job of adapting to the life of an adult - going to bed at a decent hour, staying in, not spending money on stupid things on a day to day basis and having a drink with dinner and not dinner with drinks. The taste of life that I've gotten while here won't go unnoticed upon my return, but will more so be put on hold for those last 6 months of irresponsible living before I graduate and am forced to live this kind of life for the rest of my days.

I am so excited to arrive back in the States, but am sad to be leaving such a wonderful and beautiful place. I cannot wait to be back in the presence of some of the most amazing people in the entire world, but I'm so glad I've had this experience to reassure me that I have the greatest friends I could have ever asked for to occupy my college years.

***

Tomorrow, I am heading up to Lampeter to visit Katie Saylor since I haven't seen her since September. Should prove to be a great trip.

Hope all is well! XXOO

Yes We Did!

Congratulations, Barack Obama. You truly are an inspiration and I hope that your Presidency is quite a success. Defy each and every one of those who didn't believe you could do it. Congratulations, and as Mr. McCain said, 'God speed.'

The UK Press is all over this Obama Supporter!

Here is article #1 that I was interviewed for:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/11/04/we-voted-in-us-election-from-cardiff-91466-22175870/

We voted in US election from Cardiff
Nov 4 2008 by Gerry Holt, South Wales Echo

AMERICAN citizens have been voting for the next President of the United States – more than 6,000km away from home – in Cardiff.

As America today goes to the polls to decide between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, American interns working for Wales’ own politicians in Cardiff Bay gave their views on a contest which could go right to the wire.

For many of the students, today’s election will be the first in which they have been allowed to vote.

And for Kadi McDonald, who is from the swing state of Ohio, that will only make the experience even more memorable.

“It’s the first presidential election I’ve been able to vote in and I do think maybe I should have been at home to watch it,” she said.

“But, especially with working at the Assembly, I feel more involved than I ever would have been at school back at home. I probably wouldn’t have been that concerned with it if I’d been there.

“I think that being here makes it a much more interesting experience for me.

“I’ll be able to tell my kids that I voted for the US President in Cardiff, Wales!”

Kadi, 21, is a registered Democrat and says she voted for Obama in the poll. She voted by post just weeks after arriving in Cardiff back in September.

She originally supported Hillary Clinton but, after the New York senator was dumped out of the race, she educated herself about Obama and now believes America will have its first black President.

“The one thing he has done wonderfully is that he is really connected to the younger generation,” said the Ohio University politics and journalism student, who is working with the Welsh Labour group.

“It sounds really lame but he reaches out on Facebook and 99% of college students in America have one.”

Jill Zumbach, 19, who is also from Ohio, says she too has voted for Obama in what is her first election.

Jill, a politics student, says she believes Obama represents change in America.

“I really hope that he can bring about policies in the US that benefit people my age and future generations,” said Jill, who is working for the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Jill says she is “unbelievably excited” about the election and says she plans to stay up all night to watch it.

“It’s quite cool... it’s really beneficial to see how the rest of the world views the election,” said Jill, who hopes to study law when she returns to the US.

Meanwhile, Cardiff Devils hockey player Jay Latulippe, who is from New York and has lived in Cardiff for about two months, says he hopes McCain will be victorious.

He said jokingly: “I would vote for McCain because I like his hair better!”



This morning, I was interviewed on BBC Wales 'Good Morning Wales' radio program. I have posted the interview and the quality is a kind of crappy, but you get the idea.




I was also filmed 'casting my vote' at an American Deli in Cardiff for ITV. This is the link to the online story, which was different from the newscast. http://www.itvlocal.com/wales/politics/?player=WAL_Politics_15&void=254471

Here is the newscast version of the story - once again, I apologize for the quality.:

The Multimedia Portion of this Presentation

As I mentioned, my camera went to crap while I was in Germany. Fortunately, though, my cousin Kilee and Chelsea were able to capture moments for me with their cameras and excellent photography and videography skills. I am forever in debt to them.

Along with posting these videos, I have added pictures to my flickr page, which you conveniently have access to with the photo feed to the right of my page. If you click, you will be able to view them and enlarge them. Enjoy!



Here are a few videos of our Paris adventures:

High altitudes

Germany was magnificent. Aside from my camera crapping out and erasing ALL of my pictures from London, Edinburgh, Bath, Garmisch and Paris, it was probably one of the greatest trips I've ever taken.

As I mentioned before, my cousin Kilee lives just outside of the Ramstein Air Force base in a little village called Mackenbach. Her husband is stationed there and they have two kids, Caleb and Lilly. Lilly is the new baby of the family, only 5 months old, and I was the first in the family to see her!

Chelsea and I set off very early on Saturday morning to catch our plane out of London Stansted, which is a smaller airport about 45 minutes outside of London. Chelsea took a bus and I grabbed the train since I have a prepaid pass. I arrived to Paddington around 10:30am and was set to meet Chelsea at the Liverpool Street Station at 11:15. I hopped onto the Circle Line and arrived just after 11 to find Chelsea waiting for me. We walked around the station for a few minutes, grabbed some pasties for lunch and then grabbed the Stansted Express to the airport. We got to the airport and got our stuff all checked in a ready to go. Our flight didn't leave until around 3:30, but being American, we thought it a good idea to arrive early in fear of being hassled by security. Much to our surprise, security was pretty lax - we didn't even have to take our shoes off! We boarded the plane around 3 and sat back on what proved to be one of the most uncomfortable flights I've ever been on. I read a magazine article later that said the exact thing I've been thinking for a while: "It's sad that nowadays, it isn't about the speed, convenience and comfort, but how many people we can squeeze onto one plane." The seats didn't recline, not even a little bit and the obnoxious music and flight attendants selling things were just about enough to drive someone crazy. Thankfully, the flight didn't last more than an hour and we were on the ground about 75 miles outside of Frankfurt at the Frankfurt Hahn airport.

We walked through the doors that said Non-EU Passports, preparing our story for why we were in Germany. Surprisingly, their security was pretty lax as well, and after the 'You here on holiday?' speech, we got a brand new stamp on our passports. We walked to the baggage carousel only to discover that my bag had not come with the flight. We met Kilee on the other side of the doors and filed a report with the airline. We got in the car and drove (on the right side of the road) for about an hour through winding roads that took us through valleys and mountains and villages - nothing like we'd really seen in the UK. The trees had taken a bright orangish tint and the pine trees accentuated the orange with their dark green needles. It was absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived at Kilee's house just after 7pm and headed onto base to grab some dinner. Much to our surprise, there was a Taco Bell. For those who don't know, Taco Bell is not an international chain and we had just been talking about how big of a craving we had the week before. We chowed down on our Gorditas and Chalupas and American fountain soda before realizing why Taco Bell is not always a wise choice. We went back to Kilee's to settle in and get some rest. Unfortunately, I had been feeling sick the entire week prior to the trip and none of the British doctors would see me. My infection had spread to my glands and I was swollen basically everywhere. I started feeling feverish and nauseous and thought it would be a great idea to go to the emergency room.

We arrived at St. Johannes hospital just after 11pm to a security guard that spoke very broken English. We walked through the hospital to find the small emergency care unit and waited in the blinding white light until a man emerged from an equally bright white door. Just our luck, he didn't speak an ounce of English so we had to go back to the security guard and eventually down to a small flower shop at the end of the lane by the hospital where there was a doctor who spoke English. He wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic without even examining me or asking me any questions about my medical history and we left. I'm allergic to Penicillin, so I was terrified to fill the antibiotic he'd prescribed because Penicillin is typically used over there. Luckily, it was Penicillin-free and I started them on Sunday morning.

Monday, we set off for Garmisch, which is a little village very near the Austrian border and about an hour or so east of Munich. There was a really nice military holiday resort there situated in the Bavarian Alps and we had a suite booked for the night. We arrived pretty late after what we thought was a 3 hour drive turned out to be a 6 hour drive. We ate dinner, drank American beer and called it a night shortly after. The next day, we got up and decided it would be a great idea to take the cable car trip up a nearby mountain. The first car was a breeze and took us up about 2900 meters to a mountaintop cafe' and restaurant. We had some tea and warmed up, as it was just above 1 degree Celsius, before we boarded the next cable car that took us to another mountain that was about 2300 meters tall. We reached the next stop and took a 45 minute hike around the mountain to reach our final cable car journey, which descended the mountain. We were all pretty tired from our journey and decided to head back to Mackenbach a little earlier than we'd anticipated.

Wednesday, we slept in and shopped a bit in downtown Kaiserslautern, which hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2006. The stadium looked pretty sweet.

Thursday, we got up early and set off for Paris. Kilee's house is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from Paris, and we thought it to be a great opportunity to visit. We drove and drove until we reached Disneyland Paris, where we parked and caught the train into the city. En route, we had been listening to Disney showtunes and contemplated giving up our Paris journey for a day at EuroDisney. Thankfully, the front ticket gates weren't open and it started to rain, or I probably wouldn't have stories from Paris to talk about. :-)

Paris was incredible. Really, I haven't quite got the words for it. For those of you who know me well, you will know that I absolutely love New York City and that I will speak nothing but positives and have nothing but amazing stories about my trips there. But New York could never quite impress me and take my breath away the way that Paris did.

We arrived in the city just after 4pm and went straight to the Louvre Museum. Let me tell you...the Museum is unlike anything I've ever seen. It is MASSIVE. I could literally spend an entire day in there and not even care. We were pretty excited to visit because the Mona Lisa is kept there and we didn't have much time, as the museum closed at 6. We dashed through the turnstiles, purchased tickets and ran up to the first floor to catch a glimpse of one of the world's most famous paintings. How extravagant...not. The Mona Lisa, in all it's glory, is situated across the room from an absolutely massive painting that covers the entire wall almost the whole way to the ceiling. But the large group of people in the room was staring at this tiny portrait of a woman with no eyebrows. I wonder if Leonardo DaVinci ever thought that would happen when he painted this hideous woman. We moved on from the Mona Lisa and headed down to check out some statues on our way to the gift shop. We stepped inside an absolutely brilliant room with the most beautiful walls and ceilings I have ever seen - nearly brought me to tears.

We left the Louvre and began walking toward the Arc de Triomphe, stopping at a little baguette restaurant for dinner. I had a ham baguette with a raspberry tart. It was quite amazing and the smell of freshly made crepes basically took over the restaurant. We set off again for the Arc and stumbled across the premier of the 007 movie. Being the ignorant Americans that we are, we started snapping pictures while the French security guards were yelling at us in French. We thought they were telling us to keep walking, but apparently they were saying no pictures. We walked right through security and across the red carpet before realizing what we had just done. Oops.

After we made it up to the end of the street, we turned down a side street and headed for the Eiffel Tower. Now, I know how we Americans love this tower and I'm not gonna lie, I was just as giddy as anyone to take the elevator up to the top. We walked right on and started up the tower. Making it to the first level where there is a really swanky restaurant. We kept going up to the second level and then started the journey up to the top. Ears popping and my heart beating a mile a minute, we finally made it to the top of the tower. The city looked absolutely beautiful and we could see what it was these Europeans hate about Paris - the terrible traffic. The city was lit up with millions of lights and we could hear the sound of cars, buses and sirens passing below us. The rain and wind didn't stop us from going to the top deck to be in the fresh air. Absolutely amazing.

We left the Tower and headed for the train station to catch our train back to EuroDisney. We got back to the car just before 11pm and set off on our 4 hour journey back. Kilee started feeling beyond tired nearly halfway through the journey back and I took over at the wheel. Driving 130 kph, I was nervous to be stopped before realizing that it was late at night and the police don't hate 24 hours a day like they do in Ohio. We crossed over the German border and I pressed the pedal to the floor on the Autobahn, reaching speeds of nearly 110 mph. It felt really good to drive.

We got back around 3:30am and went straight to bed. Waking up on Friday, we spent most of the day hanging out and preparing for the Halloween festivities of the evening, which turned out to be a quick trick-or-treat with the kids, a couple of scary movies and going to bed early. Quite relaxing compared to what I would have been doing had I been at OU. :-)

We flew out of Frankfurt Hahn early Saturday morning, arriving back in London around 2. We took the train back from the airport and then grabbed the Tube to find a stop to get some pub food. We found a pub just down the street from the train station, had some fish and chips and some Fosters and watched some soccer. Then we grabbed the trains to start heading back to Cardiff. I got back to Cardiff around 7 and got my laundry and cleaning started. Proved to be quite a relaxing evening. Yesterday, I did more cleaning and got a run in before going grocery shopping.

I can't believe my Germany trip is over. I'm over halfway done with my stay here and I will say that I'm quite surprised at how fast it's gone.

I'm hoping to do at least one more major trip while I'm here before settling down and getting ready to leave - hopefully to Ireland, but we'll see.

I hope everyone is doing well! I'll be sure to update about work more this week. I can't believe the election is tomorrow. Absolutely unbelievable that we'll have a new president in less than 48 hours. Let's just hope we don't have another fiasco....

Until next time...

Another update.

I can't believe it's time to do such a large update - I've been kind of lacking in the updating department as of late, due to quite a busy schedule and a less-than-normal drive to do any kind of writing.

Perhaps one reason for the lack of writing came from my lack of ability to fall asleep at night. My nights were interrupted by strange and sometimes disturbing dreams involving people I haven't had much contact with over the past 5 years. I'd wake up around 5 or 6 in the morning after falling asleep around 1 or 2 and spend the next 2 hours telling myself to go back to sleep, but subconsciously attempting to decode the dreams and nightmares I'd had. Then, after just managing to drift back off to sleep, I'd awake to my alarm at 8:00 warning me that I had exactly one hour to get myself together and get myself to the Assembly. As you can imagine, and for those of you who know me and my fondness of mornings, the mornings were absolutely tragic.

The work week wasn't too terrible - mostly just preparing for the Child Poverty event in Llanelli. Rhi and I spent much of Thursday dashing around Cardiff to find the right sized paper to accomplish what it was Alun wanted us to do. After about 3 hours, we finally managed to find everything and rushed back to the office to put everything together and get ready for the event the next day. The sun managed to hang out for most of the day on Friday and we managed to get 45 petitions signed to add to our 'Fight Against Child Poverty' database - overall a pretty successful event.

Saturday, Rhi, Chelsea and I headed to Bath for the day to do a little sightseeing. We ended up doing a lot of boutique shopping and went to the Jane Austen museum before heading back to Cardiff to spend the rest of the evening relaxing. I didn't do much of anything on Sunday, just cleaned, did laundry and relaxed from such a sleepless week.

This week, I've been doing some speech research for Alun and a few random tasks here and there. I leave for Germany on Saturday and am sooooo excited to se Kilee, Jeremiah and the kids. I'm also really pumped to get another stamp on my passport saying that I've been to another European country. Haha.

I also changed my flight last week to arrive back in the States on the 14th of December rather than the 18th. Upon our arrival here, we were told that we needed to be out of the apartments ASAP after our termination at the Assembly. Thusly, for the 4 days in between that, one of which being my birthday, I would have been forced to move my 4 or 5 suitcases around to different locations and decided that this wasn't something I wanted to do. So, GREAT NEWS, friends. I'll be back in 52 days!

It's strange to think that I've been here for so long already. I can't believe that November is just right around the corner and that my friends at OU are about to finish Week 7 of Fall quarter. I went through the calendar today and wrote everything out in my day planner. I can't believe we're approaching 2009 so quickly.

Hopefully by the next update, I'll have my camera connecter cord, so I'll be able to upload pictures from all of my different trips I've taken over the past 3 months. And hopefully I'll be able to update on the awesomeness of Germany! Hope everyone is well! XXOO

A clean bathroom...

Over the past couple of days, I've noticed my emotions kind of running away with themselves. I find myself experiencing brilliant moments of happiness and then moments later, I find myself plunging into a dark, damp abyss. Maybe it's PMS; maybe it's the weather; or perhaps I'm finally recognizing that problems can eventually catch up even if you cross an ocean to avoid them.

With the 'credit crunch', which has become one of my favorite hot button terms, in full and uncontrolled swing right now, even an entire summer of slaving away at a full- and a basically full-time job couldn't have prepared me for the financial woes of living in a country that has the most expensive exchange rate in the world. After speaking to my mom yesterday about my trip to Germany, she warned me that it was really expensive in Germany and that the US dollar was only worth €.70.
'Mom,' I reminded her, 'it's only worth £.57 here. '
'Wow,' she said. 'I didn't realize it was that bad.'

This made me realize that it isn't PMS or the weather that has me down - it's the fact that my world is collapsing, and for the time being, I'm standing outside the fire, watching everything burn. I've been over here for just over a month and I can't believe how much has happened in that short of a time. I read an article on CNN this morning that began to detail the timeline of the recent economic downfall - all starting on September 14th with Lehman Brothers going down the crapper. The rest is history from there.

The thing that gets me the most isn't so much that the world is crashing, but that the world is blaming the US. In this kind of a situation, wouldn't it be best for the leaders to work together to pull the world economy out of this hole instead of saying,

Dear US:
This is all your fault.
Signed,
The World

After watching this report, I can't help but be disgusted with the rest of the world. Excuse me, World, but who has functioned as one of your major markets for export? America. Who has served as your 'police force' for many many years? America. And who has provided your former citizens with the opportunity to achieve their business and financial dreams as a part of our free market/capitalist ideals? America.

How dare you. How dare you point the finger in our direction. Don't pretend that you've exercised smart money and economic choices since the beginning of time. Don't pretend that we've never patronized your business and companies as American citizens. How dare you tell us that you 'told us so'. Really, how can you? How about you stop ganging up on us and help us through this horrible horrible time just as we've done for you in the past. Don't punish and blame the American taxpayer for what our goofy President has managed to do. Yes, we may have elected him into two terms. But don't forget the 48% of us that didn't and voted for the Democratic candidate. Don't forget about those of us who weren't old enough to exercise our voting rights, but are now taxpayers. Don't you dare penalize us for going against the grain in the first place and then generalize us into a population of irresponsibility.

I'm sure you're wondering why the title of this blog is a clean bathroom. It's mostly metaphorical. I'm a writer - get used to it.

Last night, I started to realize that my life isn't going to be as wonderful as I think upon my return to the states. I really missed my friends and my family last night after talking to them and realizing how much I wished I could be with them. I became frustrated to the point that I couldn't even pay attention to the TV anymore; I couldn't even write about how I was feeling; and I sure as hell didn't want to talk about it with anyone back home. So - I cleaned the bathroom. I started with the tiles on the shower wall. I scrubbed and scrubbed until there was no reason to do any more. Then I moved to the tub, which just took a quick spritz of cleaner and a light scrubbing with the sponge. Then, I moved on to the floor. Instead of mopping, I used a sponge and got down on my hands and knees to make sure it was clean. I moved across the floor and scrubbed the corners. Finally, I got to the toilet. The worst part. We hadn't cleaned the toilet since we first got here, and although we don't use it often, it had somehow gotten to be pretty disgusting. I'll spare you of the details, but remember, this is all a metaphor. I left the toilet squeaky clean for the time being. As I stood up to examine the bathroom in all its clean glory, I admired the stainless steel faucets and the shiny porcelain that I had just put my sweat and tears into. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen and I couldn't wait to get in there and use it now that it was cleaned out. However, to close this metaphor, I realized that I'd eventually be back in this position again - we'd use the bathroom irresponsibly, letting water drip on the floor, using the toilet - and eventually, we'd have to clean it up again. Just a simple, normal, regular cycle.

Castles and mountains and sheep! Oh my!

Or perhaps I should title this blog, '75 flavours of Vodka and a shooter called 'Hardcore' and a Jaegerbomb break. Oh my!'

As I mentioned in my last entry, I travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland this weekend to visit my dear friend, and former camp co-lifeguard, John. John's family lives in Edinburgh, but he also attends university there, so I can't think of anyone better to show me the city.

Alun and Rhi sent me out of the office early on Friday afternoon so that I could catch my train for the 7 hour journey north to Scotland. I left Cardiff around 4pm with only one train change ahead of me. I arrived to my transition station, Crewe, to find that the earlier train to Edinburgh had been delayed just a few minutes. How lucky! I didn't have to wait for the later train to come in and hopped on my train toward Edinburgh 20 minutes early.

Unfortunately, I picked the car with about 20 seventeen year olds buzzing and running about after a week long stay in London for holiday. In fact, the couple sitting just across the aisle from me decided to take their relationship to the next level and had a pretty explicit make-out session. Now, don't get me wrong - I was no angel when I was 17. But I'm pretty sure I didn't have X-rated make out sessions with my boyfriend on a train resembling a sardine can with 20 of my closest friends and a few random travellers watching. It took all I had not to stare, wide-eyed with my jaw dropped at these sexually curious teenagers. In a telephone conversation with my mom after the children deboarded the train, she reminded me of my annoying tendencies as a 17-year-old and I would like to publicly apologize to any and all then-20-somethings that I annoyed to no end. I now feel your pain.

I arrived at the train station in Edinburgh just before 10 on Friday night and found John just a few minutes later. He took me back to his flat and we spent the rest of the night catching up and, of course, being really mean to each other. We had decided not to go out because we were both pretty tired, but ended up staying awake until 3 in the morning.

We woke up at a pretty decent hour on Saturday and he and his roommate, Roderick, took me out in the city. We went to John's lecture hall, Old College, which is apparently a big deal; a museum, had some lunch, walked up by the castle, grabbed some coffee and sat in the park down below the castle, and then met up with a few of his friends to catch the rest of the Scotland football match. We went back to his place to get cleaned up and grab some dinner before heading out that night.

Now, apparently, the cool thing to do in Scotland is go to vodka bars. We arrived at the bar that boasted 75 different flavours of vodka - anything from coconut to honey. John bought me this absolutely wretched shooter called 'Hardcore' which I nursed for the majority of our stay there. We had a few cocktails and then headed to another bar, Revolution, to meet up with some of the blokes we'd met earlier. One of the guys, Allister, and I shared a spread of shooters and an entire pitcher of some randomly mixed cocktail before we decided it was time for a change of scenery. As we walked to find the other bar, we decided that it was a bit far and that we needed a pit stop. I elected to buy that round and we all ran into some random bar, ordered three Jaegerbombs and split as soon as we sat the glasses down.

We walked to the other side of the city and found the bar we were going to with a huge queue and decided to skip down to another random pub on the corner. The man who was dj-ing played 'American Woman' on my behalf and everyone quickly knew there was an American in the house. I made friends with the bartender after Rory had ordered me an absolutely disgusting shooter that smelled a lot like a plant and the bartender allowed me to choose a mixer (I chose tonic water) to mix this crap with.

We walked around downtown a bit more before deciding we were tired. The boys grabbed some kebabs and we went back to John's place. I was exhausted from being up so late the night before and decided to go to bed pretty much as soon as we'd returned.

John had American football training in the morning, so he was up and attum pretty early. I showered, packed my stuff and then Roderick walked me to the train station. I grabbed a bit of lunch and caught my train to Manchester. The man sitting next to me was from Greece and we chatted a bit about travelling, American politics and our families and his career. He was a professor at Lancaster University and left the train just before my stop to get to Manchester. When I boarded my train in Manchester, I chose the first open seat I saw when I got on the train. I was sharing a table with 3 men, who were all travelling alone, as well. We all started chatting about university, politics and our weekends and then quickly discovered that we liked talking to each other. After a four hour train ride, we all had exchanged information and had made plans to go out for drinks in Cardiff sometime in the near future.

I never felt better getting home. There is something about Cardiff that makes me feel at home. I love that I know my way and have recognition over much of the city now and it's such a comfort to be able to return here and really feel at home. I got home and exchanged weekend stories with Dianne before reading a few chapters in my book and hitting the hay.

This week is Child Poverty event #1. We will be in Llanelli on Friday to do a publicity stunt with the MP and a few ministers. Then, we'll be able to dive full force into getting the other event, set for late-November, planned out. I'm excited to get Alun into the Child Poverty campaign and hope that his ideals are well-received.

I can't believe I'll be in Germany in less than two weeks! Time has really been flying by here. It's crazy to think that I've been here for over a month already. I'm so excited to see Kilee, Jeremiah and the kids that it's really not even funny. It will be good to have a part of home over here in Europe. We're taking the kids trick-or-treating while we're there - Caleb is going as Buzz Lightyear and Lilly as a floppy-eared bunny. I can't wait to see their costumes because I'm sure they're going to be the cutest ones on the block.

I hope everyone is doing well! I'll update more this week once I get my photos uploaded to the computer. Miss everyone so much!!! XXOO

This one time, in London...

London - sounds great, right? Wrong. I am going to be the first to say that I am SO glad that I chose Cardiff instead of London for my study abroad experience.

I've heard so many great things about London - the sights, the people, the fashion. But what I didn't catch was the part about the random monsoons and hurricane-force winds.

Myself, my roommate and the male intern from Ohio set out early Saturday morning for the "Smoke," as they call it here. We hopped a train and travelled the beautiful English countryside for two hours before seeing any real sign of life. I was so excited to arrive at Paddington Station, the sight of so many movies I've seen and so many photos. To my horror, the place was freezing and only a small area of the station was actually temperature controlled.

The three of us, me in my recently purchased £17 Primark coat and my $45 TOMS, walked through the station searching for an information booth to tell us which Tube train we should take to get to our hostel, which was located in New Cross. Unfortunately, the Tube was under major construction and we had to skip around to a bunch of different trains and eventually an unreliable bus line to get to our destination. Armed with our Oyster cards and our backpacks, we set off on what ended up feeling like a five-hour bumpy trip in a sardine can. A man on the Tube train, smashed up against me, literally as soon as the doors shut, told me he'd drank a lot the night before and was feeling a little ill. Great.

We FINALLY got to the hostel, which ended up being not as bad as we thought it would be, but definitely not a Holiday Inn. We dumped our bags off, put our passports and valuables into a locker and set off for the bus stop to take us to Trafalgar Square for a Child Poverty Awareness event that I was going to for work. We met a young man wearing a Wales scarf on the way and chatted with him for quite some time. We got to the Square and parted ways, content with our lovely conversation about politics and language. We got to the event and people started to dispurse - apparently it started much earlier than I thought.

We went to the National Gallery and I got to see some of Monet and Van Gogh's paintings, which have always fascinated me. The rest of the museum was pretty boring, but whatever. We all need a little art in our lives, right?

We walked around the city a bit, catching site of Big Ben, the London Eye, Parliament, Picadilly Circus and Westminster Cathedral. We saw the MI5 and MI6 buildings, a couple of brilliant little parks, and walked the Thames for a couple of miles. We headed to a pub that we'd seen earlier for dinner, but were shocked when we saw it was nearly £15 for fish and chips. We went across the street to this delightful little diner-type place and had pretty good meals and a spot of tea before heading back out into the monsoon. We caught the bus to head home for then night and, what do you know, ran into the Wales scarf guy (whose name is Rob) on the bus once again. We invited him out for drinks and were surprised when the bus stopped mid-track and told us it was the last stop.

Rob showed us back to New Cross and took us to one of the student pubs where we had a couple of drinking contests and some pretty typical American-British conversations - mostly about language and accents and soccer/football and music and movies. We called it a night soon after.

The next morning, we left the hostel, and our Jesus-loving roommate, and found a comfy little restaurant just down the road for a cheap and hearty breakfast. We went sight-seeing once again and saw the Tower Bridge, London Tower, the Imperial War Museum, the Roman Wall, St Paul's Cathedral and the London Bridge before heading back to Paddington to catch our train to Cardiff.

We left London, with its pouring rain and high speed winds, and arrived back in Cardiff to dry sidewalks and our warm flat (which I mistakenly left the heat on in over the weekend). It never felt so good to be home, and after a long, hot shower and a cup of tea, I slept better than I've ever slept before.


This week has been pretty low-key in the office. The debates and things were pretty lively this week, so its made for some excellent press briefings and plenary sessions. But technology has been unreliable, so we haven't had much to do in the way of researching and whatnot. I've been working on cataloging all of Alun's speeches and debates so that I can then write summaries of them for his website that we'll hopefully launch by the end of this month.

We've been causally working on the Child Poverty event, but with only a week left to get anything done, I'm afraid things aren't going to go as planned.

I'm going to visit John, a friend from camp, this weekend in Scotland and I must say that I'm not much looking forward to the 7 hour train ride it will take to get there. But, not much sleep and a big meal will hopefully put an evening cap on me so I can sleep most of the way. Plus, I'm charging up my iPod.

Hopefully my next update will be accompanied with pictures from London and also from Scotland! I hope all is well and that everyone is doing well!

xxxxxxxxxxooooooooooo

Dear John McCain, Hi. Are you serious?

Okay, I'm sorry to do this because I know this is supposed to be an update blog, but I felt so inclined.

Here is a letter that I would love to send to John McCain if I knew he'd actually personally read it:

Dear John McCain,

Hello. My name is Kadi McDonald. I am a registered Democrat and during the May primary elections, I was a hardcore Hilary Clinton supporter. I have loved the Clinton family since the wonderful year of 1992 when Mr. Clinton became President of the great USA and once again in 1996 when he was reelected. I was disappointed with our government system when they brought Mr. George 'Dubya' Bush into the white house after not even winning the popular vote. But, granted, I was nowhere near voting age, so I'll let that one slide. I missed the 2004 election by 11 sorry months and, let me tell you, was VERY embarassed and disappointed in the American people for reelecting that joke. Over the past 8 years, I, like most other Americans, have watched our government plummet into a multi-trillion dollar deficit; be attacked by a crazy group of terrorists who destroyed one of the most monumental things we had in the States as well as hundreds of innocent Americans; start a war with the world because we think our way of government is the best and only way; and destroy the American dream and love of capitalism and a free market because the government spends money it doesn't have, so why can't everyone else? I have had enough and I could not be happier that G-Dub's term is coming to an end.

But now that we're around again for the 2008 election, I am overseas studying politics and couldn't be happier that I am missing your Obama-bashing campaign. However, what it is that I can't seem to escape, even an ocean away, is the ignorance of your vice-presidential candidate. At one point, I was so upset that Hilary wouldn't be in the election that I had considered voting for you. I thought your experience and your knowledge and history would be just what this country needed to pull out of this funk. But clearly your knowledge wasn't what I thought it was. I mean, really, Mr. McCain, are you kidding? A female ex-mayor and governor of Alaska? Don't get me wrong - I'm all for the whole female thing. I think it's great to see women rising up into these important positions. But where I think you made the mistake is selecting a woman who has virtually no political experience, with no female qualities (except her appearance) - in layman's terms: an inexperienced man in women's clothing. You didn't pick any Hilary, that's for sure, so you didn't win over us Hilary supporters. We're smarter than that - we're not swayed by pink lipstick and talking about children and cooking and family. We are educated, caring and compassionate women who don't want to see this country in the hands of a crazy soccer mom who knows nothing about any of the issues that are the most important to this country.

How do you respond? Do you watch her interviews and listen to what she says? Do you laugh? Do you cry? Do you bury your head in your hands and regret the day you made the announcement that she'd be your running-mate? Do you often send kisses through the air to kiss every chance of a presidential win goodbye? No? Well you definitely should!

Sarah Palin is in no way fit to run this country and with her horrible public speaking skills and less-than-mediocre knowledge of the country, your campaign is as good as over, Mr. McCain.

I wish you the best of luck as a Senator, because you really are doing a great job. But please, please. If you ever consider running for President again, please make your decisions wisely. Especially the most important one of all.

Sincerely,

Kadi McDonald

I also want to post this video - it's one of many analyzing the wonderful interview Mrs. Palin gave Katie Couric. All I can say is I have a ton of respect for Couric, because if I ever had to interview that big of an idiot, I'd never be able to stop laughing.

Europe is so amazing.

So here we are at the near end of another week. I can't believe the days are flowing by so quickly. This week has been pretty amazing and I can only imagine how much better it's going to get.

Friday, I finally got to meet up with Ads. We had coffee and made plans for the following evening and just kind of caught up a bit, since it's been over a year since we'd seen one another. But no worries on the banter starting up immediately, because it definitely did. Also, as I mentioned, Saylor came in. We let her settle in and took her around the Bay area to show her just how beautiful our temporary home really is. Then we headed downtown to the pubs and clubs for a night of dancing and ended up having an absolutely hilarious time with all of the creepers frequenting Walkabout (an absolutely horrendous club).
Saturday during the day, we took a bus out to St. Fagan's and walked around the Welsh Heritage museum. It was so pretty outside that day and I got some unbelievable photos that my computer later decided to destroy (along with my memory card) before I could get anything saved to the hard drive. Great. But, it was still beautiful to see in person and I was really excited to finally get out to the countryside that I've heard so much about.
Saturday night, we got ready and went down to Oceana, a pretty legit club downtown, to meet up with Ads and his friends. We ended up having a really fantastic time and Katie and I didn't manage to get home until 3:30 that morning.
We spent most of the day Sunday laying around and walking around outside enjoying the beautiful weather. I cooked dinner for Ads and Matt, making a crucial mistake on the chicken that involved me having to throw it all back in the pan mid-meal (stupid gas stoves) and suffer an evening of embarassment. We all hung out for a while post-meal and watched Family Guy, of course, which was hilarious because I had to explain some of the jokes to them (including one about Chris Farley).

This week has been pretty busy at work. We've been working hard on trying to get this Child Poverty event organised and Alun has been pretty busy with meetings and debates and such, so it's been rather chaotic in the office. Yesterday, Rhi and I went to Trinity University in Carmarthen to do some Labour Party campaigning at the student involvement fair. We got a few dirty looks, but got rid of all of our pamphlets and information, so all and all it was a success. On the way back to Cardiff, Rhi took me by her house in the valley and we drove through some of the countryside. I got to meet her parents and her dog and then we went downtown to finish out the day with some boutique shopping. We ended up spending about an hour in the department stores, though and I found an ADORABLE dress for pretty cheap. Then we went to a pub in the Bay to meet up with some people from the Labour Group office and ended up having a pretty good time until everyone got hit with a wave of sleepiness and decided to call it a night.

Today, we're more than likely finalizing Child Poverty plans (I hope) and then tomorrow, I head off to London after work for my first trip away from Cardiff! I'm going to a Child Poverty rally on Saturday afternoon and will hopefully be meeting up with Toby (another friend from camp) for numerous shenanigans.
Next weekend, I'm taking the train up to Edinburgh to spend the weekend with John (another friend from camp), so I'm really looking forward to that too!

I hope everyone is doing well and that this economic crisis we've got on our hand here isn't affecting your amazing lives too bad. I miss you all so much! XXXXOOOOOO.

Update and Happy 21st birthday, Courtney Walker!

Hello everyone! I'm managing to get an update started while I'm at work - have taken part of my lunch to do a bit of writing.

Sunday night, I secured plane tickets to go to Germany for my holiday at the end of October! One of the other interns, Chelsea, is going there with me. Cousin Kilee lives out there and I will be the first of our family members to visit her. I'm so excited to see her, Jeremiah, Caleb and of course the new baby that everyone else has only seen pictures of! We're leaving from London on the 25th of October and will be staying out there until the 1st of November. Ki is planning a trip into Paris, as it is only about a 3 hour drive from her house. She's pretty excited because she's never been there, and of course, I am ecstatic! I think we're going to try and get a train into Switzerland, as well and hopefully go exploring some of the Nazi history sites. Apparently the German government just released a list of 600,000 names of Jews that were killed in the Holocaust, which is huge for them because they've been trying to write off and tone down the Nazi stuff. It'll be interesting to see what it's like.

So this week has been a bit different than last week. It was the first week that everyone was back from the long recess they'd had. It was great to meet a lot of the Assembly Members that work in the offices in our corridor and also meet the rest of the support staff members that are here.

My projects at the Assembly this week basically involved getting the office sorted out and finishing up on my Child Poverty article and contacts. We're also preparing to launch a website for Alun, so we've been doing a bit of work for that, as well. Today is consisting of mostly filing and trying to get the Child Poverty Day event organised. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do with it yet, but I'm hoping that we get enough interest to make it a success.

I haven't done much of anything exciting this week - mostly just relaxing after last week's craziness. I posted the video on Wednesday of the football game - that was probably the most exciting thing I did this week and unfortunately, Cardiff didn't win the game. But it was enjoyable to actually see some intensity involving sport - something that I've been missing A LOT about the US.

I spent much of this week job searching. It's pretty terrifying to think that I have to start preparing myself for employment. While I'm here in my fanatical little European world, my friends are all getting their resumes perfected and sent out. I figured I should probably jump into the job market and make myself look as amazing as possible. I applied for a job with corporate NBA, the Cavs (actually, the step below my dream job) and TOMS. I've also started an application for a position with Senator Sherrod Brown in D.C. which would be very cool, also. And I'm in the process of doing a cover letter for a position with American Apparel. Soooo many different options. Strange that I've already started making plans for my arrival back in the states.

This weekend will prove to be quite amazing. A friend from HOBY (Katie Saylor) that is studying in North Wales for the semester is coming in after I get off work tonight for the weekend. She isn't able to get into her apartment until Sunday, so she's staying at my place for a bit. It should be pretty exciting. Tonight, I think we're heading out to dinner and then we'll probably go to a pub across town for one of the Labour Party Support Staff's going away party. Then tomorrow, Dianne wants to go on a quick trip to look at some ancient stones, which should prove to give way to some excellent landscape pictures which I'm sure you'll all be excited to see. And then I think we're going out to the clubs with Adam and possibly meeting up with Rhi, as well. Whooo knows.

Anyway, I'm heading out early today. I've gotta go find something to wear out this weekend since the package mom sent still isn't in.

Hope all is well on the homefront! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

P.S. Happy almost 21st, Courtney!!!