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!!!

Here is a video of these crazy Welsh and their Football

So, the Cardiff City v Swansea City match is like Cleveland's Browns v Steelers match. Here is a bit of the action I saw at the pub. By the way, Cardiff lost. :-(

Why is it that Americans find castles so fascinating?

It has been quite a while since I've updated, and I'm so sorry for that! It has been quite a week, that is for sure. Much has been going on with work and, of course, I'm still getting settled.

Last week, I travelled with Rhi to Carmarthen where Alun's constituency office is located. I met Marc and Christina, who work there and of course Alun. We only got to stay for about a half hour and it took us nearly an hour to get there. However, Rhi and I had to get back for afternoon meetings. The little bit of Welsh countryside that I got to see was absolutely beautiful. That day, Mark Major told us that we weren't working on Friday, so we could make weekend plans if we liked. Naturally, we took this as an opportunity to travel to Paris, but with the recent fire that had happened in the channel, we weren't able to come up with an emergency reason to hop the train and get to Paris, so all of our weekend plans were shot. Dianne and Ben went off to Scotland for the weekend, leaving Chelsea, Jill and I to the pubs and clubs. We went out for a bit on Thursday night but realised that our tough day at work had been a bit much and we were all in bed by 11 that night.

Friday, we got up and headed downtown to do a bit of shopping before planning our route for the pubs that night. Unfortunately, the stores don't close late on Friday's, so we ended up eating at Pizza Hut and going home to get ready. We had quite a late night at the pubs after meeting some silly blokes who bought most of our drinks that evening. We caught a cab back and slept until pretty late in the day on Saturday.

Chelsea and I moped around a bit on Saturday due to a pretty extreme battle with homesickness, but after a soak in the hot tub at Chelsea's flat and a quick chat on AIM with some friends from home, I was back to normal. I went to bed pretty late after watching some late night American television and slept better than I had in days.

Sunday, Chelsea and I headed out around 1pm toward the city centre to do a bit of tourist stuff and take some pictures. We went to Cardiff castle and took a tour of the mansion there. Then, we did some exploration of the grounds and took some pretty cool pictures, if I do say so myself. After that, we walked about in a park nearby and then took a stroll along the riverside near the rugby stadium. We then went back to snag Jill from near the Assembly and head to the other side of town to do a bit of grocery shopping. Much to our horror, after we had walked a total of about 15 miles for the day, the grocery store was closed and we were forced to grab a cab and head back home. Here are some pictures of our excursion for your viewing pleasure:

Here are Chelsea and I atop the Cardiff Castle stairs. The building behind us is the house at Cardiff Castle, which we took a pretty informative tour of.

It was really interesting to hear the stories of all the things that went on within the walls of the castle - basically that it housed the town of Cardiff. If it weren't for coal being discovered in Cardiff, there would have never been a city there. How interesting to think about, right?

This is quite possibly one of the coolest things EVER. I loved the fact that this castle actually had a moat.

This was taken from my daring lean over the top deck of the castle. It was pretty exciting.

Here is a view of the castle from across the way.

I laughed last week when I received an email from one of the Labour Party workers detailing what it was that we'd be researching for a debate scheduled for this week. At the end, when explaining what was needed for a supplementary question, he asked, "What is it about castles that Americans love so much?"

This is quite possibly one of the prettiest views from the park that sits next to the castle. I loved the red trees and the way the light was hitting everything. It looks even more beautiful in person.

This is a picture from Cardiff Bay. The Assembly uses this building for random things. I use it to look at and think of how pretty it is.

This is a picture of the Bay at night. I see this every day and every night. I am so completely obsessed with this place. The building with the writing on it is the opera house. We're pretty excited to announce that Beauty and the Beast is going to be here in October!!

Then far off in the distance, you can see Mermaid Quay and Roald Dahl Plass. I love the fact that I live here. Really, I do.

If you'd like to see more of these photos, and you're lucky enough to be my Facebook friend, you can check them out there. Otherwise, I will have them uploaded to my Flickr site in the next day or so and I'll share that link when I get them uploaded!

I'll be updating this week once again to talk about all of the stuff that we've been doing this week. I hope all is going well and that everyone is healthy and happy! Cheers! XXXXOOOO!!!

Here is a video (finally) of my flat!

Everyone in the Assembly has the last name of Davies

I started work at the Assembly yesterday and am quite pleased with my assignment. I am working for the Labour Party with Assemblyman Alun Davies (pronounced like Davis). I work alongside his full-time secretary Rhianydd (Rhi-an-the) and started out with a pile of letters and reports to respond to. I hope to get several pieces to put in my portfolio. I've been writing press releases for school progress reports, a new energy assistance program and a couple of other miscellaneous things.



Everyone at the Assembly is so nice. I'm absolutely stoked to be working here with them for the next few months. I think I'm going to fit in just fine.



Yesterday started with a quick run through security at the Assembly before obtaining our visitor passes and venturing through the rest of the building with our "program father", Mark Major. Mark is in charge of us while at the Assembly and basically takes care of all of our problems. He's quite a guy and has been nothing but nice to us. We met a few people up in the library where some of the others working for party press offices will be doing much of their research. A dapper young fellow gave us about a half hour spiel on his department and in which ways he could help us. I couldn't much concentrate on anything but his pretty blue eyes. Then we had a few of the librarians show us all the materials and resources in the library and on the computer that would be there for our use. Afterward, we met the people in the "tabling" department. They basically screen all questions that come in from constituents and prepare them for the Ministers and committees prior to the conference. Then we had lunch at a lovely (and cheap) Thai restaurant in the Quay before heading to our respective offices.



I met Rhianydd and knew immediately that we'd be friends. She's only 23 and we seem to have a lot of things in common. She took me to meet the people in the Labour Party office, including her boyfriend, and around to a couple other offices where we'd frequent. Then she sat me down and began explaining some of the work I'd be doing for the next couple of weeks. As I mentioned before, I've been doing a lot of press releases and letter writing. Then we chatted a bit and decided to call it a day around 5:00. I went home, made dinner and then went for a run and a quick workout before turning myself in to the TV the rest of the night.



Today, I worked on the pile of things given to me yesterday and finished before Rhi got back from lunch. I then chatted with Rhys, the part-timer, for a bit about soccer and rugby and whatnot. He speaks fluent Welsh and has quite an accent, but is adorable, nonetheless. I worked on some addresses for the constituency headquarters after Rhi got back from lunch and called it a day soon after. Tomorrow, I don't go in until 10 because it is a planning day where we'll set Alun's schedule and tabled questions for the next week. I will hopefully be meeting Alun on Thursday at the constituency office an hour or so drive away from the Assembly. I'm really excited to explore the constituency and get to know everyone.

I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry if this is a boring post, but I'm sure I'll have some more to report in a couple days. Miss you all!!!

I've Arrived!

Hello home! I have finally arrived in Cardiff and have settled myself in enough to get some writing in for you. I'm quite certain that I'll be able to keep up with this a bit better now that I know one of my neighbors has an unsecured wireless connection (aka, I'm stealing someone's Internet right now).

My flat is absolutely beautiful. Coming here, I didn't think we'd be living in something as nice as this. It's so homey and warm and comfortable and the views from our windows are very British. Since we live in the Bay, we can hear seagulls squaking outside for most of the day. It's wonderful.

The trip over was long and annoying. I haven't had much luck with air travel for the past several trips I've taken, so I expected nothing more for this trip. I started my journey at 8:30am EST leaving my parent's house for the Cleveland airport. I had coffee with mom and dad before bidding an utterly tearful goodbye and skipping down to my gate. I boarded the plane a few moments later and watched as Ohio vanished beneath me. I sat next to a delightful woman who was originally from India and we chatted the entire half hour it took to get to Detroit. She told me about her husband, who is a neurologist in Cleveland, and her two children who are 16 and 11. Probably the most interesting thing about her was that she, her husband and her children were all born on different continents - she was born in India, her husband in Africa, her daughter in London and her son in the US. She was heading to London to surprise an old friend at her wedding and we each had a long layover so we decided to grab some lunch together and chat a bit longer. After eating, we parted ways to go to our respective gates and I started freaking out - I mean, I was about to leave on a 7 hour flight across the ocean and when I landed next, I'd be in a completely different country on a completely different continent that I had never been to before. I called friends, texted friends, called my parents and waited patiently to board this massive plane that was parked just outside the large windows I sat beside. I watched coverage over Hurricane Ike and started to worry about my friends in Louisiana and Texas.

Finally, I boarded the plane and found my seat. The man sitting next to me creeped me out immediately and I frantically searched for an open seat far away from him. I later found out that he was from Nigeria and I realized that his lack of respect for personal space was simply a cultural trait, so I quickly became friends with him and we chatted about his family, his life in the US and his trip. He was going to visit his mother in Nigeria - she's 98 years old! Soon after I had gotten to know my new Nigerian friend, the dinner cart started coming through the aisles. My luck - they ran out of Chicken and I had to eat curry for dinner. Thankfully, there was a really good salad, cheese and a box of Oreo's or else I would have died. My seat was directly across the aisle from the bathroom and instead of being able to sleep, I had to listen to the toilet flushing and the door opening and closing for the entire 7 hour flight to Amsterdam.

When we started to near Amsterdam, I looked out the window and saw a sea of lights. The city looked so beautiful and I was so excited to get to this airport that I'd heard so many things about. We landed in Amsterdam at 5:00am - which would make it 11:00pm in Ohio. I was so excited to be able to call home, because I had this international phone card. So after using the restroom and finding my gate, I found some payphones and tried to use my card. Apparently, the only phones I could use my card on was a "red phone", which there were literally 2 of in the entire airport. I hated this airport so much because it was so big and dirty and only one person was able to properly direct me to where I needed to go. I finally found this phone just after 6:00 and called mom and dad. What a relief. My flight wasn't scheduled to leave Amsterdam until 10, so I walked around to attempt to find a wi-fi connection. I ended up paying $6 for a half hour's internet access. Annoying. I used up my half hour and ventured back to my gate only to wait for another two hours. Luckily, a good-looking young man sat near me and noticed that I had an American accent. We got to talking a bit and I found that he is, in fact, the goalie for Cardiff's professional football team. We chatted quite a bit and made plans to split a cab back to Cardiff Bay upon arrival to the airport. I fell asleep on our flight out of Amsterdam, only to awake to us landing in Amsterdam once again due to a maintainence issue. We sat on the plane a bit longer and then switched over to another plane, which I again, fell asleep on. We finally made it to Cardiff and I went through customs, exchanged my US $ for some British pounds and headed to the pay phones to call mom and dad. I caught a cab out to the Bay and had the most delightful cab driver who told me what was what and also found time to ask about my life back in the States.

I met the rest of the Ohio interns at 2:30 at the Assembly building and was so relieved to be around fellow Americans. We explored the area and then were taken to our flats. My flat is absolutely beautiful. It's got 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room - all painted in bright pastels with very nice furniture. Everything is so cozy and comfortable and cute. We went out for a drink that night but ended up coming home early because we were so tired.

The next morning, we woke up and met for breakfast at a pub in Mermaid Quay where they have a wonderful breakfast for 1.99 pounds. I had my first taste of English Breakfast tea and we ate and ate until we couldn't any longer. Then we walked to ASDA, Wales' version of Wal-Mart and did some grocery shopping. It ended up taking so long because we didn't recognize brands and foods and had to examine ingredients. But we found some really amazing foods and I'm so excited about eating for the next few days. We went out for some "clubbing" that night which is basically the same bar scene as Athens - bars with music. The pubs close early - around 10:30 or 11 and then everyone goes to the "clubs". We went to a club in Mermaid Quay and spent way too much on way too little. But we met a few nice people who treated us to a few rounds and called it a night around 2am.

This morning, we woke up to meet Angela and Nish, our program directors from Swansea Uni, for breakfast and coffee. We went to the same pub as the day before and had another delightful breakfast. They invited us to join them on an excursion tomorrow morning just a bit north of here where we'll get to see some castles and stuff. I'm really excited to get some good pictures in. Then we ventured to the city center to check out a market that we'd heard much about. We ended up finding a really cheap and wonderful pub called the Prince of Wales and had a drink before we went on our market excursion. We found a few shops but couldn't bring ourselves to spend the money on anything they had to offer. We made it to the market and picked up some produce and meat to make for dinner. Then we went back to our flats and relaxed a bit before starting the nightly activities. Two students from Oklahoma got in tonight and will be doing the same internship we are, so we cooked dinner and went down to the city center to the pubs and clubs. We had a really great time and I think we're all going to have a great time together over the next couple of months.

So that has been the past couple of days. I'm going to attempt posting some videos of the flat and of course of the excursion tomorrow over the next couple days. I'm experiencing some technical difficulties with my camera as of right now, but hope to get them figured out soon.

I hope everyone is doing well! Feel free to shoot me an email if you feel like it! kadimcdonald@gmail.com.

Cheers!