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
Wednesday 22 October 2008
Tuesday 14 October 2008
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.
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.
Monday 13 October 2008
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
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
Thursday 9 October 2008
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
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
Thursday 2 October 2008
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.
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.
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