Fun.

For those avid followers out there: My condolences for my lack of commitment to updates. There is never a dull moment here in the UK.

I've decided because it's been so long since my last post, I would dedicate this entry to fun things and stuff. "Things" can be food and events and music and night life and other "things". Or "things" can be "things" like life and things. Things.

.....things.



SPOILER ALERT: There is no coherent order to this post, because honestly I am too lazy to think back to 10+ days into my past. Sorry for those list-makers out there.

Let's get going then, shall we?

Before I dive into too many details, I would like to share a short clip that's been brought to my attention via interwebs:



Ladies and Gentlemen: It's Britain's very own Jersey Shore spin-off. I still have yet to see a full episode of JS, but I've watched multiple episodes of Essex. Entertainment, British style. (note the disclaimer at the beginning).

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Now onto my own bit of entertainment. A gang of us headed to a local pub after work last week, to celebrate the very last day of one of the students on the unit, Allison.


Apparently now, you could also "New York Me". :)


I've been gone for a little over a month, now. Here's some love I got from the one and only Shane Armstrong back home.


Yeap, I miss my bike. I never thought it would come to that. I've dreamed about riding and the wind in my hair and the shenanigans of the nighttime booze cruises. But I think above all, I miss all my cycling derps.



So what have I been doing to pass the time? Too much. We have so much fun here, we sometimes feel guilty as we're doing them. "Aren't we supposed to be big kids now?" "Shouldn't we be doing school work/ internship reflection?" Well, when a 65% is an A for my British Politics course, it's extremely difficult to make yourself stay in at night to skim through readings (sorry Paul).

Fun Things.

Food.
There.. The food here.... I can't find the words. Help. Look at these photos and try to imagine consuming some of this delicious-ness.













Now go eat.






Leisurely Activities.
We've seen plenty of notable things over the past 10 days. This includes (but it not limited to):



-Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

-Portobello and Camden Street Markets
-Regents Park and Gardens
-Sheesha Bar Camden (Hookah)
-The inside of a London Tattoo Parlor
-The hole in Devin King's ceiling.

-The Greenwich (Gren-itch) Festival Performances.
-The Prime Meridian.
Get some.
-The outside of Wimbledon, as we would have been in the cue for 9 hours before getting in.
-A Mexican Restaurant outside of North America.
-A cyclist hit by a van.
-People sleeping all over the city.
-What a day of heat will do to the London natives.
-What an hour-long commute in both directions on the underground does to my friends/my life.


Which brings me to my featured soul of this post: Michael Harshman.


"Farting on the tube should be illegal. Think about it: It's like a world crime. Somebody could die." #shitmichaelsays


Other than all of that, we've been enjoying it all. Even the hot parts. And the rainy parts. And the unavoidable staring. And the bouts of racism. And the bad teeth. And the undeniably good fashion living in the Chelsea area.


One last note: When you're having a bad day at work, *just play with Play Dough.*









Everyone should have some on their desk at work. It really does help to pretend your 8 years old again. Clarity. Refreshment.
And honestly, it's just really effing fun.

Thank you, Sam, for reminding me of all these things. This is what I learned from Sam:








A picture is sometimes worth much more than just 1,000 words. It's all about your perspective.

Job?

Shit.

Interning is hard.


Especially when you aren't getting paid. Especially when you have to get up at 6:00am to make it to work by 7:30am. Especially when you're working with 12 kids all day, who need specific attention in ways that suit each one individually.


But I'm learning. so. much. The experience I've already gained in only 2 short weeks on the job cannot be matched. Honestly- I feel like I could launch straight into the child/family psychology field now and not feel like I'd be doing more harm than good.


There are 2 shifts during the day: The "early shift" (7:30am-3:30pm), and the "late shift" (1:30pm-9:30pm). I only intern Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with class every Tuesday night from 6:00pm-8:30pm. So Tuesdays are full of awful responsibilities. I've noticed my mood gradually decreases around this time of the week.


The children have already started responding to me just as they would to the permanent members of staff. They all call me by name, and ask me for guidance/permission when needed. It's a strange phenomena- being in charge of people. Usually I'm the one confabulating my schedule to adhere with exams and work shifts and anything else thrown at me. It's also very interesting to sit in on the school sessions, from a completely different perspective. It's interesting to see all the theories and strategies actually put to use. I feel old.


Let's take a brief break from responsibility banter, and focus more on how important this place is to the children enrolled. Looking back on my childhood, there's not a single thing I'd change. My family and neighborhood and the opportunities with each was God sent. I always keep this in the front of my mind: It may be taxing for me to go into work every day, but helping those kids just be kids and understand and enjoy themselves is always my central focus.



Because who doesn't want to make a soap mo-hawk every now and again? (My nephew, for those of you that don't know).




************


Changing gears now, let's move on to the life and times within the city. I've made an absolutely brilliant friend here by the name of Jen (Altheide). You know those people you feel like you've known forever, even when you just met them? Yeap.












Coincidence that her name is Jen? (JBARR BEIBER).


A part from work and class, this past weekend (on Sunday), we headed to the beautiful town of Bath to see Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. So, so pretty. Totally worth suffering through the rain and wind and hell that was the hill of Stonehenge.








Fetch.


As promised, here is a tribute to Jen's BF back home, Andrew, who thinks I'm annoyed by the presence of his "hick" accent in the background of my London flat via Skype.



You're like, totally the featured person of this post.




**********


Changing gears again: The rest of the week was work, and late-night walks. Apparently, we live roughly 15 minutes from the Thames by foot. Who'd a thunk? There's a bunch of trails nearby for walking, running, and narrowly avoiding bikers.


Today while downtown, we saw a man on a bike get hit by a van. That was scary/cool. Mostly scary. Then the bloke in the van pulled over, got out, and started (or thought about) verbally abusing the cyclist, who just rolled away. Even though it was the cyclist's fault, we made sure he was okay. --> Good samaritan deed of the day.


Afterwards, we went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. IT WAS AWESOME!





Going out of order a bit- Last night, we went to a club in Soho called "Punk"- One of England's many, many gay bars. At one point, some of the bartenders walked around handing out free fried chicken on napkins. Yeah thanks! I had a drummy. I continued dancing.



Mmmmmm.





Theme? "Your Mum's House."


I've decided through it all, things are just better over here. The Monarchy and royalty only makes it better. The Queen's birthday was last weekend, and they had an all-day parade in her honor.


What was the name of the dude that Katie married? Hurley? Henry? Something... Bob?


It's just brought me to my final conclusion for this segment:





Girls Rule.

Love. This. Place.

I don't even know where to start.

I've always thought that nowhere in the world could hold my attention quite like Australia and New Zealand did. False. London gives me goosebumps- the kind you get during your first middle school slow dance and you experience the rush of hormones for the first time. Except here, it's a much more trendy hormonal rush.

I want to drink wine and smoke cigarettes and go to live poetry readings (which I'm doing this coming Monday night, except NOT smoking cigarettes). Getting up and drinking fresh coffee from the Troubadour right down the road. Do you know how many famous people first played at this cafe'? Yes- it's 3 blocks from my apartment. This was my pick-me-up after the news about Jazz.





Internship
..is going very well. I've really gotten to know some of my co-workers a lot better, as well as the other interns. Everybody is undeniably awesome and posh and full of British pride and manners, but they all clearly know how to have a good time as well. As far as the kids go- I've already learned so. much. Remember, these kids have anything from severe anxiety to psychotic disorders (one patient even hears voices on a nightly basis). Pretty intense. The whole experience, if anything, will be completely humbling. To realize that my life is so incredible that I sometimes feel guilty.

Class
...sucks.


British politics are worse than American politics believe it or not, and the Westminster model is slowly failing the United Kingdom. But (and this line is for my mother), I *am* in fact, learning from the class, and I'll be sure to pay attention and do what I'm supposed to do, anyway.
But, our professor is so cool. He's Canadian, and he just really doesn't have any rules, other than don't be an arrogant American asshole. Apart from that, we really have free range. The class meets once a week on Tuesday nights for a couple hours. I suppose it could be much worse.


We've been keeping pretty busy trying to do whatever we can to actually gain some bearings here. I swear the city gets bigger every time I go out. Thursday night we went to a club called "VERVE". It was meh. Not too much to say about this- except we somehow always manage to find the late bus and get home, to the other side of London (the Tube shuts down at 12:30am).

Let's move on to the fun stuff, shall we?

Friday we were super tourists and headed to see more of the city. We headed to ABBEY ROAD- and ended up doing the famous cross walk. We also made a stop at Westminster Abbey- Where the royal wedding took place just weeks ago.



Friday night consisted of a visit to a club of all clubs: TigerTiger. So much fun. We danced all night, and they had DJs on nearly every corner of the club. It was 4 stories, and each floor had somewhat of a different theme.




In fact, to make sure our time at TigerTiger was satisfactory, I received an e-mail from the club the following morning. I took a screen shot to remember it forever.


***********


Saturday. How do I even begin to explain Saturday? Well, it was the Naked Bike Ride of 2011 through Hyde Park in central London. See below.




Excellent.

We proceeded to continue the festivities in the park for the remainder of the afternoon, which was 65 and sunny. Absolutely perfect. We actually took a moment of silence to completely take in how fabulous life really is.


Tomorrow we're headed to Stonehenge and Bathe for a tour/site seeing. But, I should mention that I'm still keeping it real over here ....




..and temporarily borrowing things and finding new locations for them.



And even being so far away, Skype and e-mail and Facebook and Twitter and every other virtual connection you can imagine has been keeping me up-to-date with life back home. In fact, my lovely sister sent me the following photo and video combo, to make an almost perfect weekend that much better.



Love my buddy.

Jazz.

Listen to this:


While you read.


Last night (Tuesday night), I got an e-mail from my dad, asking me to call him from my cell phone. I found this a strange request as obviously I'm overseas, and this costs more than I make in a day (probably because I'm unemployed). Regardless, I knew something was up. He informed me of the fact that my dog, Jazz Bremer, was on her last leg.

I'll spare the details which involved me bawling hysterically and wishing I could be back home, but I knew there was no way around it.There had been plenty of false alarms in the past, and part of me wasn't willing to admit the basic facts to myself.

This morning, my mom had to make a solo run to the vet up in Hayward, Wisconsin, as she and Jazz were up at our cabin alone for a couple days.

And I quote from mom's e-mail:
"It was a VERY peaceful process. They injected her and she just drifted off."


She said there was a point when Jazz just looked at her, and she knew. She knew what she had to do, and she knew what Jazz needed above all.


Jazz. MY buddy. The same dog that half-swallowed a muskie lure when she was one.
The same dog that swallowed half a corn cob, and was rushed to the vet for "emergency exploratory surgery".
The same dog that ate an entire bag of green paintballs, of which we all suffered the consequences of for about a week to follow...

The same dog that ate an entire bag of powdered doughnuts, and tried to hide the evidence.


The same dog that never left my mom's side as she fought through cancer.

Still even writing this, and being so far from home, it hasn't completely sunk in yet. I have gone over in my mind countless times how I wish I would've paid more attention to her during this or that event, or why I didn't let her outside when she desperately needed to go. I've gone through guilt for both ignoring and punishing her, as well as total and complete denial that she won't be there when I get home. How could I possibly be so ungrateful around the one thing that has never looked down on me?

I can't help but think of all the events in my life that revolved around that dog. From her unwrapping (or destroying) Christmas gifts, to watching her absolutely roam and own Moose Lake in northern Wisconsin.













I know whenever you read anything about other people losing a dog, it doesn't make a substantial impact on your daily routine. But to those of you that have dogs: Go hug them. Play with them. Do not take them for granted. Dog years move pretty quickly: I'm speaking as an expert here. For everyone that knew/loved/played with Jazz- She loves you, too.



She took a tiny piece of my heart for 13 years, and the rest of my life to come. A first dog is like a first love- The cliche' "You'll never forget them." It blows my mind that she had such an impact on my life, and yet didn't say a single word.....







Miss you, Buddy.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1353034359509

London.

London.

London.



.....seriously- London.



This city is unreal. Let me share some of the adventures I've already been on.

A part from flying through a thunderstorm and dropping nearly 100 feet, the plane ride was relatively smooth. My luggage wasn't lost, and this was the first time in all of my travels that I haven't been frisked or pulled aside at the airport for a "random search". Although I must say, those full-body scanners are pretty cool. I couldn't help but think about the airport employees thinking about every single person naked as he or she went through.

Upon arrival at Heathrow, I felt like an expert at this whole international travel thing. I found the terminal we were supposed to meet at, and waited there as other interns slowly rolled up. Our school (Arcadia University) picked us up at the airport and took us to our apartments free of charge.

My. Apartment. Rules.


I share a room with 2 other girls, and by a stroke of luck, ended up with the largest room in the entire building.









There are 7 girls total on my flat, including myself. We have 2 bathrooms. This apartment is 5x better than my living arrangements in Madison.

Arrival
We arrived in London around 8:00am. The plane ride was (only) 8 hours, so I watched a bunch of movies and realized we were descending to land. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much on the plane. I also had another entire day ahead of me. Poor planning? Possibly.

We've spent the past 5 days enjoying free meals, free transportation, and the effects of a British pint compared to that of an American pint. The alcoholic content is much higher here. I'm not complaining. Blonde and bitter!

Everything is expensive.
Everyone is nice.
We live in one of the most posh pockets of the city. We live in the Kensington and Chelsea Burrough of the Greater London county. Yes, we live nearly in Chelsea.

The similarities of the UK to Australia are never-ending. I've enjoyed some beer and candy that I thought I would never ever get to taste again.


Sights
Figuring out 'The Tube' in London was actually not as challenging as I had anticipated. It's unbelievably convenient, and takes you to nearly every area of London.
The buildings and the people and the sites and the London Eye and EVERYTHING is just unreal. In fact, we were on the bridge near the London eye, when we were photo-bombed by a group of French men all wearing orange reflector vests and drinking from a bottle of Jager (there are no open intoxicant laws here: People walk around drinking all the time!)


The fackin' French.


Internship
... is perfect for me. I'm working at the "Collingham Family and Childcare Centre"- a 15 minute walk from my apartment in Redcliffe Gardens. I met the director, Paul, on Friday during my 'interview'. It wasn't an interview. He said it was just a quick meeting to see whether or not I thought the centre was a good fit for me.

.... it's perfect.

He let me choose which days I wanted to intern (we're required 3 days/week- Naturally I chose Mon-Wed for traveling reasons). He also told me that the kids in the centre range from ages 7-13, and have all experienced some severe emotional trauma in their lives. Their disorders range from Anorexia to Autism, to severe Psychosis.
Paul also informed me that I will literally become part of the team there, and the only difference in regards to rank will be between the kids and the adults. I'm allowed to enforce the same rules as the actual employees, and I can interact with the kids as much or as little as I feel comfortable doing (of course Paul threw in that Americans are usually moreso 'outgoing" when it comes to "things like this" when compared to Brits). Pshhhh.

I start on Monday and work a typical 9:00-5:00. The first thing I will be doing upon arrival is reading the personal and medical files of every single child in the centre. This is not only frowned upon in the states, but is also grounds for arrest and could lead to some serious legal issues down the road. Which brings me to my next point-

Class
In order to complete my degree, I only need this 3-credit internship, as well as 3 more credits for a required course: Policy and Politics of the United Kingdom. The class meets once a week on Tuesday nights. The only major assignment is a (holy shit) 5,000-word paper due by the end of the term. Juuust the worst. I thought I was done with papers. I'm thinking of writing my paper on the British healthcare policies compared to that of America. It's like night and day.

Night life
Last, but most certainly not the least in any way, I bring you the night life of London.



So fetch.

The night life and pubs and watering holes are just unreal. There is a pub nearly on every corner, and I'm smitten. It's completely fine to grab (lots of) beer during lunch, as well as directly after work. Also, the night life really picks up around 9:00-10:00pm. This is fabulous, for people like me that like to sleep. It was brought to our attention shortly before leaving for a Friday night out that there are more than 300 languages spoken all over the United Kingdom. Sometimes these language barriers cause embarrassment.

DOH!



The partying really never stops. Especially when there's football. (Get Swiss!)




It's only been 5 days, but I already feel like I fit in pretty well here. This is all I want- To live here, work here, and bring friends with me, and bikes. and make the roads more bike-safe. (I'm surprised I haven't been hit by a double-decker yet.)


But seriously... What gives??




Until next time....