My Return & Final Thoughts…

So I returned back to the states yesterday around 6pm; after a nice 2 hour delay stuck on the plane on the run way in Heathrow and a nice 8 hour plane ride (which took a detour to spain because of the volcanic ash). Leaving from my place on Kensington it was hard to believe that I was going to be back in the states that night. I’m still not sure how I feel about it now waking up in my own bed this morning. I’m also thinking that It won’t really hit me for another week after a while.

Thinking back I look at who and where I was before I left before the trip; nervous, scared, excited, curious, and unsure about what the future/experience was going to give me. After all of this – I am happy to say that this has been the best experience I have had in my life. Getting to live, meet, work, study, form friendships with people and cultures vastly different from myself. It gave me the chance to really see and understand the countries outside the us (as well as show me why americans can be given such bad names in some parts of the world). If there is anything that I have learned through this experience it has been one thing: I should never assume that my culture is “correct” and others are wrong.

At dinner last night while talking about my trip with my folks I have realized something. Which I have felt strongly before my trip, and only after my experience that to judge other cultures/countries/people who are different by my own (culture/countries/people) is wrong. For me to evaluate some bodies else way living who comes from a different back ground than my own isn’t fair and not correct. Who is to say my way is better than theirs or theirs better than mine?

For others who may be thinking about trying what I did or something similar I can’t encourage you enough to try.  However to be honest, although it can be amazing experience, it doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult or frustrating at times but I wouldn’t try to not have that stop you.  This experience has also made me realize and made things clearer on where, what, and how I want my life to be like in the future. I will greatly miss the people I have met and been friends with while on my travels but, if anything, this has just given me a good excuse to go back to the UK.

I also like to add that I had the privilege to meet and stay with some very interesting people these previous months as well. All whom I will be greatly miss but have helped form my great memories of the UK. The memories I have will always stay with me. Than finally I want to thank my family. Some more than others really helped me and make this chance possible. For that I can’t say how much I am thankful and love them for all of what they have done.  Thank you.

As for everyone else – thank you too for being supportive (you know who you are) and supportive. I hope that through my pictures, writing, and descriptions I have opened up your mind or got you curious about the world. There are a lot of great things to see and I know I’m not finished yet. Good luck and everyone have a great summer and I’ll be seeing you all next fall. As for my friends who are graduating – I wish you the best of luck for the future and, although I might have not been there this previous spring, I hope on seeing all of you in the future!

Hampton Court

So last friday I got to go on a small day trip to Hampton Court right after class. The day was bright and sunny which worked out very well for taking pictures. This palace/court is massive having multiple wings, private chapels, easily over a hundred rooms, hidden passage ways, mots, court yards with fountains, stachues, various pieces of art (sculptures/oil paintings), private gardens, little labyrinth, and water ways. I was given an audio guide-thing but ended up just taking lots of pictures (or the best I could) and getting lost in the massive complex. The other thing that was fun was there were actors who dressed up in old entire (King Henry’s time) and would act out scenes continually throughout the day.

It just blows my mind to think that people could live so lavishly. It feels like you’re in some fairly tale. The other thing I found interesting was how endless this palace felt and how easy it was to run into something new. But the overall surprise was the detail of art throughout the building. Massive paintings on ceilings or walls, the gold leafed carvings or architecture, gigantic hand-woven tapestries, and the private church/chapel (which I could not take pictures in sadly). At the same time there were points where I would just scratch my head and wonder the simple question: “why?” I mean it might be just a king thing because you look at some of the things they would make or design and know there is really no point for it. An example would be how at one point I ran into this enormous room where its entire upper portion of the wall was decorated with hundreds of weapons (rifles, pistols, swords, spears, or armor). All of them intricately placed together in certain patterns or forms. Damn. Whats the purpose – other than looking cool and being dangerous to stand under.

Wish I could tell you more detail on its history but hopefully the pictures came out alright (or the best they could).

        

     

     

     

    

     

         

    

     

     

         

  

My Day in Oxford…

So as of last week I am officially done working at the Oxford House. I had a great experience and have made some new friends and met some real interesting people. As for this week I have a final report to write detailing everything that I have done at my internship – which isn’t as hard as it sounds. I feel like I did pretty well and my supervisor feels the same. Like I said I took pictures of my work place as well as pictures of the community that I was working in.

       

As for last Wednesday, which was my big day giving a presentation to Oxford University about the Oxford House and our potential goals for the future, it went well. It started with meeting my supervisor with a co-worker at the rail station from the tube station where we took about an hours ride to Oxford. Once we arrived we managed to go visit a couple of people who were going to join us for the meeting at their organisation. We got a tour, saw them in their work enviroment, and headed on our way to Keble College (which has strong history with the Oxford House). We arrived meeting the warden of Keble College, and we all proceeded to have a nice lunch. It wasn’t the exact lunch that I was expecting at all – it was very elegant: in a private room, a set-out table, having a few courses, servers, 6+ pieces of silver-wear (actual silver), glass bottles of multiple kinds of drinks, etc. I was glad I attended those etiquette dinners back at SVC.

After that everyone went to the meeting room  where we met up with the others who were in our meeting. The meeting went well: starting with introductions, than my co-worker and I giving our presentation about the Oxford House (its past, present, and future) which followed a nice discussion about the possible way of how we can reach our potential goals for the future. Overall, I felt that everyone enjoyed the presentation and a lot of good ideas were being passed around (which I wrote down and made sure to leave a copy with my supervisor – they also got sent to everyone who attended). I also felt that this moment was very important for the Oxford House because it started the ball to start rolling. Of course all the things we were talking about and wanted to try doing for the Oxford House with Oxford University won’t happen over night but its the spark that really counts – I’m just glad to be responsible for helping start that spark. 

After wards we left the meeting around 3:30/4pm where everyone from the Oxford House went to have tea and cake. This also gave us  a chance to share our thoughts about how the meeting went. I just remember feeling so tired, starting to get a migraine, but happy as well as in disbelief about what we all had managed to do not only that day but my entire 10 weeks with the organisation. I got home that day and fell asleep so quickly that night. I finally could just sleep, relax and feel happy about reaching that goal which we set at the very beginning.  

Here are more pictures of Oxford…

     

     

     

   

 

 

Last Week of Work…

So hopefully everyone is having (or had) a great weekend.

It has been going very well over here, enjoying myself, going out, seeing live music, gallery openings, dancing (something I also find hard to believe), getting ready for my final weeks (including finals and papers), making friends (mainly with the English and Germans).

Well I am coming to my final week of work which is somewhat hard to believe. I think back to my first week where I was all over the place trying to figure things out: getting used to the new people, enviroment, working style, and trying to figure out a general plan about how to reach our end-goal. I am happy to say that, coming into my final week (week 10), it looks like we have reached our goal.

On Wednesday my supervisor, a board member, a co-worker, and I are going to meeting at Keble College in Oxford to give a small presentation about our organisation and its history with Oxford University. The purpose: trying to help start the process of re-establishing the strong relationship between the Oxford House and Oxford University that thrived years ago. We are than going to have some speakers talk a little more about the history of our organisations and schools. Which than will be followed by a brainstorming/informal discussion about how the Oxford House can reach its potential goals.

We have close to 15-20 people invited - ranging from background and age including: chaplains, reverend’s, University directors, presidents of other organisations and representatives, as well as very enthusiastic members who are very eager to see somethings happen. We have this the day before our last day – so I’m hoping that with this meeting it will really set a spark or start the ball rolling for our organisations future.  I am just glad that I was able to help and set this day for everyone. It has been a real pleasure meeting, visiting, inviting, and showing these people about our space and position in the London community.

I am also currently writing the major paper/report for this internship experience. It has to be 3,500+ words and it describes in detail all the things I have done, doing, the place my internship, the structure in the work place, little history, etc. I’m not to worried about it but I sure got my work cut out this week.

I also plan on taking lots of pictures of my work place, its area, and some co-workers. I also plan on doing the same when in Oxford – so hopefully y’all be seeing them around next week.

School & Work

So happy late easter to everyone! Not sure what all of you did but I spent an exciting day getting over a head-cold while writing a paper on Play Therapy. Exciting I know. 

So I’m not sure if it’s just me but I forgot how difficult it can be trying to balance both school and a job. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy them both, but trying to both at the same time can be hard. It’s trying to jungle two different lives in a way. With school you have homework/assignments/reading and other things that are taken home with you to accomplish. Whereas, work, you have projects, deadlines, or other goals that are trying to be reached in x-amount of time. Than on top of that in most cases you have to act two different kinds of behavior for work and than one at school.

I enjoy both but trying to do well at both at the same time is challenging – not impossible – just challenging. Today it also really hit me that I got about 3 more weeks of my job; which is exciting, nerve-racking, sad, and much-needed. I have really grown and learned things about myself so far in this experience. I wouldn’t have changed anything. It has also made it clear on what I would like to do and where I would like to be in my life. through my travels so far I’ve come to realize, that for me  personally, the best way to understand or find something – is to get lost in it.  People can discover and find things about themselves or the world around them that they might have never thought existed.

More Details of the Internship…

So I apologize because I realize that although I have been showing everyone some great pictures, sharing good experiences, I haven’t mentioned anything really about what I am doing in my internship. I went ahead and updated the internship section of this blog – so please feel free to look it over. It is the basic and has been chopped down so (hopefully) its understandable.

I have had great opportunities and made some great connections with many different kinds of individuals and have had a fun time gathering a network together for our organisation. I partially thank that to my psych background, and some of the counselling course that I have taken (including the one here). Than being recognized for that hard work and skill feels great (which my supervisor has been real good about doing). I just hope that we make it to our goal in the remain 4/5 weeks.  

Theres a lot more I could write in general about the work enviroment here about the major changes and differences in the work enviroment here compared to the States. I will say that I wish it was as relaxed at home like it is here.

Stonehenge & Bath…

So today I managed to go on a day trip with my program to the famous Stonehenge and the city of Bath which is known for its Roman baths. Waking up and leaving about 9am a little over 120 students got on the buses and we started our journey out to the country side of England.

On our way through the country, we go up, down, and curve through the hills. Passing: farms, small little towns, military buildings, old buildings, abandoned towns, locations of recorded unexplained crop circles, and patches of forest (which most locals believe are haunted or cursed). We finally arrive to the Stonehenge after about 2-3 hours. Walking out of the bus you pass through a little gate, go under the road walking through a little tunnel (seeing old pictures of how historians/archeologists believed the site looked at its completion) and come out on the opposite side of the street where the Stonehenge sits which is surrounded by a rope gate (with is gives a good 30-40ish feet away).

Walking to this wonder I could not help but feel in awe with the massive sizes of these rocks (which ranged from 25-60 tones a stone), and thinking of how this was even possibly made hundreds of years ago way before the pyramids of Egypt. On the way over our guide kept talking about how with the site no one has really found the exact explanation of why or how this was formed. He went on to mention how people today have tried re-building this formation and failed or found out interesting information. Such as: to move one stone, it would take 500 people AND 5 years to move it up to 20 miles. There are more than 45 today  and said to have up to close to 75 (possibly more) once it was completed years ago. They also found that some of these stones come from 200+ miles away (blue stones) and today  has people have failed on trying to reenact the process. As I stood there watching the Stonehenge, listening to my iPod and about to leave; Pink Floyd’s song High Hopes started to play in my ears. I take a deep breath, inhaling the fresh clean air, smelling the mixture of earth, water, moss, and that scent of rain. I can feel the wind, the drizzling rain, the slight chill, and simply stand there taking in the view.

Although, with the areas bizarre stories, history, and unexplained events; for my second time on this entire trip I felt completely relaxed and calm. I then start to ask myself questions: why was it built? who built it? how many people were involved? was there a special reason for that area in particular? I check the time, start on my way back to parking, grab a sandwich, and get on the bus. As we leave, seeing the misty silhouette of the Stonehenge through my window covered with rain droplets, I think to myself:  maybe it’s good not to know - it leaves excitement to the imagination.

The next stop on our trip we arrive in the city of Bath, which was taken over by the Roman x-amount of years ago, and is known for its famous Roman Bath houses. This little city had more of a small town feel; surrounded with many old buildings (which fill mostly the entire central area), little hidden streets that reminded me of a maze, big open court yards/squares (which had multiple kinds of free shows going on ranging from music, magic, stunts, and comedy), lots of shops (with delicious fresh made food), statues, canals, and gardens. But the two things I remember were: a. looking down the street you can see where things end and past that the rolling hills of homes (which didn’t go to far), and b. the stones. When the original town/city was built, all the buildings used the same type of pale yellow stone in the construction. So literally looking everywhere – everything has the same color or design. Something that I have never really seen ever in my lifetime and had a major impact on the feel of the little town.

Getting inside I got to seen the famous Roman Bath house which is constructed on England’s only natural hot spring. There are stories of how the water had strong powerful powers and healing abilities that brought people from hundreds of miles away. The building had multiple chambers, all having warm/hot water, and decorated by many roman gods/goddesses/important officials. The house also had heated floors, and toilets. Overall, I could not but be impressed with the amazing kind of work that was put into this building, and to think with the technology they had it makes it more impressive. After looking and listening to the history of the building; I left and got to explore little parts of the town (including seeing a juggling act – where a guy took a little girl and with her on his shoulders drove around – he also took a 10ft cycle and juggled flaming sticks).

After that I boarded back on the bus around 4pm and we went ahead and made one quick stop to another building which by that time I had no idea what it was about or who made it. Still don’t either. Than after we started on our way back to the school a nice 3 hour ride. As we start driving back people start curling up falling asleep. For a while I just look out into the marshy country side, now being covered by a thick mist,  thinking about what I had seen that day as I hear the song Stairway to Heaven slowly put me to sleep.

Here are some more pictures…

     

               

               

    

Weekend in Paris…

Heres a nice big long entry for everyone to make up for the gaps in between!

So this previous weekend I got to go to Paris, France, through my program and had an amazing time. We started out taking a coach to the Kings Cross train station, from there got on our train that took a 3 hour ride, and arrived that early evening on a friday. From there we got to our hotel (which was very posh and comfortable), than quickly rushed out to catch the tube system for a boat tour down the river seeing many historic buildings at night, and to end the night we got to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

When we came up the escalator the first thing you see is the tower which literally was shimmering with lights from the base all the way up to the top. apparently, every hour the whole tower lights up with thousands of small christmas-like looking white lights that start flashing. This happens only for about 5 or so minutes and can be seen from miles away. It very much has an enchanting look. Once you get in however, you have to take 3 lifts (which had big clear walls and tops) to get to the very top of the tower. It’s the last lift which made me starting to feel a little dizzy. Once at he top, the doors open, and your in a room with windows everywhere that can look out in every direction of Paris. You also have the choice of taking some stairs to the top of the box where people can see the view from outside on top of the room. Upstairs you can also find small quarters where apparently the architect could have slept and lived.

Being on top I’m not sure how I felt. I was excited, scared, and amazed. For anyone who is afraid of heights this can be a completely nerve-racking experience. Looking around you could see everywhere. All the streets, all the lights, the cars, specks of what could have been people, the lite-up boats in the river with faint music playing, and the feel of the wind. Lucky for us it was a clear night, cold, but very clear letting us see so much. I quickly  took some pictures, felt the damn thing shake, and that’s when I decided it was time to go back down. Once back at the bottom, grabbed a crepe, and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. 

The next day I got to go on a tour seeing some historic sites as well as go inside such as: Seeing the Effial Tower during the day, some other amazing buildings (all in french which can’t remember to save the life of me), and Notre Dame. That church was amazing to see and going inside I had a completely different feeling compared to any other church I have went to in my life. Just seeing the outside and all the elegance, art, statues, detailed pillars, and then to go in to see these massive stained glass windows I could not help but feel in awe. It really makes you appreciate structures from that time as well as wishing to see some more places with that much effort put into it. But the thing that I found the most inspiring and that really hit me deep down were these two note books. They were basically like one of those visitor books from the states but instead people would write there prayers. Why I think it struck me was that all these people, strangers, not caring that others might see what they wrote put something down. Giving there names, sharing personal information, asking for guidance/help, writing in multiple languages, and page after page. Looking at this it made me realize that although everyone is different there is some universal connection through all of us - whether it is religion or not. I made sure to write something as well.

The rest of the day I spent it with a few others looking at museums, art (including the Mono Lisa – which I though after first seeing it, “really? that’s it?”), shops, and other famous historic sites. Making sure trying to take as many pictures I could. Returned back to the hotel, took a nap, and had a nice little meal with some of my other people in my program (getting to try S-Car-Go which I admit I very much liked and had the texture of garlic muscles). Sunday, I went with my roommate to the catacombs here in Paris (which luckily was brought up the night before from some other people who went that saturday the day before) where I climbed down god knows how many stairs deep underground beneath the street and we got to explore the tunnels.

This was by far one of the most memorable moments; seeing walls lined with bones neatly piled on one another with the skulls decoratively placed in patterns. One thing that stuck out to me that I didn’t notice before was how deep these piles of human bones went into the walls. Walking down there, semi-hunched over, breathing in the old smell, and seeing some lights here and there around us really leaves an impression. This is where I also got to hold a human skull from the crypt as well and took pictures. The whole walk took about a little over an hour before getting the long winding stairs to the sufferance. Coming out into the fresh air and day-light I could not help to be happy to be alive and moving. 

Coming back we got to the hotel, grabbed our things, and got on the coach which took us back to the train station, where people grabbed some cheese and a beget before getting on the train. On the ride back I vaguely slept coming in and out of it while watching the Green fields of France. Overall, the small trip was amazing and I got to experience things I hadn’t or never thought I would in my life time. 

Below I have pictures that I took as well as from others who I was with before my camera’s battery ran out. Enjoy!

     

      

    

My First Week at the Internship…

I apologize for not writing for sooooo long but I have been just trying to get adjusted with my new schedule with the internship, classes, and homework. Overall, my first week I would say was a roller-coaster ride which I’m still getting used to this week. But over the weekend I got to have a great experience at a place called The Medieval Banquet  which is located across from the Tower of London, and right on the docks at night. This event has lots of things, sword-fighting, magic tricks, dancing, music, a 4 course meal (which are all hand foods), interactive servers (all whom are woman who strictly answer by yelling or calling “Wench”), including unlimited wine and beer during the meal. 

Another big part of the experience is the actually building you go itself. apparently it used to be an old working dock with plenty of storage space for spices, ivory, and other traded items way way back years ago before it was closed down and left. Now it is filled with suits of armor, swords, the basement (where everything was stored) has benches and long tables enough to fit 400 people below. Than add costumes, lights, and old music its as though your in another place. I felt like I was 8 years old again. So after my first week this was perfect place to relax, get some food, be entertained, while pounding the table with my fists shouting for my Wench. If anything its like a Medieval Times back in America.

Hopefully the pictures help paint a good image in your head of the place.

       

Going to the Park…

So near where I am staying I have Kensington Garden’s and Hyde Park which have many different places to explore. Walking through the park you feel as though the city disappears (half the reason because the park is so massive) and is a great place if you want to relax or excercise. In the center of the park there is a giant pond where all kinds of birds, from all sizes, can be fed and watched from the benches. When I was there I remember watching these young kids who get excited to come feed the geese/swans but as soon as these massive birds would waddle close the kids would freak out crying. I found it amusing.

The parks also have many statues (including the famous Peter Pan statue which is located between the parks) as well as having the arts center Royal Albert Hall which is across the street from his massive golden statue. He was responsible in creating the first and others halls dedicated to the arts in London. Hope you enjoy the pictures!