This week was a bit abnormal because it was the last week of classes for the program, so after this we will have no more presenters/daily meetings. On Tuesday I went to work in the morning (with my new spiffy security pass!), but left around lunchtime to join the class on a trip to OFCOM, which acts as a regulator and competition authority for UK communications industries. Like the PCC who we visited earlier in the trip, a major part of their job is reviewing complaint cases and determining whether or not the station broke any rules, and if they should receive sanctions. I loved this presentation because it was very interactive, and the class got to see the difference in broadcasting ethics between the US and the UK. I honestly could see myself working in an office such as OFCOM, which is good to know in case I want to intern at a place like this doing policy in Washington DC during grad school.
Tuesday night continued a trend that lasted the entire week of hanging out with our friends in Flat 10. We have spent a ridiculous amount of time hanging out with the residents of that flat, and realized that their trip was quickly coming to an end so we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible before they left.
Wednesday was extremely uneventful. Basically just went to work, and came home to hang out in Flat 10. I told you this was a habit! Funny tidbit – apparently I went through the entire day of work at Parliament wearing my dress inside out. Probably made a GREAT impression that day. I just hope that since I didn’t notice it until I got home that no one else did.
Lucky for me, I had Thursday morning off so I got to sleep in! At lunchtime though Amanda and I headed over to Parliament to eat with my coworker Sarah, since it was her last day. I am really sad that she is leaving because she is absolutely amazing, and has made my time as an intern so much fun and insightful. A perk about food at Parliament (not sure if I have mentioned it before), but it is delicious, and cheap! Amanda was instantly jealous that I am able to have this food every day. They have different specials featuring English dishes from different parts of the country, in addition to sandwiches/other normal everyday stuff. Even with a soft drink and dessert, the entire meal was under 5 pounds, which is basically unheard of. This is definitely a plus for me, especially since I can’t make that much of a variety of food myself, so I don’t get tired of eating pasta every day.
From Parliament we traveled up to Maida Vale, also known as Little Venice, which is where our British professor lives. As a fun almost-last-day-of-school activity he wanted to take us on a walking tour of his neighborhood and give us a brief history of it. A part of this tour was a boat ride down the Canal, and dinner on Primerose Hill. We ate at a Greek restaurant called Lemonia, and literally had a feast. I thought the meal was done, and was informed that we had only gotten through the appetizers. Needless to say we were all extremely stuffed. The conversation also took an interesting turn, as our American professor started telling us stories from his college and fraternity days.
Friday was also a laid back day, because in lieu of having a last class, our American professor decided to take us on a field trip to Bath and Avebury. We had to get up early to go, but we survived and stayed awake because Amanda and I had just enough time to grab some McDonald’s breakfast on the way to the bus, and the ride to Bath was two hours long so we had time to sleep. By the way, everytime we get McDonald's breakfast, the professor makes some kind of comment about how much he loves McDonald's breakfast, and then awkwardly stares at us as we eat said breakfast. Since Amanda and I had already toured the Roman bathhouse and abbey with the Primack clan last week, we decided to enjoy the nice weather and wander around the town, do a little shopping, and have a proper afternoon tea.
Honestly, Avebury was a bit of a let down – we were told that it was an older, cooler version of Stonehenge…this was definitely not the case. Yes, there were rocks that were erected similar to that of Stonehenge, but there was not much else to do in the town, and there were sheep EVERYWHERE. There was also an old burial chamber and the (apparently) oldest mound in Europe (yes, it's a big pile of dirt). The highlight from this excursion was seeing the boys running around trying to herd the sheep. Embarrassing? Just a bit. Entertaining? Absolutely.
Since it was Sade’s birthday on Friday, we attempted to go out to Sky Bar, which is on the top floor of a building near Westminster, but that plan quickly failed because the tube had shut down. Instead Amanda and I came back to spend our last night with Flat 10, and of course grabbed some McFlurries on the way home. We literally sat up there with them as they packed, listened to music, and reminisced about funny moments from our trip. We also did our meditation routine that we have adopted, called “simply be”, which was the perfect way to end the night.
Saturday morning was quite depressing for Amanda and I because we had to officially say goodbye to our friends in Flat 10, and everyone from our program who was not staying for the internship program. On the plus side, we acquired all of the food and household items that all the other flats had left over, so we have enough pasta and laundry detergent to last a century! We took the morning pretty easy, and then in the afternoon headed over to Trafalgar Square for the London Gay Pride Parade! I was really excited because the Pride Parades I had been to in the past were an absolute blast. However, I have to admit I was quite disappointed at this parade. No one was dressed up as crazy as I’m used to, the people weren’t as friendly and not down to meet new friends, and it was contained into an enclosed area so it was more compact and less people were allowed in at one time. With that said, for my gay friends that requested a hot British man, I am sorry to report that this mission was a failure. I will have to try a little harder to find them elsewhere.
After a bit Amanda and I left Pride, and decided to explore Kensington Gardens. We were confused at first because Kensington Gardens is more like a park – more green than bright colored flowers, but it was still beautiful. We ended up walking around for hours, and saw the Peter Pan statue, Kensington Palace, the Princess Diana Memorial, in addition to several other statues and memorials I forget the names of. It was a nice low key activity to do, since it was too late in the afternoon to visit any museums and the weather was nice.
Saturday night we decided to just stay in, cook dinner, and watch some movies because we had been so exhausted from the previous week, and because we wanted to get up early to go to Westminster Abbey for a service. This ended up being an epic fail because the service wasn’t in the actual Abbey this morning, and we didn’t want to sit through the service if it wasn’t in the Abbey. However, the day got better extremely fast because we went out to Wimbledon with Tory, and watched the championship games! The three of us were shocked that we got tickets because it was Wimbledon’s last, not to mention cheapest, day of the season! Our seats were in the sixth row on Court 1, so we were literally front row center, which was awesome. We also got to see some of the Djokovic v. Nadal match on the Centre Court, which was cool.
At the moment I am mentally trying to gear myself up for my first “real” workweek, which starts tomorrow. Yes, I have to work on the 4th of July. Apparently the Brits don’t celebrate it or something… can’t imagine why. I can’t believe I am missing one of my favorite, hotdog-filled holidays for the second year in a row! Hope everyone eats an extra dog for me, and enjoys the day!
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