Monday, I slept in and went to yoga class, which was especially relaxing and I came back to Vandon quite refreshed. The rest of the day I spent retrieving photos from Margaret from our times in Italy so I could post them for ya'll to see. I also tried to write a paper for Contemporary Britain but was not doing so well (it did not get written until the night before, of course!).
I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at my internship, which is undergoing a lot of transition. We have about 4 new people coming in to work, so there is a lot of moving stuff around. Within the slight increase of chaos, I was able to get a little more work to do. Two of the new employees have definitely pulled me into helping them with their projects. One organizes a mentoring program for youth and is having me research for programs and activities for the mentors to do with the kids. I will also probably be able to go with her to some meetings with the high school mentors. Another is trying to start some Arabic language courses for local businesses, residents, and community practitioners. We offer English as a second language classes at the centre for the many non-English speaking families that we serve, but he wants to flip it around to help those of foreign tongues share their language and culture in the community. I think it is a great idea, and am helping him find and recruit Arabic teachers for the course. On Wednesday afternoons, I am also observing an adult education course we are offering for parents in the area. It's meant to help parents learn how to help their children in school, helping them to improve their communication skills. It was kind of fun; we made toys out of ordinary objects and kind of talked about our backgrounds. It was pretty cool to watch the mothers as they had started the class very shy and uncomfortable and after 2 hours leave smiling and having a good time, confident in themselves. I am looking forward to going again this Wednesday.
Both Tuesday and Wednesday night I spent trying to work on that paper, a review of a topic in British media...not too exciting. I ended up staying up late on Wednesday night to finish it before class on Thursday, but I was actually fairly awake in class. The topics last week and the next 2 weeks are interesting, dealing with British identity and multiculturalism.
So besides all this, my week has been pretty boring. I've had a very relaxing and kind of lazy weekend. Yesterday was Guy Fawkes day, which is celebrated by fireworks all over London. I did not get to see any however, as it was too cloudy/hazy and did not venture out to wherever they were being shot off at. I did a lot of sleeping this weekend, which while I feel like I should be doing something outside of Vandon as my time here in London is starting to dwindle, I still felt like it was needed, especially after break. Next weekend though, I will be in Paris!!! Then Germany the weekend after that! Then soon enough, I will be back in the States with you all again.
Cheers!
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