FIRST WEEK AT WESTMINSTER!

It has been a while since I have blogged, but that is mainly because I have just started my first week interning in Parliament. To sum it up.. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! The office staff is much smaller than DC, which I really like and I really life my colleagues. They have been so great with introducing me to life at Westminster and also introducing me to their friends during lunch. I would argue that I, by far, have the best office to work for! I do quite a bit work that is similar to what I did in DC by writing letters, and dealing with mail, but I also get to help with scheduling and invitations for Louise. I love working in a small office, mainly because Chris and Alex show me some great stuff and explain so much of what is happening in Parliament that I am unfamiliar with. I got to go to a few of the pubs in Parliament after my first day, which had to be one of the highlights of my time here. I met some really nice people and got to experience what staffers do after a typical day. I can't wait to go more, if nothing else just to see MPs and Lords who also frequent the pubs.

Today was particularly special because the MP who I work for, Louise won chair of the transport committee for the House of Commons! Both Chris and Louise said the work would pick up, but I am excited to see what goes on behind committee meetings here versus the ones that I worked in DC. We even got to celebrate with Louise and her husband at the MP only bar called Strangers. It has the most beautiful view of
London!

Basically to sum it up, I love London, my internship, and the guys I work with. It is such a great experience and I am having a blast!

Today I had my midterm exam and of course, it was all in essay format. Luckily, I feel confident in what I studied and I was able to get the main points of the six essays I had to write (I hope!). After the exam, I took the tube to meet with my boss in Louise's office. He was so nice and really made me feel comfortable with coming in to work for a foreign government. We had tea and he went over the role I will play in the office. It is rather small, which is so exciting because I will have the chance to work with senior staffers. The work he described is also fairly comparable to what I did in Washington, which makes me confident about diving in on Monday. I am very excited. I start at 10am, (such a blessing) which as you all know I am pretty much the anti-morning person. The MP offices are set up much like Congressional offices in that the district office handles the casework for individual constituents and the Westminster office will handle policy issues. I will be in the policy office that is my main area of interest.

Tomorrow I will be going to Brighton on a day trip with a large group of my roommates. We are getting on an early morning train to get there by 10:30 and spend the day relaxing on the beach. Yes, mom and papa I did buy sunscreen so you should be proud :) The town is supposed to be very cool and relaxed with many of the restaurants and pubs located directly or in very close proximity to the beach. We will come back tomorrow night around 8pm. That will allow for a full day to relax and lay in the sand! Brighton beach is actually world-renowned and the most popular beach in England. It is known for its pebble beaches and great attractions surrounding the beach from the pubs I mentioned to shopping and clubs. It should be a great day and a perfect Saturday before work starts!

The weather is absolutely beautiful today! After class I decided to venture around for the afternoon by myself and explore. I ended up going to Tate Modern to see the art there, but sadly I have come to the conclusion that I'm not a big art fan. After I left the museum I walked along the River Thames and popped into a few shops in the area before coming back to my flat on the Tube. Tonight I have to study British Politics because I have my midterm tomorrow morning. Yes, I am dreading that. Luckily the silver lining is that on Saturday everyone is taking a train and heading to Brighton to go the beach! It is supposed to be 75 degrees and sunny so it should be a beautiful day! Now I have to go study...

Sunday was a lot of fun. I decided to do a few of the touristy things and buy tickets to the Tower of London and one of the exhibits at the British Museum. The tower was such a cool thing to see, mainly because I love The Tudors and much of what took place with Henry VIII took place at that location. The neatest was the crown jewels in their vault and also the location where all beheading took place for those in the royal circle. It was the location of all three deaths of Henry VIII's wives, most notably Anne Boleyn. After the Tower of London, we went to a pub where a group of people got the fish and chips with tartar sauce. I tried some of theirs and I am sad to say that it was not my thing. Our beefeater tour guide named Colin was funny and had a lot of this type of information. I was interested to find out that to become a beefeater and work as protection for the crown that one must have 20 years of military experience. They then reside with their families within the walls of the Tower.

Monday and Tuesday were filled with more class in preparation for the exam we have on Friday. Nothing too eventful happened other than venturing to a club with all of my roommates. It was a gay club so they had a neat drag show that everyone thought was so entertaining. Some of the men dressed up were very pretty!

Today was the first time that I set foot in Parliament. We had a tour of the House of Lords and the House of Commons with our professor. The houses are so small in comparison to those of the Senate and House. The members do not have desks, but instead sit on benches facing each other. One side is for the government and one for the opposition. I will be working for the opposition so when question time takes place on BBC, I get to see the Labour party dig at Cameron. It will be a different experience compared to Washington because I will not be working for the dominant party, which I think is exciting! The houses even have voting rooms because no procedures have been updated in over 150 rooms. They have to physically be checked off and verbally give their vote in a particular line, either on the yes or nay sides of the chamber. I also saw my office building that I work in called Portcullis House. It has an unusually large amount of chimneys on its roof so I could not miss it. The last bit of exciting news is that my member will remain the chair of the Transport committee and maintain leadership with the liaison role within the committee! I am now more excited than before to work for her. I cannot wait for Friday's interview!

Sadly today was rainy when I woke up. We decided not to let it get to us and we trekked to Camden Market anyway. It is such a cool place! It goes on for blocks and blocks with food, clothing, and vintage shops. They also had this stand that did fish pedicures where the fish eat your dead skin. I decided I had to be adventurous and see what it was all about. The place was so clean and also cool because I had a neat view of the market while I was sitting there. It also felt really funny. After that, we all walked around a bit more and everyone bought hats. I didn't realize that in Europe everyone wears them, so I of course had to fit in as well. Its a neat fedora.

Last night we went to a local pub we frequent and then to a posh club called plastic people. We took the bus for the first time too. The club was so different than anything Ive ever been to. It was super expensive and the place was located in a basement with very dim lights. It is mainly known for its djs, which is why we went and it was a lot of fun. Now I am going to take a nap and relax until tonight

I got my internship placement today!! I will be working at Westminster in the parliamentary office of Louise Ellman. She is a member of the Labour party, which the exact party I hoped to work for. I'm excited to work for a woman and even more excited to work for one who received so much support in the recent election. She was elected with over 59% of the vote, which is quite extraordinary since the next closest contender only received 22%. She represents Liverpool as her constituency. If you are unfamiliar, the UK is much more liberal in their beliefs than the States. The most left wing bordering on socialism is the Liberal Democrats, then closest to US democrats is the Labour party. They have become slightly more conservative in the past 20 years, which now makes them very comparable to the dems in the US. The Conservatives are of course the most conservative, but still reside very left on the political spectrum. I go next friday June 4th for my orientation and interview with a staffer in her office. The commute will not be bad, only about 25 minutes which is nice. I don't think it is possible to get as lucky as I was in Washington with a 3 minute commute, so I am pleased.

I know this because we went to Westminster yesterday and visited Westminster Abbey. It was such a beautiful church with so much unique history. The coolest part was definitely getting to see the coronation chair being restored. It was built in the year 1300 for King Edward I. Almost all British monarchs have been crowned in that chair since 1308. It is typically put away and rarely seen, so to get to witness its restoration was so great! I also saw the graves of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Darwin, and Oliver Cromwell. After we left the abbey, we decided to walk home and guess what we ran directly into? THE SEX AND THE CITY 2 PREMIERE!!!!! I was beyond words, especially because I have never seen a premiere before. I sat down at a restaurant right off of the main road where the premiere was so I could see everything while eating dinner. Sadly I did not stay long enough to see the stars because they did not arrive until close to 8pm and we had already made plans to go to a pub called O'Neils. However, when Twilight comes for its premiere I will be camping out to see Rob. I already did find out where his flat used to be here in London.. I may have stalked it just a bit. (I am kidding I swear). I am very excited for another weekend here to enjoy more of the weather. We decided to remain in London this weekend and take a few tours and go to the markets around town. I also really want to go see Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, which is an actual alley here in London and of course the sign for platform 9 and 3/4. Apparently people actually run into it and knock themselves out still... That should be a really humorous afternoon for me!

It has been a few days since I have last blogged, mainly because I have been very busy with class and Caitie is here! She arrived on Monday, but before her flight got in, I had the chance to truly enjoy the beautiful weather that London was having. We decided to go to Regents Park to listen to music and lay in the grass. It an amazingly large park for its location illustrated by how long it took us to find the hill that we wanted to lay on top of. Cait, Marty, and Jake decided to see how close they could get to the zoo, which is also in the park, so Dan and I headed on the long trek to Primrose Hill. On the way, we saw the royal gardens and the cricket and shuffleboard fields, plus quite a few ponds. When we finally got to the hill we wanted to climb it, but of course neither of us saw the trail to the left of the hill and we ascended the grass. The view was absolutely beautiful! You don't realize how high you are until you reach the top and turn to see Big Ben, the London Eye, St. Paul’s, and the overall London skyline. It was so great! Eventually all of the rest of my roommates arrived and we laid and enjoyed the weather until Caitie got here. After she arrived, they wanted to grab food and the only thing opened that I could navigate to was Subway (I know shocking). We then took her and her three friends to a pub so they could see the typical London pub and experience Carlsberg beer, which they had heard about.
On Tuesday, Caitie and I woke up early and had breakfast before I headed to class and she went to explore London. Class was of course very uneventful and long, but following it, we had internship orientation. Originally, I was really excited about that because I thought I would receive my placement. Sadly, I was mistaken and the entire orientation was how to behave in an office. Well I have worked in an office for years and coming straight from Washington I got annoyed very quickly at how repetitive it was. I do understand though that it has to be done. After class I came back to my flat to shower and wait for Caitie to return from the London Eye so I could grab dinner and take her out to a new neighborhood. We ended up at a really neat bar/restaurant called Sports Cafe which has student night every Tuesday. Everyone was young, but even better was the amount of futbol on! I have already caught the futbol fever here. I not only know some players, but I have a favorite team and I am beginning to learn quite a lot about England's team with the World Cup approaching. I definitely love Real Madrid, mainly because of how fun and recognizable they are to watch. In addition, it doesn't hurt that Cristiano Ronaldo plays for them. I will definitely return home with his jersey!

Today I had class once again, but after all of us went to a great restaurant that our sponsor recommended to us. It was great and fun! They don’t write down your order here, but instead they carry around what looks like a TI-89 calculator and they just punch in order numbers. They even use it as the credit card machine which is quite nifty as well. After lunch I came back to my flat to relax a bit before tonight. We are going to the London Open Air Theatre in Regents Park to see The Crucible. It should be a fun time, especially because we are picnicking beforehand.