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First off, apologies that this October posting is coming to you in November. It has been a while since I have been able to sit down and write. I also wanted to be sure to include Halloween festivities! WIthout course work to occupy my time, I have been enjoying another fall in the UK. I have been able to remain here for a bit longer due to a series of fortunate events: I have secured temporary work at the Imperial War Museum Churchill War Rooms and am now living in a home in southeast London with two amazing housemates, Mich and Alex. Both paid work and housing came about quickly and I count myself very lucky to prolong my stay
Since I last posted, I have encountered a dizzy snail car going round and round the traffic circle at Trafalgar Square promoting Disney's Turbo, a stairway to nowhere in front of the Tate Modern, and some gigantic 19th century dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park. Seeing these dinosaurs was quite a highlight. For the entire year, I have been meaning to visit Crystal Palace Park to view statues of dinosaurs made for the 1851 Great Exhibition. While the Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park, it was moved to south east London after the exhibition closed. Today, the foundations of the Crystal Palace still exist and the dinosaur statues are displayed throughout the park. While exploring the park with a few friends (Alice, Carolina, and Alex) we discovered a hedge maze and decided to give it a go. Despite the fact that it began to pour halfway through our venture, we completed the maze and released ourselves through the escape gate. Thanks to Tory, an Erie connection who is in London studying for the term, I enjoyed a night out at the theater seeing Spamalot with Warwick Davis, who we were able to meet afterwards at the stage door. I have also been able to accompany her on school visits to a variety of churches and cathedrals such as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Churchill War Rooms (CWR) are located in between the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace and lie about 3 meters under surface level. Here I fill the position of a Visitor Services Assistant. I greet visitors, do security checks of visitors' belongings, hand out audio guides, and answer general inquiries. The staff is an eclectic mix of people, all very supportive and encouraging. Working at the CWR has allowed me to keep apprised of what is going on in the center of the city such as a Korean state visit, military recruitment days, and of course . Any London-based friends: feel free to stop by for a free tour!
To celebrate Halloween I convinced my housemates to carve a pumpkin and host a gathering of friends. It was Mich's idea to carve Hoa Hakanai'ai and after the addition of neck bolts, he became Hoa Hakanai'ai-stein! Although Halloween is not widely celebrated in the UK, being in a residential area we did receive a few costumed trick-or-treaters. At our Halloween gathering, a handful of people dressed for the occasion. After finding an old red cardboard tri-fold at work, I decided to create an Etch-a-Sketch costume. However, due to my limited powers of concentration and observation, I became an "Etch-a-Sketh"- or an Etch-a-Sketch with a lisp. While Alex was unable to assist in hosting, he dressed as a Sainsbury employee and Mich decided to dress as, Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector from There Will Be Blood. So with similarly obscure costumes, we hosted a skeleton, vampire, and an inadvertent green bean.
Towards the end of the month, Mich's sister, Isabella, joined us for a few days. We wandered around the Southbank Centre, checking out the under-bridge used book sale, warming up with a coffee, and ending the day at a Georgian restaurant for dinner. There was an abundance of cheese and bread to be had as well as a delicious bean soup. Now that we have reached November, the leaves have finally begun to turn. While there is a chill in the air, rain has been only happenstance of being in England. I am looking forward to once again sharing Thanksgiving traditions with friends in the coming weeks!
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