Hello all :-)

So of all the things I have encountered on this trip so far, one of them is that it is a lot harder to maintain a blog than originally thought. But once I finish this blog entry, I will be all caught up. At least until this weekend when I do some more sightseeing.

Speaking of sightseeing, I've added extensively to my list of places since my last post. I believe it began with a day walking along the river where I saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (not the original, it was re-built in the same spot), the Tate Modern Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral and many other places that appeared on a 3 hour "walk and see what we find" afternoon. The next morning we got up early and went to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (my first views of it), which included sights like St. James Place and Green/St. James Parks. It was quite an experience (which we shared with a couple thousand other people) and it something that everyone should experience, but it was also a lot of pomp and circumstance. The ceremony is actually very long and drawn out with very little to see unless you have prime spots along the gates of the Palace. Never the less, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and took as many pictures as our cameras would hold. Later we went to the Imperial War museum, quite possibly top the list of all the museums that I have ever been to. It was incredibly interesting and detailed although there were parts (Holocaust, genocide) that were very hard to take in and it got to a point where it was hard to take for too long. It is definitely someplace that I would consider going back to if I have time. Not to mention how gorgeous the building is outside. After the museum we checked out Harrod's, the department store that you could live in!! It literally has 6 floors including everything from a Tapas Bar, to a massage center, to an electronics center that would rival Best Buy. We spent two hours in it just trying to see everything! On Monday (which is my day off) I went back to the Buckingham Palace area to take some more pictures, and on the way also got pictures of #10 Downing Street, otherwise known as the official residence of the Prime Minister. I couldn't get any close than about a hundred yards from the house because there were about 5 policemen with large guns and a huge brass gate standing in my way. So that was one weekend, haha :-)

Now this past weekend. Saturday was the Queen's official birthday (her real birthday is in April), so there was a parade and ceremony to celebrate. You had to either buy really expensive tickets months in advance or know someone really important to be able to go to the ceremony, but thanks to another early Saturday morning, we had front row seats to the parade where we saw the entire royal family ride by. It was quite amazing! They look exactly the same as they do on t.v. but actually seeing them was the most surreal experience that I've had since I've been here. I did my best to take videos of them as they passed by, but they are a little shaky because I was trying to take them while also watch them go by. Then to top off the weekend, we took a trip to Oxford on Sunday. The bus systems here are much more available and widespread so a round trip ticket on a coach bus totaled 10 pounds! I don't think it gets much cheaper than that. It was so nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city for a day. The English country side is as beautiful as everyone makes it out to be, and my pictures don't even come close to doing it justice. We went not knowing much about what was in the city other than the university, but found a very lively city with much more than just a university. Christ Church is in the center of town, and is where many of the Harry Potter movies have been filmed. From what I can tell the University is made up of many smaller colleges and buildings strewn throughout the city. There are many that we didn't get a chance to see, but many of the pictures that I have posted have something to do with the university. Between the rowers and kayakers on the river, to the breathtaking gardens, to the multitude of old buildings just oozing with the imprints of so many people in history made it a fascinating place to experience.

Ok, enough babbling on about being a tourist. I continue to enjoy my job entirely. The more I learn about the work that we do the more I enjoy being there and helping out everyday. I have had a great opportunity to attend three conferences that we have put on since I have been here and in so have met many people involved in the surrounding communities. In some instances even becoming familiar with some of the people who are regular attenders to our events. One of the conferences was actually today and we were able to actually go and tour a stable and established social enterprise. The one I toured is called Hoxton Apprentice/Training for Life. It is a restaurant that employs those that by normal standards would not be employable. Those who had been unemployed for a long time, homeless, those recently released from prison, etc. The difference is that it not only employs them, it in a way is a school that provides the chance to learn many of the skills needed to survive that many people are deprived of when the fall below the poverty line. A couple examples are the girl who is now the head waitress at the restaurant was homeless at one point because she refused to go along with an arranged marriage that her traditionally Muslim family set up for her, and also a boy who looked no more than 20 who had been imprisoned is now an apprentice to the head chef at the restaurant and is finishing up his training before he goes on to be a head chef in another restaurant. It was very inspiring.

The other aspect of my job, the research project that I am doing, is getting off to a rather slow start. This is because the woman who's idea it was for this particular research project is very hard to get a meeting with. She herself is a CEO of a social enterprise, but also sits on our board of directors. I have gone ahead with some preliminary research and putting together a rough outline of what we (me, my supervisor and CEO) believe would be productive, but because of the politics we are going to consult with her and see what her original vision was for the project. The thing that makes this meeting with her even more interesting is that this woman just last week won the UK Business Woman of the Year for her work with her social enterprise, which is a free trade chocolate company, and her contributions to the sector as a whole. In all, this project seems like an excellent way to get into contact with those who actually run those who run the social enterprises and see what the sector is like from their point of view. I will make sure to keep you all updated in the developments on that front.

I continue to be amazed at the complexity of this city and the things that I discover everyday. I literally see something new everyday, even if I have walked down that road hundreds of times before. The culture and lifestyles are growing on me, even riding the tube to work everyday is getting better haha.

Wow, if you have made it to this point in the blog than I congratulate you! That was a lot of writing. I'm sure that there is something that I have not included, but it will have to wait until next time.

I love you all!

Cheers,

Jen