Another week

has passed. I've been here in London for over three weeks now. I am still living in the BUNAC Hostel, which I am okay with. I like living in Central London, the people here, and having everything I need (laundry, full kitchen, comfy bed, close to the public transportation, etc.). The biggest thing is that it is far from work and the space I have is limited. However, for now, it's okay. I did look at another place one evening last week and liked it, but it didn't work out. So, I'm going to keep my eyes open for new opportunities and casually look for new housing until I get
really sick of it here at the hostel enough to motivate me to move.

This week at work went pretty well. I have my cases now and have scheduled home visits with clients. I will be learning the 'art' of managing a case load over the next couple of weeks. I still have not heard from the GSCC, besides that they emailed me asking for my updated contact and employment information. I hope to hear good news...soon.

This weekend went by fast, as usual, but was fun. Saturday I went with my friend Nate on a day trip to Canterbury (this is the same Canterbury from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales). It was a pretty neat little city. We saw the Canterbury Cathedral, which was beautiful.







We also stopped by the Eastbridge Hospital, which has never actually been a hospital, but was a place of 'hospitality' for poor pilgrims visiting the tomb of St. Thomas Becket at the Cathedral. After that, we went on one of the Canterbury Historic River Tours--a 35 minute row down the river with a tour guide who provided little bits and pieces of history about the area. It was short, but peaceful and the guide was pretty entertaining. We walked around a little bit more seeing the different shops and things and then had dinner at a neat little place called The Weaver's Restaurant. The food there was really good. I had salmon served on chopped cherry tomatoes, onions, herbs and spices, along with mashed potatoes and fresh steamed broccoli, pea pods, and carrots. It was delicious and a nice way to end the day. When we finished dinner, we made our way back to the bus stop. The bus ride was a little less than two hours long, so not too bad.

Today I went to breakfast with some friends at a fun little place called Giraffe nearby the hostel. I had English breakfast tea and a waffle with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and yogurt on top. It was the sweetest and most crunchy waffle I have ever had, in a good way. Yum! After breakfast, I did some grocery shopping, and then Julie and I went to Covent Garden. I was mistaken to think that it was a garden. It was a shopping area with an open air market and other shops. There were entertainers, as well. One of them, my favorite, was a woman dressed as an angel who moved like a robot and would make kiss noises when people gave her money. It was really neat. We were only in that area for a short while before we went to find the movie theater. But it would be fun to go back again sometime soon.

After wandering a bit, Julie and I met up with my friend and co-worker Amber to see the movie "Control." I really liked the movie. It was in black and white and had really great camera shots all throughout. It is about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the band Joy Division (I hadn't actually heard of this band until learning of this movie, but will be sure to explore their music a bit after hearing the soundtrack). He suffered from Epilepsy, struggled with love and was overwhelmed by the demands of stardom, eventually leading to his suicide at the age of 23. Even more interesting is that the movie is based on the true story "Touching From a Distance" written by Curtis's widow Deborah. It was a sad story, but the movie was very well done and all three of us enjoyed it.

This evening I went to Russell Park near the hostel and kicked the soccer ball around a little bit. The city is busy all of the time, so the being in the parks are a nice way to escape it a little bit. It was a good weekend.