2007 was an eventful year for me. It is hard to believe it is over. Last year, I spent much of New Year's Eve with my dear old friend, Jessica Scherer. There was a snowstorm that night, but Jessie and I were lucky our plans for the night involved going to the other half of the duplex I was living in at the time to go to my neighbors' party. We didn't even have to walk outside. We ended the night by going sledding at the park across the street, so we did get our fair share of cold. Anyway, it was a very fun night. Like I said, it is hard to believe that was a year ago, all ready.
The early part of 2007 also brought for me lots of responsibilities with my school work, internship, and working my job on campus. It was busy and it went by fast. Finally, in May, I graduated from UST earning my Bachelor's degree. It was a neat experience and I was blessed to have many of my closest friends and family there with me to enjoy the accomplishment, most of whom had been there supporting me throughout the past four years.
Summer this year was spent mostly wandering around the campus at UST working with wonderful co-workers on the Summer Rollout Team. It was a job I was very fortunate to have, as I enjoyed it so much and the people I was working with. I also learned a lot about technology and being part of an effective team. When I wasn't working, I was with friends and family. I went with my good friend Kate and later met up with Lucy on a road trip to visit our friend Allison in Chicago, which was great fun. I was fortunate enough that my dear Uncle Tim allowed me to live with him at his house in Saint Paul for the entire summer. I was comfortable and in good company, and it also allowed me to save enough money so that I could pursue my dream of moving to Europe. I am very grateful for this and for the lovely summer that I had.
The summer was a good one and went by quickly. Before I knew it, it was September. I moved home to Winsted to spend my last couple of weeks at home with my family before heading to England. All year I had been preparing to go to England. I went through hours of filling out paperwork and completing the application for the GSCC. It was rather agonizing at times due to the length of and detail required for the application. Thank you to those who listened to me whine about it and continually encouraged me to continue on with it.
On September 12, I moved to London, England. I moved into the BUNAC hostel in Central London and met all kinds of fun and interesting new people. Mostly Americans and Canadians, but fun, nonetheless. I met up with my good friend Kate, who also recently moved to London. I have been able to travel to a few different places so far, such as Wales, Belgium, Spain, Prague in the Czech Republic, and a few smaller cities in England. It has been very rewarding and enriching to travel to new places and learn about the history that has happened here in Europe.
Besides living and traveling in Europe, shortly after I arrived in London, I started working for Ealing Social Services in Acton Town as a social work assistant. Later, when I received my qualification from the GSCC (finally!), I became a social worker in the Children in Need Team. For the past several months, I have been working with Child Protection cases; however, all along, it did not feel like this kind of social work was a good fit for me. Because of this, as well as the time commitment, the level of unhappiness in the type of work, and several other reasons, I decided in early December that I would not be returning to the Team after the holidays. I gave my notice a couple of weeks ahead of time and completed my last day of work on the 24th December. It was a very hard decision to make in many ways; however, I feel it was the right one for me. I will be looking for new job opportunities in the next couple of weeks. I have about two months left on my work visa, so will likely be looking for temporary work that is less intense and less time consuming than my previous one.
All in all, 2007 was quite an eventful year for me. I am a little sad to see it go, as it has certainly been a good one. At the same time, I have high hopes for 2008 and expect it to be as good, if not better.
This New Year's celebration involved hanging out for a bit at the hostel and then heading towards the River Thames to see the fireworks. I have never been in such a large and crazy sea of people in my entire life. Central London was packed with people. We didn't actually see any fireworks because the police were blocking off the road we were on leading to the river, and the buildings and fog were obscuring our view. Despite not seeing the fireworks, it was neat to be in London on New Years and I had a fun time.
I hope that 2007 was everything you hoped it would be and that it finished with a very Merry Christmas. I also hope that 2008 has gotten off to a good start and that it brings everything you wish for. Happy New Year!
The Royal Observatory at the site of the Prime Meridian
Sign showing the location of The Prime Meridian of the World
View from the hill on which the Prime Meridian is marked. Overlooking Greenwich Park, the National Maritime Museum, and Queen's House Museum--the buildings closest to the green, as well as the Canary Wharf area, the southeast corner of London, and the Millenium Dome.
Standing over the Prime Meridian
Walking along the streets of Greenwich at dusk
Bikes were everywhere. It is probably their most largely used mode of transportation, which is handy because they have so many canals that it makes automobile travel a bit more challenging than most places.
This is the outside of the Anne Frank House (writer of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl). It is a now a museum, but was the house in which Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis during WWII--an amazing story from a tragic time in history. The museum was very well done, thorough, interesting, and informative.
This is a picture of one of the very many canals in the streets of Amsterdam.
The Heineken Brewery is in Amsterdam; however, unfortunately, it was closed when we were there. We decided to try some at the local pub, instead.
Some Dutch Architecture from the outside. Sidenote...The staircases in the hotel where we stayed were extremely steep, almost like climbing a ladder. Their houses and buildings also go up several floors, as you can see, these are at least 4-5 stories tall. Many houses and buildings have hooks on the front near the roof, so that they can use pulleys to hoist up furniture and things to the upper floors.
