Happy Turkey day!

Hello all! I am currently sitting in my kitchen, covered in water and specks of potato. Why you ask? Because we're showing some Brits how real Americans do a proper Thanksgiving. This includes 2 turkeys, stuffing, 2 green bean casseroles, 2 huge bowls of cranberry sauce, 2 massive pots of mashed potatoes (22 lbs of fresh, hand mashed potatoes to be exact) and 5 pies. Tonight, I made all of the mashed potatoes (I had some help peeling them, thank goodness)and constructed one of the casseroles. Tomorrow, I took a half day from work so we can make the turkeys, make the gravy and make onion rings to put in the casseroles (they don't have french fried onions here!!). It'll be hard work, but this should be totally worth it. I'll also probably make some spaghetti because we have a crazy amount of people coming and I want there to be enough food. It'll be a lot of fun once the cooking is done and I can fall asleep. Ha. Sleep. Right.

Other than that, Friday I leave for a weekend in Dublin. We don't get back til Monday morning/ afternoon so it'll be tiring. But I'm very much looking forward to it. I've heard it's a beautiful city. We're going to the Jameson Distillery, the Guinness Factory, St Patricks Cathedral, and the Dublin Castle. To name a few places. That's on Saturday. We bought this day pass for a flat rate and we get in free to a bunch of different places. Sunday, we plan on just walking around and enjoying Dublin. Maybe sitting on a park bench here and there. Nothing too crazy.

Then next week is going to be crunch time working on my paper and hopefully I'll be done with it by Saturday night. On Sunday, if I get it done, I may go to Bath to visit Ciara. That's just a maybe though. Then the next week is my last week, so I'll be packing and deep cleaning. I want to have everything basically done by Wednesday morning, so Angela can check the flat over before/ after the reception. Thursday I'm going with Camilla to Scotland for the day. And Friday I take a train to London, where I'll spend the night before heading back to the States. I only have 16 days left until I'm heading on 270 back to Dublin. Craziness.

Anyway, I'm probably going to head to bed soon, as I will be going to the constituency tomorrow, which requires me to wake up an hour earlier than usual. It'll be a short day though.

I'll try to remember to post after Dublin!

Sending my love home, Amanda xoxox

Viva Barcelona

I'm finally 21. It took long enough! :) So o celebrate this monumental birthday, I went to Spain, because hey! I'm studying abroad, I probably should have gone somewhere spanish speaking so I might as well practice a little!

As it turns out, Spain is probably one of my favorite countries and Barcelona is one of my favorite cities. It was amazing. If you haven't checked out the flickr, do it : http://www.flickr.com/photos/43046959@N06/

I took so many pictures, but none of them do the city justice. I will be going back there someday. It's just too beautiful to see only once, and we could only see so much in one weekend. I had the time of my life. And paella is my new favorite food. Mmmmmm. So tasty.

We saw la Passeig de Gracia which has many of Gaudi's structures on it, like La Pedrera and Casa Batllo. We saw La Sagrada Familia (amazing) and Park Guell, which are also works of Gaudi. We got to see La Catedral de Barcelona, La Rambla and the beach next to the glistening Mediterranean. We had gelatto and walked the boardwalk and our hostel was a bit outside of town and up a mountain. The view was absolutely gorgeous though. Totally worth all the cardio involved.

I have 23 days left here officially, which is crazy. Partially because I really need to work on my paper (oops) but I am really looking forward to heading home. I miss the family and the boyfriend a lot, along with all of my friends.

Luckily for me, I have pretty awesome friends here too because Mel and Ciara are coming to visit tomorrow for the weekend, which should be great!

Next weekend is Dublin, which will be rather exciting. The next weekend is finishing up the paper and working on cleaning/ packing, and then I'm home!

Everything is slowly winding down here and it will be nice to just hang at home for a few weeks starting in December. I still can't believe it's already basically the end of November.

We're planning a Thanksgiving bash with all the interns, some AMs and support staff. I'm pretty sure there's going to be like 20 people in my apartment. Yikes! I'm going to start heavily cleaning here very soon :)

That's about it. Like I've said before, I would update more often, if there were new and exciting things happening...but there aren't. Aside from weekend trips.

But I shall go read now. Sending my love home as always, Amanda <3

I'm always apologizing...

I'm awful at updating, but since Erin checks this everyday, I figured I should update :-P

I had an amazing time in France! A week ago from this past Sunday, Cat and I spent the whole day in Paris, where we saw the Eifel Tower (at night!! And there was a light show on it and it sparkled!!!), Notre Dame, the Arc de Triumph, the Champs Elysees, the Moulin Rouge, the Sacre Coeur, the Siene, and various other bits of Paris. We took a late train back to Tours, where we spent the rest of the week. I had such a good time! I saw the rivers of Tours (so gorgeous) and the schools where Cat teaches and I got to meet all of her other assistant friends. It was so relaxing and I wish I didn't have to leave.

I'm back at work now, and I was supposed to go to Scotland today but planning fell through and we rescheduled for Dec. 10th (my 2nd to last day) so I get to see Scottish Parliament. :) I'm sooo excited!

This weekend has been set aside for writing my paper (a necessary evil). Next weekend is the weekend before my birthday and we're going to BARCELONA! The next weekend, Mel and Ciara are coming to Cardiff to celebrate a late birthday with me! So pumped. Then the next weekend, we're off to Dublin for a late celebration of Joe's birthday. The next weekend is the last weekend in Cardiff and then on the 11th I leave for London and the 12th I come home!

Today, the fact that I have the BEST FRIENDS has been reinforced. I came home from work to find a package by my door, which contained 21 cards for my 21st birthday, various Cinderella accessories, glow sticks, a birthday sash and crown and a BUNCH of confetti from Erin, Kristen, Rachel and Colin. I have never felt so lucky to have the friends that I do. I miss them like crazy now, but the package TOTALLY made my day!!!

Anyway, I'm off to grab a quick nap, but I'll try to update again soon (most likely after Barcelona since all I ever do is work otherwise...and that's not very interesting).

Sending my love home, Amanda <3

T-Minus 6 days

Then I'm in France! So cool, right? I'll spend Saturday night in Paris, tour Paris on Sunday, go to Tours Sunday night, stay there through Saturday afternoon, go back to Paris Saturday evening, hang with the boys (who will be on the last leg of their continental tour), and go back to the UK on Sunday morning. It'll be crazy, but I'm super super excited!!!

I'm basically just trying to get through this week of work. I can't wait to see Cat. The homesick has gotten more pronounced on some days and I just can't wait to see someone from Ohio (that didn't come on the trip with me :-P).

On a side note, those of you reading this don't know tooo much about the other interns on the trip, but Julie (my roommate) and I have nicknames for everyone-- most just don't know it yet. This stems from Joe and Tyler (two of the OU boys) constantly calling Julie: Julaaaayyyy. So here goes: She's Julaaaay, I'm Manders (thanks Julie :-P), Joe is Joaaaaay, Tyler is Tywer (thanks to Joe), Alex is Alexa and Jack is Brandon.

I'll have to attempt to explain some other time with this is all actually kind of funny. Though we get on each others nerves a lot sometimes, we're starting to turn into a family and it's nice. A dysfunctional family of course, but a family nonetheless. Doesn't replace the ones at home but it makes the time more bearable.

I'll try to remember to update when I'm in France and i'll definitely put pics up ASAP :)

Lots of Love, Amanda

The weekend is so close, I can taste it

Yesterday was a lot of fun at work. I followed my AM Jane around, and helped to hand out petitions against a bank closure in Barry (the biggest town in her constituency). Then I went to the constituency office, where I will be working every Thursday to help them catch up on casework and so I can see a new side of casework. It should be really interesting. With these kinds of topics, it's easy to see how much you can help someone, because this office focuses on health, social services and some education. I get to take the train to and from Barry each Thursday and the office will pay for it! Win!

I also found out yesterday that Joe's AM, Rosemary, is organizing for him to go to Edinburgh to see Scottish parliament and the First Ministers questions and interview someone for our devolution paper! How cool is that?! Then I found out that Joe had talked to Rosemary about getting the rest of us to go and Jane agreed to it! And the office is paying for it! Free day trip! Win!

Now, I need to head off to work for an hour and a half before I pick up Mel from the train station, since she's visiting me this weekend! It should be fun. I'll post pictures on flickr probably on Sunday :)

Love, Amanda

Reasons why my friends are the best

I got this on facebook from Erin about 5 min ago. So amazing. I miss you guys like crazy!!! :)

(to the tune of Bowling for Soup's: Ohio-Come Back to Texas)

So when you're done doing whatever
And when you're through stalking whoever
You know Athens County will be right here waiting for you....

Come back to OU
It's just not the same since you went away
Before you gain an accent
And forget all about the Buckeye State
There's a seat for you at the Front Room
And I've got every crossword saved
Besides the hamburgers suck over there anyway

I think I made a mistake
It's not that easy to take
She went to work parliment
Then she flew to Wales
Guess I'll sit here and wait

For you to come back home (I'd wish you come back school)
It shouldn't take very long (so long so long)
I bet you miss Jeff Hill
And Morton Hill but I could be wrong

So when you're done doing whatever
And when you're through doing whoever
You know Athens County will be right here waiting for you....

Rufus wants you back
McDavis wants you back
Gordy wants you back
And Bentley want you back
And Court Street wants you back
And we all wants you back



And I love that my friends are sooo much more creative than me.

Erin, thank you. You have no idea how much that made my day

Week 4

Sorry I'm so awful at updating! I was good to begin with then work and traveling started so this has fallen by the wayside, but I promise to make an honest effort to update more often!

This past weekend was great! I went to visit Jenny and her family. Her parents were sooo nice! Jenny and I took a touristy tour of downtown Liverpool. If you look at my flickr, you'll see pictures of me on Mathew St, by the Cavern Club, standing next to a statue of a young john Lennon and by Penny Lane. We also stopped by the Liverpool Football Club stadium which was cool. I went out on the town with Jenny on Saturday night for her friend's birthday. It was a lot of fun. On Sunday, before I went back to Cardiff, I watched Jenny and her mom play in their netball league. Netball is this crazy sport that looks kinda like basketball, but it's moderately different. I'm really bad with sports stuff so it's hard to explain. But google it. It's really cool.

Work has been good. I've been doing a lot of casework in Jane's office and because I'm so efficient and going through case work, I'm probably going to the constituency office at least once a week to help them there. That office has the really cool cases that involve health, education and social services so it will be a change, but I'm really excited. I've been doing more media monitoring and analyzing in Andrew's office but they're running the leadership campaign for the Welsh Labour Party for Edwina Hart (the current Health Minister) so it's been hectic. Very interesting to watch the election play out though.

That's been my life pretty much. I go to work, come home, check stuff online, sometimes nap (because, oddly enough, desk jobs are a bit draining, plus I stay up late basically every night), get back online, talk to family and friends, go to bed and do it all again. Sometimes, we go out in the evenings together as a group (I think we're doing that tomorrow night) but everything is so expensive here and I'm trying to save money for traveling.

Well, I'm off to grab a sleep for an hour or so, before I do some apartment cleaning and some homework from our devolution seminar today.

Sending my love home, Amanda

Second weekend update

I went to Chester (about a half hour away from Liverpool) to visit my friend Mel from summer camp who lives there. We went to an anniversary party for her aunt and uncle and it was a lot of fun! I love Mel's family; they were so welcoming and nice. Plus, I got to see Mel, which was awesome and pet her puppy and 2 cats. I miss having pets! (though I'm sure my mom would send me Jack in a heartbeat!)

Just another work week coming up. Nothing too exciting planned yet.

This weekend I'm heading back up toward Liverpool to visit my friend Jenny, also from summer camp, and do lots of touristy things and meet her family. I'm really excited!! I'll probably be able to start outlining my 15pg paper that I need to write on the train (it's not due til Dec. 11th. No worries).

This is the link to my Photostream on Flickr. Comment (or email me) and let me know if it works properly. I only have the one album up online. I need to start taking more pictures!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/43046959@N06/

Probably going to head to bed soon-- it's been a long weekend. But I'll try to post again soon!

Love, Amanda

Things that make it harder to repress homesickness

The anniversary cupcake was amazing, and it really made me miss home. It's been three years together but I wasn't home to celebrate.

*sigh* Well, I just gotta focus on the positives and it'll be ok. Moping won't help anything and the cupcake surprise really made my evening :)

Sending my love home, Amanda

Just another manic Monday

Today was my first Monday of work, which also means that I've been in Cardiff for a week. This weekend was a lot of fun. We explored Cardiff and hung out as a group. I'm really glad that we all get along pretty well. Should make this quarter much easier.

Tonight we had a meeting of all the interns to figure out where we plan on travelling this quarter. Some of the places that other people are going that I'm not are Italy, Germany, Norway and Belgium. I AM going to Liverpool (to visit Jenny and Mel), Bath, France (with Cat!), London, Stonehenge, Barcelona (for my birthday), and Dublin.

Work is mostly just work. It's interesting to see how the parties work together (and sometimes not) and I love that British politics are much more honest than American politics.

I got to talk with my mom tonight which was really nice.

Other than that, there's nothing all that interesting going on. On Friday, Angela Jones, the Swansea coordinator is coming with the professor who will be grading our papers. Hopefully, they'll tell us more about the paper itself, since all we know is that it counts as 50% of our grade.

I took some pictures around Cardiff today, so I'll update them in a separate post.

I'm missing the people from the US (and my puppies) but I haven't gotten the homesickness for any objects or food, like other interns.

Ok, it's 11:20 here and I'm EXAUGHSTED. Couldn't get to sleep last night too easily so tonight I'm totally crashing early.

Love, Amanda

Workin Girl

Yesterday was my first day of work at the Assembly. Generally, I'm working for 2 assembly members (AMs) who also happen to be ministers of education and finances. I'm working with the Labour party and the two offices are luckily right next to each other, so that's really convenient. With Andrew Davies, I'll be doing lots of media related things, like media audits, press releases, etc and some research. With Jane Hutt, I'll be doing research, letter writing, case-working and the like. I like the fact that it will be different at the offices to keep it varied.

Today, I got to go to the constituency with Jane which included driving through some gorgeous Welsh countryside, getting a delicious free lunch and talking with Jane.

Tomorrow is only a half day, so I'm off at noon and I might just go back to sleep til everyone else gets home or until someone gets on Skype.

This weekend, we're going to the cheese festival at Cardiff castle, then looking around the shops at the City Centre then probably going out for a couple drinks. Should be lots of fun.

I'm most likely going to be in Liverpool 2 weekends in a row. First weekend will be to see Mel since she invited me to a family event and the second will be to see Jenny and do lots of touristy things like going to the Beatles museum. I'm excited.

Ok, well, I've got work in the morning, so I'm gonna head off to bed here soon!

Sending love to the U.S. of A., Amanda

The Apartment

Here is the apartment! It's hard to tell in the pictures but the ceilings are relatively high. It makes it look big!

This is the kitchen. It's sooooo nice. There's the island in the middle. And there's so much storage space!! Not that we really need it but it's nice to have!




This is the dining room. It's attached to the living roo



This is the living room. Stairs connect to this room to go upstairs to the bedrooms and washer roon.




We have a washer/dryer!


Here's my room. It's a nice size and I have a great closet.

So, this is a few snapshots of my new flat. It's amazing.

Julie made me a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch so I'm gonna go eat.

Love, Amanda

I can't belive I'm actually here

So, today is my first full day here in Cardiff. Crazy, no?

We got here last night around 8pm, took a taxi to what the cab driver thought was the National Assembly for Wales. He was a little clueless though. But luckily the guys who work at this other assembly called another cab for us and we were able to make it to the real Assembly. We met Angela Jones there, one of the coordinators for the program, who took us to our AMAZING apartment. I'll post pics here in a bit. But it's great. Totally beats Riverpark. It's two floors and I'm still in awe.

I got all unpacked this morning. We start work tomorrow (thankfully Angela told them we needed a day to get settled). Today, we're going to find the larger super market to get some groceries. Tonight, we're going our for a bit with Alex and Tyler which should be fun. Apparently there's a place to get a burger, a pint and chips for 4 pounds. Not too shabby. Everything is so much more expensive over here which is why tonight is a "Yay you're in Wales!" treat.

I honestly still can't believe I'm here. To backtrack a little, yesterday (and Sunday) I flew from Columbus to Minneapolis, from Minneapolis to London. Thankfully, Julie waited at the airport for me and we took a local train to Paddington Station. From there we took a taxi to Victoria Coach Station, where we waited about an hour for a bus that brought us to Cardiff. The long flight was uncomfortable but I'll have the window seat on the way back so I'll get to sleep better. Other than that, the trip went very well.

I'm gonna go take pictures of the apartment to post! :)

Love, Amanda