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