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