Plays Seen, Books Read, and Service in Hackney. I love London.

Its official. I love London. I love it even when its gray and rainy and I love it even when its cold and windy. I especially love this city when its sunny and the birds are chirping at every hour of the day. I don't even mind it when I'm waiting on a delayed, overcrowded, and smelly tube.

Recent London activities include a tour of Parliament, a trip to the National Gallery, a trip to the Natural History museum (focus on the dinosaurs exhibit), performing a poem at a spoken mic night, Indian food, visiting the Rough Trade music store, buying 25p beigels (bagels) on brick lane, the East End markets, blues dancing, stopping in to see my all time favorite Manet painting at the Courtauld gallery for free ("Bar at the Folies Bergères"), walking through and writing in Hyde Park on a particularly sunny day, seeing plays "Penelope" (horrible) and "A Flea in Her Ear" (wonderful) and "Vernon God Little" (mediocre), service in Hackney, and making guacomole in our dorm kitchen.

I guess I haven't really explained anything about my service position. For one of my classes on the social welfare state I am required to do service every week. My placement is in Hackney, a borough neighboring Shoreditch on the east end. I work at the Laburnum Boat Club which is a community and youth center that teaches kids canoeing and kayaking, as well as providing an after school supervised clubhouse for local kids to go. The club is located on the canal which is where the kids go canoeing and kayaking. The kids range from 8 years old to about 14 years old. I don't do any of that boating stuff with them. I just hang out in clubhouse, supervising, cooking, and playing games with them. And I've grown to really enjoy this weekly commitment.

Highlight from the past week:
10 year old girl: Do you like living in America?
8 year old girl: Of course she does!
Me: Why do you think that?
8 year old girl: Because in America you can do things like go horseback riding and go cheerleading.

That must be America in a nutshell. I'm not looking forward to returning to America. At least I'll be 21 and finally able to go and take advantage of the city. But going back to America will be like going back to the real world. This pocket in time year will be over, this vacation from real life and real troubles over. I already have to start worrying about where I'm going to live this summer when I need to take summer classes, where I'm going to live next semester back on campus, applying to summer internships and jobs. I'd really rather just stay here and go to free museums and free concerts and listen to the British accent while visiting monumental literary sites and attending poetry readings.

Midterms are next week and I have a lot to do. I have two 2000 word creative writing assignments, one 1000 word creative writing assignment focused on creating atmosphere/establishing location that has to be on brick lane, one 1500 word theater essay, and in-class essay exam on domestic ideology in the 1700's for my women's social history class. Since I last updated about my literature classes we have read "Don't Go To the Dogs Tonight" by Alexandra Fuller, "The Thing Around Your Neck" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Over the midterm break I am reading "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood (!!!!!!) and "The Last King of Scotland" by Giles Foden. Have I mentioned recently how much I absolutely love my two literature classes? This professor has taught me to love to read again.

Over the midterm break I am traveling to Vienna and Prague with some fellow Puget Sound study abroad-ers. I leave Wednesday aka my birthday. Expect to hear about that next!