italian meows

I am the worst london updater ever.

So last week (thursday through monday, roughly 11 days) was spent running around italy. We started in rome in an AMAZING hotel my dad's girlfriend hooked us up with using her marriott points. Rome was beautiful, the people were nice, and this was when we first discovered NUTELLA GELATO. Im not exaggerating when I say I gained like 8 pounds in italy. We ate gelato every day, sometimes twice, plus pizza and pasta etc. The coolest part about rome aside from the vatican and the sistine chapel and the colleseum was the CAT SANCTUARY. Theres these ruins in the middle of a piazza, where hundreds of cats are just allowed to roam free and hang out. I made friends with alot of cool italian cats. After that we went to our friends apartment in florence for a few days, saw the statue of David and the duomo. Really relaxed, beautiful, and fun to be around our friends again. We all then went to milan where we met up with their roommates. Milan is the most urban city we went to, and it rained pretty much the whole time we were there which felt suiting. After that we went to venice which was nothing like I expected in that it was much cooler. Just tons of TINY little alley ways that you have to navigate around...No streets, no cars. I wandered a bit by myself, and had some of the most rewarding moments in italy as a result. We flew back to london from venice on monday, tuesday I started my internship, and have been doing a 9-5 the past couple of days. I have to wake up early to tour parliment tomorrow, but you can bet I will be having two weeks worth of sleep come saturday...

My internship is nothing short of phenomenal. I'm working on the 'Looked After Children's Team' which is basically working for social services. I have a badge from the city of westminster which
makes me feel important. EVERY door in the building is constantly locked, and I have to swipe my little card with my face on it to get anywhere. I really wasnt excited about my job, but its been crazy and amazing so far. My first day my boss took me on a visit with her out to Petersborough...two hours on train...in the beautiful english countryside.
Its somewhere I would have NEVER gone to on my own, and the city of london paid
my way(22 GBP=44USD). My second day was spent in the office, where my job is to take HUGE files with every detail about a kids life and condense it into a one page summary time line. It took me all day to do one, and by the end of the day it felt like I totally knew this little girl...all of the kids have INSANE life stories. She was shipped here in a box from china...it took her three months by
boat after her parents had been imprisoned for being leaders of the Fallun-Gong
religious group. And her story is pretty tame. Today, though, has been the
best. We threw an annual conference at the Tate Britain for all of the older
kids, so it was this all day catered event where they showed art and films
they'd made, then were allowed to speak to a panel of people working for the
city about what they likes/didnt like about social services and their
placements and whatnot. Its seriously inspiring to see what great lives these
kids create for themselves out of terrible circumstances. The UK is the only
country that DOESNT send back kids under 18 who come here unaccompanied seeking
asylum...so thats alot of what we work with. Its been really rewarding so far.

SO heres a crazy thing...I was terrified to check my bank account after italy,
cause while I had been pretty good with my money, it was still a long pricey
trip. So I go online, and its not nearly as bad as I thought... TURNS OUT that
cal state fullerton found MORE grants I was eligible for...and had
automatically deposited it into my account. Free money makes me really
nervous...but it was 1000 dollars, which more than paid for my whole trip. This
is super crazy but Im going to go with it. The state of california is buying me a new pair of boots and a peacoat.

London is weird because I keep forgetting I live here. We havent done much of anything touristy so I think alot of the kids Im here with have a skewed perspective of what london is really like. A couple weeks ago I went with this girl Danielle up to Camden to see a swedish band that was in NME as the new Bright Eyes. He's called Loney, Dear and he just got signed to subpop. It was one of the funnest nights I've had here, and he was really, really good. I bought his cd but havent been able to put it on my ipod yet or even listen to it which is a huge bummer. Another band that played was called My Luminaries...they were fun too. Camden is supposedly where all the punks and goths hang out, so it has the most venues and a good amount of young kids such as myself, where Kensington does not. I really like it there, and they have a HUGE market on sundays where they sell clothes and art and such, and have street food stands set up that sell like CRAZY donuts(there arent donut stores in london), and something resembling MEXICAN food and crepes. So yeah, camden is basically my favorite place ever. Im going to see Two Gallants at the Scala pretty soon, and then go to Berlin the next morning...so that should be nutty. Halloween is tuesday? Im kinds eh about that as much of london is...but Im really excited for Guy Fawkes day. I havent seen V for Vendetta yet. Hes the guy that tried to blow up parliment on nov. 5th, and we celebrate it but lighting bonfires and blowing up fireworks in the parks throughout london.

The weekend before italy abbey and myself went to the london zoo, which is the worlds oldest. It was kinda depressing cause alot of the animals were indoors I think because of the weather. Giraffes dont belong indoors. Abbey dropped her camera case in the meercat pen, and they all instantly started fighting over it. It was golden.

There are some pics from italy up on abbey profile...theres a link below I believe. I need to start taking more pics around london...I keep forgetting. Life is just swell and Im never coming home.