cecilietc

Saturday - The girls from my project group at Cornmarket Street

Friday to Monday (week 39) was the EVS course (EVS - European Voluntary Service) in Oxford. I left quite early to arrive in Oxford around noon and went to the hostel where the training was to be held. We started with checking in and having lunch out in the garden. The volunteers were (as usual;P) lots of germans, some hungarians, a spanish, a slovakian and me, Emil, Elin and Habib from Sweden. Friday was all about introduction and getting to know eachother. All of us went out to a really nice pub (apparently Oxfords oldest) and our "teachers" introduced us to different kinds of typical english beers and ciders. Saturday was we were doing kind of a project to get to know the UK. We were devided into groups and each group was given a part of UK, my group had Scottland. Off we went to the library to gather information, and all we found out was to be summoned up and showed for the other group, as the entertainmet for the evening. We did a TV news show, complete with weather reports and all! We also did some sightseeing that day, and after the "performance" we went clubbing, my first time in England, and it was great! Sunday consisted in sessions, more sightseeing and ice skating in the evening (definitely the worst ice I ever tried!) Monday morning we packed up and said goodbye and then it was time for some more sightseeing! I went to see my friend Ilan from Brazil who lives in Oxford for a coffee and a chat, it was really fun meeting him again! Afterwards I met up with one of the other volunteers, Hannah, and we went to see Christ Church - the most famous university of Oxford where some of the Harry Potter sceenes are recorded. After some persuation of the doorman we got in for free! It was all very impressive. After the uni visit, it was time to go back to London...

Tuesday went by with not much to say about it. Wednesday on the other hand, was the day of the "Life Supper" at St. Mary's Church. It's an introduction to an 8 weeks course called the "Life Course", about life as a christian today. Its's litteraly just having a nice dinner, getting to know new people, Bible discussions and stuff. I went and ended up at a table with some very nice people. I sat next to a guy from Southafrica, Joel, who was in London visiting his cousin Hela (sitting opposit me). They were really nice to talk to, and the food was really good (Teriaki salmon, potatoes, sallad & olives + dessert. Yummie! Joel had also been in India, so we talked a lot about that. After the supper we went on to the Pub to continue the conversation, When the pub closed I showed Joel Abbey Road and Abbey Road studios (Don't miss that when you're in the Area!)

Monday 22^nd I went to Paddington Station with Jocelyn to buy my trainticket to Oxford, the comming weekend. In the evening we had an event for the residents. We had Mark Russell, the director of Church Army comming. He told us about himself and the Church Army organisation. He also asked the residents about their stories. After that we had a BBQ. Nice!

    Mark Russell and Archbishop Desmond Tutu

               Mark Russell outside the Marylebone Hostel at Cosway Street  

Friday after mine and Tinas night out in Soho, she left after lunch and I spent friday evening with Chrys, two bags of crisps (chips) and dip and a good movie called "Once". Warmly recomended, especially because of the music!

Saturday we met up with some friends (TFG people). Toghether we went to attend the Service in Westminster Abbey, which was very impressive, then we had lunch at Trafalgar Square. Afterwards we went to Covent Garden, I found a nice tea shop and we watched the street performers.
 Chrys and Miriel (not Marina, as I wrote before...:P)
 The guys by the Thames, London Eye in the background.
London Eye
At Trafalgar Square

The week after the TFG conference was my first week working on my own in reception, and suddenly I found myself having loads to do!  I didn't imagine the reception work being so busy! But I really enjoy it, and it's quite preferrable to be busy than to have nothing to do. This week me and Nick wen't to a portugese/mexican resturant/foodchain called Nando's. Great food - funny ordering system. It works like this: You're shown to a table by a waiter/waitress, you decide what to eat/drink, and then go to the cashpoint to order and pay! Then when the food is ready it is brought to you at the table by your waitor/waitress. That was a new experience to me!

So it's been a while since I last wrote and I guess you're all dying for some new info about London - life!
Well, here we go: