London: Going Broke and Loving It!: Disillusioned in London, and a pick-me-up called Rome

I would start this week’s blog entry with something normal like what happened at my internship or maybe how bipolar the weather has been in London or what I have done the past week… but there is something else that has been upsetting me so much that I cannot hold it in. I’ve been keeping up with the news in London and there has been a wave of stabbings going on here. Every day, someone new gets stabbed, maybe even dies or is in grave danger of dying… maybe even more than one person. At least one stabbing happened in Peckham, which I can reach by bus 10 minutes from where we live. The same bus that I take to go to my internship and back. It’s been happening in broad daylight, right outside of victims’ homes, in the middle of crowds, even with young children (an 11 year old boy stabbing a 9 year old girl). I feel like comparing it to the sniper situation we had in the US a few years back, but it’s different because to stab someone doesn’t require skill, anyone who wants to can do it… and I’ve heard that it’s actually quite normal to carry a knife around. My issue is this: it is illegal to carry pepper spray and tasers, but carrying a knife and actually using it… people can get away with it. The government, as of now, is still pondering if they should take more decisive action and punish those who unnecessarily carry around knives more harshly. Hmm… a faster reaction time from them would be nice, don’t you think? Sigh… what a crazy world. It makes me homesick. I live in a bubble outside of Los Angeles… nothing happens there. I think a bear somehow got into someone’s backyard a few years ago. That was pretty much the most exciting thing for us.

Now that I’ve put in my frustrated two cents… we can move on to the normal blog entry! (Yay, happy thoughts). The past week at my internship was pretty standard… some laughs with the coworkers and calmly doing my tasks. On the agenda was to compile a document with all the necessary info for entering the sport industry in the Gulf region (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar). I started doing case studies on several different UK companies that have worked with UKTI for a while, and wrote another article, this time for an annual international event called Sport Accord.

Last Tuesday, the sun really came out to play! My main supervisor, Andy, and I took our time to deliver a package and walked slooowly… soaking in all the sun we could get. We walked by Trafalgar Square, where the festivities for Canada Day were being set up and I got really excited (remember, I was born in Montreal and am somehow Canadian at heart even though I moved to the US). After class that evening I came back with some of my friends and we danced the evening away at the open air concert. A band named Jesse Cook performed, and their music was rumba/flamenco themed – I LOVED IT!!! I think it’s great that a band from Ontario can have such lively Latin music. At the end a quartet led the crowd in the singing of our anthem… I was very loud. Hey, if you know the words and its Canada Day and you’re Canadian and you’re surrounded by Canadians… you probably would have done it too!

The best part of my week was (you guess it) my trip to ROME!!! It was ridiculously hot, and I cannot take heat at all. I packed a spray bottle and when I got there it was my lifesaver. I filled it up with ice cold water at the beginning of each day and sprayed myself and my two friends (Stacy and Jenny) with it every 10 minutes. The city was just full of history and culture, just bursting from everywhere. I loved all the fountains, all the piazzas (or should I say “piazza” to be grammatically correct in the Italian language), the Coliseum, and the Trevi Fountain… I wasn’t too keen on the Vatican to be honest, but that’s just me. Jenny really enjoyed that part of the trip and even realized she was more religious than she previously thought! We ate a lot of gelato… very typical American tourist, but my excuse is that it was really hot, so anything ice cold felt amazing. We also went dipping in the fountain in the middle of the Piazza della Repubblica (it’s socially acceptable here, which is the best thing when the sun is beating down on you!). The best part of the day would be when the sun set, for two reasons. One, I love taking pictures at night and seeing lights twinkling. Two, did I mention it was hot??? Anyhow… once again I will let my pictures do the talking. This upcoming weekend is a trip to meet Isaias (my friend who is interning in Strasbourg and came to see me a while ago) in Paris, and then the following weekend I’m staying with Yehia (my Egyptian friend who also visited me in London last month) in CAIRO! That’s right, I’m going to Africa! More adventures to come! But for now, enjoy Roma, Italia.