Closing Days

My internship has officially ended at Parliament. My days of sorting through mail, researching apprenticeships, tracking down contact information for this writer or that economist, typing Gordon's scribbled letters and press releases, and generally being a House of Common's staff are over.

I didn't realize how sad I'd be.

This internship has taught me a lot about how government works, how political offices are run on the day to day. I helped with research for Gordon's presentations and debates, and I also helped individuals from Gordon's constituency. From the first week of gathering information on government grants for a small business owner to filing paper work in order to recommend a Blackpool local as an Olympic torch bearer, I felt as though I was really helping people.

Gordon's picture stolen from Labour's website

My last day was bitter-sweet, as last days usually are. I was sad to be leaving, but it was really a great day. I got myself on a tour of Big Ben (something British citizens are only allowed to do) and Gordon took me for "drinks on the Terrace" (something only Members of Parliament are allowed to do). Although I saw Gordon everyday and shadowed his every move, getting drinks was the first (and the I suppose only) time I really got to pick his brain. He told me about his decision to run in Blackpool, although he's not from the area. How he lost in 1992 but felt Blackpool would turn Labour eventually. So he ran again in 1997 and has been representing the area ever since.

He told me about voting on the Iraq War. At the time, Tony Blair was Prime Minister, and Gordon was a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Baron Irvine of Lairg (which is a very prestigious position). If he had voted against going to war, he would be going against his party and would have had to resign from his position. But he told me he wasn't worried about that. He talked about being in debate for 10 hours, going to Tony Blair's room with other Labour MPs to be reassured this was the right decision. He said, "We were in his room for three quarters of an hour, in which time Tony stepped out to take calls from Bush twice. It's very different from the American system, I had direct access to my Prime Minister."

As he talked about voting on Iraq, I realized how as an outsider I can easily say vote this way or that way, but as a Member who is actually voting it's much harder. There's no right answer. He said he thought about having to face parents in Blackpool who would have lost their children if they died while serving in Iraq (Blackpool lost five soldiers). He also thought about the treatment of the Turks and Iraqis. "You have to understand, it wasn't just Bush saying there were WMDs. Everyone believed it--France, Germany, everyone said the same thing. At the time, we thought we were making the best decision. I think since, many people have become disillusioned. We didn't know the after plans."

Not all politicians are going to be honest or sincere, but working with Gordon has shown me many are, many work for government for the betterment of society. The decisions are hard, and you can understand why Obama has completely grayed in the past three years. I'm sad to be leaving a work place with such an aura of "decisions get made here."

At the office

Mein Deutsch ist Nicht Gut

Well, first my flight was delayed. Then because the flight was delayed, my ticket expired for the "Easy Bus" that would take me into central London. Then because the first Easy Bus driver wouldn't let me on, and I had to wait for the second, I arrived too late in London to take the underground home. After a half hour of thinking I could find my way walking, I gave up and flagged down a taxi.

Now sitting here, thinking of the horror it was to get from Freiburg to London--I would do it all over again.

Greg cooking the first night

This past weekend, I flew to Basel then caught a bus to Freiburg to visit my friend Greg that I know from Penn State. Greg's been in Freiburg since February perfecting his German (which is quite good), taking classes, and working at a day care (only when he absolutely has to).

After a weekend of crashing on his couch, I can say I love Freiburg. The city itself isn't very big--more like a rather large college town. It's considered the heart of the Black Forest--which is where the Grimm Brother's fairy tales were written. Germany as a whole is very environmental, being a world leader in green energy, but Freiburg is especially green. In Greg's student housing almost everything is recycled and the roof is covered in solar panels--just as an example. There's also a rather large community of hippies and anarchists that live in tent-like cities in one section of town. Clearly, I adored it.

Ancient Fortress with vineyard

The weekend started with quite a bit of rain (I guess I brought it from London). Greg and I had just enough time to go to an outdoor market and check out a church in the center of town, which I suppose is Freiburg's only tourist attraction (it was quite nice). After we hung out at his place, drinking wine and frying some veggies with his friend Henry, who coincidentally spent the entire weekend with us. 

The next day we (Greg, Henry, and I) took the train to a little German town that's known for a super old fortress that sits atop a hill that is now a vineyard. The town has little shops and lots of places to buy wine, which we naturally did. Back in Freiburg we met up with more people in the study abroad program Greg's in for a Bier Bike, which is apparently a touristy thing to do in Freiburg although people told me Germans take part as well because it's so fun. Basically, all the bar stools surrounding the bar have pedals that when everyone (17 of us) are pedaling can more the bar like a bike. You hire a driver, let two people from the group bar tend, and drink beers while you bike around the town. If anyone is in Germany and has enough people to do this, I highly recommend it. After the Bier Bike, we hung out at Greg's friend's apartment mostly just hanging out and playing music.

Bier Bike!

The next day, we went hiking through the Black Forest, which was one of the main reasons for my visit (minus visiting Greg, of course). I thought the Black Forest would be like a national park--no people except other hikers and campers--but the trial we were on wove through farm land then back into the forest that became so dense it felt like night time. Even deep in the forest there were little cottages I imagine Germans use as summer homes. When we walked through farms, the cows were so close we could pet them if we wanted to.

At the end of our hike we reached a little town (St. Paul's?) and, of course, had Black Forest cake, which was, of course, delicious. In Germany, everything is closed on Sundays and in mountain towns like St. Paul's most places are closed on Saturdays as well, so the town was especially sleepy.

One of the farm house on our hike

The rest of my time in Freiburg was spent hanging out in the city with Greg's friends. Students live in a number of compounds across the city with a mixture of other students in study abroad programs and German students. Throughout July, each compound hosted a block party of sorts with bands and food, so we went to the one hosted Saturday night. The music started as head banging screamo until it eventually morphed into dance reggae,

Sunday morning, it was raining again. With everything closed, Greg, his friend Jon, and I sat in the kitchen drinking coffee, cooking occasionally, talking about anything and everything until I had to leave for my flight around 6. The boys told me this was their normal Sunday routine. I remember being in Switzerland, where everything is closed on Sundays as well, after high school with my friends Molly and Megan. We didn't know what to do with ourselves on Sundays. Although we almost never exercised that trip, Sundays we'd go running just to do something. Yet, with Greg and Jon, hanging around the kitchen all day drinking coffee, I really appreciated the European-style relaxation. With no where to go and nothing to do, it was really nice.

Henry, Greg, and I

Before going to Germany, I really had no interest--not a disinterest, simply no particular draw to go to Germany. But after being in Freiburg, I will always tell people they should visit. Just try to pick up a little German before you go.

Life of London

I intended to write the blog this week about all the stuff I did this weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I had a fun weekend. I went zip lining through trees near Leed’s castle; I toured Oxford; I went to a New York City style Japanese bar serving British beer inspired from American ale; I grilled with friends from the house in Hyde Park for the fourth of July.

Zip Lining--
I'm that little spec connected to the rope :)

This weekend was really fun, but what I really want to talk about this 4th of July is what it’s like to live in London. So here it goes.

First: Tourists are everywhere. Okay, yes, I know I’m a tourist, but what I mean is no area of London (that I’ve run across) is truly where the locals hang out. All the markets are filled with locals and visitors. The bars and clubs are the same. When I go to work, people are covering the sidewalks taking pictures of Parliament (which, by the way, is pretty cool when it comes right down to it). Today, walking out of my building I saw a couple with their kids point at me and smile--maybe they were showing their kids a real Londoner who works at Parliament. Little do they know, I’m American. This is as much a good thing as a bad thing. I really like the idea of traveling to different places and never doing anything touristy, really trying to be a local. But all the tourists (and internationals who have moved to here) really make London an international city with so much to offer.

Flowers in Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin) College's garden (at Oxford)

Second: The English are standoffish. In the US, if you go into a grocery store and buy whatever (a pack of gum, beer, bread), chit chat with the cashier is normal. “How’s your day going?” “Not bad, yours?” That doesn’t happen here. Even going to bars, people don’t mingle all that much. Most of the people I’ve met have actually been Europeans or Australians that are traveling through London. The guy I work with, Sam, once told me you can go out in London and even if the club is crowded it can be as though no one is really out if you don’t know anyone. I guess this does come down a negative about London. Chit chat is nice. Remember to ask people how their day is going--you wouldn’t believe the difference when no one asks you.

Gay Rights Poster by an Australian artist
in the British Museum

Third: Hyde Park is wonderful. Even in the middle of London, when I walk outside it smells amazing. I guess it’s the mixture of trees, grass, flowers, general green things, pollination. I can’t get enough of the smell: soft and sweet.

Fourth: There’s a quote by a name I immediately forgot once having read the quote that says, “When one tires of London, one tires of life.” Hyperbole? Yes, but with much truth. There is so much to do and see in this city. From the British Museum (that has the most amazing collection I’ve ever seen) to Greenwich Market to Portobello Road to the Ministry of Sound to the concerts, London is culture. There’s an old concept surrounding the English aristocracy in which the men who run the country are known as “the Breed.” These are the men who come from good families, go to Oxford, run banks, businesses, and government. Maybe some people rebel against this idea of the Breed, but I think a lot of being British is this idea of wanting to be cultured and at the height of civilization--people want to be like the Breed. 

I’m sure there’s a lot more I can say about London, and hopefully that’ll come through in more blogs, but that’s it for me. Hope the pictures of zip lining and Oxford say enough about this weekend that I couldn’t put into words.

Outside the Globe Theater

Happy 4th of July, my compatriots. Back in the US in just three weeks! Time flies... 

...I'm on the pavement, thinkin' 'bout the government

Big Ben

    I suppose it’s about time I say something about Parliament. First, I work for Gordon Marsden, who represents Blackpool South. It’s a seaside town that no one goes to anymore, unfortunately. In the 50s, it was booming with most people in England "holidaying" in Blackpool, but with cheap airlines (see: EasyJet, Ryanair) and the lackluster weather of England (it was fairly warm for approximately 45 minutes today, and I was happy with that) no one holidays in Blackpool when they can be going to Spain or Prague.

    I find myself relating to Blackpool. The town had a trade and lost it--not so different from the mining and mill towns around me that are no longer in full productivity. Gordon is a shadow minister for the Business, Innovation, and Skills Committee, focusing on apprenticeships. In the British system, committees are chaired by the government in power. The opposition party takes the role of shadow ministers, which basically means that every time the government does something, the shadow government responds with criticism (or at the very least casts doubt that the government will actually follow through on proposals). It may seem like a limited role, but the shadow government plays “watch dog” to the government in power. In the US we rely on private organizations to play this role. Right now, there’s a coalition government between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Coalitions don't happen very often, and the Conservatives have more influence than the Lib Dems. British politics are dominated by the Conservative and Labour parties with third parties coming and going. It’s unlikely the Liberal Democrats will ever have this much power ever again. Gordon is a member of the Labour party, which was previously in power for the past two Prime Ministers. Right now they’re being blamed for excessive government spending, and the coalition government is slashing pubic funds is response. Pick up any British newspaper and there will be a new story about another group asking (or protesting) the government to reconsider cuts.

Small section of the main Parliament building

    So really, the British government isn’t so different from the US. We have the House and the Senate. They have the Commons and the Lords. There’s differences, but it ends up working the same way most of the time. Here’s the difference: Britain is actually a representative democracy--or as close as any government can really get. Why is this? Size. Britain is a size of one of our states, not even a particularly large state (don’t ask me which one, just trust me here). So when Gordon campaigns his constituency, he can go door to door--which is how our mayor in Pittsburgh got himself elected. We get letters from constituents, and we actually try to do something about it. For example, a man sent us a letter asking if Gordon would recommend him to carry the Olympic torch in 2012. Gordon knows him through charity work, and so a letter was drafted and sent. My part in this process was editing the letter, finding out how one nominates another to carry the Olympic torch, gathering the needed information, and sending the information in.

    Now in the US, our House is close to representative democracy. Our representatives don’t have atrociously large areas to represent, but do our representatives know us? Let’s say you live in Nebraska. Your representative needs to be in Washington at least Monday afternoon through Wednesday night. Then s/he flies home to Nebraska for the weekend. S/he also has a family. S/he’s spending untold amounts of time traveling. S/he’s meeting with interest groups at home and in Washington. S/he’s reading legislation on a continuous basis. Where is this representative fitting in attending the local charity softball game to support the American legion? In England, most of the representatives can get from London to their constituency within a few hours. Nebraska isn’t even significantly far from DC when we throw in Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona, Washington state, etc… The representatives in England know their constituency.

Westminster--the oldest part of Parliament

And for the UK--including Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales--they have their own Parliaments, part of something England likes to refer to as devolution. So London is more like PA’s Harrisburg with federal powers.

So what do I do? I sort the mail every morning. When things come from Blackpool, I research what they want Gordon to do. I edit letters (with high hopes of being allowed to write a letter any day now). I read through legislation that will affect Blackpool and report back to Sam (the researcher for Gordon who is a researcher/personal assistant) if Gordon should be saying something to the government about it, if we should be endorsing it. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of research on apprenticeships to find out how to actually get more kids who don’t go to college into apprenticeships. Specifically, what skills programs should the government be helping to fund or otherwise encouraging? (In the UK, instead of going to the Douglass School of Business or beauty school or whatever, kids take apprenticeships where they work for half minimum wage while being trained in a skill (see: plumber) that normally leads to a job. They have quite a nice little website that shows you where apprenticeships are available all over the country).

my official badge :)

That’s my experience so far, and I must say, it’s nice to work for someone who actually works for his constituency. It’s nice to feel like government might actually attempt to be representative.

From London town to Dublin city

Quick Fact: The entire population of Ireland is roughly half the population of London.

Going from London to Dublin was like going from New York City to Harrisburg. Okay, okay, maybe Dublin is a little bigger than Harrisburg, and the city definitely attracts more tourists from around the world than Harrisburg. Still, Dublin is pretty small, but that’s what makes the city so great. It’s accessible, the bars don’t have covers (that we ran into), the people are amazingly friendly. In London, small chat with strangers is next to taboo, but in Dublin, people were constantly asking us where we were from, what we were up to, generally asking how our day was going. (And by "we", I mean myself and the three girls I traveled with--Dedra, Laura, and Abby)

On the pub crawl

We stayed right across from Trinity College in this cute little hostel that offered free breakfast and pub crawls. We had to leave London at four am to catch our flight, so the first day we were pretty wiped but we walked around a bit before going on the pub crawl. This was my first time in a hostel, and I would definitely recommend the experience--we met so many people! There were girls from France, three guys from San Francisco, two guys from Canada with strong ties to Eastern European countries, a bunch of Australians!

Our second day, we toured Dublin, picking up a lot of their history (which is, unfortunately, dominated by countless failed rebellions against invaders) and visited the Guinness brewery. The highlight of the trip for me was definitely our last day when we took the train to Howthe, a seaside town about a half hour outside of Dublin. The town is a peninsula and offers a cliff walk on the far side of town. Imagine the parts of Highway 1 where cliffs fall straight into the ocean--that was Howthe, and it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Luckily, the rain held off until we were done with our hike (although it was a bit cloudy, and we did get caught in a monsoon directly after hiking).

Laura, Dedra, Abby, and I

Trust me, the stereotypes of rainy Ireland are absolutely true. Our entire trip was cold (I kept a sweatshirt and a jacket on at all times), and random downpours of rain were unpredictable. Still, Dublin gave me the feeling, “I could live here.” Maybe it comes from living in a small town my entire life, but London is so big that it’s overwhelming while Dublin feels more inviting and easily explored.

May the luck o’ the Irish be with ya.

After our hike

Just a Tad Bit of Brit History

It's Sunday night, and I'm feeling pretty exhausted! Sometimes it seems I need a break from the weekend before I have to go back to work. Still, my first weekend after fully settling into London was fairly cultural.

Saturday night, a bunch of people from my house at Palace Court went to Sam Smith pubs that are throughout London. Samuel Smith Brewery is a super old brewery in northern England that operates a couple hundred bars throughout the country, with dozens in London. Their beers are vegan (according to wikipedia) but most importantly, cheap. Many of the bars are very distinctive as well. The one we went to had several rooms separated by glass walls, but each room was connected directly to the bar. 

This morning, I woke up super early to attend my first cricket match. Twenty minutes on the underground, an hour on the train, and five minutes by car took Dedra and I into Dartford--a cute little town doing a fundraiser for the British Royal Legion. Dedra is working a member of Parliament who not only helped organize the cricket match but also played. A charity event, the game was between middle aged, slightly nonathletic men and Dartford's cricket club. I'll let you guess who won the match. 

here's some of the players

I'm actually excited to get back to Parliament and see what I will be up to this week. 

Countdown to Dublin: 4 days!

Crash Landing in Londontown

I had this brilliant idea to start a blog. So here I am, attempting to write the first post, and I don’t even know where to start.

How about... I’m in London right now. Specifically, I live in a five story brick home in the Notting Hill district on London. There’s two kitchens, a bunch of baths, and about 25 people crashing here from now until the end of July. We are all split into twos and threes, sharing bedrooms equipped with little more than a sink, a dorm-like bed, and a closet for each roommate. All things considered, it’s better than a hostel (though I’m just basing that off what I’ve heard) but less comfortable than being at home.

<--Finding our way

I’m living with two other girls--Chloe and Abby, and we’re all majoring in Political Science. Abby and I are working for members of Parliament while Chloe is working for Britain's cooperative party. Actually, there's a lot of girls here, and we all share the upstairs of the house with maybe ten guys living in rooms in the basement. At Penn State, I have lived in a tiny apartment with four other girls for the past two years. With so many girls in such a small space, I thought I'd be used to being around people all the time, but moving from four to twenty girls still takes adjusting.

In fact, I'd say my first week in London has been all about adjusting. Adjusting to time changes, new roommates, shared kitchens. On top of those predictable changes, we've experienced some power outages and internet crashes. I'm withdrawing from Facebook, and I made other arrangements when the power went out just as I went to boil water. I've accepted Skype may simply be too broadband consuming to use. One of my best friends has been in Africa the past several weeks, and I have to wonder if she's dealt with the same problems.

Even with these minor bumps, London is an amazing place to be. Our place is right across from Hyde Park, and I've been able to go running in the park some mornings and afternoons. Okay, so I'm not really a runner (especially when exposed to the elements), and my max time before stopping to get some air is maybe 11 minutes. Okay. I'm working on it.

This was a little discombobulated, but I'm working on that too. I'll be posting more on Parliament and cool sites in London and my travels (off to Ireland next week! Don't get jealous, Dad, we'll go together if you can come to accept the worth of flying)

some of the girls outside our house!

--Your novice blogger-in-training