Wednesday and Thursday... still learning

Today has been quite a busy day, but I'll start with stories from yesterday. Yesterday, Wednesday, was pretty uneventful during the day. I did some grocery shopping (I'm finally starting to get the hang of that) and wandered a bit to find some shopping. Wednesday evening, a group of us headed over to a pub called the "Walkabout" which is actually in or near China Town in London. The inside of the pub sort of looked like a church in some of its detailing and was a pretty building which was in a way sad since now it is a pub. It was also more like a sports bar, because it had a huge screen where everyone was watching a football aka soccer game. Apparently it was a big deal because any time a team scored the locals went nuts, it was ridiculous. I couldn't believe how intense they are about their football. It was interesting to see though, Wednesday night is also student night at that pub so some of the drinks were cheaper, which is definitely a plus.

Today has been busy and it is only about 1pm! I had my internship interview this morning which is located in the area of Swiss Cottage, in Northern London between Camden and Westminster. It was about a 40-45minute commute, which isn't horrible but will probably be the worst part. The tube is still intimidating when I'm alone, but today my friends went with me to explore the area during my interview. It is quite a cute little neighborhood, very posh. To help the morning, it was also raining and quite windy. I would say today was my first day experiencing true London weather for their winter. It is not so much fun. Luckily my umbrella is still in one piece, although my friends did flip up, but so far it still works!

My interview was with a man named Gary who is the head of part of the Jack Taylor School. He seems very nice but extremely busy. He gave me a tour of part of the school where I saw the cafeteria, where assemblies are held, a sensory room where everything is based on the senses and depending on which children are using the room it can be more focused on talking, hearing, seeing, you name it. The next room I saw was called the soft room, the name explains it. Everything in the room is soft so that the children can play without worry of possibly getting hurt. There were autistic children playing in that room when Gary showed it to me. I hope to learn how I can begin to interact with children with different kinds of special needs. I want to be helpful to not only the staff, but the children as much as I can. Next Gary took me into the "Yellow" class room. This is the room where I will be spending my Tuesdays and Wednesdays from about 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. There are about 5-8 children, all with different severe learning and mental disabilities. It was really nice to just sit in the room and watch the teachers and other staff working with the children. They are all super nice and friendly. After I observed in that class I talked to Gary some more and he finalized that I will start next Tuesday at 8:30 am. I'm glad that I have it all set up and now all I have to do is show up. I know this is going to be challenging for me because I do not have much experience working with children with disabilities. I'm also excited to see how I can learn from this internship and see where it takes me.

Anyway, I'm going to squeeze in a nap this afternoon, we are going to the theatre production of Blood Brothers this evening at about 7:30pm. I'm excited to see my first musical/play in London..