Busy Bee

I clearly have never lived in a warm climate because the fact that it is 60 degrees and sunny has me jumping for joy. I don't want my last couple weeks in London filled with gray skies and rain!

Along with April and Tram, the other InterFuture scholars I am here with, I have been making an itinerary for our last weeks in London so that we are sure to see everything before heading back to Boston! Last weekend we went to a comedy night at a local pub and it was absolutely hilarious. It was fun to experience English humo(u)r at its best, and we are planning to go back there tomorrow evening. On Monday, we bought tons of food and had a picnic at Alexandra Park near our house on Muswell Hill, and later we went to see yet another musical in the West End - Spring Awakening - for only 10 pounds! Today, the plan is to check out Little Venice (although my guess is that it won't have anything on the North End), and tomorrow we are going on a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre! There are also a few museums and markets we want to get to before we leave.

Three months ago I never would have thought that I'd still have sights to see in my last few weeks, but the time really does go by so quickly. You think you have all the time in the world, but somehow it slips right through your fingers. I have begun to check out graduate programs in London because I want to come back as soon as possible! And the best part is that it will be significantly cheaper to go to graduate school here than in the US. At the rate I change my mind, though, who knows what will happen?

My research has also picked up quite a bit in these last few weeks. I ended up going to that conference hosted by the Sex Education Forum and it provided me with mountains of information. I am also going into a school a few days before I leave to observe a sex education class and distribute my questionnaires to the students. Until then, though, I have been busy getting myself ready for the Amsterdam conference. We have to do a write-up of our project methodology - how we did our project, who we spoke to, what materials we collected, etc, and we have to prepare a 20 minute presentation on our initial findings. Unfortunately, there will also be a 10 minute Question and Answer session following each presentation, so it will take 7 hours for all 14 of us to present! As much as I am looking forward to being in Amsterdam with the other InterFuture scholars, I am beginning to realize that it is going to be yet another mentally fatiguing four days.