Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Short post this week! As promised, I will tell you about my first Thanksgiving away from family and wonderful home-cooked meals. I went in to work at my internship on Thursday, and my supervisor wished me a Happy T-Day, and then promptly kicked me out of the office after 2 hours of my being there. I was to enjoy the holiday and not be at work. So I went home, lounged around a bit as no one else was home, and then began to prepare the meal. We bought a 7 pound turkey and I prepared it, threw it in the oven and started making mashed potatoes (no, not the store bought ones...the actual thing!), corn, stuffing, green beans, gravy, rolls, and chocolate cake. My first turkey was a success and it was very delicious (it wasn't the same as our normal turkey on Thanksgiving, but it was very good nonetheless). I ate way too much food, and my roommates really enjoyed it too. I tried talking to my grandparents on Skype as they were at my house, but for some reason, Skype was not cooperating and there was no sound. It's alright though, as I will be home in less than 3 weeks.
Overall, Thanksgiving away from home was very weird, and definitely not the same; however, it really was better than I thought it was going to be. All of us were in the same situation on the holiday so we wanted to make it the best we possibly could. I couldn't have asked for a better time.
Nothing really that exciting happened during the rest of the weekend, until Sunday night when we went to the Winter Wonderland celebration in Hyde Park. This Christmas-themed festival was full of rides, bright lights, and an ice skating rink. It also is a major German Christmas festival as well, so there were BRATS!!, along with German beer and Mulled Wine. People were all dressed up in traditional-looking German clothes. There were chalets selling many Christmas trinkets that have been handmade. Overall, it was so exciting! And let's just say I had my fair share of brats. I am definitely going back next weekend for some more.
And finally, today, there were 2 interesting opportunities that I had the privilege of attending. First, today is an International Human Rights Day, commemorating the 60th year since the UN passed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. So on behalf of PRI (my internship), I attended this commemoration along with a colleague and together we manned a booth for our organization. Among the visitors to our booth included students, other Foreign Office workers, and even the Foreign Secretary (the equivalent of the US' Secretary of State which Clinton was just nominated for). It was a very interesting and fascinating experience, and I learned a lot about human rights organizations throughout Britain.
Secondly, tonight there was a talk from the Crown Prince of Jordan, where he discussed international conflicts, whether it be between religions or countries. He opened his talk with the statement, "Thank you, I am embarrasingly short, sorry." He was a very funny and witty man, with a lot of interesting things to say.
Here is a link to a new photo album from the Christmas festival. Enjoy:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037132&l=40b8e&id=59002864
Have a good week!
Cheers!
Justin
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