We all were meeting Dad at Bourne and Hollingsworth for cocktails and then to Bam-Bou for next door for dinner. Matt and I, on our way there, ventured to Buckingham Palace and took a walk through Green Park to get to the tube. It started to mist and then really pour as we were on our way. Before we went to the pub we went to Dad's London office in Mayfair, which is diagonal from the Burberry store and close to Tory Burch. Mayfair is at the very heart of the London borough of Westminster. It is one of the finest residential areas and one of London's most attractive villages. I was so happy to meet people working in Dad's London office. Glad to see he is surrounded by such wonderful people when he is over here. Then it was off to B&H and getting there felt like another one of Dad's "short cuts but really long-cuts" moments. Maybe it was because it was still a little misty and wet. But we eventually made it there in good timing and we met up with Molly and Justine! I was relieved that they found it fine! Our "family" is good at finding its way/directions, so I knew everyone would be okay! :) B&H is really unique in its location because it is pretty much a basement cocktail bar that has quite a little pep to it. Imagine a one single room with a small window bar. The atmosphere is casual and unpretentious to an otherwise long-established after-work bar scene. We had these cute cocktails called "The Gatsby" which was an incredible concoction of raspberryness and fizziness. The final product looked simple but watching them make it proves otherwise.
Bam-Bou, right next to B&H, was our spot for dinner. It has a prime location (just like B&H) at the bottom of Charlotte Street. I forgot to mention, to enter the little quarter that all of this is in; we had to go through this little alleyway. Precious. Bam-Bou has such charming decor; think oriental screens, carved shutters and of course…Buddhas. The restaurant proved to be a patriarch of London's pan-Asian scene. The matching of the colorful food and the warm exotic tones of the place is stellar. Service is generally sharp as well. Yay moment: KKP showed up right after our appetizers. Being the foodie I am I need to tell you what we ordered. For appetizers: Steamed buns with shiitake and cashew, Steamed Edamame, Cha Gio Chay (crispy vegetable spring rolls), Ba Lo Lot (ground beef in wild pepper leaves) and my favorite of them: Crispy Soft Shell Crab with spicy mayonnaise. For entrees: Crispy Fried Sea Bass with green papaya and ginger dressing, Braised Lamb Shank with massaman curry, Wok-fried Sea Prawns with tomato, chili, lemongrass and ginger, Bun Cha: sticky sesame pork skewers and two orders of Green Curried Chicken with eggplant and bamboo shoots. The portions were spot on & plentiful. Delicious and flavorful which was just what all of us needed. We paired it with a couple of nice bottles of white that went perfectly with the food. Finished the meal with some nice coffee. The whole crew (minus Beriah, sad face) then took Dad to our new favorite place, O'Neill's. It was such a fun time! Having my dad share in some of my great London experience made me smile and thank God for this wonderful experience!
Thursday morning, I set my alarm to get up for a very exciting first day of working as a Parliament Intern. I was certainly nervous and naive because I have never interned before. Thankfully, with the reassurance of Stephanie, I was told that David's office was a bunch of friendly and funny individuals. And yep, she was right. It was definitely a great first day! The office is made up of about 5-6 of us and all fairly young. David's office has an incredible view of the castle. In the middle of working on my first office assignment, David came in and introduced himself. So lovely. He called me a little sparrow. He is such an open talker and comes into our office from the main office just for updates and discussions about scheduling. Note: a planner is called a diary. At one point there was a procession of horses and David called us all out to the balcony to see it. Definitely a great view of below. I first worked on sending out birthday cards to those who are turning eighteen in David's constituency. It’s a great way of getting those who are of the voting age involved and enthusiastic about British politics. Unlike a House Representative or a Senator, a Member of Parliament does not represent as vast of a number of people. The database that I was using today currently has 4,500 registered. While that’s not all of them, it’s almost the entirety. After one day in the office, it is evident how much David and the staff, now including myself =) is aware of constituency concerns and open to listening to them. They want to work to support South-end constituents to the greatest level and go above and beyond in keeping in contact with them. David has been a member of parliament since 1983 and from what it looks like, he is a very active MP. He has a great interest in Animal Welfare, health related issues, and ensuring that the voices of constituents are acknowledged and policies are fairly carried out.
I am really excited to work in this office. I wasn't afraid to ask questions about British government, current issues, office procedures, etc. An internship, and this one especially working in a different country's government, is truly a learning experience. Whenever the staff was mentioning a certain topic or recent occurrence with a constituent or an event happening, I sought advice and raised questions. Keeping an open mind about the new ideas and procedures is definitely vital. I also talked with Elliot and Laura a lot about their "university" (not college) years. The two of them have great personalities and I really enjoyed talking to them about them. I've learned so much already in one day about British schooling, government, etc. I felt comfortable showing my energetic and enthusiastic personality today. David knows a lot of people in Parliament and the Westminster world so I am excited to make some connections with people in the field. I want to meet as many people as possible during my parliamentary internship. After completing my first day and walking out of the office to the Westminster tube, I felt really good and accomplished. Having never done this before, it was certainly an awesome first experience.
It was an absolutely beautiful day in London town Friday. The initial nervousness I had the previous day had done pretty much away. I felt more and more comfortable being in the office. Had lots of good conversations with everyone. Having both attended quite different universities; we did a Google Map and Wikipedia show and tell of one another’s schools. Its always nice when people ask you about parts of your life, especially those that are so significant to who you are as a person. We both value the education we’ve been blessed with. Even more so, we are both curious and open to seeing what paths life takes us on when we apply the qualities of education. We both have a passion for pursuing something greater within ourselves, even if we don’t know exactly what that is right now.
Now concerning what I actually did today in the office; lots of casework related tasks. Like I mentioned before, David has a great passion for “staying in the know” with his constituents. A way of doing that is recording every initial letter, holding letters and responses on file through a database. In doing so, we are able to track the progress of a case, conversation, issue, etc. Through the database we also keep record of the surgeries they have attended. Again, a “surgery” here is like a town-hall meeting that has individual appointments in 15-minute intervals. Did lots of this today. Photocopied letters and stuffed envelopes that are going to be mailed to constituents, departments, etc.
Last night started out pretty mellow and got really crazy. We had planned on going to The Roadhouse, and the cover was £10 that wasn't happening, at least not that night. So we turned around and walked back to where we had gotten a little lost earlier. We went to a cute little Italian place for dinner and then went across the street to The "Round" House for a little. It was a peculiar scene, lots of different congregations of people. The guys stayed at The Round House and ventured all over. Us girls left and found our way to Zoo which other had mentioned before as a good place. The upstairs was an oldie playing, not as spacious area. After a little while up there we went downstairs, and I was shocked! It just opened up and there were so many people! The music was definitely more to my liking given the occasion, I wanted to dance it up (as always). We stayed there for a long time! Made our way home at around 4 am. Regardless of having to make some creepy people get away some time, it was a really fun night! I had a great time! It was one of the best Friday nights I've had a really really long time! Today we are doing some sight seeing of London. Sorry for the extensive update, it has been a busy first week! (Got here exactly a week ago!)
Cheerio!
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