... and received my first Christmas bonus!!!

My boss pulled me aside just now and told me that even though I'm a temporary worker (and paid by the hour), they are giving me a 400 pound Christmas bonus as a thank you for my hard work!! 400 pounds!! That's over 800 dollars!! It's almost like I have a real job!!

Eeee- so happy!!!!!!!!

Here are my pictures from the Leeds Castle and Rochester trip. Facebook has made them appear darker than they actually are for some reason...

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2210387&l=e039a&id=3200197

...then finally left London!

The weekend before last I went on my first BUNAC day trip to Leeds Castle and Rochester. It was my first time leaving London in the two months that I’ve been here.

The weather that morning was amazing. We arrived at Leeds Castle under clear blue skies and sunshine, which made for some gorgeous photos. The castle was built in the middle of a small lake, has expansive, very well-kept grounds, a hedge maze with underground grotto, and lots of peacocks (including two rare albino ones) running around. Very cool place to visit.

The second leg of our trip took us to Rochester (home of Great Expectations), which was having its annual Charles Dickens Christmas Festival. Rochester’s main street where the festival was being held was absolutely adorable, and there were lots of people dressed up in Victorian clothing wandering the streets taking pictures with people and playing music. The festival was fun, but strangely enough (my friends noticed this too), other than the Christmas music being played and the availability of mulled wine and mince pies, there was very little that was actually Christmas-y about the festival. Oh well. The trip was really fun overall, and I got to meet and hang out with a bunch of other Americans on the BUNAC program.

The next Saturday I ended up taking a day trip to Canterbury with one of the Americans I met the previous week. We started out the day exploring the big cathedral, then saw the Canterbury Tales visitor attraction, which is a series of animated dioramas illustrating a few of the more amusing Canterbury Tales. Then (as it started to rain) we went to the Canterbury Roman Museum. After seeing the museum we stopped at the front desk to ask for tips on what else we should see. We chatted with the guy behind the counter for a half hour or so before heading off to lunch. After lunch (at this cute local pub) we went to see this museum in a big medieval tower that was used for the town’s defense. It turned out that the guy at the Roman Museum worked at the Tower too, and since we were there near closing time, he took us up to the very top of the tower to check out the view (the top deck has been closed to the public for the last 20 years). The view was amazing, and the guy gave us a few postcards for free as well. All in all it was a pretty good day. :-)

Wednesday morning was interesting. I had gone to bed the night before with a massive headache (and quite possibly a fever), but I woke up the next morning feeling fine so I got ready, ate a muffin for breakfast and headed to work. As soon as my train started moving I felt dizzy, weak, and semi-nauseous. Then my train was diverted, which made everything seem worse at the time but ended up being a good thing in the end. If my train hadn't been diverted I would have ended up at Bank (which is a huge maze of an underground station with few staff) instead of Tower Gateway (a small, above-ground station) where I met Katrina. As soon as the train reached Tower Gateway I started feeling really terrible. I ended up sitting on the concrete platform by myself trying to regain my composure and figure out what to do. After a few minutes an Irish woman (Katrina) approached me and asked if I was alright. I told her I wasn't feeling well and she helped me up and took me by the arm into the station's information office where she worked. She gave me one of her chairs and some water, and talked to me and looked after me until I felt a little better. She even gave me a hug (telling me I reminded her of her 22-year-old daughter) and her cell phone number in case I needed anything else after I left her office. Katrina is definitely one of the nicest people I've encountered so far in London. I decided in the end to go to work (even though I still felt weak) because I felt safer going somewhere where people would be around to help if my condition deteriorated. I still don't know what was wrong with me that day- I didn't start feeling better until late afternoon- but I'm glad my train was diverted and that I still went to work since my co-workers helped me all day too.