Wrapping It Up Nicely

Today is the last day of my program here in London. I had my last day of work today, and finish my independent paper and took my final for my class on Wednesday. All and all I had a great experience here as is evident by my earlier posts. While I may not have found my life’s calling in the kind of educational non-profit work that the Citizenship Foundation does, it has been a really good learning experience. Knowing that this sort of work isn’t really for me allows me to get a better idea of the kind of work that would be best for me. I have been thinking more and more about teaching. So staying with the theme of education (and of not getting any profit), but I prefer the idea of working more directly with young people. Working on material for citizenship education has affirmed in me how important it is to incorporate the teaching of citizenship and civics of all kinds into all subjects, especially in my area of history. I knew before that teaching young people political literacy and instilling in them empowerment and interest in social and political maters was important but what my time at the foundation has given me is a framework to understand why exactly this is the case and to understand what are the best ways of imparting these advantages on students.
I am not leaving London yet though. I am here for another 10 days of travel and exploration, which will be unfettered by work and other responsibilities. My Mom is coming in a couple days to spend the rest of my time here with me. I am really looking forward to showing here around this city that I have become so acquainted with, and dare I say, knowledgeable of.
My friends and I have been making the best of our last days in London together. We went on one last whirlwind stroll around London that turned out to be of epic proportions. We started off in a Bangladeshi area and had a great meal and found a little Bangladeshi bakery with amazing fresh somosas for just 40p and ate tons of them. We then walked up and down the Thames and spent an hour in the Tate Modern.
We also had a realization last week or so that while we have been to a respectable amount of pubs throughout London we really haven’t scratched the surface of the literally tens of thousands of pubs in the metropolitan area. So we have been making a concerted effort of going only to pubs that we haven’t been to yet. We are especially trying to go to the most unusual and unique pubs. We go online and try to do a little research to find them before every night that we go out. And when that fails we go finding lonely little allies, where often the best and most interesting pubs are. I think there is a ratio in London that the narrower, older, and more looking like Jack the Ripper would be around the corner, an alleyway looks, the more likely it is to have a one of a kind pub cozily nested some where along the alley. We also went on a wonderful ghost tour last night. Actually quite spooky (I almost saw a ghost).