5/20 & My Birthday!!!!!!!!

5/20

We started off the day with a class on discrimination and different cultures. It was kind of a boring class but it was ok. We watched an interesting video called the Eye of the Storm. It was about a third grade teacher who wanted to give her class a better understanding about racism and taught the lesson by dividing the class up into 2 groups, ones who had brown eyes and ones who had blue eyes. It was very interesting how the kids turned on each other and started discriminating against each group in a matter of 15 min. Later in the day we had a group session in a building called the Octagon. The university is trying to get a program set up the combines faith, spirit, health, and well being. We were broken up into groups and came up with some ideas on how to help them get the program off the ground. Unfortunately I was put into the finance team, but I was still able to offer a lot of good ideas to my group.

This was also the nicest day England has had since I have been here. It was warm, sunny, and didn't rain. Well I take that back it might of drizzled for a few min here and there. David and I wanted to enjoy the nice weather and decided to walk around our neighborhood to explore. We found a local cricket stadium and walked around it for a bit. We also walked past the prison. We have a B level prison about a block from our house. That means it is one level down from a maximum security prison. I think the walls need to be higher than they are. They just do not look big enough to be around a prison.

After dinner, David, Stephanie, Elizabeth, and I went out to a local pub called the Golden Lion. They had some live music playing , a good atmosphere. We made friends with a local named Carl who loves Americans. Apparently he has a villa in FL. His friends didn't seem to like us much but I think we may have stolen their table. Carl informed us to be careful in the surrounding neighborhoods. He said it may look like a safe place but we should really be careful and watch our backs. He also was making fun of me because I only had one cider the entire time I was at the pub. After the pub, we all went back to the girls house to play some cards. Elizabeth and I taught the other 2 how to play rummy. Instead of keeping score we just kept track of how many rounds everyone won. That wasn't to hard to remember because I had won 4 out of the 5 rounds that we played. Elizabeth was not happy with me at all and claims she will beat me next time. I'm not really worried though. MW you better be practicing cause you will need it.

5/21

Its my birthday!!!!!! Apparently my family doesn't love me because I tried calling both mom and dads cells several times and the house phone but no one answered. Thanks. We had a class on politics in the morning and we learned about Parliament, the monarchy, and the corruption going on with the MPs. It was an interesting class and have a little better understanding of their system, but it is pretty confusing. After our politics session, we got to go to Berkeley Castle. That was awesome. We weren't allowed to take pics inside the castle but I have some good shots of the outside. The castles been in the family's name and care for the past 900 years. It was just an incredible sight to look at and long and interesting history. After Berkeley we were taken to see a speaker on human rights named Helen Bamber. She has done a lot of great things but should never be a public speaker. The material could have been presented in a much better way. The most exciting part was when the fire alarm went off before the show started and when Nick feel asleep while Helen was talking. We were all hungry after the human rights session, so Paul (UWE program director) treated us all to dinner and a few drinks at a local restaurant.

The original plan for the night was to go and see a comedy club but the speaker and dinner took too long. So we will be doing that next Thursday night. Instead, we met several other from our group at a local pub and celebrated my bday. It was a fun and I can still do a backflip despite my shoulder being screwed up. Just an fyi if anyone cared lol.

Dinner At Mud Docks
Walking Around The Grounds at Berkeley Castle

The Group at Berkeley

Berkeley Castle

I Surrender

Aunt Robyn, just beyond the fence is the remains of the castle that you were referring to. The church in the background was bombed during WWII and was left standing with no roof.

Video of Berkeley Castle & Grounds