The Cottagers

As I just figured out, my second week in London is through.  Boy, the last 14 days have been intense to say the least. 

Today, I brought my replacement and my old partner to the London Citizens Office to meet with the Hammersmith borough Leader.  I managed to get myself re-assigned to the position I was originally hoping for.  I get to work in on the communication and social media aspect of the Living Wage Campaign.  Another person in the UConn group, Molly, is going to take my place with Alex going into supermarkets in Hammersmith and Fulham for the next two or three months.  I met with the head media person, Alvin Carpio for over an hour yesterday to discuss the approach the campaign wants to take when their current efforts go public.  I didn’t realize how early in the process we were “read-in,” that planning is still in its infancy.  It’s a great opportunity for me, and I’m definitely feeling a lot better about what I’ll be doing twice a week through April.  Tomorrow, we’ve got a futbol match between Fulham (The Cottagers) and Stoke City (The Potters).  Neither team is spectacular – a match between Arsenal and Manchester United would cost a medium (not small) fortune.  Honestly though, it doesn’t matter how good or bad the teams are, I’ve never been to a soccer match in my life ever (not counting the Green Gremlin games I actually played in with the old Greenfield Crew) so this is going to be a heck of a lot of fun.  Hopefully I’ll get into Fulham’s pro-shop after the match and get myself a long-sleeve away shirt.  I took a look online and it looks really sweet. 

This afternoon we also had an INTD (inter-departmental) course that’s required for all 40 of us to take.  The professor raised some interesting questions, like asking us to define “citizenship.”  The class is about being a more global citizen, someone less inward and more considerate of other cultures.  I’ve got one picture, a little blurry; from the Transportation debate Mayor Johnson attended.

Mayor Boris Johnson is standing in the middle...if you couldn't already see the hair

I swear he’s the only politician in the western world who can get away with purposely eccentric hair. 

I’m sure I’ll have more updates, like concrete plans for a trip to Scotland a couple days after my birthday, but we’ll all just have to wait and see.   

Until then, 

Stay tuned…