Matthijs, 3e jaarsstudent Lerarenopleiding Engels.

After such a serious topic I blogged about last time, we might as well start talking about some more fun things I did last week!

Together with other international students, I went on a bus trip to London. The timing couldn’t be better; the weather was clearing up after a few days of continuous drizzle and I was in need of some fresh air after the Prison Project.

We visited all the major sights to see, including the Parlement, the Eye of London, Buckingham Palace and the Piccadilly Circus where we were surprised to find the digital billboards all disabled! At around 3 o’clock, my friends within the group had reserved a ticket for Madam Tussauds. I did buy a ticket beforehand, and when we arrived it was clear why reserving would have been necessary. The line to the entrance of the building went all the way to the end of the street. Trust me, it was a long street. So instead of waiting I decided to leave my group to it and venture into London by myself.
I had a lot of fun finding all kinds of different residential area’s featuring their own architectural style. I read my book in parks and cafes without being bothered by tourists, simply because the establishments were out of range where tourists usually visit. After a fun 2 hours I met up with my group again and used the underground, which was surprisingly easy to use, to return to our bus. All in all, I had a very fun day.

At the time of writing this blog, I have also started my placement with Free 2 Talk. This is a non-profit organisation that helps communities improve themselves, and also organise weekly youth clubs. The latter is where I am mostly involved in. This means that every week, I travel all over Northamptonshire in the evenings to organize and run activities for young people. These can be either groups of 8-11 or 12+ year old. So far I have played a variety of board and other indoor games, Pool, Football, Basketball and cooked pancakes and cakes. While it is mostly just fun and games for the young people, the goal of staff is to socialize with them to acquire information about their living condition and environment. This way, if a young person gets involved with criminal activity for example, we will probably find out and will be able to help. When young people then come in contact with the law, we can be the friendly face that has their back. Most of the communities where the youth groups are held are full of disadvantaged families, so there’s enough to do in terms of the social work that we can provide.

Placement together with upcoming deadlines make my stay more and more busy. I do go out jogging in a nearby park to let off some steam, and I sometimes eat veggies for diner. Am I an athlete yet?

Until the next one!

Here’s a picture of a cool clock tower I found in London.