sorry for being such a crappy blogger. a lot has happened since my last post. so here’s a summary of life over the last few months:

in september, i went to croatia for a long weekend with betsy, karen, and celia. we flew into pula and stayed in the small town of porec.

it's on the coast, but there aren't really beaches because it's so rocky and steep. nevertheless, the water is an amazing teal color, and the town and surrounding countryside was really charming. we saw a roman amphitheater, the cavern that inspired jules verne to write journey to the center of the earth, and some creepy catholic mummies that betsy forced us to see. despite the mummies, it was a good trip, and i would really recommend it.

at the beginning of october, betsy's household split up, and i went to stay with my coworker, taryn, and her husband, paul. the next day, noelle finally arrived! and that afternoon, we finally found a flat!

searching for a flat was pretty difficult for me. since there are a group of americans that came over at roughly the same time, there were discussions about living with some of them. there was a lot of back and forth, and some unfortunate drama, but it ended up that just noelle and i are living together. the other difficult part of the flat search was the actual finding of a flat. i had my eye on one neighborhood, which is super cool and artsy and has a wonderful farm and flower market, but the 2 flats that i found there fell through. then another flat in bow (where we live) fell through. all fell through for random reasons, and it was really discouraging.

anyway, noelle and i found a flat. in bow, which is in east london. right in between central london and barking, which is where i work. it's pretty residential, but it has a few pubs and stores. and the olympics will be in stratford, which is right around the corner, so it will probably be more developed in a couple of years. the flat is furnished, so all the furniture we had to but was a coffee table and a couple of end tables. we still need to put up some art, but other than that, we're all settled.

in october, a group of us went to bath for a day trip to celebrate my friend joan's birthday. bath is known for the roman baths (duh), and for being a social hot spot that jane austen wrote about. it's really lovely. the baths are beautiful, as is the city, and there are lots of shops. plus, there's a fashion museum! i'm confident that i'm way more excited about that than anyone who will read this blog, so i won't bore you. but i will say that i loved it, and we got to try on corsets and crinolines. let me tell you, it's hard to feel like a lady againonce you're taken off that skirt. (words to live by.)

we had a bunch of americans (and one brit) over to our new flat for thanksgiving, and it was great! we had quite a lot of food, and were able to find ways to make most dishes authentically. there were issues finding greens, and karo for the the pecan pie (we ended up making simple syrup from scratch), but the meal was great, and it was nice to have so many americans together.

a few weeks later, i headed home for a 3 week holiday, which was wonderful and exhausting. now i'm back to work and life in london, and it's officially winter. it's snowing as i type, and has been off and on all week. they say it's the coldest winter here in 30 years. i love snow, but it's an adjustment. i don't like walking on ice, and i'm having to do a lot of that. but i'm glad to be back in the city and back in my routine.

new year's resolution: travel more.

ok apparently blogging consistently isn't my thing.
things are going well here. i'm still staying with betsy while waiting for noelle to get here. hopefully that will be sorted out soon and she should be here in about a month. the plan right now is for a group of us to get a place together once everyone has their visa and a definite arrival date.
work is going well too. i have a case load of 14 kids, which is totally manageable. there have only been a few crises, as most of my cases are pretty basic. but right now it seems like the clients are pretty similar to what i'm used to in the states. in fact, some of the people that i see in my borough (which is like a county) really look like they would fit right in in barrow county. so dagenham just might be the winder of london.
observations:
- ice cream trucks are totally commonplace here.
- the vast majority of the dogs i've seen here are pit bulls. which is surprising, but i guess it's an east london thing.
- everything in this country is smaller and less efficient. it takes 4 days for a check to clear, shops close at 6 or 7 during the week, toilets seem to use more water, almost all cars are two door hatchbacks. the list goes on. it's just a different mindset.
- brits don't like to be corrected on their terminology and pronunciation. they generally respond with some statement about how they invented the language. whatever. a little guide to britishims:
bathroom = toilet/loo
faucet = tap
staple remover = butterfly
tape = cellotape
whine = winge
trash can = bin
pacifier = dummy
stroller = pram
tired = knackered
the problem with me not blogging often enough is that now i don't remember everything i've been doing. let's see. one night last week, i went to see hello dolly in regents park. it was wonderful, and i really really want to go back there. such a nice venue. last weekend, i went to the painted hall and painted chapel, then wandered around brick lane, where all the hipsters and junkies sell their artwork. i've been out to a pub in dagenham a few times with coworkers, which has been interesting. i actually saw a guy wearing rolled up jean shorts. and my coworker (who generally has really good style) defended this fashion failure.
i went to covent garden one day, which is a bit touristy in areas, but has cute shops, and we went to this indian restaurant, which was the best indian food i've ever had. i had the kadu sabji, and it was amazing. http://www.punjab.co.uk/
i have, of course, been spending ridiculous amounts of time on the tube. it's an hour and 15 minutes one way to work, which includes a short walk, then about an hour on the tube (with one line change in the middle) and then a 10 minute bus ride. overall, it's not bad. i've been reading a lot, which is great because i'm not the best about making time to read, and i've really enjoyed it. the bad thing is that you can't sing. i guess i had taken it for granted that i could sing in the car as much as i wanted and as loudly as i wanted.
i got an iphone! which is great because i can always pull up a map to figure out where and i am where i'm going. and i have skype and gchat on it, so it's easier to keep in touch with everyone in the states. so my new number is 787 253 8947, but to call you have to dial 011 44 then the number. or skype me!
this past weekend was bank holiday weekend, which means i had monday off for absolutely no reason. at least in america we pretend to be celebrating something patriotic. here we're just celebrating another day off of work. so i went to notting hill carnival, which is a huge carribean street carnival and parade. but this parade isn't like american parades. it was more like some random girl put sequins and tassels on her bikini, then got her uncle to drive his truck through the ridiculously crowded streets while she danced in the back.

well things are settling down a bit, and i feel like i have less to tell than i did last week.
i've been in training at work all week. while i do legitimately need training, i need info on london policies and procedures, and they're giving me general new hire training. so i've heard about how to give a good testimony, why it's important to document well, etc, etc - all things i know already. it's not miserable or anything, but i haven't learned a whole lot.
i could really get used to this work ethic. we're scheduled 9:30 - 4:30. we usually have tea, start our day at 9:45 or 10, break at about 11 for tea and biscuits (cookies), have lunch at 12:30ish, another tea break around 3, then we're done at 4ish.
the thing that sticks out most from training is the concept of magistrates. sometimes, instead of one judge, they use 2-3 magistrates to make decisions. these magistrates don't have law degrees, they're just lay people with a little training. it's just really strange to me that you would have a lay person making a legal decision!
i ate mexican one night this week. you can't expect good mexican here, so i tried to adjust my expectations, but it was still the worst mexican i've ever had. no chips and salsa, sweet & sour mix in the margaritas, and carrots and eggplant in the veggie fajitas. i may just have to make my own mexican.
friday night, i went with betsy and her roommates to a noodle place in leicester square and then wandered around soho. we ended up in a little bar, good night overall. we took the train back home, and as we were getting out of the train, some guys fell out of the car in front of us fighting. it got really intense, and one guy punched another in the face really hard, knocking him back. he hit his head really, really hard on the cement. so the police and ambulance came. one of betsy's roommates is a cop, and has found out that the guy has a serious head injury and is still in the hospital. we all had to give statements and a couple of people in the group have been contacted to make more detailed statements. it was pretty scary hearing his head crack and watching him bleeding on the ground, but that kind of stuff happens in all big cities. i'm being careful, so don't worry.
saturday i went to a church barbeque, and then to a park to watch a movie that was filmed in the area. it was good, but a little chilly, and i was really tired. we went to church this morning, and i've been laying around the house ever since. this move has really exhausted me! everything is just so much effort. but i can't really complain too much. besides noelle and nikki's visa delays, and a bad first day, things have gone pretty smoothly. i haven't been lost in a week and a half, and it's starting to feel more normal to be here. it definitely seems like i've been here longer than 2 weeks, but i don't feel settled since i'm still living out of my suitcases.
i have more training on monday and tuesday, and then i'll be back in the office to shadow another caseworker. i think of a million interesting things to write about, but i forget them as soon as i sit down to write! i'll have to start keeping a list with me at all times to record all the strange customs.

i think i've been putting off blogging because i've been so busy and i expect this will be a long one.
ok i left off tuesday night? wednesday i went to court all day. family court (the equivalent of juvenile court) is less formal than other courts: the judge doesn't wear a robe, and the setup of the room is pretty nontraditional. there are just tables that form a big square, and everyone sits at their specific spot. but there's no bench, and no witness stand as you would imagine. the judge sits at the front of the room, and the witness sits at an assigned spot to the side. what struck me most about court was the lack of formality displayed by the judge and lawyers. now, the authority's lawyer (saag) told me this was definitely not an average hearing, but it was still impressive. at one point, it turned into a big discussion between the judge and lawyers, without any real order to who was speaking when. at one point a lawyer even interrupted the judge! and no one blinked an eye. later in the afternoon, the judge became upset because he believed the authority was trying to force his decision through some legal maneuvering, and he interupted the swearing in of the case worker and started screaming about how appalled he was by the situaiton. now i've definitely seen judges raise their voices, but not like this. he was visibly emotional about the situation. so the lawyer asked for a recess, and the judge threw his pen on the table and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. it was definitely the most unprofessional behavior i've ever seen in a judge. but the lawyer says that was unusual behavior for him, so hopefully it won't happen again.
that night i went to hear a band play with betsy in central london. on the way, there was a big showing of an opera on a screen in trafalgar square. it would have been nice to stay, but we had to get off to the show. the venue reminded me very much of cine. same concept, same basic setup, white walls, black signs in the same font. i'm wondering if someone from cine has been there before? everyone in the crowd looked like they would fit right in in athens. the band was pretty good - temper trap.
it was nice to finally get into central london and remember why i wanted to come here. not to live in ilford, that's for sure. not that ilford's bad, but it's just a little too far out and doesn't even have a tube stop.
so on my way home, i got on the train at the right platform, but it ended up being a fast train out to the suburbs. so i got off the train at 11:45, trains stop at 12, and i was stranded in billericay, wherever that is. there ended up being two girls there getting a cab to the same general area, so i split the ride with them and ended up getting back to the hostel at 12:45. but it was only £20 for the ride, and at that point i just needed to be in for the evening. lesson learned.
hmm, thursday. it's hard to remember that long ago. oh i had a couple of pretty uneventful trainings, and then that evening, betsy came out to ilford and we moved my stuff to her place in greenwich.
i very carefully mapped out my route to work the next day, and managed not to get lost. more trainings that day, very boring. dfcs people: there are two databases. one is incredibly antiquated, and not even internet-based. the other sounds more like shines but i haven't been trained on that yet.
on my way home the dlr (above ground train) was stopped for about 30 minutes. because the police were trying to catch some guy who had hopped on the tracks to avoid being caught. otherwise, my commute that day was long and uneventful. it should take a little over an hour to get to work from betsy's place, but that's not abnormal for london i think, and it will be worth it not to live in a crappy hostel.
saturday we slept in and then went to the greenwich market, which is pretty busy on weekends. she took me around greenwich, where there's a maritime museum, nice views of the thames, and some other historic buildings. we found a mr. t piggy bank at a consignment shop, which is now sitting in betsy's windowsill, and had some indian food for lunch. later we went to the grocery store, which officially means that i live here. taking the bus to the grocery kinda stinks, so hopefully wherever i settle will be close to a grocery store.
this morning we went to betsy's church, which is a vineyard church that's pretty small, but the people seemed pretty friendly. we were planning to go to a civil war reenactment done by some masons, but it's about 2 hours away and the weather's supposed to be pretty gross all afternoon, so we decided against it. too bad, i was really looking forward to the british mason interpretation of the american civil war.
so that's what i've been up to. i'm feeling a little more settled since i'm in a house now, and have access to a kitchen, washing machine, etc. but i'm still living out of suitcases and am really anxious to get a flat and get settled. but right now it's still a waiting game until the other girls get here. i have my bank account set up though, and the check for my relocation package will clear on tuesday, then i'll get a credit card that i don't have to argue about with cashiers. i haven't been lost since wednesday night, so that's good.
update on my bleeding, blistered feet - they're still fairly torn up and i can't really wear anything but sandals without interuppting the healing process. so that's annoying when it's rainy and i want to be wearing my chucks, but it's pretty warm so i'll survive.
i'm sure there are more interesting things to tell, but i can't think of them at the moment.
wanna know how to call me? there's skype - michelle.bakay (but for the moment, i'm mainly using my mom's, which is nita.bakay - that should end around august 10). or get a calling card on onesuite.com, which is about 17 cents a minute, and if you call me, i can call you right back for free, since i have a deal through skype. how do dial? 011 (for international dialing) 44 (country code) 7898644989 (my number). or just email me if you want me to call you. it would be lovely to hear from you.
also, i can't figure out a way for this blog to automatically notify you when i've updated, so if you would rather me just email it to you, let me know, and i'll put you on a list.

well i'm here, staying in a hostel, and getting lost on a regular basis.
as of last friday, both of the girls i'm planning to live with here (noelle and nikki) have been declined for a visa because of a technicality with the sponsorship letter. they're appleaing it but don't know how long that will take. so i'm on my own at least for a little while.
i left atlanta saturday at 6 p.m. and landed in frankfurt at 9 a.m. of course, i had very little sleep on the plane, but i was able to find a spot at the frankfurt airport and sleep for a little while. my layover there was 8 hours, and i read most of the time. security took my toothpaste (sorry, chris) and gave me some attitude, but otherwise the layover was uneventful.
i landed at heathrow at 4 p.m., no issues with baggage, and was picked up by noelle's friends daniel and sierra. they got me settled at my hostel, and then we explored the area (ilford) a little and had dinner. i have a private room, but it's still a hostel. the shower is so small that i'm either touching the shower curtain or wall at all times. i can feel the springs in the bed, and the room is about the size of a roomy walk in closet. no exaggeration.
i didn't sleep well that night. my phone was going dead and i didn't have a converter or alarm clock, so i think i was mostly worried i would oversleep for my first day of work. oh and the sun comes up at 5 a.m. here.
i left for work with plenty of time to spare, and made it to barking (the area i was supposed to be in). but when i stopped and asked someone to point me to the right road, i gave him the address i had, which turned out to be the address for the dagenham office. so he told me to get on the bus, and i ended up at the wrong place. so i called darren (the guy who's been coordinating all this), and he told me to come back to the barking office. so i hopped on the tube, and made it to barking. the street signs weren't clear though, so i accidentally went to city hall, and they directed me to walk over to the next street and up a few blocks.
oh, and all this walking really sucked because i was wearing a new pair of shoes that i thought were going to be really comfortable. but it only took me walking about half a mile from my hostel that morning to realize one of my ankles was bleeding. i now have the worst blisters of my life. five of them. all at least 1/2 inch wide. i'll resist posting pictures.
so anyway, i started walking in the direction she pointed me and ran into darren on the street, with the other new girl. (we are supposed to have several new people starting, but there have been issues with visas, so we're the only ones who arrived on time.) so we walked back to where i just came from so we could do an orientation with the borough. (borough = county) fact: the borough of barking & dagenham was voted friendliest borough in london a couple of years ago. that's in reference to the employees, and does seem to be true because everyone has been really nice and helpful. even the IT guy was nice when i accidentally locked myself out of my computer today. that's serious.
after our little orientation, we joined the library (i'm not sure why that was so necessary) and went back to the office. (feet still bleeding, fyi.) there i met my new manager and was shown around a bit. then the other new girl and i went off to lunch with our managers, and then back to the dagenham office. we met our teams and were shown around, and then i was sent home to deal with jet lag, go to the bank, and get a phone.
so of course, i got lost on the way home. only mildly lost, but the frustration of having been lost that morning and the bleeding feet made it worse. i made it back to ilford, and tried to find the bank. i had walked past the bank the night before a few times, so i knew it was there, but i just couldn't find it. i did find the phone store i needed though so i went in there, and then wandered some more trying to find the bank. i eventually ended up close to my hostel, so i went to my room to change shoes, and realized it was already after 5. apparently i don't function well without a phone, as i don't have a watch. so i sat down to figure out my phone, and everytime i went to make a call, it told me i didn't have enough credit. so i had to call the help line and i'm sure the woman thought i was an idiot, but i finally figured out how to activate it.
so obviously the day was very frustrating. i made a few phone calls, which made me feel better, then i went and walked around a bit and got some dinner. oh and the bank was literally about 50 yards from where i looked earlier. nice.
last night i slept better knowing i had an alarm, and this morning i only got semi-lost for a few minutes, and was on time for work.
if you're not a social worker, this is the section you might want to skip.
we went on a tour of a children's centre, which does daycare and a variety of parenting support services. educational groups like baby massage, baby yoga, communication with special needs children, etc, etc, as well as parent support groups of all kinds, speech therapy, a midwife to do regular check ups, and even a midwife that specializes in teen parents! so the teens come and get checked by the midwife and then go straight to their support group. and there are 14 of these centres in the borough, so everyone is within about a mile of one. they also do some home visits for higher-risk cases. it was pretty great. we had to walk back to the office in the rain (the only rain since i arrived), and then we were off to visit another office. this office held a few different preventative/early intervention departments. they have a family group conference team, which does their version of family team meetings. except so much better. the conferences have to be voluntary, and the facilitator does a face to face visit with each person involved prior to the meeting. that way, people can get out their frustrations before the meeting. the meeting starts with refreshments for the family in a very homey environment, and then the professionals join. guidelines are given, and the family is given a list of issues to address in their plan. all the professionals then leave the room and do not return until the family requests them to (unless a fight breaks out). the family has as long as they want to make a plan, and when they're done the facilitator looks it over. if it needs to be more specific (say, around visitation plans), the facilitator tells that to the family and leaves the room again. repeat until finished.
next was the court services team, which is an independent team that does assessments referred by cps or the court. this seems like casa, except way more professional.
then we heard about the crisis intervention services. this is used to prevent a child coming into foster care, and the workers go out to the house for a few hours each day to work with the family!
last was restorative justice, which basically sounds the same as the program in athens.
my coworkers all seem really nice, and haven't judged me for getting lost so often at all. my supervisor seems to be very supportive, and is giving me tomorrow afternoon off to try to go to the bank again. i have court in the morning, which they have given me explicit directions to get to. it's supposed to start at 9:30, but my supervisor told me not to break my neck getting there on time, since court doesn't start on time here either.
the borough i'm working in is very diverse. lots of indians, africans, eastern europeans, middle easterners, etc. i spotted a polish bakery today! if you need a mental picture, think bend it like beckham. rows of brown brick town houses. it all looks the same in dagenham.
oh, and dfcs people, apparently there's a lot of intergenerational sexual abuse in the area (read = incest). i told the story about billy joe and bobby joe today and everyone loved it. especially when i talked about the penguin.
i had a woman stop me at the bus stop today to tell me my hair was pretty, and we struck up a conversation about my parents' hair, the states, and problems with social work. who says londoners aren't friendly? she didn't even judge me for being a social worker!
i currently have one friend in this city, and i've just heard that i'll be able to stay in her spare bedroom for a little while. hopefully noelle and nikki will get here soon so we can get settled. i don't really think it will hit me that i'm actually living here until i get a flat.
the hardest thing about being here right now is everything. i have to think about everything i do. i can't just run into the store and grab a pack of gum because the cashier gives me attitude because american cards don't have chips in them like british ones. and then they realized i haven't signed the back of my card and look at me with horror. you would think i was holding a gun to a child's head. it's just exhausting to have to figure out every single thing i do before i do it. but as soon as i figure out this bus system and get a place, i think i'll love the city. i know it's obvious, but there are just some many different kinds of people, and there's always something interesting to look at.
meredith, this pic is just for you: