Fall has arrived

Just got back from a brisk and breezy 6 mile jog around Primrose Hill and Regent's Park.  Wonderful color and scenery, great people as well.  Today marks the one month point for me in Londontown!  

I attended the Rotary District Conference Last week in Eastbourne.  Loved feeling the sea air and getting to see a bit of another side of England.  This was the first time that all of the Rotary scholars were able to gather as well.  I was surprised to see that there are 18 of us!  I was able to meet many Rotarians from around the greater london area and hear about all of the different work that Rotary is doing in the community.  It was great to get an overall picture of what is going on in the District.  Hopefully some of the Rotary clubs liked me as well, and I can come speak to their groups.  Although 18 scholars makes for a lot of presentations to the local clubs!

I have been busy with my readings and coursework, however I have made time to get out in the community with my husband and daughter as well!  We have visited several churches, local markets, parks, and neighborhoods.  Loving every minute!  Elle and I are also loving the SureStart program in London which has enabled us to meet so so many moms and babes from around the world.  We are learning so much culturally from these experiences as well.

Right now I am working on researching refugee women and the ways they overcome and use their experiences to form new identities in their communities of displacement and exile.  It is proving to be very interesting.  I am interested to see the specific efforts the UK is making in working specifically with refugee women.

We have our first "Flat Gathering" tonight for the international families living in our building.  So we are very excited to participate in that and this weekend we are headed out to Harrow for their annual firework celebration!  More to come soon!

Getting into the swing of things!

We have officially been in London (greater London anyways) a month now.  Time has flown for sure.  I am getting into the rhythm of balancing baby, school, and rotary a bit more.  We are getting connected with the community here in Central London meeting other moms and babies from across the globe.  It is so great to hear different perspectives, ideas, and share experiences with others.  In our baby and me classes we have met moms from Russia, Italy, Germany, Spain, India, China, Vietnam, Senegal, and Sudan to name a few.  This is such a wonderful opportunity to share together and Elle is loving making new friends. 

I have been trying to schedule rotary presentations for this year.  So if you would like me to come speak to your group please do feel free to email me and I would love to come.  My husband and Elle would even make an appearance if you are interested.  We love meeting new people and sharing life. 

I am headed to Eastbourne this weekend for the Rotary District Conference.  I will be taking the train on Saturday morning for the festivities.  It should be an adventure.  

School is continuing to be very invigorating and challenging.  I am learning more about the UK immigration policy and getting more comfortable with migration theories and terminology.  My first paper will be due November 3rd.  So I will be very busy once I get back from conference!  

Family Love

I realized today that I had not properly introduced my family on the Blog here.  I am accompanied by my husband, Wade, and daughter, Ellery Grace, as I pursue my studies and ambassadorial ambitions this year.  I am so blessed to have a supportive family unit on this journey with me.  Many of you know that adding to the Splinter family was not originally on my agenda when I started the ambassadorial scholarship process.  While Ellery was not part of my original master plan, we are so incredibly thankful for the gift of life she is.  We are gracious to our family for their support in our voyage over here (poor grandparents as I have taken the first grandchild overseas), as well as the support of rotary in allowing me to take on the responsibilities of academics and rotary extracurriculars with my added commitments of family.  I will say that it is not entirely easy to balance my schedule or have any sort of routine or normality with a 6 month old, but I am fully confident we will be successful.  

On a whole my work and life experiences have well prepared me to take on this role.  I am hopeful that our experiences this year will make us stronger individuals and a closer knit family unit.  I hope to share with other rotary ambassadorial scholars insight and encouragement being a few years down the road into life's journey post undergrad.   I also hope to bring fresh perspective and vibrance to the each and every rotary club and rotarian that I come across this year.  

Two weeks have just flown by...

So I am usually better about posting on blogs.  However, life has been pretty crazy here in London for the past 2 weeks.  

Wade, Ellery, and I arrived successfully on Thursday morning September 18th at 7am out at Terminal 5 of the Heathrow.  We were so happy to be greeted by our host Paddy Lynne, as well as another Rotarian Alan Solomons.  They were quite overwhelmed by the luggage for all of us I am sure!  We fit it all in Alan's clever SAAB though.  Thank goodness!  We were quite blessed with the hospitality of Paddy who housed us for the first week + of our adventure in London.  She is quite a peach and was so generous to share her humble home with us.  She actually had a full house!  A Group Study Scholar, Jonny, from Bulgaria, as well as a former Rotary Scholar, Amy, from Whales was there as well.  Yes, Paddy is going for sainthood ;)  Pepsi, Paddy's lil pup, was glad to hang out with us well!  He and Ellery really enjoyed spending time together on the floor.

We had a great week of getting to know Harrow.  Paddy and I attended the Northwick Park Rotary 30th Anniversary; where I was able to meet many other rotarians and celebrate with them.  We also met the mayor of Harrow at the All Saints Church Fare.  Wade and Elle also joined the Harrow Rotary Club for my first presentation!  It went very well, Harrow was very gracious!  We also enjoyed getting to know Peter Sorrell from the group who came over for dinner at Paddy's as well as treated us to our first Fish 'n' Chips!  We had wonderful conversation and food.  We loved just meeting the Harrow folk and getting immersed in a bit of British culture (as this is our first time to the UK).

I have been busy with classes as well at the University of East London.  I had orientation last week and now am attending classes full time.  My schedule is 3 hrs of class on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, partnered with 8hrs of reading/research outside of class each day.  Our courses involve several research/essays.  My program, is so interesting and invigorating, but a lot of work at the same time.  All of the sudden I have realized that I have been out of school for 4 years and it takes a bit to get back in the groove.  Also more difficult with a 6 month old at home.  But I am up for the challenge and will press in on the courses.  I am so thankful to have such a supportive husband.  We are learning to share roles nicely.  It will of course help as Elle starts eating more people food ;)  So I am just diving in to readings and getting at it with classes.

I am also trying to set up Rotary visits and will hopefully be able to experience some of London here as well.  We are officially in our own place now.  We did so appreciate the hospitality in Harrow.  We now live on York Terrace with the International Student House.  Kevin Coyne, a Rotary member and fellow American, helped us get everything set up for the living arrangements here.  We really love the location right on Regents Park!  I had my first run in the rain there today.  The location is also close to many of London's famed attractions.  So far we have just ventured in the shopping districts a bit (Oxford Circus and Piccadilly)!  All that I can say is wow, lots of people!!

I will try to post more regularly with my adventures, observations, insights, thoughts...just wanted to get everyone caught up!

On your mark, get set...

September 2nd. Just two weeks until the Splinter family departs for our adventures as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Family to the UK. It is crazy to believe that after applying for the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship in February 2007, here we are September 2008, over eighteen months later, getting ready to head off. We are so excited that this dream is finally becoming a reality. In these last days in the U.S., I am spending much time preparing myself to return to the academic arena. After four years working in the field of immigration law in the U.S., I am so delighted and excited to return to not only return to classroom to gain much needed instruction and further education in my field, but to experience the practices of another country in relationship to my field as well. I am also working hard on finalizing my rotary presentations that I will be sharing with the Rotary Clubs of my host district 1130 in Greater London. I think it is important for me to really focus on the key aspects of what makes life and people here in the midwestern United States unique and give an accurate snapshot of who we are in relationship to the diversity of the United States of America.

My family is so excited to journey over to the UK and beyond. We are anxious to experience new culture and life abroad. We also hope to share our experiences and love with our hosts abroad. We are delighted to journey with each of you on our adventures. We hope you enjoy our blogging of our experiences, insights, challenges, laughs, and hopes...more to come soon!