Well, actually, that may be a lie. Another social worker that I am working with (Sam) has friends, and I've been tagging along with them this weekend. Sam is from Australia and last night I went out with she and her other Aussie friends in Notting Hill for her birthday, which was quite quaint and fun. Unfortunately, my I don't have very quality pictures because I keep forgetting my camera at home. The houses down there are SO CUTE...but also appear to be very expensive.
Today we spent the afternoon at a pub in Chelsea for Sunday roast. Sitting around the table were two people from South Africa, four from Australia, and a couple (and their two kids) from London. I love meeting all of these people from all over the world who are in the same boat that I am, more or less.
Work is going well. It is a whole lot to take in though. I think I was taking for granted that at home, I knew the child welfare system well, and I was able to get things done without questioning everything I was doing (if that makes sense). A couple of years ago the borough I'm working for (Hackney) introduced a new model to their social work programs. We now work in social work units consisting of five people including a consultant social worker (me), social worker, children's practitioner, a unit coordinator, and a clinician. The cases are actually allocated to me as the consultant social worker, and then I am responsible for overseeing all of the work that goes on inside the unit. As a unit, we only have 20 children, which makes the caseload far more manageable than anything I have ever done before. I think that we will be able to achieve better outcomes for our families as the services we can provide are much more intensive.
The clientele in Hackney is just crazy diverse. When they interviewed me, I assured them that I had worked in diverse communities by working in KCK and KCMO. Looking back, that seems like kind of a joke. London has such a high population of immigrants from all over the world, it's almost mind boggling. My caseload consists of families from Turkey, Yemen, England, the Caribbean, and the list goes on and on. I went to a training last week and found that we have an entire department devoted to child trafficking, female genital mutilation, etc. I am definitely not in Kansas anymore.
I've attached some pictures of the inside of my office. I feel like I'm going to work in an airport every morning. It's huge!
The last two weekends, I have spent my days just wandering around London. Yesterday I went to Harrod's, which is the craziest department store ever. It could best be described as an amusement park. It went on forever and ever. You could buy groceries there, they had a pet shop in there, they restaurants on all of the floors, etc. I went to Hyde Park for a couple of minutes yesterday afternoon too. Barry, I think you'd really like it there. There are rollerbladers everywhere! I was not aware that anyone rollerbladed anymore (besides you). :)
I have signed a lease on a flat in an area called South Woodford and move in May 6. I'm very excited to be able to unpack after almost six months of living in limbo. I am not so excited, however, about the trip to Ikea that I am going to have to take to furnish the place. Many flats in London are furnished, I didn't get so lucky so I anticipate some heavy lifting in my future.
Oh, and last Monday evening I went with a a coworker's and her family (they are actually from Overland Park and lived about 30 seconds from me) to see Diversity. It is the break dancing group that beat Susan Boyle (God love her) in Britain's Got Talent last year. It was quite impressive all that they can do. I especially liked the little kid with the crazy hair. So cute!
I think that's all for now. I know I said this last time, but I am really going to try to blog more often so it isn't so much of a process.
Have a good week!
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