Time Capsule Letter – October 2016
- Our powerful sharing circle around the fire in Devon where we truly displayed we trusted one another with our hopes, secrets and fears.
- Working and powering though in 90/F/30C heat outside at Progress and melting on the non-air-conditioned Tube!
- Our many trips to our unofficial London home-base…Sainsbury supermarket!
- The painstaking and hilarious process of putting on a hot wet-suit, but the payoff of jumping into the cold ocean while in Devon during our coasteering adventure.
- Rock climbing fun and the mishap with Elissa and myself-as I came plummeting down as she flew up!
- Kayaking on the River Thames and canoeing on the River Dart, and the struggles some of us had, but overall the triumph of coming together as a united front.
- All of you stepping up as Leader of the Day and being able to navigate the Tube and streets of London like a local.
- Pushing ourselves in our nature excursions and hikes in Devon, when many of us are nature adverse (like this city girl) :p
- Our lovely Sunday afternoon/evening spent baking and preparing for a proper British tea, followed by our endurance test of standing in the Globe Theatre for 3 hours and watching Macbeth 🙂
- Lastly, all the random sayings and catchphrases of our trip…”Everything is awesome”-myself & Amy, “Sounds like a personal problem” -Evie, “Jumpman, Jumpman, Jumpman”-Kevin, “The struggle is real”-yours truly, and the countless impromptu Disney renditions, especially our “Colors of the Wind” and “Just Around the Riverbend” Pocahontas tributes!
Summer Blog Posts
Hi everyone!
After a busy day at the London Heathrow Airport, we have all officially arrived safe at our Home Base at the Canalside Centre in London. The students are pretty exhausted after their long flights and crossing through immigration at the airport but we are all looking forward to the next few weeks of incredible service learning and adventure!
Stay tuned for more updates from our amazing team in London!
Best,
Amy Lepp
International Director
7/11-7/12
A Hectic Start; Is There Any Other Kind?
We’re here to give you as good of a lowdown of what’s happened the last few days as is possible (i.e. I’ll tell you what I remember, hopefully all the important parts.)
Firstly, I think it’s important to mention that everyone made it off their planes alive and well. No one has been lost, and everyone is doing fairly well. Everyone is home safe, check for job well done, facilitators!
Day ONE (Monday) most definitely consisted of a lot less lounging, even at our late start of a whopping 9:30. Long term London resident, Joe, showed us the city basics downtown after our first attempt at the tube system. We saw the houses parliament, the Thames, and Big Ben (which, we were informed by Joe, is actually the name of the giant bell inside, and rather the clock tower itself is named “Elizabeth Tower.” Hmm). We came home to a delicious savory pie by our excellent cook, and were all able to take part in a raft building exercise. The raft building itself was super, fun and a little ridiculous. Although each team tried their best to make a raft that would both support them and make it about twenty feet down some water and back, one team’s raft held together fairly well, and the other teams rafts fell apart almost immediately upon trying to get on. With the broken raft, the second team still swam it around the obstacle and made it back before the other team had managed to fully board. Both teams ended up winning, team one received full points for thoroughly making a sturdy raft, and team two for seeing the exercise through to the end. In the end, the day was so exciting, that I personally was in bed by 8 o’ clock and well rested by the next day’s wake up time of 6:30.
Day TWO (Tuesday) was another very interesting day. Starting out at the tower of London, we followed an audio tour that brought us to important attractions and told us a lot of interesting things. I personally found this to be an excellent and informative tour without being dry. We ate lunch at the tower and soon after viewing the crowned jewels, we left. The next part of our day took us to Shordich, a very cool, very hipster part of town. After stopping for drinks and a break were set out for the Unseen Tour, led by a homeless man named Henri, showing us London by his experience, and his point of view as a homeless man. This was indescribable, but truly one of the most interesting and in many was emotionally turbulent experiences of my life. I highly recommend taking this tour. After this, we went home for some Chinese takeout, which was delicious and relaxing.
That’s my recap of the last few days, and I’d just like to mention that I’ve had an amazing time, and it’s been an irreplaceable experience.
7/13
The GLA team woke up at six thirty in a weary but excited state. It was the introductory day to our service work for the next week. We ate breakfast and headed out on a classic double-decker bus and then got on the tube. We made multiple connections and our last stop was on the underground train at Queen’s Road Peckham. Quickly, we exited the station and arrived at the John Donne School. As we read, played, and interacted with the year one and year two students, we learned more about the struggles of an outer-city London community. The teachers and staff strive to make a fun, positive and safe environment for these kids including those who have families facing issues that come along with having a low income and being non-English citizens.
We were done with work for the day so we made our way to Camden to see the canal system that runs throughout London. We strolled along the mossy canal seeing boats that were “mooring” as well as the back of the London Zoo- seeing many interesting birds. We came to Regent’s Park, an area with lots of cricket fields, and played Frisbee. Eventually, as a lot of London days do, it became stormy, and so we got onto the tube to arrive back at home base to have dinner and retire the day.
7/14
The team had another early start with wake up at 6:15 and breakfast at 6:45. After getting ready, we took the Underground again to John Donne Primary School, but this time, not to play with the children. The team was tasked with fixing up the sandbox and building a wooden cover to put on top. We met up with Joe, one of our directors, at the site and he gave us a brief introduction to carpentry. Even though for most of us, it was the first time we held a saw or a screwdriver, I’d like to say we did a pretty decent job. Midway through working, we had our lunch break and ate the food we packed the night before (I made a sandwich and think it’s the most successful thing I’ve ever made on my own). After lunch, some of the team went off to help redecorate parts of the play area.
Following our wonderful work, we headed towards our next stop: Greenwich Meantime Nursery. However, instead of working with little kids again, we were working with little plants. Michael, the person in charge of the Nursery showed us how to uproot weeds and plant different flowers and plants in their place. Later, a small group of people (including me) went off to help Michael plant some trees. After a long day of work, we were rewarded with some DIY pizza that we baked in a clay oven at the Nursery. Dinner was delicious, and everyone enjoyed it. It was perfect to tie us over for the long trip home, and by the time we got back to home base we fell asleep immediately. It was a fun day.
-Elissa
7/15
Friday was a much needed rest day. We slept late, or later than usual, and began a day of relaxing but fun excursions. We left home and made a journey on foot to the Portobello market in the Notting Hill neighborhood. We explored the area, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of this diverse marketplace. At the marketplace, the team was divided into groups and sent to interview different types of vendors. I ate a “New York style” hotdog (this was a misnomer) covered with cole slaw, jalapeños, and slices of American cheese, and served on a baguette. Later, we made a trip to an internet café and finally reconnected with our family and friends with whom we have had little contact over this first week. The team returned to home base and enjoyed an early dinner before embarking to our evening activity: kayaking on the River Thames. The activity proved challenging for Amy and Kelli, but the rest of us enjoyed this activity which provided a new perspective of the city. I raced Kevin back to the dock and won. We then returned for the night and enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake mad by our wonderful chef Teresa.
July 16th, 2016: Castlehaven Community Centre Festival
We had breakfast at around 7, after we finished the breakfast, we departed for volunteering work at Castlehaven Community Centre Festival at 8, by bus. We arrived the Community Center at around 9, because Wilson, Miller, and me were extremely tired in the morning, so we slept a little bit in the Centre for around 15 minutes. We started volunteering at around 9:15, first, we picked up the trash that’s on the grass, and then we carried the tables, drinks, and food from the Castlehaven Community Centre to the Festival place. After that, I volunteered at the soccer field for collecting tickets and left at 12:50 for lunch. We divided into two groups for lunch, and I was in the group that went to Camden Market for lunch, Wilson and I ate a turkish doner . After we finished the Turkish food, Wilson, Amy, and I went to the sneakers shop for around 20 minutes and we didn’t buy anything, but we bought some hoodies at a vendor. Around three, we went back to the festival and I went to watch the soccer game while everyone else was taking a break. Then, the festival ended, and we carried lots of stuff back to the community centre. And we came back to eat Kitty’s delicious dinner, she made pasta, salad, and garlic bread, I think those are pretty nice. I am spending my free time to write this blog, and it’s time for me to ENJOY my free time which has only 22 minutes left. BYE.
Kevin Lin
7/17
Miller Smith
In the morning, the team woke up and ate some pancakes prepared by Jo, the in-country director and occasional cook. After everyone had finished their pancakes, we got ready to depart for the day’s activities. We took a walk through one of the parks by Buckingham Palace. We witnessed the changing of the guards at the palace, which is an extremely old tradition. After this, we explored Piccadilly Circus and saw a street performer who publicly humiliated children, which in my opinion is always a good time. After stopping by a couple of candy shops, the team went home to a meal of roast beef, vegetables, and yorkshire pudding. The team then did a simulation of cities and what a proper city needs to function properly. This, of course, soon collapsed into turmoil and war. Afterwards, we ate apple pie. And then the leader of the day was forced to write a blog.
July 14, 2016
Elissa Tong
The team had another early start with wake up at 6:15 and breakfast at 6:45. After getting ready, we took the Underground again to John Donne Primary School, but this time, not to play with the children. The team was tasked with fixing up the sandbox and building a wooden cover to put on top. We met up with Joe, one of our directors, at the site and he gave us a brief introduction to carpentry. Even though for most of us, it was the first time we held a saw or a screwdriver, I’d like to say we did a pretty decent job. Midway through working, we had our lunch break and ate the food we packed the night before (I made a sandwich and think it’s the most successful thing I’ve ever made on my own). After lunch, some of the team went off to help redecorate parts of the play area.
Following our wonderful work, we headed towards our next stop: Greenwich Meantime Nursery. However, instead of working with little kids again, we were working with little plants. Michael, the person in charge of the Nursery showed us how to uproot weeds and plant different flowers and plants in their place. Later, a small group of people (including me) went off to help Michael plant some trees. After a long day of work, we were rewarded with some DIY pizza that we baked in a clay oven at the Nursery. Dinner was delicious, and everyone enjoyed it. It was perfect to tie us over for the long trip home, and by the time we got back to home base we fell asleep immediately. It was a fun day.
July 18, 2016
Monday, July 18
Hi, I’m Ruby, the youngest member in our team(14 years), from San Jose, California, and I hope you enjoy the blog that I wrote :).
Today, our team woke up early at around 6:45 to prepare for our day. We ate a continental english breakfast and were getting ready to depart for our trip. One good thing that has happened recently is that the weather in London has been warmer than usual, so everyone has been able to wear warmer clothing. First, we took the bus and train to the Progress London working site and met with Jo, a director of ours. He gave us a brief summary of what was happening and introduced Simon to us, who is in charge of the Progress London project. Something really awesome was that we were able to see the recreational center there. We were able to see rooms with boxing rings, basketball stadiums, and etc. We were also presented with a room called “The Space” which was basically a normal room with a lot of space and nice comfy chairs. In that room, Simon led us in some stretch routines, which were pretty fun(It was really easy for me though, since I dance). Soon, we had to use some sandpaper to sand down some wooden rafts to become a painted wall for hanging plants. We didn’t get to finish, but that is ok, since we will be spending our whole week there.
After that, we went to Westway Sports Center to go rock climbing. Everyone was grouped into pairs, and my partner was Ruby Wu. I don’t know if anyone who reads this blog knows this, but in our GLA team, we have two girls who are named Ruby. One is me, and the other one is Ruby Wu, who is from Taiwan. Continuing what I was saying, Ruby and I helped each other while we climbed a rock wall. Personally, when I first reached the top of the wall, I was kind of scared because of the height and how high off the ground I was, but after a few times of practice, everyone is our team got used to it. Soon, we went home to eat the delicious lasagna and tiramisu cake that our cook, Tanya, made. It was really tasty, and I really enjoyed it. After dinner, we had to listen to some announcements and played jeopardy. The thing is, this isn’t normal jeopardy, it was UK jeopardy, so I didn’t know the answer to many questions. In the end, my team won because we had Wilson and Willow on our team. They basically answered all of the questions and we had with some help from Elissa. And now we get to here, where I am writing the blog, so thank you for reading this, and have a good day/night!
-Ruby
Progress London and Brixton People’s Food Kitchen at Battersea Canteen by Elissa
July 19 & 20th, 2016
When I signed up for this trip, I didn’t expect hot summer weather, but that’s exactly what we got today with the high at 91.
We had another early start at Progress. Most of the team worked on painting delivery pallets to turn into vertical plant art installations, while me and a few others did some carpentry work on the plant beds. The carpentry team eventually finished and we started making stencils to use to spray-paint motivational words on the pallets. The pallets should be finished by tomorrow and we’ll be able to start planting vegetables.
Near the entrance of Progress there’s a small Colombian cafe that we frequent so often that we’re on friendly terms with the staff.
After Progress, we went to Battersea Canteen, a community kitchen where we made meals with donated produce from local restaurants. We learned how to use ingredients that were ready to be thrown out to be made into delicious meals. Willow and I made an apple cinnamon cake for dessert with banana lemon glaze. We also got the chance to sit down and have a meal with local British residents, which was nice.
Progress and City Tour by Wilson
July 21, 2016
The team began its day at Progress London, completing decoration and installation of the vertical gardens that we have been building throughout the week with our leader Simon. The group then split up for different activities. Amy, Ruby, and I enjoyed sightseeing and a bit of urban exploration. We began with a walking audio tour of Westminster, then continued on to visit Buckingham Palace, before finishing our afternoon exploring the streets of Kensington and Chelsea. The others made trips to Harrod’s department store and the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Beatles Store on Baker Street. We finished the day with a barbeque at home base. Tomorrow we will return to the Black Prince Road community and the site of Progress London, and put the finishing touches on our project. Later we will celebrate our work with a local Colombian meal.
July 22, 2016
Today is the last day working at the Black Prince Community, we woke at very early today, we had breakfast at around six, then we left the home base and took the bus to the community. Since we already finished the painting, the work for today was to add the planting beds and soil on the vertical garden and later add plants and herbs. It was a team effort as we wanted to finish as much as possible. Later we had our final debriefing with Simon and celebratory meal of Colombian food for lunch in the “La Tia Cafe”, it was pretty delicious.After the lunch, we went to the city of London, we visited the Tate Modern Museum and walked along the historic Southbank area on a beautiful Friday evening. Then we had dinner in the the same area, we divided into two groups for dinner at two popular chain restaurants in UK. Miller, Wilson, Kelli, and I went to the Nando’s-a Portuguese place, and the rest of the group went to a pan-Asian themed place Wagamama. Later we took the tube back to the home base, the tube didn’t stop at Baker Street station, so we went to the next stop and took the bus back.
7.23
Brighton Pier and Beach Day
By Willow
Saturday was a perfectly British muggy and grey day with a dash of sun. We woke up extra early to catch an overground train to beautiful Brighton. The early morning dull of the train station was exemplary of everyone’s exhaustion from our treks around London.
This was our first day outside of the zones of London. First, we arrived in a little park that had beautiful flowers and a busking cello player. We wound around little markets and streets until we saw a beautiful view of the sea. We plopped down on the rocky beach surrounded by other vacationers to have lunch.
Then, we hopped on a boat and when out to sea to fish for mackerel. It was a bumpy ride out, and we all got sprayed by the salty water as we laughed and held on hard to the handrails. They didn’t bite at first but suddenly everyone had fish on their reels and it was a cacophony of excited screaming and scrambling for pictures.
We returned back to land to have traditional fish and chips. With too much fried food in our stomachs, we went to Brighton Pier to ride roller coasters and play arcade games. We returned on the nostalgic but rusty choo-choo train to the streets to quickly make our return back to home base.
July 24
Afternoon Tea and Shakespeare Globe by Evelyne
On Sunday Joe made us pancakes in the morning. When we were done with breakfast we made the cupcakes, sponge-cake,scones, and other desert for traditional afternoon tea. We also made the following finger sandwiches, smoked salmon,cucumber, and cheese and crass. When we were waiting for the deserts to cook we played a board game where we set up rail tracks around Europe and wanted to have the longest continuous track. We also began packing for Devon and the return home. In the evening went to see Macbeth at the Globe in the standing section, and on the way back we had a fun adventure getting home.
July 25
Arrival to Devon & new Warren Barn homebase, farm visit, beach, fish and chips in Torquay, and fireside sharing by Ruby Wu
Today, we leftover homebase in London to go to the Warren Barn homebase in Devon. The renovated barn is a nice place and we sleep on bunk beds in a room with an amazing view of the greens and flowers and trees in the countryside. After arriving at our home base, we took a walk around the area and then visited the beach at Torquay. The sand was enjoyable compared to the hard rocks at Brighton Beach, though that had been quite special as well. Though the water was cold, Sophie, Miller, Wilson, and Kevin went into the water. After our brief beach trip, our group went to eat fish and chips at Rockfish, which is a restaurant that only uses sustainable suppliers. At night, we all sat around the fire outside our homebase and Hal organized a sharing event where whoever held the stone, that was passed around our circle, had The Voice. Hal probably hypnotized us with the flickering flames and darkness, for people started sharing their insecurities and deep secrets. It was a nice moment of sharing and bonding, and was a very magical night in beautiful Devon.
July 26
Trip to Dartmoor National Park and hike to river, Buckfast Abbey, tea & scones by Evelyne
On our 1st full day here in Devon, we went to Dartmoor National Park where we had a picnic on the rocks, and then Hal our local guru talked to us about how the ecosystem has been self-cleaning it’s self for a long time as well as some other scientists and how these ideas have really changed our perspective of the universe and how for many of them they it led them to be ostracized from their community. We then took a silent walk down to the river. We then went to a tea café were some people got clotted cream and tea. We then went to Buckfast Abbey which is a chapel that was reconstructed after King Henry the 8th who had kicked out all of the monks and destroyed their chapel. Dartington was the next stop, there is a Medieval era estate that had been restored during the 1920 and had a lovely garden. Lastly we again ended the night with a fireside reflection.
Wednesday, July 27th:
Hi there, our final blog posts will be written by us, the two Rubys! On Wednesday the 27th of July we went to the Landmatters Permaculture Project where we met Margaret, a member of the project. She showed us around the community and talked about different subjects in permaculture. For example, the 3 ethics of permaculture are earth care, people care and fair share. We were also able to see the result of the three ethics being used. Overall the trip to the community was an eye opening experience.
Next we went canoeing along the river Dart. We were broken off into two teams and started canoeing. It was wonderful being able to see the beautiful sights around the river. Some of us even started to sing. Soon, we landed on a beach and started a barbecue. Our main chefs were Kevin and Wilson. Wilson cooked the hamburger meat, while Kevin cooked the sausages. The food was really great, so after that everyone started to look for tree twigs to put marshmallows on and roast. Hugh, our canoe instructor sharpened the twigs for us. The marshmallows were fantastic, and to top it off, we all got tea, coffee or hot chocolate.We then canoed back while the sun was setting to where we parked the bus and went back home. Since it was really late when we got back, everyone just passed out on their beds.
On the next day, we (the two Rubys) were both leaders of the day. Even though we were the leaders of the day, we really didn’t have to do anything prominent except wash the dishes-this is why we wanted to write these blog posts for the last three days. We started the day off by going into Totnes High Street for some shopping. It was really cool to see a lot of different shops with its own variety and identity. We and Evie and Sophie went to a candy shop to look at their sweets. They had a lot of different sweets that we wouldn’t find in the US and Taiwan. Our personal favorite was a raspberry gummy that tasted a lot like a raspberry (obviously). Soon, we arrived at a bookstore that had a lot of different books by J.K. Rowling. Ruby W. was really excited and bought a few since she really admires the author. We then met for lunch at the main square and everyone had pasties from Hal, our Devon director. The pasties were really delicious, so we recommend them! Later we went to the home of a local woman named Jo, to learn about a project she did to save money on house expenses like adding solar panels with government grants. The project was called Transition Streets, and it was created by Hal and others. It was a pretty amazing listening to her experience.
Next we set off for coasteering and everyone had to change into their swimsuit and put a wet suit over it. The wet suits were super tight, and we’re really happy we don’t have to wear it anymore. Charlie, our instructor taught us how to jump off the rocks/cliffs and ensured our safety. We think it was a very cool experience for all, especially Kelli, our mentor, because she doesn’t like water and can’t swim. At the end of coasteering we got to watch Wilson jump off a really high cliff. It was really amazing because honestly we would be too scared to jump off into the ocean from such a high place. Coasteering left us with a lot of empty stomachs, so once we were at our countryside home, everyone gobbled up their pizza. Lastly, we had ice cream with Hal around the fireplace and went to bed.
Today, we started off the day with packing all of our belongings to head back to home base in London. We soon departed for one last shopping experience in Totnes to buy more souvenirs and gifts. We bought a lot of gifts for our friends and family, as well as more candy. Soon we got on our bus to head back to London to arrive for our going away dinner and celebration activities. Now it ends here with us writing the blog on the bus. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and I hope you enjoyed it. Have a good day!
