I heard no mention of Punxsutawney Phil yesterday. Weird.

I promise I haven’t forgotten about you, my lovely readers; I’ve just been busy! I’m writing today from UNC’s Winston House, in their main conference room. The room is half-elliptical, and I’m sitting at a desk in the very center of the room, looking out at the windows that peer into Bedford Square. I feel powerful, important, like a CEO or a senator or a president. Maybe I need to remodel my room back home… Anyway, I’ve had a great week and a half since I last wrote. I promised last blog that I’d talk about my internship and classes, so I’ll do that below, as well as recount my amazing trip to Box Hill yesterday.

First, my classes. I touched on this in an earlier post, but I’m in contemporary British politics, British history post-1850, and the London art-world. All classes meet once a week for two-and-a-half hours, so they can get quite long. The British politics course has perhaps been the most disappointing. We’ve spent most of the classes just discussing the state of British politics and what’s likely to happen in the future. It’s a lot of fun, and certainly something I’ve been known to do for hours when it comes to American or Israeli politics, but hardly feel like I’m learning anything in class beyond what I can read on the Guardian or glean from my textbook. Still, I feel like I’ve learned a lot about the system from my book, and each new thing I learn helps me understand British culture and how they approach the questions of justice, duty, and efficiency. My British history course has been good so far—the professor is incredibly knowledgeable and more sympathetic to Marxist views of history than my history teachers in high school, so it’s been interesting to hear her perspective on things. (To my friends and family members worried about that last statement, no, I don’t identify as a Marxist. My views are probably closest to John Rawls’ liberal egalitarianism at this point.) My art class has been phenomenal. We’ve held class at the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, and Tate Modern so far, and I’m learning a lot about how art is conceived in today’s society. It’s a lot more complex that I thought it was, but I feel just a little more confident trying to interpret modern art, and that’s really what counts, right?

As for my internship, I love it. It’s really more than I could’ve ever asked for. I work for a London-based non-profit called World Jewish Relief, an organization that mostly funds programs that give aid and build capacity for Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union, especially Ukraine. I work in the campaigns department, which was just started six months ago in an attempt to broaden WJR’s reach beyond just asking people for money. We have a robust staff of two, including myself, so there’s a lot we’re working to improve on. We don’t have much of a structure yet for what we want WJR’s campaigns team to look like, but I’m really appreciating the challenge of building this institution nearly from scratch. My supervisor has been phenomenal; he’s included me in much of the decision-making process since I’ve been there, and really seems to trust and value my input. He threw me into the fire my first week working on the launch of the IF Campaign, a UK-wide campaign to end global hunger (if you haven’t seen the video or signed up, you really need to check it out). I was calling Parliamentary offices for my first two days in an attempt to get Members of Parliament to come to a faith breakfast at Parliament that WJR was hosting, and I actually succeeded in getting a couple Parliamentary staff members to attend! At the Parliamentary faith breakfast, I was able to meet an MP and a Lord, which I for one thought was pretty cool. It’s not every week that you get to meet some of the most powerful people in the country.

Since the campaign launch, I’ve been in meetings and getting acquainted with the office. My supervisor, Richard, gave me my first big project: evaluating the IF Campaign section of the WJR website and implementing any changes I think are necessary. I finished my report on Thursday and I’m going to work with the IT staff member next week to see what’s possible to change. I just feel so lucky that I get to use my creativity and analytical skills on my job—I’m excited for what I’ll get the chance to accomplish in the months ahead.

Other than that, there’s not too much else to report. I know I said I’d talk about Box Hill, but this blog is probably already long enough as is. I’ll talk about it next post! Before I conclude, though, I just want to posit a general reflection on life over the past two weeks: I’m starting settle in to life here. I no longer feel compelled to see everything and spend every non-planned moment exploring London and the surrounding country. While some of the people on my program went to a play on Tuesday night, I stayed in and caught up work, and I felt good about that decision. I realize that I’m not going to see everything there is to see and have enough time for reflection, school work, and friends, and I’m perfectly okay with sacrificing the former for the latter. I know I’ll be healthier and happier because of it.

Well, it’s been a long blog post, but you’ve made it through! Mazel tov, and be on the lookout for my next post and pictures from Box Hill coming up soon.