It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man - Benjamin Franklin

3rd July - 9th August 2013 - At last, an opportunity!

This holiday, I did not wish to sit in front of my laptop as I do for the rest of the year; I wanted to be a productive member of society. By productive member of society, I mean that I wished to gain some voluntary work somewhere in order to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life. Doing a masters in Literature is a nice idea, but at present, I feel a nice idea is all it is. Back to the drawing board (or the internet) and I discovered the Benjamin Franklin House in London - I didn't even realise it existed until June when I sent in my CV but one interview later, and I've been given an opportunity.

I'm going to miss this little house with the creepy back room that I didn't like walking through because I was convinced it was haunted.

My role included a number of things - mostly customer interaction, which was fun, and I gave introductory talks for the shows; I now know a lot more about Ben Franklin than I ever got taught in Foundations of America in first year of university!! I kind of wish to visit Philidelphia now and go to the Franklin Institute - we'll see how next year plans out (if not, I can alway travel back there in the future!)

I have met so many lovely tourists - whenever they had an American accent, I would ask where they were from. There was such a range! I met people from Massachusetts, Pennyslvania, California, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Texas...I met one person from Louisiana but I ended up having the 'love purple, live gold' conversation with the couple from Mississippi instead! 

The house itself was lovely - lots of original features, even if it is unfurnished but you really do feel like you've stepped back in time. There was one room that gave me the heebie-jeebies though; walking through that in the dark is not a pleasant experience for me. The only downside, not for the visitors but for the staff, SO MANY STAIRS TO CLIMB UNTIL THE TOP FLOOR. You actually need to catch your breath when you get up them! Those stairs...will not be missed. The people I worked with will however - such lovely people, and I wish my fellow volunteers all the best for the future.

The last day, I went to The Sherlock Holmes Pub (can't believe it had been so close this entire time & I only just visited it!) and fangirled a little bit, because hey, Sherlock Holmes & then met up with the family for my last night in London for a year.

One younger sister...the other was ILL apparently. It's okay Amelia, I saved you the embarrassing photograph taken...

Here a picture of my other not so little sister with my NEW AMERICA HAIR.

On a final note, at the end of the road I worked on, is this. I fangirled really hard. Who'd have thought?

(Jessie takes the credit for this photo!)

Books Read; Blood Prophecy by Alxyandra Harvey - I finished the book series, which saddened me. Yet, I enjoyed the book and it's happy ending as it wasn't a pushed, lovey-dovey one. It was just a promise of happiness.