First Impressions

First, I get to say that I'm finally posting from London!!! Whoo-hoo!!

This post might be shorter than I'd like, because my hands are sore from playing volleyball yesterday and are protesting loudly :)

Okay, down to business. This place is really nothing like my mind pictured, but its fabulous nonetheless. Let's see if I can paint a good picture for you:

First, on the outside Lee Abbey kind of looks like the rows of townhouses you see in San Francisco, except they all look the same. It takes up two addresses, 57 and 67 Lexham Gardens. All of the buildings around here are old and beautiful, lots of wrought iron curlicues, crown molding, and all the quaint architecture extras you'd
expect. No stucco in sight!!!

The inside is really a lot like an old dormitory. The ground floor has several large rooms for dining, lounging, and playing games. There is a beautiful "garden room" painted green, full of couches and tables with an exit to the backyard garden. The dining room is long and narrow, with about 20 light blond tables and chairs to seat 6 each. A set of skylights and the the large windows at the end looking out on the backyard make it a wonderfully light and beautiful place to eat and chat.

My room is on the second floor (yes! I'm going to get my super-calves back!) and my roommate, Galyna from Ukraine, is unfortunately leaving Sept 10th. Half the people I've met here are leaving within a month or two. Another quarter have been here for about half a year, and then a nice little bunch are fairly new themselves (plus, they are expecting more people in the next few weeks to replace the ones leaving).

I'm doing fairly well trying to remember (and pronounce) everyone's name, but I'll make a list so that you get a flavor for the incredible diversity of the community members (the term they use to describe the voluntary staff people like me):Lizete and Allan from South Africa; Samuel, Maria, and Pedro from Brazil; Martina and Martin from Slovakia; Astrid from Denmark (who immediately told me that she loved how loud I spoke since she wouldn't be the only one getting shushed by the Warden's wife Mary); Andre and Galyna from Ukraine; Beni, Gabol, Victor, Vili, and Anna from Hungary; Antra from Latvia; Vicky from Taiwain, Kyung Ha and San Kyoong from S. Korea; Pedro from Argentina; Fani from Greece; and Emmanuel from Sierra Leone. And I haven't even met everyone yet!

Here are some preliminary pictures - I haven't gotten any of the common rooms yet, but I will soon.

Yesterday, my roommate and my sponsor (a community member from your team that shows you how life here works) gave me a tour of the place, I ate lunch with them, and then unpacked. Samuel from Brazil (until I get them all memorized I keep calling them by
their name AND country in my mind) invited me to "play volleyball" with a couple people after that, so we walked down to Holland Park with Andre from Ukraine and Young Bean (I swear, that's how it's pronounced - I need to ask him to spell it for me sometime) from S. Korea. There was no net, so we just practiced hitting the volleyball around and I didn't disgrace our country TOO badly, although the bruises on my arm testify to my severely undeveloped skill in hitting the ball in the right place. That kept me awake long enough to make it through to dinner, after which I crashed into bed (at 7:15) and slept until the alarm went off at 7 this morning. I love sleep!!!

So, my hands say enough typing - more on my thoughts and impressions to come.