Thursday, 22 February 2007

My First Real Client!

Well it's official - I'm a real social worker! Yep, I got my first real client at Positive East today. While the work we did together was not exactly ground-shattering, I was still able to help him a little bit. His name is “Sunday” and he is from Nigeria. All I did was register him with our agency and assess some of his needs. It was actually a very simple process because all he really wanted to do was find out about the services we offer. I told him everything we could do for him, referred him to one of my colleagues for further advice on a certain issue, and said goodbye. Afterwards I wrote up case notes, made copies of the important documents, and did everything else a bona fide professional would do. Very exciting for me!

The rest of my work lately has been a little less exhilarating but I’m actually doing a quite a bit of stuff. Besides reading old case files, observing other people, and participating in FSU’s online discussion boards for my internship; I’ve been preparing for my life after graduation. This mainly includes dealing with the large amount of paperwork it takes to become registered as a social worker in the UK. I have my CV (resume) mostly done, essays written, and am halfway through all the other junk an American has to do in order to work more in Britain. I’m doing all of this in preparation for a more permanent job somewhere around London after I’m done with my internship. Even though I’m split 50/50 on my decision to either stay here or move back to the US, I’m still covering all my bases in case I decide to stay.

Although I do miss home at least a little and I could get a job much easier there, I still know there is much more for me to experience over here in this country. Also, I would be getting paid in pounds if I got a job here so effectively I am making about double the dollars…although the cost of living is expensive here and all other expenses are in pounds so the argument could easily be made that I won’t save a penny more but I’m not listening to that side right now. :)

I guess we’ll just have to see what happens…

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! FSU sent you a certification of some kind a couple of days ago saying you were graduating, is this something you need me to bring with me? I see you almost as often as I did when you were in Tallahassee, but you just seem so far away in case of any emergency (and you miss the IDES, man!).

Anonymous said...

With giant bird-people assaulting helpless bystanders and bread-ninjas roaming the streets, I think that if you decide to stay you definitely need to enroll in a self-defense program. MMA and bear-fighting are no match for bread-ninjas. Are more such social cases on your horizon for this internship, or was this just something to get your feet wet?

Gabriel Beal said...

Sunday? Did you play him any monster truck show commercials? You know... SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! BIGFOOT! ROBOSAURUS!
If not, you should try and find it, I think he'd think it was funny.

Gabriel

Bren said...

I really wanted to tell my client that he was one of my favorite days of the week but I don't really think it would have gone over well. Maybe one day I'll get a client named something like "Jiujitsu Mohambo"...then I'll have to say something.

Shirin Modaresi said...

Hey little bro...I think staying sounds like a swell idea, b/c how often can a person live in London? You can live in the US the rest of your life (and I hope you do), but while you are there, you should stay awhile.
I have to miss Ides, too, by the way.
-Shirin

Unknown said...

you da man

Anonymous said...

stay in the u.k.! you and erika could teach lessons and make kickboxing and water polo all the rage in london!
anyway, we don't want you over here!
-eric

Anonymous said...

Come on home so you don't miss all the family events; you've conquered London and wallowed in enough Vindaloo to last you a lifetime Come on home.....

Brendan said...

[THIS IS BREN]

THIS BLOG CONTINUES AT A DIFFERENT URL:

LeftHandedTiger.blogspot

SEE YOU THERE,
-Brendan