As the London team prepare to head home, Dan Baker sums up the final days of the TS Eliot US/UK Exchange

The time has come for us to head back to London.  It's been a long week, with lots to take in - but it's been rewarding.

Sunday was another fairly relaxing day, which I spent a large part of catching up with another of my New York friends.  Firstly meeting for brunch, we spent time catching up and finding out how she was faring back in New York before having a nice walk through Central Park - she gave me a run-down of the history of the park and showed me the various different sites before she headed off to an audition - the life of a New York actor!

After we went our separate ways, I met up with producer Sara and writer Sabrina for a catch-up and a bite to eat, before Sara and I met with US producer Avi to attend a talk with Tony Kushner at the Public Theater.  Having not seen The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures I was concerned that the talk would focus a great deal on the show - but thankfully it didn't.  Hearing Tony Kushner talk about his work, his politics and the context in which he writes was fascinating, and as such an intelligent person he really gave a great insight into the process of producing new writing in the US - definitely one of the highlights of the week.

After this - and despite me telling myself I'd be having an early night - we ended up heading off to a karaoke bar where a number of other Exchangers were waiting.  Although not quite as crazy as the final fling, it was a great night - a number of us got up and sang (yes, including me) to celebrate our final night in New York.

Monday morning didn't quite mark the end of everything - a handful of us still had a meeting to attend, with Paula from Mind the Gap.  As a company who are interested in presenting new British scripts (and sending US scripts across to the UK) it was interesting to chat with Paula - although not a big company, they represent a great opportunity to work on a small-scale in New York whilst avoiding the restrictions imposed by Equity.  Having missed a meeting with her on Wednesday due to some confusion, it was relieving to finally meet!

And then that was pretty much that, apart from a brief spell souvenir shopping; a group of us met at Pennsylvania Station to catch a train over to Newark airport where we now sit - waiting for our flight back to Blighty.  We'll arrive back in London at about 7am on Tuesday, so hopefully I'll do better than on the outwards flight and will sleep during the flight.

See you back in the UK!