dehsiniF

My last few weeks at the house have been very nice-- busy but nice. The students finished up their work and left without a hitch, pretty much.

My parents arrived in the UK at the beginning of May, and we spent a delightful two weeks traveling around different parts of England and Scotland that we had never before visited. We started with a few days in London (I showed them the Denis Severs House, which is something to check out—it’s really unique). We then headed to York where we met up with my mom’s sister and my uncle. I really liked York. The Minster is just incredible, and the (walled) city itself is very quaint. Then we headed to Edinburgh for a few days. We took a day trip to Loch Lomond, which was nice, and I really enjoyed Edinburgh castle. Then we headed down by train to Bath for a few days, which was gorgeous. I loved the Roman excavations and the cathedral and the architecture there.

After Bath, we headed back to London. I said goodbye to my parents and started off on my own journey in continental Europe. Again, my aim was to follow the route that my paternal grandparents had taken through WWII. They were both part of the same evacuation hospital (they had met in California during training and got married in Paris). I started out by taking the Eurostar to Paris, then rented a car, drove out of Paris (which was somewhat stressful given that it was a French bank holiday weekend, but not as bad as I had anticipated), and headed for Normandy. I spent three days going to museums, memorials, and I visited the Utah beaches on which my grandparents first set foot six days after D-day to set up their hospital. I was so surprised at how much remains standing from the war. All along the beach are pillboxes and gun turrets and concrete bunkers that are still standing (some of which you can go in and take a look around)—right next to family vacation spots. It’s a really unusual sight. The WWII museum that is in the city of Caen was fantastic. In addition to World War II sights, I also got to see the Bayeux tapestry, a 2 football field long tapestry depicting the preparation for and the action of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, as well as the monastery Mont Saint Michele, which was pretty but very touristy.

After Normandy, I had planned to journey to Belgium to visit the sights of the Battle of the Bulge. I left Normandy at 7:00am to drive to Paris catch a 2:00pm train. I thought that 7 hours would be enough leeway to make the journey which took me 4 hours on the way up. How silly of me to tempt fate. Not only did I get stuck in a huge traffic jam in Paris for an hour, I also got stuck in several small ones on the way to Paris. In the end, it took me 6 hours to get to the rental car depot from my starting point, leaving me one hour to get to the station and collect my ticket to Luxembourg (where I planned to pick up another rental car and drive to Belgium). I arrived at the correct train station with 30 minutes to spare. And then I had an epic battle with the ticket machine. And I lost. And I had to stand in line while the French ticket clerks one by one closed their windows for their afternoon coffee break leaving 10 people line in front of me, one person to serve all of us, and me with 8 minutes to spare before my train left. A part of me died as the clock ticked past 2:00pm. I missed my train, I was frazzled from driving in traffic and cutting it so close at the station, and I wanted to hit someone because of the overall ineptitude of the French bureaucratic system. However, I kept my composure and bought a new ticket to Luxembourg. I would arrive 20 minutes too late to pick up my car in Luxembourg, so I worked with my parents back home to find a hotel at which to stay overnight, then I planned to pick up my car in the morning. The TGV trip was fine, and I relaxed a bit once I arrived in the Grand Duchy. “Of course things will be ok from now on,” I chuckled to myself as I browsed the internet in my Luxembourg hotel looking for nearby places to eat dinner. “Oh,” I thought, “that Indian restaurant which gets a five star rating on tripadvisor.com from 205 customers looks like an interesting place to have dinner. Let’s have some exotic food to cheer you up.”

How I regret my decision to eat at that restaurant that night. I woke up at 3:00am the following morning with food poisoning. The food I ate was spicy, and the whole experience was incredibly painful. I didn’t sleep all, of course, and I ended up not being able to hold down any water. I was losing so much fluid that by the following afternoon, I was extremely dehydrated. I ended up having to take a taxi to the hospital where I waited for two hours before a doctor was able to see me. He gave me some medicine, and I went back to my hotel and slept for the rest of the afternoon and evening despite constant jack hammering across the street. The next day, I felt a bit better, and I moved to another hotel away from the noise. That afternoon, I felt well enough to go out and have a bit of a walk around Luxembourg, which is a nice historical city. It reminds me a bit of Edinburgh.

The next day, I was feeling much better (although I was still really weak and felt consistently a little nauseated). I decided to press on and follow the final leg of my journey to Germany. The train to Weimar was nice. We passed through the Rhineland to get there, as well as some beautiful fields in the countryside with tons of birds of prey circling around. I spent the evening in Weimar taking a walk around the quaint little town where Goethe had his country house and where the relatively big and influential university has attracted a generally academic population to the area over the centuries. The next day, I went to Buchenwald concentration camp, which was a very interesting experience. There is not much left of the camp itself, save the crematorium, the front gate, the delousing station, the depot where the prisoners’ belongings were stored, and a few watchtowers. There is a very large museum in the complex which was good, although the descriptions of artifacts were mostly in German, which I do not understand very well. The most emotionally moving of the buildings in the camp was the crematorium. The ovens are still there, as well as a cellar where they used to strangle people and a mock-examination room where they shot 8,000-10,000 Soviet soldiers.

That evening, I participated in a special event in the town where all of the museums of Weimar were open late. I visited the Bauhaus Architecture and Design Museum, the Ducal Palace of Thuringia/Saxony (I think it’s Saxony…), and a few of the local art museums. They were all really good.

When I left Weimar, I headed to Cologne for one day to explore the cathedral, the city, and the German-Roman museum which tracked the history of the Romans in that area of the empire. Apparently, the people around there were very famous for glass blowing, and they had a ton of stunning artifacts taken from tombs around the city. There were also heaps of monuments, a collection of ancient jewelry, and an impressive number of mosaic floor decorations of great size and quality in the museum. It was really well put together. I liked the city of Cologne enough, although it was a bit less impressive architecturally than I expected It turns out that 95% of the city was bombed in the war, so there are lots of 60’s and 70’s style buildings around which look dated and not very aesthetically pleasing. And because I was still getting over my food poisoning while I was there, I couldn't really eat anything nice. But the attractions were interesting. And when I left for London, I was ready to go, ready to head back home to continue life where I left off. I enjoyed the trip, and I have some good material to use for my book as a result.

TACM serpA

I took the MCAT this week. I had been scoring really well on my practice tests. And the real thing was quite a feat to accomplish—4.5 hours. I have to say that I think that it was at the same level of difficulty as the practice tests, but with the all the test-day pressure, it seemed at times a bit harder. I think if I had to guess, I’d say I probably got a score somewhere around my average. We will have to wait until May to find out.

I came out of the test with a bad headache because I’d been squinting for so long. I proceeded to have lunch at Borough Market, then walk along the Thames to Green Park. Lovely day, lovely walk. It’s good for that test to be over. I really hope I did well enough to not have to take it again.

This past week, I have been relaxing. I went to the Victoria and Albert museum on Monday, but I found the art tour we had about Constable to be really boring. I also went shopping for some new clothes yesterday.

A little rest, a little catch up, a little work on some stuff that’s been put aside while the MCAT loomed (for example, my book). I’m glad to be free, and I’m glad spring is continuing to flourish. Even if it is chilly outside. It makes the flowers stay fresher longer.

nehT dnA

The next week went well. I studied a lot for the MCAT; I took several practice tests and ended up starting to get much better scores.

I spent Easter weekend with my aunt and uncle in Sussex. We had a lovely time. They picked me up in the afternoon from the station in the town where they live, and we had a nice cup of tea and did some catching up. For dinner we had a lovely roast leg of lamb and some nice wine—I haven’t drunk much since I started studying for the MCAT. On Easter Sunday we began with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, which was beautiful. We then took a drive to Shoreham-by-Sea. The countryside in Sussex is so nice—it was chilly, but the hills are so green. We took a walk along the sea, which was beautifully blue, then we drove by the art deco airfield there. Next, we drove to a little town and had tea in a Tudor-style house that had been turned into a restaurant. We then headed back home via more beautiful countryside and houses. I remembered that I get a little carsick on English roads—lots of sharp turns and the like. The hedgerows do not help—they’re too close to the road and really get blurry when you go fast. I studied for the afternoon, then we had another nice dinner of pork chops, some more wine, and then we watched a mystery show on TV. I left the next morning, rejuvenated a bit and very glad that I could spend time with family on Easter.

That week, I went with the students to the Tate Modern for a bit of a break from studying. I love that museum. I especially love the surrealists and the avant-garde painters from the 30’s-60’s. There is a section now called Poetry and Dream which really caught my eye.

That weekend, we had a special event at our house. We had several alumni from the region come to tea. It was interesting to meet with people from different time periods at my school. We had some beautiful scones and clotted cream and tea as well.

I’ve also begun volunteering regularly on a ward at the hospital. I love the lady who manages things there (she’s Irish and very down-to-earth). I love the patients there too—I had a really good day last week were I talked to an Italian lady, a lady who escaped Germany in 1939 whose parents were killed in Auschwitz, and a Kiwi gentleman and his wife. I loved it. I’m so glad I’ve decided to get into medicine.

I’m trying to keep up the working out three days a week—running and lifting weights. I wish I could get back into training for a triathlon this summer, but part of me cannot be bothered until I get back to the US.

I also had dinner at a friend’s that weekend—she made a cheese-less veggie lasagna which turned out really well. We had a great evening of fun chatting, jive lessons, videos, and much hilarity. Great to take my mind off of the upcoming test. One week to go.

sgnituO dnekeeW

Almost three weeks later, I can finally emerge from my hole and begin my weekly updates again.

Lots of things have happened since my last post. To facilitate your reading, I’ll upload them in chunks.

Back at the end of March, I met up with my aunt and uncle again one Saturday. The weather was quite good that day—perhaps a little chilly. We began at Borough Market, which is fast becoming one of my favorite places in London. Cheeses. Pastries. Vegetables. Fruits. Meats. We got a coffee and took a look around Southwark Cathedral nearby, stopping for a while at a Norman ruins excavation at the side of the church. We proceeded from there into the City of London to find Wilton’s Music Hall, a real old-fashioned music hall. We discovered its pockmarked yet (several decades old) brightly painted exterior down a small side street, then set off to find a cafe for lunch. We returned to the music hall for a performance of Sentimental Journey, a musical about the life of Doris Day. It was very good for a semi-professional cast. We then went for a walk along the Thames and found a pub for a beer and some crisps and later a restaurant for a lovely dinner overlooking the river.

I was extraordinarily lucky that the next day I met up with an American friend from my time in Australia. She had visited the week before on her way to Paris, and we went to a lovely Chinese restaurant for dinner and chatted for a few hours. She returned, and we spent the day hanging out. We started with a lovely brunch, and then we went to the National Portrait Gallery for an exhibition of Irving Penn, which contained a very interesting array of portraits of famous people from the 20th century. We then took a stroll down the Thames and encountered a chocolate festival where we bought chocolate eggs. Then we ventured to the Tate Modern for a gander at an exhibit that was really interesting. It was meant to represent existence—a big steel cube with no light, open at one end. You walked into darkness, then turned around and walked into the light amongst non-lit faces and bodies ambling toward you. Really good.

We walked to Borough market next, but it was closed, so we had supper at a Russian tea room.

The play this week was Waiting for Godot, with Sir Ian McKellen. The play reminded me of the pacing and general mood of Our Town, which I despise. It was probably the best production of that play that I will ever see, though, as the acting was superb.

This week, volunteering went well enough. I worked in the emergency department doing odd jobs for the housekeeping staff. Not much interaction with patients.

I also saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It was good.

!tsal ta gnirpS

Dare I say it?! “Spring” has finally arrived! The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and we reached a high temperature of 55°F this past week!

To celebrate the weather, I went on a few nice runs in the week—one to Little Venice along Regent’s canal. The mood changed as the scenery changed-- from stately mansions near Regent’s Park to a castle-cum-pub and rainbow neon lights in Camden Town. All of it was fantastically different.

I spent almost 30 hours volunteering this past week. Although I am now allowed to work on wards, I spent a majority of my time on the Shop Trolley this week. It seems that because I’ve been doing such a good job with it, the volunteer coordinators are reluctant to have me do anything else. I need to be more assertive. Working on the wards can be rewarding, although it can be deadly dull as well. I spent some time this past week in the Emergency room, making teas for people and talking to them. I spoke for a while with a man from the Seychelles, who was very interesting, and another woman who I think had dementia and couldn’t remember how to get home. Upstairs, I took the tea and coffee cart around to the patients on a ward and took their dinner orders a few times. Some of the people there have been in the hospital for almost a year—it’s quite sad.

Last weekend I made brunch for a few friends of mine—we had baked eggs with spinach and cream, homemade biscuits, orange and pineapple ambrosia, mimosas, and banana pudding (the latter two were brought by a good friend). The theme was, of course, a Southern style brunch. It went over very well!

MCAT studying is going… well… ok. I took another practice test yesterday, and although my score was OK, I need to score higher. MD/PhD programs are super-competitive, and I’m quite certain that they play the numbers game. I just need to buckle down, I think, and stop making stupid mistakes. 27 days until test day, and I’m almost finished with my review of material. Soon, it’ll be constant practice tests.

gniwodahS

I apologize for the absence of an update this past week. I have been very busy.

My last week was spent mostly studying and volunteering. At the hospital, I worked either at the information desk or on the shop trolley. I had a good time, but it started to get a little repetitive. Thank goodness my criminal background check passed. Now I will be able to work on the wards and interact with patients more!

The week before last, we saw a nice play called London Assurance. It was written in the 1840's and was put on at the National Theatre. The play was well acted-- somewhat like an Oscar Wilde piece but not quite the same level of wittiness. One of the leading roles was played by Fiona Shaw (Mrs. Dursley).

On Sunday I met with an alumna from my university who worked in my position back in 1991 at our house in Italy. I originally got in contact with her because she was trying to sell some tickets to see David Sedaris. I like David Sedaris and offered to buy them from her. She met with me and her English husband in a pub in Highgate and spent a good two hours chatting. We had a nice afternoon, and I'm looking forward to the reading.

I spent the past week mostly shadowing at the hospital near our house. Back when I was in the US, I contacted a consultant physician at the hospital, a man who is apparently one of the best thoracic doctors in the country, and he set me up to follow different doctors around for the week. On Monday, I shadowed a senior house officer on the ward where people are sent after they are admitted to the emergency room. On Tuesday morning, I watched endoscopy of the lungs (saw a tumor up close and personal), and in the afternoon I followed a lung registrar around the hospital as he followed up on his referrals. Wednesday morning was spent in the thoracic clinic with another registrar. That afternoon I went back to the post-emergency ward (and got to see an example of pyoderma gangrenosum). Thursday I went to a hospital out in the suburbs to watch some day-surgeries-- hernia repair, varicose veins, and cataract removal. The afternoon was spent following a consultant physician around a vascular surgery clinic. We had one patient with an ulcer that had almost tunneled its way through his leg! This morning, I shadowed a dermatologist. This man was great to watch-- one of those doctors who is super professional but has a really good touch with the patients. He also does a ton of research (he has an MD and MBBS, see below), so he was a really interesting person with whom to discuss research and medicine as a career. I think I'm going to try to follow him around again.

By the way, some medical terminology is different in the UK (of course). Surgeons are referenced as "Mr." or "Ms." After medical school (which is normally an undergraduate course of education), students continue training in hospitals as house officers (residents), then become senior house officers (residents), then become registrars (chief residents/fellows), then rise to the level of consultant physicians (attending physicians). Doctors usually receive a "bachelor of medicine" which is termed either MBBS or BMBCh; an MD is the equivalent of a PhD in medical research.

On Tuesday, I went to see Judi Dench in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. It was fantastic. Judi Dench was so, so good. I'm so glad I went. I may have seen her car leave the theatre, but I'm not sure.

My MCAT studying is coming along ok. On Saturday I took a full-length exam written by ExamKrackers, not the AAMC. I didn't do particularly well, partly because I didn't eat lunch. I also don't like the way EK writes their test questions in general (and they do not explain their answers well at all). I'm taking another full-length test tomorrow, and from now on I'm just going to take AAMC tests. Hopefully I'll do better this time, otherwise I'm going to get discouraged. I still have a month before the exam, but I haven't been able to study much this week and am starting to feel anxious.

This week I'm volunteering a lot and hopefully studying a lot!!!

dooF emoS, gnireetnuloV emoS, pirT A

If I were naive, I'd say that spring is starting to poke itself through the blanket of wet and dismal weather we've been experiencing in London for the past week. But I'm not. I know that spring weather in England doesn't arrive for good until April, May, or sometimes even June. That hasn't stopped the sun from shining for the past few days, or the intense purple crocuses with vibrant yellow stamens from carpeting the backyard of our house, or snowdrops from peeking through the undergrowth in English gardens.

These past few days of sunshine and (relative) warmth have been welcome break in the clouds indeed. It comes just in time for the students to vent some of the pressure that has built up in the house over the past few weeks due to hard work and perhaps a tinge of cabin fever. The half-semester vacation which begins this weekend is much needed indeed.

The students and I had a little prelude to this break on our day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon last week. We hired a bus and drove 2.5 hours to Warwickshire and unloaded next to the river Avon. Our stops for the day included the church where Shakespeare is buried (the organ was being tuned and make for an earsplitting ambiance), two period houses which belonged to younger relations of his (which were nice), and his birthplace. Although I enjoyed seeing the Jacobean architecture in the flesh and walking around the houses, something about the town was just a little too kitschy for me. In November last year I went to Salem, Massachusetts where the witch trials took place. Though the town was very pretty in the autumnal season, the kitsch factor of the tourist attractions in the town was almost nauseating. Something about Stratford smacked of Salem. I imagine in the spring when flowers bloom, it's much better.

In the evening we had a lovely dinner and then went to see a performance King Lear by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Courtyard Theatre. Greg Hicks, a famous British theatrical talent, played in the starring role of one of the most technically advanced and overall focused pieces of theater I will perhaps ever see. I walked away speechless. The actors all did a tremendous job with their roles (except for the Fool, whom I could not understand). The depth of the plot meshed so well with the gritty/post-tribal/post-industrial/World War II set and costumes. At one point, when King Lear laments his isolation, rain pours down on him from above in a circle as he is elevated on a small platform. Incredible.

Other than the trip to Stratford, I managed to get out of the house a few times to volunteer at the hospital this past week. On Friday, my partner on the trolley was a lovely sunny lady, and I had lots of fun with her. On Tuesday, my partner was a little less sunny and a little more protective over what stock went on the trolley. Who's to blame her? She's been doing this for five years.

I went for a late Shrove Tuesday celebration this past Wednesday at a friend of a friend's house, which was very nice. And I've studied for the MCATs, which has taken up lots of time. And I cooked dinner for the house last Monday. Beef and bean burritos (a request from one of the students) with fresh salsa, rice, and fried bananas in orange ginger sauce over ice cream for desert. Tonight, the dinner prepared by the professor and crew was southern comfort food-- oven fried chicken, fried okra, oven baked sweet potato fries (which I salvaged from a soggy fate by frying them at the last minute), macaroni and cheese, biscuits, and chocolate chip cookies. Yum.

yeH

As I spend more time here, the weeks go faster. But as I look back, it still seems like time has gone very slowly.

I volunteered three times last week. Twice I did the shop trolley, once with Simon (who was ok--somewhat less enthusiastic than he needed to be to sell things and interact with patients who are hard of hearing) and once with Angie (lovely lady who used to run a boutique in Oxford Street). Angie has friends who live in my home state and has visited them several times and loves it. In addition to the shop trolley, I also spent one day directing patients around the outpatient clinics of the hospital with Phyllis, an English lady who has lived in South Africa and Canada. She has volunteered with the hospital for 25 years. She was phenomenal. We had a great time. She was bragging to the other older volunteer ladies downstairs that she got to spend her morning with me.

Our theatre performance for the week was Dunsinane at the Hampstead Theatre. It was a continuation on the story of Macbeth (the real Macbeth, not Shakespeare's play) done by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The whole production was really, really good-- right up there in my opinion with Rope and Twelfth Night.

On Wednesday, I had dinner with my flatmate from Australia. She took me to Brick Lane where the fare of choice is a curry. We, however, went to a really trendy pizza place for a chorizo, rocket, sweet potato, and chickpea pizza which we ate in the midst of an artist studio/space/shop. Very mod, and I had a great time seeing her.

My class this week dealt with British food and culture. I bought prawn cocktail and roast beef flavored crisps to class along with wine gums and Twiglets for the students to try. I also asked my mother to talk to the class about the kinds of food that she ate growing up. I think they liked that!

On Thursday, we went to the Wallace Collection, which is on Manchester Square off Oxford Street. The collection was once the property of the family of Marquesses of Hartford and finally the illegitimate Sir Richard Wallace. Items in this collection cannot leave the house to be displayed elsewhere in the world, and neither can other works of art be displayed next to them. It's a beautiful house with amazing art and ceramics.

This weekend I met up with my professor, his wife, and my alumna friend from my university in Brixton, known for being a very edgy area of town (not necessarily very safe, but trendy all the same). We started at a Portuguese coffee shop and worked our way to the Brixton markets and finally to a really awesome old windmill that was in the middle of a park nearby. We then had an excellent lunch at a Colombian restaurant.

Sunday I took a practice MCAT from the AAMC-- I did fine. I didn't do as well as I would like to do on the real thing, but I have about seven weeks left to study and practice, so I have some room for improvement.

I have decided that I need to take more time to study for the MCAT and distract myself less. As such, I'm not going to be doing the triathlon in March. I will, however, keep up the training so that when I get back to the US, I'll be ready to do a sprint after a month or so.

Other than that, life is dandy.

keeW A tahW

Weeks in London seem to go somewhat fast, yet looking back they seem an eternity.

This week was jam packed. Monday was an art visit to the Tate Britain for more Hogarth paintings along with a Gainsboro or two. Followed that with an afternoon shopping around central london for a bathing suit to use in my triathlon. I want one that is long enough so that I do not have to shave my legs. Even in Lillywhites I found nothing. Had to order it online.

Tuesday was house dinner, and it was my turn again to organize everything. I decided to do bangers and mash the real English way-- with creamy potatoes and brown onion gravy, peas, and a Victoria Sandwich cake, my mother's favorite tea cake from when she was little. The students wanted salad, too. So I buy the ingredients, make the dinner. Good pork sausages from Waitrose roasted in the oven. From-scratch cake and icing. Fed 18 people. Stressful, yet a raging success!

Wednesday was The Misanthrope by Moliere with Kiera Knightly in the West End. Not bad. Not great. Kiera was petulant and put on a screetchy American accent to back up the character. Eh...

Thursday I began volunteering at the local hospital on the shop trolley-- a cart that goes around the wards selling snacks, drinks, toiletries, and newspapers to patients. It was really fun-- I'm doing it again this week.

Friday was MCAT studying-- I need to practice more, that's all I'm saying. I also spent some time bonding with my students at a pub around the corner and then till late in our house. Very revealing evening.

Saturday was a 10k charity race in frigid weather. I stood in the cold for 2 hours because I was given the wrong starting time for the race. My legs and hands were numb for the first lap. Still, I ran it in 47'58"-- very surprised how well I did! My aunt and uncle came all the way to London to see me and cheer me on-- so glad they did. It was nice to have supporters! They also treated me to a nice lunch in Chelsea afterwards. Great to see them! Had drinks in the evening with my alumna friend in Camden-- good times discussing things from the US South.


I was sick for most of the week with a sore throat and malaise but without a temperature. Slept a lot. Put triathlon training on hold. Wasn't sure I'd be able to do the run Saturday, but felt good enough to do it. Still have a sore throat and sneezing fits galore. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better.

dnekeeW

The weekend always goes too fast, doesn't it?

On Friday afternoon I engaged in a 2-hour cooking spree. I made a mushroom, caramelized onion, and Parmigiano-Reggiano quiche (note: if you run out of milk/cream, a quiche can be made with plain yogurt thinned with a little water-- gives it a nice tangy flavor!); a strawberry vanilla bean tart; spiced zucchini and walnut breakfast bread; and some sausages and sauteed mushrooms (for dinner). Friday night was drinks near Holborn and some fun carousing. Saturday afternoon I went to the Borough market with Christina (Wake alumna from Jan. 31 post) and a friend of her's-- very exciting food market with loads of free samples to try. I then ended up in south London at Christina's boyfriend's house watching rugby for a bit, then traveled to Shoreditch to celebrate my old Aussie flatmate's birthday. We went first to an American-style diner (not bad, really-- I got chili served in a fancy crock with three cold flour tortillas on the side... strange but tasty enough). We then went to Hoxton Square for drinks with a bunch of Aussies and Germans. It mas madly busy, though. Today I had a nice run around Regent's Park and up Primrose Hill.

Studying, work, and who knows what else tonight. A nice week to come, I think (I hope)!

hcuS 'n' trA 'n' syalP

This week has been quite busy and, strangely enough, productive! I can't believe that it's already Friday.

The first highlight of the week was a trip to the Soane Museum near Holborn/Bloomsbury. Soane was an architect and built his house on Lincoln's Inn Fields square. He constructed it quite differently from the usual terraced-house style-- adding windows places where there usually wouldn't be any, buying three lots and using the middle one and the back halves of the side ones to build his house, then selling off the two side front lots to other people, using a lot of colored glass to change the mood of the rooms. The whole place is chock-a-block with Tudor and Elizabethan-age rubble from building sites on which he worked. There are tons of ancient Grecian and Roman casts of statues and figurines (he wasn't rich enough for the real thing). There was a huge collection of Hogarth paintings. He has all sorts of surprises everywhere in his architecture and in the layout of the house-- praising his own talents, building parts of the house like little models for churches or buildings. He lived at the house for a while, but at the end of his life changed the design to that of a museum. Very unusual.

We attended a play this week in the West End at the Donmar Warehouse-- a performance space that is very well known for putting on good contemporary theatrical productions. We saw Red. It was about an artist and his apprentice and their growth and interaction together. It was good-- there is one scene where they both furiously paint a canvas red, and they both get covered in paint. It's really interesting. But in all, I think I liked last week's play better.

Last night, I went with the students to trivia night at the pub around the corner from our house. We were one of 12 teams. We did really well on general knowledge questions-- anything that didn't have to do with British pop culture, politics, etc., and we managed not to be the last place team at the end of round one. Round two was like Final Jeopardy-- points are wagered by each team, and the game is won or lost according to which questions you get. We were lucky and got two pretty easy questions, which meant that we ended up with 220 points and 3rd place! Pity we didn't get a prize...

Today I took the students to a Persian restaurant, which was really good. I had a lamb stew with spinach and sour Persian plumbs (really nice, a little sweet). The students who went with me had lamb stew with sun dried limes and split peas as well as lamb kebabs, both of which were really good.

MCAT studying is going well this week. I am doing a bit better on the practice tests than I was last week, which is good. I've been eating more this week and took my triathlon training a down a notch. As a result, I am feeling much better than I did last week physically.

This weekend promises to be fun. More studying, some cooking, and a birthday party.

dnekeeW gnoL

For the long weekend Thursday to now, most of the students left the house for vacations to various places including the Cotswolds, Paris, and Leeds. The latter was a strange idea, I thought, given that Leeds is an industrial area. Apparently the students had an industrial time there. Things were pretty boring except for a house they visited that was on the National Trust as well as an extensive armory museum. And it was quite dangerous at night. And there was lots of teen pregnancy. And there were lots of pregnant teens who were drinking alcohol. Strangely enough, they said that the shopping was fantastic and that there is a Louis Vuitton store in the pedestrian mall.

I have spent a good chunk of my mornings working out- cycling class, running, swimming, and lifting weights. I'm improving in my stamina, building muscle and strength, and I feel great.

I have found myself quite distracted this past week and would like to focus more on the most important things of my time here: the MCAT, volunteering, the triathlon, my book. It's difficult being in London and doing that.

I mentioned before that I met up with an alumna from my uni this past week who is living in London. We had drinks one night after dinner with Dr. P and had a grand time talking about life now and and in the past. I met up again last night with her, her boyfriend, and a coworker of her's for drinks and thoroughly enjoyed their company. I hope to hang out with them again. We visited a few of "The Crown" pub establishments, a "chain" in central London. Very good beer for a good price.

I'm not cooking as much this week as it takes too much time- Marks and Spencers' meals will be my fare this week.

In my class, we will be talking about language in the UK this week- I hope to introduce the students to a bit of cockney slang and some of the regional dialects around the UK. I'm looking forward to the lists they will make of phrases and words that they find different and amusing.

Studying tonight, hopefully, with little interruption.

raF oS keeW ysuB

I think that I've finally settled in at the house. Things feel familiar. It's nice.

This week has been insanely busy. It all started last Saturday with our evening out-- a few students and I went down the street to a pub and then to a bar for some drinks. There was an interesting mix of personalities that, unfortunately, did not mix very well. We called it an early night around 11:30. The students were fun to hang around for the evening, but it becomes clearer and clearer to me every time I go out on the town that I dislike places that are too loud where I can't hear or be heard and that are packed to the gills. Hate it.

We saw two plays this week. The first was Rope, a very interesting story about a planned murder committed by two students in the 1920's one afternoon. The play follows the events of the evening after the murder. It was really, really well done-- the actors were excellent, the story was great, and it had a satisfying ending. I'd recommend it.

The other play we saw was a one-man show done by Simon Callow(Four Weddings and a Funeral). Charles Dickens wrote a few plays in his lifetime, and Callow did two of Dickens' half-hour plays. Each piece included several characters which Callow had to impersonate. He metamorphosed between characters seamlessly. It was quite nice. It would have been nicer if the group of students and I had arrived earlier at the playhouse. I had barely sat down before Callow walked on stage. In fact, this has been a week of close calls on the tardiness front for me-- it just takes longer to get from place to place than I have judged.

I am also allowed go on art tours with the students and one of their art professors. Two weeks ago we went to the National Portrait Gallery to see some of the works there, and this week we had a tour of the National Gallery, focusing on the Hogarth paintings as well as Gainsborough. I didn't hang around for much after either tour since my back usually starts hurting after standing up for a while. Still, I'm really enjoying the tours.

The students also go on several London history walks throughout the semester. Our first this past week took us around the City of London to discuss Medieval London. We began at the Barbican and worked our way around to Guildhall and over to St. Batholomew's church near Smithfield Meat Market. I'd been to several of the places we went already with my auntie and uncle, but the commentary by the professor was mostly new to me.

Yesterday was a gourmet day, starting with dim sum for lunch (which was very nice) and finishing with dinner at a vegetarian restaurant nearby. The former was treated to me by Dr. P, and we dined his wife and a fellow alumna of my university who is currently living in London. Drinks with the fellow alumna afterward resulted in my realization that my tolerance for alcohol has plummeted since Australia.

The rest of this week will hopefully be devoted to MCAT studying, writing, and training. The latter, by the way, is going really well.

eroM elttiL A

I haven't gotten out much since I last posted except to see some plays and performances and for the occasional meal or drink at the pub down the road.

My class is going ok. This week, I asked them to bring something to class that was British and new or interesting, otherwise it would have been very dull. People brought magazines, food labels, etc. I brought cigarette packages that had the "smoking kills" sign on them along with pictures of heart operations and throat cancers on them. I thought that's something that's pretty different than what we get at home. I know we have the Truth campaign, but we don't have things directly printed on the boxes of cigarettes.

I'm also writing a newsletter for the students every week. I really hope they read them, because I’m putting a good amount of work into them.

Last weekend, I went to a musical performance with two of the other students. One of them had been browsing some classical music concert venues and saw the name "Patricia Routledge". Did you ever watch "Keeping Up Appearances”? It’s a British comedy TV show about Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet). Well, Hyacinth was reading a poem at this concert, so we went. The place we went was Wigmore Hall, and we heard the Nash Ensemble play. It was quite good-- lots of strings, some four-hand piano pieces. And then Camille Saint-Seans' Carnival of Animals with Hyacinth Bucket reading a poem in between the pieces. It was wonderful.

Then, this past Wednesday, we went to see Twelfth Night in the West End. Very, very good performance. There were two other British TV stars that I recognized playing in it-- Victor Meldrew from "One Food in the Grave" and Hugo Horton from "The Vicar of Dibley" (those are the character's names, not the real names which, you know, I am terrible with). Great evening.

skeeW owT tsriF

My first few weeks in the house were very busy. I've been doing a ton of cooking-- both for myself and for other people. However, sometimes it's almost a form of procrastination. Today, for example, I had some egg whites that I had set aside from something I made earlier in the week. Now, I should have taken the afternoon to study for the MCAT, but instead, I took an hour and made meringues. Not that this will happen on a regular basis. But this time, the egg whites called to me, and I answered.

We are having weekly house dinners this semester, and I was in charge of the first one this past Tuesday. I made French Onion soup with a salad dressed with French vinaigrette and a chocolate Guinness cake. It was a hit. The cake went over really well and was gone by the next morning. The housekeeper here took a piece to the launderette where she gets the house sheets done, and the lady manager now wants to adopt me.

I've joined a gym here and have gotten back into the routine of training for a triathlon. I actually signed up yesterday for my first one. It's the same county in which my grandparents (paternal) were stationed before they went to Europe, so I might make a little visit to the town they stayed in before I do the triathlon. I also plan to sign up for a 10k before I do the triathlon—to get me used to the competition atmosphere since I’ve never done anything like this before.

This week I also went out to see a play with the students-- one of my job perks is that I get to accompany the students whenever they go for performances and art tours around the city. This past week we went to see a play at the National Theatre called Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. It was a mixed orchestral, theatrical, and dance performance that was good, but I've had the worst time getting over my jetlag, so I fell asleep in the middle of it. Oh well... I'm not getting graded on understanding this performance, but the students are!

syaD weF tsriF

The day after I arrived, I woke late and went shopping for groceries in the snow/ice/slush. I almost fell on the downward slope to the supermarket about 5 times. The store was swarmed, and I had tons of groceries to buy. When I left, I had one of those grandma shopping bags on wheels, and I had to pull that thing uphill on ice. That was a challenge. I also had to reorganize the kitchen here because it was pretty disorganized.

The next day, students began to arrive. Almost all of them are sophomores and juniors. Five girls arrived that day. Three of them stuck around throughout the day, and we went to dinner at a pub down the street for dinner.

In the days after that, I helped the students get settled. Almost all of their flights were delayed somehow or another. One girl couldn't get her flight rescheduled here until three days after everyone else. They're a good bunch so far. I think they'll get along. We all went out for dinner the other night at the pub around the corner which has really good Thai food.

I've been doing lots of organizing and writing rosters and planning for them and myself. I'm holding my first class today (I made everyone scones and will serve them with cream, jam, and tea), and I'm excited.

lavirrA

As I write this, I'm sitting in my room, which is on the top floor of our house and looks over the street which was blanketed in snow last night. It's currently snowing now, very fine feathery flakes, and it's supposed to continue for the rest of the morning and afternoon. They're saying that it's a 40-year snow for London. Which is bad since London and snow mix about as well as the American South and snow do. The city is having to ration the amount of salt they put on the roads because they don't really have enough to go around. Sidewalks are almost never cleared unless they are along a main road. Even then, the city usually just breaks up the snow-trodden-into-ice. Things were clearing up yesterday, but the current snow starts the whole process all over again.

Perhaps I should begin by telling you that I woke up last Thursday, the day I left for the UK, from a call from US Airways saying that my flight to Gatwick had been canceled. Gatwick and Heathrow airports had both been closed due to the winter weather. I immediately called US Airways back and rescheduled a different route for the same evening-- first to Frankfurt then to Heathrow. The flight wasn't great-- US Airways international flights are very uncomfortable and I barely slept. Frankfurt airport is kind of shabby, although I did get to fly Lufthansa to London (which was nice). I arrived 6 hours after I was supposed to arrive, which is better than how the professor here fared. His plane was diverted en route to Glasgow, and although the airline had originally planned to transfer all of its passengers on that flight to London, it required them to sit on the tarmac for 3 hours. If that wasn’t enough, the airline then kicked them off the plane and washed their hands of them. Dr. P had to take a train from Glasgow to London at his own expense. Despite the inconvenience, the snow is gorgeous. My neighborhood is particularly beautiful.

emocleW

Welcome to my blog about my life in London.

I know that the title is annoying at best-- what can you do, though? London's a popular place. So many blog tities and URLs have already been sequestered. To be even remotely creative is difficult.

Although it's been several weeks since I arrived, I'll try my best to relive some of that time with you. I'll draw quite a bit from letters I've written to people, so don't be surprised if you see something familiar.