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.