Hi Everyone

So there is a serious lack of commenting here guys...haha

Let's see, since Nov 25, I realized that my friend Adam from a trip to China when I was 17 is also in London, so we've been hanging out making up for lost time. This included stopping by a place called The Comedy Store which was a giant comedy show, which was hilariously funny. Included the comic Michael McIntyre who was epic, it was like 6 or 7 comedians all doing a couple of minutes of stand-up, and of course, I made the mistake of answering the question of, "Is anyone not from London?" So I think about 40% of the jokes from the recurring comic for the rest of the night were about America. Haha! Great stuff.

Then last Friday was my first work Christmas party which was pretty nice, went out to a lovely Italian restaurant!

One of my supervisors has officially given his leaving notice so work has been pretty exciting with all this excitement.

Then last Saturday morning I met up with my friend Joe who was in London for the weekend from Paris and had some breakfast in Hyde Park. Then we walked over to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park to check it out, I'm sure I'll be back again soon :) Then walked to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye. JUST because we could! So that was a great morning.

Then that afternoon I went out to Heathrow so that I could go to Munich! And of course, as soon as I get there, I find out my flight's cancelled. Hooray! So then I had to sit around for about 2 hours until I was allowed to check into the flight I was rescheduled for. Once all this nonsense was over, I was finally in Munich and got to my other friend Joe's front door by about 12:30AM haha! So I hung out with him, our friend Mike who is studying in London, and then Joe's friend Paul. So went out for drinks on Saturday night.

Sunday went out for a real Bavarian breakfast (which I did not eat) but instead I had some sort of concoction with pancake batter, almonds, raisins, and applesauce. Which was SO delicious, I have no idea what it is called though, my German is pretty poor...haha. Then we walked around the nice and cold Christmas markets drinking mulled wine which was pretty fun. Had a coffee break, and then in the afternoon I met up with my Mom's cousin Margit, and I'm not sure what relation she is to me...haha. So we went to FOUR Christmas markets and just walked around the city which was great! And then of course, dinner in a pub of Kase Spetzle which my Dad used to make when I was younger at home. So that was amazing, it was like mac and cheese! Then went back and met up with the boys and we went out clubbing on a Sunday night which was HILARIOUS. Firstly, it really took a while to try and find a place that was actually open on a Sunday night. And we found ONE in all of Munich. Which ended up being a club with about 20 people in it playing music that was popular in high school, it was hysterical. So that was overall, an awesome night.

Then on Sunday we went out to BMW world in the morning and the Olympic park in the pouring rain which was fun. Then in the afternoon Paul and I tried to go to a modern art museum, but that was unfortunately closed...so we went to a different art museum which was definitely not as fun art, but we made up stories to go with all the paintings and that made it much more exciting! Then another traditional Bavarian dinner, then watched 30 Rock pretty much all night minus the break at 2AM to make pancake treats :) Delicious!

Tuesday morning I walked around the markets some more, and then went back to London.

It's great that London actually feels like my home now, and I miss it when I'm away, and when I come back, I'm happy to be home :) What a great place!

This past Thursday night had Christmas party 2 which was a combined party of the two genetic labs in our building went out for dinner. Lots of fun, despite the somewhat lacking food.

Last night I got a Christmas tree and put it up with Rachel. Check this out, got a tree, ornaments, chocolate ornaments, and a snowflake on top for 20 quid, and it's 5 feet fall! Amazing. So our nice and sterile apartment feels much more homier and lovely now that we're ready for Christmas.

Today I went off to the Birmingham Christmas market with Cassandra, from school, which was pretty fun, definitely gave Germany a run for its money. And now I have officially seen Birmingham! Which consisted of a lot of markets and shopping malls.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Royal Albert Hall for a Christmas Carol singalong, and I could not be more excited!

I should update this more often, it's pretty exhausting doing this all at once....bedtime now!

Talk to you all soon :) 2 weeks until Christmas/21st birthday!

Wow.

Dear All,

I am incredibly sorry I am so horrific at updating this blog. I've been meaning to do this I swear, it's just hard to find the time/effort. Haha who knew writing would be so difficult? But a certain Dutch friend of mine reminded me that people read it and that I need to continue to update. So here I am!

So it tells me my last update was Nov 9. Let's see what I've done since then.

Well, most exciting was going to BARCELONA Nov 11-14, which was literally, just amazing. I just had the time of my life. Such a beautiful city, who knew? I basically went to Barcelona knowing nothing about it, and only went so that I could meet up with my best friend from Kindergarden who was studying abroad. He normally goes to school in California, so we're actually geographically closer NOW than we are in the States. So I had to go. And just by sheer coincidence, two of my friends from high school who were also studying abroad in Europe, one in the south of Spain and one in Prague, just happened to be going to Barcelona the same weekend! So it was actually really nice being about to reunite with old friends and run around a foreign country together! Plus they both brought a few friends, most of which spoke fluent Spanish, substantially more than myself! So that really helped a lot...with my limited (next to no) Spanish knowledge and not-very-helpful French skills. Even so, the dialect of Spanish in Barcelona has a good number of French words or French-based words in it so that actually came in handy more than I thought it would. It's like a mixture of Spanish, French, and Italian or something? Crazy stuff.

So I showed up on Thursday night and left Sunday afternoon. And I am pleased to say I pretty much saw and accomplished everything I wanted to! I got some Christmas shopping done, had some "Dunkin Coffee," and saw the entire beautiful city. I went to the Picasso Museum (highly disappointing), saw FOUR Gaudi creations, saw the harbor, strolled along Las Ramblas, and drank champagne at 1 AM. Overall a very successful experience, plus I was among good friends, it just made the weekend a blast for all of us to be back together again after about 3 years since high school ended. I think my favorite parts were the four Gaudi works, I saw Casa Baillo (a house he built), La Pedrera (an apartment building), Parc Guell (crazy park with mosaics and sculptures), and Sagrada Familia (AMAZING cathedral). Basically he seemed to use nature as his inspiration for most of his work and so a lot of his elements were mosaic-y and tended to not contain any straight lines at all. Just AMAZINNNGGG. Sagrada Familia was pretty much the most aesthetically pleasing thing I have ever seen in my entire life, just an AMAZING cathedral. I mean google it, it looks strange from the outside, but still mind blowing. The inside though, doesn't even seem to compare. I've seen a few cathedrals in my time, including some big ones like Notre Dame and Canterbury, but THIS was wayyyyy above anything I had ever seen, by a MILE. Amazing. I also went to the chocolate museum..where they had about 40 or 50 sculptures of things made solely from chocolate! I'm going to put a few pictures at the bottom of this post of everything, for sure, no worries!

I know Barcelona does have a bit of a repuataion for pick pocketing and such, which I think is true, but I think if you have your wits about you, then you're fine. But honestly, I HIGHLY recommend this amazing city, especially if you're into art and architecture at all, it's just amazing.

So once I came back, just completely thrilled with life, then I found out the minute I got back to work that I am not allowed to go to the big giant hospital Christmas party because I only have an "honorary" contract seeing as I'm only here for 6 months and am voluntary...so that was kind of a bummer, considering everyone has been talking about it since I got here, but no worries, there are THREE other Christmas parties, so life's not all bad! Haha :)

The week following Spain, I was just EXHAUSTED. Literally. I really try hard to go out and do things in the evenings after work so that when I leave I won't feel like I just stayed in my room the whole time. But seriously, I was just so exhausted after a weekend of running around, lots of walking, Spanish, and loads of CULTURE. Craziness! So I really didn't do too much.

But then this past Friday there was this giant conference/meeting for my project team at work where about 150 people from all around the country came to London to hear all about the project and listen to presentations about everything, and basically get updates and ask questions. And it was great! I just had such a good time, and I was pretty pleased with myself that I understood mostly everything in the presentations. It was just great. I swear, every day, at least once, you hear the phrase, "Man, I LOVE my job!" come out of my mouth. This is just the best place ever, I'm quite disappointed I have to go back to school really.

Then after the meeting went out to the pub with the team, that was excellent too. I love all the people I work with, they're just so lovely and friendly, it's really excellent. But then I needed to come home so that I could a) eat dinner and b) pack for the weekend. I did eat dinner, but instead of packing, I watched Family Guy with Rachel and Pete until midnight in our pajamas. Same/diff. HAHA.

Then I got up Saturday morning and packed as I got ready, and caught an 8:30ish train down south to see the family! My granny is in the process of having her entire kitchen redone, from top to bottom, so I basically went down to ensure things were going to plan, talk to builders, and help move stuff back into the kitchen to assist with lifting and organization! So not a very exciting weekend, but it was lovely to see family and I think I needed to relax after the chaos of the previous weekend! Plus I got to see my little cousin...well daughter of my cousin, not sure what that is. But she is BEAUTIFUL. She's two, so we were playing Polly Pockets and reading books, and she was highly entertained by this foreign concept of long hair I introduced to her. haha!

This week at work has also been amazing. Gone a little slowly, but that's ok. The thing I love about my boss is she doesn't really treat me like a subordinate and doesn't make me feel any less than her in any way. She pretty much just treats me like her equal, so that when she's not there, she trusts me to carry on with HER work and I just feel like I'm just filling in for her, she's just amazing. She, a genius woman with a PhD, and me, who doesn't even have a Bachelor's yet. I could not have found a more amazing boss, seriously, I know it's horribly cliche and cheesy to say this, but she's an excellent role model and really is giving me something to aspire to become and do with my life. It's great!

So this week I have been working with this new technology that uses a special plate that is 200 quid a piece! INSANE! And I am trusted with this technology! Haha I think this is the kind of think that my uni dreams about at night. So basically it's splitting a reaction into about 800 replicates so that many many replications can be done of one reaction instead of just getting one result. Excellent. And it's actually working! I feel so great and smart when I learn something new that completely blows my mind, but I understand how it works, and then I try it and it works SUCCESSFULLY! Incredible. Haha! Enough positive adjectives yet?

Most of this week hasn't been to exciting, Rachel and I made Thanksgiving decorations, I wrapped presents last night, and then today is Thanksgiving!

For my legitimate dinner, Rachel and I went out and bought stuffing and chicken nuggets, and hand mashed potates. So mash, stuffing, and chicken nuggets. Legit enough for me, considering our oven barely works! And it was super delicious of course. So happy Thanksgiving to all!

I've also done something to my finger where it's quite swollen and a little painful. I've been given some cream for it, but I'm thinking it might be infected. If it doesn't get better I'm off to the ER (which is apparently called the A&E here, which needed to be translated for me). I know this seems a little extreme for a finger, but I think it's really the only way I'm going to be allowed to see a doctor in this strange foreign land. Haha fingers crossed!

This weekend:

Friday-no idea. Work then maybe nothing.
Saturday- I am off to a shopping mall about 40 minutes outside of London because it is the only place in the UK to get Taco Bell. haha Plus a shopping mall doesn't hurt. Then in the evening I have Bola's 23rd birthday party at a fancy French restaurant, oh la la!
Sunday- off with Rachel to Birmingham for the Christmas market! It made the top 20 in the world list so I'm excited for this!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday! Hope all is well, leave me some love, and I'll talk to you all soon!



Parc Guell in Barcelona

Brian and me in front of Sagrada Familia! He's the one that goes to school in CA and we haven't properly hung out since we were 14.

Me on the amazing roof of La Pedrera - it felt like some sort of Saudi Arabian desert, just crazy maze of staircases, but so beautiful.

The INSIDE of Sagrada Familia! Gorgeous, just a taste of it at least.

Me and my friend Kristen (to the right of me) from high school along with 2 of her friends from her program in Spain.

Me with a street performer on Las Ramblas!

Makeshift epic Thanksgiving by Rachel and Carina.

Hi All!

Wow, I apologize for being so utterly horrible at updating this thing.

I think most of last week was pretty uneventful that's probably why.

Work has been insane lately....my one supervisor in the lab has gone on a 3 and a half week excursion back to the homeland of New Zealand, so I've pretty much been doing a whole bunch of his responsibilities since he left, which has carried over into this week. And surprisingly enough, being two people at once is incredibly difficult. I think I have a lot of stuff and responsibility by myself, but then to tack some more on is A LOT. But I still love it :)

So I know last week I went to see the Social Network on Monday = AMAZING. If you haven't seen it, go see it. It's not a lame facebook movie, it was an incredibly well done and very captivating film. Heck yes!

I didn't do much for the rest of the week I'm pretty sure, until Thursday when I went to the mall to look for some suitable work shoes, and who did I find in the mall, but RIHANNA. Yes, the mega pop star. She was just doing a concert (which I missed) and taking pictures with people at the mall. Insane! This would never happen in KOP. So I did not get a picture with her, but did get pictures of her...with my pathetic phone camera. Haha! There was a much better picture in the newspaper the next day so I think I'm just going to save that and pass it off like I took it.

Friday night = Bonfire night! Which was delightfully uneventful. By the time Rachel and I came home from work and ate dinner, it was 6. And we were looking up fireworks that were on, and none of them were close by, and many of them were at 7pm. How the heck were we supposed to manage that? All the closer ones were Saturday and Sunday night. So we went to a pub instead with her friend Pete and his two cousins which was alright. Pear cider is my official drink at the pub when I get the question, "So what do you want to drink, Carina?"

Saturday I went to Covent Garden continuing the shoe quest! I also went to a store called Cyber Candy which I encountered Halloween weekend at 2 AM which had a large Lucky Charms display in the window. So they were, of course, closed the first time I went, so I knew I would be returning. And I bought Mountain Dew Code Red, brown sugar Pop Tarts, and candy! Delicious! I was so excited. I had to bring in the code red to work, there was a purpose to this purchase.

Then Saturday night my lovely friend Joe who is studying in Munich this semester came to London so I met up with him and my friend Mike who is also in London, and we all went out a pub for dinner, which was delightful! Then, to really live it up, we went out clubbing, of course. So I paid EIGHTEEN POUNDS (=27 bucks about) to get into this club called Fabric, which is supposed to be one of the best clubs in London. And it was really really sweet! It had 3 different dancing rooms with different music and lots of staircases and balconies, it was very very sweet. Even though house/trance music is kind of...blah. STILL FUN. The headlining DJ came on at 3, and he was a large improvement. What a tough career though, where your shift doesn't start until 3AM. So I, Carina, stayed out clubbing until FIVE AM. This is not a normal Carina occurrence, this is insanity!

Amazing night though. Then I came home and slept until 1pm. which I have also never done before...but I guess it's a full 5 hours! Sunday I really did nothing but laundry and cleaning and watched TV, but I really really needed it after my previous night's excursion.

Sunday night Rachel and I were going to go see some fireworks in a park but we decided to go to her new chruch's bonfire night party that was supposed to have fireworks and a huge bonfire instead. We got incredibly lost trying to find this church in South Ken, but THAT"s ok. I think we may have missed the fireworks though. Definitely a huge authentic bonfire though! I still preferred the PA Guy Fawkes parties, myself. And I met two American kids who were on study abroad, so that was fun.

Then this week so far, has been insanely busy, i can't even describe. Just So so so busy. But I am finally done with one list of about 100 procedures I had to finish, so now life should get a little better.

Went to the one and only Chipotle in the UK for dinner last night :) and went to a lovely comedy show with Maggie. Tonight I met up with my friend Sam who I haven't seen since 8th grade who is, of course, just by chance, at London School of Economics for a year.

Having all of these random friends around Europe makes it seem like I'm such a cool person! haha it's great :)

Off to Barcelona on Thursday for the weekend :) Next update will probably be after that.

have a good night and rest of the week everyone!

Weekly Update!

So I think I'm getting into the swing of just updating on Sunday night as a habitual thing. It's much easier to give a weekly recap rather than to try and update each day. So I think that's the plan.

Monday - Work, then I went to PRIMARK which is this store that you always hear about. Every person walking down Oxford Street for some reason always has a HUGE brown bag full of stuff from Primark, and I was told it's trendy clothes that are really cheap. So, of course, I decided I had to check this out. And, oh my God, it was AWFUL. I swear, it was like Toys'R'Us on Black Friday TIMES TEN. It was so crowded. And additionally, every tourist who was currently in London at that point in existence was in Primark. God knows why. So not only could you not move, I mean, who wants to actually look around for clothes in that environment? Horrible. And everything apparently falls to bits right after you buy it, after you wait in the queue of 50 people to check out. Haha needless to say I did not buy anything...

Tuesday - Busy busy busy day of lab work at work! It's great! And then in the evening I met up with some of the family, including Alex, and we all went out for pizza which was really nice. I love this little Italian restaurant I found that's right near the hospital where you can get an amazing, huge, and delicious pizza for 7 pounds. Not too bad at all! So pretty good night :) I also signed up for the UK equivalent of Netflix and ordered a bunch of photo prints online since my room feels like a jail cell that is cold and icy. So we needed to bring some love into the situation and to help me from feeling homesick. So now all the pictures are plastered over my wall! Much more cheerful now :)

Wednesday - Work, and laundry night! Woo hoo! And, very important to note, that I got an AMAZING care package from Elaine containing a pound of Dunkin coffee among other things. So this just made my day/week, just so excellent! And here's a story, the dryer takes so so so long to dry clothes that I had time to put my clothes in the dryer, wash dishes, go into central London, retrieve the package from the post office, come back, watch tv for 20 minutes, and THEN the clothes were done. HAHA it takes like 70 minutes to get dry clothes, ridiculous.

Thursday - Such a busy day at work too! I literally worked all day from 9:30 to 5:30 with only a 20 minute lunch break and no tea break, that's how busy I was with lab work! It was great though and I loved every minute of it :) Then in the evening, because I CAN, I decided to walk down to the British Museum in the evening and check out all the exhibits I had previously missed when I went at the weekend. So that was pretty excellent, but I also did not anticipate being quite so exhausted after work, so didn't stay long, but still got my dose of culture which was good and healthy!

Friday - See now it gets good. So, of course, I went to work and still had a very busy day, similar break schedule to Thursday, meaning, a lack thereof. haha but that's really ok, I like it that way. Friday was the first day of one of my lab supervisor's 3 week holiday, where I am pretty much taking over his job until he returns. And I think the first day went really well! I got to do DNA extractions by myself, process samples by myself, and even clean up a CVS sample, which I have never even done before. This is all very exciting! God I love this job.

Then after work one of the head people in the office was taking everyone out for drinks because it had been her birthday earlier in the week. So a bunch of us went out to a pub nearby and it was actually a lot of fun! It's really funny, this is just one of the large discrepancies I am finding between my two cultures, I mean, in America, you would never go out for multiple drinks with your boss and stuff on a Friday night, I mean, how much do you really drink at all with your boss? But here it's totally acceptable! At least where I work :) haha I had such a great time just getting to know my boss a bit better and having a few laughs, it was really nice! So I left there about 7:30 and bought two huge pumpkins so that Rachel and I could later carve them. Oh yes, even got them from an organic supermarket, because of the lack of pumpkin patches and farmer's markets in central London. Go figure.

Saturday - Saturday morning I woke up early and jumped on a train and went to Canterbury for the day! It was quite a shock to me because the train was apparently a high speed train, which was not specified on the website. So I got on this train and nearly had a heart attack with how fast it started going! Dear God! But, on the bright side, I did get to Canterbury in about an hour. Haha. So yeah, walked around Canterbury and went to the gorgeous Cathedral. It's just the funniest thing, the town looks like a regular English high street except for the fact there is this castle-like structure in the middle of the road, and just off a side street is this huge Gothic cathedral! Excellent! The cathedral was absolutely gorgeous, I wish someone had been there to give an organ demonstration or something, that would have made my day. But there wasn't one, unfortunately. But Cathedral was beautiful and I got a good deal of shopping done! Including shoes, a few Christmas presents, a last-minute Halloween costume, and CHOCOLATE. From this wondrous and amazing place called Hotel Chocolat. Where I not only bought chocolate, but also bought pasta made with cocoa...I'm thinking choco-mac and cheese? I'll let you know how that is... HAHA

So I came back around 4 and just literally sat and did nothing. I was pretty tired, after the whole week really so it was nice to relax. Then around 8 I started getting ready in my costume, I was subtly a devil, which mainly consisted of hair clips that had little devil horns attached to them. Thank you Claire's. Yes, I was definitely the only customer over the age of 10 in that store. haha! But yeah it was great, curled my hair and got dressed, looked really awesome. I'll working on getting pictures from last night, I was not in charge of the camera so when I get them, I'll try to post a couple. So Rachel and her friend Pete came home around 9:30 and we were sophisticatedly drinking champagne out of wine glasses in our flat from like 10-11ish. Then went and picked up some nurses, and some more Scottish nurses, and caught a bus to some other Scottish nurses' flat! Where everyone was dressed like a kitty cat, literally about 4 or 5 nurses, and we drank vodka and coke! It was such a laugh, we just stayed for such a long time, that by the time we remembered we should catch a bus to go out clubbing it was 1:30... but daylight savings time actually made it 12:30.

So some nurses went home, and the rest got on bus out to Soho, but we only made it to Covent Garden. Some lovely person who drank too much decided to be sick on the bus which made it smell just...awful. So we got off early! But riding the bus on the Saturday night before Halloween is hilarious! Even at 2:00 AM then there are all of these people coming in and out in all of their crazy costumes with all sorts of objects sticking out of their heads, it was wonderful! So we walked to Leicester Square and went into a club there. Downstairs was a bit crowded but they were playing pretty good music. But we started upstairs in this much less crowded room that was playing back to the 80's music haha including "Come On Eileen...," "I'm Coming Out," and that Eurythmics song. Excellent. Haha! So that was fun, but then lots of people started leaving so we went downstairs for a while and hung out there until we left. We walked back home, because it's really not too far, went to Tesco's, of course, because it's 24 hours and you get the best deals at that time of night, and then finally came home at 3:00 ish. But, of course, it felt like 4:00. Drank some water, ate some cookies, and happily PASSED OUT. until 11:00 AM.

Sunday - So today, I woke up and went to the British Museum again through work. They were previewing this exhibit about the Egyptian Book of the Dead that would normally be 12 pounds but for us was free because it hadn't technically opened yet. And went with two girls from work, Bola and Louisa, and also Louisa's boyfriend. It was pretty good, VERY crowded, which was surprising considering it's not even open to the public yet, and I definitely would not pay 12 pounds for it. It was definitely interesting, but it was slightly repetitive, and we were happy to leave after about an hour.

Then Bola and I went on to get coffe in a cafe in this GREAT store called Paperchase where they just sold lots of random stuff. So that was also good for xmas shopping. Then I just walked down Oxford Street and got some cardigans and leggings that somehow generate heat by themselves? I thought I needed those for winter, duh. It's coming you know! Also bought Rachel chocolate that contained Marmite, because she loves Marmite, and we tried it, and it was literally just so unbelievably nasty. It took a minute, at first you weren't quite sure if it was good or not, and then it became completely apparent that it was horrible. HAHA. Delicious.

Then Rachel had never actually carved a pumpkin before. Halloween really isn't a big thing over here at all...and I've come across many people who say, "Oh I don't believe in what Halloween represents." And I kind of really feel like Halloween doesn't represent anything except costumes and candy? It's strange. Earlier in the week I was pretty worried that I was not going to have anything festive going on for Halloween...that would have been highly depressing. So anyway, we carved pumpkins and made amazing jack-o-lanterns! I'll definitely put a picture of them up here.

And now we're all caught up! Going to try and go see Wicked this week with Maggie, and I'm not really sure what else is up. Except Friday, which is Guy Fawkes DAY!!! Oh it's ON. I have much planning to do. Next weekend Barcelona!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited!!!

Anyway, I should get off to bed soonish so I can be ready for work tomorrow because another week awaits!

Hope everyone had a good week, weekend and Halloween!

<3 Carina xxx



Jack-o-lantern masterpieces! Rachel's on the left (Elton John - note the earring) and mine on the right.

Me outside Canterbury Cathedral

Stunning Interior of the Cathedral

The Cathedral itself!

So Lazyyy

WOW I am getting lazy about updating this. It's hard to find the energy or will to actually write in here, I'm just so busy and out all the time. But I'm trying hard because I want to keep a record of this. Plus I'm sure it will be nice to look back on when I come back so I can read it myself later.

Firstly, I have been informed that many people cannot comment on this blog or anything. I think it only works if you use internet explorer for some reason, I'm sorry about that, I, in fact, hate internet explorer, and had I known that previously, I would have gone with a different website! So if you're trying to leave me a comment and it doesn't work, then try that :)

Let's update now.

OK last week. I think my largest accomplishment of the week was successfully making 35 smores for English people who had never had a smore in their lives! I bought the equvalent of graham crackers = digestive biscuits, and I put marshmallow fluff on one cookie, that I bought in the American food section at Selfridges, and I melted Galaxy chocolate (delicious) and spread that on the other half. Then put them together and I really was pleased with myself at HOW MUCH they tasted like real legitimate smores :) And they were a big hit at work! I'm quite sad that I used up all of the fluff and all the smores are gone now, I'm definitely going to remember that for the future though as an amazing snack. Even when they're cold and not melty.

I also had coffee with my old cousin last Tuesday who I haven't seen in probably 7 years or so, so that was nice! This is the beautiful part of actually living here, I now have the time to catch up with family I don't normally get to see!

Then last Wednesday I went to a comedy show at Leicester Square Theater with a bunch of the girls who are on study abroad at Drexel. It was absolutely fabulous! The comic's name was Deborah Frances-White and the show was called "How To Get Almost Anyone To Want To Sleep With You," which, despite the title, was not as dirty as you would think. It was really quite funny though, and was basically instructing men on how to be more like George Clooney and instructing women on how to walk around being a "Scorsese movie in a hat"!!! haha Very exciting show, for sure. They have another show where they have comics read portions of celebrity autobiographies so I thought I might go and see that sometime too, that sounded like fun and is supposed to be hysterical! One day :)

Then Friday I went to a masquerade "party" with my friend Bola. I think we were both under the impression that it would be like dinner and dancing, like a masquerade. Instead it was more of meeting up at a bar and having drinks while being dressed up and wearing masks. So it was ok, but there was also a serious lack of food so we had to temporarily leave the party and run across the road to the chippery to grab some food in the middle of the party! Plus it was Friday, so I was absolutely EXHAUSTED after work. An entire week of work ,that is.

Saturday was fun though! Rachel's (my flatmate) boyfriend Sam was here for the weekend so all three of us went out Saturday morning. We went to the British Museum which was pretty awesome, and conveniently FREE and right down the road. Very good plan for a supposedly rainy Saturday morning. So, lucky for me, the museum had an exhibit of "Buddhism Across Asia," which I was SO excited about! I love those Eastern religions and philosophies, just excellent stuff. Then they also had a whole exhibit of Egyptian and Greek stuff, it was excellent. So we were only there for about 2 hours and didn't get to do everything, but since it's free, I think I'll definitely go back one day and check absolutely everything out (even the parts you have to *gasp* pay for!)

Then we walked all the way from our flat to London Bridge and we went to Borough Market which is a giant market of food stands with everything under the sun from all around the globe. They had loads of baked goods and cheeses and curries and wines and olives and meat and everything...so we actually didn't buy anything because it was very crowded and kind of crazy, but I'll go back one day soon. I spotted a gourmet coffee shop on the way out but since I was the only one in the group interested in coffee then I figured I'd save that for myself one day :) Fun stuff!

We then met up with Rachel's friend Pete and two of his friends who were very quiet so I didn't get their names... and, as a regular Saturday afternoon, we went to a pub in Leicester Square and watched rugby and football. Hooray! Then Rachel, Sam, and I left to come back to ours and make some food so we didn't have to pay for it at the pub, and of course, as soon as we go outside, it conveniently starts pouring! Haha so we got a bit wet, but yeah, it was a good night overall! I was too tired to do anything else after that.

So instead I stayed home and BOOKED A TRIP TO BARCELONA!!! haha so I can go and see Brian, my Kindgergarden boyfriend. Which will be lovely! And Barcelona of course. I'm off in mid-November so I'm so excited! Running around Europe is just dirt cheap when you're already in Europe!

Then on Sunday Alex and I went out to Winchester to go visit some family which was lovely! And then it reached 0 degrees C at night in London. Which is, in fact, the freezing point of water. I hear it was 70 degrees in Philly and A-town that day....that doesn't sound very fair!

Additional highlights from this week are that Elaine has booked a flight and is coming to visit me in December! And I have COMPLETELY fixed the tv and got a dvd player! I figured out, after much battling with the antenna, that there is a rooftop antenna on our building that I have a plug in the wall to, duh. Oh well.

Work last week was slightly boring because my boss was training to use a new machine, but this week will be better! I still love love love this job though, my lab supervisor is leaving on Thursday for a 3 week holiday so then I'll be in charge! Check this out, responsibility! I have also been given the responsibility of managing and being in charge of a database of 3000 patients for our research project, to the point where other centers involved have to check with me before they can use the database, it's pretty sweet! I love this place, I feel like if I had gotten a job in America then I could be cleaning glassware in the lab or something, but here, I'm a real member of the research team! Just excellent!

I think it's going to get warmer soon here....

Also, I'm going to attach pictures onto this because I forget that some of the people on here don't have access to my facebook so they can't see pictures! But for those of you that do, that's a good place to look for pictures of what I've been up to :) Remember that you can click on the pictures below to see them bigger!

Hope everyone had a good weekend and has a good rest of the week!

-Carina xxx



This one's a picture from last week's adventure to Brighton...love it! That's the royal pavilion behind me, I totally fell in love.


This one is a picture of me and Bola (who is also called LaShonda, word) at the masquerade


Bola, Me, and other party-goers in our masks

Part of the Greek Parthenon exhibit at the British Museum (Rachel and me)


Rachel and me in front of the British Museum


Finally, a picture of me in London to prove that this is actually where I am!

Ok Month 1 Update

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I'm completely junk about updating, I've just been really really busy with everything and hanging out and meeting people, so it's tough to find the time and motivation to actually write and update here!

Been here for one month now, and I must say, I am having the time of my life. I think co-op is the best thing that has ever happened to me, I just love having a job. This is so much more valuable than anything my classes have taught me so far, and I just really need this supplement to my coursework. Real life experience is the only thing that's really going to show me what I want to do with my life. I couldn't have found a better job, I'm still not sure how I landed this one. I feel like a real and contributing member of this research project, where I actually get to process samples and do the techniques and stuff. Just check me out, I feel AMAZING, I just couldn't ask for a better life right now.

Let's see what I did this past week. Alex and I went out for burgers on Monday for 30 quid! which is like 45 bucks, and they weren't even that good. INSANITY right? haha I don't get it at all. Not going back there again...

Then later in the week my new flatmate, Rachel, and I went out for dinner, and she is just super nice. She is 21! HAHA people my own age in my flat? It's unbelievable! So yeah, we did dinner and tea, lovely stuff. I'm such a real person actually craving tea, it's so strange. Haha.

Thursday night Drexel had a banquet event in London which was pretty crazy, kind of hilarious too, to go to a Drexel event in London at the Royal Thames Yacht Club, yes, I am THAT sophistocated. So I got to dress up and curl my hair and burn my neck in the process, it was fun! The event wasn't too bad, there were maybe 8 or so current students at the event which was pretty nice, just meeting other Drexel students who are hanging out in London. It's funny to think there's actually a little gang of Philadelphians in this city 3000 miles away haha. Drexel, of course, felt that potato chips were an adequate h'our derve (yeahhh sorry French was a while ago) for us American kids...even though we were expecting dinner. Didn't happen. But of course, there were free drinks, none of which were non-alcoholic. Haha. But we got to meet the new president firsthand and she shook all of our hands and stuff, it was really nice. He seems like a good guy who has a good idea about the realistic flaws of our uni and has decent plans to make changes. All in all, very fun.

But I think my favorite part of this reception, and meeting all of these people, was that they were impressed when I told them where I worked. Just being able to say I work at the best children's hospital in the country just makes people really impressed, and makes me feel really important. It's excellent, I just feel like I've really accomplished something, even though I'm not getting paid a penny haha.

Then Friday night I went out with Rachel and explored the city and walked around which was good. I still find it hard to believe that I can actually walk down to the river and explore LONDON. I love it. Had some hot chocolate too. Which I have discovered, if you ask for your coffee to NOT be a million degrees, then it's actually drinkable as soon as you get it! What a novel concept!

Anyway, so Friday night was fun.

Then Saturday I woke up early and went with some of the Drexel girls from the banquet to Brighton for the day which was just amazing. Got to see the ocean for a bit, had breakfast in a French patisserie, saw the pier, went to the Royal Pavilion, and went shopping in the Lanes. I fell in love with this Royal Pavilion, it literally looks like the Taj Mahal, just so beautiful, it was like taking a trip to India for a couple of hours! Just excellent. After having pasties for lunch, then it started raining despite the weather forecast. Also note that my phone at this point told me it was party sunny in Brighton. haha. YEAH. So caught the train back.

Then came back and had a nap for an hour, had some dinner and went out with Rachel and some other nurses, a good portion of which were Scottish, oh yes. Very exciting. Had some vodka + cokes at their place and then went out to a pub in Camden for some dancing and loud music. And a Jagerbomb, which is delicious. HAHA and hilarious.

Fun night all in all though! LATE night too...

Then today Rachel and I went out to petticoat lane market to look around and I got some very stereotypical London posters to put on my wall so it looks less like I'm living in a prison cell. haha, it's important! Then had dinner with family which is always nice.

Off to another day of work tomorrow! With more delicious Italian food for lunch... can't wait!

Please leave me comments, it makes me happy to know people actually read this! :)

Weekend

Hi Guys,

Ok GREAT weekend, I have a SOCIAL life!!! Haha

So Friday night after work myself and 6 other people from work went out to a pub for Carina's first legitimate pint. So I was bought a pint of Kronenburg, which wasn't super delicious, but that's ok. I got to try everyone at the table's drink too so that was nice. My one friend Neesa had this pear flavored cider stuff? That was pretty good so I think I'll have to have that next time. Then another girl, Bola, decided that we also needed to have shots. So against my protesting, of course, I was given one anyway. Haha! So I had this shot of this blue stuff that was kind of minty and slightly mouthwashy/cough syrupy. Oh well... And I swear, I must be the biggest lightweight ever, because I was a little spinny and awfully giggly after one shot and one pint. Dear god. So we were sitting around a round table and then we basically spent 2 hours playing those lame icebreaker games that you would play at orientation. Like "I'm going to a picnic and I'm bringing ..." where the first person says something beginning with A, the next person does B, and then you go through the alphabet. We just changed the category about a dozen times but this whole thing was hilarious for no apparent reason. Good times though.

So then everyone wanted to leave at 7:30 because I guess they don't all live super close and needed to go home or something, unlike myself who lived 5 minutes walk away. So then, of course, I did not know how to get home, so my friend Darrell kindly walked me home and was taking great enjoyment from my giggliness. Haha! I was complaining how I thought I had left my water bottle on the table at the pub, which was a big deal, for those of you who understand my attachment to water bottles. haha

OK so then I got home and it was about 7:45 or 8, and I was actually pretty tired. But I thought it would be super lame to actually go to bed at quarter to 8 at night. So luckilly, my friend Tom texted me and told me to come meet him up at the pub at University of London. See this is how epic England is, there is a student pub, in the student union. Whereas in America the most exciting thing in a student union is a fast food joint. So I went to this pub and had a cider, which was much better than this beer nonsense. But yeah I had a great time! Just walked around and met people and had a great time!

So that was Friday night.

Then yesterday morning I went off to Westfield Mall which is like this brand new shopping center that is legitimately like an American shopping mall, which is kind of revolutionary for England. So I went and walked all around there which was pretty...huge. And I didn't buy anything unfortunately, but it was fun to walk around and see everything. They even have a Hollister there, because now they have American things in England. So I went to walk into Hollister and there was one of the employees at the door greeting people who I thought would be like "Hey Guys what's up???" (haha Danika) but he was NOT. Instead, he directed me to the back of this large LINE of people who were queuing up to enter into Hollister! At least like 20 people. It was crazy, so of course, I was not going to LINE UP to go into Hollister. I thought this whole lining up business was a very un-American approach to managing a Hollister. Part of the experience is not being able to hear or move in there, right? Haha I thought it was funny.

So then I came home and skyped some important people :) And then I GOT MY BROADBAND INSTALLED!!! So now I have wireless broadband and it works so so so well! The speed is so much faster and it's so reliable, it's excellent! So I'm thrilled and really excited about it!

Then my friend Bola, who has been renamed LaShonda by those of us at work, and I were suppoed to hang out last night and do dinner and a movie. But she got held up with something and then couldn't come and pick me up at 6:30 like planned. So then I took the underground over to her and she picked me up from the station because she has a CAR. Which is such a novel concept in London. So then we went to this "American" Italian restaurant which was pretty good. Except there were 2 birthdays and this restaurant's idea of celebrating a birthday is blaring "Happy Birthday" over the loudspeaker with some additional music tacked on at the end of the song that was specific to this restaurant. Haha so in the happy birthday part, they shut off all the lights, which was dumb, because then we couldn't see our food and eat. Then in this additional part, they started flashing lights on and off in the rhythm of the song, which was highly annoying and unnecessary, I'm surprised they don't get more seizures in there! Haha

So then it was pretty late so we didn't want to see a movie and went bowling instead! Neither of us are very good at bowling...I think the high score was like a 65 or 70 from either one of us. A lot of gutter balls in there...haha. But so we wanted to do 2 games, but then the third game was only 1 pound, so OF COURSE we had to do that. But then by the last game we were both completely exhausted and neither of us were doing a very good job anymore. Haha! So then after that she drove me around a bit to see Greenwich, including the Greenwich Median Time line or whatever it is called, so we drove past that real quick. And she also showed me what the Millenium Dome had been turned into which was pretty nice. I'm surprized that they didn't knock the whole ugly thing down though... Oh well.

So then today I'm not sure what I'm doing to do. Definitely going to head off to Fortnum and Mason this morning to go and check out all of the exotic foods and stuff, maybe go to Harrods as well if I"m really bored.

But here's the most exciting part of my weekend, SOMEONE NEW has moved into the vacant room in our flat! And she's like young like could potentially be around my age! She seems very nice and friendly, and is from where all of my family is from down south. So I think I'll ask her if she wants to do dinner later tonight or something.

Back to work tomorrow! Great weekend so far though...

I'm just getting to the point where I'm ready to go back to the US, but I'll get over it. I'm having a great time here, and it's going to be a little bit of an adjustment making myself realize I still have over 5 months left here. But it's going to be excellent!

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend too!

Almost Friday...

Hello Friends,

So it's been a good week at work. It looks like I'm going to be focusing on just the project for developing a non-invasive alternative to amniocentesis, and spending less time doing other stuff. But I'm happy about that, I can get really involved in this project, and use all of this cutting edge technology, and then when the paper is published soon then my name gets to go on it too! They're going to let me work over in the university hospital soon too, so then I get to see all sides of the project all across the board. So then I'll be really involved. Yeah I really love this job. The people are so nice and friendly and crazy!

I went out earlier in the week for my first non-full pint of beer, it was called a something -top but I have no idea what it was. Something involving Heineken, which wasn't too bad. It's strange being old enough to legally drink. I went out to dinner today and they asked me if I wanted wine with dinner! Haha WHAT? WINE? I must be getting old :)

Oh and this week at work I saw a real storm trooper walking down the street. In his full costume and everything, legitimate storm trooper. And I pretty much died laughing, so much that I didn't get a chance to take a picture before he was whisked away into a building. I suspect he was actually there for the purpose of entertaining and visiting the children at the hospital, and wasn't just a Star Wars fanatic.

So tomorrow is Friday! Thank god! Tomorrow after work I think a bunch of us are going out for Carina's first legitimate pint for real, which should be an adventure.

This weekend I think I'll try and head out to this mall called The Westfield and maybe invite this girl from work who is 22, close to my age! It's supposed to be really sweet and brand new. Now they have Hollister in London? What's going on here?

Tonight I went out for dinner to this little place called Ciao Bella which I was told by my co-workers that it has the best pizza in London. I went out with another girl from Drexel, Cassandra, who is also on co-op abroad in London, but she's a fashion design major. We actually never met before, but she was super nice and we had a great time! So see? Making friends all over the place.

Everyone at work keeps giving me a hard time about my super enthusiasm, I can't see it wearing off too soon though :)!

Please everyone have a good weekend!

Next week: Free dinner at The Royal Thames Yacht Club courtesy of Drexel :)

PS - If the website won't let you comment, I think it's because it really only likes Internet Explorer. It won't let me comment in Firefox, but leave me some love!

AND I SHOULD BE GETTING BROADBAND TOMORROW!!! FINALLY!!! :)

Update

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, it's been really busy this end and it was hard to actually get internet in Bournemouth. Stupid dongle, I should have broadband on Friday though!

So last week was actually really good. Thursday I decided I needed to get my student railcard so that I could get decently priced train tickets to go down to Bournemouth for the weekend. So a lovely guy Tom from work walked me to the train station and helped me get my picture, card, and tickets all sorted out. He then gave me a walking tour of London and showed me where all the good pubs are around out area, and even not in our area. So we walked all around London, and down to the Thames, and he was a history buff so I pretty much had my own personal tour of London which was excellent. We went to Nando's for dinner, which is like a KFC, and where I conveniently get 20% off with my work ID. Very good.

There is talk of going out for Carina's first beer soon as a big event, since I really haven't had this experience of going into a pub and physically ordering beer for myself! Haha. And next Friday we're going out for Indian food in the lab, that should be exciting!

But yeah, then Friday night after work I rushed to Waterloo station and hopped on the train to Bournemouth to go and see the family. I haven't been down there in over a year and a half so that was really nice to see people. Only got to see a few family members, but was still very nice anyway. Got my Gran a cordless phone! And went out for Chinese food with my darling godfather and Ellen. Went to the shops on Sunday which was nice because going shopping on a rainy Sunday morning in Bournemouth is MUCH less crowded than going in London anytime at all. Haha!

So came back this morning, and ALMOST missed the train but made it with about 10 seconds to spare :) Then came into work by 12 which wasn't too bad, except for the subway strike hooray! Hopefully that fixes itself soon! Then got out of work at 4:30 and met with Alex for dinner.

Not a bad week! Things are going well and I'm settling in fine! I have survived 2 1/2 weeks and still going strong!

I still slightly feel like I'm on vacation and I'm going back to America soon, but I'll get used to the change soon enough. It'll sink in. Eventually.

Haha how are all of you doing? Hope everyone had a good weekend and stayed dry! I think it rained in the States too...

Week 2

Hi everyone!

Sorry I've been so lazy about updating. I tried to go out and have fun this weekend, as well as just SLEEP and relax.

This weekend I went up to the Camden Markets which is about 6 different little flea markets full of little stands and booths and exotic food and everything (not that I ate any of this food haha). It was really an exciting place! I think about 6 or 7 years ago it would have been my favorite place in the world with all the Doc Martens and the plaid pants everywhere, it was very exciting. Didn't buy anything, but it was still fun to go and look around! And of course I went shopping on Oxford Street, which is like the main high street where they have 6 floor stores of all the popular stores, very exciting stuff. But the problem is, because I really only have the weekend to go out and about, all of the stores were just JAM PACKED with teenage girls, so much that you could hardly breathe! So I ended up avoiding stores that would interest other girls my age at all costs, and only went into general stores and things like that, so that I didn't get too fed up. Haha.

Alex and I also tried to find a place called USA Pizza and Burrito, which is supposed to have the best pizza in London according to other Americans, but then of course we get there to find that it has gone out of business! Haha!

Besides that, this weekend I went over to my Aunt's house again for Sunday dinner which was lovely. Watched some incriminating old home movies of when I was 8-10 years old, only to realize that I have not changed at all since then. I swear there were phrases in these movies that came out of my mouth that I still currently say on a regular basis!

Work so far this week hasn't been too exciting. It's nice though because I now feel like an integrated part of the workplace. I'm planning on making snickerdoodles one night this week and bringing them into the tearoom, since they do not have these amazing cookies here. Plus I figure it's a good way to get to know people that I haven't officially met yet or anything! I'm also allowed to get my ID card this week so that I can get into the building by myself and that I won't lock myself in the stairwell anymore because I don't have an ID card to leave the stairs. Haha. Yes, it has happened before... But I'm hoping to do more exciting things later in the week and actually do more hands on stuff. Everyone is super super nice at work though, I really think I landed myself this excellent and amazing job, even though I'm not getting paid. With this experience I'm getting I think it's totally worth it.

In other exciting news, I met an incredibly sweet girl at work who had just bought herself a new tv and was looking to get rid of her old one. So she gave it to me for free! I bought an "aerial" (=antenna) for it last night, but of course, since I'm so tech savvy, it doesn't work. So Alex is going to come over and fix it in a little bit. But this girl is so nice and she's 25 so not too far off my age! It's the strangest thing being in a place where you feel like one person looks your age, and then you ask them, and they have a master's degree and are at least 5 years older. Haha! Oh well, I'm moving up and getting out there :)

I'm thinking this weekend I'll head down south on the train to visit my family who I haven't seen in a year and a half, which will be absolutely lovely. Looking forward to it!

And one of my older roommates moved out of my flat, so hopefully someone closer to my age will move in now!

Take care everyone xxx

I Survived One Week!

Oh my god, what a week!

This job is amazing, and I am SO glad I took it but I am exhausted.

I'm learning a lot and being exposed to a lot. It's wierd, dealing with situations of testing for genetic defects and things can put you in very very adult situations that feel WAY too grown up for me. Crash course in adulthood.

On a brighter note, a lovely girl at work is offering to give me her TV she doesn't need for free! Hooray!

AND I AM SIGNED UP FOR BROADBAND!!! I am so excited for it! haha


I can't write too much more, it's 9pm but I'm really exhausted. Not sure what's up for tomorrow, sleeping, for one thing. :)

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Middle of the Week

Finally made it past the midpoint of the week. I realized I never really had a true 9-5 job where I'm running around and paying attention all day, and it did not occur to me how exhausting it can be. I have a really great day every day, but then I feel like I come home at night and I'm just exhausted...it's worth it though.

So it's turning out to be a really great job so far, the people are really friendly, I'm working on interesting and cutting edge projects, and am learning a whole heck of a lot! I've actually been able to work with some real human blood and blood plasma which is kind of crazy. I've never done lab work with human samples, it's pretty awesome. Like this morning? Was working with amniotic fluid. How crazy! I get to work in both of the labs, being the molecular genetics lab but also the cytogenetics lab. So cool.

I'm working on a specific project that is working towards developing a reliable and non-invasive alternative to amniocentesis and CVS (not the drug store :)). But then it seems like I'm also going to get a chance to explore all of the different aspects of genetics that this great place has to offer. I'm really excited about the job, it's going great, I'm just exhausted every night after I come home.

In other news, everything else is really crazy. I can't set up a bank account yet because I need a special letter, but hopefully that should be sorted out by Thursday/Friday. Then I hate this little wireless Dongle thing, it's super unreliable and has a horrible connection. So I'm trying to sign up for broadband, but the website says it can't find my address, and so then when I try to enter the name of my building in the slot for "building name," it won't let me fit all of the letters. So it can't find wehre I live. So then I have to call customer support, which gets VERY EXPENSIVE VERY FAST if you are on a pay and go phone. As in, I wasted 10 pounds because my phone ran out of credit in a call and then hung up, and then I had to call them again and their system went down or something, and so yeah, 10 pounds later, I accomplished nothing. Except to find out that broadband internet is going to be way expensive for no apparent reason. Not only do I have to pay for the internet, it's through a phone line so I have to pay for the phone line, then also pay for an activation fee. It's SO MUCH stuff!

And I'm trying to get to my gmail to access the email of my landlord, but then I can't do that because the Dongle won't load gmail for no very good reason.

Finally, I cannot find hangers anywhere in London. I don't want to spend rediculous amounts of money, and I found a deal of 30 plastic hangers for 10 pounds, but of course the entire city is sold out. I can't find them. So I think I'm going to have to give in and get the pack of like 10 for 5 pounds I found, but that requires a subway trip. It's so complicated.

Everything is expensive, my phone, oyster card for the subway, internet...it's just crazy.

And I thought I made a friend yesterday becasue I met a girl my age! But then I found out it was her last day and she was going back to school today haha.

Hope you're all well and staying safe <3

First Day of Work

Hi Friends,

So yesterday was nice getting to see some of my family and eat pizza =) Delicious! Plus I don't have a tv here so it was kind of nice getting to watch some Friends and Glee.

This morning was my first day of work! I worked from about 9:30 to 5. Everyone seems so nice, so it seems like I get to do some results analysis and data entry but also some work in the lab itself. They're planning to have me over at the college-associated part in the morning and then the hospital-associated part in the evening so that I get to see the whole picture.

Today I was only in the Hospital though. Everyone was really nice and kind to me, it was just great. So I was doing some work in a spreadsheet of results this morning and then I was working in the lab dealing with samples this afternoon. That's right, I actually get to play with blood. Haha But I'm ok with it because I don't touch it. Hooray!

I have a mentor for the results part and also for the lab part, so I think this is going to go really well! I'm just absolutely shattered after 9 hours at work.

Tomorrow will be fun though! And I'm sure it'll only get better as things move along =)

Hope everyone is also having a good day, but it not lame like me who is ready to pass out at 7pm.

Haha miss you all! <3

Day two: First Weekend!

Hi Everyone!

So first weekend has begun! I actually slept pretty awfully last night. Despite my nice, new bedding, I failed to realize that my mattress is as comfy as a plank of wood. And for those of you who know about how lovely my mattress is at home, this was just not going to work. Haha! So I bought myself a mattress topper in the hopes of improving my comfort and sleep quality. Since I live with a lot of nurses, they have to wake up for early shifts at the hospital, so I still risk having to be woken up at 6:30AM on a Saturday (like this morning). Maybe this will stop me from being such a light sleeper!

Today I hung out with Genymphas and we ran around London with his friend Robert. We just had such a blast! I was introduced to this house of 14 students, at least some of whom also go to Drexel. I had no idea all of these Philadelphians were over here for some reason!

Running around London included tourist things like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, etc.

But MOST exciting is that we saw the POPE! There was this gathering of people on a street corner where the police were roping off roads, so we assumed the pope was making an appearance somehow, but the police didn't say, and it wasn't completely obvious whether or not they actually knew. So we walked to the portion of the street where it was certain he was going to drive by. We stood on the street corner where no one else was standing, which turned out to be the PERFECT spot! Not only did we see him, but we saw him TWICE! Once when he was driving by fast in a BMW, and the second when he was parading in the pope-mobile. Hardly anyone saw him the first time around, but we totally did, because he waved to us.

So I have, again, attached pictures below. I got videos of him driving by (Genymphas took pictures) but I took screenshots from the videos. Enjoy!

Making pizza and seeing family tomorrow!



Slow drive by the in pope mobile!

Pope inconspicuously in the back of the BMW, but he's waving! Threw everyone off because he was at the front of the procession of Range Rovers, and not at the back.

Genymphas and me on top of a lion at Trafalgar Square. Please note that I could not get on top of this statue without his help haha!

Genymphas, me, and Robert outside of Westminster Abbey.

Great Day!

Day ONE

Hi everyone,

So I arrived last night around 9 pm here, which is 5 pm East Coast time. So, thankfully, because of the large quantities of medications I needed to be on to survive a flight, I was exhausted by the time I actually got here! After happily leaving the airport, I got in a taxi and headed to my hotel for the night. Only THEN did I realize just how complicated it was going to be to move 100 pounds worth of luggage by myself. Way to plan ahead Carina. Haha! I did get to watch a couple things on the plane though, I watched "Letters to Juliette," which was lovely, but very predictable. Also watched the first half of "Babies," that documentary, but got bored when I realized there was no narration throughout the entire thing. So I settled on watching lots of episodes of "House," and "Big Bang Theory." Yay!

Got to my little hotel for the night, where I was staying because I didn't want to make my way into central London at 9 at night after flying for 9 hours. Plus the rental office for my housing wasn't even open at that point, so it all worked out. Then I ate dinner in the "sports bar" because the restaurant was closed. This so called "sports bar" was really just a pub that had a large projector showing people playing billiards on the wall, I guess that's the sport part. FINALLY got some food besides ritz crackers and teddy grahams (don't laugh, that's a majority of what I ate on the flight). And then passed out around 11 pm = 6 pm EST. See? The meds actually HELPED me get over jetlag!

Then this morning, yes morning, it's 8:30pm here, I ate breakfast at the hotel and took a WAY overpriced taxi ride to the closest subway station. My plan was to take the taxi to the closest tube station, and then take that line all the way into the city, since I like 300 feet from a tube stop on that line. So this sketchy driver was trying to convince me to allow him to drive me all the way into London, which I INSISTED would be very very expensive, since it's about a 40 minute drive. Although this nice nice man said he would do it for the low low price of £48, which according to the current exchange rate, is about $75. No thank you. So I got to this subway station and my entire journey, taxi and all, cost less than £20. See? Win. Except for the fact I had to lug all this luggage around and carry two 50lbs bags down the 30 stairs into this subway station. People were so nice to me though, one man helped me carry everything onto the train and another even carried one of my suitcases up the stairs at the other end!

20-25 tube stops later, I FINALLY arrived at my stop. Then got my apartment all sorted out and leased, and was allowed to move in! FINALLY I had my bags in my room, and they were not being supported by my own arms. Keep in mind I also was carrying a backpack that included all of my electronics (2 laptops are not very light...surprising right?)!

I was excited and happy to be here! I mean, I was really in LONDON as a RESIDENT and a working human! And not a tourist only in the country for 3 weeks.

I then realized I had nothing. I had clothes, but they didn't get me far in terms of living supplies. I realized there was no internet, and I would have to call and get an ethernet connection set up if I wanted internet, which seems pretty important. I also did not, at that point, have any bedding, shower supplies, towels, a hair dryer, or a cell phone. SO then I went on a huge adventure all around London trying to set up a bank account and getting everything I needed. My GPS saved me SO many times during this adventure, I did a good thing getting a new one right before I got here. Plus it was the only thing that knew where a drugstore and bank were, considering I had no internet! I got a new phone! I'm so excited about it it's the cutest little thing. I've never had a touchscreen phone, so I feel really fancy to actually have one. And as you can see, I also have internet now! It's one of those wireless USB flash drive things that connects through a cell phone network, very nifty.

Also, side note, I found the best system ever today. In the huge department store where I bought my sheets and towels, when I paid for my purchases, the woman asked me if I would be taking them now. So I said, "Um, what's the alternative?" And they had this FANTASTIC system where you can buy things and then pick them up later! This is so that you don't have to carry bulky things (like bedding) around London while you're continuing your shopping. The duvet I bought came in a cardboard box, and to save me some trouble, the woman had put my bedsheets and towels inside of this box. Unfortunately, this made the box heavier than it was designed for. So when I went to pick up all my things and take them home, the handle on the box broke, and there was no way for me to carry 2 large bags from the drugstore, a bag from the cell phone store, my jacket (it was about 55 degrees here), a pillow, and this broken box. Believe me, I tried many many different ways. Then sad and pathetic, I gave up about 10 feet from the subway station because I simply could not carry everything. It didn't help that my arms were also completely shot from lugging around 100lbs+ worth of luggage for 2 days. So I got a taxi, which was actually really great, had the nicest taxi drive who enlightened me all about the system of how you become a London taxi driver. He said average time it takes a person to pass the course is 2.5 years, because you pretty much have to memorize all of London. Crazy stuff right?

So I am finally all unpacked and set up. I'm hoping to post some pictures at the bottom of the message showing my room!

Not sure what the weekend holds for tomorrow, I've got to get some hangers for the mass of work clothes currently sitting on my chair waiting to be hung up. Also need some food so that my lunch and dinner tomorrow aren't McDonnald's and Pizza Hut (don't hurt me Mom :) )! My friend Genymphas from Drexel is down in London for the weekend from Manchester, so maybe meet up with him and do tourist things. Then Sunday I am off to see some family and make pizza! Hooray!



New phone! So cute and fancy!


Shared kitchen with my 4 roomates

New bedspread (don't laugh Elaine, it's plaid.)

My little sink and vanity area, as well as a wardrobe that is currently only filled with shoes.

Finally, my desk and large pile of clothes waiting to be hung up!



Love to all! xxx

Leaving Tomorrow!

Hi Everyone,

I'm leaving tomorrow! Flight is at 9 AM which means we're leaving the house at 5:30AM! It's going to be a nice long day. Then Thursday night at 9 PM I will officially be in London for 6 entire months. Wish me luck!

-Carina

Leaving in 3 Weeks!

Hi Everyone,

So I am leaving in just under 3 weeks, my flight is September 16. I am beyond excited! It's starting to hit me just how long 6 months actually is but I'm confident this is just going to be an amazing experience. I've got so many things I want to do and see, and I'm planning all of these little mini trips around Europe and thinking of places I want to go. Any country suggestions?

I hope you'll all try and read this once in a while so that I can stay in contact with everyone while I'm away! I'm definitely going to miss everyone, but remember to keep in touch with this, Skype or Facebook!

-Carina xxx