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!