Dinner and a Show

In my Health & Society class, one of my professors kept on talking about a play she had seen called “The Madness of George III.” She described the play as a mix of the history of medicine and royalty. This is a line from the Wikipedia summary: “The play depicts the relatively primitive medical practices of the time and the suppositions that physicians made in their efforts to understand the human body.” Two things I love? Perfect. Since I have been meaning to see a play in London, I searched the Internet for cheap tickets. I found 15 pound tickets in the balcony seating and came to terms that I will not get any closer for a price like that. I convinced my friend Zach to accompany me and we picked today’s date (February 28).

As I originally thought the play started at 6:30, Zach and I departed at 5:30 to make sure we could pick up our tickets and get our seats in time. Well, we found out two things pretty quickly: (1) The play did not start until 7:30 and (2) We got our seats promoted to much closer ones. My 15 pounds went far!

Since we had an hour to waste, Zach and I got dinner at a local pub. We got fish and chips, which was actually Zach’s first since being in London. As the time got closer, we made our way over the Apollo Theater and took our seats.

Inside Apollo Theatre

The play was amazing and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. It had its comedic parts, such as having the mad King reading Shakespeare’s King Leer (Oh, the Irony), but overall it had a serious tone to it. The actor that played King George III, David Haig, was spot on. I mean, he convinced me he was mad! Also, it illuminated how useless medicine was back in the day. The only medicine the ‘doctors’ could provide the King was blistering or bleeding and they thought that by sampling his stool, they could understand his sickness. It just shows how far medicine has come since then. 

Inside Apollo Theatre

The Madness of George III

The Madness of George III

I am super happy I took my teacher’s recommendation to go see it and now I got my play fever goin’ on. Maybe I’ll go crazy and see a musical next! I could easily see Wicked or Les Miserables for 25 pounds…

On a different note: I don’t know if you remember or not, but I have been posting about Occupy London, that has been camped outside of St. Paul’s for a while now. Well, on my way to the play I picked up London’s free nightly paper and saw that the occupy has been broken up! It was forcefully evacuated at 3 AM this morning. I am going to have to go now to check out what St. Paul looks like now without the filth and tents cluttering it!

The Evening Standard's article

Shadowing in a Sexual Health Clinic

Nota Bene: I talk about medical/bodily things. If you do not like reading about genitals, I urge you to skip.

Today I shadowed two doctors at a sexual health clinic here in London. The clinic was based in Lambeth, which I quickly learned had the highest amount of STDs (especially HIV/AIDS) in ALL of England….Awesome.

I realized at 11 PM last night that I should probably figure out how to get to the clinic since (a) I had never been there before and (b) It was not close to any tube stop.

Being in Denmark Hill, I had to use a bus. After about an hour of frantically looking at different routes, I found that Bus 40 took me straight there.

The clinic on google maps.

Since I am always terrified of getting lost/being late, I woke up super early, got dressed in my ‘clinic’ clothing (a dress, tights, cardigan, and boots), and walked to the bus stop. I was so proud of myself when my bus dropped me off right in front of the clinic. It is the little victories that count!

As usual, I got there 45 minutes early, so I got coffee and breakfast. I waited outside the clinic, so now everyone must think I am swarming with STDs. As I finally got in, I sat right down and got started.

The first patient we saw was a Polish man, who was complaining of testicle pain. A fun fact is he had a prosthetic testicle from a problem when he was younger. We took his urine and some discharge and looked at it under a slide. The doctors made sure to point out everything they saw on the slide to me and explain the different processes they were undertaking. In the end, the doctor diagnosed him with non-specific urethritis (NSU), most likely caused by Chlamydia. To be safe, the doctor gave him the Chlamydia medication, which is one dose of 4 strong antibiotics that you take then and there. She said they used to give them 7 days worth of antibiotics, but people would crush it up and secretly give it to their sexual partner without telling them that they may have an STD. At the end, the doctor told him that he would need to tell his girlfriend to come in and get tested (which makes me wonder how he got the STD in the first place….hmm…)

The next man was young, but was suffering from erectile dysfunction disorder. He came in spouting information he learned on the internet, which is obviously 60% bogus and just made him more stressed out. They tested him for STDs, diabetes, and hepatitis just to rule out any of those as causes.  (Since Lambeth has so many STDs, almost everyone that walks in is recommended to get an HIV test along with other STD tests. People kept on freaking out that the doctor thought they had HIV, but they were continually reassured that everyone gets asked). Since he has been so stressed out with this problem, he admitted to drinking and smoking weed a lot to calm him down…all things that make his ED worse. He was recommended to a sexual psychosocial clinic and told he should probably start cutting down on the drugs etc. The guy was freaking out the whole time saying some hilarious things, so I had to literally bite my tongue from laughing. When a man is screaming in front of you “I just wanna get it up!” it takes a lot of self-restraint to hold back giggles. Obviously something I must work on.

Next we saw a woman that was complaining of vaginal pain and dark colored menstrual blood. In private, the doctor I was shadowing informed me that this woman probably had nothing wrong, but was just freaking out. We still did the full screen and saw she did not have any clear STDs or infections, but we still sent out the work to the labs to get checked out.

I got to see my first cervical exam, which was to be honest…eye opening and slightly terrifying. It is somewhat surprising how open patients are with people watching, especially if they think you are a doctor in training or student. I saw the woman’s cervix and got to observe the doctor swab it down for any diseases. [Note to self: never get an STD since you do not want to go through this].

The final patient was a woman who has had bacterial vaginosis (BV) multiple times and she thought she had it again. After doing the vaginal and cervical exam, we looked at his discharge under the microscope and did see signs of the infection. The doctor gave her antibiotics and some advice in not getting it again. Basically BV is caused when the vagina becomes alkaline (or basic) and is usually caused by douching or washing down there too much. The doctor recommended an acidic gel, which one could easily pick up at the chemist. Along with all the other patients, this woman got the full STD screen too just to be safe.

What normal vaginal fluid should look like...

What we saw under the microscope with a patient who has BV

This clinic had its own lab set up, so any bacterial swab could easily be looked at under a microscope and results could be given in 10 minutes. Even cooler is the fact that each doctor withdrew blood right there in the room. Instead of getting a nurse to do it, they just pulled out the needle, stuck it in the arm, took two vials of blood and then shipped them off for testing. While waiting for lab results, I met a 5^th year medical student at Kings College, who was doing his rotation at the clinic. He was super nice and we were comparing medical school and the health system between the US and UK. He was trying to get me to move to the UK to practice since he was convinced it was that much better, but don’t worry mom- I ain’t goin’ anywhere.

In the end, I actually extremely enjoyed this clinic. I loved hearing the doctor-patient interactions and hearing the stories. I mean, obviously the stories were about sexual partners and if you use condoms, but the trust that patients give you is genuine and honorable. I would definitely go back and work there again. Even though I was there for 4 hours, I literally could have stayed all day and not even realized that the time had gone by. The doctors were super nice and made sure I was aware of everything that was going on. I actually lucked out too since other kids in my class shadowed a doctor at the HIV clinic, which is no fun since all it entails is watching doctors hand out medicine to HIV positive people. I got to see the real deal, as in see hands on exams and the lab. In the end, I got to talk to the doctors about how they deal with patients, especially with ones who you would otherwise judge. Meaning, most of the time you may morally disagree with their decisions, but as their doctor you cannot judge nor condone them. Obviously sleeping with 10 partners at once is not the smartest, but in order to gain trust from patients you cannot just call them out for that. When I mentioned to them how I had previously almost laughed at the patient with ED since he was saying ridiculous comments, they agreed and said sometimes they had to leave the room since they couldn’t hold it together. In reality though, you kind of have to have an alter ego when you work in a place like that.

I have one more shadowing experience with the General Practitioner and then a chance to sit in on some surgeries. Maybe I’ll even consider going back to the sexual health clinic...we'll see!

A Friend's 21st and Haver-Friend

Let’s get this party started with a nice run down of this week:

Monday, February 20^th

Monday consisted of my first round of shadowing, as I got to sit in and observe a general practitioner. I was supposed to meet the doctor at 9 AM, but to be polite I attempted to show up early. When I got to there, I realized I was working in a walk-in clinic. There was a line out the door of people waiting to put their names down for the doctor. Since I was obviously not there for the doctor, I attempted to walk right in and get myself situated, but everyone thought I was trying to butt in line. After much persuasion (around 10 minutes), I finally got in and met the doctor, Dr. Mitra. I shadowed him for three hours and definitely saw a huge range of illness, such as:

1. Paranoid Schizophrenia
2. Arthritis
3. Dementia
4. Kidney Dialysis
5. Leukemia

The most fun I had was telling a woman she was pregnant. Getting to that conclusion is a little laughable, as I will write out the doctor-patient conversation to illustrate:

Female Patient- “So, I have been feeling super dizzy and nauseous. I haven’t actually thrown up, but I feel sick.”

Doctor- “When did this start?”

Patient- “Early this month?”

Doctor- “And there is no coughing or anything, just nausea?”

Patient- “Yea…”

Doctor- “When is the last time you had sex?”

Patient- “December.”

Doctor- “When was your last menstrual cycle?”

Patient- “December…”
Doctor- “Yeah……………I think it’s time we took a pregnancy test”

Right there and then she took a test and I got to see the two bands appear, informing us she was pregnant. When I congratulated her, I realized I was probably a little more excited than she was.

I have been talking to my flatmates a lot about the NHS and its pro and cons. There is a lot of debate about the NHS currently since they want to shift into almost more like an American system. Ironic? Americans want our health care to shift more like the NHS and the British want their system a little more American. The problem that most British people find with the NHS is that it bleeds money. Back home, I never went to the doctor unless I was bleeding from all my orifices or lost a limb, but here since it is free- people go to the doctors for anything and everything therefore costing the government a loooootttt of money. Also, I would be interested into looking at the difference in radiations felt by citizens in American versus the UK since they get a lot more x-rays here. Let’s say that the GP saw 20 patients- he prescribed at least 10 x-rays for no reason other than the ‘joint was hurting.’ Uuuh…..Since x-rays/MRIs etc are covered by the NHS, doctors just seem to give them out just to please the patient.

[Side Note: My friend Susannah who’s shtick is public health and is studying in Denmark informed me that in Denmark people still need to pay for approximately 10-15% of their medical visits in order to deter this problem that the UK is having. Denmark ALWAYS has it right.

Update from Susannah via skype:

"85% is paid through taxes and 15% is paid through co-payment and user contribution (particularly medicine and dental care) sooo i think not every service has a co-pay... all dental things for people over 18 have a co-pay"] 

Furthermore, I got a little taste of the over medication in this world. Every patient that walked in to the GP’s room walked out with three drugs: pain medication, sleeping medication, and anti-depressants. I was pretty much flabbergasted that the general practitioner I was shadowing not only diagnosed people with depression, but prescribed them with heavy doses of anti-depressants. Do they not have therapists? Psychologists? 

One last observation about the GPs here is that they do not move rooms. In America, a nurse will place the patient in a room and the doctor will go from room to room seeing people. Here, the patient goes into the doctor’s room where he is sitting there waiting for them. That means that is personal mementos like pictures and cards are juxtaposed to his medical table and supplies. I felt like it was a little unsterile, but that’s just me.

Later that day I skyped with Haverford’s Pre-Med advisor. It was a little awkward since she could see me and I could not see her. It went well and she said she wrote good notes down. Now we just have to wait until April when she tells me if I am ready to apply or not.

That night, I watched the BBC’s continuing documentary on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I was literally bawling through the whole thing. Not just tears, but I was screaming crying through it. Whenever they mention Prince Philip and the Queen, I just die. My flatmates thought I was hurt and came running in, but nope- it was just me wearing my British Flag sweater and crying about the Queen. They took pictures they thought it was so funny.

Tuesday, February 21

 Nothing too eventful today other than the fact a group of us Americans found this British bar near Piccadilly. It was too American for my liking. I felt like an Orthodox woman walking into that place. I was wearing tights, skirt, shirt, cardigan- all things that I thought was appropriate. Little did I know, the dress code at this American bar was ‘Slut’ and ‘Hooker' since I am pretty sure every female was wearing 4 layers of makeup and -1 layers of clothing.

The first clear sign that this was not a place for us was when we met the ‘group from Kentucky.’ People from the South: Strike 1. The group had only been in London for a week and was asking for bars/clubs to go to. We said that if they wanted really good dancing music to check out ‘Heaven.’ When they found out it was a gay bar, they started laughing and responded with, “What do you think we are…a bunch of queers?!” Strike 2. The third strike was the fact that they were all in a Christian fraternity together. This night reminded me why I am studying abroad and befriending NON-Americans.

The Brits we took with us loved it since they were getting an 'American experience.' Ugh...no...they were just living in a dirty frat party.

Me with my good British friend, Tom.

The dirty American dance floor with my
British friend Toby making the peace sign in the front. 

Friends with our Mardi Gras beads. 

A group of us in Trafalgar Square after leaving the Bar.

Wednesday, February 22th

The highlight of today was Zach’s 21^st birthday party. Since the drinking age in the UK is 18, the 21^st birthday means nothing to them. We wanted to make sure Zach celebrated his 21^st right and for his party these following things occurred:

1. Renting out a bar
2. Opening a tab
3. Getting me to invite 30 of our friends
4. Having 21^st birthday memorabilia from America for the party. 

It was a successful surprise party and Zach had an awesome time. I have no idea how this cost, but I KNOW it was not cheap. Let’s just say- Zach celebrated his 21^st birthday properly.

The party room with all the decorations from America.

Zach's amazing cake

Me with the birthday boy!

The birthday boy blowing out the candles!

Friday, February 24^th

On Friday one of my really good friends from Haverford, Susannah, visited me from Denmark. She successfully found my tube stop and since she had been craving Indian food, my flat, the Americans, and Susannah had a nice dinner out. We got our chicken tikka masala and could not have enjoyed it more. Well…I have curry and chicken on a daily basis- It was Susannah, who was having Indian food withdrawal. I have empathy for her. Also, she told me that people in Denmark don’t eat peanut butter or beans. I probably would have just died if I went there to be quite honest. (Also, since Denmark doesn't have Mexican food (!!!) I made her nachos and burritos on Saturday. I aim to be a Jewish mother). 

Saturday, February 25^th

Susannah and I woke up early to do our touristy day. We did a LOT of Walking. Here is a run down of our day:

1. Borough Market
2. Tower Bridge
3. Passing Tower of London
4. Walking up Monument to get a panoramic view (a cheaper version of the London Eye)
5. Globe Theatre
6. Millennium Bridge
7. St. Paul’s Cathedral
8. Parliament/Big Ben
9. St. James Park
10. Buckingham Palace
11. Trafalgar Square- National Gallery
12. Proper Tea
13. Covent Gardens 

Whoah, can you say ‘London in a weekend?’

It is so nice having people from Haverford visit, as we can gossip about school at home and keep each other sane. It always nice to hear about other Haverford students experiences abroad since we can relate. The real world doesn’t have an honor code….what? Not everyone follows the saying ‘trust, concern, and respect?!’

I also found out that when Susannah and I go to Amsterdam, her boyfriend will be joining us. I am the MOST excited to be honest. I love traveling with these peeps!

Susannah really wanted to get a Guinness (can’t blame her), so that night we went to a local pub. We enjoyed our Guinness as we heard drunk professionals scream along with the Karaoke.

Saturday was probably the most gorgeous day I have had in London so far. Susannah picked a great weekend to come actually. Not only was the sun out ALL DAY, but the weather was around 55 degrees! For the first time, people were lounging in parks, eating outside, and enjoying the sun! In addition, since it was so nice outside people were less inclined to go inside, which made museum touring extra easy. 

The River Thames with a beautiful blue sky!!!

The climb up Monument was easier the second time! 

As usual, St. Paul's Cathedral.  

Parliament from behind. 

It was so nice, people we RELAXING AT ST. JAMES PARK!!

The first black guard I've seen yet!

Nice weather = CROWDED Trafalgar Square!
I haven't seen it this crazy yet! 

Being bad and taking a picture of one of my favorite
paintings in the National Gallery....

Thames.

A sneak peak at the James Bond set!

Just remembered! When walking from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square we passed filming for the new James Bond movie! There were trailers everyone and a huge crowd. When we asked the security guards what was up, they could not be 100% straightforward, but basically confirmed out thoughts.

Fans- "What is this?"

Guard - "Filming for a spy action film"

Fans- "James Bond?!"

Guard- "Mayyyyyyyyyyyyyybe" (said with a smile)

Fans- "LIKE WITH DANIEL CRAIG?!"

Guard- "MAYBEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" (with a huge grin)

Yep...it was definitely James Bond!

Sunday, February 26^th

This morning Susannah woke up before me and walked over to the Tower of London. She got a proper tour by the beefeaters (who are hilarious). I met her around noon to continue our touring. We ran over to the British Museum where I gave her a quick run through and then we ran over to the British Library. In the process, we ran through UCL. UCL is gorgeous, but in the middle of nowhere basically. Why go to UCL when you could be in the middle of the city and Kings College? (If you can’t tell, UCL is Kings biggest rival). It was my first time there, but I have concluded that I HAVE to go back. Susannah’s mom recommended going there and we made it a priority. First off, this library is HUGE. Supposedly, to actually do work there or get a book, you need to have a serious reason and ID. The ‘treasures’ of the library are all the original works such as Shakespeare, Bronte Sisters, the MAGNA CARTAA!!, Canterbury Tales, St. James Bible, and a lot of the original Beatles work. I wasn’t supposed to take pictures…..but I obviously did.

A UCL Building

Susannah and I found a Quaker House!
Haverford shout out!

Original Shakespeare 

THE Magna Carta!!!

Original Beatles work, such as rough drafts of songs!

Lastly, this week is the 6 nation rugby tournament so when I was working out I got to play France play Scotland. I was routing for Scotland, but France ended up winning L

I just finished my honor code orienteer interview with my friend Maury from home. I skyped in for it and gave some nice little answers. Being back at Haverford even if it was through the computer was comforting. When I was skyping with Maury, people would recognize my voice and run over and say hi. I really miss a lot of the people there, but I am so happy I’m not actually there…it is really hard to explain!

Tomorrow I am shadowing a doctor at a sexual health clinic. Let’s see how it goesss!

Also, this Thursday the Queen, Camilla, and Kate are having tea at Fortnum and Mason. I am considering skipping class to see her go! Please parents, don't kill me....

P.S. For the Diamon Jubilee this year, London is COVERED in eggs, as demonstrated below:

A Week of Birthdays and Visitors

This has been one hectic week, so buckle in and get ready for this lonnnng post. I will do a daily play-by-play in order to cover all that has happened.

Saturday February 11-

Violet in Hackney

This initially lazy day turned into a crazy fest due to London Public Transportation and a Gay Bar. How do the two relate, you may ask? Well, I urge you to read on.

The initial stop of the day was to a tea place named Violet. Violet is in Hackney, which is East London. East London is notorious for being ‘dangerous’ or the shady part of London, but as we Americans joke- all of London is clean and pretty, so we can’t really tell when we are in danger. After taking two buses, we made our way to the tea place. It was definitely the best place we have been yet. The cake was to die for and at one point I recall yelling, “CAN THIS BE MY WEDDING CAKE?” I got a pot of Early Grey tea and the group of girls I was with spent a whopping 2.5 hours there drinking tea and chatting

Take note parents- This is my wedding cake. 

When we finally did leave, we realized that a group of us needed to go food shopping. In a spur of the moment decision, we decided to go to a place called ASDA. ASDA is actually the sister store of Wal-Mart and is all the way in South London. A girl I was with had been there previously, so we felt safe in her directions and confident in the bus system. Little did we know, we were on a bus that was on a huge diversion…..through the ghetto of South London. Once we realized we were not in Kansas anymore, we started having a little panic attack. We realized we could not get off the bus since we would be lost in South London, but we had no idea where we were headed. To make it worse, a drunken Polish man would not stop talking to us. When we finally realized where we were, we literally RAN off the bus and RAN to ASDA. When I say run…I mean run. Going into ASDA made me feel as if I was reentering America. There was Mac&Cheese…Hershey’s….Massive Diet Cokes!  I died of happiness.

After an hour of pure-American-greatness, we got back to our dorm and I changed quickly to make it out to dinner. The guys on my flat went out to Italian dinner and they asked me if I wanted to come along. They had a thing called an ‘eating-card,’ so the meal would be half price, which is the major reason I decided to eat out. I got a Caesar salad and macaroni and cheese meal. The conversation was great and was definitely entertaining.

Emeli Sande in all her glory.

At the end, we headed over to a gay-club at Charring Cross named ‘Heaven.’ All the guys I went with were straight, so let me explain the reasoning behind all of this. There is a new upcoming artist in England named Emeli Sande and she was performing there for only 4 pounds. Cheap concert? Yes please. After waiting in the queue for 20 minutes, we finally got in. To be honest, I do not know what I was expecting from a gay-club, but now I know what it feels like to be gay in a straight club. I was one of like 20 girls there and my guy friends were probably the only straight men there. I had to pretend to their girlfriend to keep the guys off of them, but sometimes this did not even help. Fighting our way to the front, we got to see Emeli perform and she was amazing!!!! I downloaded her CD because I enjoyed her so much. Also, the gay-club Heaven had the BEST MUSIC EVER. There was N*Sync and Britney Spears, so obviously I plan on going back.

Overall observations about the club- All the men were a head shorter than me and will have nicer hair than I ever will.

Sunday February 12

Nothing major happened at all today, except I found out that an American guy in my friend group had been in the hospital for the past 4 days [alone] due to internal bleeding from food poisoning. We had really thought he was dead before we heard. He wasn’t picking up his phone, wasn’t on Facebook, wasn’t responding to texts, and didn’t open his door when we knocked. We were just about to get security to open his room door expecting to see a decaying body on his bed when he finally called us to tell us what happened.

Supposedly he started having hallucinations in his room, so he took a taxi to the hospital only to learn he had massive internal bleeding. His phone died so he couldn’t call any of us, but he did contact his parents who flew in to see him. I went all Jewish mother on him as I [borderline] yelled at him for not calling us before he got in that taxi. I would have gone with him to the hospital! Whatever, he is alive and doing well, so that is all that matters.

Another highlight from Sunday is that I booked tickets with my friend Zach to see the play Madness of King George III. The tickets were only 15 pounds, but are going to be in the balcony allllll the way in the back. I have only heard good things about it, so I am super excited.

Also, I booked my Sunday afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason for April 22! To make this even more exciting, the Queen, Camille, and Kate are having tea there March 1^st! I am going to have to go dress shopping in order get myself ready for this proper tea.

Fortnum and Mason!

Monday February 13^th

The Birthday Girl with her wings. 

Today was an American friend’s birthday, so we decided to do it up right- we got good ol’ American buffalo wings. We found a restaurant named the ‘Red Dog Saloon.’ We all got hot wings, bufflo wings, bbq wings. The Brits that came with us were loving it.

At this restaurant, they offer a spicy wing challenge. Basically, if you can eat these 6 spicy wings (made from venom peppers) in less than 10 minutes without eating or drinking anything else, you get the wings for free and your face on the wall. Everyone at our table was joking saying that they would so do it since they loved spicy food, but we got a good view of what this challenge entailed.

Next to us was a table of Indian men and one black guy. The group decided to do the challenge. I was putting my money on the Indian guys since they are used to spicy food, but as they dug in, I started to loose some faith. They were crying, screaming, and throwing up. In the end, the black guy actually finished. Actually, who would’ve thought? Anyway, I put my pinky on the spicy sauce and into my mouth and I regretted it immediately. My whole entire mouth went numb and my eyes were tearing. I was on fire. I could not imagine what it was like to actually eat 6 whole wings with that sauce. When we asked the winner at the end how he did it, his response was, “After the second one, your body just goes numb and it gets easier.”

Were the free wings worth it? Maybe. Is it worth it for the bragging rights? Yes.

The winner is shown slowly dying on the right. The Indian man
to his left almost finished, but gave up so close to the finish.

Some of the group outside the Red Dog Saloon.

From there, we headed over the Leicester Square where are the bars, clubs, pubs are. A guy in our group spent around 5 minutes arguing with a promoter until we got into this club for free. Basically we robbed this place when we got in for free. Not only were we undressed, but also we were way too young. The club was called Penthouse and was in the middle of the square, on the seventh floor of this building. Basically, we went to the club for the view, which was amazing. We started dancing in our jeans and jackets to some trashy American music that the British people didn’t know at all and enjoyed ourselves as we watched the slutty Brits in action on a Monday night.

Overall we had a good night and the birthday girl had fun, so I must say it was a success!

Tuesday February 14^th-

I have been feeling sick the past week and Tuesday was the worst. My face was stuffy and my throat was sore, which was totally perfect for Valentine’s Day. It was another friend’s birthday, so our flat threw her a party. I was feeling ill, so I sat quietly in the corner drinking tea, but my friends convinced me to go out since ‘I couldn’t go to sleep early on Valentines.’ Well, we ended up going to this really cool club called Piccadilly Institute in Piccadilly Circus. This has definitely won for the best club so far, which is partly due to the fact that I got in for free and spent literally no money there (always a plus). This place had five different rooms and each room had a different theme, different music, and a different set up. For example, one room was called ‘Shrink,’ which was hospital themed. The bartenders wore scrubs, made drinks in test tubes, and the whole room looked sterile (other than the massive groups of people ragging). The music theme was modern house music. Another room was called ‘Decadia’ and was 90s themed. This meant the bartenders wore like overalls and the room had all the 90s memorabilia anyone could ever want. The music was pure 90s and I relived my childhood. The best part about this place is that each room was so removed from each other, that you felt you were in a whole new club when you entered a room. Basically it was 5 clubs for the price of one.

On our way back we ran into a guy at bus station who danced for Cirque du Soleil. He was Native American from New Mexico, but was in London dancing in the show Totem. I was literally star struck. We found out that the circus pays for all of his food, living accommodations, and traveling. All he needs to do is show up at trainings and the show. When we finally departed, we shook his hand, almost like he was a celebrity.

Wednesday February 15^th –

Wednesday’s weather was so warm (50 degrees Fahrenheit) that a group of us played soccer outside. At first I thought it was weird that we would just randomly play soccer, when we got to the park, I realized there were hundreds of boys and girls just kicking around. Such a European thing to do. I haven’t played soccer since like 6^th grade, so it was super embarrassing as the 7-year-old soccer pro’s around me schooled me big time.

Speaking of European sports, in the gym everyday I run and watch rugby and cricket. While rugby is starting to make more sense to me, cricket is still a mystery. I actually realized today that I have been watching the same cricket game for the past 4 days without even realizing. Cricket is literally from another planet and is not baseball, which I just initially assumed. The game even has tea breaks. THEY PROVIDE BREAKS SO PEOPLE CAN DRINK TEA.  Hopefully by the end of my time here, I will learn a little bit more what this sport actually entails.

Friday February 17^th-

On Friday, I met my friend Sarah from field hockey back at Haverford. She is studying in Edinborough, Scotland this term and decided to visit me for the weekend. I met her in Hyde Park and then took her on a mini tour. We went from Hyde Park, to Buckingham Palace, to Parliament/Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, to Covent Gardens, to Leicester Square, to Strand, and then walked back to my dorm.

At night, we went to an Irish pub and then came home.

The funniest part of the night entailed finding a drunk man in a fancy suit half in the road on half in the sidewalk.  As he was obviously not a hobo, we picked him off the side of the road and tried to get him home. In his drunken state, he told us he had to be up at 7 AM the next day for a charity walk that was 20 minutes. The funniest part of this story was the next morning we saw that charity walk and tried to look for our drunk lawyer (which we also found out), but didn’t find him as he hopefully was still in bed recovering.

Oh also, when I got home I learned the NJ governor vetoed Gay marriage. Just another reason for the world to make jokes about NJ?...hmm....

Saturday February 18^th-

Little kids getting knighted outside of the
Tower of London. I am going to drop out
of college and become an actor for
the Tower of London. 

Sarah and I woke up early yesterday to get a full day of touring. First I took her to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. I had hoped we could catch the tube from there to Trafalgar Square, but as we found out – the whole line was down. This meant we had a nice approximate 4-mile walk from Tower Bridge to the National Gallery. On the walk, we passed St. Paul’s Cathedral where there was a protest against deportations. Also, we stopped to get some Earl Grey tea and Earl Grey cupcakes. Delicious as always, we ate as we walked on to the Gallery. Once in the gallery, Sarah almost had a breakdown when she saw some of the artwork. She took an art history class last semester, so she had studied a lot of the famous painters in the gallery. Seeing her flip out was a great sight.

On a sadder note, one of my favorite paintings, “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Paul Delaroche went missing. When I frantically walked up to the information desk, I learned that (a) I wasn’t going crazy because the painting was there last week and has just recently been moved- meaning I have been there enough that I have become aware where each painting is (b) The painting is on loan (c) It is on load at the Louvre until May 21! That means I will never see it again…well I can in the far future, but not again during my time in England! Sarah bragged a little because she was going to be in Paris in a few weeks so she will get to see my painting in the Louvre. I was actually upset. Didn’t think that possible.

My beloved painting, which the French stole. 

Also at the Gallery, as I was explaining Monet’s cataracts, a family started listening in and asking me questions. It was good that I did a little research on this topic since I ended up giving a little tour.

From the gallery, we tubed it over to Piccadilly Circus, where we ran into the same protest from in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Great, the protest was following us. Then we walked through the fancy shopping district touring the stores, Coach, Louis Vuitton, BCBG, Alexander McQueen, and many many more. We found ourselves at Oxford Circus to go a little more window shopping.

'Occupy your Heart' - The protest that followed us.

Sarah and I at Piccadilly Circus.

Alexander McQueen- an influence behind Kate Middleton's Dress

Relaxing with FDR and Churchill.

Sarah and I are the British Museum.

A funny incident happened when were tubing around London. So we were running to a train and Sarah jumped on before me, but the doors closed. The fear in her eyes as I yelled “just stay at the next stop!” was great as we got separated. It reminded me of the time I got lost on the NYC subway and separated from my family. This is a prime reason why not to rush on a tube when the doors are closing. This was not the first time this happened nor will it be the last.

Our penultimate stop was at the British Museum. I showed Sarah all the highlights such as the mummies, the Parthenon artifacts, and Rosetta Stone. A new find was the ‘Enlightenment’ Room.  This was just one big looking library, which I concluded was just a summary of the whole museum. If you are ever rushed, the enlightenment room gives a nice overview.

An ancient chess board I came upon at the British Museum. 

The 'Enlightenment Room'

The 'Harry Potter' Station

Lastly, we went up to Kings Cross where we WAITIED in line to take a picture with station 9 3/4. Things we do for Harry Potter…

Kings Cross is nice since it is on the same tube line as my home station, Borough, but as we sadly found out…the Northern line was DOWN!!! This huge diversion led us on a 45-minute tour of the tube as we changed trains around 4 times. Since we walked in the morning, I never learned that my line was down, which caused some fun problems on the way home.

Finally getting home, we had a quiet night as we went to a pub and played Trivial Pursuit and scrabble with the kids on my flat.

Sunday February 19^th-

This morning Sarah left for Amsterdam, but not without a little complication. Last night we planned out the whole path via tube to where she needed to be, but when we woke up at 5 AM, we both realized that the tube down and the closest one wouldn’t even open until 6:30 AM. To make matters a little worse, all the buses were on a huge diversion since there was a massive car accident, leaving everything messy and delayed. Frantically calling a cab company, Sarah finally got to her destination and on the flight.

I went back to bed, woke up to go to the gym, and now I am writing this.

This is basically a five-page paper, WHOO! 

I now need to write this same length for a tissue pathology paper! Yay?