New territories

So, it's been a little while since I've updated.  I never did get around to posting about Stratford Upon Avon (aka Shakespeare town) or Warwick.  Overall, that trip was fun, but perhaps a little too rushed.  The trip was organized by the Leeds University Union (LUU), and I did not have enough time to see everything I wanted to see.  Warwick Castle was a little touristy, but it was special because it was my first castle.  A lot of little kids were there, so I guess it was their first castle too.  People got to the bus late, which meant that we had even less time in Stratford Upon Avon, so our group had to literally run to see everything.  I did end up seeing Shakespeare's grave, his birthplace, Nash's house, as well as the Stratford Butterfly Garden.  I actually got in to see the butterflies for free, which was great.  We got there at 4:15pm, and the last group was allowed in at 4pm.  My friend and I did the pathetic, "But we're American... and we can't come again."  The woman eventually just let us in. 

I just spent this past week in London, which was AMAZING.  It was actually supposed to be a trip to London, Cambridge, and Oxford, but I'm glad it turned out to be just London.  I got to see more of the city, and I just had a great time.  I saw Twelfth Night performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, I saw the Chinese New Year celebrations (a week late), walked down Abbey Road and took the touristy Beatles picture, and rode on the Underground. I even visited Platform 9 3/4, which was hilariously not between platforms 9 and 10 because engineering work was being done on those platforms, so King's Cross moved Platform 9 3/4 to a more accessible area for tourists until the construction was done.  I also went on a walking tour of London, and saw all the great landmarks that way and learned some history.

I definitely want to go back to London.

:(  I've been officially dropped from Cancer Biology, and now have a "normal" schedule.  Although it won't be on my transcript, I'll still go to the lectures I can make.  It just sounds too interesting to pass up.  I like my classes here though.  It's putting a lot of things into perspective for me, which is great.  I LOVE my drug design class, and it's making me wonder if I want to do biology or chemistry when I graduate.  Also, the past few lectures in genetics talked about bacterial genetics, which is what my own research relates to, so it was really nice to have those formal lectures. 

I could go on and on about the possibilities of what to do after I graduate, but I'm sure not everyone who reads this wants to hear about the gory details of science that I might plunge into.  This past weekend was great for helping me think on this though.  I spent Friday evening with a friend who was a bioengineering major at Illinois and now studies/does research at Cambridge.  Over dinner, he asked me about what I was going to do after graduating, and the resulting discussion ended up being a very helpful conversation for me, and actually -- as cheesy as it might sound -- re-inspired me.  I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do, but I feel more comfortable. 

Right now studying abroad and taking classes here is shaping up to be exactly what I wanted.  I am getting the chance to see other areas of what I could study, and I'm gaining a more thorough knowledge of the medical science field in the process.

I love science.  And London.

VPN

Nope -- still not an entry on Shakespeare town. To be honest, I want that post to include pictures, and I'm a little worried about my camera right now. In the middle of my trip, it made a popping noise, and then I could smell burning. It seems to work fine... but still being careful.

Ever since I got to the UK, I've noticed a lot of websites closed down to me. I didn't bring very many movies with me because I was hoping to watch them online -- rent or through a site similar to Hulu, etc. However, even Amazon doesn't allow me to watch videos here.

So, three of my friends told me to just get VPN on my computer. I was hesitant, because the last time I tried to set it up, it didn't work, only for me to realize later that the reason was I used the wrong instructions (I needed Vista instructions, and only XP was available). I was nervous that Windows 7 instructions wouldn't be there. I checked my university's site though, and there it was! So now I can connect slowly to my home university's server, which means I can listen to Pandora and watch my shows on Hulu again. More importantly, I could buy a digital album from Amazon. Yay VPN!

Grocery Run

So, it may seem silly to go on a grocery run when I live in a catered residence hall, but actually, it is needed. I don't have lunch, and some days I can't make it to my meals, so having a stock of food is a handy thing. My beside table has a handy little cabinet that I had no use for until now -- food pantry! A very small food pantry.

Today I bought a day pass for the bus, met up with two friends, and went to ASDA -- it's similar to Wal-Mart, but not as big (or awesome). Then we grocery shopped like we were on fire because we only had about 40 minutes to look around and get our food.

So now I am able to make myself some PB&J (strawberry J for now, raspberry next time), but I also got Nutella perviously. A funny thing here is all of these lovely items are stored in glass bottles. An Australian friend told me how she saved the Nutella jars for glasses, because they're the perfect shape, and now I shall do the same. When I told her Americans use plastic containers, she thought it was strange.

I also have some delicious Volvic flavored water and some milk. Milk was more of a dilemma. I am not a big fan of milk, but whenever I eat something sweet, I always want some. In the dining hall though, milk is only available in the mornings, and no one here really DRINKS a glass of milk. Instead they pour it on their cereal or in their tea or coffee... and so on. I felt like I needed to do something to get my dairy, so I bought a small container of skimmed milk. Only two choices: skimmed or whole milk. 500ml or 1L. According to the container, once opened, it can only last for 3 days. Or one week without opening. This is so strange to me, but it makes me wonder what's IN American milk??

I also bought some other necessities and food, but overall it was a good run. I wish I could've stayed there longer to see everything, but no time. People might think it's silly to like wandering around a supermarket, but me and some of my friends disagree. I think you can learn a lot about a culture too just by what's available at a store like that.

Fat Tuesday is also called Pancake Day apparently, but American pancakes do not exist here. The British equivalent is a crepe. So, one day, I will buy ingredients to make pancakes from scratch. It makes sense that no Bisquick exists here, because they don't have American biscuits either. I tried to explain the breakfast meal of biscuits and gravy, but a British friend thought that sounded silly. Yet to me it's silly to eat spaghetti hoops (aka spaghetti-o's) and mushrooms for breakfast. There are no hash browns that are shredded either.

My computer just gave me two warnings in Chinese (which I cannot read), so maybe it's time to finish this entry. I will finish with one more difference.

British keyboards are very similar to American ones, but the "enter" key is smaller (I constantly miss it with my pinky) and the @ symbol is switched with the " symbol. There are more differences on the keyboard, but those are the ones that stick out to me the most. Those extra symbols are just all switched around, but I tend to forget where they are on American keyboards, so it doesn't affect me as much.

Oh! I went to Warwick and Stratford Upon Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace/grave), but I shall save that for a different entry.

Traveling and trying new things

Liverpool was a lot of fun! It was great to see the Beatles Story Museum, although I didn't get to see all of the parts to it. There's the main museum, then 2 smaller parts. Each ticket was... 6.50 (?) but it lasts for 2 days and gets you entry to all of the parts.

I bought a Beatles themed tea towel, which I doubt could really be a tea towel, so I have it hanging on my wall. It seemed like a better option than buying a poster, because it'd be difficult for me to bring the poster back to the US.

Tomorrow I'm going to Stratford Upon Avon, which -- according to my British friends -- is a nice place to go to. It is also the birthplace of William Shakespeare, so tomorrow should be educational as well as fun. I'm going with a big group of my friends. Originally I didn't expect to travel so much, but it's crazy -- the university organizes these groups for any student to go on, so tomorrow I'll be with British and American friends. Also, I surprisingly have a lot of time.

I'm already being forced to drop a module, as I listed earlier. I think, despite me not wanting to, I will have to drop Cancer Biology. It conflicts with my genetics course sometimes, and I'd really not want to deal with missing lectures. The reason its schedule is so messed up is because there are 6 professors for that class that all give lectures at different times. However, I will have to console myself by saying I probably wouldn't have done well in that class right now because of lack of background info, and I should just take it at UIUC when I know more biology.

I still haven't emailed my department yet though. I can't bring myself to drop a module.

Anyway though, 60 credits means I have the required load of modules, but that involves very little contact hours. A lot of the time is spent on my own, and doing my readings and write-ups don't take too long (especially because I have so much time in between seminars), and my data analysis homework is relatively easy. It's all plug and chug so far. I know things will pick up, but right now things are good. I love my history course and my drug design course!!!

Since I have more free time than I anticipated, I bought a gym membership. It feels good to know I can go to the gym, but it's funny because I can't actually use the equipment. It costs 50p to do that. Apparently it's a new facility, and they're still trying to pay it off, so the extra cost. I am allowed to go to any group fitness class though for free (except pilates, which I don't do anyway). The sad thing about this is that a lot of the classes I want to take I can't go to because of lecture, and each class only meets one a week. They think you should have more variety. I went to a tai chi class and a aeroattack class so far. Tai chi was ok -- my lesson in Hong Kong was a lot better, but the one here was interesting. I barely broke a sweat in aeroattack, but she hinted that it will get harder through the semester. I hope so.

Today I went to a Boxercise class though. Boxercise is a student group that teaches a 2 hour class each week (and one or two times a week) that involves a lot of abs, bum, and leg exercises the first hour, then kickboxing the second hour. I definitely got a workout!! I want to continue to go, especially because I don't have anything on Fridays, but it costs more money. Luckily though, if I do decide to go, I don't have to pay to get into the Sports Centre. To get in costs 4 GBP, but I already have the gym pass. However, Boxercise is 3 GBP each time, or 1 GBP each time with a 15 GBP membership.

I really like the class, but I don't know if it's worth more money right now. At least I know how to punch properly now.

Besides working out, I'm thinking of trying to see if I can get into a lab here, or talk with some professors about their research. My drug design professor sounds like he does interesting research, but I know I don't have enough of a chemistry background. I hope to find the bioengineering researchers.