Dulwich, bowling, and texting failure.

In architecture class this week, we ventured out to Dulwich Picture Gallery.  It was far enough away to require using the National Rail, which was very exciting.  Built by Sir John Soane, it was England's first public art gallery and, interestingly, also includes a mausoleum.  The building combines Gothic with Classic architectural features, a mix which results in something resembling a fortress.  To protect the art?  But don't get me wrong, it's a pretty cool structure, and was completely novel at the time Soane built it.

The mausoleum in the back was a bit odd...

That's Spike, our professor, the one who looks like Dr. Who.  Also, the doors on this building are fake.

...but includes a very important decorative element that is the inspiration for the design of those famous red telephone booths!

See it?  It's bit on top.  I tried to get the booth in the background for comparison. 

In other news, a bunch of folks on my hall and I went bowling!  The facility was set up to look as American as possible.  They were playing country music and there were lots of British people trying to line dance.  I've come to the shocking realization that I haven't really talked about the people who live on my hall, but they're all very nice, very fun people, so I thought I'd put a picture of them here.

L to R: Top - Ani, Matas, Bottom - Alex, Rey, Juri, Faz

I don't actually remember ever having bowled before, but I didn't lose!!

Also, this was awhile ago but I need to include it for my family: I went to see St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the famous church and more importantly, home to my very, very favorite orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Note the gorgeous weather we're having!

Finally, to increase the randomness of this post, I am including this text fail, courtesy of Steven Chau, because it just made my day (and for those of you who know Steven, it should be particularly entertaining):

Back to writing essays.  All day opera rehearsal tomorrow, so there will be lots to report on that account!

Socialized healthcare...

...is fantastic!  I went to the ER on Sunday when my symptoms became one too many.  I just walked in, gave them my name, saw a really awesome doctor for free, who gave me lots and lots of drugs for free, then I left.  And all within a reasonable amount of time.  Love it.  Turns out I have a viral infection and about a week in contracted a bacterial infection as well.  Which would explain the not getting well thing.  But now I have lots and lots of drugs, including codeine which is making me feel pretty awesome.  In fact, perhaps too awesome... Anyway, I should be on the mend soon.  Thanks, socialized medical care!

Boring.

This blog has become really boring, hasn't it?  I'm still really sick, all I've been doing is writing papers; making it to the grocery store is kind of the big event of the day, so there's not much to report back about.  I might take advantage of the socialized healthcare system here and go see a doctor Monday.  Then I can let you know how free medical care works!  Until then, cheerio!

Still sick.

Getting sick in a foreign country has been - among other things - really interesting.  First of all, you have little immunity to the foreign germs, so they are especially vicious.  Secondly, the plan of attack you have developed over the years to battle common illnesses like the cold are blown out of the water because your tried-and-true foods/naturopathic products/drugs don't exist here.  After five days of trying a failed "rest" strategy, I finally broke down and went to the pharmacy.  There, I am happy to say, my education in organic chemistry came in very handy, since they call drugs different things here (example: acetaminophen is paracetamol).  I got some cough syrup and nose spray; the pharmacist who rang me up pointed to the two things and shook his head and said something very solemnly, but his accent prevented me from understanding what it was exactly, so now I'm a little paranoid of using either of them; however, I seem to have stayed alive so far, which I'm pleased about.  Also, they don't have real chicken noodle soup here.  How is a person supposed to get well without chicken noodle soup?  Or, other sick-bed favorites, Jell-O and applesauce.  Can't find Jell-O, and the applesauce is just weird.  So, instead of these things I went a completely different route and bought a humidifier.  This purchase may seem rather silly in one of the wettest cities in the world, but don't be fooled.  Exactly the opposite of SoCal, they overcompensate the cold outside by overheating inside, and the central heating is dry.  I'm pretty sure it's drier in my room here than my dorm in Claremont.  There's a great irony in there somewhere, but I'm too drugged up on phenylephrine and oxymetazoline to think about it.  And if anyone knows if it's ok to combine those two things, let me know.  In retrospect, I probably should have asked the pharmacist to clarify...
P.S. Professor Johnson: observe usage of "however" : )

Freshers' Flu.

Well, the food poisoning appears to have turned into something quite a bit worse.  Whether it is the endearingly titled "Freshers' Flu" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshers%27_Flu) as the Brits on my hall insist, or something completely different, it currently prevents me from assuming a vertical position.  It has also caused me to lose my voice, which a few too many people have seemed happy about... Anyway, I am being very well-looked after by some of the folks on my hall; their care plus the giant Cadbury bar I keep close at hand should nurse me back to health in no time.  My mom, in her ever-present prescience, also thought to send cold care medication along with my camera, so hopefully I will have something more interesting to post about soon!  I'd put pictures here, but my ceiling, I'm sorry to say, is not terribly fascinating.

I apologize in advance for the lack of posting which may follow in the next few days.

Chinese New Year!

While it technically occurred Thursday, the massive Chinese New Year's celebrations took place here on Sunday.  It was a classic London day in Trafalgar Square (gray), and all of Great Britain came out to celebrate - I haven't seen crowds like these since we went to Disneyland the day it broke its record for most visitors.  At least we weren't standing in line to get on Pirates of the Caribbean (approx. wait time: 3 hours).

In a poorly thought-out attempt to get away from the crowds at Trafalgar, we headed to nearby Chinatown...

 

Olga, Kelsey and Steven

...which was, of course, only more packed.  It was lots of fun, though.  There were kids running around with their little paper dragons, and while you got distracted by how cute they were, you'd have the living daylights scared out of you when some other kid threw snap bombs at your feet.  Good food was plentiful, although I could have done without the food poisoning I acquired along with it.  Just as we were trying to get into this restaurant, this guy got there first:

We happened to be in just the right place to see the lion dance!

We did eventually get in, and despite the sign hanging above our table...

You guys know this is a restaurant, right?

...we ate heartily and had a wonderful time.  Although they did try to give me a dish with shellfish, which thankfully my friend Mao sorted out.  Eating that would have put the food poisoning to shame!

Luke, Mao, Olga, Steven, and Paris's hand, accompanied by dragons Dimitri and Szechuan.

In other news, Rachel E., Anjali and I ventured out to Covent Garden Saturday and experienced the ultra-cheap clothing store Primark.  I say experienced because this store is like a permanent Black Friday.  Just trying to breathe was asking a bit much.  We also checked out Selfridge's (voted best department store in the world!), which besides containing an entire confectionery mall ( = Heaven), we were pleased to find a row of all the American foods we've been missing: real peanut butter, Aunt Jemima pancake batter (they think crepes are pancakes here), Kraft Mac and Cheese... you know, the healthy stuff.  My mom had sent Goldfish along with my camera package, and I had to let everyone in my hall try some.  Life without Goldfish or good peanut butter?  It's like they're actively trying to be unhappy!  Just kidding of course; they make up for it in other ways (still dreaming of afternoon tea).  

What else? This weekend we were also joined by our fellow Sagehen Albert, who is at Cambridge studying chemistry.  Mao and I ran around Regent's Park, which turns out to be as pretty as you've heard, and then, of course, Sunday was the Superbowl.  It was lots of fun watching with Brits who kept specifying it as American football, and who had no real loyalty to either team, except for what I told them.  The best part was convincing them that we actually needed to find a feed WITH commercials, because that was half the reason you watched.  They didn't understand at first, but I'm happy to report are now converts : )

Back to normal.

This title refers to two things:

First, today I received my new camera in the mail (thanks, Mommy and Daddy!), so I can stop trying to cobble together blog entries using old pictures that Mia took, because I was too embarrassed to just confess that my camera broke.  So, new and improved entries are coming your way!

Second, the past three nights have been completely sleepless due to an inane lab report which was due today.  I won't waste your time with another rant, but inane only begins to describe it.  Sleep deprivation has been the reason for my silence the past few days, since I realized I was not functioning with optimal mental acuity, and may have written something I later wished I had not.  You'd think that the obligatory sleep deprivation attendant upon being a science major would help you develop some sort of endurance, but it doesn't.  Like the victims- er, participants- in the experiments we've studied in neuro, it just results in personality changes, mood swings, and complete inability to focus.  An excerpt from last night's 5 pm - 5 am Skype conferencing as we worked on lab: 

[1:40:14 AM] M: so how did you interpret that graph??
[1:40:28 AM] A: did u do an activation curve?
[1:42:11 AM] W: I don't want to wake up to this
[1:42:12 AM] A: but i mean we've been working on it ALL DAY
[1:42:15 AM] K: like, I'm worried I won't wake up
[1:42:21 AM] A: at some point...you gotta sleep
[1:42:27 AM] M: ya, she's right
[1:42:33 AM] K: when the hallucinations set in?
[1:43:48 AM] M: i want pomona
[1:43:58 AM] A: POMONAAAAAAAA. i miss you <3
[1:44:15 AM] M: :)
[1:44:19 AM] K: ha ha ha
[1:44:25 AM] K: CHIRP, bitches
[1:44:30 AM] A: sunshine, palm trees, frary, SNACK
[1:44:30 AM] K: ha ha aha ha aha ha ha
[1:44:30 AM] W: gonna pass out
[1:44:31 AM] K: holler
[1:44:32 AM] A: i miss snack
[1:44:40 AM] A: CHiRPPP
[1:44:43 AM] M: snack EVERY night
[1:44:59 AM] A: i miss cmc 
[1:45:01 AM] M Course: ok we are OFF TOPIC

None of us have been ourselves ("I miss CMC"??).  So we are looking forward to a return to normalcy.

It dawns on me that going to Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight as we herald in a newfound era of regularity has a certain sense of irony.

Happy Chinese New Year!!