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!!

Les Mis and Labsickness (Caveat: Rant Ahead).

Mia left yesterday, which is quite a bit of a downer.  On the plus side - and I never thought I'd say this - my room actually seems large now!  I suppose I actually have to study now since I don't have someone to come up with superfun distractions for me anymore...
One of the superfun distractions, which we did a week or so ago, was go see Les Miserables in the West End.  It was INCREDIBLE.  I haven't seen too many professional productions of musicals, but this was definitely the best of those I have seen.  I can see why it's been playing here for over 25 years!

Outside the Queen's Theatre.                                         Mia looking quite revolutionary.

The mind-blowing show aside, Mia and I were astounded to watch as members of the audience entered the auditorium with food and drinks (lots of drinks).  Now, we're not talking the kind of small snacks you hide in your pocket to take to the movies because you refuse to pay the exorbitant prices at the cinema.  We're talking complete multiple-course meals.  The people next to us, for example, brought a full picnic with starters, a main dish, side dish, dessert, and all the time juggling some very large, very full cups of alcoholic beverage.  In the Queen's Theatre!  I couldn't believe there weren't sticky residues on the chairs and odd stains on the floors... maybe the British are just better at eating cleanly.  It was very strange.

As for my rant:

On a completely different note, this past Friday we had our first "Practical" (lab) for Cellular Neurophysiology.  It was infuriating.  We were modeling neurons as circuits, nothing too difficult theoretically; for Pomona profs reading this blog, it was very similar to NerveWorks.  BUT unlike in a Pomona lab, the professors and TAs, of which there were many, were unhelpful and in some cases, downright condescending.  It's true, I have a very high standard for what I think comprises "good teaching" (Pomona professors), but why, why, WHY would you EVER become an educator if you are not interested in students' learning?  It's fine if you're good at science; go do research.  But don't for a moment think you deserve to be rude to other people just because they are younger and less experienced than you.  Absolutely unacceptable.  And to top it off, the lab, which only runs 2-5, stops AT 5 and you will be kicked out whether or not you're finished, with no ability to come back later.  In which case you are totally screwed because then you can't write your lab report.  So, let's say you want to have multiple runs, including one with no signal, so you can average them, subtract out the zero, and get the best accuracy for your measurements.  Nope, no time for that, no time for good science.  Just go through the motions and git 'er done.  Also, it was very obvious that the TAs and one of the profs thought we were idiots because we were American.  One of the pairs of Pomona students next to me raised their hand for help.  A prof came over and said, "Do you need help again?" They responded, "Yes", and he said sneeringly, "I thought so."  It was so unbelievable, I was speechless - and I'm never speechless.  I myself got told off by a TA with, "You Americans and your slick answers."  So much hostility was distracting, and especially bad when compounded with the stress of a tight time constraint.  Sigh.  I've heard it called, "hand-holding" sometimes, what they do for us at Pomona, and that incenses me to no end.  It's not "hand-holding," it's teaching.  It's someone caring about the fact that you understand the material. 
End of rant.  The point is, while we are all enjoying our time here, everyone agrees they miss Pomona greatly.  I especially miss lab.  Real lab, I mean.  Where you run experiments and learn things.  Where you discuss things and work as a team.  But most of all, of course, I am labsick for my flies : )

Christopher Wren and afternoon tea.

Last Wednesday, Dr. Pedarzani (our sort of adviser here) took us all out for a full English afternoon tea.  It was heaven.  First of all, we dined in the heart of the British Museum, which was a supercool venue for feeling rather posh - pinkies out when you sipped your tea!  We passed this on the way there:

Perpetuating the conspiracy!  Everyone got overly excited and began taking pictures; Paola (Dr. Pedarzani) looked very confused.

Secondly, it turned out to be a complete meal.  We all got our own pots of tea and towers of goodies - sandwiches, biscuits, and sweets.  Our table looked like:

Mmmm... my heart still beats a little faster at the memory of so much sugar all in one place.

On a completely different note, my architecture class has turned out to be a weekly themed tour of London.  Our professor is named Spike Sweeting and looks like he is secretly Dr. Who.  We're pretty sure he doesn't actually exist.  Anyway, I thought I'd post some of the places we've visited, in case anyone was interested.  I know most of the images have a really weird perspective thing going on; this is because I am short and the churches are tall.  Spires, sigh.  These are photos of churches by Christopher Wren, best known for designing St. Paul's Cathedral.  He was hired by the king to design 50 churches in the City of London.  He had a limited budget but was still expected to design churches that would make Catholics and Protestants jealous of the Anglicans (who apparently don't consider themselves Protestant; this surprising discovery caused a rather embarrassing misunderstanding for me), thus the spires and my weird photography.  He also had to build in awkwardly-shaped spaces, forcing him to get creative with layout.

St. Mary Abchurch

St. Stephen Walbrook + Starbucks (those few churches which survived The Blitz are now conserved but heavily built around)

St. Mary-le-bow

The front of St. Paul's Cathedral, which shows what Wren could do when he was given a limitless budget.

Mia and the side of St. Paul's.  It may look strikingly familiar: many capitol domes are designed after this one, such as our very own nation's capitol...

... or my favorite, the Washington state capitol dome, in my hometown.  When Mia and I first saw the St. Paul's dome, we thought we were back home : )

Hope you enjoyed the tour; more soon!

Catching up.

Oh boy, am I behind.  This blogging thing's a real responsibility; I'm going to have to stop doing things so I don't have to report back about them!
First things first.  Mia and I got back from the Cotswolds late Sunday. We had a wonderful time, although getting a cold took a shocking amount of fun out of things.  Such is life.
We first met up with one of Mia's friends who is studying in Oxford, and she showed us around.  You can't access the campus if you're not a student or if you're not willing to pay (meaning you're a student somewhere else), so it was great knowing some one with all the ins.  Oxford was beautiful, my kind of town.  It was refreshing after London, where I have mistakenly equated city ways with English ways, because I've never lived in a city and can't easily separate the two attitudes.  In Oxford I was able to say, This is the England I've heard so much about.  Just look at it!

It only got better in the Cotswolds.  We stayed in a hostel in Stow-on-the-Wold, and trekked - in January, and as I mentioned, with the snivels - to the Slaughters, Burton-on-the-Water, and Icomb Hill.  The charm of the Cotswolds was readily apparent from the night we arrived, when we had fun discovering the oddities of our living accomodations.

You got vertigo just going up the stairs.

And I'm pretty short.

On the "footpaths" (which turned out to be private farmland kindly paved for us with horse manure), we encountered a wide variety of gates and locks ingeniously designed to keep the animals from getting out.  In some cases, they were rather effective at keeping us from getting out, too.  We decided they needed a guidebook on how to work all the gates, like the following:

 

All the work was worth it.  The area was phenomenally beautiful, even - or perhaps, especially - in winter.

Other highlights of the trip included having a full English breakfast (the largest meal I've ever eaten), seeing the church entryway that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien in his creation of the entrance to Moria (in The Lord of the Rings), and meeting just about the nicest people in the world.  But be warned, they take a hard line against criminals:

 

Lots more soon!