The Begining of a New Year

Wow! I can't believe that I've already been in London for two weeks and I definitely can't believe that I am going to be living here for the next five months. I wish I would have started writing this sooner since so much has happened since New Year's Day. After a bit of chaos at home, I wasn't able to leave until a day after my flight out of the states was originally scheduled. While I was looking forward to spending my New Year's Eve counting down the minutes till midnight over the ocean, I am glad that I was able to sort everything out before leaving the country for such a long time. The majority of New Year's Day was spent waiting in airports, but the long layovers gave me plenty of time to do a little bit of catching up with family and friends. Upon arriving in London on January 2nd, I was fortunate enough to have one of the people from the Butler Institute for Study Abroad pick me up at the airport. This was incredibly convenient since I'm pretty sure I didn't have the skill set yet to navigate London at 7:30 in the morning after not sleeping very well on the plane rides.

The hardest thing I experienced so far was having to start Butler's orientation immediately after arriving. While everyone else was given a day to rest after arriving, I had to try my absolute hardest to stay awake since I arrived late. A lot of important details regarding the study abroad experience were covered, and fortunately for me, most of their documents were given to us on a flash drive so that we could pursue them on our own time (aka when I was less sleepy!). Once the meetings were over, we had a few hours break to relax before we went to go see the musical La Cage Aux Folles. While I wish I would have seen it when I was more awake, the experience was certainly memorable! I hope to see as many shows as possible while I'm here, as I absolutely love musical theater.

The rest of orientation went by quickly, with lots of information given about the city and student life in London. We also ate at an amazing Turkish restaurant which reminded me of Aladdin's at my home school, Case Western Reserve University. I have a feeling I will be going back again soon! We ended the day with a walking tour, which was nice since it got us all a little more acquainted with the city. My favorite site so far is definitely Trafalgar Square, which has these absolutely beautiful quartrefoil fountains and lion statues. It reminded me of Phi Mu, and I knew I wanted to take Alissa, one of my sorority sisters, to the site when she came to visit in a few days.

After orientation ended, a coach came and dropped us all off at our prospective flats. My flat is within walking distance to one of the two main campuses that I will attending while I am going to school here. This is incredibly nice since it should save me over 100 dollars a month on transportation expenses. I don't have any roommates, which has its pros and cons, and I live in a suite with 10 other people. However, we only share the kitchen space since we all have our own bathrooms. It is a bit of an experience living here for a few reasons. The first, and biggest for me, is the heat situation. Every hour you have to press a button to "boost" the heat and then it turns off. In other words, my room is never warm enough, at least in comparison to living in the Village at Case! The other odd part of my flat is that the toilet is inside the shower. I'm not sure I will ever fully understand it, but I'm slowly getting used to some of the differences.

Wednesday the 6th involved registration, orientation, and seeing Alissa Ostrove. I am really excited and happy to be attending King's College London this semester, which is one of the top 25 universities in the world. I also was accepted into their Pre-Medical Program, which I know will be an amazing experience that will certainly help me to become a better doctor in the future. Registration was definitely different from that in the U.S., mainly because where at Case it takes a few clicks of a mouse, at King's it took two hours of waiting in queues (or lines) to just get an email address and my student ID. Its crazy, cause while American's think they are doing everything the right way, the English think that they are doing everything the right way. I know its going to make for a fun semester and I know that I will come back with a different viewpoint on American Education.

One of my favorite parts about my stay so far was definitely when Alissa came to visit on her way to study abroad in South Africa. In the two days she was here, we were truly tourists and went around London taking pictures of all the sights. We visited Trafalger Square, Big Ben, and London Eye along with seeing the Twiggy exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. Shopping was also quite necessary, so we spent a little bit of time at Top Shop and H and M browsing the sale racks. Once we were done shopping, we had to run back to my flat where we could get ready for our night out, which included seeing the musical Blood Brothers with Jason Li and Jamie B. (Jason going to school at Case with Alissa and myself and Jamie is in the Butler program with me). While I had never heard of Blood Brothers before coming to London, it was Alissa's childhood dream to see the show that had been running on the West End (London's equivalent to Broadway) for over 20 years. It was absolutely amazing, and at the end I couldn't stop crying. I also absolutely loved the fact that Sporty Spice was the female lead! Even though I went to the Spice Girls concert in third grade, seeing Sporty again was amazing :).

Since classes didn't start until the 13th, I had a few more days after Alissa left to get settled and to keep acquainting myself with my new surroundings. I also went to the British Museum with Dana Q. (another American in the Butler program). It is an incredible place that definitely has characteristics that make it similar to the Smithsonian. We spent over four hours there and still didn't see a large portion of the museum. Some of the coolest parts included seeing the Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. I know I will be heading back there again soon as there is so much to see and learn.

Finally, classes started this week. My schedule is quite nice since I only have classes Wednesday-Friday. The days are all very full but I'm happy to have four day weekends to travel, explore, and of course, study. This semester I'm enrolled in Medical Microbiology, Social and Psychological Studies (similar to Health Psychology), Physiological Control: Exercise and Environment, and the Practice of Medicine. While all of my classes seem incredibly interesting, I am definitely looking forward the most to the Practice of Medicine Module. We will be learning about National Health Systems, Medical Practice, Medicine and Ethics, Medical Anthropology, all along with having Clinical Rotations. I can't wait to keep learning about Medicine and Ethics, and know it will add to my current background in Bioethics. I also just learned that the professor for the module hired professional actors to help us learn how to talk with patients about tough issues. It will definitely be a challenge, but it is one I can't wait to begin.

With so much more to see and learn, I'm sure you can all look forward to many more posts. I miss everyone from home so much, and as always, feel free to email or skype me :).