Week 12, Post 2: Harry Potter Part 3

I really enjoyed the part of the book when Harry got the invisibility cloak and found the mirror with his family in it. I liked it because he was so happy to see his family. I can only imagine how that would be, even though he couldn't actually touch them he could see them and that was great. It's almost no comparison, but I know I will be happy to see my family after this semester. I haven't seen them in such a long time it's crazy. I have never been away from my parents for this long. FaceTiming just isn't the same either, it only lasts a little while and you can't go actually do things together. I would relate the mirror a little bit to FaceTime though, only his family didn't exactly say much to him and they couldn't carry on much of a conversation. Plus, since he had never actually seen them in real life, he didn't know what they looked like. I bet in his day he would have loved to FaceTime his parents through the mirror. It was kind of sad when he was told that the mirror only reflected ones happiness. I thought it gave him a little bit of hope seeing that his parents were kind of still alive, or at least visible. I'm starting to wonder, with the wizard world and all, if his parents could actually see him on the other side too or if he was just staring into his thoughts. If only they could carry on a conversation with each other, that would have been good, but also Harry would have never wanted to leave the mirror. There must be some type of immortal world for wizards and witches after they die, because they are so magical and powerful, it would be insane if someone hadn't invented it by now. So instead of dying, they do 'die' but they go to the other side where other people who have died go.  I don't know if you watch the Vampire Diaries or not, but it is about all of that, and when a supernatural character dies, they would go through Bonnie, the anchor to 'the other side' where they would live until they found peace. Once a supernatural found peace, they would leave the horrible 'other side' to fully die. It's crazy because Bonnie could see people from both sides, living and dead, which was kind of cool because she could talk to some of her supernatural friends if they passed through to the other side still. Anyway, I loveeee the Vampire Diaries and I totally suggest you watch it, but if you want to check it out, watch an episode from the middle, those are the best, then start from the bottom if you like it.

Week 12, Additional Post: Experiences with King's College Hospital

One of the experiences I had during my internship was within the first month of being at King’s where I got to participate in a hemoglobinopathy research that Lewis Couchman in the Toxicology Unit. I was trained on how the research would be done and the machinery that would be used to do the research. I was privileged to team up with Lewis and Havisha a lot during the research process, which worked out well because we all worked very well together.  The main goal we were trying to accomplish through this research was to identify hemoglobin variants in patients blood and we did this through the use of a mass spectrometer. Before we could put the samples into the mass spectrometer to be analyzed the blood had to be broken up into peptides and be diluted. Havisha and I worked together preparing the blood samples to be put into the mass spectrometer. We started by punching out spots from patients blood cards and placed the spots into little tubes. We later added water and an enzyme called Trypsin to dilute the blood and break the hemoglobin proteins up into small peptides. After waiting an hour, we extracted the diluted blood and put it into a solvent that would stop the Trypsin from breaking down the protein, then we diluted the blood one last time. Once the final dilution was made, we placed all of the samples into the mass spectrometer so that it could read the masses of each peptide determining if the peptide was a disease causing peptide or not. Lewis taught us how to interpret the results of the graph that the mass spectrometer was putting out.
The second experience I had at King’s was the use of the Sebia Capillary 2 in the Metabolic Lab. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has teamed up with Metabolic Lab at King’s to preform tests that detect heavy alcohol consumption. I worked with the metabolic team to preform these tests, I was trained on how the process of the test works and how to interpret the results the machine puts out. After a person has been caught for drunk driving, they get their license taken away for about a year and aren't able to get it back unless they pass a lab test saying they haven't had an excessive amount of alcohol in the past week or so. The DVLA sends blood samples to the Metabolic Lab at King's to have these tests done. Once the samples reach King's we do a Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) test to detect any heavy alcohol consumption. To do the CDT test we had to put the samples into a centrifuge to separate the contents of the blood in the test tubes. Once the blood was separated into three parts, we poured some of the plasma into a smaller tube before putting the sample in the Sebia Capillary 2. The Sebia Capillary 2 would analyze the blood and give us a graph and a CDT value, which we would then send back to the DVLA. While carrying out these tests, I learned how to change out solutions and interpret the results that the Sebia Capillary 2 was putting out. Running tests and reading results is very helpful, but it is also very helpful to know how to keep up the maintenance of the machines. I was trained how to correct a problem with the Sebia Capillary 2 if an error report came through the computer, halting the tests going through. If a person doesn’t understand the maintenance, the machine is nearly useless until someone comes to fix it, which in the end can cut into a lot of the time the machine could be using to analyze blood and produce results.

Week 12, Post 1: Prague Munchin'

The last day Kristen and I were in Prague was very good, food wise. We woke up a little late to grab the hotels breakfast, so we headed out to the town to try and find some breakfast. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find a decent breakfast in Prague, for some reason I don't think they value their breakfasts as much as I do. After a good tram ride, we near a street that had a good amount of restaurants on it. We skimmed the menu of all the restaurants up and down the street trying to decide what we wanted. We found a place that had about 4 breakfast items and decided to go in. After ordering tap water but receiving bottled water, we found out that they don't serve breakfast after 11. Psh. So I skimmed the menu looking for something else I might like but I really didn't find anything. As horrible as it was, we decided to get the check for our waters and go to a restaurant down the street. The restaurant down the street was the jackpot let me tell ya! I ordered a hot tea, and a salmon and shrimp pasta, it was delicious. They also brought out some bread to hold is over until the food came. I love that. The whole meal was just so delicious and very inexpensive, like $9 for a fine dining experience! After breakfast/lunch we walked around for a while until we were about to freeze, then we walked into a nice cafe. I don't know how a person can hit the jackpot twice, but we did. At first the cafe was so crowded we could barely walk, we didn't think we would find a seat but we decided to push our luck and order hoping there would be a table open by the time we were done. The cafe had loads of cakes and pastries, along with teas and coffees. I ordered a tea and some cheesecake, then went to find a place to sit. We found a nice little table in the back room that was very cosy. It was almost better than the front room because people weren't smoking in the back. When the lady came to bring our cakes and tea, I was ready to dig it. I prepared my tea making it just the right color while leaving a little room for milk at the top, then as I waited for it to cool I dug into my cheesecake. It was a delicious cheesecake with some type of whipped cream layer on top. It almost had the taste of key lime pie but very slight. I tried not to eat all my cheesecake before I had my first sip of the tea. After I tried my tea, I noticed there was some honey, so I poured it in my tea trying to expand my tea horizons. To my surprise it wasn't too sweet from the honey, it was almost just enough to make the tea a little more enjoyable. We sat at the cafe for a good hour probably just enjoying the tea, the wifi, and each other's company. Then we headed off to explore more of Prague.

Week 11, Post 2: Harry Potter Part 2.

I thought it was very nice of Harry and Ron to go after Hermione when they heard about the Troll and knew she didn't know. I liked Hermione and I thought it was rude of Ron to say she didn't have friends and nobody liked her. It would be hard to be a first year living without your parents and only knowing one other person. I thought it was good that she was out going and tried to talk to them in the beginning. I really think that the boys saving Hermione from the Troll helped their friendship a lot, especially after them not talking for a really long time. Then when Hermione showed her loyalty by lying to get the boys of out trouble, that was cute. I kind of still think that they will all have their differences, but I also think they will grow together and become great friends. I still think Rowling does a great job at describing things as they happen in the story. Sometimes I will read little parts like the troll knocking the sinks off the wall, and think about the movie. I kind of feel like the movie goes off of book very well, although I haven't seen the movie in a long time, I can kind of remember things as they are said in the book.

I really hope to watch the movie after reading the book to see the differences and see if I like the movie or the book better. I keep thinking that the movie did a good job when displaying the game of Quidditch, I don't know how they did it but it does seem like a pretty hard set to make and difficult to make all the characters fly. That would be nice to see in the Harry Potter Studios, the Quidditch field. I would also like to see how they did everything they did. I feel like a lot of it was animation, but they still had to get all of the players in the air and on a broom stick. It seems very difficult to make the movies because of all the abnormal things that happen, like a three headed dog or a troll. I am interested to see what Harry finds out about the trapdoor and hidden item the dogs were guarding.

For some reasons I think the next encounter they have with the dog/s will not be pleasant. Maybe Hermione will return the favor and come in and save Harry and Ron from being attached by the three headed dog. I feel like Harry and Ron are a little mischievous and will go after anything even if it means flirting with disaster. Maybe that's not how they want it to be, but it seems like they are always getting into some sort of trouble. On the bright side, they seem to have good intentions going down the disastrous path, but nobody gets to see that side, they just see Harry and Ron disobeying the rules. Maybe one day try will learn their lesson and try to stay out of trouble, but then again, the story wouldn't be so interesting with out the good intentional rule breaking.

Week 11, Post 1: Crepes in Germany.

Kristen and I were headed to Prague for Easter weekend and we had a 5 hour layover in Düsseldorf Germany so we got to exploring the city. It really wasn't enough time, we didn't get to see everything but it was great for a pit stop. We were trying to get to the city center via train, but the ticket machine wouldn't take either of our cards. So we went on a search for an ATM, but we didn't want to get out much because we were only there for 3 hours max. Anyway, Kristen pulled out some money so that I wouldn't have to, since I have no use for euros after this. We got on the train and headed to the city. When we got there we just explored, saw a nice church and walked down a main store street, where we got some souvenirs. By the time we left the souvenir shop we were right on time to be headed back to the train station to make it to the airport in time, so we started heading that way. We walked by this market that we just couldn't pass up, and saw a lady making crepes. Of course the crepe lady didn't take card, so Kristen paid for it. I got a cinnamon and sugar crepe while she got something more towards the salty side. While she was getting her crepe my cinnamon and sugar started oozing out of the bottom of my crepe without me knowing, and it went all over the counter. Then I took my elbow and laid it right in the melted sugar and cinnamon, smearing it all over my jacket! Luckily, it was the green/blue water proof one, rather than the gray soft to the touch one. After I noticed my cinnamon sugar pouring out of the bottom of my crepe, it was too late. My elbow had been covered and became very sticky and the wind was chilly making the sugar harden on my sleeve. Then, when I lifted up my elbow to try to rub it off, the wind caught my hair and flung it in to the small pile of liquid sugar that was dripping out of the bottom of my crepe.

Anyway, I didn't have time to care really because we had to make it to the train station immediately if we wanted to take a train to the airport. I used a napkin to wipe off most of the stickiness on my sleeve, but I will most definitely have to wash it when I get back to London.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I've put my elbow in something super sticky while being on this side of the world. I think I smooshed a raised with my elbow unknowingly with in the first couple weeks of being in London.

Soo, to wrap this up, we made it to the train station after a 20 minute walk, but then realized that a train wouldn't be going to the airport for another 50 minutes, so we were forced to take a €30 taxi ride. But we made it to the airport on time, which is always a great stress reliever. 

Week 10, Post 2: My Disloyal Love Affairs.

As you know I have an internship at King's College Hospital, which I love, the only problem is that they changed their tea provider from Tetley to something with a cow on the front of the tin. Now, everytime I go to get tea during my break or lunch, it's just not the same. I had a love for Tetley tea, it was perfect for my morning, lunch, and afternoon break. I feel that the love is still there, I just haven't had the chance to reunite with Tetley. This love affair has got me going a little crazy, I've kind of gotten used to the new tea because it has been around for about a month now, but I feel bad for betraying my first true love of tea, Tetley. Recently, I've been thinking about spicing things up in the Staff Tea Room by adding a little sugar to my tea, but I can't bring myself to do it. First I don't want the extra calories, and second I don't want to impose on the originality of the tea. Also, the tea bags from the new provider aren't as great as Tetley, I sometimes see little pieces of tea leafs that left the tea bag, floating around in my cup. Tetley would never do that to me.
Aside from the tea issue I bring up in just about every blog, I decided to eat a sandwich today from the Hospital cafeteria. It's nice because everything is so affordable and they have some pretty good stuff, that's healthy or appears healthy. One of the best parts is the sandwich bar, its almost just like a subway, without the amazing breads. They don't have all the veggies that subway would carry either, but that isn't a big deal to me because all I get is a ham with cheddar cheese toasted. Anyway, after the 2 minute line, I got my sandwich and headed to check out. It's amazing how inexpensive things are when you aren't on the west end of London. Of course after paying for my sandwich I headed down to the Staff Tea Room to meet up with Havisha. I shamefully made myself a cup of the replacement tea like it was crack, and sat down to enjoy my meal. The bread was very good. When I picked the bread, I thought it looked the most healthy, so I had a healthy mind set while eating it. The ham was great also. The only thing I was really concerned about was the cheese, which actually ended up being way better than I expected. I think that the cheese here has grown on me. I'm starting to like it a lot more, but maybe that's just because I forgot what the cheddar cheese back home tasted like. I know when I get back home though, I will fall in love all over again with the cheese there. There's no denying that the orangish-yellow cheddar cheese is my favorite of all time. This white stuff is only a temporary love, until I get the real deal back home.

Week 10, Post 1: Reading

I believe it is very true that someone can be exposed to a culture just by their food. Food is something everyone can relate to, we all need food to survive, there are just different ways of preparing food. I find food sometimes as being one of the biggest culture differences, therefore, the food is a lead into the culture. Weather its on the streets or in a restaurant, the food from a specific culture is displayed allowing others to see a different side of life, a different way to cook some of the same foods we use, just prepare differently. Rice is a dish that is used all over the world, some put soy sauce with it, while others put spices, or vegetables with it. The food all ties into the culture because it is a main indicator of what the sources are in a particular area. For instance, people that live on the coast will tend to eat more fish because it is a main food source, while people from the flat lands eat vegetables and fruits because the soil is so rich it can help grow crops. I personally have been exposed to many different types of food and cultures, so far my favorite has been Honduras. In Honduras, the organization I stayed with had loads of crops in the front pasture. I loved it because everything we ate was so fresh. Of course we had a lot of beans and rice, but everything else was so fresh. There were cooks there that would cook us breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was always amazing with fresh cut fruit, eggs, toast, cereal, and basically anything you would want for breakfast. Dinner was always a gourmet meal, one time we had tilapia that the cooks went to the market and got for us, it was amazing! All the vegetables mixed in where freshly picked that day from the front pasture. There was always something I could eat, which is great because most of the time I don't like trying new foods. The food was so fresh it made my body feel good by not having all of the preservatives. Second to that, Italy was amazing. They always had fresh pasta which made for an amazing meal. Since it was Italy, all the Italian food was cooked right then and there instead of the food having to be shipped across seas and prepared. I enjoyed it a lot although I only had spaghetti and lasagne. When a person travels, they get to experience a whole new culture alone through food, aside from that there are many other quirks that make each culture unique. The diversity only makes the world more interesting!

Week 9, Post 1: Harry Potter Part 1

I’m very impressed with J. K. Rowling, the book is pretty good. I almost feel as though the book is for pleasure instead of for school, but that might just be because of the type of story it is. I also have a feeling that I might have seen the movie of this one or maybe the start of the movie. I kind of remember some of the things happening, like him living in the cupboard and Dudley being fat. I am kind of anxious to see the movie now after reading some of the book. I have never been able to say the line “the book is so much better than the movie,” but that’s mainly because I never read, and anything I do read isn’t made into a movie. Although I’m about 10 years behind my generation, I’m starting to like the book. Rowling does a great job at telling the story, and giving each character their own personalities through how they talk. I also think that the thought of the movie in the back of my mind really helps to see the story and the characters. When I read, I think of the characters played in the movie and it helps me to understand what is going on in the book. I couldn’t imagine living a life like Harry has thus far. A family that doesn’t want you and lies to you about your parents and how they died, I just wouldn’t want to grow up like that. I can understand if they were trying to protect Harry from something absolutely horrible, but really he is coming to an age when he needs to be told to understand his past. I don’t think it was right for the Dursley’s to keep Harry’s past from him. I’m glad Hagrid came through to tell Harry and save him from the Dursley’s. I’m interested to see how the story plays out at Hogwarts, the first guy Harry met while he was getting fit for his wardrobe he wasn’t too crazy about so I hope he finds friends fast. If the Dursleys would have told Harry everything he is now hearing might not have been such a shock, but it makes for a good story line! I’d be interested to see what Rowling was thinking when she decided to write a book about wizards. Like, was she trippin on some other sh*t, did she have a kid that had this crazy imagination, or did she just think this all up on her own! Either way, it seems like a great story and many people have loved it! It was ironic that she said something in the first chapter about every kid in the world will know Harry Potter’s name, and now, 17 years later, just about every kid in the world knows his name. Impressive J. K. Rowling, impressive.

Week 9, Post 1: Irish Getaway

So for St. Patrick's Day weekend I went to Dublin Ireland, it was absolutely fantastic! You would not believe the great food they had there too! When I think of Ireland, I can't exactly pinpoint a specific type of food they are known for, there isn't a type of food called Irish food, other than maybe and Irish Coffee. Every single meal I had in Ireland was amazing though. The night I arrived, my friend Omar and I walked around the main street in Dublin and found a small place called Wok-In a noodle bar. Luckily we were both feeling some noodles so we stayed. I got the chicken and noodles which turned out to be amazing. They gave huge portions, which I didn't think I would be able to finish, but I did surprisingly. Omar got some type of Chicken and Prawn Fried Rice that also looked good. The next day, we were going to grab breakfast around O'Connell Street (the main street in Dublin), so we walked down the roads off of O'Connell looking for some delicious food. We passed by a couple pizza places, but then stopped at a little Italian place that was still serving breakfast. There were so many options for breakfast I just couldn't decide, I had it narrowed down to two options then Omar decided to ask for the lunch menu because she was kind of wanting some Italian food. The second our server brought over the lunch menu, I immediately found two entree's I liked on it. This was the struggle, not only did I have to pick between two choices, but I also had to pick between breakfast and lunch. Damn you, Omar. So I thought I would toss a coin in the air and by the time the coin got to the peak of the toss, I would know which side I was hoping for it to land on. Then I realized that our hotel gives a very large breakfast in the mornings, therefore if I got the lunch then I could get the breakfast the next morning at the hotel..If I woke up in time of course. Finally I decided to get lunch, my options were between the Spaghetti and the Lasagne so I asked the server what she preferred more. The Lasagne it was, I also got some garlic bread and a pot of tea! That whole meal was absolutely fantastic, I wish I would have gotten a picture. Later that night, before going out, Omar and I decided to go back to the Wok-In Noodle Bar and get some more noodles because they were just that good the first time. I ended up getting the Chicken and Prawn Noodles, which wasn't on the menu, but the lady mixed them both together for me! She was just too nice! ;) the Chicken and Prawn Noodles were just as good as the night before, but I couldn't finish the large portion. The next morning was the morning we had to get on a plane to fly back to London, so Omar and I grabbed breakfast at the hotel. We each had the Full Irish Breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, (my mouth is already watering) tomato, cereal, and something else but we switched out the tomato and the other something for more sausage and bacon. It was greattttttt! I even got a cup of tea to go with that meal too. Out of all of those dishes I couldn't even tell you my favorite. I loved them all and wish I could go back to re-live the experience again!

Week 8, Post 2: Dalloway Reading

As of now I don’t fully understand why Clarissa and Miss Kilman don’t get along very well. It seems like Clarissa at least makes and effort but Miss Kilman is determined to have conflicts with her. I was glad to see that Elizabeth thought about Clarissa and Miss Kilman not getting along and decided to come home to her mother after a while, sticking with the family. Not that Elizabeth had to choose between the two, it just seemed like there was a little choice in there.

I can’t believe Septimus jumped to his suicide, I mean, I can believe it because he had gone mad, but still. I thought it was kind of a good thing that Dr. Holmes didn’t want Rezia to see Septimus all mangled, but I didn’t know how I felt about him giving her some kind of drink to fall asleep. I feel like Rezia had the right to watch her husband as he was taken away, but then I can also see that it might be best if she didn’t see it. I feel that Septimus’ death was coming, but I thought it would be a little happier for Rezia. She might not have to deal with him anymore after feeling like they had no marriage left, but she still loved him before he went mad.

Finally we made it to the party we have been reading about for the past three weeks! The party seemed to be going great, it was a surprise that Sally arrived. I would think it would be a little awkward, but also I don’t think anybody knows about Sally and Clarissa’s past together. They seemed to have a good time talking and catching up instead of focusing on any awkwardness. Toward the end, when Clarissa learned about Septimus, Virginia Woolf kind of made a connection between the two of them. I hadn’t noticed a connection between the two until we talked about it in class that Septimus was more of Clarissa’s dark side. Looking back I could kind of see how they relate in some ways. However, I didn’t fully understand the relation between Clarissa and Septimus’s death. I can still see a little connection here and there though. Then at the very end, I thought it was destined that Peter and Clarissa would get back together some how. I mean, I know the story was only over a day, but I still felt there was a connection between them. Even though Peter kept telling himself that he does love Clarissa anymore, he always seemed to have his doubts. Clarissa also had a couple doubts throughout the story, that’s why I thought it was destined. I guess we will never really know since it ended before Peter and Clarissa really got to talk again. All in all, I would expect Clarissa and Peter to actually go back to each other, but also I feel they would both not want to take the risks.

Week 8, Post 1: Eggs Benedict

For spring break, a friend came from home to visit me. He flew in to London, then we had about 3 hours to kill until our flight to Amsterdam, so we decided to get some food while we waited. We ended up at a breakfast place, which was really good, then he asked me "have you ever had eggs Benedict?" Of course, I hadn't ever had it, so it became his mission to find eggs Benedict for me to try before he left. Looking back on it all now it seems ironic, because it was one of the first things we planned to do, but it was one of the last things we actually did before he left. The morning of his flight we decided to grab some breakfast. We picked Earls Court Tavern because we saw that they had a sign up saying "English breakfast from 10-12 for £6.49," we were sold. I go to Earls Court Tavern all the time for drinks, but I had never had breakfast there so it was going to be a new experience. When we sat down and looked at the menu, the first thing I saw was eggs Benedict. I was planning on getting the ham, eggs, and chips that is always featured on the menu, but after seeing Brandon's face light up when I said "hey, there's eggs Benedict," I had to try it. For him at least. I was a little iffy about it when I read the description and it said "Holland sauce" like what the heck is holland sauce, but I didn't let it stop me. So we both ordered the eggs Benedict. When the food arrived at the table, I was instantly concerned because the "Holland sauce" I was so worried about, was covering the entire meal! Then he said "it will be fiiiiinnneee, I promise, it's really good." After the first bite, I couldn't decide if I liked it or not, then after the second, I started liking it more. 

I don't know if you've ever had eggs Benedict, but it was an English muffin, with bacon, --your vegetarian, never mind-- and pooched eggs, covered in the holland sauce. It was pretty good, I probably would have liked it better with ham because I'm more of a ham person than a bacon person, but it was still very delicious. The yolk on the egg was the perfect "runniness" that it didn't burst over the whole plate, but enough to cover the bite you were about to take. Which for me is great. I like my eggs over easy some times, while others I just enjoy scrambled. The pooched part of the egg was different too, it seemed a little healthier than frying the egg on a pan with oil. Anyway, Brandon accomplished his goal, I had eggs Benedict and it was pretty good. I might actually order it again sometime, depending on what I'm feeling that day. :)

I have been craving an over easy egg these days, I just haven't cooked one yet. Just the other night, I did a little experiment with cooking an egg in the microwave, as in, cracking it on a plate and putting it in the microwave. I've done it with my scrambled eggs so I thought hey, what the heck.

After cooking the egg for the first 1.5 minutes, it didn't look like things were going well, so I decided to flip it like I would an egg on a pan, then put it in for another 2 minutes, and the egg turned out great. The yolk actually cooked all the way, but more in the form of a hard boiled egg yolk, which was a little different but still very tasty.

Additional Blog 1: First days of Spring Break!

I go to my internship three times a week, Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Believe it or not I have kind of made a routine of having tea 3 times a day on those days (except for Friday, I drink one). One at 10:30, one for lunch, and one at 2:30. I don't drink tea here any other time unless it's offered. Therefore I don't go out of my way to make my own tea at the flat, only because I don't want to create a habit, then go back to the U.S. and have tea withdraws! Although I don't drink tea too often, I do have a special way I like my tea. I generally grab a mug, throw a small tea bag in the bottom, fill the mug 3/4 full with hot water, then top the other 1/4 off with "semi-skimmed" milk. Then I wait for about 5-10 minutes before I take the first sip, trying to prevent burning my tongue and the roof of my mouth.

Well today, is the Friday before spring break officially starts, also the last day I will be drinking tea for about a week. No biggy. So I walk in the tea room and grab a mug, toss a tea bag in, add 3/4 hot water, then reach for the fridge to grab the milk, but there wasn't any milk. Generally the fridge has at least 15-20 jugs of milk to choose from, but today, there was nothing, not even a drop. So I thought about adding some sugar, but really I didn't want the calories. Later after letting the tea set for about 5-10 minutes, I tried the tea. It really wasn't that great. It just wasn't what I was used to with out the milk. Also, King's decided to change their tea provider the whole week, so there seemed to be nothing normal about my tea. Honestly, I didn't even finish the whole glass because I saw what the tea was doing to the inside of the mug (sticking to the side making the mug look brown and dirty), and I couldn't stop thinking about what it was doing to my teeth. So having tea for the last time for at least a week, wasn't the best. But I think I will survive. I don't need to get addicted to the tea and caffeine here. When I first arrived in London, I thought it was weird that the Englanders put milk in their tea. I had actually never seen it before. I had only seen milk being put into coffee, but I understand why they do it now, it's actually very good that way! It also seems to cool the tea down a little before you drink it, so you don't have to wait as long to drink it. 

I've never been a caffeine drinker, I mainly just drink water. My body doesn't ever feel the need to drink caffeine because I don't drink it. Which I think is a good thing, I'd rather not get "caffeine headaches."

*side note, I'm on the plan to Amsterdam as I am finishing up this blog, and there are the energy windmills in the water all lined up in rows. Very interesting because I haven't seen them in the water before, only on land. Maybe the water helps generate more energy? I'll look in to it. But they are everywhere!

**second side note, I went to KFC in Amsterdam, it was different from the one in London and the one in the U.S. The items on the menu were completely different. It was great though. Amsterdam is beautiful. Next is Barcelona, maybe they have a KFC I can try!

Week 6, Post 2: Dalloway

So far from the characters, I feel Clarissa makes her thoughts a little more complicated than they need to be. She is a great woman trying to have a party, but her love live seems to be a little tangled. Then Peter is very insecure, he feels like he needs to do something with his life and seems to be scared that he will die alone.

 To my surprise, Rezia starts to feel like she doesn't want to have to take care of Septimus any longer. For some reason when I first started reading, I thought that Rezia was very loyal to Septimus after he came back from the war. She was always there to help him do whatever he needed and put up with his screaming a lot in public. I did notice that she got a little annoyed putting up with him and taking care of him, but I didn't think that she would actually ever want to leave him. She does make it clear that Septimus isn't the same man that he used to be, but I had a hard time believing she would actually leave him. 

As for Peter, he's trying to make himself believe that he doesn't love Clarissa. I can't even tell who he loves because he's been with Daisy for quite some time, although I don't believe he has much of a thing for Daisy these days. But Daisy seems to treat him better than Clarissa ever did.

When the story goes back to Septimus and Rezia, it talks a lot about Septimus and his past. I thought this was great because it shows a little more about his character. He hasn't been crazy all of his life, it's just something the war did to him. The back story of his life gives the audience a chance to see the real Septimus. I feel like loosing Evan took a toll on Septimus because he didn't feel much emotion when he died. Knowing that he didn't feel much emotion might have added to the craziness he has been going through.

I’m not sure how I feel about Lady Bruton yet. I’m ready for the party though, it seems like this whole story is a build up to the party, but then at the end we wont get to hear much about the party.

Virginia Woolf has done a good job at portraying how the characters are and their personalities. I can kind of tell how the main characters in the story feel and what they are thinking. It’s almost like you are sitting there watching it all happen. Like the characters were actually people she knew and she was just interpreting their life. I’m definitely ready to see what this party is going to be like, since it is such a big hit with everyone in the story.

Week 6, Post 1: Chinese in China Town

So of course, after talking about not trying the Chinese food here yet, I was urged by Kristen to go to China Town and have some Chinese with her. At first I wasn't really wanting to go, although I did want some Chinese I didn't want to venture out to find it, but I'm glad I did. We got on the Piccadilly line and headed toward Leicester Square, I had never been to China town, so it was a whole new experience for me. We found the Main Street that hand many of the restaurants and started looking at all the menus to see if there was something we liked. The street was beautifully decorated, with lantern type lights hanging from one building to another. I think it was a little crowded everywhere because the Chinese New Year was approaching, and every one had Chinese on their mind. Anyway, we looked at about 7 different menus posted outside of the restaurants before finally picking the place that we had looked at first, we went back to analyze the menu for a final choice. Now that I think about it, I don't remember the name, but I could point it out of push came to shove. :) dining at the Chinese restaurant was nice. They gave very small glasses of water that were almost like a glass you would see used for a couple shots of whiskey, and they had overly large sized menus that took up half of the table. After looking at the menu on 3 separate occasions I decided I wanted to have the "Shredded chicken fried rice" with a skewer of "Prawns." The lady that took our order was new and didn't speak much English, so we had to point out what we wanted on the menu. Then later a guy came back and said that the skewers only come in sets of 5, so I told him to take it off completely because that changed from a £1.60 to a £6.30 with way too much for my stomach to hold. The food came out pretty quick, mine came before Kristen's. She got some kind of fried rice that had everything in it, which kinda sounded good once I saw it. My chicken fried rice was very good, believe it or not I found a small hair almost like an eye lash or eye brow hair, and oddly enough I picked it up and kept eating. I just refused to let my mind think it was disgusting. It might have helped that I worked in a restaurant back home and we would have little things about hair being in the food, but really, half the time a hair showed up in the food I could tell that it was the guests hair and not a cooks. I could tell you about the guest that had a hair in her salad, but really, it's not necessary, basically all you need to know is that it was overly obvious that it was her hair, and the placement of it showed me that it was hers because I knew I wouldn't have served the salad with a hair so noticeably obvious. So the rice was good, it had some onions mixed in also adding a little green to the dish. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture, which I was so determined to do, I don't know how it slipped my mind. I must have just been so hungry I had to dig right in. It was a fairly large portion so I got some for a take away container, which will hopefully be a good snack or lunch for later! Anyway, after our meal we headed back toward the flat. While we were in the restaurant I had started to feel like I was coming down with some sort of cold, so I hit Sainsburys Local to grab some emergen-c. When I got there, the last one had been taken so I didn't get to buy any, but luckily Kristen had an extra that I was able to take. So hopefully I won't come down with anything. The emergen-c made me feel instantly better, which only helps with the healthy state of mind to keep my immune system up from getting a cold! Wish me luck!

Week 5, Post 2: Mrs. Dalloway

I feel like Mrs. Dalloway had many different feelings for the characters in the book. Although she is married to Richard, it seems as though she has the least feelings for him. They seem to have grown apart over the years, which she seems perfectly fine with, but it is also odd that she would want to marry him and stay with him for so long knowing things have changed. She talks about two other people that she has had feelings for in the past, that she still seems to have feelings for. The first one she talks about is Peter and how he was an ex lover, that asked her to marry him, but she said no. She talks as though she still has feelings for Peter, wanting him to follow his dreams in life and live. Peter seems to always be in the back of her mind. Then she thinks that she had fallen in love with a girl named Sally, but she is still kind of unsure what the whole deal with Sally was. She speaks of her highly, and says that her feelings for her were completely different from feelings of any man. It's a little confusing because it doesn't seem like Mrs. Dalloway knows what she wants, but at the same time she seems perfectly content with the "relationship" that she is in.

Then there is Septimus and Lucrezia, it's kind of sad to see what Septimus had become after fighting in the war. The shell shock sometimes gets the best of him and makes him look like a mad man. It sometimes seems like his wife is always taking care of him, telling him what to do. Lucrezia still stays by his side through all of the screaming and yelling, but at one point she doesn't understand his yelling because I believe a doctor told her that nothing was wrong with him.

Later Peter comes to the house and Clarissa and him talk for a while about the memories they used to have and what they used to do. Thinking back to all of those times Clarissa starts to wonder why they never married. It makes me think that Clarissa has always had a thing for Peter. I just don't understand why she married Richard and still continues to be with him although there is barely anything left. Of course Peter asked if Clarissa was happy being with Richard, but Peter never got the answer because Elizabeth came through the door! But Clarissa made it very clear that she wanted Peter to attend the party she was going to be having.

Peter obviously still has feelings for Clarissa, but it all seems complicated.

They use the word queer a lot, when they think something is odd. We hardly ever use the word queer these days, it seems to be a harsh word now that the younger generation has turned it into a hurtful word. I also thought it was cool that Peter puffed rings when it smoked his cigar. Seems like that trick has been around for at least 100 years! Of course they used to smoke a lot more than that, it makes me wonder if they used to do other smoke tricks the kids do these days. I mean I'm guess they had to learn them from somewhere but I wouldn't think that parents these days would be showing their kids how to blow smoke rings or French inhale. It just seems a little odd to think a parent would teach their kids smoking tricks, but I guess that is from my point of view. My parents don't smoke.

Week 5, Post 1: Nandos

I had been craving some good grilled chicken and mashed potatoes for quite some time since KFC doesn't serve mashed potatoes. So when I got back to my flat after being at my internship all day, I was determined to have some chicken and mashed potatoes. The only mashed potatoes I have had in England were in Bath, where I had chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans wrapped in bacon. Knowing that Bath had had some amazing chicken and potatoes I knew it was possible to get some elsewhere in England. At my flat I started looking up "chicken and mashed potatoes near Earls Court London" of course my search was a little too narrow so I broadened it to "chicken in Earls Court London." The first place that came up was Nandos! As I was looking at their menu I was a little worried because they were home of the "Peri Peri Chicken," and I don't like much spicy food. I found that they had a ranking on the menu of how spicy you wanted your chicken to be, one of the rankings was "Plain-ish." It was perfect, I had found my chicken! Then once I looked at the sides, I saw mashed potatoes! I couldn't believe I hadn't found this place earlier! I gathered my things and took off down the road towards Nandos, it was a little busy being Friday night but they got me right in! As I sat down the lady was explaining how everything works at Nandos, you go up to the computer to order, then the waiter will bring out the food, once the food is out you can get some self serve ice cream! I ordered the 4 chicken thighs, no bones, with mashed potatoes and garlic bread (since it came with two sides)! Once the food came out it looked amazing, the chicken was grilled, with two pieces of garlic bread and some mashed potatoes in a small bowl. Although I generally salt and pepper my mashed potatoes, they didn't have salt and pepper on the table and I didn't ask for any, so I went without. The taste was still amazing. I was filling up so quick on the mashed potatoes, I had to slow down to fit some chicken. The chicken was a little burnt but it was kind of a good burnt like well cooked with the lines showing that it had been cooked probably over an open flame. I only hate about 2 thighs before I was near miserable, but I still had garlic bread left. I pushed through finishing up all of the mashed potatoes and all of the garlic bread but my stomach couldn't finish the other two thighs so I asked for a "take-away" box. They didn't seem to have boxes so they gave me a bag to put my chicken in, a little weird but it was almost easier to fit in the fridge. It was a great experience at Nandos and I hope to go back some time soon! Also, the chicken left over made for a good mid day snack the next day when I heated it up in the microwave!