For our second bank holiday (yup, we got off just because it was the last Monday in May) we decided to go to Dublin, Ireland. While going through security for our flight, Bekah’s purse got flagged; and just in case she was a dodgy character, they swiped it for drugs. Instead of being required to take off your shoes when going through security, there is a post-security scan section for just your shoes. Suze and Bekah found this to be quite odd. The flight was a little under an hour, and before we knew it, we were in Dublin.
The city bus took us towards our guesthouse… the Elvis Presley Guesthouse that is. The directions from the confirmation email were a bit vague, and none of the bus stops were announced. Of course, we did not know where ours was precisely, and thus missed our stop. Luckily this bus mishap only required us to walk an extra 3 minutes on level surface, unlike the uphill battle we had in Oxford. After dropping off our stuff, we decided to make our way into the city for some dinner. Since we had no idea where to go, we just hopped off the bus at a stop that seemed popular. Thanks to a map we found at the guesthouse, we navigated our way to the Temple Bar area where we discovered that Dublin was an expensive place! After dinner, we headed home, stopping for Magnum ice cream bars on the way. Bekah had white chocolate and Suze had Temptation, which had caramel and chocolate pieces in the ice cream. In Dublin, it stays light really late. Despite the fact that it was after 9 by the time we were heading home, it was just getting dark.
The next morning, Suze awoke before 8, and Bekah was up shortly thereafter. We went down to breakfast, which was included in the cost of the room. Cereal and milk, tea, instant coffee, and fruit were available on the table. And our hostess from the night before offered to make us fried breakfast consisting of two fried eggs, two sausage links, cheese and toast. This was a highlight of our trip considering we were expecting just some toast. Plus, we needed to fuel up for our day of walking. We walked back into town to walk through Temple Bar which had both a food and jewelry/fashion market. After this, we headed to Christ Church, where we did not go in, but took pictures outside. We moved on to Dublin Castle, which is more like pieces of a castle that was just randomly incorporated into the city. We took some photos there, but again did not go inside as it did not open until later that afternoon. Next we walked on to St Patrick’s Cathedral. There we did go inside, and it was beautiful. It is built on the site where St Patrick is said to have baptized many people in the 5th century. After the church, we headed to the Guiness Storehouse, where they were celebrating 250 years of making Guiness! They took us through the whole process of how the beer is made. Then we went to the very top to the gravity bar which offers a 360 degree view of Dublin. There we were treated to our complimentary pint of Guiness which neither of us finished. Bekah didn’t even come remotely close, but Suze made it halfway. After this, we headed in the rain to the Epicurean market where we wanted to eat lunch. They had many different types of food represented there..Indian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. But we settled on bagels, which were soft and delicious. From there, we headed to do some shopping. We were a bit disappointed in ourselves that we hadn’t bought souvenirs for anyone yet and were hoping that Ireland would be the place. However, we were not that successful. The shopping was terrible or expensive. But we did do a ton of walking! We were really interested in finding some affordable Irish jewelry, but did not have much success, as the two stores we had heard about were no longer there. Amidst our shopping, we stopped off at an internet café to connect with the world, rest our bones, and determine if there was some great shopping area that we were missing. After a long day of walking and not so successful shopping, we were extremely tired. We decided to head to a pub for a traditional Irish meal. We headed towards the guesthouse to try a nearby pub since it would mean a shorter walk after dinner. But, when we got to there, we learned that they did not serve food. So Suze had a beer there and we watched the celebration following Leinster’s win over Leicester (a rugby championship with Leinster representing Ireland. And it is pronounced Linster). We then decided to pick up Indian food on the way home from this little take out place that smelled delicious and was close to where we were staying. We fell into bed exhausted that night while watching Britain’s Got Talent. If you want to see something strange, check out Nick Hell or Darth Jackson. (neither of which are entertaining or talented……….just bizarre. How they advanced to the semi-finals we’ll never know)
Sunday morning we slept in a bit. We had breakfast at the guesthouse, this time prepared by a guy. Suze went down first to have breakfast, and this man ate her toast. She had ordered eggs and got toast with it, but it came on a separate plate. This guy, who did not even have a plate, took a piece of her toast. She was indignant. After Bekah ate as well, we headed for the Dublin Zoo. It was on the opposite side of town from our guesthouse, and we walked about an hour to get there with some of that being uphill! At the zoo, we saw many different animals including farm animals, lemurs, African animals, penguins, and a whole lot more. With the exception of the big cats, the animals were so close, that we could have reached out and petted a rhinoceros if we wanted to! We shared a pizza at the zoo, and then headed out to, you guessed it, shop some more! This time however, we met with some success. We enjoyed the warm sunny day in Ireland, with both of us coming out of the day with small sunburn. We ate dinner that night in a pub.…Bekah had the traditional Irish stew, and Suze had a vegetable soup, which was pureed (we’re not quite sure why but it seems to be the way they prefer their soup in the UK). For beverages, one beer was over 5 euro! So expensive! After that, we headed back to the guesthouse to get some sleep since our flight was at the crack of dawn. Our taxi needed to pick us up at 4:30 a.m. We again watched Britain’s Got Talent (we only had 3 stations, but since we don’t have a tv at the Nurses Home we were quite amused). We saw Susan Boyle sing, and advance to the final round.
On Monday, we woke around 4 am. We made it to the cab, and the cabdriver was way too chipper for that early. After a short 1 hour flight, we were back in England. Following a train ride and bus trip, we finally arrived back home and both passed out!
Word of the Blog: Fringe - what we know in the states as bangs. “After going to six different places in Putney, Bekah finally got a new London-do and some full fringe!”
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Monday, 18 May 2009
It’s a monkeys wedding
The weather in London has been particularly nice since we arrived, that is until this weekend. The weekend we decided to stay and explore London Proper we received stereotypical pouffy weather…..overcast, splotchy rains, and chilly winds. Bekah and Suze powered through though. Saturday, we ventured out to Notting Hill, down to Portobello Road Market which was so jam packed with people you could barely get close enough to see what people where selling. The market is full of antiques, clothes, fruits/veggies, prepared food, and the best part… pastries. Due to the massive amounts of people, the only thing purchased was delicious donuts. We also took a stop at the Travel Bookstore, the one that Hugh Grant runs in the movie called, coincidently enough, Notting Hill. We then moved on to Camden Market. This is supposed to be the famous London market…My Fair Lady’s flower market was even modeled after it. However, the minute we walked out of the tube station all we could take in were the gothic/eighties clothing and tattoo/piercing shops. After Portobello Road, this market was a huge letdown. Needless to say we didn’t buy anything here either, but hey we can say we’ve been. We decided then to go to West End (the theatre district here) and see about attending a play this weekend/next week. Well as it turned out, we bought tickets for a show that night and had to rush home and back, which took approximately an hour one way. It was worth it though. We saw Joseph at the Adelphi Theatre, and it was awesome with lots of good singing and bright colors. Songs were sung in all different styles from country, Elvis, French, and 80s. Bekah has given warning to Suze that she may be singing them for the rest of the trip.
Sunday, we started again at another market, Spitalsfield. Luckily, this one was fancy….it was covered. Here, it was similar to Portobello Road, but far less crowded and with a lot more artistic and fashion booths. Suze and Bekah are apparently terrible market shoppers because, yup you guessed it. We left empty handed. From here, we were going to go see Tower of London and other British sites, but since the tubes we needed were all under construction, we decided to go shopping at Covent Market (not an actual market, but an area of town with lots of shops) and Harrods. Harrods is gigantic, practically a whole city block and 4 stories high with amazing Food Halls. They have an Egyptian hall where the elevators are that are decorated in true extravagant ancient Egyptian fashion. There was even an employee in there serenading us with an opera aria. Bekah and Suze decided they needed to partake in high tea and seeing as it was that time, they settled down in the café for their pot of tea and scones with clotted cream and jam. The Brits really do know what they’re doing. High tea was delicious and perfect for the cold wet day.
In case you are wondering, what the frack is a monkey’s wedding? Well, Bekah and Suze have discovered that in Africa this means a sunny day with rain. Strange, but true.
Also, Suze wants it to be known that Bekah drank not one but TWO shandy's when they went out with the work peoples on Friday. For those of you who dont know, the most Suze has seen Bekah drink beer was approximately 5 sips. So this is impressive.
Word of the blog: pouffy – inclement weather. In a sentence: see earlier in the blog. On Saturday, it was a bit of a pouffy day, what with all the monkey’s weddings.
Sunday, we started again at another market, Spitalsfield. Luckily, this one was fancy….it was covered. Here, it was similar to Portobello Road, but far less crowded and with a lot more artistic and fashion booths. Suze and Bekah are apparently terrible market shoppers because, yup you guessed it. We left empty handed. From here, we were going to go see Tower of London and other British sites, but since the tubes we needed were all under construction, we decided to go shopping at Covent Market (not an actual market, but an area of town with lots of shops) and Harrods. Harrods is gigantic, practically a whole city block and 4 stories high with amazing Food Halls. They have an Egyptian hall where the elevators are that are decorated in true extravagant ancient Egyptian fashion. There was even an employee in there serenading us with an opera aria. Bekah and Suze decided they needed to partake in high tea and seeing as it was that time, they settled down in the café for their pot of tea and scones with clotted cream and jam. The Brits really do know what they’re doing. High tea was delicious and perfect for the cold wet day.
In case you are wondering, what the frack is a monkey’s wedding? Well, Bekah and Suze have discovered that in Africa this means a sunny day with rain. Strange, but true.
Also, Suze wants it to be known that Bekah drank not one but TWO shandy's when they went out with the work peoples on Friday. For those of you who dont know, the most Suze has seen Bekah drink beer was approximately 5 sips. So this is impressive.
Word of the blog: pouffy – inclement weather. In a sentence: see earlier in the blog. On Saturday, it was a bit of a pouffy day, what with all the monkey’s weddings.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Settling In
Cinco De Mayo aka Suze's Birthday!
On Suzette’s birthday, Cinco de Mayo, we decided to celebrate in true style. We invited our friend Zoe to come with us. She is an occupational therapy student from Oxford Brooks University and is originally from Mozambique (that’s in southern Africa for those of you who are geographically challenged). We went to the Texas Embassy Cantina per the suggestion of Melissa and Jenna. The restaurant was inspired by an actual Texas embassy which was established in London when Texas was its own independent republic. Since people do not seem to be too big on Mexican here in London nor do they acknowledge the existence of Cinco, we thought it would be no problem. However, when we got to the restaurant we were told it would be a 45 minute wait for a table. Since we had traveled by tube about 20 minutes not to mention the walk to the tube station, we decided to wait it out. We enjoyed chips and salsa and margaritas. However, overall the food was not quite up to par. It lacked the overall spiciness and taste that we have come to know and love back home. Especially Bekah who just came from Texas. After dinner, we went out to nearby Trafalgar Square. There is supposed to be a large fountain there, but they were doing construction on it so it was dry. However, there are these HUGE metal lions in the square. Before we ate, we had noticed many people climbing onto their backs and decided we too would do this after dinner. The lions are so massive that we required a boost in order to sit on their backs. With extraordinary effort, we were able to accomplish our goal and even sit near the lions face in his paws. We took many pictures here. It was only later that we learned that apparently this is illegal and we could have been carted off.
The land of Tolkein and Lewis:
On the weekend, we ventured to Oxford to visit with our friend Zoe who goes home on the weekends. The bus we took, the Oxford tube, has free Wi-fi so we were able to finalize our future adventures. Upon arrival in Oxford, we missed our bus stop. Luckily, we realized this and got off at the next stop. But we then had to lug our baggage up this gigantic ridiculous hill. Since we had bags full of bedding not to mention the computer, this was not fun. We met up with Zoe and had a true English brunch. This consisted of scrambled eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, a grilled tomato, and toast. There was also a side dish of what pretty much amounted to spaghetti-Os but with straight noodles –weird. After eating, we headed into town. We visited the Bridge of Sighs which is a replica of a Venetian bridge and was very pretty. We went to the library which we were not allowed to enter, much to Suze’s dismay as it is the largest library in Europe and she was really looking forward to it. We then attempted punting. This is basically poling down a river…kinda like the gondoliers in Venice. It is a lot harder than it looks. You have to propel the boat as well as steer with a long metal pole that is cold and heavy. We each took a turn during the 1 hour trip. Suze was pretty good, but Bekah was not so much. Zoe was best of all, but then she had done it before. After our boat outing, we visited one of the colleges in Oxford. Confusingly enough, Oxford is actually made up of many smaller colleges. We went in one called Magdalene’s College, which they pronounce Maudlin. We don’t know why. It was pretty and historic with lots of wisteria on the building giving off a heavenly fragrance. There is also a large deer park there. The deer are smaller than those back home and an uglier brownish color. We left the college and headed back to Zoe’s where we met up with some of her friends for dinner. We decided to go to a Brazillian restaurant. It was kinda like the churascarias in the States, but slightly less fancy and without polenta, which Bekah was very sad about. The food was overall very good. And we both ate chicken hearts!! It is not an experience we will soon be repeating. The flavor was not bad (like spicy chicken sausage), but we felt we could feel the ventricle and valves as we were chewing. The next day, we did a bit of shopping in Oxford after going to church that morning. We hopped back on the Oxford tube to London and were home at a decent hour. We were very grateful for this as we had spent the previous night on the cold hard dorm room floor.
Physical Torture:
On Tuesday night we went to kickboxing. This class is held once a week in our gym on Drapers ward. The instructor is Marvin, the aforementioned PTA on our ward. He is a cage fighter, or what we in the US would call ultimate fighter. He was even on a reality TV show in London called The Final Eight. He did not win, but the chap that he lost to did. The class was brutal. Even during the warm up, Bekah thought she might not make it. We did sit-ups and push ups galore. With some frog jumps, calf work and kicks thrown in for fun. The class in total was an hour and a half. At the end, we got to do some sparring with Marvin. Don’t worry, he wasn’t really fighting back. We are not able to move today, Wednesday and are going out of our way to avoid stairs!
Word of the Blog: jumper - sweatshirt. While we were in Oxford, Suze purchased a new jumper to ward off the English chill.
ps -- new pics are up: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2073111&id=34104915&ref=mf
On Suzette’s birthday, Cinco de Mayo, we decided to celebrate in true style. We invited our friend Zoe to come with us. She is an occupational therapy student from Oxford Brooks University and is originally from Mozambique (that’s in southern Africa for those of you who are geographically challenged). We went to the Texas Embassy Cantina per the suggestion of Melissa and Jenna. The restaurant was inspired by an actual Texas embassy which was established in London when Texas was its own independent republic. Since people do not seem to be too big on Mexican here in London nor do they acknowledge the existence of Cinco, we thought it would be no problem. However, when we got to the restaurant we were told it would be a 45 minute wait for a table. Since we had traveled by tube about 20 minutes not to mention the walk to the tube station, we decided to wait it out. We enjoyed chips and salsa and margaritas. However, overall the food was not quite up to par. It lacked the overall spiciness and taste that we have come to know and love back home. Especially Bekah who just came from Texas. After dinner, we went out to nearby Trafalgar Square. There is supposed to be a large fountain there, but they were doing construction on it so it was dry. However, there are these HUGE metal lions in the square. Before we ate, we had noticed many people climbing onto their backs and decided we too would do this after dinner. The lions are so massive that we required a boost in order to sit on their backs. With extraordinary effort, we were able to accomplish our goal and even sit near the lions face in his paws. We took many pictures here. It was only later that we learned that apparently this is illegal and we could have been carted off.
The land of Tolkein and Lewis:
On the weekend, we ventured to Oxford to visit with our friend Zoe who goes home on the weekends. The bus we took, the Oxford tube, has free Wi-fi so we were able to finalize our future adventures. Upon arrival in Oxford, we missed our bus stop. Luckily, we realized this and got off at the next stop. But we then had to lug our baggage up this gigantic ridiculous hill. Since we had bags full of bedding not to mention the computer, this was not fun. We met up with Zoe and had a true English brunch. This consisted of scrambled eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, a grilled tomato, and toast. There was also a side dish of what pretty much amounted to spaghetti-Os but with straight noodles –weird. After eating, we headed into town. We visited the Bridge of Sighs which is a replica of a Venetian bridge and was very pretty. We went to the library which we were not allowed to enter, much to Suze’s dismay as it is the largest library in Europe and she was really looking forward to it. We then attempted punting. This is basically poling down a river…kinda like the gondoliers in Venice. It is a lot harder than it looks. You have to propel the boat as well as steer with a long metal pole that is cold and heavy. We each took a turn during the 1 hour trip. Suze was pretty good, but Bekah was not so much. Zoe was best of all, but then she had done it before. After our boat outing, we visited one of the colleges in Oxford. Confusingly enough, Oxford is actually made up of many smaller colleges. We went in one called Magdalene’s College, which they pronounce Maudlin. We don’t know why. It was pretty and historic with lots of wisteria on the building giving off a heavenly fragrance. There is also a large deer park there. The deer are smaller than those back home and an uglier brownish color. We left the college and headed back to Zoe’s where we met up with some of her friends for dinner. We decided to go to a Brazillian restaurant. It was kinda like the churascarias in the States, but slightly less fancy and without polenta, which Bekah was very sad about. The food was overall very good. And we both ate chicken hearts!! It is not an experience we will soon be repeating. The flavor was not bad (like spicy chicken sausage), but we felt we could feel the ventricle and valves as we were chewing. The next day, we did a bit of shopping in Oxford after going to church that morning. We hopped back on the Oxford tube to London and were home at a decent hour. We were very grateful for this as we had spent the previous night on the cold hard dorm room floor.
Physical Torture:
On Tuesday night we went to kickboxing. This class is held once a week in our gym on Drapers ward. The instructor is Marvin, the aforementioned PTA on our ward. He is a cage fighter, or what we in the US would call ultimate fighter. He was even on a reality TV show in London called The Final Eight. He did not win, but the chap that he lost to did. The class was brutal. Even during the warm up, Bekah thought she might not make it. We did sit-ups and push ups galore. With some frog jumps, calf work and kicks thrown in for fun. The class in total was an hour and a half. At the end, we got to do some sparring with Marvin. Don’t worry, he wasn’t really fighting back. We are not able to move today, Wednesday and are going out of our way to avoid stairs!
Word of the Blog: jumper - sweatshirt. While we were in Oxford, Suze purchased a new jumper to ward off the English chill.
ps -- new pics are up: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2073111&id=34104915&ref=mf
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Holiday Weekend
Holiday weekend:
Our first weekend in England is a holiday weekend - a bank holiday for May day. Yeah, makes about as much sense to us as it does to you. But we’re not complaining as this means we have Monday off. We decided to make use of our time and travel a bit, but stay close enough so as to make them day trips.
Our first excursion was to Brighton. This is a coastal town with England’s only nude beach. Don’t worry; it was too cold for anyone to be out taking advantage of it. The town itself is quite nice and is centered around the Royal Pavilion, which is “one of the most extraordinary palaces in Europe”. It was built for George IV. The palace is quite extravagant and makes you feel like you are in the Orient. Some find it vulgar, while others call it brilliant. The exterior looks like some sort of Indian palace while the inside is decorated with a Chinese influence – think crazy dragons and snakes everywhere. This “flamboyant seaside town” is comprised of many lanes and alleyways called “catcreeps and twittens”. On these small streets you might find some trinket or treasure or maybe a cornish pasty to eat. That’s right, we said pasty…not to be confused with the pasty we know of in the states; it’s what they call a pastry. The beach is made of pebbles and shells. Suze was captivated by the small tiny white ones which may have been either shell or pebble. We’re not sure. Also in Brighton, Suze found a Dr. Pepper Zero, which she had been searching for the entire trip. When we arrived in the town, there was a huge parade. We are not sure why they were marching, but it was a children’s parade with an animal theme. It was confusing, but colorful with characters made out of paper machet. And most of the children were wearing whistles about their necks. Which got very annoying as the day progressed. We were able to navigate the overground train system from London to Brighton for this trip with no problems.
On Sunday, we went to Greenwich. We were able to access it through a series of navigations on the tube, which took forever…probably about 2 hours total commute from our home. And oh, the stairs. They aren’t kidding when they say underground; we just kept going down forever. Once in Greenwich, we were forced to climb another hill…up to the Royal Observatory. Suze estimates a 70º incline. The observatory is where the Prime Meridian is located, from whence all time is measured. Here, you can put one foot in the eastern hemisphere whilst the other is in the western. In London, we are on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In Baton Rouge and Nashville, you are on GMT-6. You do the math. We took our photo in front of the sculpture that denotes the line. It is an oddly shaped piece of metal with a hole in it. There was a small boy; we’re estimating 7 or 8 years old playing on the sculpture (?) and ending up in the pictures of all these people having their photos taken. This was annoying enough. BUT when Suze and Bekah stood in front of it to have their photo taken, Bekah felt a small hand squeezing her bum. This was NOT appreciated and when she tried to gently rebuke him by grasping his wrist firmly, the child began to cry. However, Bekah did not feel remorse and is still wondering where his parent was during all this. Seriously!
Still Sunday….After hanging out at a nearby pub, nearby being relative, Suze and Bekah headed home for the evening. It was about 10:30 PM. When they arrived home, they realized they did not have the key card to let them into the building (side note: a key card is required to enter the building. Each guest has an individual key to their room as well). They were knocking gently on the door and calling softly for someone to let them in, as people have their windows open and they just might be heard. After just a few minutes of this, security arrived…a man in a bright neon reflective yellow jacket. Initially, they felt relief. But then, a lecture ensued. The man, in an Islander’s accent, informed them that they had not followed protocol for this situation. He told us that we were to have used our mobile to call the hospital, who would then have bleeped him...that’s right…bleep (beep, or page as we would say), and he would come to our aid willingly. He proceeded to ask us what our plan of action was before he arrived. We told him what we had done and that we did not have the number to the hospital. He proceeded to point out the flaws in our plan - as if we didn’t already know them. He stated that no one would probably hear us, and if they did wouldn’t let us in. After this lecture, he punched in his code and let us in (which we were a little unsure if he would do or not). Because that was our destination no matter how we went about it. And in the end, he again put in his 2p about why we should have the hospital’s number. So they could have bleeped him, instead of him just finding us. Which is ridiculous. Since he had the capabilities all along. And we knew that it was not good that we did not have the key card and did not need him to tell us that. We just needed to get in. Geez.
On Monday, we went into the city to do some exploring. This was our first venture into London proper. We began our day at the British Museum, which is free to the public. That place is huge! It would have taken us all day to get through all its parts. They have a display for every continent, ancient culture, etc. We had to prioritize in order to maximize our time. We went through the Greek and Roman segment. We saw the Rosetta Stone. We breezed through the Egyptian exhibit which was really crowded. We then went to Westminster Abbey. As we got off the tube, we saw Parliament including Big Ben, which is across the street from the Abbey. Westminster Abbey is almost overwhelming with the amount of memorials and tombs it contains. The main part of the church is very beautiful. We were able to have an audio guide complimentary with the purchase of our tickets. After viewing the church, we walked on to Buckingham Palace, which is relatively nearby. It is very impressively large on the outside, though kinda ugly. We opted not to go in as it is very expensive and the guide books did not make it seem particularly appealing. We decided that we would go see a movie that night instead. We got our tickets to Wolverine and were pleased to note that they offered a student price, which was still more than we would have paid for a movie in America as expensive as that is. We also got to pick our seats at the ticket counter. We were able to see a layout of the theatre and were told to pick our seats from there. This was such a foreign concept to us, we didn’t even know what to pick and so just went with her suggestions. While seemingly a good idea, this actually played out rather oddly. We were seated in the middle, and the theater was not full. However Suze and Bekah both had people sit directly beside them. This was a bit strange to us, as in the States, people would naturally leave a seat between unless the place was completely packed.
check out the pictures:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072736&id=34104915&saved#/album.php?aid=2072736&id=34104915
Words of the Entry: Pom or Pommie – a slang term for an Englishman. Shandy—a refreshing beverage made by combining lager with lemonade…don’t knock it til you try it. In a sentence: The Poms sure do like their shandy; you can even get it at the canteen at the hospital.
Our first weekend in England is a holiday weekend - a bank holiday for May day. Yeah, makes about as much sense to us as it does to you. But we’re not complaining as this means we have Monday off. We decided to make use of our time and travel a bit, but stay close enough so as to make them day trips.
Our first excursion was to Brighton. This is a coastal town with England’s only nude beach. Don’t worry; it was too cold for anyone to be out taking advantage of it. The town itself is quite nice and is centered around the Royal Pavilion, which is “one of the most extraordinary palaces in Europe”. It was built for George IV. The palace is quite extravagant and makes you feel like you are in the Orient. Some find it vulgar, while others call it brilliant. The exterior looks like some sort of Indian palace while the inside is decorated with a Chinese influence – think crazy dragons and snakes everywhere. This “flamboyant seaside town” is comprised of many lanes and alleyways called “catcreeps and twittens”. On these small streets you might find some trinket or treasure or maybe a cornish pasty to eat. That’s right, we said pasty…not to be confused with the pasty we know of in the states; it’s what they call a pastry. The beach is made of pebbles and shells. Suze was captivated by the small tiny white ones which may have been either shell or pebble. We’re not sure. Also in Brighton, Suze found a Dr. Pepper Zero, which she had been searching for the entire trip. When we arrived in the town, there was a huge parade. We are not sure why they were marching, but it was a children’s parade with an animal theme. It was confusing, but colorful with characters made out of paper machet. And most of the children were wearing whistles about their necks. Which got very annoying as the day progressed. We were able to navigate the overground train system from London to Brighton for this trip with no problems.
On Sunday, we went to Greenwich. We were able to access it through a series of navigations on the tube, which took forever…probably about 2 hours total commute from our home. And oh, the stairs. They aren’t kidding when they say underground; we just kept going down forever. Once in Greenwich, we were forced to climb another hill…up to the Royal Observatory. Suze estimates a 70º incline. The observatory is where the Prime Meridian is located, from whence all time is measured. Here, you can put one foot in the eastern hemisphere whilst the other is in the western. In London, we are on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In Baton Rouge and Nashville, you are on GMT-6. You do the math. We took our photo in front of the sculpture that denotes the line. It is an oddly shaped piece of metal with a hole in it. There was a small boy; we’re estimating 7 or 8 years old playing on the sculpture (?) and ending up in the pictures of all these people having their photos taken. This was annoying enough. BUT when Suze and Bekah stood in front of it to have their photo taken, Bekah felt a small hand squeezing her bum. This was NOT appreciated and when she tried to gently rebuke him by grasping his wrist firmly, the child began to cry. However, Bekah did not feel remorse and is still wondering where his parent was during all this. Seriously!
Still Sunday….After hanging out at a nearby pub, nearby being relative, Suze and Bekah headed home for the evening. It was about 10:30 PM. When they arrived home, they realized they did not have the key card to let them into the building (side note: a key card is required to enter the building. Each guest has an individual key to their room as well). They were knocking gently on the door and calling softly for someone to let them in, as people have their windows open and they just might be heard. After just a few minutes of this, security arrived…a man in a bright neon reflective yellow jacket. Initially, they felt relief. But then, a lecture ensued. The man, in an Islander’s accent, informed them that they had not followed protocol for this situation. He told us that we were to have used our mobile to call the hospital, who would then have bleeped him...that’s right…bleep (beep, or page as we would say), and he would come to our aid willingly. He proceeded to ask us what our plan of action was before he arrived. We told him what we had done and that we did not have the number to the hospital. He proceeded to point out the flaws in our plan - as if we didn’t already know them. He stated that no one would probably hear us, and if they did wouldn’t let us in. After this lecture, he punched in his code and let us in (which we were a little unsure if he would do or not). Because that was our destination no matter how we went about it. And in the end, he again put in his 2p about why we should have the hospital’s number. So they could have bleeped him, instead of him just finding us. Which is ridiculous. Since he had the capabilities all along. And we knew that it was not good that we did not have the key card and did not need him to tell us that. We just needed to get in. Geez.
On Monday, we went into the city to do some exploring. This was our first venture into London proper. We began our day at the British Museum, which is free to the public. That place is huge! It would have taken us all day to get through all its parts. They have a display for every continent, ancient culture, etc. We had to prioritize in order to maximize our time. We went through the Greek and Roman segment. We saw the Rosetta Stone. We breezed through the Egyptian exhibit which was really crowded. We then went to Westminster Abbey. As we got off the tube, we saw Parliament including Big Ben, which is across the street from the Abbey. Westminster Abbey is almost overwhelming with the amount of memorials and tombs it contains. The main part of the church is very beautiful. We were able to have an audio guide complimentary with the purchase of our tickets. After viewing the church, we walked on to Buckingham Palace, which is relatively nearby. It is very impressively large on the outside, though kinda ugly. We opted not to go in as it is very expensive and the guide books did not make it seem particularly appealing. We decided that we would go see a movie that night instead. We got our tickets to Wolverine and were pleased to note that they offered a student price, which was still more than we would have paid for a movie in America as expensive as that is. We also got to pick our seats at the ticket counter. We were able to see a layout of the theatre and were told to pick our seats from there. This was such a foreign concept to us, we didn’t even know what to pick and so just went with her suggestions. While seemingly a good idea, this actually played out rather oddly. We were seated in the middle, and the theater was not full. However Suze and Bekah both had people sit directly beside them. This was a bit strange to us, as in the States, people would naturally leave a seat between unless the place was completely packed.
check out the pictures:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072736&id=34104915&saved#/album.php?aid=2072736&id=34104915
Words of the Entry: Pom or Pommie – a slang term for an Englishman. Shandy—a refreshing beverage made by combining lager with lemonade…don’t knock it til you try it. In a sentence: The Poms sure do like their shandy; you can even get it at the canteen at the hospital.
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Only a flesh wound, It got betta:
After work today, Suze decided she was going to go for a run for the first time since we have been in London. Bekah suggested that Marvin, one of the assistants on our ward go with her. Marvin however, was late for the run, causing Suze to uncharacteristically start stretching on this random brick wall outside. Bekah was in her room reading, when all of a sudden there was a knock, she yelled come in seeing as only Suze has ever knocked. This was the not the case, but instead an OT student came to inform her that Suze was injured, injured bad. Bekah, the kind caring person that she is, ran outside in bare feet carrying clean towels (thanks Jenna and Melissa). Suze was lying on the wall that accosted her with a large gash on her “lower leg”, for those of you non-physios. Marvin arrived shortly afterwards, and Bekah informed him that were be a change of plans. About which he fist pumped his excitement as he was not too keen on running in the first place, until he realized why (yet he went for a run and bragged about it later). Here in Britain, there is the lovely fact that ambulances are free… so we called one – first ambulance ride for the both of us. However, it got lost and Bekah had to chase it. This took about an hour. One of the EMTs was ornery and pressed on poor Suze’s wound and it hurt. It really hurt. We were taken to the A&E (accidents & emergencies, the ER for all you Americans) where Suze was placed in a “wheelchair”, which was literally like a waiting room chair with wheels. After about 25 minutes, we were taken back to another room, but this consisted only of cleaning the wound with multiple people coming in to look at the wound. After an hour the doctor came, but he made Suze hobble to the “theatre” for her stitches. Well leave the rest of the story out for the faint of heart. Long story short, and 7 stitches later, they kicked us out. But they didn’t charge us anything, except for the antibiotics, which apparently are outrageously priced at £7.4. By the time we figured out how to get home, and some crazy Brits told us to get off at the wrong stop, the entire experience took about 5 hours. Not too shabby for an introduction into socialized medicine.
Words of the Day: Brilliant vs. Rubbish: both are catch all terms and seemed to be used almost as antonyms of one another. Brilliant – marvelous, perfect, wonderful; Rubbish – literally meaning garbage, rubbish is used to “call someone out”. In a sentence: While falling and splitting open her leg was rubbish, Suze has made quite a brilliant recovery.
Words of the Day: Brilliant vs. Rubbish: both are catch all terms and seemed to be used almost as antonyms of one another. Brilliant – marvelous, perfect, wonderful; Rubbish – literally meaning garbage, rubbish is used to “call someone out”. In a sentence: While falling and splitting open her leg was rubbish, Suze has made quite a brilliant recovery.
The Beginning
Upon arrival to the UK, Bekah made it to London in impeccable time. However was forced to wait for Suze, as her plane was delayed due to multiple mechanical problems. We made it through the underground (metro) with no problems and free tickets from some hunky European males. However, there were multiple staircases which did not go well with all our baggage. The tube stop is about 23 minutes from the hospital without luggage, so who knows how freaking long it took us to commute from there with it. But we do know that this trip was extended due to the fact that Bekah’s handle broke on her rolling suitcase. Being as her luggage is about three feet tall and Bekah is 5’9” and cannot carry the 40 lbs that the luggage weighed, this was ridiculous. Suze wished to take a picture, but Bekah was quite unhappy and in pain. So there is no documentation… you should all be sad about this. And did we say it was uphill?
We live in the Nurses’ Home at the hospital, meaning our commute is less than 5 minutes, but our rooms are shoe boxes. The door knobs all turn crazy ways, right one way, left the other. But do not think that there is method to this madness, Suze’s doorknob turns right, and Bekah’s turns left to enter. We have uni-sex co-ed bathrooms, but we rarely see other people in there. The sinks have two knobs, one for hot water and one for cold. This makes it virtually impossible to wash your hands with the appropriate temperature as the hot water is extremely hot. So much so that is has a warning label beside it! The stalls for the toilets are nice with full doors and offer plenty of privacy. The shower is also very private and in a room by itself. Blessedly, the water is hot and with good pressure. Unfortunately, the shower has a push button to release the water. This means the stream stays steady for about 8 seconds and then requires that you push it again. While this may seem like a long time to a bull rider, it is not long enough to rinse the soap suds out of your hair, much less take a complete shower. We estimate that we average about 12 pushes per shower. And it can get quite cold between bursts. It is a bit like taking a shower at the boardwalk of a beach. Except that it is more private and the water is warm.
So, a little bit about where we work. The Royal Hospital for Neuro-Rehabilitation is a privately funded not for profit organization. Patients can stay here anywhere from 3 months to 50+ years. There are several wards in the hospital with specific designations: Huntingdon’s, Parkinson’s, brain injury, etc. The ward where we are working, Drapers, is a brain injury unit. The differentiating characteristic to allow a patient to be on Drapers ward as opposed to another brain injury ward is that the patient must be able to communicate. This can be anything from verbal communication to giving a thumbs up or thumbs down for yes and no to Suze’s patient who is locked in and can only indicate her feelings by moving her eyes or neck. Drapers ward has 20 beds, all of which are full at the moment which is rather unusual, so we are told. The patients who come to Royal Hospital are very severely involved. Many of the patients cannot participate in transfers, and must be moved using a “hoist”. Though it is called Royal Hospital, it is not a traditional hospital. They do have a nursing staff, but do not handle critical care patients. If a patient were to have a critical acute problem, they would be sent “to hospital” until they were stable enough to return to us.
Word of the Entry: Physio = also known as a physical therapist, or a designation for your time in therapy. In a sentence: “It is time for your Physio”
P.S. Some people have been wondering what locked-in really meant. and according to the ooo so reliable wikipedia: Locked-in syndrome is a condition in which a patient is aware and awake, but cannot move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body. It is the result of a brain stem lesion in which the ventral part of the pons is damaged. The condition has been described as "the closest thing to being buried alive".
We live in the Nurses’ Home at the hospital, meaning our commute is less than 5 minutes, but our rooms are shoe boxes. The door knobs all turn crazy ways, right one way, left the other. But do not think that there is method to this madness, Suze’s doorknob turns right, and Bekah’s turns left to enter. We have uni-sex co-ed bathrooms, but we rarely see other people in there. The sinks have two knobs, one for hot water and one for cold. This makes it virtually impossible to wash your hands with the appropriate temperature as the hot water is extremely hot. So much so that is has a warning label beside it! The stalls for the toilets are nice with full doors and offer plenty of privacy. The shower is also very private and in a room by itself. Blessedly, the water is hot and with good pressure. Unfortunately, the shower has a push button to release the water. This means the stream stays steady for about 8 seconds and then requires that you push it again. While this may seem like a long time to a bull rider, it is not long enough to rinse the soap suds out of your hair, much less take a complete shower. We estimate that we average about 12 pushes per shower. And it can get quite cold between bursts. It is a bit like taking a shower at the boardwalk of a beach. Except that it is more private and the water is warm.
So, a little bit about where we work. The Royal Hospital for Neuro-Rehabilitation is a privately funded not for profit organization. Patients can stay here anywhere from 3 months to 50+ years. There are several wards in the hospital with specific designations: Huntingdon’s, Parkinson’s, brain injury, etc. The ward where we are working, Drapers, is a brain injury unit. The differentiating characteristic to allow a patient to be on Drapers ward as opposed to another brain injury ward is that the patient must be able to communicate. This can be anything from verbal communication to giving a thumbs up or thumbs down for yes and no to Suze’s patient who is locked in and can only indicate her feelings by moving her eyes or neck. Drapers ward has 20 beds, all of which are full at the moment which is rather unusual, so we are told. The patients who come to Royal Hospital are very severely involved. Many of the patients cannot participate in transfers, and must be moved using a “hoist”. Though it is called Royal Hospital, it is not a traditional hospital. They do have a nursing staff, but do not handle critical care patients. If a patient were to have a critical acute problem, they would be sent “to hospital” until they were stable enough to return to us.
Word of the Entry: Physio = also known as a physical therapist, or a designation for your time in therapy. In a sentence: “It is time for your Physio”
P.S. Some people have been wondering what locked-in really meant. and according to the ooo so reliable wikipedia: Locked-in syndrome is a condition in which a patient is aware and awake, but cannot move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body. It is the result of a brain stem lesion in which the ventral part of the pons is damaged. The condition has been described as "the closest thing to being buried alive".
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