England... The End

I have been home for a few weeks now but have been so busy I haven't had time to post about the end of my trip! So.... finally.... here it is:

Wednesday & Thursday were more quiet days around Cambridge. Wednesday I spent more time wandering around the old colleges, taking a few pictures (and again realizing that my camera is smarter than I am at this point), and enjoying a good book over afternoon tea and scones. Then Thursday I rested at Eli's apartment (more reading my book, doing some London planning, and packing), and Eli and I went to King's College Chapel for the Sung Eucharist service that evening. I wish I could describe how beautiful that music was.... let's just say that the a capella boys/men's choir, together with the thought of the Lord being worshipped in that wonderful chapel daily (or nearly) for hundreds of years, plus much of the same liturgy that we use in our church (though here, sung in Latin, with translation in our booklets) - it brought tears to my eyes several times. Definitely one of my favorite parts of my trip!

Friday & Saturday were London days for me. I took the bus into town Friday morning, got settled into my hotel, and spent the afternoon walking through Westminster Abbey and Harrod's. Then Friday evening I went to a performance by the Royal Ballet - my other favorite part of my trip! Saturday, Eli joined me in London for a morning and afternoon of museums and more walking London (plus a fish & chips lunch - a must for any London tourist, right?). We went to see the Phantom of the Opera (which I had never seen before) that night.

A few London pictures:

Parliament and Big Ben - backlit

The obligatory tourist pictures! me in Trafalgar Square; Eli with a .... guard on a horse?

Crew

Wednesday's big event: biking to crew practice in the early morning hours to watch Eli row! Rowing is quite the sport around here - each of the individual colleges has a team; so it's like intramural basketball or something at home, at least in that it's much more widely available and more participated in - maybe a bit more committment required since it involves a lot more practice and early mornings (cold, dark, bad weather) and much harder work - but can you imagine intramural rowing? Yikes. So the Cam is quite narrow through most of the course - in some stretches not even wide enough to turn the boat! - which makes for chaos at times when somebody stops, or wants to pass, or catches a crab mid-stream. (Rowers, picture the chaos at the start or the docks of the Head of the Charles - that's daily life around here.) And the coaches ride bikes up & down the path beside the river (some with bullhorns, some just yell).

It was so dark and cloudy that I didn't get many good pictures, but I did have a funny exchange with Eli's coach - after several times of me stopping my bike to take pictures of Eli's boat, he called out to the guys as they went past "Row pretty for the lady! Must be for a magazine or something!" - and when I laughed and told him I was Eli's sister, he turned back to the boat and said "Oh! Eli, row pretty for your sister!" Eli was thoroughly embarrassed I'm sure!

Rowers - this is to give you an idea of the narrowness of the river - and the crowd - and the coaches biking up & down the path on the bank!

Cambridge

After spending most of the day yesterday resting and recovering both from travelling and the past two weeks of work (I slept in, read my book, napped, etc....), today was the day to get out and see Cambridge! (Eli was busy with classes, etc., and unfortunately couldn't join me.) I was so thankful to see the sun shining when I woke up - apparently most of the English winter is cold and cloudy/rainy, and sunshine is a rare treat. It didn't last all day but at least it didn't rain! (And while cloudy weather limits what one can do with lighting for photographic purposes, I had a few shots that turned out alright....)

I spent the morning wandering through some of the "colleges" at Cambridge and enjoying the beautiful green lawns and old architecture. (Cambridge is organized into residential "colleges" - King's College, St. John's college, etc. - Churchill College in Eli's case - that are separate from the academic departments.) I was pretty sure I was an uninvited guest in some cases, as the colleges are closed to visitors (or even charge admission!) for some parts of the day, but I decided that as long as I acted like I knew where I was going, and didn't dilly-dally taking too many pictures, everyone would just think I was a student!

Trinity College Bridge over the Cam:


Then I headed to the Cambridge Botanical Gardens. I knew there wouldn't be much blooming in the middle of winter, but it was still a nice walk.

Snowdrops:


in the Winter Garden:


Orchids in the "hothouse:"


I also stopped by the local art museum, and then headed for a bookstore/cafe for afternoon tea and a croissant, and relaxed with a copy of Jane Eyre (feeling very British by this time!). Altogether a very pleasant day which I may repeat parts of (especially the afternoon tea part!) tomorrow!

In England!

Surprise! I'm currently in Cambridge, England, visiting my brother Eli, who is here studying for a master's degree this year..... As of this time last week I though I was spending my vacation at home working on re-organizing and painting our study, but Matt found a great deal on a plane ticket, so on Tuesday we decided I would leave for England on Saturday, and here I am!

I arrived in Cambridge at about 9:30 yesterday (Sunday) morning, and after making the 30 minute walk from the bus stop to Eli's flat, we headed to 11:30 church. Eli goes to a great Church of England church (reformed, great preaching) in a beautiful old building with stained glass windows and wood pews..... and a modern praise band with piano, drums, guitar, 2 electric guitars, a flute, and an old overhead projector for the words!

I crashed pretty hard after church though and slept through both lunch and Sunday evening service, but woke up for dinner and the NFL football party. Eli had organized a group to get together and watch the games (at 8pm/11:30pm local time), and brought real American snacks (real Lays, Oreos, Planters peanuts, etc).... a huge hit! (Apparently the British version of potato chips aren't quite the same.) We enjoyed watching the game (I think most of the guys watched both games, though I headed back to bed after the Patriots won) and explaining some of the finer points of American football to the Brits.... like the blitz with an extra pass rusher (to which one of the Brits asked, "and where does the extra chap come from?"). It was great.

Pink Eye, How I Hate Thee

Ah yes. After working a month in the Peds ER, I have contracted that oh-so-frightening infection known as pink eye. (Technically, viral follicular conjunctivitis - but pink eye covers it pretty well.) Bright red eye, itching, burning, tearing, swollen eyelid, eye crusted shut when I wake up in the morning, sore throat from all that drainage running down my throat, the works. And it's apparently highly contagious, which is why I haven't been allowed to work...

For the record, I have NOT wanted to be stuck at home with this infection - I have tried to work but continue to be told not to be around patients, other residents, etc., by DOCTORS... I was sent home from my ER shift on Wednesday morning with my bright red draining eye, then went Thursday evening for my overnight ER shift and was sent straight to the Eye Foundation Hospital's ER for an evaluation. That doc grounded me from work until it got better or until seeing my opthalmologist. No improvement over the weekend so I saw my doc today, who says come back Wednesday and no work before then! So I can't be back at work until Thursday at the earliest. SO frustrating. I will have missed 7 days of work just because of an eye virus! :(

Christmas Lights? It's November 10!

While driving home from dinner last night, Matt and I passed a house in our neighborhood with Christmas lights up, and lighted reindeer with Santa's sleigh in the front yard. Now, really, people... don't make me go into my rant about starting the Christmas season before Thanksgiving...

Early Mornings

3:30am, and I'm wide awake! (Trust me, this NEVER happens... I'm such a sleeper!) My sleeping schedule has been a bit messed up after switching off of the night shift - yesterday I woke up at 5am, also wide awake. I didn't go to bed until 11pm, though, so you'd think I'd be tired....

Anyway. My usual routine is that I am a very sound sleeper and have a hard time waking up to any kind of alarm (unless I'm on call at the hospital, when any little thing wakes me up), and usually am very groggy for awhile - at least until I get a shower - before being anywhere near glad that I'm awake. (I don't think I'm a mean or grouchy person in the mornings, though Matt might say otherwise, having a more honest perspective on the situation - I'm just quiet and don't like to be bothered, and am easily bothered first thing in the morning!) So my early morning awakenings recently have been quite a change. It's been nice, actually - I like having time in the mornings to relax, drink a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate in tonight's case), have my quiet time, get some things done around the house, and not be rushed to get out the door. That's my dream of the kind of person I would like to be - it's just not who I usually am right now - so, while strange, I'm actually enjoying this off-schedule-ness!