London, Day 2 (8/1/14)

I remember waking up ridiculously sore - as in, I knew I would feel that but I hadn't expected it to be this bad. My feet didn't hurt yet, but they were definitely sore and it wouldn't take more than an hour for them to turn into mush. The real killer was my calves, because standing up straight made them feel like they were being stretched too far. Oh well, over it.

The night before, I had decided to purchase the London Pass for today and the next because 1) it seemed like a great deal financially and could save me a significant amount of money and 2) it made sure that I would not hesitate to go to an attraction simply because I didn't want to pay for it; instead, it would make me want to go to as many places as possible to get the most from the pass.

I'd planned out my day so that I could see everything I wanted in two days with the pass, taking into account opening times and locations. I started off with leading back to the Paddington train station to buy the Pass and then taking the Underground to Westminster Abbey:

Selfies on the Underground!

In most of Westminster Abbey, pictures were actually prohibited, which is why I don't have the iconic parts of the Abbey in my pictures. 

I then moved to the Churchill War Rooms, which were essentially just across the street. I didn't know what they were before going in, but apparently they are the exact rooms that Churchill and his team used during WWII to plan all of the UK's decisions. It's beautiful, and I actually met a UT alum standing right in front of me! It's crazy that when they say UT has half a million alums, they really mean it. 

Apparently, Churchill was awarded US citizenship for his efforts in the war

P.M.: Prime Minister

The room that Churchill normally slept in, because it shared a wall with the main communications room

The museum is kind of secluded, and you can only access it through this sketchy-looking door that immediately leads underground, but it's really a fascinating account of such a crucial part of modern history

I was looking for the nearest Underground station and came across the Household Cavalry Museum, which I didn't even know existed. But because it had the London Pass logo next to the sign, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to spend 30 minutes or so checking it out. I went in, and for a cavalry that is so important to Britain, I'm surprised at how small it was. There were two rooms, and a place where you could actually look outside to see horses in the stables, but that was it. 

I got on the Underground to make my way towards East London:

And on my way, I grabbed lunch from a food stand near the road. One of the cool things about Europe is that student discounts are way more common (food was great!):

I was looking for the Shakespeare Globe Theater, and it took me FOREVER to find it but it was beautiful:

Unfortunately, there was a play going on at the time so I couldn't see the iconic inside, and even though standing room-only tickets only cost £5, my feet were already dead and I wouldn't have been able to keep on my schedule if I did. 

Either way, I thought I'd check out the ferry bus-thing. Basically a bus but it goes along the Thames River; it was expensive (like $15 a ride, I think!), but I figured I might as well try to once. Got some great shots though:

When I left the boat, I don't think I realized how many things I could see:

I went to the Tower of London first. I actually had no idea what it was, but it turns out it was the main fort in London for hundreds of years:

I rushed my visit there a little bit so that I could take a mediocre boat tour that wasn't even a boat tour. I have no idea how I got it wrong because it apparently was just a ferry from the East to the West side of London, but I got some pictures from the middle of the River Thames from it, at least:

I then went to the Tower Bridge and toured the museum there. It has a beautiful view from its walkway above the River, and then also has an area that shows how steam engines operate:

I walked around the area after that, and actually had the privilege of seeing the Tower Bridge raise for a boat that was being pulled by a tugboat!

After that, I ended up exploring the area a little bit because I didn't want to head back to the hostel yet, so I ventured into the part of town that is actually know as London - the part that I've been referring to as "London" is actually Westminster. It's weird, but apparently that's the way it works. 

This isn't the best picture, but this bridge was covered in little art pieces that someone had put in between the ridges of the ground of all sorts of things.

I was biding my time until I could go into the Tate Modern Museum, free to the public containing all sorts of modern art. I've never really been a fan of art, and although I have started to appreciate pieces that have some sort of meaning behind them, I cannot get over some pieces that are extremely plain or abstract but have no explanation whatsoever. The museum had several really famous artists though, and a few pieces that I thought were noteworthy:

I also saw this "piece of artwork" that was hanging in one of the galleries:

Ignore the people in the reflection because they would not get out of the way, but this is literally a mirror. Every single bathroom has one of these, and people in the developed world look into one of these literally every single day. There was an explanation for this, but it only talked about the audience member being part of the artwork, and to me, the audience member is always part of the artwork. There is no art without the audience member, and each person's perspective is different because they bring their unique experiences to their interpretations of each piece. I guess there are enough people out there that think differently for this to be a piece in what I would think is a very prestigious modern art museum, but I just don't get it. 

For dinner, I decided to try a London classic - fish and chips. Honestly, it was disappointing. Regular fish that you can find in the frozen foods isle at any grocery store and fries that are the same. Not worth it, especially because it was more expensive than the falafel. Dang it. 

Overall, though, it was a great day! I squeezed in a lot into a very short amount of time, and even did more than I had planned or even expected to. 

London, Day 1 (7/31/14)

It's been over a month and a half since I spent my first day in London (and in Europe!), but I wanted to make sure to post some pictures from that day!

From my British Airways seat:

I was fascinated by how tiny the Sprite can was!

The windows didn't have covers; instead, they had tints that actually worked very well and you could adjust how much sunlight you wanted to let in on a gradient

This came with my meal, and since I didn't know that the flight attendants would come by afterwards to offer us tea or coffee, for which we could use this milk, I just drank it.

As soon as I landed,  I had a weird interaction with the customs agent. He was very skeptical of everything I was telling him, and told me to reconsider Ghana because Ebola was there already. I was pretty sure it wasn't (though I hadn't checked in a couple days, so I couldn't say for sure), but everything he said just seemed so judgmental that I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I went directly on the Connect train from Heathrow to London Paddington. It took me forever to figure out how to get there and use the train, but I eventually figured it out. I was fortunate that my hostel was within reasonable walking distance of the Paddington train station, so I walked to it to check in and leave my luggage down. I then proceeded to try to find the Marble Arch and Hyde Park (Tip for people interested in London: you really don't need any cash, especially with a credit card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee. If you feel more comfortable with cash, just wait until you get into London and walk to any place that has a cash-exchange place because you will get a significantly better deal exchanging there, especially because of the competition):

I was ridiculously exhausted from the flight, and definitely jet-lagged, so I found a random bench in Hyde Park and laid down for a little bit. From a pamphlet that I'd picked up in the hostel, I knew that there would be a free tour of the East side of London in the afternoon, so I made my way there. Keep in mind that this navigation is testing my map-reading like nothing else ever has before and that my feet were hurting the way that only happens when you travel to a city in which everything is within walking distance. 

On the tour, I actually met three other Longhorns - one alumnus and two who had just finished up studying abroad in Spain. Awesome!

Anyways, we walked past Buckingham Palace:

And then saw the British army people guarding Prince Harry's house (they perform a short walk every ten minutes to keep their blood flowing)

And then a couple of just pretty buildings that we walked past:

I also snuck some pictures of Westminster Abbey and Big Ben!

And a look at the iconic phone booths of London:

By this time, my feet are killing me. Nevertheless, I am too chicken to try to figure out how to use the subway system, so I end up trying to walk back to my hostel. I'm not bad with directions and maps, never have been, but the lack of cellular data is daunting. Since I don't want to spend the money to get a taxi, though, I head back towards Buckingham Palace. Along the way, there are several gorgeous sights:

I stayed in front of Buckingham Palace for a long time to give my feet another rest, and then head back to the hostel. 

By the time I get back, I'm thoroughly exhausted, but I know that I have to plan out the next day so that I'm not wandering around aimlessly with a bunch of time that I end up wasting. The hostel is decent, but definitely not a hotel. I chose a room with 8 people; all the beds were occupied, but people were respectful of the space, keeping to themselves and keeping quiet. There's only one bathroom and it's tiny, but I couldn't have expected much more than that for the price I paid. Overall, good first day in the city!

HCMP: Non-compliance in Patients

I attended my first meeting with the Health Careers Mentorship Program, a student organization that I was accepted to last semester. The purpose is to expose students to shadowing opportunities of health professionals and other health-related information. An alumnus of UT and HCMP and current 3rd-year medical student at UTMB, Angie, is hosting a discussion series for us about some of the ethical issues in medicine to help prepare us for the realities of our chosen career paths, and today's was non-compliance in patients.

The issue revolves around the fact that a major problem in medicine is that patients will refuse to take their medications and otherwise not follow a doctor's suggestions about their health, for various reasons. We talked about a lot of them (e.g. finances, feeling better, etc.), but the most interesting one for me was about side effects of many medications. There are several examples of medications that make patients gain weight, feel drowsy, or other things that, on paper far outweigh the prospect of being cured from a serious condition but in reality can be major reasons for patients to stop taking medications even if they are still experiencing symptoms.

My mother always tells me about the benefits of Chinese Medicine - her profession - because acupuncture and herbal treatments don't have side effects. Her knowledge is the reason that the last time I took medication was about two years ago and only because I had dental work done and was painful to the point that I couldn't take it anymore. I still have the otherwise-full bottle of aspirin. I literally haven't taken anything else since, and I believe that I hadn't taken any drugs for a couple years prior to that as well.

When I think about having to prescribe these medications to patients, which can cause them headaches, diarrhea, skin irritation, drowsiness, weight gain, or more severe symptoms such as seizures, blindness, and sleep driving, I'm not sure about that. I want to work in health - there's no Plan B - but if I know how effective Chinese Medicine can be, even in cases of cancer (my little brother Justin was cured of childhood leukemia with it), how can I dish out medications that I haven't used myself in something like 10 years?