The World in Britain

It has been so long since I’ve update! We’ve just been so busy over here.  I spent a fantastic winter break first in Prague, then Christmas with my family in London, and then Madrid and Barcelona with Reena.  Christmas was really great with my family.  We stayed in London and spent 10 days touring around.  We did all the touristy things like the Tower of London, Westminster, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s, Madame Tussuad’s.  We also spent a lot of time walking around and spending time together.  My sister and I spent New Year’s Eve in Parliament Square and watched Big Ben count down the minutes till 2009.  It was cold and crowded, but what a cool experience!

The day after my parents flew home, Reena–my housemate–and I flew to Madrid!  We spent a full week enjoying the history and scenery of Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona.  We ate lots of tapas and drank real Spanish sangria.  We took in a flamenco show with another American from out hostel and went wading in the Mediterranean.  It was a really fabulous trip.  I will post pictures soon!

We came back from Spain the day before classes stared up again, so I had an incredibly full Winter Break.  This semester I’m taking Public Health Nutrition, English in the World and Sustainable Development.  They have all been challenging, especially Public Health Nutrition, but they’ve also been incredibly interesting and I come home from class and tell all of my housemates about the fascinating things I’ve learned that day.  I’m currently writing my seminar paper on Public Health advances in the 18th century.  A few weeks ago, I went to the Wellcome Library, one of the most comprehensive medical libraries in the world, in London to do research. Where else would I get an opportunity to go into London to do research?  This was just another great benefit of studying in Reading for the year, I certainly wouldn’t have had such an opportunity in Lynchburg!

Life has been going smoothly here at 153 as well.  We’ve all settled into our little house and we’ve all agreed that we’ll miss it a lot next year.   A couple days ago we had quite the exciting run in with nature when a pigeon slammed into our kitchen window and was subsequently attacked by a hawk!  We also heard and saw a fox in our backyard one night which was screeching like a child.  There are always interesting things happening on Whiteknights Road.  Tonight we are honoring the great RMWC tradition–Tacky Party!  We have tacky costumes and tacky music all ready for the festivities.  I’ll keep you posted on the rest of the semester goes! It is going by so fast! we’re already over half way through the semester; only too soon we’ll be coming back to the States.