Exploring London

I realized that we haven't been posting as much here as we did on St Maarten. I guess life is just less eventful in that sense. Owen works at the hospital 8:30-5 almost everyday. I cook a lot, babysit a bit, hang out with some friends, and work on my thesis. There isn't as much time for exciting adventures here as we hoped there would be, especially outside the UK due to time and cost. Lately Saturdays have been catching up on studying for Owen, his exam for Internal Medicine is in a few weeks. Also last week, Owen's almost brand new bike was stolen while he was at work and it was locked up at Ealing Hospital. Unfortunately the hospital does not have cameras or a guard that watches the bike rack area, so there's not much to be done. The week before, someone tried to cut his lock but didn't get it, then a few days later Owen saw a suspicious person checking out the bikes, both of which he reported to security but they really didn't seem to care. Then a week later his was gone. So we are investing in even better locks for mine and will be in the market for another bike and lock for him. Let's just say city living, especially in a higher crime area is definitely not for us!

Anyway, other than the normal daily stuff, we have managed to get into central London on a few weekends and weeknights and explore some of the free museums, walk around different neighborhoods, and visit some markets. We've seen the Science Museum, National Gallery, and the Natural History Museum so far. We checked out the St Patrick's Day festival in Trafalgar Square, walked around Covent Garden Market, and watched a pretty cool street performer there. We also walked around the Leicester Square area and Chinatown, which was all decorated with lanterns and really pretty. I also had the chance to meet up with Irene, another med school wife at another London area hospital. She and I had a great time together, seeing the Natural History Museum, walking around Noting Hill and Portobello Market, and grabbing Thai lunch. She is so sweet and it was really great to spend a day with another wife in the same situation. I miss that community from the island. So we are exploring London at least. We are still hoping to make it to the Tulip Festival in the Netherlands this month, a long weekend getaway after Owen's exam. Owen bought me some Dutch Tulips last week (I was really sick, again, this time a really bad stomach bug) and they are the most beautiful, big tulips I've ever seen, which makes me even much more excited to see the tulips in Keukenhof, Netherlands.

So for now those are the updates. Owen had a 4 day weekend for Easter, so we hung out with friends and celebrated Good Friday and Easter. We had hoped to get into the countryside a bit more but time just didn't allow. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Wellington Arch

Lanterns in Chinatown area

Chinatown

At least 5 levels in this M&M store!

All of Trafalgar Square was packed

Pretty cool street performer in Covent Garden Market

Natural History Museum

One of the entrances

Irene and I finally we able to get together!

The Main Entrance/lobby of the Natural History Museum

Notting Hill area

It hailed right after this picture. I thought we were going to have a tornado!

Some new decorations

Thursday Bible study group

I told you the Dutch tulips were huge!

And so beautiful!

The Thames River in Richmond (where we go to church) is a tidal river and this is a pub that is on the river. They have a high tide entrance (the stairs in front) but sometimes you can't even use that!

First Trip....Wales!

Now that we've finally settled in, we are starting our UK travel adventures! Our first trip was a short weekend getaway to Wales, the weekend after Valentines Day (our Valentines here included...tulips- my favorite flower, reeses- difficult to find in Europe, and red velvet cake balls which were excellent!). On Saturday we rented a car and drove through the beautiful English and Welsh countrysides. It took a bit over 5 hours to reach Llandudno, on the northern coast of Wales. It was a very cute little Welsh coastal town, we even heard some people speaking Welsh! We walked all around town, out to the pier, shopped, had dinner at a cute little pub, and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and being by the water. The tides were pretty dramatic and by that evening we could walk out to the end of one dock, which was completely underwater that afternoon. We also had a hotel overlooking the water.

The next day, we headed to Snowdonia National Park to hike Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales (1085m), second highest in the UK. We could not have asked for a more perfect day! Clear skies, sun, and warm! The peak had snow still and was windy, but the rest of the hike was beautiful. We took the Llanberis Path up, which is the most popular, it had beautiful views. The total hike is about 9 miles, which took us a little over 5 hours, with lots of stopping to enjoy the views. Turns out the last bit of the path was covered in snow and ice, so I ended up turning around just before the peak, while Owen ran up to get some pictures. Overall it was a great weekend, even though it was far too short. It felt so great to get out of the city and into the country for a while. Having a warm, sunny day was also a huge blessing. Living here, you appreciate any bit of sun and warmth you can get. It was a very refreshing trip. We've posted a few pictures from Wales, but we have lots more on our Wales Picasa Album. We highly recommend spending some time in Wales if you're in the UK.

Now that we've started the travels, we are starting to plan many more trips. We're hoping for Switzerland next month, Holland (for the tulip festival) in April, and maybe somewhere else before May when I head back to the states for a bit. Other possible countries on our list for after May include Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Iceland, Greece, Czech Republic, Germany...and maybe India or something in November when we finish here. If you have any suggestions of places to go or things to see we'd love to hear. We're really interested in doing some different things.

End of pier previously underwater that afternoon

Sunrise over the Irish Sea, view from our hotel room

Snowdonia National Park

Our path (peak-1085m)

Snowdon

We actually were dressed too warmly, too many layers

most of the path looked like this

What the last part of the path looked like (got even worse)

Beautiful views, so thankful for a clear day

Owen finished the hike, this is just after I turned around

Owen at Summit

Our Little Flat

After several weeks of searching and jumping through all the hoops, we finally moved into our own flat! It's about a 20 minute walk to the hospital, but we are also buying bikes today. We had no idea when we started this process how complicated everything here is. It is much harder to get a flat here than it was on the island or in the states. Being an international student is far more complicated here. However, we are finally all set up with a flat, bank account, and phones (with internet!) so things are settling in now. We're even taking our first little trip this weekend to Wales. It's just going to be a short get away, but we're renting a car, planning to hike in Snowdonia National Park, stay on the coast in Llandundo, and explore a bit on the way. Hopefully it's not too cold or rainy so we can get some great pictures! We're also trying to plan a trip to Switzerland in March, apparently Owen wants to ski the Alps, who knew ;) 

Overview of Layout

Otherwise not too much exciting news to share. It's really just been a lot of getting situated. Our flat is pretty cozy (aka small) but it's more homey than our St Maarten apartment was and has a way better kitchen! We've already had our first dinner party here (just 1 week after moving in) with 10 guests, a mix of Owen's fellow students and some friends from church. I made a full crockpot (6.5liters) of chili, 2 homemade cornbreads, and we bought some brownies (no baking supplies yet, still working on stocking the kitchen). Some of our friends brought drinks and a few bottles of wine. By then end of the night, everything was gone, and it was a pretty fun time. We're thinking of having a monthly crockpot night and inviting everyone over. So if you have a favorite crockpot recipe, feel free to email it to me :)

Owen just finished his first 2 weeks of Internal Medicine within the Gastroenterology Department. He was allowed to perform an OGD (oesophageal gastroduodenoscopy) and a colonoscopy with assistance. The consultant told Owen that he was the most dedicated student that he had ever had. Owen was invited to return to GI to do more procedures whenever he has free time. So it's definitely all been worth it for him to get this type of experience.

For now, I'll leave you with a few pictures of our place. It's pretty small as I said, but I tried to get the different angles so you can see how it's set up. We hope everyone is well and all our New England family and friends fared well in the blizzard.

Working on getting more pictures on the walls, just have to get frames

Awesome kitchen (in the middle of cooking for chili night). This is what sold me on this flat (and having a washer!)

The hallway into our place, with the bathroom on the right (the other open door)

Chili night! (there was another cornbread too, just in the oven at this picture)

Our version of a blizzard :) This is our private patio, we will definitely enjoy this in a few months