I'm still here.

Wow, where did February go? This study abroad experience has been passing way too fast.

So I have returned to this blog after receiving multiple aggressive e-mails from my mother demanding another blog entry. Lately, I haven’t even had the time to remember that I am in London. I have been so busy with reading/papers/presentations because (surprise) I’m actually going to school here. I wish I could hire someone to follow me daily and write about my life - it could be creepy and slightly invasive, but it would save me some much-needed time and please my mother.

This past weekend, I went on a trip to Cambridge where I toured a couple of the college campuses and walked around the town. The highlight of the trip was seeing the pub where Watson and Crick regularly hung out, and where (or so it is claimed) Crick announced that he discovered the secret to life. I also saw the Cavendish laboratory where JJ Thomson discovered the electron, Ernest Rutherford performed the gold foil experiment and devised his model of the atom, Watson and Crick constructed the model of DNA, and where I decided that I was a nerd for being star-struck by these names.

 Watson and Crick were sitting behind that window when Crick made his significant declaration.

 The Eagle pub - where Watson and Crick grabbed a pint and had a chat after work. These details may or may not be historically accurate, but I imagine they made conversation over drinks.

 The Cavendish Laboratory - home to some of the greatest and most revolutionary scientific discoveries.

 The doorway where Watson and Crick, and other great names, passed through on a daily basis.

My high school friend, Carol (a.k.a. carebear or c-money) came to visit me this weekend as well. She’s studying abroad just a hop, skip, and a jump away in Dublin. We enjoyed thinking about how unfathomable the concept of ‘casually meeting up in Europe like its no big deal’ would have been to us as high school freshmen. I showed her some of the most important cultural sites (i.e. Big Ben, red telephone booths, a British McDonald's for comparative purposes) and we had a good time catching up on our study abroad stories. On Saturday night, we hung out around Camden Town and ended up at Koko, where we discovered an absolute treasure. Apparently, on the last weekend of every month, Koko hosts an event called “guilty pleasures” where they play all those bad, but undoubtedly catchy pop songs/one-hit-wonders that people hate to admit they enjoy and the majority dresses up in ridiculous costumes just for the hell of it. It was very unexpected, and we had so much fun.

 Here is an example of how random this event was.

Alright, time to get back to my paper on the mechanisms that regulate synapse formation at the neuromusclular junction. It’s thrilling, really. There is nothing I would rather be doing here in London than sitting in my room, staring at a blank Word document, and pretending that I am actually going to start this paper today and not three days from now.

And I promise that I will do my best to keep updating this blog (this statement is mostly directed at my mother).