kathleen
January 20, 2006
Blood is beautiful :)
If you know me, you know that one of my favorite activities is donating blood. Due to my living in the UK for more than three months, when I return to the States I will no longer be able to donate...at least until blood donating standards have changed. Right before I left Boston I made sure to donate platelets (AMAZING) for the first and only time and whole blood. I was bummed it might be the last time I could donate. However, Praise the Lord, it wasn't! Last Friday I found a blood drive nearby and although I spent about three hours just getting a spot in line, being questioned and actually donating, it was so worth it. What does this mean? I will be able to donate once or possibly twice more in the UK (depending on timing of future blood drives) and will need to fly back here for any future blood donations. ;) Small sacrifice, obviously.
Last Saturday morning I went down to Trafalgar Square to celebrate the Russian New Year at the Russian Winter Festival. I had an enjoyable time, despite the rain, "Russian snow" (foam) and all of the Russian singing I couldn't understand... My roommate and I also went shopping to get our friend Edward some nice pink polo shirts... Later that night 20+ people, including me, the roommate and Jen, helped Edward celebrate his 20th birthday. We went out to a Pakistani restaurant, which was excellent, and then on to a bar for a couple of hours. (The tube shuts down around 12:30 so a lot of us left then.)
My LSE Impact Group (Bible study) started up again on Tuesday night and then Wednesday night I met up with a new group of people from my church for that Bible study. Thursday night I went to CU Central (large group at LSE) and then a few of us got magnum bars (so smooth!) and stayed up late chatting.
In terms of school I feel as though I need to be more self-motivating. Exams are coming up in May/June and it's a little freaky but I guess I'm thinking about my travel plans... This past week I signed up for two weekend trips -- one to Brussels and another to Scotland. Woo hoo! I have an essay due next week and another following week. Way to cramp my style...
Posted by kathleen at 06:54 PM
January 11, 2006
Bankside or bust!
Wow, a second entry in the same week! :)
Last night some of us went over to Bankside (another hall owned by LSE) to have dinner with our pal Heather (another study abroad student) and surprise Jen with cake for a little belated birthday celebration. Edward (a real live LSE student) was in charge of tea after dinner and Heather's friend Than came over (which was sad because he's leaving London today). Wow, this sounds really complicated... The point is, we had an awesome time (see picture below)! The food was great and we talked for hours before finally parting ways around 1:30 this morning.
After my 9:00 o'clock class this morning I came back to the room for a little nap. I probably got about 20 min in before some random guy was knocking on the door...and then every other door in my flat! I ran out to see what was going on. Turns out we're getting two new refrigerators! Pretty exciting if you know how small and useless our old ones are...
This afternoon we had a meeting for JAW (it's like Missions Week but we've changed the name to Jesus Awareness Week so that people know what we're talking about). I think everything is coming together really well. I'm in charge of making up surveys for members of the Christian Union (CU) to ask other students. It's really exciting to see how hard everyone is working. It's also really encouraging to know that the students in CU have such a big heart for the rest of the student body here at LSE.
Tonight I'm hanging out, doing a little work and enjoying some reading. My goal is to read the DaVinci Code in the next week and a half...I'll keep you posted on that. As for now, enjoy this fun picture of Heather, Me, Than, Edward and Jen from last night.
Posted by kathleen at 03:58 PM
January 07, 2006
...and I'm Back!
I realize that my pathetic one entry from last term must be kind of a let down. I can try to recap the 12ish weeks I spent in London last term...but I think I have decided that I would much rather talk about now! Ok, so last term was awesome. The work is hard and there is a LOT of it but I have made some awesome friends, tried out some awesome food, visited France and Holland, saw fabulous theatre productions that made me laugh and cry, joined an incredibly welcoming and loving church and I have learned a lot about who I am and how much I love America. ;) One of my new year's resolutions is to better document my time abroad. So here it goes!
Leaving home was tough and unlike my first flight over only my Mom brought me to Boston, and because she was feeling under the weather, she just dumped me off at the airport. Of course, she brought me to Anna's Taqueria and Hidyan (for one last burrito and Twix frozen yogurt!) and to Simmons too, so it's not as if she just wanted to kick me out of the country or something. It was good though, I ran into my friend Megan at the airport and met her Mom and we also found out that we were on the same flight! When I arrived back in L-town I took a shower and three hour nap before spending time with my friend Jen -- we went to McDonald's (welcome back to London, right?) and then hung out and talked about where to go in Europe for part of our spring break.
Today, after ten hours of sleep (which was not enough, but decent) I went out to Brick Lane to try out a salty beef bagel with Jen and Heather (they are both General Course students from the US too). If you haven't had one of these, you need to, immediately. It is made of corned beef and mustard on a plain bagel. It might seem like a heart attack waiting to happen, but it is delicious (minus when it has too much mustard and it stings your nostrils) and I highly recommend it.
I think my roommate gets back tomorrow (I think...haha). She went to Spain for New Years with her German boyfriend to celebrate the New Year. The stories should be interesting, to say the least. :) Anyway, I thought I would leave you with a picture of Jen and me enjoying our salty beef bagels from today. Enjoy!
P.S. I had a lovely Christmas -- I was home for two weeks and had a blast with family and friends in Boston, CT and VT. I miss the snow and fresh air already...
Posted by kathleen at 04:08 PM