Last week in London

Classes are over! Yay. I went to Shakespeare's Globe last night with a couple flat mates to see The Merchant of Venice, it was pretty good. The Globe is amazing inside. My last full day in London has been pretty chill compared to what I thought it would be. I went to my internship to say my goodbyes to everybody, then I came back to the flat to pack. One of my flatmates has already left, now there are only 4 of us left. I can't believe it is over so soon, but I am ready to get home too. I'm excited to see my friends and family. My flatmates and I have this theory that if we stay out all night tonight, then tomorrow we will all be able to sleep great on that long flight home! ;) I guess we will see how things go. Here are some farewell pictures from King's.

Winding down the semester

I just finished the 5th paper I had to do for my classes this week. I do kind of like writing papers for finals instead of taking an actual test. I enrolled for next semester back at Missouri Southern State University. I also set up an exit interview with King's College Hospital to talk to my supervisor about how the internship went this semester. As you can see, the semester is winding down. I'm excited to get back to the states and start my summer, although a lot of my friends will still be in school studying for finals. I guess they should have studied abroad too. ;)

Papers, papers, papers.

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague

Kristen, my flatmate, and I spent Easter weekend in Prague! It was such a gorgeous place. We even got to spend a couple hours in Dusseldorf, Germany between flights! In Prague, we explored the city and got to see the Charles Bridge, Astronomical Clock, Lennon Wall, and Prague Castle. The view from Prague Castle was amazing! I loved all of the red roofs and eastern looking buildings. Everything there was very inexpensive too, I got a lot of great food for less than $9, which is pretty good compared to London life!

Dusseldorf, Germany

Old Town Square in Prague for Easter

Lennon Wall

View from Prague Castle

Astronomical Clock

Dusseldorf, Germany

Metabolic Lab

This past week I have had the privilege of working with the Metabolic Team in the lab. In the metabolic lab, they work with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to detect if a person has been drinking alcohol to the excess. After a person has been caught for drunk driving, they get their license taken away for about a year and aren't able to get it back unless they pass a lab test saying they haven't had an excessive amount of alcohol in the past week or so. The DVLA sends blood samples to the Metabolic Lab at King's to have these tests done. Once the samples reach King's we do a Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) test to detect any heavy alcohol consumption. To do the CDT test we had to put the samples into a centrifuge to separate the contents of the blood in the test tubes. Once the blood was separated into three parts, we poured some of the plasma into a smaller tube before putting the sample in the Sebia Capillary 2. The Sebia Capillary 2 would analyze the blood and give us a graph and a CDT value which we would then send back to the DVLA. While carrying out these tests, I learned how to change out solutions and interpret the results that the Sebia Capillary 2 was putting out. I really enjoyed working in the Metabolic Lab, the people there were very friendly and always cracking jokes and having a good time, it was a good change of pace from Toxicology.

Making solutions for the Sebia Capillary 2

Oxford, England

My Global Foods class and I took a trip to Oxford! The old style buildings were gorgeous. I actually felt like I was in an area of the past walking down certain streets and alleys. It was a little windy and rainy, but we got to see a lot. We attended a lecture on US globalization at the Bodelian Library Divinity School and got to walk through the Ashmolean museum.

Toxicology? I think so!

A patient came into the hospital and they found a bag of powder on the person. So they got a urine sample from the patient to see if they had been using the drug. By the look of the powder, they thought it would be Methoxpenidine (MXP), which is a "legal high" giving the effects of a psychedelic. Havisha and I researched the metabolites that would be seen in the urine after the MXP had metabolized in the body, we came up with a couple metabolites. Then, with the help of Lewis, we found the mass of the metabolites by plugging the formulas into a mass calculator. After the urine sample went through the Mass Spectrometer, we analyzed the results looking for the masses of the metabolites of the drug. We actually found all three metabolites, each having a large amount, concluding that this wasn't the first time the patient had used the drug. It turns out that this was a new drug that we hadn't seen before at King's, but now it is in the library of the drugs, so we can test for it in future cases! It was very cool to see it all worked out, I definitely understand how urinalysis for drug tests work now!

Irish Getaway

Ireland was absolutely fantastic! I am definitely glad I got to go during St. Patrick’s Day weekend, it added so much to the city I feel. Everything there was gorgeous. Omar, my flat mate, and I stayed in a hotel that was located on the residential side of Dublin. It was great because we not only got to see the city side, but also got to see the quieter homey side of things. The neighborhood was beautiful because all of the houses and flats were made of red brick! I was surprised to see such green grass and flowers blooming even when it was about 40 degrees out. Each day Omar and I would take the bus into the city where we would walk around and explore. We got to see the Dublin Castle, Guinness Storehouse, Molly Malone Statue, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Trinity College. At Trinity College we went in and got to see the Book of Kells along with the Long Room, which was basically a beautiful library. Then at night we would go to Temple Bar where most of the touristy night life was. The streets were so packed at Temple Bar it was unbelievable. We also got to see some of the buildings lit up in green at night. We had a lot of fun dressing up and celebrating the holiday, it has definitely been one of my favorite cities so far on this trip.

This describes my weekend perfectly.

Dublin Castle with Omar

Book of Kells, Long Room Library

Trinity College lit up in green!

Pictures worth a thousand words: Spring Break

Iamsterdam sign

Amsterdam Canals

Heineken Experience, Amsterdam

Barcelona

Great Barcelona views

Barcelona sidewalk

Church on the mountain, Barcelona

Brandon and I

Barcelona Fountain

John Wayne

Taylor Lautner

Pink Birds!

Portobello Road.

I've got to say, the classes here are way better than your average U.S. class. We are basically never in the actual class room, instead we are always out exploring the wonderful city of London. The classes I am taking don't require any tests, which is always a big relief! One of the trips with my Global Foods class was to Portobello Market, where we explored the market most of the class. The market had variety of things to choose from, most of it was antique things. I enjoyed a lot of the photography and paintings they had in some of the shops along with most of the antiques.

Chair made out of a stump,
we found walking to the market.

Brightly colored buildings on
Portobello Road & some friends
walking on the side.

The Medical Side

I got to do rounds with a Doctor today, it was impressive, definitely a change from the research side of the hospital. I was with the nutrition team so it was more about if the patients were getting the proper nutrition. We got to see many of the patients in ICU all over the hospital, I was given a brief background of each patient as to why they were in the hospital, then the team discussed how they were going to help the patients nutritionally.

I also sat in on a meeting that was like a webcam meeting with 4 other hospitals discussing patients and getting other ideas on what the doctors should do.

Last night I went to China Town, it was crowded because many people were celebrating the Chinese New Year. It was all very fun and decorative, with some great food!

Preparing for mid-term week!

Having a 4-6 page paper due in each class about the same week is kind of terrible. But I would almost rather write a paper than take a large test! I've finished two of the papers I needed to get done before  February 24th, I still need to work on one more but I have a week to get that done.
I received an amazing package at the start of the week that had all of my favorite foods my parents sent from home! They have froot loops here but they just aren't the same, it's more like a whole grain healthy type of froot loops, but they also don't have froot loops with marshmallows which is my absolute favorite! I was glad to receive some peanut butter too, I was on the last couple scraps from the bottom of the peanut butter I brought from home & Rice Krispies are always wanted! So thank you to my wonderful parents for sending some well needed snacks before I start this next paper.

Froot Loops, Jif, and Rice Krispies

This week during my Understanding Modern Britain class, we passed by a beautiful marina! Our professor showed us a yacht that he would love to have, which really wasn't the best looking one in my opinion. Anyway, after class a couple flat mates and I went to a local pub hoping that they would be serving pancakes for Pancake Day, but when we asked the bartender, he didn't seem to know anybody serving pancakes in the area. We decided to stay for a minute and watch some soccer highlights from 2014 on the T.V.

Kristen, Omar, and I at the pub.

Internship and walking around London

Recently I have been working in the Red Blood Cell lab. It has been great because it is a change of pace. Basically it is a room full of girls doing a lot of tests and reading results, but half of the girls are a younger generation so we have been having a lot of fun. I have learned a lot about Sickle Cell Disease and how to read the results of High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Isoelectric Focusing (IEF). I've also learned the procedures to doing an IEF. I think this next week I will be headed back to Toxicology to finish reading some results from the research we have been doing.
This weekend I found an amazing place to eat called Nandos. They had some grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and garlic bread I had been craving for quite some time. Then, I went out exploring later on in the weekend and found the Traffic Light Tree which I had on my list of things to see in London! I also tried to see the water pump John Snow broke the handle off of to stop the spread of cholera, but when I got to the location, the pump was gone. Where I should have been they had cut off with a fence for construction purposes, also the John Snow pub had been shut down for construction purposes too. I had a nice journey though so I cant complain.

Havisha and I looking at blood samples,
and punching out blood spots.

John Snow Pub

Traffic Light Tree

Greenwich Boat Tour

I took a Greenwich Boat Tour today with a flatmate and some other CAPA students, it was fun. We got to ride along the Thames River. We went under all of the bridges, then ended up in Greenwich. In Greenwich I got to stand on the Prime Meridian line splitting the eastern and western hemispheres. I also visited the Queen's House along with some other museums, then we finished up the tour at the Greenwich Market where I got some delicious food before heading back to the flat.

Tower Bridge

Prime Meridian

King's

Adding diluted blood samples to solvent.

Mixing samples before putting them in the "bath."

On Friday at King's, me and my co-worker Havisha finished up samples to put into the Mass Spectrometer. After punching out spots from patients blood cards, we put the spots into little tubes. We then added water to the tubes to try to bring the blood out of the card and dilute the blood. After diluting the blood, we added Trypsin to each sample allowing the hemoglobin protein to break up into small peptides. Each sample was placed into a "bath" of 37 degrees Celsius, which is the optimal temperature for Trypsin to work. After about an hour, we took all the samples and extracted the diluted blood and put it into solvent that would stop the Trypsin from breaking down the protein and dilute the blood again. Once the final dilution was made, we placed all of the tubes into the Mass Spectrometer for it to read the masses of each peptide, determining if the peptide is a disease causing peptide. Tomorrow we get to read our results, I hope we find an unknown variant.

Interesting days at King's.

Instead of sitting on the computer today, I got to take patients blood cards and punch out a spot to use for our research. Later, we will take the blood spot, add a solution to burst the cells and expose the hemoglobin then add Trypsin to break down the protein into peptides. Then we will be able to put the solution into the mass spectrometer to read the masses of the peptides. Also today, as I was leaving the hospital, it started to snow!

Day at Stonehenge and Bath!

This past weekend I took a trip with the school to Stonehenge and the Roman Baths, it was great to see! Very cold, but well worth it. The trip was from 9:00am to about 8:00pm. In Bath, there were many places to shop, it was nice getting to look around in the beautiful city. Omar, Kristen and I stopped at a nice restaurant for lunch. It was probably one of the best meals I've had here!

My First Official Day at King's College Hospital

Today I was excited to get started at King's College Hospital! When I first arrived, I got a badge that allows me access through some of the doors. Soon after that I attended a little meeting that explained a little about what kind of things I would be working with and how King's College Hospital works. I was working in the hemoglobin lab, which is the red blood cell lab. I spent most of the day entering different amino acid sequences that were problematic, so that when the information is transferred to the machine, the machine can tell the difference between a problematic amino acid sequence. Later we will be taking samples of blood and running them through the machine so that the machine can can test the blood for problematic amino acid sequences.

Interview Day

The day I've been stressing most about turned out to be one of the better days of the trip so far! The "interview" for my internship ended up being a two question session followed by a tour of the hospital and where I will be working. I was surprised because I had been planning for an in depth interview, when really, I got there and it was more like an orientation. So that all went well. I feel very comfortable and excited to get started, I feel like it is going to be a great experience.
Then Ashleigh texted me saying something about Sam Hunt being in London, and if that's not a big deal then I don't know what is! I mean, this is SAM HUNT. March 9th, count me in!
& it gets better! I've been sleeping on a box spring for about 5 days, while the true comfy mattress was being unused on the top bunk! So me and Kristen pulled the mattresses off and switched them out! Now, hopefully I will be able to sleep better!
Classes start tomorrow! :)

Settling In

St. Paul's Cathedral, from the Millennium Bridge

I'm starting to feel more comfortable with London day by day. Today, I went with CAPA on a tour around London, it was great getting to see all of the main attractions London has to offer. Tomorrow I am taking a walking tour of South Bank with CAPA also. I have an interview for my internship on Monday at King's College Hospital, then I start classes Tuesday. I can't wait to get my internship started, I think it will be the highlight of the whole trip! I should probably go buy a nice pair of shoes for my interview..
Anyway, so today I tried finding King's College Hospital.. That was a mess. The way I was told to go was under some sort of construction for the weekend, so the information desk sent me on a train taking another route, I got lost for a good 20 minutes but then was able to find my way to the Hospital. Then with a couple encouraging word from my mother back home, I easily found my way back to the flat.

Arrival in London

In the airport with my parents before my plane off to London.

Last minute packing is never a good sign but, as of right now I only know of two things that I forgot to pack, deodorant and a correct adapter for the outlets, which is pretty good if you ask me. My flight was 7 hours long; I was surprised to have gotten the amount of sleep I did on the plane. After landing in London, I grabbed my luggage and headed to the tube. The ride on the tube was about 45 minutes, then I walked to the flat I was staying in. I met all the roommates, then headed out for a tour around the local area. After the tour, Kristen and I headed out to see what we could do with our night. We ended up going to a cell phone shop, a couple pubs, Subway, and the local grocery store. It was a blast, we met a lot of awesome people everywhere we went. Literally, every place we went we would talk to someone for at least 10 minutes. People here are a little nicer and easier to get along with compared to the United States.
So far everything seems fun and exciting, although the weather could warm up a bit, this trip seems like it's going to be a good one.
Tomorrow is orientation for our classes, hopefully I will be getting a SIM card for my phone so I can talk with some people at home.