Imperial College

I have begun working at Imperial College in the Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology of the Department of Engineering. It took a while to get everything coordinated, but now it's done. It's kind of crazy how secure their campus is - I had to get a student card to be able to get anywhere. The building from the outside looks pretty old, but the inside has had some haphazard remodelling with some weird color schemes; the main ones being bright green and bright pink. Quite odd, but you get used to it.

I'm assisting a MSc student (masters of science) from Spain named Nuri. She's doing the same kind of research that I'm interested in, comparing algorithms of network reconstruction, and so it's been interesting working with her. I've had to follow her around a bit the first few days otherwise I'd get lost in the maze of corridors and rooms (as Martha did looking for the loo) and since I could easily have been locked out of the building due to needing to swipe a card through at every turn. Now I have card, so it should be better. She's here until the middle of June, then I'll continue the project she started and go the direction I'm more interested in.

I spend most of my time at the school during the day doing my dream job - studying and reading all day and getting paid to do it! The campus is in South Kensington, one of the more posh areas of London, and there are many free museums on the campus and within walking distance that are fun to explore with Martha after I get off work. It's amazing!!

Central London is Wicked

We explored Central London and went to a showing of Wicked on Wednesday. We really enjoyed the play, even though I felt lousy (my favorite part of being prego;). There is so many lovely things to see and do here. I can hardly close my eyes on the bus , even when I'm super tired. So, we went to Piccadilly Circus today (they call circles "circuses") and looked in some shops. My favorite was the "wow, that's retro" clothing shop with clothes from the forties through the nineties. Taylor loved the book shops, of course.

Something great happened while we were there. I went to get on the bus and my Oyster card was out of money so we jumped off so I could buy a ticket. We went to the machine and put a pound in then selected a one time ticket, then Taylor tried to put another pound in, because it cost 2 pounds. It froze, so he pushed to cancel button and we heard a gush of coins dropping to the change slot. I stuck it all in my pocket....so no one else would steal it and Taylor called the number on the ticket box and told them what happened. They took our address and number, but who knows if they will come. I counted it tonight and it is 56 pounds or the equivalent of $80!! We won the lottery...at least for a while.

Hello London!

We got in to the London-Heathrow airport at about 9 am Monday morning, great British accents buzzing all around us. We made it! It was sunny and beautifully green outside and I loved it! It was like a reawakening from the dark, cold, and stuffy airplanes and airports. Tay loves the adventure of traveling; I love it when we get there. We took the tube to our new flat (Dad, not a flat tire, a room! haha). It is tiny! We have a fold up futon bed, a foot and a half wide closet, a kitchenette (which includes a fridge in the cupboard, and a mini stove). My favorite part is the bathroom in a closet!! Form the outside it would appear as a little coat closet, but don't be deceived, they fit a toilet, shower, and a sink! Can you believe it? Welp, we settled in, took a nap, then went exploring. Here a few pictures of our flat building and with the double deckers outside and the amazing wall tile.