I Flew...

...on the London Eye!

Earlier this morning, several of us went to orientation at St. Andrew's (Barnsbury), a primary school in Islington, for the SHINE Program.  The SHINE Program is a volunteer opportunity for NYUL students, such that they work with primary school kids as tutors, or playmates for the nursery kids.  I had heard about this opportunity before we came, and I am happy I got the chance to do it.  It is going outside of my comfort zone a bit; even though I have tutored kids before, it was either because I knew them well (my coworker's daughter) or that I didn't have to get to know them at all (kids in the public library).  With SHINE, we would have to get to know the kids in our year for the rest of the semester.  It is also quite a heavy responsibility to take care of the kids while at school.  At training last week, they reminded us of all the things that could go wrong, including a child revealing sexual abuse or bullying....  And we have to be the responsible adults and notify the teachers while trying to maintain calm!  Phew....  Well, I still look forward to the program a lot!  I think it will be very gratifying and I will go back home very proud of myself for having done it.

Another thing I am going to be involved in is the office job at the Academic Center.  I applied for the job position in November and I finally got short listed for an interview on Monday, and officially hired yesterday.  I filled out all the paperwork today, and hopefully will start next week?  It is mostly clerical work, obviously, and I suppose what little money I get from it will be sent home so Mom can deposit it and I can maybe use it here for little goodies.

All this new, fun, exciting stuff comes with a grain of salt, though....  I really have to be conscientious about budgeting my time.  So far, it seems that Monday mornings, I will be at work, and afternoons I will be in Organic Chemistry.  Tuesday mornings, I will probably also be working, and afternoons I will spend slaving away in the (far superior) Organic Chemistry lab.  Wednesday day is class entirely.  Thursday mornings will be at St. Andrew's for SHINE, and afternoons will be the last class of the week.  During the week, I will have to do all my homework at night, plus cook and try to clean, and study and do laundry on the weekends.  Oh goodness.

On to more interesting things...today was our programming trip to the London Eye!  NYUL does this interesting thing where they essentially give you a £50 budget for the semester to spend whichever way you choose, on events like tours, sporting events, theatrical shows, etc.  I did the Eye today, and on Saturday I will be at the Tower of London!

The weather started out lovelily today...but definitely took a turn for the worst right around the time we walked down to the Thames.  Of course it had to rain, and it was definitely not forecast - and even SUNNY during the day - so I thought I would be safe ditching my brolly at home.  False.  So, I couldn't really take scenic shots of the banks of the Thames in the rain.  Plus, I was soaked.

We saw a 4D show about the Eye, which involved funky 3D glasses, and bubbles and snowflakes being blown at us.  Then, we actually got to ride the thing, which was a bit insane: the Eye is essentially a giant Ferris wheel that does not stop...so you have to run inside one of the capsules, lest you fall into the Thames River below (nah, there is an edge to save you from that watery fate...I heard there are eels in the Thames...ew).  Once you get in, it's a bit nauseating, but...exciting!  Of course, we had to go the day it was cold and rainy, so the transparent walls of the pod were rain-streaked, and it was nearly impossible to get clear shots of anything.  We did see a great stretch of the north side of the river, though, and it is quite gorgeous at night.  Nothing like the New York City skyline...but it was beautiful!

Obviously the main thing you see is Parliament and Big Ben.  I must have tried taking fifty photos of it, but it was so difficult with the rain and the darkness and the weird distortion of the pod windows....  Anyway, it is a very cool bit of architecture.  I think...Neo-Gothic?  It's got lots of vertical lines and repetitive patterns down the way.  I heard the minute hand of Big Ben is as long as a double-decker bus!  And, it was apparently named after the guy who designed/built it, so as one of my tour guides pointed out, we're lucky the guy wasn't named Richard.

London has got some great bridges spanning the Thames to take you from the north to south banks.  We actually walked across one to get there (The Queen's Jubilee/Hungerford Bridge - awesome suspension design) and one to go back to the north bank (Westminster Bridge - beautiful view of Parliament, right under Big Ben).  There is also the Millennium Bridge a ways away, which people inform me was part of the last Harry Potter movie, where dementors swoop in over London.  I am ashamed to admit I do not remember this scene a lot...probably since I haven't bought the Half Blood Prince DVD yet and have only seen it once in theaters (hangs head in shame).

I reckon the Eye is something you have to do three times, at least: day, sunset, and night.  We've already got (rainy) night taken care of, so hopefully in the spring, I will have more lovely pictures and tales to come from the top of London.