Experiencing the NHS

This weekend I traveled with the Rockclimbing Society (of which I am a member) to the Peak District. I think that's in the central northern area of the island, but I wasn't driving, so you know how that goes trying to figure out a location from the back of a van. I've been told it's around Manchester. 

I borrowed a sleeping bag from the Pooles and stuffed a backpack full of everything warm I own and bought "wellies" and gloves and a hat on my way to school. 

Pre-planning packing: 

There were 18 students total, and we camped two nights in a field of sorts, like a real field with sheep for neighbors. But you know what they say - "location, location, location," and this location was breathtaking. 

Our tents and fancy dinner:

We top-roped Saturday, and then we bouldered Sunday, and getting to climb outdoors again was just great. There are few more wonderful ways to spend a Sunday than outside in relative isolation climbing on rocks. 

The group: 

Some of us girls looking hardcore:

In case I'm ever a famous rock climber and I get a little too big on it, here's a picture of me falling. It happens a lot. 

All was fine and well until the end of the second day when I was bouldering down into a cave with the other climbers. Don't worry; it wasn't a creepy cave. Anyway, I had to drop the last four feet because my relative lack of height is a little limiting at times. I was "spotted" down (the others made sure I landed without falling over), but I twisted my ankle. Two sweet friends on the trip helped me (carried me) down the mountain, and I was able to switch my climbing shoes to wellies before the swelling made my ankle too big. 

What ankle? Gross. 

The next day I called my Physician's Assistant little sister, and told her about it, and she said I'd need an X-ray. So I rang my Rotarian family, Mike and Gill Poole, who saved me from my "painfully hobble around campus" routine after my last class and took me to the ER. 

The ER is called the A&E here, which stands for "emergency and something-that-starts-with-A." On the way, I tried to calculate which section of the budget my copay would come from and how much of the treatment I'd be paying for since it's out of network. (There is an in-network doctor here, but the A&E has the only X-ray machines in the whole city.) When I went back, I asked my nurse why there is only one location to get X-rays. His response was that we probably have more in the US because we have to pay for them. Which then led me to wonder... Who pays for these??? The government, well, taxpayers, and it's free to anyone with a real emergency! So I ended up hopping out of the A&E in a matter of hours, X-rayed, ankle wrapped, and armed with a pair of crutches to borrow, all courtesy of the NHS. 

Getting some reading for a class done while I wait for an X-ray:

All the nurses and the nurse practitioners were really nice! Once I received the final verdict of "not broken," the doctor took a picture, so I could text it to my mom and dad. 

Not broken!

My future in rock climbing is on hold for a few weeks, but I should be off crutches by Friday and then just 2-3 weeks away from recovery. (Note: Those are my own estimates and do not reflect the actual advice of health care professionals. The doctor didn't tell me anything specific, and that sounds about right.)

Since you've been gone...

....actually since I've been gone. So sorry for no updating recently! The Internet at my house hit a rough patch, and I've been weeks without wifi until Tiesday. 

But! In your absence, here are some things that have happened:

1) I started a dinner club with a couple of friends! We each cook once a week and rotate. I made butternut squash soup with kale and sausage and baked apples for dessert. The apples were prettier pre-baking. 

2) I traveled to London with my new friend Rebecca to sight-see and watch the Aggies play (American) football, and I had my first "proper" tea. 

Tower Bridge was exciting. 

The tea was quite tasty - salmon and cucumber sandwiches and scones. So British. 

The game was absolutely tragic, but it was still nice to see American football for a change. 

3) I joined the dance and climbing societies. This weekend I'm going to the "Peak District" to camp and climb. Stay tuned for awesome pics. 

4) I gave my first class presentation (complete with illustrations) to help explain Gramscian views on the place of integral hegemony. 

I'll post Peak District pics on Monday. Until then I will continue with My current debate of how to transport this week's reading and the huge tree of kale I bought at the market. Sacrifices must be made. 

Have a good weekend!

Abby

Practically Speaking

Today I will walk you all through one of the most basic yet strategic aspects of living in England: eating. 

In the US of A, the grocery store is a five minute drive from my house, and goodness knows it's the South, so I didn't even have to carry my own food out. Here, I don't have a car. I have a bus pass and a growing identity as a metropolitan commuter. My first trip to the "groc" (pronounced grōwsh) was with a group of other North American students. It was an emergency. I needed coffee. For the second, more extensive trip my friend Rebecca (from Maryland) and I decided to trek to the farther, cheaper store. It's basically Walmart. Actually it is owned by Walmart, so there are striking similarities. I wore my three day pack (giant wilderness backpacking pack); she brought a suitcase. And though I'm sure we looked homeless, we successfully bought enough to make tacos and veggie pasta and Chinese veggie stir fry. See photographic evidence below to be very impressed with my culinary skills. 

So about lunch: food on campus, like basically all colleges, is pretty pricey. Instead of daily indulging my love for nachos, I freeze healthy, homemade meals and stuff one in my backpack on my way out in the morning. It stays cold until lunch time.

Campus does have a farmers market every Thursday, and I LOVE getting produce there. It's super affordable and  really fresh. Where else could I purchase a cauliflower the size of my head for like two dollars?

What am I going to do with it? Well, I'm currently accepting cauliflower recipe suggestions. 

Two weeks: the beginning!

Hello all!

This marks the beginning of my blogging to record my time as a Rotarian-sponsored scholar on this British Isle. I apologize that it's taken so long for me to get this up! I'll catch you up on the happenings.

I arrived on the 24th of September, and Mike Poole, a Rotarian from here in Colchester picked me and my two GIANT suitcases up from Heathrow customs. Maybe it's because I'm from Texas, but he seemed wary that I might have brought a chainsaw as per the horror movie based in the Lone Star State.

That first night I attended the Rotary meeting with Mike, and was informed that there are proper "real ales" and then the others. The meeting was good - The speaker talked from personal experience and a lot of research about a prisoner of war camp housed here in Colchester during the second World War. It's like living in history here. Colchester is the first recorded settlement in England, and we even have a Roman wall!

Mike and Gill invited me to stay with them while I sorted out housing. Staying on campus is way easier but pricey. Gill fed me, and taught me to make porridge, and drove me around and talked me through making a housing decision for about a week, and I am not officially a co-renter of a duplex with a British Phd student girl! The garden sold me. This is the view from outside my bedroom window:

And because I live off campus, I get way more space for way less money, and I get to master the city bus routes to get to class, and I'm getting pretty good.

Signing off for now. I have to do a ton of reading for class on Monday, and this weekend is a statistics/STATA software bootcamp, so I'll be in a math lab for 16 hours! Numbers. Who needs 'em? (Me, apparently.) I'll add more stories and pictures soon!

Abby