Oh, I also went to The Open Championship at St. Andrews where I saw Tiger Woods on a few holes, watched Jack Nicklaus retire, and actually got sunburnt!

I had such a blast in Scotland, what a gorgeous place.



Scott Monument in Edinburgh



View of Stirling from the William Wallace Monument



Loch Ness



Downtown Glasgow

Unless I stumble across an internet cafe over the next ten days, there'll be a break on this blog. We're off to Scotland tomorrow!

P.S. Guys and Dolls at Piccadilly Theatre was utterly fantastic. Best musical I've ever seen! Go to it if you can!

I am furious at the news this morning that US troops have been ordered to stay out of London, for fear of their own safety. I hope that the news regarding this is seriously misinformed and that the matter will be cleared up by the end of the day. I cannot honestly believe that the "greatest military in the world" is taking the official stance that they are too chicken shit to cross the M25. I have a hard enough time defending America when American leaders aren't acting like Goddammed idiots. Now this.

After all, if London isn't safe enough for 12,000 heavily trained United States Air Force soldiers, what the fuck am I doing here?

I'm so excited, my mom, dad and sister arrive today!

It's a joyous occasion, so in honor





God, that show was so funny.

If it were at all possible to sum up this week in one word, that word would be:

Ugh.

In a example from my personal point of view, I finally ventured out of my flat yesterday as I had a haircut appointment that could not be cancelled (and hair out of control to boot). I hadn't left my flat for a while as I've been sick with the flu. I get sick about once every three years, and of all weeks..... I down more Advil Cold & Flu (American medicine) than legally advised, swaddled myself as if it were 0 degrees out, and stumbled to the London Bridge tube. Could not board, as it was closed due to bomb threat.

Feeling at bit better now. Looking back though, it's funny the things a disease ridden brain will come up with. Huddled in blankets waiting for the tea kettle, I'd ask flatmates to "put me out of my misery." I sat all the way through Gone in Sixty Seconds. Once I think I even muttered, "I wish I had someone to take care of me... like a boyfriend" !!! I know, but seriously I was deranged.

I was given a TV this week, did I mention it? Ah, the joys of British telly. Soap operas in the afternoon, etc. I did get a kick out of watching a James Bond movie in London but mostly I all week I just lay there, bundled up like a baby Eskimo, absorbed all the news coverage of the events, and whenever they show those poor poor families still searching for their missing, I'd cry.

I thought I'd post the speech of the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, made after the attacks, as I found it quite moving. I don't know much about the man, or what Londoners think of him, but i thought his speech blew everyone else's away. He didn't even read it, which makes me wonder if he wrote it himself... I have no idea. Blair's been okay through all this, his first few speeches weren't so hot but I think he was so upset, visibly upset, that oratorical fireworks weren't at the top of his list at the moment. Bush (as much as people grudgingly admit he's sounding "better") sounded as if he was reading from primary cards being held up in front of him, "this... is... a... bad.. thing... cat... dog.... ball..." Anyway, I present, Ken Livingstone from Singapore:

"I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.

That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I'm proud to be the mayor of that city.

Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life.

I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.

In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and fulfillfil their dreams and achieve their potential.

They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."

I thought I should say something here to let everyone know I am unharmed (well, a bit of a sore throat actually, but that is completely un-terrorist related). And I sincerly hope that all my cyber/blog pals are okay as well.

I'm shocked and shaken but I have accounted for all my mates here so that makes me quite happy. I am also feeling some very strange de ja vu from living a terrorist attack while in Washington DC, and that's not pleasent. It's a feeling of ... well.. for lack of a better work... terror.

Interesting time to be a Londoner. I now imagine the entire city in the throws of universal bi-polar disorder. Winning the Olympics and getting bombed within 24 hours is so extreme. I just feel stunned at it all.

I was walking to work today when a cabbie stopped dead in the middle of the road, leaned out of his window, and cried out to me, "We just got the Olympics!"

(Before you chastise me for not leaving my flat before 12:45pm on a Wednesday, I will explain that after yesterday's symposium there was a BBQ with free beer, and after that a bunch of postgrads insisted on heading to a pub to pour more alcohol down my throat in honor of my date of birth, so I was massively hungover. Plus I'm in grad school, so timeliness is not of the utmost importance. I hope....)

I don't know what to think, I do see people's arguments of both the pros and the cons of hosting the 2012 Games here. But it is exciting that we won, and surprising too, as the media made it seem Paris had it locked up. I'm not looking forwards to the endless waves of construction that are going to surely intensify over the next seven years, but I do like the kind of event that makes a stranger so excited that he has to tell the first person he sees!

Whew! I think that's the first time I've worked on the fourth of July since I was a teenager. A few Brits told me "happy independence day" today, which was nice of them, but not really too much going on for my favorite holiday. [What I believe was] the RAF did do a fly by over London this morning, with red, white, and blue smoke coming out the backs of the jets. I can't find anything about it on BBC or any other news agent, so I'll just assume it was for the good ole USA and leave it at that.

Wish me luck! Tomorrow's my first ever symposium as a future Doc, and I'll be defending my work for the first time. I'm not nervous... Yet.

Spent a fun albeit tourist-y trip on the London Eye not too long ago. The views are nice, but the trip itself is more awesome. The construction and operation of the darn thing are the best part actually.

I'm headed to Versailles!! For a four day drug delivery conference in November. Am so excited. I have to do a poster (think science fair, old school style) but not a lecture, so it should be non-stressful and fun. I'm excited to go back to Paris, as I liked it more than I thought I would. I would like to see it in the spring or summer, as the first time I went it was February, but who's to say no to a free trip?

So now I'm wondering where I should go next on my European Vacation. As of now I've done:
Spain (Barcelona, Pamplona, Ibiza, Mallorca, Madrid)
Holland (Amsterdam)
Italy (Rome)
France (Paris)
Portugal (Lisbon)
and next week is Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Iona, Oban, Loch Ness, Stirling, Pitlochry)

The big Western European ones I think I am missing are Ireland and Germany. And I guess after that I'd like to head east to Prague, etc. And of course I'd like to go back and see the French and Italian countryside and Mediterranean cities... Oh! So much to do while I'm here!