Salt Lake to London Euroglia Day 1
Leaving the comforts of home and hopping a plane
from Salt Lake to Chicago, en route to London for the VIII European Conference
on Glial Cells in Health and Disease, I started to reflect on my purpose for
this trip. I am in the process of reading several key manuscripts in the
sub-sub field of astrocytic glutamate release, yet my attention does wander to
the prospect of walking the streets of London, sight seeing the Tower, the
Millenium bridge, Buckingham Palace, of eating fish and chips and drinking warm
pints of beer. I think it is important to establish some goals for a work
related trip such as this...
My first goal is to eat sleep dream Euroglia. I have with me the papers that I need to fully digest so that when I meet these scientists in the coming days, I am able to talk fully and at length about their research and how to better progress my own research. The reading of scientific papers is not a trivial process and I am always in awe of those that are able to recall the exact author, journal, and year of publication of a particular experiment, whether paradigm shifting or not, and I am constantly in shock to find my own scribbled handwriting in the margins of papers that I have no recollection of reading. I have with me a notebook to take scrupulous notes of these papers, of the talks i attend, and of the posters I will see.
The second goal is to try and incorporate as much as I can a sense of my own future when attending the talks and interacting with the people I meet. I am getting the hint from my mentor that I need to start thinking about getting a post doctorate position, and in order to do so, I feel that I need to be specific in the science that I want to do. Attending this meeting will hopefully allow me to clarify the type of science that I want to accomplish in my post doctorate work and beyond. At the same time, in order to get to said post-doc, I need to efficiently conduct the experiments that will form my thesis work. I am hoping that I am able to talk with those that will help me in accomplishing this goal, and hope to return armed with a set of experiments that will get me to my thesis defense.
Third, as this is my first trip to Europe, I would like to do some sight seeing...although, maybe I'm being too much of a romantic on this subject, but it seems that the wonderment and amazement of walking among century old ruins and artifacts is an activity best shared with someone, preferably with your best friend(s), so as to capture that moment and share it among two people...although I am very curious to see the British Library, the British Museum, and other sights of historical interest, at this point in time, I am finding that perhaps I do not have the time or energy to fully appreciate the historical significance of these places; the appreciation for these artifacts lies perhaps in an erudite knowledge of the significance of the artifact in question, or in sharing the moment of discovery with another. Since I have neither with me, I feel that my sight seeing will be somewhat limited.
Fourth, as I am a penniless graduate student who has spent his little fortune on bike parts, wedding preparations, and paying off credit card debt, I am going to try and live on as little money as possible. I take this on as a challenge of sorts. Of course, I am being a spoiled American, I am not going to starve myself, nor sleep on a park bench. I will be living at the John Dodgson House on the University College of London campus, a dormitory style building, I am presuming, with my own bathroom and shower. I will be taking the London transport, the Tube, and I will be eating 3 meals a day (perhaps 2, since I rarely eat breakfast). But with the exchange rate the way it is, I am going to try and limit the money that I spend. At the end of the trip, hopefully, I will be able to say how many pounds a day were required for budget living in London.
-----------------------
Recharging the Powerbook at O'Hare International during a delay and reading my Fodor's London 2007 guidebook, I learn that University of College London is very close to the British Museum. And In the museum is THE Rosetta stone, and pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls. My curiosity is piqued, and I may allow myself just a little indulgence to satisfy it.
I have brought with me my Canon Rebel SLR equipped with 2 lenses: 28-135mm and a 50mm. I think that the last time I travelled with this camera with the intent of exploring photography was when Susan and I travelled to Costa Rica. I can't believe that was almost 2 years ago. I am excited at the prospect of getting reacquainted with my camera and looking forward to taking some photos.
London is an 8 hour flight from Chicago. I have several more papers to get through today, and perhaps I will watch one of the movies on the plane. I am sitting across the way from a McDonald's (a permanent line at this place--what is with that?) and have resisted getting some fries. Score 1 for my wallet.
---------------
Landed! At the recommendation of a tourist kiosk clerk, I bought a one week traveler's card for £23 (~$46) which allows me unlimited travel on the trains of the Underground (or the Tube). Because I will be taking the Tube twice a day to the conference, and because I plan to do some exploring, I think its a good deal. After a relatively short (~one hour) and relatively congested (down right claustrophobic at times) train ride on the Underground, I arrived at King's Cross station. This was the first sight of London I saw.
The second thing I noticed was the number of mean city machines chained to the fence that lined the station. The fearless riders of these 2 wheeled beasts duck and weave through tightly packed traffic without helmets, without SPD pedals, and without fancy camelbacks on what in america would definitely be called clunkers. I was instantly impressed with the commuter culture. John Dodgons House was a short one and half block walk away. I am staying in a simple dorm room:
Much to my dismay, I learn that I will need a power adapter to charge my computer and camera batteries. I set out to find one and obtain one for £5. I also bought my first order of fish and chips (£5)--nothing special, but quite tasty.
About money exchange, I sold $100 at the airport and received back £42. That's a $16 charge! Later, I find in the city that I can get £48 for $100, which is much more reasonable.
During my walk, I found myself in Russell Square Gardens, and took the hint from this student and sat down to read a paper.
The rest of my afternoon, I spent at the British Museum
This is the main entrance. 3,312 unique glass triangles form the ceiling of The Great Court, which houses the Reading Room where Karl Marx researched Das Kapital. I didn't get a chance to go in, but I will later in the week. I headed straight for the Egypt and Greece collections.
A small portion of the Rosetta Stone, the granite tablet from 2nd century BC that provided the key in the 19th century to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Soldier's in Napoleon's army discovered the stone in 1799 while digging the foundations of a fort near the town of el Rashid (Rosetta). After Napoleon's defeat, the stone became the property of the English under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria (1801).
The Pharoah Ramsses II. From the Ramesseum, Thebes, Egypt. 19th Dynasty, about 1250 BC. This HUGE fragment of his statue weighs 7.25 tons. It was removed in 1816 by Giovanni Belzoni, and it is said that the hole on the right torso was from members of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt at the end of the 18th century during a failed attempt to remove the statue.
The Greek God of Wine, Dionysos. Roman, AD 40-60.
Marble statue of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Roman 2nd century AD.
The following are from the Parthenon collection (447 - 432 BC).
A man bracing himself on a rock against the pull of a mule.
Battles between Centaurs and Lapiths.
(The following are no longer part of the Parthenon collection)
Sokrates, the father of western philosophy. Roman copy of a lost Greek original from about 380-360 BC.
Alexander the Great
Zeus.
An Orrery. A mechanical model of the solar system used as a teaching tool that often formed the basis of lectures in astronomy during the mid 18th century. The model demonstrates Copernican principles.
Astrolabic clock, France AD 1560. The astrolab was a clock that displayed the changing positions of the stars, the age and phase of the moon, and the sun's position in the ecliptic. Around the outside are the hours, degrees, and signs of the zodiac.
---------
Wow. So I was really impressed with the Museum. I still hold what I said earlier, it would be more fascinating to discover things with another person, but I did allow myself a selfish indulgence and allowed my imagination to rome (no pun intended) in front of these amazing exhibits.
Its nearing 6:30pm, London time, and I have been awake for about 27 hours, minus a one hour nap on the plane. I plan to head down to one of the neighborhood pubs with a book I'm really excited to read, Born on a Blue Day, by England's own Daniel Tammet, and partake of some wonderful Guiness and English mashed potatoes and sausage. I need to hang on until 8pm, at the earliest, to counter this jet lag! See you all tomorrow.
My first goal is to eat sleep dream Euroglia. I have with me the papers that I need to fully digest so that when I meet these scientists in the coming days, I am able to talk fully and at length about their research and how to better progress my own research. The reading of scientific papers is not a trivial process and I am always in awe of those that are able to recall the exact author, journal, and year of publication of a particular experiment, whether paradigm shifting or not, and I am constantly in shock to find my own scribbled handwriting in the margins of papers that I have no recollection of reading. I have with me a notebook to take scrupulous notes of these papers, of the talks i attend, and of the posters I will see.
The second goal is to try and incorporate as much as I can a sense of my own future when attending the talks and interacting with the people I meet. I am getting the hint from my mentor that I need to start thinking about getting a post doctorate position, and in order to do so, I feel that I need to be specific in the science that I want to do. Attending this meeting will hopefully allow me to clarify the type of science that I want to accomplish in my post doctorate work and beyond. At the same time, in order to get to said post-doc, I need to efficiently conduct the experiments that will form my thesis work. I am hoping that I am able to talk with those that will help me in accomplishing this goal, and hope to return armed with a set of experiments that will get me to my thesis defense.
Third, as this is my first trip to Europe, I would like to do some sight seeing...although, maybe I'm being too much of a romantic on this subject, but it seems that the wonderment and amazement of walking among century old ruins and artifacts is an activity best shared with someone, preferably with your best friend(s), so as to capture that moment and share it among two people...although I am very curious to see the British Library, the British Museum, and other sights of historical interest, at this point in time, I am finding that perhaps I do not have the time or energy to fully appreciate the historical significance of these places; the appreciation for these artifacts lies perhaps in an erudite knowledge of the significance of the artifact in question, or in sharing the moment of discovery with another. Since I have neither with me, I feel that my sight seeing will be somewhat limited.
Fourth, as I am a penniless graduate student who has spent his little fortune on bike parts, wedding preparations, and paying off credit card debt, I am going to try and live on as little money as possible. I take this on as a challenge of sorts. Of course, I am being a spoiled American, I am not going to starve myself, nor sleep on a park bench. I will be living at the John Dodgson House on the University College of London campus, a dormitory style building, I am presuming, with my own bathroom and shower. I will be taking the London transport, the Tube, and I will be eating 3 meals a day (perhaps 2, since I rarely eat breakfast). But with the exchange rate the way it is, I am going to try and limit the money that I spend. At the end of the trip, hopefully, I will be able to say how many pounds a day were required for budget living in London.
-----------------------
Recharging the Powerbook at O'Hare International during a delay and reading my Fodor's London 2007 guidebook, I learn that University of College London is very close to the British Museum. And In the museum is THE Rosetta stone, and pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls. My curiosity is piqued, and I may allow myself just a little indulgence to satisfy it.
I have brought with me my Canon Rebel SLR equipped with 2 lenses: 28-135mm and a 50mm. I think that the last time I travelled with this camera with the intent of exploring photography was when Susan and I travelled to Costa Rica. I can't believe that was almost 2 years ago. I am excited at the prospect of getting reacquainted with my camera and looking forward to taking some photos.
London is an 8 hour flight from Chicago. I have several more papers to get through today, and perhaps I will watch one of the movies on the plane. I am sitting across the way from a McDonald's (a permanent line at this place--what is with that?) and have resisted getting some fries. Score 1 for my wallet.
---------------
Landed! At the recommendation of a tourist kiosk clerk, I bought a one week traveler's card for £23 (~$46) which allows me unlimited travel on the trains of the Underground (or the Tube). Because I will be taking the Tube twice a day to the conference, and because I plan to do some exploring, I think its a good deal. After a relatively short (~one hour) and relatively congested (down right claustrophobic at times) train ride on the Underground, I arrived at King's Cross station. This was the first sight of London I saw.
The second thing I noticed was the number of mean city machines chained to the fence that lined the station. The fearless riders of these 2 wheeled beasts duck and weave through tightly packed traffic without helmets, without SPD pedals, and without fancy camelbacks on what in america would definitely be called clunkers. I was instantly impressed with the commuter culture. John Dodgons House was a short one and half block walk away. I am staying in a simple dorm room:
Much to my dismay, I learn that I will need a power adapter to charge my computer and camera batteries. I set out to find one and obtain one for £5. I also bought my first order of fish and chips (£5)--nothing special, but quite tasty.
About money exchange, I sold $100 at the airport and received back £42. That's a $16 charge! Later, I find in the city that I can get £48 for $100, which is much more reasonable.
During my walk, I found myself in Russell Square Gardens, and took the hint from this student and sat down to read a paper.
The rest of my afternoon, I spent at the British Museum
This is the main entrance. 3,312 unique glass triangles form the ceiling of The Great Court, which houses the Reading Room where Karl Marx researched Das Kapital. I didn't get a chance to go in, but I will later in the week. I headed straight for the Egypt and Greece collections.
A small portion of the Rosetta Stone, the granite tablet from 2nd century BC that provided the key in the 19th century to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Soldier's in Napoleon's army discovered the stone in 1799 while digging the foundations of a fort near the town of el Rashid (Rosetta). After Napoleon's defeat, the stone became the property of the English under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria (1801).
The Pharoah Ramsses II. From the Ramesseum, Thebes, Egypt. 19th Dynasty, about 1250 BC. This HUGE fragment of his statue weighs 7.25 tons. It was removed in 1816 by Giovanni Belzoni, and it is said that the hole on the right torso was from members of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt at the end of the 18th century during a failed attempt to remove the statue.
The Greek God of Wine, Dionysos. Roman, AD 40-60.
Marble statue of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Roman 2nd century AD.
The following are from the Parthenon collection (447 - 432 BC).
A man bracing himself on a rock against the pull of a mule.
Battles between Centaurs and Lapiths.
(The following are no longer part of the Parthenon collection)
Sokrates, the father of western philosophy. Roman copy of a lost Greek original from about 380-360 BC.
Alexander the Great
Zeus.
An Orrery. A mechanical model of the solar system used as a teaching tool that often formed the basis of lectures in astronomy during the mid 18th century. The model demonstrates Copernican principles.
Astrolabic clock, France AD 1560. The astrolab was a clock that displayed the changing positions of the stars, the age and phase of the moon, and the sun's position in the ecliptic. Around the outside are the hours, degrees, and signs of the zodiac.
---------
Wow. So I was really impressed with the Museum. I still hold what I said earlier, it would be more fascinating to discover things with another person, but I did allow myself a selfish indulgence and allowed my imagination to rome (no pun intended) in front of these amazing exhibits.
Its nearing 6:30pm, London time, and I have been awake for about 27 hours, minus a one hour nap on the plane. I plan to head down to one of the neighborhood pubs with a book I'm really excited to read, Born on a Blue Day, by England's own Daniel Tammet, and partake of some wonderful Guiness and English mashed potatoes and sausage. I need to hang on until 8pm, at the earliest, to counter this jet lag! See you all tomorrow.
Posted: Sat - September 1, 2007 at 09:10 PM
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Published On: Sep 03, 2007 04:46 PM
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Published On: Sep 03, 2007 04:46 PM