Washington DC

Well, I don't know how many of you die-hard fans are still checking this but the subject of today's blog is the weekend's trip to Washington DC.

We went down as part of the course, leaving on Wednesday to attend seminars/talks on Thursday and Friday, but as a group we decided to then stay on for the weekend to do some sightseeing. So, we set off on Wednesday at around lunch time. DC is about 350 miles from Ithaca and we were being driven in a minibus by the two program organisers, Profs McGregor and Fraiser. Although they are both very nice people they are also both about 80 years old and their driving styles were unique and interesting. We had several close shaves on the way, including nearly hitting a car parked on the hard shoulder and almost crashing head on with a car coming out of the hotel car-park but after 7 hours on the road we finally arrived. The talks were alright but not really worth writing about, on Thursday we were at the National Institute for Health and on Friday we were at the United States Department of Agriculture. On Thursday night we ate at a place called the Mongolian BBQ, which was very cool. You made your own stir fry using the meats and vegetables provided and then took it to the BBQ, along with a sauce of your choice, and watched the chef's cook it on a big heated plate.

On Friday the holiday part of the week started, much to every one's relief! We stayed at a very old but also very cheap hotel, not very nice when compared to the Comfort Inn we had been put up in for the nights before but I've certainly stayed in worse places in my time. There was plenty to do in the city and most of it was free. Sights that I took in include the Capitol building, the White house, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, The museum of modern art, the air and space museum and the National Zoo. There are far too many photos for me to put up but I've included a couple below.

We also checked out a few bars and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and before we headed back on Sunday I also managed to make it up to the cathedral and joined in with the Sunday afternoon ringing, which was nice. Then it was the long drive back, although thankfully this time with one of the Cornell students, so it was a much more relaxing trip.

Today it was back to work in the lab, to find that my experiment had not worked so all the work I have done so far was a waste of time. Tomorrow Myself and Fi are setting off for New York ready to fly home on Wednesday for our exam on Thursday, then it will be back to America on Saturday to carry on with the course over here. It's going to be a hectic few days but I'll try and get round to updating this at some point.

Hope you are all well.

Stephen xx

The Washington Monument seen across the lake from the Lincoln Memorial

The White House (not to be confused with the Capitol Building, which has a dome on the top)

First week in Ithaca

Right, time for an update.

Firstly some general info...

Phone calls to/from my mobile are very expensive so I won't be accepting any incoming calls. Feel free to text me (as far as I know it won't cost you anything... but don't hold me to that) but again, texts back to the UK are expensive so don't expect an answer!

Please keep in touch by email (stephen_8983@hotmail.com) or if you want to talk to me you can download Skype (www.skype.com), my username is stephen.burr83 and you can just email me to sort out a time to talk :).

If anyone wants to send post my address until 10th August is

Zeta Psi Fraternity

534 Thurston Avenue

Ithaca

New York, 14850

United States

Now that that's done I can tell you all about the last week. We (myself and Fi, who is also from Bristol and was in London doing the same course as me this year) left the RVC at 5:45am on Saturday morning and got to Heathrow via the tube and train. Everything went smoothly at the airport and we left on time at 9:30. The flight was nearly 7 hours but thanks to the onboard entertainment and periods with amazing views out of the window it went pretty quickly. Immigration took forever and that, combined with the slowest, least organised bus journey I have ever been on (including a tour of all 9(!!) terminals of JFK airport) meant that it took about 3 and a half hours to get from JFK into downtown New York. We could see a few landmarks from the bus (Empire state building for example) but definitely need to go back for a proper look around. The delays at the airport meant that we missed the coach we were supposed to get and ended up getting into Ithaca at about 9:15pm local time (2:15am UK time).

So far, this week has mainly been admin/orientation stuff mixed with plenty of socialising. All the people on the course seem really nice and we've been having a great time so far. Cornell is a really pretty university, lots of green spaces and old buildings. We are staying in the zeta psi fraternity house, which is really grand and old. We have ll the mod cons, internet, massive TV, cable, DVD player, table tennis, pool table, table football, so we've been having a lot of fun! Next week we are going to Washington DC for a few days of seminars and then hopefully staying for the weekend to see the sights.

I hope you are all well, I'll keep you updated as often as I can and feel free to email me any time, I'll email back asap!

Stephen xx

One of the gorges running through the university campus

BBQ outside our house!

1 Week to go

Time for another blog entry. First of all, thanks to everyone who has left me comments, most of them have been positive :) Since the last entry I have managed to get my project write up nearly complete, just working on the last section before I send in a final draft later today. This week has been quite stressful but I managed to finish off my lab work and, for the record, my supervisor has more than redeemed himself this week by being amazingly helpful, so, all in all my general mood is a lot better! Tomorrow night is the RVC May ball so we'll all be getting dressed up in our smart clothes and dancing the night away, could be interesting as there is a free bar... Tomorrow is also the day that I have to pack up all my non-essential possessions ready for mom and Rob to cart them back to Kidderminster, so when I have an empty room I think it might finally sink in that I am going to be over the sea and far away very soon.

Well I should really get back to the exciting world of chemokines or I'll never get this thing finished in time.

Keep posting comments!

Stephen xx

The cat is out of the bag

Right, since people are going to be coming here once I start telling them about it I'd better write something more substantial in the old blog. So, as I already said, I'm off to America soon so rather than fill people's inboxes with emails I thought it might be a better idea to write things here and people can check/ignore my news as and when they wish.

It is currently 1:35am (how naughty am I up at this time?) and the main reason I am still up is because I have a 10,000 word dissertation to hand in in 2 weeks time which still needs a lot of work PLUS I have to get everything ready to move out of my house and leave the country for 3 months at the same time PLUS I have to deal with the most unhelpful project supervisor ever AND he is German.... (actually, that's not a bad thing at all but he's just annoying OK?) That is the reality that awaits me in the morning/early afternoon when I drag myself out of bed and that is why I am still up now. If I wasn't so sensible I'd probably be drowning my sorrows. If I was sensible I'd be in bed by now.

Enough rambling. For those of you who aren't lucky enough to know already I am going to America. I am going to Cornell university (in upstate New York, half way between NYC (that's New York City and Toronto (that's in Canada)). Sorry for being patronising if you already know all of this but I wasn't aware that New York was a whole state until quite recently so I figure others may be in the same boat. At Cornell I'll be part of the 'Veterinary Leadership Program', which basically means that I'll be doing a short research project and enhancing my CV all with the aid of a sizeable grant (it's amazing what people will pay you to do!). After that I plan to travel for 3 weeks before returning to England. So there you go, that's why this blog is here, so that I can share my experiences of the states and to let you all know that I'm still alive.

I couldn't get a photo to upload so I'm going to put a random one in to make things a little more colourful...

I love that photo, taken in Tasmania, the mountain in the background is cradle mountain, I've always been annoyed that we didn't have time to get to the top. I like the way I'm so small in the photo, kinda highlights the amazing vista. Anyway I'll stop getting sentimental and maybe go to bed!

Hope everyone who reads this is well.

Stephen xx

Welcome

Hello, this is hopefully going to be my new blog, initially to keep people updated on my trip to America. More to follow!