OOPS...

Wow, I cannot believe that I have been away so long. I apologize for the lengthy wait.

So I have been in Colchester for one year and I have to say I have really enjoyed it. I did not go around to the small villages like I thought I would, but there is always tomorrow, no? I have been able to travel a bit though. I have gone to conferences in Washington, D.C., Durham and Cambridge here in the UK and next week I am going to Cyprus. One of the great perks of my job, being able to see places I may not have otherwise seen.

Other than DC, I also went to Colorado and LA to visit friends and family.

Work is going really well, I have already submitted one paper and am working on the next two. I also resubmitted a paper from my work up in Glasgow and I am working on the next two for that project as well. So as you can see professoinally things are happening.

Of course personally, I have not been out much and am not dating, but I am looking so if you know anyone...lol.

I have been trying to keep up with USC sports as best as I can and I have to say I am excited about the new AD, but was really dissapointed to see Coach Carroll leave and I am not all that hopeful for this year, however since they can't go to a bowl anyway, I just hope that they can win more than we lose. And really, to lose to Washington again, what is that about.

I am not going to make this a long post, as I plan to post again when I get back from Cyprus and I am going back to Cambridge later this month, so I will have much better pictures.

I do have to say though that if any of you make it to this side of the pond, go to Cambridge, it is a lovely city and the Colleges of Cambridge are a sight to see. So much history! Here are just a few sites:


This first picture is of the gardens at Clare College were we were staying. The second picture is of the River Cam and a tiny bit of the King's College Chapel.




Here, the first picture is of someone punting on the River Cam (look it up folks) and a different view of the gardens at Clare College.

As I said I am going back so I will be sure to take more pictures and share them.

I will leave you with a few more pictures from my trip to DC, if you cannot make it over here, at least got there and enjoy a bit of US history.





So until next time, thanks for coming to see what I have been up to , hopefully next time will be a bit more interesting.

Cheers and FIGHT ON!

Cara

My Journey South

Well it has been a very long time since I have updated here. I will try to sum up and then get to the good part. My contract in Glasgow was only supposed to be for 18 months, I was fortunate enough to gen an additional 12 months, however I left early to start a new job. My new job is still in the UK, but now I am living in England, Colchester to be exact. For all of you history buffs, Colchester is the oldest city in the UK. It is also in the driest and warmest part of the country, I am happy that I went to one of the wettest and coldest to here rather than vice versa.

I have been in Colchester for 3 weeks now and so far all is well. I actually drove down here from Glasgow! It was my first time driving in the UK and once I got it in my head that I need to be in the middle of the road at all times the rest was not so bad. I still went around a few turnabouts a few times before I could exit, but I made it one piece and the countryside is really lovely. My flat is unfurnished and I have yet to get any really furniture, the living room stuff will be here this week and hopefully the rest will come within the next 2-3 weeks. Here are some pictures however of my empty, but beautiful flat. This is the back of my building, I am in the 2nd floor (1 up from ground floor) flat right behind the tree. Next to it is a picture of my living room including a brief view of my current bed!



Last weekend I took a wander around the area, there is a small village about 40 minutes walk from my house. In order to get there I took the walking/bike path which runs along the river Colne. Here are a few pictures of the view.





I will attempt to update as I go around the area, I am only about 10 miles from the sea so I will be exploring the various seaside villages.

Now that I am in a warmer drier area, I expect some of you to come and visit me!

I hope that you all are well, until next time FIGHT ON!

Cheers,

Cara

Happy Thanksgiving

So here I am! Writing after only being back from my newest adventure for 2 weeks.

Before I get in to my travels, happy Thanksgiving everyone and Fight On Trojans, beat the irish and the bruins. And Got Ducks, never thought I would say that, beat the beavers.

Now onto my trip, I went to Lisbon, Portugal for 11 days for the European Public Health Association Annual Meeting and then for a course on Multilevel Modeling, a stats course. Both the course and the conference were great, although I think that I appreciated the course a bit more as I got to learn new things and it was more hands on. The conference was a bit different than what we typically get in the US as there were many more ceremonies and in some cases the rigorousness of the studies are not a strong, but that may be due to the newness of many of the studies here in Europe, and especially in Southern and Eastern Europe.

So I had a weekend in between the two events were two of my co-workers and I walked around and then at night we went out with others for dinner. On Saturday we walked up to the castle which has a great view of the city, right picture and then walked around the city. The left picture shows an old fashioned tram and in the background is the castle on the hill. Lisbon is known as the city with seven hills and I think that the castle is on the tallest one.



One thing that you cannot see from these pictures is that many of the buildings are very run down and empty. This is due to multiple factors. Firstly, there has been a migration of people from the city to the suburbs. Secondly the laws regarding upkeep of buildings seems to be very lax or not enforced and there is a lot of graffiti everywhere and many of the windows are boarded up. Finally, Lisbon appears to be much older than other European cities, I think that this is in part to their lack of involvement in WWII and so therefor they had less damage and did not have to rebuild.

We also went to Sintra, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site 18km north of Lisbon. It is a very beautiful city and there is a marked difference in the pace of life, here are a couple of pictures.



Finally I am going to add a couple extra pictures of the Belem Tower and a few miscellaneous pictures of Lisboa, I hope you enjoy them.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Love,

Cara

Happy Birthday to...

Well this was supposed to be a birthday blog for myself (July) and then I was going to try to post on my youngest brother's birthday (12th September) so now, tomorrow is my mom's birthday and so I am posting in her honor as I would not be here without her. Happy birthday Mommy, I love you!

Okay, so what has been going on here? Well, for starters, I went to Paris and Lyon for my birthday, last weekend in July. When I was in Paris last time, I did not make it to the Louvre, crazy I know, so to make up for it, I went for 6 hours this time. First, it is huge. I was there for 6 hours and while I got to see the major pieces of art, I would not recommend trying to see everything at once. Because it is so big, it hardly seemed to be crowded, of course there were crowds around the La Joconde (Mona Lisa) and the Venus de Milo but the rest of the art was pretty clear. Now I may be the only person to ever say this, but...the Mona Lisa was actually bigger than I thought it would be. All you normally hear is the opposite, but because I went expecting a small piece of art, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was bigger. Another thing is that pictures were allowed which is somewhat unusual. So here are some pictures, of course I am sure you have seen a picture of the actual painting, but this is more to show you the room it is in and give you an idea of what you see when you walk in. So it is mounted on a wall near the back of this really big room and there is about a 5-10 foot "buffer" area. As you can see on the right, it is behind a piece of glass which the other pieces were not.

While it was nice to see it, I have to say that I am a sculpture person. I just marvel at how someone can look at a piece of marble and come up with what they do. I was going to go to other museums while I was there, but I OD'ed at the Louvre and so I spent the time touring other parts of Paris. Plus I did not want to stay inside all day as it was not raining and I needed all the sun I could get before coming back to Glasgow.

I was also in Paris for the end of the Tour de France, which was really cool. I went to the Champs Elysees and got to see the riders pass us by. I was able to get up to the road, as I was alone, there were many, many people there. Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea:

So after my time in Paris, I went to Lyon and visited a co-worker and his partner who are from that part of France. I had a great time and it was really hot there, so I got to experience the French heat. That part of the country was really beautiful and I got to see my first nuclear power plant. Now I know we have many in the US and either I have passed them an not known what they were, or I have never passed one before. But now I know what to look for. I also went to a medieval city. Here are some pictures:

I also got to try frog legs and while I get why people say it tastes like chicken, I think they are more of a cross between chicken and a type of white fish. Either way, they were really good and I would not be opposed to having them again. I also got to experience a true 3 hour French dinner. I stayed with my co-worker's partner's family and on my last day there they had a guests and a really good dinner. I could not believe how much food there was, and how many courses. I would love to do that again as well, but I am not sure I could do it more than once a year, talk about rich and fattening!

Anyway, my time in France was excellent. I think that I will try to tackle Italy next. But before I go, I am going to Lisbon, Portugal for 2 weeks for a conference and a statistical course. I am really looking forward to that. I will post pictures of that when I get back, hopefully before Christmas.

Other than that, FOOTBALL IS HERE! I am so excited and I have seen both games and I have to say, that I am so happy we beat the buckeyes, finally we can put them to rest. So far I am really impressed with our team and I hope that we can continue. Also for you bruins, HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, 59-0, HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

I hope that all is well with you and I hope to see or talk to you soon.

Cheers and BEAT THE BEAVERS,

Cara

Still Alive!

So it has been over 7 months since my last post. I would like to say that I have been having tons of fun, but in all honesty, I have been to lazy to import my pictures from my camera and update. I have been to a few cool places since my last blog...and I have pictures to prove it.

Most of you who read this know that I went to LA in April. At the end of May I went to Malmo, Sweden for a conference. Malmo is right across the water from Copenhagen, so I spent a day walking around Copenhagen. Malmo was beautiful, it seemed to be a pretty small city so it was easily walkable and the people were very nice. Here are a few pictures of Malmo:




And here are a few of Copenhagen, but first, an semi-interesting fact of the day. While I was in walking through the city with a colleague, I mentioned that I did not know anything about Denmark except for Hamlet and pastries. However I had forgotten about Hans Christian Andersen. One of Copenhagen's most famous statues is of the little mermaid, which is also one of H.C. Andersen's famous works. So here is a picture of the statue as well as some other interesting pictures. Funny enough the first thing we saw when we got into the city was a Scottish bagpipe band so of course I had to include that picture.




Finally, here are a few pictures of when I went to Loch Katrine, about 1 hour north of Glasgow. I went with some co-workers and their family. We biked from one pier around to the other pier, about 13 miles and then took the boat back. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun. These pictures help prove that it does not always rain in Scotland!





Well, those are my adventures for now. I hope to have a few more before the summer is out and I will try my hardest not to wait 7 more months until posting. I hope that these pictures provide some incentive to come out and visit me. For those of you who don't know, my contract has been extended through November 2009 so that gives you more time to plan and come out.

Until next time...

Cheers,

Cara

Here comes a long one...

WOW...two months since I have updated. That is unacceptable, I am really sorry. A lot has gone on since I was last here. I have been to Helsinki, Finland and London and USC has lost twice. I will address my travels before I start moaning about the state of the football team.

I went to Helsinki for the European Public Health Association Annual Conference. What I saw of the city was nice, but since I was there for work rather than play I did not see a lot of it, and I took even fewer pictures. I will put the pictures I did take into my photo album tomorrow. Anyway, Helsinki was cold and that is something coming from Scotland. Helsinki is even higher in latitude that Glasgow is, so they get colder earlier and longer. Since it was October, it was not really that bad, I don't think I will be going to Lapland (the upper part of the country) anytime during the winter.

Here is what I have learned from the conference and about Finland:

1. The Finish language in one of the most difficult to learn, it is a Finno-Ugric Language and therefore is not similar to English or any of the other Anglo-Frisian or Romance languages. They do not speak in genders and so when they are speaking in English they often mix the two up. They also do not have prepositions and to "make up" for that, they have many (over 35) suffixes that they add to their words. It is quite interesting to see the language because you can start picking up on those suffixes.
2. I attended the pre-conference on migrant health I had to stop and change my frame of mind a bit. I am sorry if I go on a bit of a tangent here, but I find it so interesting. First, research on migrants and minority populations is so new in many parts of Europe, they are facing new issues that the UK and US have faced for decades. Relative to the US, they are also speaking about very small numbers. Finland for example is a country of about 5 million people and they have a migrant population of 2.3% of that or 115,000. The UK has 60 million and about 13.1% are ethnic minorities (~8 million). Now if you compare that to the US those are tiny. I mean, California has more people in the state than most of the EU countries have in their entire population. And 57% ( 21 million) of the population is a member of a minority group! It is really something to think about from a social and research perspective. I really get excited when I think about all the research possibilities out there. Anyway, I am sorry for that tirade, but you should know by know that I love to add a bit of education to my posts.

Earlier this week I went to London for a meeting. I walked around with my boss Monday night and got to see the West End, where they have a lot of theatres (for plays) and then we went to Trafalgar square. Tuesday after my meeting I went to Westminster Abbey and walked around the Parliament buildings and down on the walkway by the river. It was all very interesting and even though I have not been to New York in a while, London really reminded me of New York...lots of people always on the go. I will upload those pictures as well. I look forward to going back to London when I have more time and really getting a feel for the city. Luckily for me it was not raining when I went, so I had a few really beautiful hours to walk around before my trip home. As with every European city I have been to their public transportation is phenomenal. We really need to send our city planners over here to understand what a real subway system is and implement them in the US, especially in the western US.

Finally I will say that for once I am grateful that I am not in the states so that I can only hear the USC games rather than have to watch as well. I know that this year has been really bad and that we are still being investigated for Reggie's stupidity, but I am a Trojan through and through and I still wear my USC sweatshirt to work everyday. I saw someone in the Heathrow airport with a USC hat on, but I was not able to talk to him.

I hope that you all are doing well. Keep me posted on the goings on and I hope to see you all soon.

Until next time:

Sabaid Air (Scottish Gaelic) and beat the Beavers!!

FIGHT ON FOR OLD 'SC....

Hi all,

I know it has been a while since I have updated, but I saw most of you pretty recently and the others I have emailed. There is also not much to share about my life since I got back from LA. I have been working hard and hanging out at home. Not much going out since I have been back.

Life is going well. Nothing really exciting on the personal front. However on the work front, I am going to the European Public Health Association Annual Conference in Helsinki, Finland in October. I am very excited about that. I am not presenting anything, but it will be fun to go to a European conference and see what is happening with public health here.

I am very excited to be going to another country, even if it is only for a couple of days! Finland was not at the top of my list of countries to visit, so it is nice to go and not use up annual leave (vacation days for you Yanks). I will be sure to take lots of pictures and upload them when I get the chance.

Finally, my favorite time of the year is here again and for the second year in a row I am not in the US to fully enjoy it. Yes folks, ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTALL? I know I am. True I can watch a lot of football here, aka soccer, but it really is not the same. I enjoy football (soccer), but I really want to see someone get pancaked or make a beautiful catch. So on Sunday morning at 3:15 am I will be getting up and watching USC start its campaign to the national championship game. Fortunately, most of our other games are earlier so I won't have to interrupt my beauty sleep, even though I will. I have never been happier that the games are on Saturday, that still gives me time to adjust my sleeping schedule so that I can go to work on Monday. I guess that means I will not be watching many NFL games, but that is okay with me.

So here is to the beginning of the best time of the year. I already warned my flatmate that I will be turning into a completely different person when football is on and he has threatened to take all breakable objects out of my reach! I really don't think he knows what he is in for, but it should be fun, maybe I will convert him.

Anyway, enough about that obsession. I miss you all very much and I really had a great time seeing most of you.

Come and visit, but not until at least the spring. We are going into fall/winter here and I have extremely short days to look forward to. I hear that during the shortest days, it will be dark by 3:30pm. What fun! So if that is not a reason to stay away, I am not sure what is. Definitely come out in the Spring, much more fun.

Hope you all are well and I will talk to you after the game.

FIGHT ON and BEAT THE VANDALS!!