Kate Has Her First Experience with NHS

Don't get excited by the title of this post, that part doesn't come until the almost-end anyways.

Feb 1-7

My Accountancy in the UK class didn't meet on Monday, so I had the whole afternoon free, which was pretty sweet. I walked down along the river from school to Tate Britain with a friend. Or at least, that was the plan. You see, we were required to go look at a painting there for my Images class. Unfortunately, we got Tate Britain and Tate Modern confused. We decided to go check out Tate Modern, since we were there, which ended up being a pretty good choice. I'm normally not very big on modern art, but I had a really good time. Some stuff was a little out there, but most of it was very cool. We saw Marilyn Diptych, which was pretty sweet. We spent a couple hours there and I managed to resist buying anything in the gift shop, so I was pretty proud of myself.

After, we rode the tube to Brick Lane because word on the street is that's where all the best Indian food is. It was kinda sketchy, but delicious. When you first walk out of the tube station, you're like, "this is it??" But the key is to walk a few blocks, then you really get there. Everywhere you look there are guys trying to lure you into restaurants for sweet "deals." Two guys almost got in a fight over us; it was crazy! I'm not really sure what I ate for dinner, but it was delicious and we got an Indian beer, Cobra, with it, so I felt pretty awesome.

Tuesdays are always fun because we have tea in the library during lunch. At the London Center (where we take classes) on Tuesdays there is mass on the top floor and tea in the library between 1200-1245, when we have our lunch break. The tea and biscuits (cookies - crazy Brits!) are free, so you can guess which event draws more students. It's not a bad lunch if you forget to bring something and everyone whose anyone is there, of course. It's probably one of my favorite things about the program. This Tuesday we made plans at tea to meet after class and go to the Sir John Soane Museum. On the first Tuesday of every month there's a special candlelight opening in the evening which is supposed to be awesome. So after my ethnic conflict class ended at 215 I went home to take a break before that. Unfortunately, I got very sleepy and just passed out at about 330. Little did I know I would barely get out of bed again until Sunday!

I could hardly sleep Tuesday night and what had started as a tickle in my throat turned into excruciating pain and a fever. I put off going to the doctor until the Advil could no longer bring my fever down because I was afraid of the dirty, hippie, socialist health care mess. It was with no small amount of trepidation that I made the necessary calls to the insurance and located a doctor. Following a short but hellish tube ride (tube + sick ≠ fun), I was shown by a very polite receptionist to a very nice waiting room, where I waited only a few minutes before being met by the doctor himself. No nurses asking the same questions over and over, no extra waiting in some tiny exam room. Dr. Edwards took me to his office, which had an exam table in the corner, and treated me like an honest to goodness grown up. It was awesome. Apparently I had a fever of 39°, which is about 102° F, so maybe everything just seemed extra awesome. He told me I had tonsillitis and hooked me up with penicillin, ibuprofen, paracetamol (pain killer) and some throat spray. I was convinced he was Jesus. As much as I wanted to hate the nationalized health care, I can't. It was fantastic.

I felt better almost immediately, but didn't feel recovered enough for the outside world (maybe because my awesome roommate rented Green Street and Pride and Prejudice for me) until Sunday night, when we went to the Exmouth Arms and City Pride for the Super Bowl watch. Everyone started out at Exmouth Arms (they did £1.50 drinks for us) and then ended up at City Pride because it was less crowded and the cool bartender was working.

Don't worry Mom, I'm all better now, and I won't talk to strangers.