barbados in january

Greetings from work!

I'm at work on my lunch break and am so excited that I had to write a new post. Last night, my family booked a winter vacation to Barbados! The weather there is nice year round (mid 80's) and has 10 hours of sunshine/day in January! Since it has been cold & wet in Bath, nothing sounds more lovely than a family trip in the sun.


Honestly, I only chose Barbados after Jenni Wong went there and showed me pictures of her swimming with sea turtles-- I've been dying to go ever since! I LOVE turtles and CANNOT wait!

♥ from the pharmacy



...and yes, I am on vacation planning more vacations. =]

freeeeezingggg

brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I started at my second pharmacy today and noticed as soon as I walked in the door that it was a bit cold. The pharmacist greeted me warmly and kindly informed me that the heater was broken! Whaattt??!?! Today's weather in Bath was in the 30's to low 50's F WITH rain! I froze the entire time and had to keep drinking tea so I could warm my hands up against the mug. When we closed shop to have lunch, I had to eat with my wool coat and scarf on like a crazy woman, sadness.

Instead of having to take the bus to the edge of town like I did for my last placement, this pharmacy is within walking distance, yay! After a short 45 minute walk in the freezing cold, I am ready to work all day until I have to walk home again... at night... in the freezing cold, haha. I'm really enjoying my work at the pharmacy and learning loads, so it's all worth it (at least that's what I tell myself when I'm trying to walk home and it's raining... and I'm balancing my umbrella, my big purse and groceries for dinner).

This past weekend, Paige and I went to Budapest! =D Paige had some trouble getting through customs when she first entered the UK, so we were both a little worried about her getting back in. While we were in the customs line trying to leave the UK, I joked to Paige about how I would leave her if she had any issues. Right in front of the customs agent (I was next in line), Paige says loudly "Well, I'll just tell them you're a terrorist!" ...and that was the lovely beginning to our weekend adventure! =D Paige got stuck at security in Bristol (UK) because they were afraid of her flashlight/liquids. The security man removed every single thing from her bag and waved a bomb wand all over it (and did it so much he had to get a new sheet his wand!) Then we flew to Budapest with loads of crying babies and moms carrying their children up and down the aisle, annoying!

On the way back, I brought earplugs to try to get some sleep since we had a late flight: useless. This kid cried the entire 2.5 hour flight and there was this super obnoxious man who sprinted to the bathrooms during takeoff when he was told specifically not to and gave everyone a thumbs up when he sat back down! After taking his seat, he began flirting, VERY LODULY, with one of the flight attendants the entire flight and even bought some of those nicotine smokeless cigarettes; he looked like such a fool smoking them the whole way.

We had a great time in Budapest though-- lots of walking, sightseeing, went to the Turkish baths, I ate goulash TWICE!, had a movie night in, and partied Euro style!!

♥ from Bath


we climbed to the top of Szent Istvan Bazilika


the stairs we climbed


leaving the hostel to go out. it was cold and all I had was my Northface jacket, so had to wear it during the walk to the bar/club. and yes, I DID remove my jacket once inside.

let's go crazy with methadone AND heroin!

Greetings from Bath!

I started my rotations this past Monday and will be working 40+ hours in a different pharmacy every week. Even though it's not just observation (they're making me work: type, fill, make dossettes, etc), I'm loving every minute of it! The pharmacist and staff are teaching me so much about the UK healthcare system and it's so different from ours. The way they run the pharmacy is so much simpler than how we do it in the States. You get a script, type it, find the generic/brand on the shelf, fill it, and the pharmacist does the check at the very end. They don't scan the rx into the computer, there's no barcode scans, blah blah-- you just pick whatever drug from the shelf, the manufacturer/quantity in the package doesn't matter! You can literally get an rx done in 2 minutes!!

The area I worked in this week has a lot of drug users and they all come in for their methadone everyday! At first-- I was confused since community pharmacies don't dispense it in the States, but the staff just poured out some green Methadone liquid for them (according to their rx) and they just drink it in front of the staff! There is also a big needle exchange program, so a lot of people will come in to exchange needles (which means they're still doing heroin) AND get their methadone rx at the same time (which is SUPPOSED help ppl who quit heroin). I'm working at an independent pharmacy next week and even have a hospital rotation, yay!!!

Right now, Paige and I are chilling in my room- we're about to head out to catch our flight to Budapest, Hungary! So excited to see Eastern Europe; I brought my pepto bismol & toilet paper just in case, haha. We are definitely planning to go swimming in the red toxic sludge, no worries!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

♥ from Bath


making dossettes!


Methadone-- the good stuff


Stonehenge (yes, my bangs were going crazy)

spa? why, yes please!

Greetings from the Apple store! Love hanging out here because there's free internet in the middle of city center! Paige arrived in Bath on Wednesday and we have had a blast doing all the touristy things in Bath. Today, we went to the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey, the Circus, & the Royal Crescent. We've also been doing a ton of shopping and I just bought a super cute big purse to hold all my new things. =]]]] Right after this, we're going to have afternoon cream tea!!! I feel so British right now, yay!!!

Yesterday morning, after a crazy night partying, Megan, Paige, and I decided to go to the spa in Bath to relax. (by the way- I love going out here! Everyone is sooo dressed up and all the boys dance really well. They don't just stand around and wait for girls to dance on them, they actually dance!!!)

After arriving at the spa- we bought a 2 hour package where you can go into a buncha different steam rooms that are super hot and infused with lavender, mint, etc. They also had a foot massaging station, a rooftop heated pool, and another indoor heated pool. It was sooo amazing to be able to just relax and enjoy a quiet morning. I can't even remember the last time I had a spa day-- it felt so refreshingly normal to go to the spa in the middle of this 4 month vacay! =D

Will blog more about Bath and my rotations (will be working 40+ hours a week, eekk!) and my weekend trips later!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

♥ from bath's apple store




http://www.thermaebathspa.com/

it's key, not kway!

Greetings from Dublin! I'm sitting in the hostel right now waiting to ride the bus to the airport.

I arrived in Dublin late Friday night and caught the bus to the hostel so I wouldn't have to waste money on a taxi. When I got off the bus, I asked the bus driver the way to Merchant Quay (pronounced key)-- he told me to cross the bridge and walk past 4 bridges and it'd be right there, sounds easy enough! Right after I got off the bus, a local (who was standing behind me on the bus) comes up to me and informs me that next to my hostel there is a heroin clinic so she thinks I should take a taxi, not walk. It was past midnight and already I had a flight delay, waited forever for a bus, and was about to walk myself past druggies-- yay!

I arrived at the hostel safe with the help of a taxi driver and hoped for an uneventful rest of the weekend. Saturday morning I decided to go on a walking tour of Dublin (I'm beginning to LOVE walking tours!) and met another Texan and we ended up hanging out together all weekend-- yay for travel buddies! Ireland has super cool free museums and we also went to see The Book of Kells, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College, Kilmainham Jail, Dublin Castle, Oscar Wilde's statue & house, Christ Church... and so much more! We really wanted to go tour St. Michan's church which has REAL mummies you can touch, but unfortunately they don't do tours on Sundays-- devastation!! On the bright side, I finally had a decent meal this weekend and am actually full! =D

Looking forward to going back to Bath and hanging out with Geraldine!

♥ from Dublin


Oscar Wilde Statue


me really excited to be inside a jail cell at Kilmainham Gaol(where the political prisoners of Ireland were held from 1780s+)


my favorite picture from dublin. LOL