My Life in the United Kingdom/Europe

Sorry viewers, I know I have not updated my blog in like a month. Like I said in my original blog post, I am not a blog person and it just takes patience for me to sit down and actually type everything because so much goes on in my life here each day. So in this blog post I am going to try my best to keep my blog up since so many of you guys have been looking at my blog. Well about a month ago I went with my friend Jon from Mauritius and Nick (U.S.) to Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland. The cities were located in northern England (close to Edinburgh, Scotland). It was a very fun trip and I got to explore a lot of the English countryside and got to go to cities like Birmingham, York, and Middlesburough. It was located near the beach so I also got to go by there. The beach in Sunderland was nice, but not as clean as back home in Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach lol. I have to say I do miss the beach and warm weather, but the U.K. is awesome and I do not want to come back home anytime soon LOL. Last weekend I went to Cambridge also where the legendary Cambridge University is located. It was a very nice campus, filled with so much history. I might upload some pictures of my trip up soon. I learned that Alfred Lord Tennyson, Isaac Newton, and other historical figures studied there. The city life in Cambridge was really fun, me and some friends on the trip had a really good time exploring downtown and visiting many buildings and cathedrals. Two weeks ago I also found out that I got into all the medical internship programs I applied for: University of Washington, Yale University, and Columbia University. All sites gave me two business days to decide which one to choose. After a long two days of deciding, I finally picked Yale University (which is in CT). So this summer I will only be in North Carolina for 9 days (June 10-19) and then Connecticut until August 1st. It was such a hard decision, I am so glad that God gave me this opportunity, I do not know how I could have done any of this without him. I was really praying that I would get into one of the sites because this would be a "key" opportunity for me getting into medical school. This internship/program will group me with students in the U.S. who want to go to medical school as well. It is basically an academic bootcamp in which I will be taking organic chemistry/physics during the summer, prepare me for medical school admissions, work with medical students/physicians in Yale Med hospital, and basically help improve my chances of getting into medical school. I am enjoying my classes over here, I would say Molecular Biology/Genetics is my favorite class so far. The labs are pretty interesting. Because I only have school on Monday, Tues, and Wednesday I am able to go on trips because my weekend basically starts Wednesday at 1 pm. This weekend I am going to Madrid, Spain (March. 3-6). I am pretty excited about this..gotta make sure my batteries are fully charged for my camera lol. After this coming weekend I will be chilling out and saving up money for my big excursion during Spring Break. During Spring Break (April 8-24) I will be going to Netherlands (Amsterdam), Italy (Rome), Greece (Athens), and France (Paris). Spring break here is all of April and then exams start in May. Well I am going to go do some school work, I promise I will update this log more often! (Try checking every 1-2 weeks!) Thanks for viewing. Much Love

Keenan (February 27, 2011) 7:06 pm U.K. time

Allo all (british accent)
Now that I am comfortable and adjusted with life in the UK, I decide to finally write on the blog. Like I said in my previous post blogs are not my ideal way of communicating because I rather use Facebook. I feel like this is a better way for me to go back a long time from now and review my previous posts and also to help me with my Gilman Followup project that I have to present when I eventually come back to the U.S. Although I was delayed for an extra 2 hours in Greensboro, NC to Chicago because of the snow my connecting flight from Chicago to Heathrow, London was on time smooth. The flight was around 8 and a half hours long and was very smooth. The plane ride was very comfortable and I ended up getting a seat to myself which was awesome. The seat had a digital map that said where we were in the world and would move periodically as the plane moved. The plane offered 10 movies for us to watch, along with 10 tv channels (I better get something as much as that ticket cost). As I got off the plane, I finally arrived in Heathrow Airport at 11:00 a.m. (the biggest airport in the world, I might add). I had to walk a large amount to meet with my group at terminal three. Before I could meet my group I had to go through immigration and then customs. Immigration was set up like I was "crossing the border" it was a unique experience. The lady say my passport and issued me my 6 month Visa "which will allow me to go to different countries in Europe". After that I went to customs to pick up my luggage..and then the interesting stuff starts to happen. As I got to baggage claims I waited 10 minutes for my bags and it turns out that this woman from Mumbai, India took my bag and thought it was hers. This resulted in me waiting 4 days after my arrival for me to receive my bags because it took them forever to deliver it to me. TALK ABOUT BEING ILL. We arrived on campus around 3 pm and did not get into our housing accomodations until 7. I live in houses called Roberts Way, it is around 90 houses all close together like a community. In my house there are 8 people, and let me tell you it is the most fun and diverse group of people you could ever expect. In the house we have a girl from Ghana, one from Romania, one from France, and one from somewhere in India? Then you have me (African American), my friend Nyiwa who is originally from South Africa but has lived in London his whole life, and a French guy named Stefan. The house is a good set up with an upstairs and downstairs with 3 bathrooms and a kitchen. All in all I really like it here. Funny part about it is I never felt home sick. I have been here for 10 days now and I feel like I've been here for months. I really like it here. I'm really excited about the classes that I am taking which are Molecular Biology/Genetics, Cognition (psychology class), and Conceptual Historical Psychology. I have one class a day Monday, Tues, Wednesday, and I am done with classes on Wednesday at 1:00 pm (MY KINDA SCHEDULE) lol Although I'm going to have a good time while I'm here and enjoy as much of the SOCIAL atmosphere as I can, I am also going to enjoy the ACADEMIC perspective as well. I hope to do some type of research in bioscience while I am over here. Less than two more weeks until I find out whether or not I got my summer medical internship in either: Yale, University of Washington, or Columbia. Hopefully I can get one that would be great. Apparently next weekend I am either going to New Castle/Sunderland England or Edinburgh, Scotland. I am going to Paris, France soon though. If you have not noticed already I really ramble in my thoughts, so get used to my journals being like this haha. I just have so much to say that I can not actually type it all in one post. Apparently Elton John made a special appearance at our university last night and Lloyd (Singer of "I can make your bed rock") is coming Monday to perform. I have a negative view on one hit wonders and I do not know if I would give up 10 pounds to see him perform..now if it were Rhianna or someone else that may be a different case ; )..well I'm going to end this it is now 12:00 pm over here while it is 7:00 a.m. in the U.S. I will post sometime soon. Cheerio

Hey Withers Family/friends

Figured I'd start a blog while I am travelling overseas to England. This is my first blog so bare with me, I still prefer Facebook but oh well. I figured I would update this every other week, depending on my mood. I will try to upload pictures and videos to this site for viewing purposes and for my followup Gilman Scholarship presentation that I have to give when I come back to the U.S. Can't believe next week this time I'm going to be in another country..never saw this coming. I am in the process of packing (I hate packing) I'm literally going to pack light because most of the stuff like toiletries I can get over there. Got my pounds in the mail last week. Waiting on my plug in converters to come in sometime this week, because European and British plugins are completely different than the US. Got Skype set up on my home computer so my family can talk/see me. Also, I got one of those MagicJack phones in which I can call anywhere in the US or Canada and anybody in the US or Canada can call me for free for an unlimited period of time. If you want my Skype information just look me up Keenan Withers and hit me up if you want my MagicJack phone number. I hope it works good while I am over there, so far so good! Next Tuesday when I leave I am suppose to be flying from Greensboro then connect to O'Haire in Chicago and leave there at 9 pm and should arrive in Heathrow Airport in London around 11:15 a.m. (hopefully the weather will be good ) Well I guess I'm going to end it for now. Next post I should be in the UK!!Peacce