The Terminal

(6-24-06)

I'm just killing some time in Heathrow waiting for my fligt to leave for Budapest, so I thought I'd take a minute to update my traVel log. Every adventure has to have a few unexpected twists in order to be interesting, and in my case this came in the form of both my laptop and my compass watch losing battery power before I left the airport in Minneapolis. As a result, the next several days became quite a challenge without internet access or navigational capabilities, not to mention having to figure out what time of day it was with my jet-lagged body only confusing the issue. Fortunately, the department of surgery had done an outstanding job making preparations for my arrival. After reassuring the customs agent that I was cool to enter the country for six months and occasionally cut open human beings in England, I met up with Steven (my driver) and headed for Oxford. I was delighted to see signs for "Slough" as we made our way toward M40, but was told that I was going to have to make it a seperate trip if I was going to meet up with David Brent and Gareth Keenan. I was surprised upon arriving at the flat at how small a 2 bedroom apartment can be.

At first finding my way around the city was quite a challenge. It took me 5 attempts at entering my car from the left side before I remembered that the steering wheel was on the opposite side. Although they have been few in number, my experiences with the roundabouts have involved 1 or 2 "look kids, Big Ben, Parliment" episodes.

I spent most of Thursday traveling to London in order to process my medical license at the GMC. After verifying that all of my paperwork was in order, I breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing that I could now spend the next week relaxing before starting work on July 3. Yesterday morning I made a visit to the JR to meet up with my teammates on the UGI service. Seems like a great group of people, and I look forward to getting started.