The family cometh

Yes, my family is arriving well in a few hours. First, my sister is arriving at 11:00 PM (in less than two hours) and then my mom, aunt and godchild (cousin) will be arriving at 8:00 AM on Friday, March 3rd. It's gonna be fun!

But before they arrive, I thought it would be fitting to give them a heads up on some ground rules to visiting, living or passing through London (this goes for the rest of you hooligans!)

1) Always, always stand on the right side of the escalator on the tube on pain of death (I'm not kidding... me or one of the millions of London will kill you... I once saw a guy literally push the guy out of his way... this is very serious stuff!). For a full list of Tube Etiquette.
2) Driving on the left side of the road but there are one-way streets everywhere... Best to follow the instructions on the ground (they paint handy instructions like LOOK LEFT or LOOK RIGHT on the street to help stupid pedestrians like me not get squashed like a bug. They now have really cool ads of people getting run over on the street because they don't look before crossing. This one ad is really disturbing because IT ACTUALLY happened. These teenagers were joking around on the street with one filming the scene from their mobile phone when one of their friends was run over... I can't watch this but maybe you can: click on link to see)
3) Londoners know this: Recycling is for dweebs and throwing garbage on the ground is cool
4) Binge Drinking is okay and fighting is encouraged
5) Knocking into people is the best way to get from Point A to Point B
6) Best to figure out your route before you get to the tube. I really like the new art piece in front of the tube map... very telling (see bottom of article for a picture of it!)
7) Important to bring wads of cash when visiting London. It is rated as the most expensive city in the world to live in by the worlds city mayors.
8) However, on the flip side, there are plenty of free things to do while in London.
9) Make sure to takes lots of pictures while you are in London. If you forget your camera, you can always download them from google images.
10) Don't forget your rainjacket or umbrella as London gets a fair bit of rain ( per year) but not as much as Vancouver! ( per year) or even Halifax (per year).

I'm sure I'll come up with more great things about London.

Cheers

Hampton Court Palace

My alarm clock wakes me up. It's 9:15 in the morning on Saturday. The sun is peering through my curtains (I find that very odd). It looks like it's going to be a nice day but I have to get to Waterloo station to join some friends for an outing to Hampton Court Palace. I take a shower, have breakfast, watch a bit of euronews and then I'm off to the station only to realize at the entrance of the tube that I forgot my free ticket to Hampton Court Palace which was the base for why we going to see the palace. I quickly walk back to my apartment and walk back to the tube stop but by this time, I have lost 15 minutes and will undoubtedly be late for our train.

When I arrive at the train station, I have a voicemail and text from Sarah but unfortunately, we missed the train. The next train is in 30 minutes so I go and buy my ticket. As I buy my ticket, I see a 2 for 1 advertisement for those who take the train to attend tourist attractions. Given the price of a ticket is 12 pounds, I let Steph and Sarah know. We make it to the electronic board at London Waterloo to find our platform. They usually only post it 10-15 minutes prior to departure. Unfortunately, the 11:36 is cancelled due to the driver not showing up (he probably had a wicked Saturday night). We need to wait till 12:06 to take the next one. We go grab a coffee and watch the sights unfold as busy locals and bewildered tourists try to catch their train.

We make it to our platform for 12:06 only to find there are mechanical difficulties with our train. We begin to think we'll never make it out to Hampton Court but the doors close at 12:15 and the train begins its slow movements outside of the station. We pick up speed and we are off. We arrive close to 1:00 PM near the grounds of Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court Palace looks like a very large estate, a mix of brick and chimneys. For the casual observer, we could wrongly assume this is a victorian factory given its austere and commanding presence but upon closer inspection, the articulate and imaginative carvings can only signify a person of great wealth and importance resided here. And we would be right. King George the VIII as well as James the first from the Netherlands made Hampton Court Palace their primary residence.

We get our tickets and follow the audioguided tours of King James Apartments, the Tudor Kitchens and King George VIII relishing in the history of the place and the fact we are walking in the same place those monarks set foot several centuries prior. Following our internal visit, we visit the magnificient gardens and the world famous maze of Hampton Court Palace. Although the sun has since disappeared and the weather has cooled off, we enjoy our walk in the park. We stay till closing time, approximately 4:30 PM and make our way back to London having enjoyed a wonderful afternoon.

For pictures, please click on:
Hampton Court Palace Part 1
Hampton Court Palace Part 2

Jess gets an MRI exam

After a week of anticipation from Jess's last gynaecologist appointment showing that the teratoma was not in her pelvic cavity but in another cavity in her stomach (although we are still unsure), it was confirmed that she would need an MRI exam before an operation could be scheduled. This dampened our spirits due to the sheer length of time it usually takes to get an MRI exam in Canada (as long as 6 months for minor surgeries and sometimes as long as 1 month for life-threatening illnesses such as cancer).

Well, after ranting and raving against Canada's medical system and complaining on how long it takes to get an MRI exam in Canada to my international student colleagues, Jess, again, was lucky and jumped the queue to get an MRI exam for next Wednesday. I sincerely hope they can now pinpoint the teratoma allowing her to promptly schedule a surgery time in order to remove the teratoma from her body.

Microfinance, Gynaecologists, Mozart

What do those three things have in common? Not much other than they appear in today's update.

Yesterday, the LSE Microfinance Society of which I am the treasurer, organized a very successful event on microinsurance, microsavings and remittances. We had over 48 in attendance and took some pictures of the event.

Today, I had 2 lectures, one for my AC430 course on Corporate Finance and one for my AC421 course on Applied Corporate Finance. In between, Nataly and I went to hear a free concert in the Shaw Library by Mitra Tham. I was amazing. We heard some Bach, Mozart, Grieg and Rachmaninoff. Very relaxing way to spend our lunch hour and cleared my head for the remainder of the day.

Here are some fun facts for you:

• My sister will be making a surprise visit from February 26th to March 3rd, then visiting Austria, Eastern Europe and returning on March 17th
• My mother, my aunt (godmother) and my cousin (godchild) will be visiting from March 3rd to March 12th
• I am leaving for Ottawa, Canada on March 18th in order to spend my study period prior to my exams (scheduled to start sometime in mid-May).
• Jessica received an appointment to see the gynaecologist today and will hopefully be able to schedule a surgery time to remove the teratoma.
• I was accepted into the IMBA program at Schulich, 10 days after I applied (always a good sign when they make their decisions quickly!). Schulich was just ranked best MBA program in Canada by Financial Times and 18th worldwide. Similarly, it was ranked best MBA in Canada by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 27th worldwide.
  

Teratoma

The last week has been pretty worrying for Jessica and I. Jessica had been sent to the emergency room last week with severe stomach pains. They did a whole series of test and found an unidentified mass over her ovaries and below her pancreas during an ultrasound. She had a cat scan done yesterday and an endoscope exam today with the results given.

The good news is that it is not cancerous. The weird news is that the mass is a completely benign tumor which is 12cm in diameter (yes, I am not kidding) and putting pressure against all her organs in that area (which is causing the pain in her pancreas and stomach). She needs to get it removed. The good news about that is that it is not attached to any of her organs (just kind of floating around). But the sheer size of it will mean that she needs at least a week to recuperate.

If you get grossed out easily don't read the following. There is a name for this and Jessica couldn't remember the name but the tumor is a mass of fat, water, blood (and sometimes has hair and teeth).

Anyway, we are breathing a sign of relief. She will be okay with no permanent damage to her organs. She has been referred to a specialist in Ottawa and will undoubtedly have an operation in the next 6-8 weeks (welcome to Canada).

This was Jessica's message:

"As you probably know, I have been having bad stomach pains and other problems since the third day of my trip to North Africa. Despite taking medication for stomach acid, which I had been treated for before, it just didn't seem to go away. When I got back I was treated for e-coli, which it turns out I didn't actually have (I thought it was strange that I had NONE of the symptoms).

Last week I went to the emergency room in a great deal of pain, and that's when an ultrasound revealed a large solid mass in my pelvic area (not the tummy). Some of you know this because I had to cancel my birthday party :( (Don’t worry, take two is to come soon). I think I mentioned at the time that I wanted this little "squatter" kicked out for good. Well.....I was just joking but it turns out that I do have a rather large monster living in my pelvic area.

I had a cat scan and an endoscope exam (not fun) done this week in Kitchener and I learned yesterday that I have what is called a Teratoma tumour, which literally translates in "monster" tumour. They are very big tumours that are all lumpy and bumpy, frequently come out hairy and sometimes have teeth and bones in them (think of the Aunt in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" who had a "biopsy" and found out she had her twin living in a tumour in her neck....except mine probably wasn't a twin). Hence the term "monster". My friend Paul was pretty close when he said that I had probably had an alien living in me.

While these tumours are usually very big, leave it to me to outdo everyone: at 12 cm, mine is larger than average....huge in fact....and taking up most of the room in my pelvic area. Hence the pain. And probably hence the acid reflux (apparently if you've ever been pregnant you know what I'm talking about).

But not to worry, it is all fatty tissue and completely benign and not connected to any of my reproductive organs, so that's good. I just have to find a gynecologist in Ottawa to schedule a surgery. I don't know how long that will take, but I AM starting my new contract at Foreign Affairs next week....I can take a little pain and discomfort and my office will be much more comfortable than North Africa was, and I am assuming that there will be a working washroom near by.

Seriously, however, I have been feeling better this past week – the little monster must have shifted to a more comfortable position.