Category: Living
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What we miss about Cambridge
We started living a strange life of sleeping on an air mattress and living out of suitcases at the end of April. El had the idea of shipping our things over to the States as early as possible so that we wouldn’t have to wait for them for very long. We were very lucky that…
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When things don’t go as planned
Oliver turned 5 months old two weeks ago. Between the move overseas and the sleep deprivation (hello sleeping 10-12 hours through the night since the end of June!), the past few months have been a blur. And slowly I’m forgetting all of the nitty-gritty details of what happened during his birth into this big, beautiful…
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Funny phrases
Living and working in the UK has led me to laugh a lot. My British co-workers have come to learn that while conversing with me, my laughter indicates that either I didn’t understand anything they came out of their mouth or that the words they said were pronounced in a very British way. Most of my…
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Learning English
The more time I spend at work, the more [British] words and phrases I learn. Here is a collection (part 1 of many, I hope) of new-to-me words and phrases I have learned while living in England. I have provided the American word(s) that are the equivalent. AA: the Automobile Association (equivalent to the US…
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BRCA2 Cycle Path
I love solving mysteries and problems, which is how I would describe what I do for a living. Technically speaking, I am a biochemist – a structural biologist. I like looking at the 3-dimensional structure of proteins and understanding how other things (other proteins, DNA, small molecules, etc) fit into those proteins. And while I have…
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Remember, Remember
Today is the 5th of November. And to Americans, this is just another day. In England, today is a day to celebrate! And to light bonfires and fireworks! And for remembrance. Today’s post is about history of today and the history leading up to today. First, let’s first go through some historical perspective on monarchies and…
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Slight differences
As Americans look forward to an extra hour of sleep this weekend, we “fell back an hour” last weekend. I put together a list of things that we’ve noticed so far that are completely different between the two countries. It is a US versus UK showdown! 1. Doors For fire safety reasons (correct me if…
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Holiday versus vacation
In the US, I never really thought much about the meaning of the words I used on a regular basis. However, nearly every day I’m learning gobs of new words and phrases. Or I am learning alternative meanings for words and phrases (for example, pants aren’t the same thing as trousers). One thing I recently learned was what the…
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English muffins
I first need to distract you from this post. While writing it up, I couldn’t help but think about a scene in the movie Shrek, in which Gingy (the gingerbread man) is being interrogated by one of the villains, Lord Farquaad (NOT MY GUMDROP BUTTONS!) This leads to further distraction (at least for me) to find the…
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You alright?
In a quick, high-five styled dinner, a friend who lived in the area for a few years mentioned that locals have a very strange [to Americans] greeting of “You alright?” When Lynn told me about it, I hadn’t experienced myself, yet. I think the way she described it to me perfectly exemplfies how I feel…