I have made several trips, entertained a few visitors, finished classes, and participated in several Rotary events since I last sent out an update.

First, a little about some of the trips I have had the opportunity to make. During my break I met the Kenny family in Italy when they were visiting their daughter Michaela who is studying abroad for the semester. I spent a few days in Florence, a half day in Sienna, and the majority of my time in Rome. I really enjoyed Italy and hope that I will one day be able to return to see some of the other great places I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to see, like Venice. The company was great and because everything was previously organized and detailed in a multi-volume binder endearingly called "My Bible" by Kathy there was no planning required on my part. After Italy, I spent a few days in Paris with my friend Eric, who is studying at Kings College London for a semester abroad from Columbia in the States. I finally had the opportunity to use some of the French I learned in high school and college, although I'm not sure the French people quite approved of my pronunciation. We accomplished a lot in a few short days, seeing most of the main sites in Paris and even taking a day trip to Versailles. I also recently made a day trip to Bath, England and saw Roman baths built over a hot spring that still remains active today. Bath is quaint and many often remark that it is the quintessential English town.

As I mentioned, I have also been fortunate to have some visitors to break up my time away from home. First, Marta came out to visit -- we saw quite a bit in London including a boat party on the Thames hosted by my residence hall. We made our way to Cambridge where my friend Roz completed her undergraduate. Roz was kind enough to provide us with a tour of the area and some of the colleges. We even had a pint at the Eagle where Watson and Crick formerly relaxed and discussed theory about the structure of DNA. My time with Marta was special and I'm glad she was able to make the trip. Additionally, Kathy Kenny, Kathy Pender, and Michaela were in London during Easter. For all of you that know Kathy Kenny, two consecutive international trips requiring a long time on an airplane is a complete aberration, but I think she has handled the new voyager life well. We did I think as much as you possibly can do in the four days they where here, including a trip to Oxford on Easter for mass at Christ Church College. Again, another wonderful time and I was so grateful to have had the opportunity to spend Easter with people I know and love.

While I have had quite a bit of fun with all these short trips and visitors, I have also had much activity with my program at Imperial. Although we have still not been given our exact percentage on the exams we completed in January, our course organizer did reveal that I obtained a mark of "Pass" on both exams! I was relieved to hear this as if I did not pass I would have to sit for the exams the following year, which would probably not be possibly in my situation. We have also finished the taught portion of the program, marking the start of a plethora of course work. I have three mini-projects which take about a week to complete each due May 4th -- two of the three are nearly finished so I think I'm doing well. We are required to present one of the mini-projects shortly after May 4th. I will quickly commence work on my thesis which will be about the HPV vaccine and the possibility of the exacerbation of inequalities. I would have liked to focus my thesis on polio eradication but unfortunately Imperial was not able to provide me with a tutor working in this area.

Finally, Rotary has also kept me fairly busy. I attended a scholar's dinner at the Radlett Rotary Club with my host club's president. Although we had some difficulty locating the venue, we arrived just as dinner was being served! Perfect. I have also given talks at Putney Rotary Club and Roding Rotary Club, with several others still planned. Last weekend I traveled to Bournemouth with Alan (my host counselor) for the Rotary in International in Britain and Ireland (RIBI) annual conference where 3,000 other Rotarians, scholars, and Rotaractors joined us. As always, Rotary and specifically Alan really made a sincere effort to ensure I was cared for. I had the opportunity to hear the RI president Bill Boyd speak about his experiences with Rotary philanthropy all around the world. He seems to be truly an impressive person, without the attitude that can sometimes follow people of his stature. I also heard the US ambassador to the UK speak, in addition to many other interesting talks. Finally, just this week Alan took me for a charity dinner at the House of Commons in the Churchill Room. The dinner was great and we heard a member of parliament address the group. I am very grateful to Alan for the opportunity to have dinner in the House of Commons, an experience most cannot boast. Below is a photo of Alan and myself at the dinner:


I have only a few months remaining now and my experiences thus far have been rich and varied. I have a lot of work for my program to complete before leaving but I will be sure to make every use of the activity London has to offer in these remaining months. I will potentially have two more visitors making an appearance: my sister Andrea and my friend Kevin Kita. I look forward to seeing them -- whether it is in London or back in the States.

Shortly after my last update, I traveled to Madrid, Spain and stayed with my friend Martha who I know from my Gilmour trips to Honduras. Martha provided a couch for me to lay my head and also directed/ accompanied me as I explored.

While overall I had a great trip I encountered some troubles trying to leave London from Gatwick Airport. Shortly after arriving at Gatwick I would discover that my flight had been cancelled as the result of fierce winds. I was fortunate enough to be placed on another flight leaving 3 hour later from Gatwick. I waited anxiously for my new flight only to find out that this flight would be delayed another 3 hours. Thankfully, I was finally able to reach Madrid at 4 in the morning, over 13 hours after I had left my room that afternoon. Despite having to work the next morning, Martha stayed awake to welcome me to Spain.

When I was finally able to pull myself out of bed the next morning, I traveled to the Prado Museum, a famous art museum in the heart of Madrid. I viewed famous original works by Degas, Raphael, and Rubens. After the museum I went on a tour of the Real Madrid soccer club stadium "Estadio Santiago Bernabeu", named for the most famous coach in the teams recent history. As I learned viewing the museum inside the stadium that is included in the tour, Real Madrid is considered the best soccer team of the 20th century and has been home of some of the most famous soccer players in the world including Ronaldo and Beckham. The tour also took me near the field, on the players bench, into the locker room, and the press area.

I spent the remainder of my time traveling around Madrid with Martha. I was really surprised by the number of fountains we encountered -- they are beautiful but I'm not so sure they know what to do with all those fountains. The night before I left we had a traditional Spanish rice dish for dinner in the Plaza Mayor -- a famous square near the center of Madrid where all the government offices were formerly located.

When I returned to London I began to focus my attention on establishing a supervisor for my final thesis. I had determined that I wanted to conduct a research project on the current status of polio eradication because of Rotary's participation in this effort and my own interest in vaccination campaigns. I was directed to a professor at Imperial who conducts research on polio and contacted him in hope of establishing a supervisor. He just recently contacted me with bad news: he will not be able to supervise my project because he already has a PhD student and an undergraduate student that are under his guidance. I now have to investigate if there is another possible supervisor that could direct my work or formulate a new idea for my thesis in an area where there is an existing supervisor at Imperial.

I recently assisted the Hanswell-Northfields Rotary Club with a party for the elderly they organized. While I mostly helped serve drinks and food, I did have the opportunity to catch some of the magic show and participate in a sing-a-long hosted by two members of the club. Rotary's involvement with the community is very impressive and it is refreshing to see that the ideals of Rotary are not merely written propaganda, rather, values truly lived by the clubs' members.

This past weekend I traveled to Oxford to see the infamous bike riders crowding the streets and the historic architecture of the colleges and university. I stayed with Molly, a friend who I had met in Cleveland and works at Oxford. The night I arrived in Oxford I had Thai food for the second time in my life and although I could not pronounce the dish, it was delicious. The next day Molly took me around the city, including to the top of St. Mary's Church for a great view of the city. I was really impressed by the architecture of Oxford and amazed that students my age or not much younger studied and lived in such places.

This weekend I am going to the Chelsea vs. Middlesbourgh football match with Tytus. Kathy bought me two tickets as a Christmas gift and I decided to take Tytus to the game as a thank you for taking me around Poland. After offering him a ticket to the game Tytus said "it has been my dream to go to a Chelsea match" -- I am not too sure how much of that is hyperbole but I am certain we will have a great time.

I have not yet loaded pictures from Spain or Oxford but I will be doing so soon and will send a link in an email.

I hope everyone is doing well in their respective homes. Until next time, take care.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. I had three weeks away from classes and I am now back in London "living the dream" as my good friend Roz often refers to her life in London. As I had previously mentioned, I spent about five days in Poland just after first term classes finished with my friend Tytus. On the 15th of December, we flew out of London to Berlin because the airfare was more affordable. When driving from Berlin to Tytus's home in Poznan, Poland there was an accident which slowed traffic enough to extend our drive from the usual one hour to four hours. The drive in Poland was much faster; however, because there are only single lane highways also quite dangerous as faster drivers must continually pass up slower trucks sometimes risking on-coming traffic. As result of our dilatory pace in Germany and after stopping to eat, we did not arrive in Poznan until 4 in the morning.

We spent the first two days in Poznan at Tytus's house. His house was very nice and self designed by his mother and father. I was well taken care of by Mrs. Dobzynski -- she is a great cook, making ribs one night and duck the second night. I enjoyed meeting some of Tytus's friends that I had heard about in London. I also had the opportunity to eat Polish KFC, which as Tytus had promised while in London, is far better than in the States or in England. We then traveled to Krakow via train where we spent one day exploring the historic churches and the palace that has been well preserved. Krakow is about an hours drive from Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Oswiecim, Poland so we made the bus trip. I have seen many of the pictures and viewed many of the films but the experience of standing and physically observing where these atrocities occurred was very powerful. Tytus later told me that his great grandfather was held and killed in Block 11 at Auschwitz. His grandmother still has a few letters that were able to make it out of the camp in her possession and has shared those with Tytus. Following our stop in Krakow we traveled by train to Warsaw where we met up with Maciej, one of our friends from Imperial. I only had one day in Warsaw but was able to learn more about the Poland's history of devastation, and especially the tribulations of the city of Warsaw during World War II. Polish people generally have much disdain for the Russians, not only because of communist oppression, but because the Russian army watched as the entire city of Warsaw was destroyed by German forces. Although the Russians were part of the Allied Forces Stalin had hopes of taking Poland after the war and therefore mislead the United States and England to believe he was properly assisting Poland.

After Poland, I made my way back home to the United States. I spent about ten days in the States, some of which was spent in Virginia with my Dad and sister and the rest in Ohio. I was really grateful for the opportunity to spend some time in the States and see family and friends after being away for so long.

I came back to London on the 3rd of January where exams were waiting to welcome me back. After recovering from bit of jet lag, I studied for about a week for two three hour exams -- the first was on epidemiology and statistics while the second was on infectious disease epidemiology and public health (including health systems and health economics). I struggled with the first test (as did many in the class) but I think the second went more smoothly. We will not receive scores for about 6 weeks as the exams were all essay and it is necessary that different sections are scored by different professors. We are now settled in to normal classes again and I am relieved that exams are over.

This Thursday I will be traveling to Madrid to see my friend Martha from Honduras who is studying for her masters there. I am very excited for the trip!

I hope everyone is well. Until next time, take care!

As I mentioned in my previous email, Mary and Maureen Kenny came with their uncle and aunt to London about two weeks ago. During their time here I was able to experience a plethora of the sights in London. The first night we went to went to see Big Ben and Parliament and take a "flight" on the London Eye, called such because it is sponsored by British Airways. London boasts the Eye as the largest observation wheel in the world, rising 143 meters above the ground. We started early the next day at the Tower of London, which is notorious for torture of various political criminals and the execution site of several high profile prisoners, although it was originally built as a royal residence. On a less ominous note, the Tower of London also houses the Crown Jewels. Later, we went on a tour of the Globe Theater, which has been designed to be a replica of the original playhouse. The whirlwind of activity continued the next day when we took the hour journey to see Windsor Castle, which serves as the queen's residence for about two months out of the year. If you would like to see some photos of our sight seeing with some descriptions please feel free to access my photo website at the following address:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/555498551ZjGmMG

Last weekend I participated in the annual Lord Mayor's Show parade with London Rotarians. The origins of the parade date back to 1215 when King John granted the people living in the financial district of London (called the City of London) the right to appoint their own Lord Mayor. The parade involved the Lord Mayor and his supporters traveling from the City to the Palace of Westminster to swear an Oath of Fealty to the Sovereign, which remains the purpose of the parade even today. During the parade I smiled and waved to the crowds while walking beside the two-tiered bus Rotary had hired and transformed into a large, moving promotion of Rotary in London. Until this event, I never realized just how difficult the Queen's job in the public eye can be: smiling and waving to crowds for over two hours was literally strenuous exercise that left me with sore cheeks and limp arms.

Last week at Imperial we started a module on Linear and Multiple Regression which will continue into next week. We also started a new Friday course at Imperial's Tanaka School of Business on health microeconomics. Our microeconomics professor is engaging and interesting but has also created some enemies in our class by asserting his ego (or perhaps his insecurities) during lectures too aggressively. During the first lecture he pulled out a wad of pounds from his wallet during an example, made sure we all knew he was made a professor at 32, and indicated that he had been sky diving. While some have found this irritating, I think he explains the material well and don't have any real issues with him. We have an optional paper to write in this course on moral hazard -- which is essentially overuse of health care as a result of care being free at the point of consumption. We have one other essay on ethics as well due before the end of the term.

I celebrated my first Thanksgiving away from the States this week. In the spirit of the holiday I met Megan, someone I know from the States and her cousin for dinner. We looked at some of the American restaurants that were serving proper Thanksgiving dinner but deemed them too expensive with prices in the range of 20 to 30 pounds. Instead we went to a chain Portuguese restaurant called Nando's and had spicy chicken (hey, it's still poultry). The meal was reasonably priced and delicious so I definitely will be making a return trip sometime in the near future.

Tomorrow I will be assisting my host Rotary club with a Christmas collection for two hours. Wish us luck!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and I'll be in contact soon. Cheers!

First off, Happy Halloween! I was just reminded that it is indeed halloween today by the guy dressed as a provocative female nurse I just saw at dinner -- probably not my preferred way of receiving this reminder but a potent one nonetheless. The bar in our dorm will be having a pumpkin carving contest tonight so I more than likely we be making an appearance with some friends.

As I mentioned in my previous email, last weekend I found myself in Eastbourne, England for the Rotary in London 2006 Fellowship Conference. Over 500 members from various Rotary clubs in London were present for the event which featured speakers during the day and entertainment at night.

On Friday night I was introduced to the members of my host club, Hanwell - Northfields. All the members were very welcoming and hospitable, offerring me a drink nearly the moment I walked into the hotel. The club covered all my meals and my lodging in a very nice hotel directly across the street from the conference center. Later on Friday night we all attended a variety show at the conference center called "That'll Be the Day." The show featured prominent musicians that have been the mainstays of popular culture and music throughout the decades, featuring artists like Elvis and The Beatles. I joined my club in singing along and dancing to the songs that were familiar to me.

On Saturday there were a variety of speakers during the day, including a speaker from the Foundation who commented on the state of Rotary and a BBC meteorologist who spoke about our changing climate. The Ambassadorial Scholars were also placed in the spotlight on Saturday afternoon when we were featured in a skit entitled "Who Wants to Be An Ambassadorial Scholar" modeled after the millionaire television show we all know so well. The scholars were split up into regions (I was part of the quite large North American group) and we answered multiple choice questions attempting to answer enough questions correctly to receive 26,000 USD, the amount of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. We were able to answer all the questions correctly to win the scholarship! Thankfully we were able to win the scholarship because I was not prepared to return home just yet. The fact that we were given the correct answers before the show probably helped a bit too.

Saturday night the entire club had dinner at the hotel and I met a girl named Janelle from Shaker Hts., Ohio. She is a member of the Rotaract club that does much in conjunction with my host Rotary club. She received a masters in social work from Case and has been using her skills as a social worker in London for about a year now. Speaking to her was refreshing -- home isn't that far away after all! Following dinner we partied Rotary style until the wee hours of the morning. I never would have imagined that I would have had trouble keeping up with my host Rotary club but that indeed was the case. I don't think I fully recovered from what I initially perceived would be subdued weekend until about midweek. The weekend was truly a great informal way to be introduced to my host club and begin to learn about the members.

Last week I finished the first module of my program which involved a lot of stats. This week we have moved to the Charing Cross campus to begin the second module which focuses more on public health topics -- a welcome relief from the rigours of maths for me.

I developed a slight cold this past weekend but I have been resting and taking vitamins and my health has been improving. I am trying to avoid having to go to the doctor as some of the other international students in my dorm have warned me that obtaining care and a prescription through the National Health Service can sometimes be difficult. I have been learning about the NHS in one of my courses and the system is currently in a transition that is allowing people greater choice in providers. There is also a restructuring occurring as the result of the excess of hospitals that were built in the 80s. I have really enjoyed learning about approaches to health are that are very different from the general mindset in the United States.

I am also trying to take care of my health because I will have visitors at the end of this week: Mary and Maureen Kenny will be coming out here with their uncle to see their cousin Megan who is studying abroad. I am really looking forward to seeing them!

I have posted more pictures of my weekend in Eastbourne at the website listed below. Please feel free to peruse at your leisure.

I hope everyone is doing well!


http://community.webshots.com/user/rushockey8

Well I am in the midst of my third week in London and I am starting to feel much more comfortable with directions and my surroundings both at Imperial and at Nutford House. My classes go from about 9:30 to 5:00 pm nearly everday. The exception is Wednesday when Imperial cancels all classes college-wide in order to allow all students the afternoon to pursue clubs and activities. However, the graduate school of life science and medicine has found a way to circumvent this college policy by scheduling a "voluntary" lecture on Wednesday afternoon. While labeled voluntary I'm pretty certain our attendance is expected. Generally we have about 4 lectures a day with a leisurely two hour lunch break. I have made some great friends in my course, namely Roz (moved to England from Canada when she was 8, went to Cambridge majored in microbiology), Patrick (went to University of York, majored in maths), and Tim (is 28 and has been out of college for some time now and already has one masters degree). All of these people live within a ten minute walk from me and we try to coordinate getting together occassionally. They are all very nice, fun people and I throughly enjoy hanging out with them. Currently, they all envy me for the bar in my dorm. Although the bar could easily be a room in someones old basement, the drinks are a always 1 pound 50 -- a great deal. We have reached the consensus that nights out will begin at my dorm.

I have also made some great friends in Nutford House, the best of which are named Tytus and Michael, both first year undergraduae computing majors at Imperial. Tytus is from Poland and is 20 years old because Imperial asked that he repeats his first year despite having completed a year of undergraduate computing in Poland. Tytus says he has tried to show Imperial that he knows the material by completing all the exercises for the year in the first week but Imperial insists that he sit through the lectures one more time. Tytus has invited me to his house for part of Christmas break and I will be traveling to Poland on the 15th of December to spend some time with him and his family. We eat dinner together every night in the dorm and because his parents know limited English I have commenced Polish lessons as of two days ago. I am learning a new phrase or sentence each night, so far: "Hello, my name is..." and "How are you?". Michael is from Austria and he is always present at meals as well. He has a girlfriend back in Austria and is looking forward to her visit this weekend.

This past Sunday morning I decided to try to take some pictures of Hyde Park and the Serpentine, which are both within 5-10 minute walk from Nutford. When I went to Hyde Park there were several groups of people gathered around men giving energized speeches about religion and politics. For the most part the speeches did not contain too much beyond entertainment value but I listened nonetheless. I have already uploaded pictures of some of the speakers and Hyde Park on my webshots site and I took a video which I will attempt to upload very soon.

This weekend I will be traveling to Eastbourne, which is an hour and half long train ride from London. I will be participating in a Rotary conference there with some of the other scholars in London. I look forward to starting to put some names of Rotarians in my host district I have read about with their faces and interacting with the other scholars from London once again.

This email will also be posted on my journal site. I hope everyone is doing well.

Last weekend I found myself in Wales for the Rotary International orientation weekend for all Rotary scholars studying in the UK. Wales is about a three hour bus ride from London and I was greeted at the bus station by a Rotarian and later introduced to my host Rotarian where I would be spending the weekend. My hosts, Andrew and Liz Singer were from a town south of Cardiff called Porthcawl, a beautiful town next to the sea. Andrew and Liz were very hospitable, ensuring I was well fed and comfortable. On Friday night we went over to another Rotarian friend of Andrew and Liz where we were served a traditional Welsh meal: lamb with carrots and broccoli, various cheeses and crackers after the main meal, followed by fruit with custard, then tea or coffee. The food was delicious and I throughly enjoyed the company. The following day we spent at St. Fagans National History Museum where we learned about Welsh herritage and history... and even saw a Welsh pig stye that housed a massive pig who made America's obesity problem look insignificant. The evening was spent at the hotel in Cardiff where all scholars were invited to a dinner. The dinner was a great opportunity to further speak to other UK scholars from around the world. Finally, the next morning the Rotarians hosting the event held a seminar with several speakers, including a past ambassadorial scholar from the US. The speakers were very insightful and provided information about how to make the most of this year and highlighed important aspects of our interaction with Rotary while abroad. Overall, a great weekend and an awesome start to my overseas experience.

Most of this week was spent acclimmating myself to Imperial College and my course and meeting a plethora of new, interesting people. My course held several receptions at the three campuses where my classes will take place. While the majority of sessions will be held at the St. Mary's Hospital campus (about 15 min walk from my residence), there will be several Friday held at the main South Kensington campus (about 30 min walk across Hyde Park). Additionally, some modules will be held at the Charing Cross campus which is less accessible and I will need to take the tube.

For the first term the masters in public health and masters in epidemiology classes are combined so I have a total of about 20 people in my course. I have made friends from both programs and went out twice this week with some of them for Imperial Union events in South Kensington, including a pub crawl of 11 pubs in South Kensington. South Kensington is a very nice area, and a very expensive place for housing, or as the English would say "posh".

I have really enjoyed the diversity of people I have encountered and have had many great conversations with people from Brazil, Russia, Iran, Austria, Poland, Wales, Africa, France, Taiwan, and Japan (im sure Im missing some others). With the position of the United States in the world today conversations with people from these various countries is enlightening and sometimes surprising.

I hope everyone is doing well back home. Ill be in contact soon.

You can view some photos of my trip using the following address:

http://community.webshots.com/user/rushockey8

I arrived safely in London two days ago. I was warmly welcomed by my Rotary host counselor Alan O'Neil. The ride from Gatwick Airport to my residence during rush hour ended up being about 2 hours. Although I was exhausted from not sleeping all night, Alan and I had ample time to chat about London, golf, and my bewilderment of sitting in the front on the drivers side of the car as a passenger. Alan was very kind and as I told him I am continually impressed by the support and attention Rotary gives to the ambassadorial scholars who Rotary has already provided with the financial means for these amazing opportunities. I was able to get my room established within a couple of hours of arriving at Nutford House (my residence hall). I have a single room on the second floor with a wash basin with a view of Brown Street and the building next to me. I have not met anyone on my floor as of yet nor heard any signs of life. Because I arrived early for the Rotary orientation for all scholars in the UK in Cardiff, Wales this weekend, some of the residents are yet to move in.

Today I walked to St. Mary's Hospital where all my masters in public health courses will take place then took my first Tube ride to Imperial's main campus in South Kensington to register. Although the Tube is simple and efficient, the price was not as agreeable -- about $9 for a day pass. I will be getting a student discount card called the Oyster Card fairly soon and that will cut the price in half, or so Im told. Fortunately, I will not need to ride the Tube everyday because my campus is about a 15 - 20 minute walk from my residence.

As I indicated earlier, I am making the three hour bus trip to Cardiff, Wales this weekend for a Rotary event. This will be a great opportunity for me to meet other scholars in London and other areas of the UK. I will be staying with a Rotarian's family while in Cardiff so my only expense was purchasing my megabus ticket.

Don't worry, I havent been lonely. I have already made some new friends with 3 people from Trinidad. I walked around Oxford Circus for an hour or so with them after registering. Oxford Circus seemed to be the 5th Ave. of London. Although there were many American stores like Gap and H and M, some of the English fashion stores were interesting. Its seems long shirts that could double as pajamas with leggings are "in" here.

In case anyone ever needs to contact me, I am going to list all my details below:

William Navarre
University of London
Nutford House
Brown Street
London W1H 5UL

cell phone (this includes the international call code 011 and the England country code 44) : 011.44.7726.585587

room phone: 011.44.207569.0151

I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time...