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I can't believe my 11 weeks have already flown by...I feel like I just got to the UK! Everyone at lab is too nice to me - they threw me a surprise goodbye party last Thursday. It was the sweetest thing ever and they all spent a week planning it so it was completely unexpected. Natalia took me into a restuarant where we were 'dropping off something for a friend' on the way to a bar to meet up with two other post-docs. However, at the restaurant was a huge table with everyone from lab, including the PI! It was a really nice and expensive Thai place and from there we went for drinks and then clubbing!! (The PI dropped out after drinks). It was so funny to see my lab out dancing - they all said I should feel really special because they have never gone out dancing together before. They completely spoiled me - not only did they pay for my dinner and drinks, but they bought me presents. I got an Oxford jacket and a poster for my room - it's called the Oxford Pub Crawl and it has little pictures of 62 of the Oxford pubs and you colour them in as you drink in them =)

I have successfully trained Lucy, my successor, and she's completely taken over my job. She gradually started running all my babies and I will be handing over the word association list for her. I finished scoring all the babies that I could and Lucy will continue to help Natalia and Nivi with that. Natalia and Nivi are both writing up papers for some journals, so hopefully they will all publish in the near future!

Something I learned here is that psychiatry is very different than in the States. Back home, you need to be an MD to study psychiatry, while here that is not necessary. Tomorrow I am going to a hospital close to town to discuss one lecturer's/researcher's work. It's related to psychopharmachology and mood disorders, two topics that I am very interested in. I know she is accepting DPhil (PhD) students in Fall 2008, so we will see what she can tell me.

I fly out on Wednesday afternoon to Miami. This has been the single best experience of my life - thanks again for this amazing opportunity!

Cheers!