Placement #4 - Hawes Whiston & Co.

I have officially checked off my fourth and last community placement here in Bath! I spent this past week at Hawes Whiston & Co. Chemists. In contrast to my last placement, which was around the corner from my room, Hawes Whiston is about a 20 minute hike to the other side of town. After this week, I can confidently say that I have had my fill of community pharmacy...although it was not a bad experience by any means. This is probably the most "traditional" pharmacy I've been at, at least in terms of decor. The building has been a "chemist's shop" for ages, so they have lots of antique books and glassware and instruments all around. It makes for a very pleasant atmosphere...and a lot of fun if you have a slow day and the pharmacist decides to do some "cleaning" in the basement and comes up with all sorts of treasures!

I worked most of the week with Simon, an energetic, scattered, and somewhat jumpy pharmacist, and Maria, an absolutely delightful dispensing technician. Ange and Heidi worked in the shop as counter assistants and were lovely as well. Luckily, Hawes Whiston uses the same computer system as Pulteney, so I didn't have to learn a new interface for processing prescriptions. I also helped Maria with filling weekly "dosette" boxes for patients who have trouble with compliance, and did some measuring of methadone for addicts who had supervised administration.

Like most of the other pharmacies I've been in here, Hawes Whiston has a delivery service for customers who have difficulty getting in to the shop. Unlike the other pharmacies, they have a proper little delivery vehicle...I love it!

We were running a bit behind on Friday and Heidi had a lot of deliveries to make, so I volunteered to pitch in and drop off a bag on Pulteney Street on my way home from work. Sadly, they did not offer to let me drive the van :(. I was told to just put the package in the letterbox through the slot in the door. When I got to the house, I found the slot to be about 2 inches tall...and several of the medications were far to large to fit through! I felt like I should have been on Candid Camera as I tried to make it work...I took the drugs out of the bag, took some of them out of the boxes...but there was no way three of the bottles were going to fit. I rang the bell, even though the people were supposed to be out of town, and then contemplated leaving the bag on the stoop. Fortunately the couple had returned and the gentleman made his way down to the door to collect the medications from me. Perhaps a rather anticlimactic ending, but certainly more of an adventure than anticipated!

Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum

Thursday afternoon, I once again took advantage of the location of my placement and an hour-long lunch break and paid a visit to the Bath Assembly Rooms. Inside I found the Ballroom, Tea Room, and Card Room (now the Cafe), all connected by the Great Octagon. When they were originally opened (c. 1771), they were used for "assemblies" or evening social events consisting of music and dancing, tea-drinking, and card-playing. The main rooms have all been restored to their original Georgian magnificence, with brightly colored walls and beautiful chandeliers...and they can be rented out for concerts, weddings, conferences, exhibitions, or whatever! How fun would that be?

Ballroom

Tea Room

Great Octagon

Card Room

In the downstairs of the Assembly Rooms is the Fashion Museum. Nathan and I paid a visit a while back, but it seems that I forgot to post pictures! This is apparently one of the country's largest and most comprehensive collections of contemporary and historical dress. The first exhibit is the "Dress of the Year" collection which includes an outfit which best represents the most important new ideas in fashion for every year since 1963. As you can imagine, this includes some very...interesting...pieces...

After the Dress of the Year exhibit was a small collection of corsets and other undergarments from the 18th and 19th centuries. They even had corsets and crinolines to try on...and you'd better believe I did! Unfortunately they weren't very realistic (we're talking lifejacket-style clips to fasten the corset on), but it was fun! If you look closely in the picture of me below, you'll see a little British woman who walked by and said to her friend, "I don't think you're supposed to wear a hoodie under that..."

I particularly enjoyed the dresses from the Georgian and Victorian eras, like those shown below. I think I was meant to live in those days!

The Fashion Museum also has an extensive collection of accessories, including gloves, shoes, hats, and bags...

Although I wouldn't consider myself particularly "into" fashion, this was definitely a fun place to walk around...it's so interesting to see how quickly and drastically styles change!

Conquering Bathwick Hill

For those of you who have been following my blog since the beginning...I am proud to inform you that this evening, I successfully completed the 2 mile climb up Bathwick Hill!

Okay, so it's really not that huge of a feat, but it was something I needed to do before I leave. It was my intent to make a workout of the ordeal, and I think I succeeded. I made it from my room (at the bottom) to the Uni (at the top) in about 30 minutes. According to some friends here, it typically takes them about 45 minutes when they opt to walk up for class; granted, they are probably carrying books and most likely not in the hugest of hurries...but still, I was moving!

Here are a couple of shots going up the hill...these pictures do the 11% grade incline absolutely no justice!

The Uni sits at the top of the hill. In effort to extend my hike a little longer, I followed signs to the Bath Cats & Dogs home (where you can borrow dogs to take for a walk!) and the American Museum (which I will more than likely NOT be touring during my time in England).

The only disappointment in my escapade was that, due to a lot of trees at the top, there really wasn't a spot to get a good panoramic view of the city. I got a couple of pictures on the way back down, but they aren't spectacular due to 1) the impending sunset (although beautiful) and 2) a haze that seems to have fallen over the city (Icelandic volcano ash?).

Royal Crescent

So I realize that in the midst of all of my blogs about travelling and working, I've been absolute rubbish at filling you all in on the City of Bath itself, and our various adventures here. I am going to try to amend that, little by little, starting right now.

A while back, Nathan and I took a stroll up to the northwest part of town to check out the "Royal Crescent" that we kept hearing people rave about. The Royal Crescent is a semi-ellipse (aka crescent...brilliant) of 30 houses built between 1767 and 1778 around a lawn partway up one of the hills that surround Bath. The concept is pretty fantastic...although from the outside I honestly didn't think it looked like all that much.

Most of the houses have been divided up into flats and sold or rented out, but No. 1 has been restored to its Georgian glory and is now a museum run by the Bath Preservation Trust. The pharmacy I am working at right now is in the same neighborhood, so I took advantage of my hour lunch today and walked through the house. They had guides in each room who were quite knowledgeable about life in the Crescent in the 18th century (possibly because most of them looked old enough to have been alive in the 18th century...kidding, sorry!), plus information cards that outlined the purpose of the room and gave some history behind the various elements. According to one guide, the houses were actually owned by no-name businessmen from the city (who could "afford a property investment") and rented out to wealthy folks who came to Bath for the "warm spa" season from late autumn through spring.

Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the museum, so I did what any clever and resourceful person would do...I bought postcards and took pictures of them to show you all!

Front of building No. 1 and Kitchen (in the basement)...

Dining Room and Man's Study (entrance level)...

Mistress' Bedroom and Drawing Room (upstairs)...

48 hours in Paris...

My two days in Paris were pretty much a blur of me hoofing it all over the city to see and do as much as possible. I had two things in my favor...1) I borrowed a tour book from Marie-Caroline that divided up the city into sections and mapped out the best path to take to see everything, and 2) the Metro system is not significantly different from the subway system in Chicago, London, or Vienna, so I was able to master it quite quickly. I think I successfully saw most of the major tourist attractions, and I KNOW I successfully took too many pictures! Here are some samples...

First stop...Palais de Chaillot and Trocadero fountains...

The Eiffel Tower was right across the street. I was completely prepared to be underwhelmed...I was anything but! Seriously, it is huge and amazing, and I don't even have a bizarre obsession with steel like some people I know ;) I opted not to spend the money (or the time...the line was massive) to go up, but I did do plenty of staring and snapping!

I followed the guidebook and made it to the Invalides, which includes the Dome Church (which houses Napoleon's tomb), Musee de l'Armee (and a bunch of other military museums), and the Hotel des Invalides (veterans' hospital established by Louis XIV).

I wandered down the Boulevard St-Germain to check out all the cafes and find St-Germain-de-Pres and the Fontaine des Quatre Points Cardinaux in front of St-Sulpice church...

...then made my way along the Left Bank of the Seine to the Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame is located. Again, I decided against a tour of the towers in favor of time (another long line), but I did queue for a bit to be able to get into the ground floor of the cathedral. The interior is beautiful, but I was a little disappointed by the level of commercialism (glass booth for confession with a "live priest" available daily from 9:30a to 2:30p...really?) as well as the lack of reverence that many of the visitors portrayed. I found walking around outside in the sunshine and admiring the exquisite Gothic architecture to be much more enjoyable!

Ah yes...how could I forget! I took a break during my tour of the cathedral grounds to enjoy my first crepe in France! There was a little cafe on the street next to Notre Dame with a stand out front and a man making crepes right there. I opted for apricot...maybe not the healthiest choice for lunch, but it was delicious!

From there I walked back up the river to the Pont des Arts and crossed over to the Louvre. Inconveniently, the Louvre is open every day EXCEPT Tuesdays, so I spent some time walking around the courtyard and surrounding gardens before heading back to the apartment for the evening.

Wednesday was a short day, since I had to catch the Eurostar back to London at 6:15, and had to be at the station to check in about an hour before that. I went to work with Marie-Caroline and left my bag there, then walked along the Champs-Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe past the Petit Palais and Grande Palais to the Concorde.

I continued on back through the Jardin des Tuileries to end up at the Louvre. I spent the rest of my time wandering around the Louvre and not seeing half of it! One could easily spend days in that place. It was a little unsettling to have to push through a huge mass of people to get close enough to see the Mona Lisa, and not even be able to stop and really appreciate it because of all of the shoving. It felt a little weird to be taking pictures, since most of the pieces are better enjoyed in person, but here are some of the "famous" ones...

All in all, I very much enjoyed myself in Paris, and I feel good about what I was able to fit into my short time there. The city was much prettier than I expected, and I was surprised by the amount that I was able to see and do without spending much money at all. I think Paris definitely warrants a return trip...but next time I'll be bringing a friend! :)