Abu Dhabi!

Two mornings ago I arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capitol of the United Arab Emirates and have been staying at the house of my friend, Noor al Ramahi. I met her two summers ago at the Children with Diabetes conference in Florida.
So far she and her family have showed me amazing hospitality (her mom went out and bought me a while bunch of gluten free foods!) and I have been having so much fun!
My time here couldn't have been more perfect because apparently it just started to cool off (and the temp average is still around 90 during mid-day), the F1 Grand Prix Races are going on (yesterday, today and tomorrow) and its a 9 day long national holiday where everyone gets work off and goes out on vacations. Later this week I'm joining Noor's family and some other families that they are friends with at a resort and water park for a few days. We've been hanging out with her cousin, Hammad, and his friends who are here for the races from Jordan. Last night we went to the Kanye West concert which was really fun! He's a better live performer than I was expecting and his performance was pretty cool. The venue was HUGE and the lighting and stage were just ... so ridiculous and complex. I can't even imagine working with all that equipment. It makes me giddy.
Tonight we were supposed to go with the boys to the Cedar Lounge but they canceled because they got tickets to see Linkin' Park tonight- and apparently they got us tickets too. So we're going to that! I'm really excited!
I hope to be able to update this again soon with more adventures!
Hope you all are doing well and you're loving the first snow (Colorado) and cooling temps (CA). Please tell me how all of you are doing! I miss you and love hearing from you. My email is emalemmaly@gmail.com.

Love and kisses,
Em

Wow, that happened fast!

The semester is over, the cruise is done, even the day is coming to a close, but I am still moving...

Sunshine, Islands, Crusing- OH MY!

I'm in a little internet cafe in Mykonos Greece, writing to tell you all that I won't be returning to the United States as I have decided to abandon ship here and make a living learning greek and selling jewelry to rich tourists. I'm sorry everyone....

When in Rome

use as many stupid idioms as possible!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I'm literally about to leave for the bus to take us to the cruise so I'll make this short and sweet.

I saw:

The Vatican museum, the basillica, the colosseum, the aquaduct, a lot of ruins, lots of neighborhoods, Janus hill, Rome from the top of Janus hill at night, some bold Italian boys, Flamming shots (Diablo shot! Given to me for "dessert" cause I couldn't have the ice cream that everyone else got), limoncello, lots of gluten free options! Gluten free pasta! weird hotels, etc.

Must go, the bus is here. I don't have internet (I think) so I might only have one post, but I love you all and I'll catch you on the flip side~!

Caio, Bella

4 days ago we left from Nice, France and took a most ... nauseating exciting... bus ride along the Cote d'Azur through the mountains on our way to Florence, Italy. The bus was a speed daemon among the small trucks and cars on this curvey highway. I would say the swerves and turns of this road rival some of those in Colorado canyons. I don't usually get car sick, but during our tutorial I was looking sideways and backwards and that did a number on my already sensitive stomach.

I'm alive! And in Nice, France!

I say I'm alive because the last 2 day's I've been here myself and about 10 of the other 14 kids in our group have suffered from a bad case of the stomach flu. Brutal... but hey, at least we're in a 5 star hotel!

Last Day in Paris

Listening to music, drinking wine and complaining about having to register at 3am for classes on a ship while abroad...Good-bye Paris!

My day off!

We have today off to do whatever we please! How exciting! The possibilities are, mildly endless. There is still a bit of a strike going on.

Gluten Free Reviews... From France

Quick post about today...

Louvre --> Arc du Triumph --> Wine on a roof top --> Indian food --> homework

I have a quiz

Why did the French Revolution happen?

Capitan Crunch, the French Revolution and a wine festival

First off--I'm predicting the come-back of roller blading. Right now. Can any one be my witness? Its coming back. TRICK rollar blading, especially.

Paris, the Eiffle Tower and Fat Tires- But not the beer.

2nd day in Paris.... wow....

To be or not to be...

... on Strike- like the entire London Underground yesterday.

A few foggy days in London town

Lots of walking, riding the tube, rain, rain, rain, walking, and a head cold.

London Bound

"October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again." 

~ Hal Borland      Author

Primary Student

I had my last tutorials for both my oxford courses today. One parting was more sad than the other...

Test results

So my body is a bit confused as to what it wants me to consume...

The poetry of the earth is never dead. ~John Keats

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.  ~Frank Lloyd Wright, quoted, 14 August 1966

Time is running short

Well, I have 3 papers, 4 tutorials and 9 days left in Oxford....

The day I felt "Normal"

Could it be? Me? with all my food issues? feel .... normal?

Ahhh, there I am!

Sorry I've been gone, I've been very busy reading for my classes, writing essays and trying to find an internet connection strong enough to support updating my blog requires a fairly good hike to the nearest wifi point. I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I have the sturdy connection of the library right now and post some pictures.

My control (bloodsugar) has been a bit wobbly in the past few days because I've been sick. I have a terrible chesty cough which has persisted since the first day I've arrived and I have already gone through a bottle of cough syrup. I might try for something a bit stronger as it's developed into a sore throat. If it gets much worse I might just go to a dr. although I don't know how much that will actually do for me as I feel like this is just a virus and there isn't really anything more a dr could do for me other than give me a stronger cough medicine. Oh well, it actually seems to get better the days after I run.
I've been diligently wearing my CGM and believe that its been helping me a lot with leveling out my sugars in regards to my being sick. I'm using the bolus wizard (which calculates how much insulin to take when I put in my BG and carb counts) and that seems to be very helpful. I'm actually enjoying its help (okay Dr. Chase, you can say "I told you so now." ) I also think that I'm getting the hang of inserting the CGM device at the right angle because it doesn't bleed like a river anymore when I put it in. I have noticed that the first day or 2 of the sensor's life is sort of an approximation of my blood sugar and it takes it a while before it will sync up quite nicely with my actual numbers. But, overall, I'm happy that I rushed getting the new pump and sensor. I'm enjoying it.

As for the food, I've been plesantly surprised by the amount of gluten free food here and dinners have been lovely, I'm going to post some pictures of stuff I've found. My next post I'll put some general oxfordian pictures up too but if you would like, here is the link to my Facebook album.

The dining hall in Balliol College where we eat breakfast and dinner. The Harry Potter hall was based off this room!

This is one of my dinners- they consist of an appetizer type dish (usually a salad of some kind for me), a variety of main dishes and then dessert (generally fruit for me).

This was a gluten free pasta, with roasted tomatoes on top of a bed of arugula (called Rocket, here) with a basil and coriander oil over top. It was delicious!

That day everyone else had this tomato torte.

Dinner was sauted spinach and bok choy (top) with Curried prawns (had green peppers and beans too), steamed veggie medley and pork chops. I was a very happy camper that night.

My dessert was a nectarine cooked in a sugar, cinnamon sauce. It was sweet and spicy from the cinnamon and very good, but very sweet. Everyone else got a chocolate mousse pie, I believe.

As for grocery shopping, most stores have a "FreeFrom" section with plenty of options for gluten/dairy free choices. The bread was good, but kind of crumbley. It molded after about a week and a half, but I guess you could argue that's good cause its made from fresh ingredients. There is also a local company which supplies baked goods to various sandwich shops around town. I got a gluten free sandwich as a place called Heroes (picture) and they had this sign on the door.

National Celiac's Awareness Day!

So this post has NOTHING to do with England/Oxford but everything to do with food. This year, for the first time ever, there is going to be a National Celiac Awareness Day!

Little nonsensical things I've noticed about Oxford.

I'm hoping that this list grows, the longer I stay here. So far I only have a few....

A little about the food...

I figured that I put something about traveling with food intolerances in the subtitle so I might as well talk about them every once in a while.

Autumn

During my run this evening I passed through a fog bank of nostalgia. The weather was cool, if not approaching chilly, and leaves have started to change and detach from their summer homes--creating splashes of color along the black pavement.

Helllllllloooo Oxford!

I did a lot of contemplating about some witty, creative, insightful post for my first time posting from Oxford. I failed at coming up with anything worth posting, but I did decided that eventually I want to do an "Ode to Oxford." It might be a problem that I don't know how to do a proper ode, but meh. I don't do a lot the conventional way.

I've slept in a crowded McDonalds...

... in Tokyo and slept through the dull roar. Now I can ad to my list a starbucks at 5am in a major airport.

BIG DAY!!

I AM USING MY NEW MINIMED PUMP!

And how do I prep for my jaunt across the sea?

To lands of rolling hills, lochs, trains, tours, classes, cuisine, dancing, friends, and who knows what else...?

I cook a dinner of which is indigenous to Florence, of course! Gnocchi. Yes, ladies and gents, I had gluten free gnocchi, and shoot-dang it was good.

T-minus 7 days and counting

Well the last few days have been quite full of interesting things.... here's a taste: new pump drama, moving, packing, food intolerance (IgG) testing, bad food reactions and my last day of work.

One small step for MiniMed, One Giant leap in my diabetes care

So today I started my application process of getting a new MiniMed pump. The new revel system should be better at the whole "continuous glucose monitoring" thing.

About that time, eh Chaps?

Righto-

Going abroad again. I leave the states in 15 days, 3 hours and 45 minutes. Woa.