Time is flying by....

This year (and this semester for that matter) is flying by..... where is the time going!?!?!

Seems like just yesterday I was celebrating new years by banging pots and pans on the front porch by myself because my family was already asleep....

It seems like just yesterday I was spending my valentines day with two of my closest friends.... having what turned out to be the greatest valentines to date!

Spring was my best friend's wedding... fast forward to the summer... starting off with Sarah Boyd's baptism, lazy days at the lake, family vacation to the mountains, my big trip across the big pond....starting my last year of school...Fall. I met an incredible guy who keeps totally rocking my socks off and has me excited to see where our relationship goes..... Sarah Boyd's First Birthday (and Chad's 30th Birthday).

Now here we are. A little more than two weeks from Thanksgiving (one of my favorite holidays because I have SO much to be thankful for!), 3 weeks from my final review, 4 weeks from exam week... and then Christmas break! Where has this semester gone? It is flying by!

They say time flies when you are having fun... I am clearly having a LOTS of fun! I am so blessed to have incredible friends and family who I totally dont deserve but love more than I can ever let them know, I have this great opportunity to pursue my dream of being an architect, and I totally love living each day full on and all out!!! Life is great!

Here are a few recent pictures....Sarah Boyd's birthday party!! In the next few weeks I will be doing different things and get more pictures! :-)

What a trip!!!

Wow! What a trip! It was a whirlwind of a week, but a great one none the less! I have learned so much, seen so much, and been influenced and changed because of all that I have seen and done!!!

Thanks, Lindsay, for letting tag along for a great adventure!!!

and of course... a few last pictures of our trip!

1- Lindsay in Gronigen on Sunday evening.

2- Amsterdam-- Specifically Dam Square, which is where our hotel was. We were only there for about 14 hours. So we did not really see any of the city since we did not get to town until about 7pm. But... at least we stayed in a great location and could have dinner at one of the cafes on the square!

3- Lindsay and I in Gronigen... same time she was having her coffee above :) (probably should have taken my glasses off.... oh well. too late now!)

Gronigen Day 2

Today was my last full day in Europe on this adventure. Our day was a busy one, but a very good one and we learned and saw sooooo much! Today we spent our entire day (930am to 430pm) at Martini Hospital in Gronigen.

Martini was the only hospital we visited that we actually had a positive response from. Lindsay had been in contact with Atti, the head neurology nurse. Atti was a wonderful lady, who was so sweet and so eager to help us. Atti set up a whole day that included meeting with her to see how the neurology unit worked/operated, a meeting with the building construction manger, a meeting with infection control, and then a tour of the entire facility.

We were able to see and learn so much that will be wonderfully valuable for both my research as well as Lindsay's research on the semi-private patient room. Martini is such a different hospital from any hospital I have ever seen in the US. The attention to the life cycle of the building, design of the exterior, views to nature and access to natural light, as well as the overall design of the facility was incredible. I think American health care designers could learn a lot from European designers and hospitals like Martini.

Here are a few pictures from our day at Martini!

1- "Famous" facade of Martini Hospital. This is the southeast facade that has a double skin facade where there is the facade of the building and a second glass facade about 24" out from that. The glass acts as a sound barrier as there is a busy road there, but also acts as a heat gain controller. During the summer (like when were there) the censors open rows of the glass skin when the temperature between glass and building gets to 21 degrees C. That creates a stack-effect ventilation where the hot air rises, drawing cool air up along the face of the building cooling the building. During the cold winter months, the glass facade helps keep the building heated and warm!

2- Here you can see where the glass opens to allow the double skin facade to vent.

3- One of the foot traffic areas where visitors and hospital staff can go from one side of the building to the other. The glass windows on the left of this picture look out to the court yard that is created by the two connected wings of the building.

3- The walls in the hospital are all wall systems that are easily movable and changeable should the building use ever change. They are also magnetic (yet dont feel like metal) which allows patients to display all of their cards and what not.

4- The main entrance of the hospital (at the end of the road). I love that the Dutch ride their bikes everywhere!!!

5- Typical 4 bed room. The typical unit in Martini is comprised of 32 beds-8 private patient rooms, 4 4-bed rooms and 4 2-bed rooms. The boom with the screen on it at the top of the picture is actually for entertainment. Each patient has their own entertainment screen and telephone.

6- Typical private patient room.

7- The workers from the lab use scooters to get around the facility (which is HUGE) and has over 500 in-patient beds plus houses outpatient doctors unit as well as outpatient oncology!

Gronigen

Hey Everyone!

Today has been a somewhat boring day.... we mainly just traveled. We work up this morning in Deventer, packed and headed to the train station. We caught the train from Deventer to Zwolle and then Zwolle to Gronigen. We got to Gronigen about 1pm and took a taxi from the train station to our hotel. Our room was not quite ready, so we sat in the sun room at the hotel and waited for about 30mins for them to finish in our room. Once it was ready, we freshened up a bit and then headed out to find lunch! We had lunch at another little street cafe. I had a great sandwich with some sort of ham, goat cheese and marinated tomatoes. It was SOOO good! After lunch we walked around town. Gronigen is similar to Deventer except a bit bigger. It is probably about the size of Greenville or Columbia. This evening we walked around a bit more and then stopped at one of the cafes for a soda. All of the stores are closed (maybe because it is Sunday... we are not sure as most stores in Deventer were open this morning when we left). So, we have come back to the hotel. We will probably watch a movie or something.
Tomorrow we will be at Martini Hospital all day. They have been so gracious as to set up tours for us of the facility as well as meetings with different departments. It should be an interesting day! After we finish at the hospital tomorrow afternoon, we will catch the train back to Amsterdam. We will spend the night in Amsterdam and then catch a plane back to London. From London, I will immediately catch a plane back to the States, but Lindsay will remain in London for a few more days!

It has been a great trip and I have loved seeing these places and being in Europe. However, I am very excited to be going home as well! I am ready for a home cooked meal, being at home, sleeping in my bed. Plus I am really excited about this semester and what the future holds!

Today may be my last post for a few days... I am not sure what tomorrow's schedule will hold as we will be leaving Gronigen around 530 or 6 and then wont get Amsterdam until about 8.... so I will update with more pictures and more stuff, but it will probably be when I get back to the US!

Deventer day 2

Today we spent the whole day in Deventer. As I mentioned in the previous post, Deventer is a pretty small town, but it is a bit bigger than we realized. This morning we made our visit to Deventer Hospital. We had been told it was walkable... it was walkable... but it was about 5-6 km... or about 3-3.5 miles. We walked over there and got pictures of the outside, but did not go inside. Lindsay had already been told they would not give us a tour, and since we, as Americans, seem to stick out like sore thumbs, we decided not to try to get inside. From the outside though, the facility was very different from American facilities and was more of an architectural statement than any hospital in the US I have ever seen. We decided we had gotten our exercise for the morning, so we caught the bus from the hospital back to the train/bus depot. From there we walked back into town. (the hospital sits on the very edge of town... on the opposite side of town from where our hotel is) We stopped and got a quick bite to eat while we were walking. After lunch we came back to the hotel for Lindsay to get some work done and I took a nap. After a little break, it was back out for some more walking around and sightseeing. The city is such a cute little town with picturesque views, cobblestone/old brick streets, classic dutch architecture. So despite that there is not much to do here in terms of big museums or what not, we have loved walking around and looking in all the shops and windows. Plus the weather is SPECTACULAR!!! The highs have been between 70-78... so the weather is great and the cool breeze through the alleys and streets feels wonderful! Tonight we had dinner a cute little Italian cafe. In typical Deventer fashion, we sat outside overlooking the street/walkway. (In the city proper, there are very very few cars... so all the roads are one way and are more like big sidewalks that periodically have cars on them but mostly just serve the pedestrians and bicycles). It is fun to people watch and just sit back and relax! It is a slower, relaxing pace. The servers are not eager for you to leave. People have drinks before their meal, and then slowly have a 2 or 3 course meal, and then have drinks or coffee or tea after dinner. It is a wonderful break from the fasted paced world of the US. We are back in the hotel now (it is about 915pm here) and about to split a bottle of wine and watch a movie. We have the windows open and periodically the street performers come by the cafe just a few doors down and play the accordion and clarinet. It is wonderful to hear the music! Such a treat!

In the morning, we will get up, check out of our hotel, and head to Gronigen. We will sight see in Gronigen tomorrow afternoon. Monday, Martini Hospital in Gronigen has planned a day of tours, meetings, etc at their facility, so it will be a total work day. Monday afternoon/evening when we finish at Martini, we will catch the train back to Amsterdam for one last night together before I head back to the states and Lindsay spends a few more days in London.

As we will be traveling tomorrow, please continue to keep us in your prayers.

I will post a few pictures in another post once I get them off of Lindsay's camera!

London: Day 3

Hello Everyone!

I hope this post finds everyone doing well. We have had yet another great day in London. It is hard to believe the London portion of my trip is just about over! This morning we met with some very very nice architects at the Nightingale Associates here in London. We met with them for about two hours and it was wonderful! They were very interested in Lindsay's research on the multi-bed patient room as well as my research on Post Occupancy Evaluation. They also wanted to know more about the private patient rooms as that seems to be what the UK is moving to. It was great to sit down and really just have an interesting dialog with great folks! They were eager to help us and we have offered to help them in any way possible.
After we finished meeting with them, we did what any two girls in London would want to do-- we went to Harrods! I had decided I wanted to buy something girly and special so bought myself a bottle of perfume. Linds and I both think it smells great so I was excited! After our walk through Harrods.... looking at all the Oscar de la Renta and Gucci, Armani... ah. Amazing. but way way way way way over my head! So after walking some through the store, we headed to find a quick bite to eat. We found a local place called Eat and had sandwiches there. After lunch we came back to the hotel for a little while. (We both accidentally fell asleep.... whoops-- we are worn out!) We woke up about an hour later and headed to go do a little more sightseeing before meeting Erin for dinner. So, we walked about 10 blocks up the road to St. Peter's Cathedral. We walked inside and had a bit of a look around. For me... it seemed so crazy that I was standing in a building that I had only seen in books and pictures in my art and architecture history classes. It was amazing. After that, we decided since it was getting close to when we were to meet Erin at our hotel, we would start walking back. Erin had invited us to her house for dinner, which was so wonderful. So we stopped on our walk back from the church to get a small token of gratitude... a cute little plant, which of course I don't have a picture of!

When Erin got off work, she met us at our hotel, which she goes by on her way home. So we met up with her, got back on the bus and headed over to her very cute little place! We made tacos and ate in her garden. It was very cute and the food was wonderful!! It was great to just sit in her garden and enjoy life and have more girl talk! We left her house about 930 and headed back to the hotel because we have a very early morning. Our flight leaves Heathrow about 7am and since that is about 45 mins from here and they told us to be there 1.5-2 hours early... get the picture. My alarm is set for 330am our time, 10pm EST. Yay.
Here are some pictures from the day!


1. St Peters

2 (and 3)- Harrods!!!

4 and 5- At Erin's house making dinner and eating in her lovely little garden!

More pictures will be posted in the next few days to facebook too because Blogger is not really liking the pictures. So I am going to only put a few on here for the rest of the trip and put most of then on facebook! :)

Love to all and please continue to keep us in your prayers for safe travel as we fly to Amsterdam tomorrow morning and then will catch the Eurail to Deventer and then onto Gronigen in a few days!

London Day 2

Hello Friends and Family!!!

Today has been a fun day. The weather today has not been as wonderful as it was yesterday, but we made the best of it and had a good time.

Our morning started a little later than planned (someone I am traveling with, who shall remain nameless) apparently turned the alarm clock off when it went off at 730. So..... we woke up about 915 when this person's friend, who lives here in London, called! So. After we got ready for the day, we got on the tour bus (our bus passes from yesterday were good for 24 hours... so they were good until this afternoon) and rode over to visit Evelina Children's Hospital. They were less than friendly.... and more or less asked us to leave. Disappointed we did not get a tour or really even see the hospital, but we made the best of it and went on our merry way!
We decided to walk from Evelina towards Buckingham Palace. Yesterday's tours took us by the palace several times, but had not seen it from the front. So we walked across the Thames River, passed the Parliament and Big Ben (who I was corrected... Big Ben is the bell itself not the tower...), past Westminster Abbey, and on to Buckingham Palace. After many pictures along the way, and many more at the palace, we walked up the long mall towards Trafalgar Square and our hotel. We stopped and had a quick bite to eat at a local deli. While we were eating, it started raining (and of course it was when I forgot my umbrella in the hotel room). So, after that we headed back to the hotel. Lindsay needed to send an email and we also just wanted a little break. We took our short break, ran out for a quick errand and then came back to the hotel for a few.
This evening, we met up with Lindsay's friend Erin, who was SO sweet, to watch her intramural softball team play a bit. She has been sick, so she was not able to play, but we had fun chatting with her! After we left the softball games, we headed to the pub they usually hang out at. We had dinner while the team finished their game. We had great girl chat and enjoyed a good beer and dinner. About an hour and half later, the team showed up. We stuck around for a few and then headed back to the hotel.
I think it is fair to say that today has been a good day, but we are both a bit tired as we are still adjusting to the time change. Tomorrow morning we have an early day as we are meeting with a local architecture firm at 930am London time, which is only 430am EST. After that, it will probably be more sightseeing since tomorrow is our last day in London. Friday morning we will check out of our hotel at about 430am and head to London Heathrow to catch our flight to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam, we will catch the Eurorail to Deventer and then, a few days later, on to Gronigen.



Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure! I Hope that everyone is doing well. Please continue to keep us in your prayers for safe travel. We are having a great time though!!!



1- Lindsay and I on our way to Evelina... over looking the River Thames and the Parliament Building. (The hospital is literally across the river from the Parliament building)




































2- After Evelina gave us the boot... we walked across the bridge to get a closer look at this building, the Parliament Building.

3-Buckingham Palace (no sights of the queen... she is off to Balmoral for the summer)

4-View down the mall towards Buckingham Palace and the fountain that sits right in front of it.

5- Evelina Children's Hospital... from the outside.

6- Lindsay on the tour bus heading over to Evelina.

7- Wellington Circle- Side view of the Arch at the circle. The statue on top of the arch is the Angle of Peace landing on the Chariot of War. I really liked it. It overlooks one of the many parks of the city.

8- Detail shot of the sculpture of the Angle of Peace landing on the Chariot of War

Laura and Lindsay's European Adventure- Day 1

So Yesterday (Monday), my good friend Lindsay and I left for a quick trip across the BIG pond for a little more than a week! Our flights were all screwed up, but none the less, we made it! Here we are just pulling out of London Heathrow Airport in the little taxi heading to our hotel in London. (Do realize we both only got a few hours of sleep on the plane and were grose and tired from traveling all evening and night! So dont judge the way we look!)

This is not our taxi... but this is what ours looked like! :)

Because our flight out of Atlanta did not leave until about 11pm Monday night, we did not land until noon London time (7am EST) on Tuesday. So... we were exhausted when we landed. BUT... we decided we would go and check-in to the hotel, get showers and freshen up, and then go out and explore some. We found the perfect way to see the city out expending too much energy-- A Bus Tour!! We rode all over the city in the top of an open-air double decker bus! We saw all the major sites of the city and got a good overview so we can decide what we want to go back to and see in more detail! We did the complete loop and ended back about a block from our hotel. After our tour, we went to dinner at The Bistro, which is was a strange little local restaurant. But it was very good... and relatively cheap. So it was a good fit for us!

Here are a few pictures from our tour!

1.) Trafalgar Square

2.) St. Thomas's Hospital (where Florence Nightingale really formulated and trained nurses in the ward-- for Architecture and Health people, this was exciting!)

3.) Parliament Building and Big Ben

4.) View of London proper.... Tower Bridge is just around the bend in the River Thames.

5.) Last but not least... here we are again, post shower on the bus tour. We still look tired, but at least we were clean!!!

More to come tomorrow!!!

Leaving on a JET plane!!!

I am leaving on a jet plane! Headed across the pond for a (quick) European adventure!

I ask for prayers for safe travels!

I will be sure to update through the week as we travel!!!