London - Day 1

Brianne, LeeAnne, and Emily wanted to give a little update about our first day in London. We checked out Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge. We also got to experience a lot of travel on the "Tube." Most of us had issues not falling asleep on the Tube due to the heat and two long days of travel. It was interesting to see where the Royal Wedding was held, which was at the Abbey. We were enlightened that a turkey sandwich just had turkey on it, and that you need to pay to use the restroom! We all split up for dinner and are now back at our nice hotel for a night of rest - finally! And, we're excited to go see Darwin's house tomorrow. The pictures of are us in front of the Abbey, Parliament, and our hotel. We'll update more later. Hope all is well elsewhere.

-Brianne, LeeAnne, and Emily

Made it to London!

 

For all those parents of Zambassadors who are checking the blog anxiously, rest assured we all made it safely with no real bruises to speak of. All the luggage made it, immigration and customs went off without a hitch, we caught all our tube (subway) rides without trouble, and got checked into our hotel. We then spent the day at Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and just enjoying London's bustle and energy. With only a max of 4 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours, everyone is ready to crash tonight, but I hope some of them will post a picture or two of their days today.

Flight # 1: Marquette to Chicago

Well the trip begins today. From Marquette, we have an 8-hour layover in Chicago, before landing in London. While in London (4 days) we will be doing Zambia and biology related things: visiting Livingstone's tomb in Westminster Abbey, seeing Livingstone's artifacts stored at the Royal Geographic Society, visiting the Darwin center at the British Museum of Natural History, visiting Darwin's house in Downe, and more. Right now we need only be concerned about containing the giddiness. Hopefully the red-eye to London will level everyone out. We're off - woo hoo!

Dr. Lindsay's creation on the side of the fire pit on our camping trip.

Preparing for the trip

Before we head out for Africa, we all went camping here in the UP. This was a good chance to get to know each other a bit better, and to double check everyone's gear. Happy to report that the gang seems well-equipped, and everyone is really geeked about the trip.

Bwanji!

I am one of the Biology professors leading a class of NMU students to London and Zambia this spring. Dr. Jackie Bird is also co-leading the class, although she may not post any profile information (she's cagey like that). I am a conservation geneticist who has worked predominantly with birds. This will be my fourth trip to Zambia, and my second with students. If you want to see more about me, you can through the Biology Department's website. And if you want to see more posts from the last group of students who came with me to Zambia in 2007, they had a blog too. (Parents of this year's group, all students made it home transformed but unscathed!)