So its been a bit quiet here this week, I suppose its all part of the cultural exchange - learning about US exams. Its all a little stressful!! I have 1 done and 3 to go. They are a little different from home, in particular they operate under an honour system and so there are no invigilators in the exams. I thought it was so weird that everyone sat there in silence doing their exams and no one even thinks to cheat! They also all use laptops to do exams and so the...

No new photos and not a lot of news this week. Most exciting was that yesterday we had our first winter storm and proper snow in Chicago. It has been bitterly cold and according to the Americans we havent seen anything yet! We've a cold front of Arctic air moving down this week so it is only going to get colder. Every day I put another layer on and I start resembling a Michelin man. Thankfully everyone else in Chicago looks similarly unfashionable!! Its getting...

Well its been another fairly quiet week. I have 3 weeks until exams - in fact its 4 weeks on Thursday until I am flying home. i have booked my flights home arriving on the 21st December and leaving again on the 3rd january. The one bit of excitement this week has been the Christmas parade. Well it was called a holiday parade! There were thousands of people out in Chicago lining the streets to see the parade and the lights switching on. We stood about for ages w...

well its been a quiet week recovering from Washington. However I did make it to the legal clinic at the homeless shelter which was another eye opening experience. I felt much more confident this time, and felt much more useful and was even given a small task to do some research. It is hard to see people brought so low, some through no fault of there own, some through medical bills, some because they closed the psychiatric hospitals in the 1980's and some because ...

Hi all! Its Halloween here tonight and the US has gone mad!! Theyve had the decorations up for months now all gearing up for tonight. Most of the partying went on last weekend but there are still loads of people heading out tonight. In fact there were lots of people dressed up walking round the streets, in college and work just wearing their costumes, like this was normal. It was very strange! The last 3 weeks havent been much fun for me, Ive had a nasty stomac...