Ketamine has been used to induce loss of consciousness for general anesthesia for decades. Recently, this medicine has been used as a second-line treatment in clinical trials and research to treat depression, which has sparked controversy. It is not hard to find news about addiction and misuse, or even death when you search for ketamine. Moreover, this drug is not approved by the FDA to treat depression. Despite its bad reputation, ketamine is a promising medication for depression and an impactful chemical for psychological disorder research.

Let’s first explore the reasons why ketamine can be a good alternative for standard treatment when those common medications do not help alleviate depression. The current antidepressants act to increase the level of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine neurotransmitters in the brain to make patients feel happier. As a new researcher myself, I consider this method ineffective. By enhancing the happy mood to treat depressed patients, researchers and doctors assume that depression is a mood disorder, and patients are simply unhappy. In reality, the causes of depression are much more complicated. A major one involves the alteration of synapses’ size and activity which then affects the connection between neurons. Therefore, in an attempt to treat depression, medicine should aim to fix the changes in how neurons communicate. Through many years of research on cell culture and rodent models, scientists found that ketamine enhances the activity at glutaminergic synapses and increases synaptic sizes, which are heavily reduced in depression. In short, ketamine reverses some of the known physiological alterations. Ketamine treatment has shown success in reducing symptoms of depression in many clinical trials. A patient is eligible if common antidepressants have proven ineffective. Patients are treated with low doses of ketamine along with cognitive behavior training under strict treatment plans with research physicians. 

Despite the promising results, ketamine should not be approved for general depression treatment. Research on ketamine is limited. Scientists have focused on the effects on the damaged parts of the brain (cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, etc.), but they have not explored the consequences of long-term ketamine usage on the brain as a whole. Ketamine is also highly addictive, leading to a potential long-term struggle for patients who are already mentally ill. We should think of the success of ketamine treatment as the groundwork to develop new medications that target the same neurotransmitter (glutamate) but without the addictive effects and other unknown consequences on the brain. Hopefully, a new medicine might offer a better first-line treatment for depression compared to the current antidepressants on the market. 

Anna Marie’s Teas – Liberty, MO

Located right on the historic downtown square of Liberty, it will take you only 10 minutes to walk from Jewell to Anna Marie’s Teas. My first impression of this tea shop is the amazing smell of many different tea blends, from herbal to strong caffeinated tea. With a full wall of tea blends, you can easily spend over 20 minutes in the shop trying to pick your favorite tea. The shop also sells decorative tea sets or cute tea bottles to make a perfect gift basket!

As a tea lover, I have visited the tea shop many times during the past two years at Jewell. I usually get their limited holiday tea for the Fall season. I also recommend their lavender Earl Grey tea. It is my necessity before I walk to class every morning. 

Under The Covers – Kansas City, MO

Under The Covers is a new bookstore specializing in romance literature that recently opened in downtown Kansas City. Even if you don’t need a gift for anyone, I suggest you make a stop and get a gift for yourself. After the visit, you will learn about many subtypes of romance books: sport, teen, mysterious, classic, royals-related and even spicy romance novels. 

In addition to a full wall of books, they have a designated check-in spot for you to take cute pictures or read through some books before you decide to buy them. Also, don’t forget to check out their unique handmade bookmarks. 

Made in KC on the Plaza – Kansas City, MO

This coffee shop/gift shop is a must-stop when you visit the Plaza in Kansas City. The first thing I suggest you do is to grab a hot lavender cappuccino before you explore the gift shop. Right next to the coffee shop, you will find classic KC barbecue sauces along with many other hot sauces and seasonings that are made locally. Deeper in the store is a local ceramic shop, KC T-shirt store and a small bar. If you are above 21, feel free to buy a cocktail and meet some new people while shopping for KC vodka and whiskey. The other half of the shop is the designated space for KC Honey, local home-good stores and a small school shop with cute notebooks and pens. 

Even though this location is a bit far from Jewell, it is the best place to get your friends some fancy gifts this holiday season!

Luckily for me and everyone else, we live on a beautiful campus that is surrounded by nature. After a long day of classes and homework, I usually take a short walk to relax and digest my dinner. I have found that walking helps me tremendously and gives me more energy to finish my homework at night. Based on my experience, I present a small collection of pictures to show the beauty of nature around Jewell. 

The first walk I recommend starts at  the bottom of William Jewell College’s infamous long and steep stairs. Instead of walking up the stairs, you can take a right turn about halfway up and follow the sidewalk. This direction leads you to a small but pretty trail right behind the old science building – Marston. Across from Marston, you can find a small brick building – the Pryor Leadership Building. If you have time during working hours, you can stop by for a short self-tour. It is truly a nice, old mid-western building with great views outside the big windows. 

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Sadly, the part that leads you all the way up to the entrance of White Science Center is currently closed. However, that part of the trail will be open soon as the construction finishes next year. 

If you decide to go up the stairs instead of turning right, you will walk up the long stairs until you reach Jewell Hall. Standing at the top of the stairs, you can find yourself witnessing a breathtaking sunset and the Kansas City skyline in the distance over the trees. From there, you can take a loop around the Quad and enjoy the green grass and trees. This might be a boring walk for us students as we walk on the Quad to go to our classes everyday. However, if you have a visitor, they might be appreciative of taking a short tour of our main buildings around the Quad. 

Away from the main academic buildings, students will find a walk from the Union to the upperclassmen dorms. You first will encounter the Grand  River Chapel that lays a bit higher on a small hill. This is my favorite spot at Jewell because there are always colorful flowers with bees and butterflies. Next to the chapel is a small and old-looking water fountain. Thanks to our landscapers, the flowers are always blooming and the water is always crystal clear in the summer and fall seasons. Sometimes, I feel like I am lost in a secret garden, where I can listen to the relaxing sound of the water falling and enjoy looking at the busy bees stopping by those beautiful flowers. 

Facing away from the front of the Chapel, you can find an old school house and a swing if you look to the far right. I have heard that the school house is an original building for a school in Liberty. It is kept intact to represent the reality of the past – so much so that when I walked in, I found myself going back in time and attending classes in that small school house. The wooden swing next to the school house, despite its ordinary looks, is believed to hold a powerful spell that affects romantic couples. There is a long-lived tale saying that if a couple sits on the swing, they will be “stuck” with each other for their entire life. I think it is time for Jewell students to test the accuracy again!

I have introduced all of my favorite walking routes at Jewell. Maybe now, you can share yours  by writing an article for the Hilltop?

You might wonder why this article is about only the U.K. That is because I received one of the worst pieces of news that I could not be granted an EU tourist visa due to the complications of applying in a third country (a different country than my citizenship). Instead of backpacking through eight countries in the EU as I had planned, I was stuck in the U.K. during a six-week break. Although the situation wasn’t ideal, it gave me an idea of making a bucket list to visit all four kingdoms of the U.K. Even though I was not able to visit the warm beaches of Southern France, take the train through Switzerland, visit the most famous music academies in the world or see the Pope (joking), I still fulfilled my travel goals by visiting many breathtaking regions of the U.K. 

Please sit back and enjoy a photo album of my silly, 10-minute-planned journey.

I spent countless hours at this exact desk doing reading assignments  and writing essays. You may wonder where this desk is. It is row U in the top-level reading room of the Old Bodleian Library looking straight to the Radcliffe Camera during the sunset. 

This is the only picture that features my everyday life. Now, we will move forward to the break.  

England – The first kingdom I visited as I attended the University of Oxford.

My best friend and I went to “The Nutcracker” ballet show performed by The Royal Ballet in London during Christmas time. It was an unforgettable night because besides the amazing ballet, we also froze on the street during our 45-minute-walk to the bus stop to go back to Oxford. We both got really sick the next day. 

I was sitting in the back garden of Pembroke College – University of Cambridge. It is pretty, I must say; I still recommend visiting Pembroke College – University of Oxford (no bias here).

Scotland – The gloomiest kingdom 

Glenfinnan Viaduct This is the famous bridge that takes Hogwarts students to Hogwarts on the 9 ¾ train in the Harry Potter movies. 

As I was standing on the same spot when I took the picture of the bridge, this was my view on my left-hand side. It amazes me how scenery can look so different, yet so similar, when you stand on top of a hill.

Ireland – An extremely green kingdom with extremely friendly people.

This was my first solo trip. To this day, I still remember the feeling of packing all my belongings in a small backpack before a very long journey to a different island.I made some amazing friends during the trip. I also got compliments on my old-school film camera. Due to financial reasons, I still haven’t developed those photos I took. 

This grass field was the comfiest surface I have ever laid on. I took a 10-minute nap on it while listening to the ocean waves crashing into the shore.

If anyone is obsessed with the TV show “Derry Girls” like me (I’ve watched it 4 times), you will recognize this street as the one the characters walk up and down every time they go to school. I have to say, the street looks so much better without cars. 

Wales – kingdom of dragons – although I did not see any dragons.

My friends and I had four days before school started again. As any normal person would do, we booked ourselves a trip to Wales and explored the Snowdonia National Park.

My best friends and I rewarded ourselves with a nice bag of chips (crisps – like the British) for lunch after hiking up this “tiny” hill. We rated the lunch a 5/5.

I took this picture after three hours of hiking. We got lost. Our bus stop was on the road that runs along the ocean – as you can see, we were really far away because you can’t even see the road. Instead of walking back to find the trail, we went off trail to go straight down the hill. As we walked down more, we scared all the sheep away. That was the moment we decided to turn around to find the actual trail to go back  and it took hours.

Obviously, this is not the end of my U.K. journey. I have many more stories that I would love to share with you. 

If you want to hear more, please visit The Hilltop Monitor again as more articles will be written and published every week.