Geeking Out, London Style

Turned out I was in for a little more 'adventure,' handyman style, after I signed off the other night.  Just as I was about to go to bed almost all the lights in our apartment went out.  After quickly deducing that a fuse had blown and finding the fuse box we then had to set about getting the power back on.  Unfortunately, whenever I flipped it back, the light flickered on for a moment and then went out again.  We ended up calling the building manager and he somehow got the fuse to stay on.  This time it stayed on until the next morning, which was nice since it meant we could go back to our evenings.  The only downside was that it insisted on turning off once again just as I was about to get in the shower.  So the barely established morning routine was thrown for a loop - showers in the dark, pulling the mirror next to the window to get some light, blow drying in the kitchen since those were the only outlets on - but soon I was out the door regardless.  Wednesday we had a tour of Parliamentary archives in the morning and there was no way I was going to be late!  Three of us left at 8:30 for a 9:45 tour just to make sure, its nice that there are some people with the same sense of punctuality here as me.  It worked out really well, we found the Sovereigns' Entrance where we were supposed to meet, and a coffee cart right by Westminster Abbey.  The weather in London continues to be gorgeous so we sat on a nearby wall to enjoy our tea and pastry.  The day had definitely taken a turn for the better at this point and would only continue to improve.  The tour of the Parliamentary archives was lots of fun and I definitely geeked out with a stupid grin on my face.  In the archives, they hold the Acts of Parliament in their final forms, all of them.  The room we got to see was filled from floor to ceiling and had ones going back past the Tutors including Henry VII, and his kids, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth!  Not only that, but there was no glove rule, meaning we got to touch the documents.  Most of them are rolled up like a scroll, ranging from an inch to a foot in diameter, and they contained all sorts of Acts, from the simple to complex.  Sean and I unrolled one to look and still could not believe it was allowed.  After that, we went to another room to see some of the American documents on record, including the copy of the Declaration of Independence that was sent to the House of Lords.  Amazingly, it's in great condition and you could read it as you leafed through - literally touching history!  After the archives, I headed back to the flat to squeeze in a quick run before our afternoon lecture; trying to take advantage of the nice weather we've been having.  The guest lecture was by Professor The Lord Norton, Director of Studies for the Hansard Scholars Programme.  He spoke on the British Constitution and helped explain how constitutional issues are being played out today.  Due to the structure of British government, an active Parliament with a strong majority can easily make drastic constitutional change, very different from in the US.  The lecture helped us to start making the connections between the classroom and current events.  Afterwards, it was back to the flat once more to have a quick dinner and get ready for a night out.  We were doing our first group social activity, a night out at the theatre near Piccadilly Circus.  We saw 39 Steps, which I had never heard of before but turned out to be wicked funny; I'd recommend it.  Afterwards, six of us walked home since the nights have been warm and beautiful lately.  The lightheartedness and amusement of the play still hung in the air and the walk home was full of laughter.  All in all, it was a great end to a good day.

Yesterday (Thursday for those of you keeping score) morning we headed back to the sovereign's entrance for our tour of Parliament & the Jewel Tower.  Unfortunately there was no photos allowed so I can't share what I saw but it was awe inspiring.  Some of us were discussing the differences between Westminster and the Capitol and I stand by my assertion that I like the Capitol more; I find it more simply elegant.  Yet, Westminster is still quite impressive with its own sense of history.  It's also interesting to note how much the building changes from one end to the other.  The Sovereigns' Entrance and House of Lords is ornately decorated, lots of gold guild and opulence, while in contrast, the House of Commons end is much more demurely decorated.  Afterwards, we checked out the Jewel Tower which was one of the few parts not touched by the Great Fire.  A lot of what we see as London today is technically a rebuild from after the fire where something like 80% of London was destroyed.  Afterwards, I headed down to LSE to check out their Freshers Faire.  The line to get in was ungodly long, 3 blocks no exaggeration, but luckily the people I was standing near were nice and the time passed fairly quickly.  Once inside, I navigated through the mob to the Ultimate table and am now officially signed up for ultimate frisbee, I might even get to play Saturday!  I also checked out the gym while I was on campus.  I got a reasonably good workout in, I'm only reasonably sore today.  I was a bit nervous since it was my first real arm workout since I hurt my shoulder last fall.  It's going to take some time but hopefully I'll get back to where I was pre-injury with time.  When I got back to the flat afterwards, I decided to read on my bed for a while which quickly turned into a nap.  Finally woke up around 9pm but was still exhausted so I ate while I did a load of laundry and then promptly found myself back in bed for the night.  Turns out I needed the rest since I slept until nearly 9:30 this morning.  Today we've had mostly off except for a quick lecture about Hansard, which has been nice since its beautiful out, possibly even hot.  Tonight we may head down to the river for a free movie but whatever we do, it'll definitely involve being outside.  

Did you know it rained in England?

We are now, officially done with the first day of school.  Yesterday began a bit dreary and a bit early.  Class started at 10 but we were still out the door by 8:30 since we only sort of knew where we were going and needed to stop on the way.  It was a little chilly and misty at this point, even though the weather report promised it would clear up.  On the way we popped into a school supplies store to pick up those little things we'd forgotten from home, before grabbing more caffine and continuing on our way.  The first class of the day was Politics and Public Policy, interesting and just wat it sounds like. G to be discussing the formation of public policy and how they interrelate.  Class was about an hour and a half so we had some time to grab a quick bite to eat in an LSE café.  A yummy sandwich to go for £3, not too shabby.  In between the classes we had a mini tour of LSE from Luke, showing us where some of our classes would be, the cut-through to Hansard, etc.  It had cleared up and was a beautiful, warm day ot at this point too which made some free outdoors time very enjoyable.  Our second class is called Parliament and Politics.  Its simillar a little bit to a Politics in Western Europe class I took last fall at Northeastern but with a completely different perspective.  I think this class will be very interesting; I'm glad to have some base knowledge in the subject because it'll allow me to focus more on the intricacies of what goes on.  Post class everyone dispursed with a few of us heading up to Carphone Warehouse at Angel for phones.  That’s right folks, I now have a gen-u-ine international cell phone. It was a little tricky navigating throught the different pay as you go phones as s but we figured it out.  However we soon realized there was one tiny littleobstacle in our way.  While we were in the store it had begun to rain.  Not just oh hey there's water coming from the sky, man it stinks that I don’t have a coat/umbrella (a mistake I will not be repeating), we're talking buckets and buckets of it, sheets of rain falling from the sky.  We walked back as fast as we could, trying to dodge the massive puddles that had quickly formed but it was to no avail.  We were still soaked in an instant.  By the time we arrived back at the apartments I was wet all the way through and could literally wring water from my clothes.  Luckily my new phone and most of the stuff in my backpack escaped the deluge - there was only some minor water damage to books & papers.  A warm shower was deemed necessary to take out the chill and just enjoy the fact that our shower is now fixed.  The rain had stopped as suddenly - the storm actually resemble a summer storm in New England - as it started so I headed down to the mini grocery to pick up enough basic supplies that I could make dinner.  It was my first real dinner in the flat and it was fittingly delicious if slightly unbalanced.  The rest of the evening was uneventful except for chatting it up w/ the bro and meeting some of his two and four legged suite-mates. 

The early night last night was in part due to the fact that this morning was coming far too quickly.  Another early wake up, this time so I could sneak in a run before heading off to LSE.  A couple of us signed up for an LSE gym membership and had to be 'oriented' as to how to u se it before we were allowed to work out there.  Our orientation was at 9 but it takes a while to get there, especially when the tube is crowded in the mornings.  Orientation turned out to be walking us around the small room (gyms are very different here than in the US, since universities don't have the same funding levels, the facilities/services are often much more basic) and making sure we knew how to use all the equipment; it took all of 5-10 minutes.  Then, it was time for breakfast and shaking the last of the sleepiness out.  The nearby Costa was just the thing, with hot tea and a yummy lemon poppy seed muffin.   At 11 we had a meeting at Hansard to just go over more welcome stuff and it gave us a chance to ask questions about the grading, traveling, and really anything.  Afterwards we had lunch at Hansard and then headed off to class.  Today we had just the parliament class where we talked about the House of Commons.  It remains a fairly complex place despite the apparent simplicity in the system.  It feels good to be talking politics again in an academic setting and I'm looking forward to doing it more.  As a pretty quiet person I don’t usually volunteer my opinions or when I know the answer but I'm trying! Even so, it's refreshingly challenging to be puzzling out the 'problems' (for some they're problems, for others assets) in a system.   After class I headed back towards home.  After ditching my flats (still being broken in, ouch!) for some flip flops, losing the sweater - it was high 70s today - and plunking a sox cap on my head I headed up towards Angel.  I want to become as familiar as possible with my area as quickly as possible and I needed a hair dryer, a pan to cook in the over in, chicken to cook in the oven, as well as some other random goodies.  The walk proved to be a good finish to the afternoon and it didn’t rain on me this time.  Tonight's been an exercise in catch-up between writing and doing some reading, another fairly quiet evening because tomorrow's another early morning.  Now I'm off to finish some schoolwork of the grad and undergrad variety.  'Til next time!

Settling In

Picking up where I left off, napping was not quite successful and by not quite I mean I didn't sleep at all but the rest of the flight still passed pretty quickly.  After landing, the six of us in the program on the flight all headed through customs, no surprises there, and grabbed our stuff, still pretty easy.  Then, most of us headed off to the tube for the first time.  Buying tickets was the first obstacle, the card reader was a little funky but the big task was getting our heavy suitcases through tiny metal barriers that were before you even swiped your ticket.  We took the train on the Piccadilly line towards Cockfosters (giggles ensue, we were sleep deprived college kids) to Kings Cross.  From here we were supposed to take the Northern Line to Angel but the Northern line, as it turns out, is under construction this weekend and our part is closed.  This meant that me, and 3 of the others decided to hoof it to the towers.  I swear, it didn't look nearly as far as it felt on the map, once we'd located ourselves.  Besides, we had plenty of time since we couldn't get into the building until 10am.  Eventually we made it, none worse for the wear and still with plenty of time to spare.   As five of us camped out in the lobby, a few more students began to arrive as well.  Then, just past ten Luke, from Hansard, arrived to let us all into our apartments.  They are brand new and BEAUTIFUL.  There's four of us to a flat with plenty of storage space for everyone.  Also, the entire floor is all Hansard kids.  We even have our own washer/dryer and dishwasher, in addition to the regular appliances.  Most of Saturday afternoon was a flurry of unpacking, followed by some much needed food and a brief nap.  Then, after a floor meeting with the building manager, the original six of us headed off on a dinner exploration which ended with some pretty good Indian food.  The only thing left to do was to stop by our 24 hr grocery to pick up breakfast for today.

Today it was nice, relaxing way to start the week.  I woke up with just enough time to have a relaxing breakfast and a walk before heading out for the day.  I'd picked up real English tea (forgot the tea strainer thingy so that was a challenge) and some muffins which were both highly satisfying.  I'm still settling into the flat a little so it'll take some time to get morning routine down but it was definitely a good start.  I had just enough to time go for a quick walk before leaving for our afternoon tour.  I spent the next hour or so just wandering up towards Angel and enjoyed myself thoroughly.  It was mid-morning so people were sort of out for the day but the streets weren't crowded.  I may have mentioned it earlier but this is a great way to get to know an area in my opinion.  I love just wandering around either by myself or with a few good friends, really just soaking the place in.  Unfortunately it was time to leave for the tour all too soon.  It was a bit of a struggle getting there due to the construction on the Northern line but we made it.  Then we spent the afternoon seeing a lot of the major tourist sites in London (pictures may be included, or just email me!).  Afterwards we received our orientation packet from LSE with lots of great info about the details of our classes.  They both look challenging but interesting.  I'm a little nervous to see how different a LSE style class is from a NU one.  Our six went to dinner in a traditional British pub near school, took us a while to find one that was open on a Sunday evening but the food was worth it.  Then, back at the flats we dug into our packets.  Overall I'm excited for classes to start tomorrow and to get back into the academic swing of things.  It looks like the program will fly by and I can't wait to really get started tomorrow.


Ps. Please someone kick the Sox in the behind since I can't do it in person, this is getting ridiculous.  Just because I'm not there does not mean there shouldn't be baseball in Boston in October

London: The Next Adventure

Written on the 23rd, on the plane:

Another semester, another  adventure.  This semester takes us, well me, to London, England.  I'll be doing a part time internship and studying at LSE and for this adventure I've decided to resurrect this blog, at least for the time being.  I'm once again blogging when I should be doing something else.  That something else right now would be sleeping.  This is a trip that crept up on me for sure.  It seemed so far away in the beginning of September, probably because there was so much else to do.   There was the GRE to study for and take and a Valks season to kick off, then there were grad schools and old friends to visit, all the while trying to squeeze in as much time with friends, family, and my pup before heading out.  Then, all the sudden, there was only a few days to go.  On the 23rd I piled in the car with the parents and my couple bags (few enough I can carry them all, enough that I look like a pack mule) and drove up Rt. 3, crawled down 93, and wound our way to Logan.  It took longer than expected but I managed to get through security with enough time.  A pre-departure snack provided the last Dunkins I'll see in a while and then, we were off.  Currently, I'm about 2.5-3 hours into the flight and really should be sleeping - it is a red-eye after all- but since I'm having trouble I figured I'd updated you guys back home real quick.   Now off to nap! hopefully....