Stupid Cold

So I was all excited to blog about this past week, really was a fantastic and exciting one and I had lots of things to say.  Then I caught a cold in Paris and my head now feels like its about to explode.  However I promise to storytell later in the week, soon as I can think straight.  Talk to you all soon!

You should be writing.... oh wait, that's me

A week seems like a reasonable period to be blogging about, its also more interesting that working on my dissertation.  It's really hard to write with everything broken up into chunks like this but at the same time its not really feasible to do my usual writing strategy of sitting down close to the deadline and writing straight through - 8,000 word minimum sorta eliminates that option.

Happy belated thanksgiving to everyone!  The actual day was fairly uneventful here.  We did a holiday meal with the other people on the floor last weekend with turkey and all the fixins so there wasn't much enthusiasm or need to do it all over again on Thursday.  I however was bummed that cranberry sauce appeared to be nowhere to be found.  A tip from a co-worker had me back at the grocery store on thanksgiving through, turns out it comes in a jar vs a tin here, and is with the mustard and tarter sauce in the store.  Eventually I found it and that, along with some apples in cinnamon&sugar provided enough Thanksgiving for me.  Even so, it was definitely weird to not be with family this week.

Work continues per usual, little of interest there.  It is slightly shocking to realize that there are only 6 days left in my internship though.  The time is flow by and I haven't quite had time to figure out how I feel about it all coming to an end.  School is also winding down in terms of how many classes we have left.  Yet this means it's picking up in terms of other work.  Finals are fast approaching and with it the due date for the dissertation.   The amount of time spent on schoolwork has increased accordingly to essentially all the time one is not sleeping or at work.  It is a tad frustrating because I'd really like to be out enjoying London and the people here in the little time I have left and yet I'm constantly trying to write.  Also, for me this counts not only as a 'real' class when I get back to NU, but it goes towards my GPA.  This is not the case for everyone, some people need only complete the assignment to get a pass that doesn't count towards their GPA, and the levels of work to fun correspond accordingly.  That's it for now, although I'm sure I forgot some along the way, perhaps I'll be back later as another form of procrastination but if not, have a good week everyone!

I was blogging?

Hey folks!

Its been a month since I last wrote, for which there are no excuses but hopefully you'll all forgive me, or stop reading, your choice.  Anyway, it has been busy busy busy here in London with no signs of slowing down.  Here are some of the highlights.

Work continues to be something I generally look forward too, I'm learning a lot and enjoy where I'm working.  I feel like my opinions, views, and research is taken into serious account and is actually valued which is, aside from cool, rewarding.

As a program, we took a day trip to Oxford which was a cute uni-town not too far from London but I think I definitely prefer London.  In other school related news, work on dissertations is in full swing and although I don't see eye to eye with my adviser on much (read: anything) something that may resemble progress is being made.  Good thing too! it's due in less than a month!

I've continued to spend at least part of each weekend doing some sort of touristy thing.  Some times I just end up going on a walk through different parts of London but I love just exploring.  I spent a whole day wandering around the river and St. Paul's and the bridges and couldn't have been happier.  I've also been to 221b Baker Street and have resolved to re-read my Holmes over break.  Some friends and I took a day trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath.  An awesome day and worth the early wake up call.  Stonehenge is beautiful even without the mystery.  Salisbury has a Magna Carta! they wouldn't let me take pictures but it was amazing to see a document that so shaped history (wiki it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta).

In frisbee news, I still go play every Saturday morning and almost always head home feeling tired but refreshed.  I got to play in a weekend tournament which was tons of fun (usually they play Wed. afternoons, when I work) and we even did reasonably well for never playing indoors before.  I'm still working on getting the hang of handling as some of you may have heard, but some days are better than other.  Sounds silly but the fact that I can usually see where the pass should go or know why something was a poor decision is a big step - now if only I could execute the throws.... The last bit of frisbee news is that I had my first callahan the other day (A defensive player intercepts a pass from an offensive player, in the endzone for a score) and then played with a stupidly large grin for a few points :)  Generally, I'm really glad to be playing because its helped me stay sane and take a break and meet some great people here in London, outside the program.

Alright, that's it for now and it's back to writing for me.  I promise it won't be another month until I write but I seriously doubt I'll go back to once a day or even once every other day simply because much of what happens these days is routine.  Regardless, talk at you later!

Time flies when there's work to be done

I'm finding this week has just flown by and it's already Thursday which means that I have homework to do in addition to the massive amounts of 'work-work.'  The solution to this is obviously to blog.  There's only minimal sarcasm there too since it's been a busy week I haven't talked to anyone who might read this still and I miss you guys!  Now that we've settled into a routine it seems odd to not be able to call people up at the end of the day and tell them how it went, or to have dinner with them and catch up on what's going on in our lives.  Instead I write everything down, to you guys on the blog, in emails, in gchats, etc. and use my precious MBs when the time differences line up for a phone call.  Anyway, enough lamenting for now, moving on to the 'here's what I did this week' part of the show.  Monday is class day which continues to be blissfully/boringly (choose your own adj) the same each week.  Headed down to class early to get some work done beforehand; I like to get my emails out of the way and have a plan for the day set out before it starts.  After policy class - which continues to be a challenge to my ability to stay engaged and invested in- I chatted with the professor for a bit since she's going to be my dissertation advisor.  The meeting did little to dissuade my trepidations about working with her but at least I got a little direction.  School work is tough this week since we have the dissertation outlines due at the end of the week and then two not-short essays next week.  After the meeting I grabbed my usual lunch and ate on the way to the library.  They're wicked strict on food here, none allowed in the building period.  If you get caught with any, in any part of the building they give you a 'disciplinary warning' and take & throw your food away.  The only beverages allowed is water in a resealable bottle.  The consequence of all this is that I eat on the way to the library and then finish sitting outside it.  To the hurried/stressed American deep inside, this seems like a colossal waste of time, I'm used to eating while I work and just being neat about it.  Later in the afternoon we had parliament class after which I headed home.  I was going to stay on campus and find a comfy chair to curl up and work in but no such luck, it was prime time for comfy chairs on campus.  The mood brightened upon returning home though.  This weekend a lot had begun to go wrong with our flat.  This list of repairs done or needed over the week include: an over that wouldn’t head up, a shorted out microwave, a bathroom floor that when switched on shorts the flat, a flooding shower, a lack of heat, and a chirping smoke alarm.  Needless to say, I was excited to see that some of the list had been taken care of (not everything had broken at this point).  Tuesday was a workday and all that entails.  Typically I head in about 8:30 which means I've started work by 9:30 after stopping to pick up the mail, papers, tea, etc on the way in.  this Tuesday had the usual work of going through briefings with a few extras thrown in.  There was a personal meeting that I was part of that was very interesting, and later a small briefing on the bill itself.  I'm quickly discovering that for all the touting of the Lords as a non-partisan or less-partisan chamber, this does not make it devoid of politics.  You can insult someone just as easily in a formal tone with a British accent.  Even in the short time I've been here I've begun to notice many of the tactics that plague my own political system back home.  Upon arriving back home I was saddened to discover that the fire alarm was once again chirping.  It had stopped so we hadn't written it on the maintenance board but it was back in full, annoying force.  Wednesday came bright and early because even though ipod headphones can help dull the random chirps, they cant block it out entirely so both my roommate and I were away long before we needed to be.  I headed off to work with a friend, a nice habit that’s developing, since we both leave around the same time every day.  Had the usual work day although I was bummed to be missing the first ultimate game of the season, the team plays on Wednesday afternoons for a few weeks.  Wednesday night I hit up the grocery store, another developing routine but this one's purely because it's when I run out of food now.  Finally, after attempting to get some work done, I feel asleep to the chirping of a fire alarm.  Today looks a lot like a combination of Tuesday and Wednesday.  I headed out with a friend about 8:30, went through the usual morning routine at the office.  Today I got my computer though so that means I don’t have to keep brining mine to work.  British keyboards are slightly different than American ones though, juuuussst enough that it looks like you can't type.  Little things, like the quotes, at symbol, and shift key are different, even if the qwerty basics are the same.  In the afternoon I continued to go through amendments, then went home and whipped up some dinner and now here we are. 

Random:

I did forget to mention I got some mail this week, a lovely halloween card featuring candy corn.  I'd forgotten about it for the most part, even though I love it and can eat about half a bag in a sitting.  I was momentarily excited to pick some up and then I remembered that the rules regulating gelatin are different here so they don’t have it.  Their loss I suppose, at least I had some before I left the States. 

This is a weather related note.  Fall appears to have skipped the UK, at least in the New England sense of the word.  After having a long stretch of unseasonably warm weather, I had to break out the peat coat this week because it's gotten chilly out.  It hasn't helped that the heating is just being turned on in most buildings.  Ours flipped on today both at work and at home.  One thing we haven't seen much of here is rain.  It rained a whole bunch while we were up in Scotland but not much down here in London.  Not that I'm complaining but I could probably count the number of times its precipitated on one hand

There's a bunch more random stuff I wanted to talk about but I'm fading fast and have more work to do so I guess I'll spread them out over the entries to come.  Thanks for reading and I'm sorry I've been so ramble-y tonight.

(See? That's not even a word)

The Story of a Neglectful Blogger

This is the story of one terrible, absent blogger and how she hasn't written in over a week and the 'reasons,' read excuses, as to why in the form of stories as to what she's been up to.  In her defense it has been a bit of a momentous week.  Monday was largely uneventful and followed the routine of a class day, met the gang in the morning to walk over to LSE.  It remains what I would consider unseasonably warm here, especially as we inch towards late October and November.  We had our public policy class, no real surprises there as it was its usual vague self, then a quick break before a great guest lecture from Lord Knight.  He was a very interactive and dynamic speaker who gave us lots of opportunities to ask questions as we went along.  Later we had Parliament class, learning about the Prime Minster and examining what makes on a good one and, more importantly an effective one.  Class takes pretty much all day, so afterwards we all dispurse for dinner, studying, and whatever else we have planned for our evenings.  My evening included a trip to the gym which, even though I never look forward to going to, I always feel better after; there's just something about a well-earned ache in your muscles.  After I got home, I got myself fed and ready for work on Tuesday.  It was my first day so I wanted to be super prepared.  This meant that clothes were ironed, purses packed, and an exact route mapped out for the directionally challenged; nothing was going to go wrong if I could help it.  Part of this meant a very early bedtime for yours truly so after catching up with a friend from home I turned in.  I was nervous for my first da y but it was more out of excitement than anything else.  I was excited about this new challenge (adventure if you will) and couldn't wait to get started.  It's also been a while since I had worked in an office setting, in government, and I was looking forward to getting back to it.

The next part of this story is Tuesday, aka Kimberly's First Day of Work!  Everyone had to be at offices at different times and were meeting people in different places but the flat was a bustle of activity as everyone got ready.  I headed out with a lot of extra time - I had to be through security at Westminster at 10am and was out the door at 8:30.  On the way I bumped into a couple friends headed there as well and we all took the tube together.  When we emerged down by the river, we all went our sepearate ways to our first day because even though we were all working in Parliament, it doesn't mean we're necessarily close.  I made it through security with no problems and then just sat and waited.  My Lord came down to meet me at 10 and gave me a mini tour of the place and helped get me situated with my pass.  This turned out to be a major accomplishment I would later learn, since I remain one of the few interns who has their full pass already.  The lords started sitting at 11 that day, to debate the 2nd Reading of the Health and Social Care bill.  The second reading is where the principle of a bill is theoretically debated.  Typically, this is a largely ceremonial vote for the House of Lords due to something called the Salsbury convention which is that the Lords don't opposed measures set forth in the government's manifesto on their principle, since it is an unelected chamber.  However, given that this is a coalition government (meaning there is no ruling party manifesto) and a highly contentious bill with several amendment's being offered regarding its consideration even at this early stage there were a lot of speeches made on the subject and there was talk that the division would be extraordinarily close.  Anyway, back to the story.  After I managed to get seated in the Southwest Gallery (my new perch, the view looks like this http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/184150_149601551788769_147821811966743_272751_7852188_n.jpg), I met Kirsten & Kritika who work in a different Lords office and who were to be my unofficial guides to finding my feet in this new job.  Listening to the speeches reminded me a lot of listening to CSPAN & Congress back home.  Apparently, healthcare politics sounds nearly the same in any system and accent.  Even though the UK and US healthcare systems are vastly different in principle and reality, many of the issues are strikingly similar.  For lunch, I went to the cafeteria style place in the basement of Westminster with the girls, so far it's become my lunch routine, before heading back up to listen to more speeches including one by my Lord.  The afternoon was primarily spent filing out various forms for email address, laptops, and the like.  Later, after my Lord went back to the chamber, and told me he didn't really need me anymore, I set about exploring.  Really, there wasn't a lot to do, I had to return some forms to IT and pick something up for the Lord at the printing office.  Yet, Westminster is a wee bit confusing directionally, even having a map is small help.  I managed to get myself positively lost a couple times before I figured it out and am probably better for it since I now know how things connect a bit better.  Afterwards, I dug into my massive stack of reading that I have to do.  There is one heck of a bill, its explanatory notes, various reports and impact statements on it, and anything else you can think of to help get me up to speed.  Monday night was spent chilling with other Scholars and comparing first day stories, it seems like the first day met or exceeded almost all expectations. 

Wednesday was day 2 of work and I had to find a new way into the building.  After getting lost on the way in, I managed to barely making to a committee meeting on pediatrics.  I ws there to take notes which I can totally do; reminds me a lot of… actually most of the other jobs I've had.  Afterwards, I headed back to the gallery to catch the end of the speeches, they'd gone until 11:30 the night before and still weren't done, there were over 100 speakers!  There were a couple divisions to be done so after the first one took 25 minutes (there's a timer in the chamber to keep track of how long speakers go for), I popped down for lunch before the next one.  Later in the afternoon, I began digging into the bill hardcore.  One of my major projects will be going through the bill and comparing it to briefings the Lord has received from groups looking to see amendments in the bill.  Unfortunately, the best way to do this seems to be paging through the paper copy of the bill which is slightly time consuming.  Even so, it was good to dig through the bill a bit, I felt like I was getting to understand it a lot better.  At the end of the day I was most definitely ready to head home.  A stop at the grocery store was all that stood between me and home.  After my arrival back at the flat and feeding myself, I promptly passed out.

Thursday makes for a boring story but was quite the productive day.  My boss wasn't in but I had a bunch of briefings to get through so I wasn't bored. Also, it's uncommon for Lords to have a staff which leads to a general lack of space for one; this is contributed to by the sheer number of Lords that could be seated.  The practical implications of which is that I have a shelf to put my things on and a chair but that’s it, no desk.  However, when my boss isn't there I get to use his, and Thursday it made it a lot easier to get my work done.  Thursday night, which is like our Friday since we don’t work Fridays was lots of fun; generally just hanging out with the gang.  We went up the road to see some music at a local pub before coming back to the flats and doing the same thing as we were before we left: shooting the breeze.  There may have even been a Red Sox conversation carrying on until past 3am which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was just that kind of night and I hope they become weekly traditions.  Friday was equally boring since I spent it working in the library. There were interesting bright spots though.  For one, there was no need to get up in the morning so I had a lazy one.  Then, just as I was about to get up, one of our pipes burst, flooding our hallway.  Luckily maintenance was up to fix it immediately and I took advantage to not get up and do anything and instead finish my book.  When the hallway was dry, I made myself a delicious omelet and went off to the library.  That night a bunch of people went out to the clubs but I took the chill route of a local pub with a few friends.  Again the night ends with a group of friends sitting around chatting having fun.

Saturday morning I was off to ultimate.  I'm loving getting into the nitty gritty of the offense and defense here, it’s a ho stack and I'm handling half the time.  Every team runs things differently and it's always easier once you get the basics of it down.  It was absolutely beautiful out and a great way to spend a good chunk of a Saturday: good people, good frisbee, good fun.  After lunch at the pub with the ultimate crew, I hopped on the bus with another girl and headed home to work.  Sunday was spent working too, nothing to report except that there's a lot of schoolwork coming down the pipe and I am out of practice writing 'real' research papers on broad questions.  Alright, all caught up! Hopefully it won't be so long until I update again.

A Studying Sunday Post

I realize I left off rather abruptly last time but in my defense there was a family and a puppy looking for me.  Caramel's developed a habit of looking for me whenever she hears my voice coming out of the computer.  It's adorable and makes me miss my baby so much more than I already do, she looks so sad when she can't find me; she hasn't figured out that I'm in the computer yet, she just knows I'm not there.  After we'd sufficiently explored the grocery store, we'd packed our newfound foodstuffs into backpacks (apparently this is a city thing, relatively unknown to those who don't go to school in them, who'd've thunk it?), and made our way back to the flats.  I spent the rest of my evening making dinner and using the rest of my MBs on skype.  Yesterday was Ultimate Day.  Even though it wasn't technically as good a day out as last week, it was still loads of fun.  I'm loving being out on the field again and teaching new players the game.  Somehow, I've become one of the 'old' players.  I've been playing for about 5 or 6 years now, since sophomore year of high school but it's been so much fun that it doesn't feel like that long and I know there are so many better players out there than me.  Yet somehow, I'm realizing that to someone just starting out that I, Kimberly/Kim/Zolla, am the old, wise player schooled in the intricacies of the game; it’s a concept I'm still wrapping my head around.  I'm also discovering that there are downsides to this 'status' like that I now have to handle sometimes because I have passable throws, or that the cutting lane will be chock full of rooks for the time being.  There are major upsides though as well, teaching and helping people fall in love with a game I love is so rewarding.  There's something special about seeing a disc fly flat and straight for the first time and their face light up, knowing you had a role in putting it there, or watching someone score their first point, make their first real cut and catch.  I remember what that felt like for me and I'm really enjoying teaching new people the game.  After frisbee we grabbed some food and then the roommates and I had a bit of a chill night in, everyone curled up with a book or a movie.  Today I'm at the library all day so not much of interest to report except that for only having 2 traditional classes there sure is a lot of work to be done on other things!  I'm currently taking a break from the grownup world of figuring out how I'll be getting to my first day of work, working on grad school applications, and researching my dissertation to write this and clear up some random thought that have been on my mind.

Random Thoughts:

Yesterday was our 2 week anniversary as a program and it feels like it was so much longer ago than that.  The best way to describe a study abroad program may be as a crash course in social dynamics.  For the most part, it feels like I've known these people way longer than two weeks and yet others I'm still getting to know.  I think part of it may be due to the 24/7 mentality of the trip.  We arrived here in groups for the most part, so there were tran-Atlantic flights and arrival adventures to bond over.  We live together in flats of 4, and all the flats are in the same little hallway.  We go to school together and are the only pupils in our classes.  We essentially do everything together from work, to travel, shop and play.  Even though these past two weeks have been long, I have a sneaking suspicion that this trip will be flying by pretty soon, it's already October 9 which means there's less than 2.5 months left!

I'm back to reading the BBC regularly now that I'm here.  It's like having to read the Times for an American Politics class.  One of the things I noticed was that next to an article about a release from the British Treasury was accompanied with an interesting sidebar.  In a drop-box there was a massive list of banking terms, all linked to easy-to-understand definitions.  It struck me how widely the financial crisis has struck the world.  Some of the terms were simple but others delved into the complex financial world.  Somewhere in the past few years, it became necessary for everyday people to make sense of these terms in order to keep their daily lives in order.  Ten or twenty years ago, no one needed to know what these terms meant or how they worked, you simply mailed your check to the bank every month to pay your mortgage with little thought to how the macro machine functioned.  I can't tell if this new need for knowledge is the sign of a smarter investor and consumer or of a more dire financial situation but either way it is a definite departure from the old.  A lot to get from a drop-box but it just got me thinking!

Finally, the news of Steve Jobs' death made big headlines on this side of the pond as well as back home.  I'm a PC girl all the way, yet I can't deny the impact Jobs made.  As I type this I'm listening to music on my ipod which is an achievement unto itself, and this ipod is much smaller than the black and white click wheel I first bought myself years.  Jobs had a tremendous impact on the technological world and I have little doubt that it would look vastly different - and likely not in a good way- without him.  I'm intrigued to see what Apples first post-Jobs big idea will be and if it will possess the same innovation the world has come to expect from Apple.  Even beyond technology, the man seemed to be fascinating and the kind of thinker that will be sorely missed.  If you haven't seen his commencement speech at Stanford a few years back, I suggest you check it out either in print (http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html) or video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc)

Catching Up: Fri. October 7 aka Today

Train blogging again!  We are…. Actually I have no idea where we are at this point, only that we're more than halfway to London.  This morning we had as lazy a morning as possible, not bothering to hit up breakfast.  We did have to be out of our rooms by 10 but at least we could leave our stuff in the lobby for a few hours until it was time to go.  Somehow we got the idea into our heads that we wanted bagels for breakfast, since we knew we'd be hitting up a coffee shop for it.  On all our walks we'd seen a place called Elephant and Bagel which is a sister café to the J.K. Rowling one and that became our destination for the morning.  We however did not quite remember how far up it was, it was slightly further than we remembered.  However, the bagel was delicious and a welcome change to pastry.  Afterwards, we made use of our bus passes from yesterday to go on a tour of Edinburgh.  It was fun but nothing special at that point because a lot of the sights we'd discovered on our own.  If I were visiting again, I'd do it on the first day to provide almost a primer to the city that people could then explore more on their own.  At least it wasn't raining though, today is actually the best day we've had since we got here.  After grabbing our stuff back at the B&B we piled into cabs for the last time to the train station.  I had a sneaking suspicion that we'd get quite good at getting all of us into cabs, getting them paid for, doing it all efficiently, etc and it proved correct; all was done with no hassle in a way that seemed almost practiced.  I once again am riding backwards towards our destination but I'm on the coast side of the train again.  For a large part of the ride I've been kicking myself for packing my camera away in the overhead shelf.  It's much cleared out today and the views are even more spectacular if that’s possible.  The ocean definitely looks like the Atlantic and seeing it dotted with the occasional lighthouse is a comforting sight, I'd imagine the one in OOB looks similar this time of year.  With the clearer day we've been able to make out some more details along the coast, including some huge manor houses, tiny ancient abandoned ones, lots and lots of sheep, and cows (sorry, still no belted galloways).   Even now as I write this, I'm looking out the window as my fingers fly over the keys; I don't want to look away for a moment and will just fix the typos when I get back to the flat.  I think that's all for now, so I'm going to close the laptop and focus all my attention on the countryside flying by. 

=====================

The rest of the train ride passed painfully slowly but passed none the less.  By the end all of us were ready to get off and get home.  Personally my ipod died and I finished all the work I'd brought with me, making me a wee bit stir crazy.  All in all though, wasn't too bad.  A quick bus ride, thank you 214, got us to what has quickly become our new home.  I emptied my backpack (what I'd packed in this week) and headed off to the grocery store with a friend.  Since we were gone no one had any perishable food left.