Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

It's crazy to think that this is probably the first Thanksgiving in my life that I haven't had any turkey. But the weather is definitely cold enough right now that I can tell it's the end of November. And I also have a lot to be thankful for this year. So -- no complaints! I never liked cranberry sauce much anyway!

Life has been pretty crazy here lately. On Saturday I went to my first foam party at a club near where I live. For those who aren't familiar with the tradition, it's where they have a gigantic machine that makes suds of foam, and the dance floor becomes almost like a gigantic bubble bath. I didn't have a camera with me, but found this image on Google which pretty much captures what it was like:

It was so much fun! The foam got so tall that I literally had to hold my breathe at a few times. I didn't get back until after 4am, and it was only a few degrees above freezing, so the run back was pretty crazy. Unfortunately I ended up losing my shirt, shoes and cell phone! I went back the next day to try to recover them (especially the cell phone), but the manager said they hadn't been found.  So I had to buy a new cell phone... and now my whole face is peeling; I think I had some sort of reaction to the soap. An Italian girl I know told me that my face was distracting her from focusing in class! C'est la vie... I'd almost say that the turmoil was worth it for the experience.

Aside from that, everything is going well. I got back my first written assignment -- I was pleased with my mark, but the professor marked the whole paper up because I didn't cite the way she wanted. It's a slow transition into the British system, but I'm adjusting. 

I also wrote an article for The Beaver this week defending media studies as an academic field. The shadow minister of education said in a speech that students who choose to study it and other "soft subjects" are actually doing a disservice to society by not learning anything valuable! I basically harpooned him for being so academically elitist, and discussed how communication majors actually land some of the best jobs. So take that!

Can't wait for the weekend. I'm going to a friend's birthday party, and on Saturday, none other than...

...is playing a free show at a club near where I live. I managed to log online with some friends and get free vouchers for admission. Can't say that I'm really that big of a fan of her music anymore, but it should be a pretty crazy experience! The venue only holds about 800 people.

That's it for now. I'll be back in the U.S. in less than two weeks!

Ross Parrot

One of my professors just pronounced Ross Perot's name as "Ross Parrot." It got me to thinking.

I'm rather fond of parrots. 

Ross Perot... not so much.

Alvaro's Visit

This weekend Alvaro -- my family's former exchange student -- flew up for a visit from Madrid, Spain. It was mainly work related, as I helped him with his applications to American universities, but we managed to squeeze in some time for fun as well. I took him on a walking tour of London before the rain started, and we went out to dinner at TGI Friday's and then to a club in SoHo. The Internet was down for the entire LSE network for about 24 hours, and us two "frikis" had a hard time figuring out what to do with ourselves. Fortunately we managed alright after going to Starbucks to use the wifi.

It was a good weekend!

An upside to the economic meltdown

This graph from Yahoo! Finance shows how much value the British Pound has lost is comparison to the U.S. Dollar over only the last three months:

Essentially, a British pound used to cost almost $2 U.S. dollars to get, and now it costs less than $1.50.

Translation: Time to start my Christmas shopping! :P

Sliding Doors

I've never actually seen this movie, but I've been thinking about it recently because it apparently takes place at Embankment Underground station, which is the one that I use 3-4 times per week to get to class and other places.

It's a weird thought that running a little ahead or behind schedule can lead to big changes in your life.

Should I stand on the right, or walk down the escalators? :P

November

It's been a while since I've updated -- I guess that's what happens when classes start assigning actual work to be turned in.

I turned in an essay to my communication theory class last Friday, and have an essay for my British politics due this Friday. Both are worth a wopping 0% of my final grade. It's meant to get students used to what the professor is looking for, and to have the chance to discuss strengths and weaknesses before a final summative essay (worth 50%) is turned in at the end of the term. Some students I know are surprisingly stressed/freaked out about these... don't really understand why. I'm just looking forward to the fact that I don't have any finals before Christmas this year!

I stayed up all night and watched coverage of the election in the Student Union last week. It amazed me how many people turned up -- it was wall-to-wall students, standing room only, and while there were a lot of Americans there, there were a lot of Europeans as well. When Obama won, the place erupted in cheer, and during his victory speech when he said something to the effect of "America is the greatest nation on earth," everyone cheered again. The headline of the LSE student newspaper read "Democracy returns to the U.S. again." Regardless of our domestic views of Obama, the rest of the world seems pretty excited that he's going to be our next president. And I can't say that I really feel differently.

In other news, I've started hosting some friends at my place who are visiting London, which has been fun. My friend Mariam, who I actually met in London in 2007 and is applying to LSE, stayed with me for 2 nights. Walking around London with her was fun because it renewed my excitement in being here. After grumbling to myself about the bad weather, poor customer service, etc, it was cool to hear her say "I love all the old archetecutre!" and things like that. Alvaro is coming from Spain this weekend. Despite living only an hour or so by plane away, he's never been here, so I'm looking forward to showing him around the city.

That's about all that's new here right now... More updates soon.

One of my favourite poems

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

-- Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

Cast of Characters

In addition to my Halloween post below, I thought my friend Kyle's portraits of some of us last night would be a good opportunity to introduce some of the friends I've made over here.

First I'll start with mine. You presumably all know me if you're reading this.

Next we have Meg from Canada. She is also in my building and is studying Media and Communications.

Next there is Veronica from Italy. She is in my program and lives one floor above me.


Kyle is from Anaheim, California. He lives in my building and is doing my program.


Finally, we have Josh from Australia and Jackie from Florida, USA.


There are others... but those are the only portraits. I'd like to take more and upload them sometime.

Halloween in London

As all of you know, last night was Halloween. Although it isn't as crazy a tradition as it is in the U.S., people still dress up. So naturally I took part in the festivities. I waited until the day-of to get a costume, and ended up just grabbing the first thing that I saw in the crowded halloween store near where I live.

It ended up being a huge hit.

Random people were walking up to me on the street asking to take photos with me. A chinese girl ripped off one of my blades and asked if she could keep it. 

Here are the pictures:

It's hard having scissors for hands...

Even shopping at the grocery store is difficult!

At least I can still torture girls!

Some photos.

On Saturday I took the train to the edge of London to go to a wine and cheese party at my friend Fulvio's apartment. Like most other big cities, location is everything -- he rent is roughly the same as mine, yet instead of a jail cell he has a two-story apartment with hardwood floors and a spare bedroom. Since the trains closed down, I spent the night after.

Here is the group shot.



Rise and shine!

Yesterday I decided to skip class to sip hot chocolate on the Strand. I was almost feeling guilty about it, until I found out later that my professor didn't show up either! So it worked out well.

I took some silly photos with my Mac:

Into the swing of things

Tomorrow will mark a month that I've been in London. While I feel like I've been here about 5 years, the time has actually gone by pretty fast. Less than two months until I come home for Christmas. I'm just trying to make the most of everything here and have fun. It's working out so far.

Class has been keeping my pretty busy. My favorite is British Politics and Policy - the professor is really funny and enthusiastic, and we've had some pretty good discussions in the seminar with him. Aside from that, I'd have to say that the majority of teaching I've experienced here is only so-so. The professors are intelligent, but many of them I can tell would rather be researching instead of teaching. Some people in my program seem pretty disappointed about it, but I'm honestly just taking it in stride. I've had worst professors at UCLA, and much more time here is spent doing independent study or reading instead of in lecture.

Aside from class, I've gotten involved in a few things on campus. I'm trying not to load up on activities like I did at UCLA, but things just keep falling into my lap. I got a research position at a journalism think tank here at LSE called POLIS, where I'm helping the director organize a forum in about a month on financial journalism. It's been interesting so far and I think I'll learn a lot before I'm done. I also got an associate editor position at the Clare Market Review, LSE's student-run research journal that was founded in 1905. I don't know much about this yet, but will be going there tonight at 6pm for our first editorial board meeting. Still waiting on whether I'll get an internship at Parliament.

Here are a few miscellaneous photos from my life recently...

My Oyster card, which I use to get a student discount on the underground and on buses.

On Saturday I went to Oxford with 3 Canadians, 1 Australian and 2 other Americans. We took the train in the morning from Paddington Station, spent the afternoon walking around the city and university, and then took it back in the evening. It was really exhausting but fun. It's definitely a lot older than LSE!

I've been hanging out a lot with people from my program... who are really awesome.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Still Awake

For some reason, although I've been in England for nearly three weeks now, my circadian rhythms still think that I live in California. I woke up at 3pm yesterday, and have laid awake in bed until 5am the last two nights. I'm pretty tired, but here I am once again awake... listening to the occasional sounds of police sirens and the hourly chimes of Big Ben. Fortunately I don't have class until 1pm tomorrow, but I'd like to break out of this. I'm going to have to force myself to wake up early I guess.

Embarking on my second week of classes, it's becoming clear that I'm going to actually have to do work in order to live and have fun here. I'm taking five classes this term -- Research methods, Statistics, Democracy and the Media, Communication Theory and Politics and Policy in Britain. It kind of seems like a lot, but each only meets for 1-2 hours per week. Next term I'm only going to be taking 2 classes and working on my dissertation. The cool thing is that everyone in my program is taking at least four of the above classes with me right now, so I spend a lot of my time before and after class hanging out and talking with them.

Yesterday I spent some time exploring the LSE library -- or the British Library of Political and Economic Science, as it's technically named. It's the largest social science library in the world and takes up a whole small block or so on the LSE campus. Here is a photo from Wikipedia:


Although LSE is about a quarter of the size of UCLA, the library seems about 10 times as busy and frantic. Almost nobody I've met here has actually purchased books for their courses, and a large part of the bottom floor is reserved only for "course books." They have about 10 copies of each book that professors assign, which can be checked out for 24 hours, three days or one week. So, every day before or after class, people rush in to try to get a copy to take home and read before someone else gets it. I've never had to wait in a line 40 deep of students to check out a library book before! But overall, I think it's a pretty efficient system. Now if I could only bring myself to read...

In other semi-uneventful news, I've discovered the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted available at a coffee chain called Costa. Too bad it costs the equivalent of 6 US dollars a glass. I've introduced it to three other people I know here and they're all addicted now too.

Anyway, I'm going to try and get some sleep now.

London at Night

Amazing photos of London at night that I thought some of you might enjoy:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/london_from_above_at_night.html

This is the city that I now call home.

My Professor at LSE

One strange aspect of studying communication, especially new media, is that I end up with professors who are (1) young and (2) often extremely nerdy and eccentric. I googled the name of the professor I have for Research Methods, and sure enough, one of the first links to come up was his MySpace profile. Apparently he also goes by "Dr. Chill" in the digital world.

This isn't the first time I've found one of my professors on MySpace, but one of the photos I found was just priceless:

Living in L'Auberge espagnole

A couple of years ago I saw a French film called L'Auberge espagnole ("The Spanish Apartment") about a bunch of Europeans who come together in a Spanish hostel, each representing their various countries and cultures. Maybe you've seen it; I guess it's kind of a cult classic now and they've made a few sequels. But anyway, the other night I went to a bar with people from my program -- from the U.S., England, Italy, Germany, Australia, Croatia, Norway, Romania, Denmark, England, Thailand, Canada, Wales -- and we've subsequently hung out over lunch, coffee, drinks and in other casual settings. 

In many ways, we have a lot in common. We're roughly all from the same generation. Out of over 120 master's degree programs at LSE, there are 37 of us with a particular interest in how the government and the media interact. There's a news anchor from Canada, and a girl who was George W. Bush's daily agenda scheduler. One guy from Thailand wrote for a Asian financial publication. Yet culture is the ever-present elephant in the room as we navigate the social and political landscape with conversation and get to know one another. We may all know who Sarah Palin is, yet when an American from Ohio asks where the trash can is, he is met with blank stares. "Oh, the rubbish bin?" an English girl in our program replied. And that's just within the English language. The list goes on and on. (Note to Americans: "Fanny pack" is not something you should say in England.) 

I contrast the experience to last summer when I came to Europe with UCLA Travel Study. I made many close friends that I still keep in touch with. But I think we were drawn together more out of our common backgrounds in a foreign country (To continue the film analogy, see Lost in Translation). Although it is sometimes awkward or even a point of contention, I can already tell that cultural diversity is going to be one of the most rewarding things about my time at LSE. I scarcely even like to use the phrase because of its frequent use during my time at UCLA, where it was often surrounding by debate and discussion about how to "increase diversity." Although I love UCLA and often think about it with nostalgia, LSE makes UCLA's diversity seem almost insignificant. My whole life I attended public schools in California in the United States of America. I traveled and met a lot of people, but was still always somewhat in my own little bubble.

At UCLA, I felt like I'd finally found a place where I belonged. At LSE, I'm having to reassess who I am in a much broader, global context. 

I'll keep you updated on the transformation.