Now 1 Month In? All Hallows Even

Is it now a month in? Damn the 30/31 day month deal and the fact it is November. Damn.

Also, I finally walked to Battersea Station and Chelsea and walked around the Tower of London for Hallowe'en. As I knew and have been finding out, this holiday isn't so big over here. I took the bus back from the Tower of London and it was pretty cool and here's why. All the public bus routes are farmed out to the lowest bidder among competing private companies (and they say Britain is more socialist than the US!) so they run it however they want as long as the provide the service requested. So I am waiting for the bus and sure enough this ancient double decker bus rolls up and I felt like I was back in the 1940s or something. It was really cool: I wish I had snagged a picture. Also it was so old, I was looking where to swipe my Oyster card and this transit worker chuckled told me to sit down and touch it to his reader. That was pretty funny. In other news, I am going to see a performance of Holst's "The Planets" tomorrow at the Royal Albert Hall. Also I should get some sleep

1 Month In

1 Month since I arrived here. I can't believe it. It seemed like yesterday that I was the stupid American foreign exchange student who didn't know anything about London--oh wait.

hehe, no but in all honesty, it seems like no time has gone by yet like I have been here for some time and settled into the groove. I guess that is a good thing. This week, if after this I am good and get schoolwork done, I'll continue to see the last few remaining parts of central London that I didn't walk the first time. Also I think definitely tomorrow or the next day I will go see Battersea Power Station of Pink Floyd fame. For all you trivia people out there it also showed up in Children of Men and the new incarnation of Doctor Who. Also Bankside Power Station (now Tate Modern) was designed by the same architect. They are trying to preserve it but it's very dilapidated, so I want to get there before they knock it down.

Back to my rant about British food. Again what do they have against calling yogurt, "yogurt"? Instead you see the very helpfully descriptive substantive "Digestive". Yeah it really helps me digest...Also they don't seem to use artificial preservatives for anything: pasta sauce, salsa, you name it. A bit of a pain as everything is perishable or if it is canned you have to eat it pretty quickly. Does it taste better without all those "bad" artificial "chemicals"? If it does, I can't tell the difference in taste. So much for green food. On an upside, I got my nectar card in the post (Britishisms woohoo!) and with it, the joys of getting free stuff once I collect enough points. I recommend getting one. They're free at www.nectar.com and you can get some cool computer games or books or discounts. Really worth it. And I made 2 points for each pound I spent. Not bad at all.

So yes, revel in the month I have spent. So I'll leave you now as Latin American economic backwardness beckons...

King Harvest Has Surely Come

Daylight savings time all of sudden descended upon us. I didn't expect that it was happening so soon. They sort of switched it around back in the States so all the Trick-or-Treaters wouldn't be roaming through the dark. Didn't know what the deal was here either. So now we can come ever closer to 3:30PM sunsets! Fun!

Edit: Actually, according to my desk calendar which has all these weird terms and archaic words in English says that today is the End of Summer Time in the UK. In the US daylight savings time ends November 4th, so now I am only 4 hours ahead of the states. At least for the next week.

Walked Hyde Park yesterday and went to Paddington Station. Hyde Park was nice, we got to see the Prince Albert monument and Royal Albert Hall. (In case you didn't know Victoria really had the hots for this guy). The foliage was a bit disappointing: I was hoping it would be more colourful. Perhaps the best is yet to come or maybe the foliage is never good over here. Since Fall into biting-cold Winter is my favorite season, I miss how in the States it really hit you and took hold of you. In fact, I really missed it at Georgetown because in New Jersey, since it was farther north, you would actually have it happen sooner and colder. Yeah so Fall and foliage in New Jersey: I've been missing it for 3 years so far.

At Marble Arch, we met a Georgetown friend who had come down Oxford for a 2 day stint in London. Yesterday we ate at a Lebanese restaurant on Edgeware Road. Unfortunately it was a little underwhelming (maybe the real Middle Eastern hub is right off the road?) Tonight we go again to the glorious living textbook example of perfectly competitive markets--Brick Lane.

Addendum: that same night, we decided to meet some people at a bar, fatefully named G-A-Y. So of course it turns out to be a gay bar (no! really?) So we walk in, no cover fee. So as I walk in about 4 different guys eye me. OK, this is a new experience. Then I am walking along with my friends and I feel a tugging at the sleeve of my jacket and I look and some guy smiles and winks at me. God only knows what my face looked like at that moment. So we continue wading through the throng of people and stop. We start talking and then all of a sudden, I feel someone's hand going through the hair on the back of my head and their fingers combing through my hair. Sure enough, I turn around and a guy with a red cap on is eying me and I think even beckoning me over with his hand. A really bizarre experience but a pretty funny one at that. I think they stopped because the crowd of guys figured out I didn't swing that way; besides we left after a few minutes to look for a pub. In spite of what happened, I did like the ambiance of the place and maybe I will return there another time. A friend said in retrospect I should have hit those guys up for drinks: damn, I missed out on free drinks. Maybe I will bring some friends over there and not tell them what it is mwahaha. Anyway, for the record, I'm not gay (not that that should make a difference?)

Travel and Class

I've been here for a bit, but haven't gotten outside of London yet. Not like I really need to because London really is a swinging city and there is plenty to do and see here that is worthwhile. It would be a crime if I didn't take advantage of my time here and see stuff. But I am so no worries.

I am one step closer to getting out of the city. Besides some day trips to Bath, Oxford, and Canterbury, I'm in the midst of planning to go to Praha in early December. Hopefully it will be all snowy and wintry and quaint looking. I hear the beer is cheap too.

I could mention what I have calculated is my total workload for the year: 4 problem sets each week, 2 papers total, 2 presentations total (5 minutes each, pretty much recite 2 assignments I would have done already for the class anyway) and then 4 finals. That's it. I guess finals are going to be brutal then

This was always sort of unsettling when I was learning about it at Georgetown, but is now moreso since I have been taking Econometrics and Development economics. Statistics can calculate what the expected value will be of something and how the random values will be distributed and what the probabilities are for the random values. But these statistical methods are applied ot human actions and demographics, and it seems we can predict by taking into account residuals and plotting accurate regressions, what is the primary motive or cause behind any statistical relationship. Scary thought. Really then, do we have free will? Are humans and their attributes really just mathematical formulae? Statistics seems to say we can map all of this out. Ah too bad I can't have debate with my friends from Regis on this like old times!

"I Would Walk 500 Miles..."

Does anyone else love that song by The Proclaimers? You know you love it hehe. here's a link to a late-80s guilty pleasure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZojpl-p_5A

Yeah so I got up yesterday and decided to take a walk alone. Enjoy the scene and people-watching. Also there German soccer fans in town for a game against Chelsea: by mid-afternoon they were all drunk.

So yes the walk, an epic journey. Started at High Holborn; walked down Kingsway and Aldwych to The Strand; walked down to Trafalgar Square, saw Admiralty Gate, and looked down The Mall to Buckingham palace; continued down Whitehall passing a lot of memorials, government buildings, and Downing Street; finished walking Whitehall and ended at Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster (Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Victoria Tower) quickly saw the monument to Boadicea, a British Celt Queen who led an uprising against the Roman Occupation; Walked back up to The Mall and walked through St James's Park; stopped at Buckingham Palace just as they were changing the guard and continued up through Green Park; walked through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square; passed through Soho, went up to Goodge Street, passed by the British Museum, and finished at my dorm a little over 5 hours later.

So yeah quite the walk. It was a lot of fun, just walking around myself taking in the surroundings and watching everything. Jess is really right, you get a much better feel for the city when you walk it and I have walked many of the important places. Who knows: I might know London better than DC when I come back to the states next year!

Oh, in case anyone wanted to see what I have seen, here are some Facebook albums. Knock yourself out.

http://georgetown.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084891&l=21395&id=1409498
http://georgetown.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2087376&l=768b8&id=1409498
http://georgetown.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2087385&l=b6089&id=1409498

Returning in Disgrace

I was going to write a really downtrodden sort of post, but not too downtrodden because things are great here. But isn't it wonderful when something fun and exciting happens and then you can just brush over the past? hehe I'll recap slightly only because you can get more tangential information from my friends/their blogs...if you bribe them enough...

So we went to see England lose the Rugby World Cup Saturday nigtht. To make a long story shorter, the three of us, we thought getting a 3rd pitcher might help their odds (we were already drinking two for the show). Instead, the second half of the game is a blur and I decide to help one of my friends make her way back to her dorm. We somehow manage to navigate a tube line being shut down and manage to make the detour. We eventually make it to Sidney-Webb but I am in no condition to go anywhere and so I crash for a night. As I said many times, you were too kind to let me be a vagrant. So the next day I sauntered out of the dorm, squinting as I roamed the streets for the bus stop. I can tell now Fall is coming along as the Sun was in that weird state where it is low in the sky and the shadows are long and the light is weak, yet it doesn't look like it is rising or setting or midday. So I found the bus and returned in disgrace back to High Holborn.

In better news, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonnen managed by all odds to defeat McLaren's Lewis Hamilton (sorry Britain!) and Fernando Alonso to win the Driver's Championship. Wow what a race, one to remember for the ages indeed.

So thus ends a tragic story, reported 4 days too late. Oh yeah, I felt all tense and anxious last night for no reason. Now I guess you can say that's the end to the tragi-comedy (with details edited out because, who would expect me to do that?)

Next up, funnery in Londontown!

The Plague Returns and An Unsettling Feeling...

I thought my chance encounter with sickness was singular: no, it has returned. I feel fine, it's just this little tickling cough that as you go to sleep and are just about to pass into unconsciousness gives you the tiniest cough ever, but destroys all the progress you made and makes you have to start all over again. Try that for three nights in a row until past 3AM. Ouch

I've been in all my classes and lectures and things are a little daunting. I didn't realize how much econometrics plays into 3 of my 4 courses. And in the course it doesn't I need to waste half my time, not working on my assignments, but tracking down relevant, obscure, out-of-print books from the library in order to write my little summary. Thanks professor! However, even though Development Economics requires econometrics, which I didn't realize, I really like the TA for my class. Same for Latin American Economics. Ronny (Prof Razin) leads the classes for PECO and he seems good. Dougherty is the only enigma left. Had to miss 9AM lecture because I was too tired and under the weather. At least he posts recordings of his lectures online. Can you believe it?

On an unrelated note, the quality of Subway here is significantly worse than in the States. They have a deal, where if you get the 6 inch sub of the day, it is only 2 quid. Sounds like a deal, right? Except it tastes pretty pale in comparison to the American subway, specifically the one at Georgetown. And supermarket selection is significantly worse than back home too. What do they have against easily identifying yogurt as "yogurt"? I guess there was something to be said about bad British food heh