London nightlife

Yes, I know... I mentioned that in my last blog entry was to be my last but I just couldn't resist one last entry. Just got back from the Fabric, a cool London night club with 3 dance floors, plenty of live DJ's, a great atmosphere and way too many people... I recommend this place for sure!

Earlier that day, I wrote the final exam. I needed a 20% to pass the class. I certainly don't think I'll be able to repeat the 95% I got on the mid-term but I can safely assume I had at least 60% on the final which will allow me to attend the M.Sc. program next year. After finishing the exam, I met up with Norm, a friend of Margaret's from EDC. Shalu, Sarunas, Ted and Michael joined us for lunch at the Knights of Templar Bar on Chancery Lane.

After lunch, we made a quick walk to Rosebery to change and made our way back to LSE for the leaving party. Plenty of guiness later, we came back to Rosebery before making our way to ENJOY, a great Romanian restaurant on Farrington. After supper, we went to Fabric to finish the evening.

Tomorrow morning is breakfast, packing and the goodbyes... I'll be getting on the tube prior to noon and then off to Heathrow where I'll meet up with Rob for a beer before my flight departs. I can honestly say I came to London and did everything I wanted to and met some wonderful people. All in all, a great experience I'll never forget. I'm just looking forward to continuing the adventure in October 2005...

Part 2 will resume on September 26, 2005.

Last day before final exam... and another London bomb

Today went by quite quickly with a 3-hour cramming session this morning. I think I am well prepared for the final (knock on wood) as I have attended most classes, read most of the academic books as well as understand most of the content of the course. I have some difficulty with flexible budgeting and budget variance analysis but this is not exam material so I should be fine.

Unfortunately, a second series of bombings has occurred in London (and yes mom and dad, I am fine :) ). I had a beer with Paul McNally yesterday (he was a soccer player for my Ottawa team and has since moved back to London with his wife and 2 boys). He is a police officer at the Charing Cross Police station. He was on duty when the first bombings occurred and told me a bit about his story. We concluded though that Londoners have demonstrated that they can withstand this type of terror attack as "business as usual" continues to be the norm. The attacks today will certainly not change that. LSE has confirmed that we are to have our scheduled exams tomorrow.

Well, I can't spend too much time blogging... I've got to review a few more things before tomorrow. I'll be back in Canada soon enough. As I probably will not have time to blog before I leave on Saturday, I'll leave this blog for now but I will hopefully return to share my thoughts, adventures and ideas on this forum sometime in October 2005. I'll leave you with this picture of me and Jeng, this very funny and very eccentric Chinese masters student here for the LSE summer school. This picture was taken during Marie Cristina's b-day party at the Porchetta this week.

Passed my exam... and saw another musical

I got my grade today and I can breath a sigh of relief. I only need 20% on the final exam to pass the class which means I can study a little less (and sightsee a little more).

Yesterday, we started off by going to see another musical called "We will rock you" devoted to Queen and their music. Although the story line was a little thin and the text quite corny, the music was great (and so were the singers). Also amazing was the special effect, the costumes and the ambiance. The theatre was full of Queen's fans and they sang along to all of the songs. It felt like we were at a concert. Great fun!

Today is the second last day of school although tomorrow will only have a 3-hour class session in the morning. The exam is on Friday but I am quite confident it will go well (knock on wood).

I'll keep you posted on the latest developments.

Here is a message my sister sent yesterday. For thoses who are unaware, she is working for Canada World Youth as a coordinator and is in Brazil with her group. Although it hasn't gone as seemlessly as she would have liked, she has learnt alot about soft pressure, international diplomacy, and keeping her family informed of her whereabouts :)

"Oi a familia e os amigos do Brazil!

It's been quite busy here (as always), but here are some hot Brazilian updates from this week... (hot from the press). For those who don't know- I'm here in Brazil right now taking care of 18 participants, 9 host families, 9 volunteer workplacements and for some weird reason having interviews with the media every week (cause my Portuguese is so great!) here in the south of Brazil in the small town of Santo Antonio de Patrulha. Santo Antonio is know for two things; cachasa (a strong alcool similar to rum used for a traditional drink called caiperinha) and rapadura (a desert made of sugar canes and nuts). Other claims to faim: alot of statues of Santo Antonio. If you're desperate and want to get married, all you have to do is pray to him and hope for the best. In August there will a folk music festival and a cachasa festival (what a great mix- music and booze!) The group will more than likely volunteer at this event.

Some more detailed updated...

1) It's winter here! Yes- cold... 8 degrees today (I'm wearing my newly knit scarf and need it!) But overall so far winter hasn't been too painful although I was told it was going to stay and get colder... yucky, yck!

2) Julia arrived! (my last Canadian participant) I went to pick her up at the airport and she told me she didn't have too many problems, expect in Sao Paulo where she thought she missed her next flight as she was two hours late. The group organized a little welcome party that evening at her host family's house. She seems pretty excited to be here. So far all is well with her; except the language barrier might be a little challenge for her as she can't speak English or Portuguese. But we have francophones in the group that have told me they would help her out. We gave her yesterday a personal orientation camp and a tour of the city. Today she will be starting her volunteer work placements in a kindergarden with Miquail.

3) We found all our remaining host families! Youpi! A great host family finally came up for Samoel and Julia after a call-out on a radio that I did for host families last week. We were also successful in finding a host family for Patrick and Miquail and as well the two girls staying at the church with the nuns (Lysanne and Miriam).

4) This week we are doing a work project update and I am pushing them a lot to start taking initiatives on their personal projects. Some people have a lot more to do than others at their work placement, so I am really trying to push them to start up personal projects in the community.

5) So far with Liceo, my Brazilian coworker, we have a good working relationship. I had a longer conversation with him and voiced again my concern regarding him leaving the community so much and made it clear one of us has to stay in the community at all times (and that it can't be me all the time!) So this last weekend I did go a day earlier to Porto Alegre to relax a bit and meet Julia at the airport on Sunday. It was a well deserved break! But I think this will be a subject with Liceo that will likely come up again. There's a lot of beauracracy and international diplomacy that I have to keep in mind while dealing with this issue. CWY contacted the Projeto Rondon director directly to deal wit the situation but this only caused than a lot of tension between me and the director and Liceo. But in retrospect I'm glad they did. I don't think Tides (the director) is much of a support for me or is very pro-active on issues like this and I know Canada calling him does force him to react (because otherwise I don't think he would have reacted much to my preoccupations).

And personally what have I been up to? Well not much as my time is pretty much this job 24/7 (specially since I've been working alone some of the time and doing program development work which should have been completed before our arrival). But meeting a lot of people in the process. I do have a personal project in mind- to look into a local theatre group to get involved in... I've also been doing capoeira and a lot of knitting! I'm learning all these new techniques here as a lot of the women knit (all very exciting). That's my second job on the side...

I accept gracefully any news from your end! I apologize for my gap in emails but I didn't have email access for awhile as the system went down at the secretary of education.

Hope you have a great day!

Tchau!

Beijos,

Isabelle"

On a peaceful Sunday in London

As I woke up at 11:00 pm this morning, I finished watching 24, season 4 (great ending!!!). I also needed to catch up on some reading for my class. I found a park close to the residence called St.Pancras and read 4 chapters from the book (now fully caught up). I also took a nap in the shade this afternoon beneath a 200-year old maple tree.

Things I like about Sundays in London:
1) Parks... They are a godsend
2) Harry Potter... everyone is reading it here
3) Beautiful sunny days... they are so rare (so you really appreciate them)
4) Markets... they make us feel alive

All in all, today is a great day. I just got back from my afternoon "me" time and sat down at the cafe in the residence. In a matter of minutes, Roberta, Asish, Jeng, Nina, Marco, Ted all arrived. It's great to have time for myself but it's even better to find your friends again.

It was Marie Cristina's b-day so we took her out to the Porchetta, an Italian restaurant a few yards from our residence which has become our convenient hang out place. After a few more beers and lots of laughs, we went to see the music at the market as part of today's festivities. There was a great jazz band playing. When we came back, Roberta gave Marie Cristina's b-day card. The boys played Texas No-Hold 'em poker while the girls studied... As you can see, priority isn't always school at LSE. But after spending a good 4 hours studying this afternoon, I thought I could treat myself a bit.

London Public Transport...

Well, since Marc decided to write an entry on Taiwan's public transportation, I thought it only fitting to do the same on the London transport system (btw, his blog is quite good if you wish to live vicariously through others... take a look!).

Last night, LSE organized a disco dance on a boat on the Thames. Great fun but the pier was next to London Tower close to the financial district (i.e. the area is completely dead after 9:00 PM). Only problem was the event ended past midnight which meant the Tube was not operating (it closes at midnight). We had to grab a night bus to get back (given the 1h30 walk back to Rosebery Avenue). Taking the bus in London is quite the adventure (you know, the double decker buses...). First, you need to learn how to flag one down. Putting your arm out does not stop them. You literally need to fling your body in front of the moving bus and... make sure you jump out of its way as it comes to a stop. Then, you have to figure out if you can buy the tickets inside the bus or at the bus station. Some buses will not allow you to buy them on the bus which makes the passengers life a little more difficult.

Night buses are quite interesting. They almost grind to a halt as we near piccadilly circus as we waited close to 30 minutes to traverse less than 500 yards. Fights commonly erupt on night buses (as we witnessed) and drunken behaviour is quite common (especially when returning home late).

A little about London bus etiquette:
1) ALWAYS enter the bus by the front door. DO NOT jump the queue. Show your ticket to the bus driver (or else he will literally not move until everyone does... This asshole bus driver stopped the bus in the middle of rush hour traffic until everyone had gotten out of the bus and shown their tickets... again just to make sure we had paid the fair.
2) NEVER stand on the second floor of a double-decker bus. It's unsafe, rude and worst of all, the bus driver will stop the bus until everyone is sitting.
3) When taking an older double decker bus (i.e. older than Canada), make sure you listen to the ticket attendant (older busses have a bus driver and an attendant given the bus driver needs all the attention on the bus as this pile of junk will probably breakdown if he doesn't give it his undivided attention...). Do not go upstairs to the second deck until the ticket attendant allows you too... or else, the bus will stop until you come back down.
4) Oh, and never, never, under any pretense (did I say never?) grab the entrance pole at the back of the bus. This is for the ticket attendant. Yes, the bus will stop until you stop touching the magical pole.

We took a fairly old double decker this morning and the ticket attendant was hilarious. It was like a skit out of Monty Python, everything down to the guy's bad teeth (bad breath), thick glasses, rude comments but genuine kindness. Some memorable quotes from our 30 minute ride:
"Where do you think you're going (to Latin American tourist not understanding how the bus system worked)"
"Get Down from there! Now! " (to unknowing Canadian... me... having just gone up to the second floor without his permission)
"Don't leave (pretty African women)"
"Please sit down so I can sit on your lap (pretty French women)"

And on and on. As we left, we passed buckingham palace... he looks at me and says "wave to my mommy...". Really funny stuff :)

Oh... I got to see some dinosaurs today at the Natural History Museum next to Harrod's and Hyde Park... Great stuff!

One exam written, 3 parks visited and one musical seen

I'm a little tired after an exhausting, warm day in London. Weather is hot and muggy (starting to remind me of Ottawa before I left... ironically longing for cold, wet London I discovered when I first arrived). However, it was a pretty nice day after all. Sat for my exam this morning. I remembered to bring everything... except my calculator. I had an extra hour before the exam so I started walking towards the residence to pick it up (it's a 25 minute walk back) when I made a detour and bought a new one at the stationery store (much less trouble!).

The exam was 5 question (4 mathematical and one essay question) with open book and the problems were earily similar to problems we had done in class (which I had the answers and the questions to given it was open book). I'm a little worried it was too easy (perhaps I missed something?). I am somewhat comforted this is a first-year undergrad course (and I am 26 entering a masters program). But somehow, I can't count my eggs before they hatch so I knock on wood wherever I see it... Okay, enough with the clichés for tonight.

After the exam, Ted, Sarunas, Michael and I went to a local Italian (tourist trap) restaurant between LSE and trafalgar square. London is busy with the tourist even after the bombings... Food was great although a little pricey (I had pasta and paid the equivalent for a Canadian restaurant for pasta, entrée, wine, taxes, tip and a violonist to accompany my meal... but hey, that's London!).

Michael, Ted and I wanted to go see a musical but Ted chickened out because his brother's in town so it ended up being just Michael and I. There is a half-price ticket office for musicals at the Leicester square. We got front row tickets to Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was an amazing production and a musical to lift the spirits. The actors looked like they were all on prozac (i.e. they smiled... alot) but the music was extremely catchy and the special effects really impressive. There were a lot of really funny parts. The only bad thing about the experience is that I kind of feel like I joined a cult (we were all standing, clapping our hands to the music and singing along at the end...)

Wow... I'm skipping here. Before I saw the musical, I decided to walk accross London... Yes, I am crazy. I walked to Kings Cross and made my way to Regents Park (a real jem close to London's heart). I loved the park so much, I decided to see another one in Hyde Park. For those of you who don't know London very well, Hyde Park is a very large park where large venues and concerts are often held (including the Live 8 concert on July 2nd). Park was nice but not as nice as Regents Park. I walked down Piccadilly Lane (did I mention there is a mob of tourists in London?). Cut accross Piccadilly circus (once again) and made my way up to Oxford street to finally make it back to the residence. Total distance travelled: 8-10km by foot. Total time spent: approximately 2 and a half hours. Total blisters on my feet: You don't want to know.

But the walk was so good for the soul (needed the exercise) plus I didn't get lost once, only looked at my map twice and gave directions twice to total strangers (I hope I didn't send them the wrong way) and took this cute families picture in Regent's Park... Dad thought I was going to run away with the camera. Yes, I am a true londoner with only 12 days in the city.

And the studying commences...

Yesterday was a very busy day for school. Not only did we learn the mid-term exam was still occurring on Wednesday but that most of the material we missed on Thursday would not be reviewed so upon the completion of the classes and lectures, I was busy (with many of my classmates) reading up on the missed chapters, class notes and several problems we needed to complete prior to today's review. I worked till 10:00 PM last night with my nose in several books and finally gave up for the evening.

We watched as a group Monsoon Wedding, a great Indian movie about a wedding (very funny!). It was great to get away from studying a bit. This morning, Michael (a Danish classmate) and Ted went over our results for the problems and I was pleasantly surprised by the extent of my right answers. This was reinforced by the class and the lecture as I seem to understand most of the material quite well. Given this exam is open book with students choosing 5 out of 6 questions (with 5 being mathematical and one essay question), I seem pretty confident on the outcome. Further reassurance is given that the required grade of B is a 60%-70% pass grade and an A is 70% and above. I'll still review tonight but not as hard as I originally predicted.

Okay, enough about school. It's a beautiful day outside. I think I might go and read in a nearby park. London is wonderful when it's bright, sunny and warm but I know this is quite rare...

F1 Race and a bit of soccer

Today was my sports day. I slept in till 10:30 and missed the breakfast which was unfortunate but made up for it in additional sleep. We met up with Ashish's brother, who is working at a biotech firm just outstide of London and found this quaint pub close to the angel tube station. We sat down, downed a few pints and enjoyed the British Grand Prix as Montoya took the first place.

In the evening, we found a few football players to join us for an impromptu game. We were well covered with an Italian, German, Portuguese, Mexican, 2 Canadians, 2 Lebaneses players. Lots of fun if not for a few scrapes and bruises (the surface was asphalt so I fell on my forearm and scratched myself a bit).

Life seems to be getting back to normal after the bombings. I'm getting very familiar with my neighbourhood and getting to know the shops and the streets quite well. I was asked for directions by an American tourist yesterday. I guess I'm starting to blend in :)

National Portrait Museum... and a new cell phone

Woke up a little later this morning after participating in the Crush party at the LSE last night but took advantage of the free Saturday to do a bit of sightseeing by myself. Went to see the National Portrait museum next to Trafalgar square (where the 2012 London celebrations were held). The museum was incredible with portraits of all the Kings and Queens over the last 6 centuries along with interesting portraits of who's who in Britain.

After touring a bit of Piccadilly circus and longing around in Leicester square as this was the most beautiful day in London since I arrived, I decided to visit a Virgin Mobile shop to compare the prices they have with Orange.

Although more expensive than conventional plans in Canada, the system is quite well designed and I was able to buy a new cell phone which works on triband (the same technology Fido and AT&T use in Canada). My phone is nice, easy to use and small. Best of all, it only cost me 15 pounds (about 35 CAD). Plus, after I top off my phone with 30 pounds of air time, I get to unlock the cell and use any network I want to but Virgin is by far the cheapest one even if its coverage isn't as great as the others.

After coming back to the residence, I am joining Ted, Ashish, Marco and Chady (another lebanese student) for drinks somewhere in downtown London... Tomorrow, we are going to watch the F1 British Grand Prix in a local pub... Couldn't afford the 400 pound entrance fee.

Frida Kahlo at the Tate Modern

Given classes were cancelled until Monday, we decided to take full advantage of our extra day in light of the terrible events of yesterday. We walk down Farrington Road and crossed to the Tate Modern museum to view the special exhibition of Frida Kahlo. In 2002, I had the opportunity to see the movie Frida, starring Salma Hayek. This movie outlined the major events of this incredible woman's life as well as some of her inspiration for her works. She has the incredible ability to show her feelings and unhappiness through painting.

We took the opportunity to visit the rest of the museum after seeing Frida and saw works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Monet and many contemporary artists. I was impressed by the building, the layout and its wonderful location. A truly enriching experience! Best of all, the Tate is free (except for special exhibitions!).

But all fun and no work doesn't help me get my grade. I'll study for the next few hours and try to catch up on my reading. The terrible events of yesterday seem a world away as London has once again returned to normal (although the scene of police officers walking about has intensified).

Safe in London

11:oo AM update... The explosions in London have certainly shaken my belief that I am safe here but everything is fine. I'll be walking (and not taken public transportation) for the remainder of my stay. For more info, visit CBC's website.

1:00 PM update... We've been asked to remain in the residence. We are glued to the television and are tuning into the BBC news. Information is a bit confused but one things remains certain. There were 7 bombs, mostly in the underground network. Also, there were numerous fatalities with at least 2 dead and more to be confirmed. LSE and the residence have been extremely well organized with a well-prepared plan for terrorist attacks. London Emergency Services appears to be very well organized and certainly were well prepared for an attack.


7:00 PM updated... After the attacks, Ted, Nina, Marko and I decided it best to get some fresh air. We went for pizza and for a casual walk in our neighbourhood. We discovered this beautiful river running very close to our residence. We also found a convenient cafe where we had an espresso. Now, back at the residence, class is cancelled for tomorrow but will resume on Monday (so I have a long weekend). I will probably catch up on my reading tomorrow.

11:30 PM update... 37 dead and 700 injured. I believe the death toll will probably rise to 100 before this is over. For more information, visit the BBC website.

London 2012

Given my mom's curiousity about my course, I thought I'd drop a few observations about the Management Accounting course I am attending at the LSE.

1) The prof is quite nice but has a tendency to speak very softly (there are over 100 students in the class).
2) He tends to deviate from the Management Accounting course to talk about strategic marketing and management subjects along with the history of accounting although this could all be a very long introduction into the subject at hand
3) Up till now, I have learnt all of this in previous classes so I don't feel swamped and can follow quite well

All in all, I am impressed with the class and I have learnt some new information.

Now to the fun stuff. After class, Ashish, Ted, Nina, Marko, Sharonas and I went sight-seeing. We heard London had won the 2012 olympics but celebrations were nowhere to be found (Londoners are a very quiet bunch!). We thought Trafalgar square would be a great place to see some very happy Londoners so we walked past the BBC and made our way to the Thames.

We then crossed the millenium bridge, past the London EYE and then accross the Westminster bridge.

Nothing was going on at the Parliament buildings other than an anti-Irak protest, so we made our way through Westminster Abbey, through St.James Park and the minister of foreign affairs, passed Downing Street. Unfortunately, Tony Blair was not celebrating in front of his residence so we decided to walk to Trafalgar square only to find the city staff cleaning up the big mess in front of the Natural Gallery. Plenty of other tourists were also looking for the happy Londoners nowhere to be found.

We then thought they might be eating and drinking at Leicester Square. No happy londoners celebrating yet. Perhaps they were hiding at the New World Chinese restaurant? Why not grab a bite while we were there... We had one last hope... Perhaps they were buying books, CD's and DVD's at the Borders Shop on Oxford so we made our way there only to find out that Borders had a very good sale on books, CD's and DVD's.

By this time, it was late and we were all tired so we decided to call it a night and look for the Happy Londoners tomorrow. Anyway, we have until 2012 to find them :)

Politics of Happiness

Just came back to residence after drinking a few pints at a local pub. We just attended an excellent debate on the politics of happiness. In one corner, Professor Lord Layard, a professor at LSE who just finished writing on a book on the subject, and in the other, Dr. Raj Persaud, a psychiatrist who specializes in mental illness at the University of London's king college.

Professor Layard presented his case that the state should be concentrating some efforts on the unhappiest members in its society in order to encourage better social cohesion, better quality of life and a better general society by intervening in 4 key areas.
1) The state should substantially increase the funding for treating and preventing mental illness which often leads to debilatating depression;
2) It should also cut back on the unemployment benefits with no strings attached. This ensures complacency in the unemployed. Being unemployed, even with good state benefits, brings unhappiness. The state should ensure the proper job training is available so unemployed workers can gain the tools to find work rapidly. It should also provide unemployment benefits with strings attached so that the unemployed make a concerted effort in finding employment;
3) The state should change the state education system based on student overachieving compared to other students. This brings a zero sum game into being. Within this context, an emotional intelligence curriculum should be taught to give students the ability to learn the values necessary to be happy which are community involvement, trusting your neighbour and helping them;
4) State should put limits on the level of consumer marketing to control the debilating effects of desire for products and services which often leading to unrealistic expectations of ourselves.

Dr. Raj Persaud was a bit more pessimistics making a point that happiness is not a solution by itself. He described that happiness exists on two levels. Level 1 happiness is very ephemeral and is obtained through short-term happy moments such as a good meal, a good glass of wine (you can think of other examples by yourself :)... This level of happiness is intense but usually lasts for less than 15 minutes. Level 2 is much deeper happiness. It is much less intense but is related to our general well-being. However, Dr. Persaud make a strong case that happiness is not necessarily a panacea for our society.

Dr. Persaud also demonstrated that external people, people who blames others and institutions for their misfortunes leading to unhappiness are often more likely to be happy. Internalized people who take on the true responsibility of their actions (even when some of their misfortunes are not directly related to their actions and some blame should be placed on external events) are often unhappy. Internalized people are very often intellectuals leading society in thought and change and innovation.

My thoughts on the subject? To be happy, I think individuals have to take control of their lives and state intervention cannot solve this dilemma by itself. I also think people need to concentrate their efforts in 3 key areas:

1) That one needs to feel their job and work is both valued and important to society
2) That one needs to contribute their time to a worthy cause to a community they feel they belong to
3) That one needs to develops strong bonds within their family, friends, lover.

Ted, my lebanese friend at the LSE, made a very good point as well. For those that live an enlightened life, it is very difficult to live a happy life as being aware of your surroundings often leads to realizing that we are not able to influence our environment which is a quality of an internalized person. This will ultimately lead to discontent. But this might be the point because internalized people often lead changes and innovation, necessary for a fully functioning society which changes. So a certain level of unhappiness in our society actually is healthy and necessary for our own evolution.

If everyone was happy, why would we need to change anything? Dr. Persaud made a very convincing case by quoting Brave New World when the Savage (John) said he wished to remain unhappy even though everyone else was happy (their emotions controlled by genetics and drugs keeping social order in perfect harmony). Unhappiness and discontent bring a call for improvements and a call for continued evolution in our civilization. This in fact brings new trends in art, science, medicine and every field.

And the debate goes on... What do you think?

London in the rain

My first day at the LSE summer school strangely resembled my first day in university. All these new faces, these excited smiles but also this nervouness as to where to go, what to do and who to say hi to. However, everything was EXTREMELY well organized with plenty of staff on hand to show us where to go and smiles on their faces as they greeted new students. LSE has very capable employees who make it their duty to make the student feel like they are very important persons. A very different way of treating students :) We then had a 30 minute presentation by some of the support staff. The only presentation I truly remember was by the security manager who was very funny and gave us a running gag for the remaining 3 weeks. LSE is safe but not secure (as we can be pickpocketed or our material / laptops stolen).

I had a chance to visit the library which is very big (so big in fact that they have an audioguide of 20 minutes to help us find our way along the massive historical and contemporary works they have stored there).

As my classes have really not started yet, I had a chance to visit a few things this morning. I also slept in till 8:30 AM (wow!!!). I got to visit the British Museum but visit is a strong word as I only spent about an hour in the actual museum. There is SO much to see and I just wanted to get a glimpse of the actual site. It's about 10 minutes walking distance from the residence so I'll probably pop in there on my way to classes or back. I'll try to do a few rooms every few days. It's free and very informative (great panels explaining many parts of our human history).

I wanted to visit the top 2 residences I had applied to... Ironically, they are approximately 200 metres apart and very well situated (about 15 minutes walk from LSE and 5 minutes walk from the Sainsbury grocery store). However, the similarities stop there. I first visited the International Hall. A very modern looking, clean, and well lit and secured building. It looked more like a very beautiful business building rather than a residence. I was greeted by Ellen, one of the employees who made it a pleasure of hers to show me around the residence. She told me the breakdown on international / British students was 50/50 and that she had stayed here the previous year and really enjoyed the fun and international atmosphere. The breakfast and supper is included in the residence fees during the week and the breakfast, lunch and supper is included on the weekends. Room is a regular size (not too small but not too big) and has been recently renovated. We are a stones throw away from a very nice park.

Goodenough lives up to its reputation as the building is absolutely beautiful with hardwood all over the inside and a large courtyard in the middle of the building where one can play football or bask in the sun. However, they were not very helpful as they did not wish to show me the rooms or the areas around the grounds. It really felt like an older type mentality. Very interesting contrast with the open, tolerant and friendly atmosphere I detected at the International Hall.

Which ever one accepts me, they both have their pros and cons although I am now leaning towards the International Hall rather the Goodenough. Strange? I'm very happy to have visited them before as this will probably influence my decision somewhat.

Tonight, I will be meeting up with Ted (from Lebanon), Nina (from Russia), Marko (from Germany) and yes, another Canadian, Ash from Toronto. We are going to see a very interesting conference called "The politics of Happiness". I'll let you know all about it in a future blog...

Would anyone like a cup of tea?

Phew... Just caught my breath... This is the first time I have a bit of time to write a few words.

The past 72 hours have been a little too busy (even for me). I attended a wedding in Toronto (Alice and Ben just got married... http://marryingsoon.diaryland.com/). Then, I came back to Ottawa to greet Gary and Stephanie (getting married in August), Sylvie, Sam, Franky T and Lucille in Ottawa for Canada Day celebrations. We had a busy July 2nd with coffee at the French Baker, tea and lunch at the Chateau Laurier, BBQ at Saeed's... Well, I had to leave at this point so I didn't get to have BBQ at Saeed's but I heard it was quite a bit of fun :)

Took the plane to Montreal, waited a couple of hours (and got to see the fireworks display from the airport) and then I was off to London. I got off the plane exhausted but finally decided to take the tube down to the Rosebery Avenue residence (as opposed to taking the heathrow express train). Everything went well until I got out of the Angel station and walked the wrong way. Luckily, Londoners are very friendly and once I asked someone, they helped me out immediately.

Last night, there was a getting to know the students party and I met many fellow students from around Europe (met folks from Russia, Mexico, Italy, Lebanon, France, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Kenya, USA) ... And then I got a good nights sleep :)

I've got to print out some LSE forms at this point. So, I'll end my blog on this note.