Departmental Induction

Coldplay is playing while I'm sitting at the Tipsy Beaver bar at the Rosebery Avenue bar nursing a cold. Thank god for Wifi access! Just came back from my first day of official business at LSE, the departmental induction ceremony... It started at 10:00 this morning and ended at at 4:00 PM this evening. Even though the actual presentations were quite long, I did learn quite a bit about my program... Next week is career fair along with a million other things (There are over 100 societies at LSE and they all seem to have their annual general meeting the same day). Add the sports tryouts for football (european, that is) and the 9-day straight crash course in mathematics, statistics and quantitive analysis, add a little apartment hunting and you have a busy Serge... But not too busy to respond to e-mails or compile my blog because that is time well wasted! Listen, I've cut TV out of my life, I can have my little vices :)

I decided to try to complete a research paper on ethical investing or microcredit instead of one of my courses... I must admit, I have a hidden agenda in all of this... First of all, I get to skip two 100% exams in the summer term (a bonus in itself) and I get to write a research paper which should help me with post-graduate school if I so choose to go that route...

Problem is I need to find a professor at LSE willing to help me with this... Easier said than done... If you follow the core courses, no problem (because there is no requirement from the professors) but as soon as you deviate from the core courses, you are on your own... I will try to call a few of them tomorrow to book appointments to discuss my research proposal and see if anyone is willing to give me a chance. There are 3 members of the faculty involved in corporate social responsibility, ethical accounting and social accounting...

On that note, I have to get up early to view yet another apartment so I should probably go to bed in order to get a good nights rest.

Auberge Espagnol

I arrived with Latitia at the location next to Piccadilly Circus yesterday, only to find 15 other students also waiting. The 3 current tenants wanted to really use pressure tactics to have us sign-up for this flat... Unfortunately, 165 pounds a week is a tad bit out of my price range (even though it is relatively close to LSE).

Tonight, I will be visiting a place about 5km north of LSE, just above Regents Park which appears quite nice (very nice neighbourhood)... It's a bit pricey at 130 pounds a week but the location is great, and I get to go running fairly easily. The area is also well serviced by bus so I could get down to LSE in less than 20 minutes. Only issue is that the room is quite small (or so they say) but the kitchen and living area is absolutely wonderful (or so they say). More to follow on the crazy adventures of Serge finding a place in London...

Finding a place in London

After staying overnight in Leytonstone in East London at Latitia, a friend of Jessica's, I was able to finally meet up with Tom for a coffee to discuss living arrangements... It became quite clear that he wanted to live by himself, had already secured a studio apartment and was very tired of looking for a place... This left me looking for a spot for Andy and me.

I discovered a few things about looking for a spot in London:
1) Most places are let-out by agents, often making commissions on showing you spots (they charge the tenants 60 pounds for viewing). As this goes against my principles, I will refrain from going that route.
2) Private dwellings are easier to find but often come with strings attached (like you have to babysit their children as my friend Shirley from China discovered when she moved in with a family)
3) Flatsharing appears to be the best course of action, living with strangers, but they make it very difficult to rent out 2 rooms (usually, they are looking for one flatmate only).

All this makes the search a tad bit difficult... I went to Nottinghill to visit an agent and was very disappointed with the outcome. I am viewing an apartment tonight next to Piccadilly circus but way out of my price range (160 pounds a week plus 20 pounds per week utilities)... In CAD terms, that $1700 a month! So the apartment searching has resulted in me feeling a bit down today but tomorrow is a new day and I hope to get cracking sooner in the morning.

I just hope to find something by the end of the week or before class starts... My father called me this morning which really hit the spot... I needed the familiar voice of a friend and it really helped.

Keeping my spirits up, after viewing the apartment, Latitia and I will be going to Brick Lane for some curry... I love Indian food!

Watching football in Virginia Water FC

As my plane touched down on the Heathrow tarmat, I had a strange sensation that this was the beginning of my adventures in London. It began like it ended this summer... with a bit of drizzle. Having left Ottawa on a beautiful autumn day with beautiful company, it seemed only fitting that I arrive in the rain. It did represent my mood, and I was so exhausted at the end of the trip.

I decided to drop off my large suitcase at the Heathrow airport left luggage. Although, the UK is quite different from Canada in many ways, I knew what to expect this time around. Lots of people, very small places, everyone in a rush...

After that, I had to find my way to Rob's (he lives in Woking, UK... Where is Woking, you might ask? Good question! It's a suburd of London, about 45 minute train ride out from central London and 55 minutes from Heathrow by bus. Arrived around noon, just in time to drop my things off at his place and drive to the Virginia Water FC to watch the Brooklyns old boys season opener.

Rob and Rob's coach, Gaz, even allowed me to sit in on the pep talk at the beginning. The English sure love their football! The game was quite civil until a fight broke out towards the end... but all in good fun. And we witnessed typical English weather with excellent sun (took a nap under the sun), then drizzle (thankfully brought my raincoat to the field), the sun again, then drizzle.

So, let's recap:
1) Busy Heathrow Airport
2) Suburb of London visited
3) Watched English Football at a community level
4) Witnessed typical weather

I'm slowly losing counsciousness as I writtttttttttting these linessssss.... Sorry, I just dosed off on the keyboard... More to follow tomorrow :)