SergeInTheUK

New Blog for Life in Toronto

2006-08-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

I now have a new blog for life in Toronto starting next week. Check it out!

Back in Canada... With my luggage

2006-07-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Although Air Canada lost my luggage, they dropped it off this morning. Click on the country names to see pictures of my trip: Ireland, Germany, Russia, Romania and Spain

T - 1 (one day left in Europe)

2006-07-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I just arrived in London, UK with the air hot and humid and dark storm clouds looming overhead. As I went through the passport check, I felt like a regular having seen this exact spot several times. I also felt a pang of relief at being able to speak English. Although the past 2 weeks in Spain were great and I learnt a lot, I realize there is significant comfort in being to express oneself in your native language (of which I luckely have two).

Pictured on the side is the "crew", Myself, Ana (Russian-Italian), Flavia (Brazilian) and Scott (another Canadian from Vancouver) whom I spent most of my first and second week with, learning the language in broken phrases but improving nevertheless and gaining confidence.

I am typing this blog with a bit of nostalgy. I realize that my LSE days are coming to an end. I think about all the amazing things that have happened over the course of the last 10 months. Starting school again at one of the worlds most prestigious learning institutions; travelling in the UK, Czech Republic, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Russia and Romania; spending so much time with (and without) the love of my life; going through surgeries, travels in Southern Ontario and discovering a new language (Spanish); rekindling friendships in Ottawa and discovering that home is where friends live; passing my Masters with a merit and preparing to start another one in Toronto (including finding a place to live). Yes, the last 10 months were quite eventful and I was bleshed to spend it with great friends and family (my mother, aunt, sister and cousin were all guests of mine while I was in London).

All good things must come to an end. But new adventures beckon and I'm certain that living in Toronto will bring its share of exciting and new discoveries. First, I have to enjoy my summer with 2 invitations to weddings along with 10 days with Jessica in my home province of Nova Scotia and a trip to see my family in Val Morins, Quebec.

So, I end this blog (and sergeintheuk.blogspot.com) with a philosophical quote from my dad: "Happiness is never a destination. Happiness is the way you travel through life". May all your travels be blessed.

Mi primera semana in espana...

2006-07-14T04:28:00.000-07:00

Well, my first week of class is done and although I started pretty badly (it was a rough first day), my Spanish boot camp is starting to pay off a bit. Everything gets a little better although I'm sure I could be learning more. But I have to treat myself and will go to the beach this afternoon (not a cloud in the sky... which you probably think happens all the time here but not so... It has been cloudy all week).

So, what the heck am I doing with myself in Bilbao, you may be asking yourself (or not)? Well, once I arrived after my 2-day marathon travelling, my body just wanted to die so the 7 hours of sleep on Sunday night did almost nothing in denting my fatigue. So, after my first day of classes, I almost went straight to bed (although I had to wait until 9:30 PM as my family eats at that time of the night... Spanish people eat breakfast at 8:00 AM, lunch at 2:30 PM and supper at 9:30 PM... They don't seem to snack but I seem to have gotten used to the routine!).

Following that, Tuesday was spent immersing myself in my books and trying to learn as much vocabulary as possible (it's incredible how many words you need to know to express even the simplest ideas!). I also had to work on my verb tenses. It seems that spaniards use the Passé Simple in Spanish almost all the time (while we never use it). So I need to know the equivalent Spanish verb tense for Passé Composé, Passé Simple and Imparfait... And when to use them! Not easy... Not easy at all, especially when you want to express yourself quickly. But I am learning slowly the verbs, the conjugacions and the vocabulary.

Yesterday, I went to eat with Scott, another Canadian at the school from Vancouver (about to start his Ph.D in meteorology) and Ana, a Russian-Italian living in Scotland and studying psychology with a minor in Spanish (wow... that took me a little while to understand this in Spanish!). We ate at a Japanese restaurant (yes, I know... a bit strange given we are in Spain). But the sushi was great! Me gusto mucho (I liked it very much!).

Bueno... This weekend, I will be going to San Sebastien on Saturday and simply relaxing and spending time at the beach on Sunday... I should check the weather forecast... Stay tuned for my last entry coming up! Yes, my year in Europe is almost over (8 days until I return to Canada...)

Crazy travel day part II

2006-07-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

6:50 AM, July 9th: Over the past 24 hours, I've taken a 5 and a half hour train from Brasov to Cluj, and used a minibus from Cluj to Budapest Airport (8 hours) and I am about to take a 3 hour flight to London. As I sit on a bench outside the terminal 2A building, watching the sun rise, I realize what a crazy ride this has been already. First, the train ride with mama, papa, kid #1, kid #2, uncle and grandma invading my 6-seat compartment (you do the math). But the typical Romanian is all smiles and giggles except for the occasional temper-tantrum by kid # 2, followed by a good old-fashion beating to shut the kid up but I did notice him being violent with his brother, mama and papa... ummm, No comment.

Then, minibus adventure. Sitting next to a Moroccan student studying in Cluj and not speaking a word of Romanian... Huh? He explains that Romania is where you come if you can't make it into schools in your own country. Redefining last chance university. What's scary is that lots of students come and get medical degrees in Romania (without speaking a word of Romanian). Mental note: advise citizenship and immigration Canada to crack down on Romanian doctor applications. This would explain the incorrect prescription given to me while in Romania four years ago.

Next adventure: the border crossing! An entire Moldavian village (not kidding) decided they would work clandestinely in Europe. But first, they need to pass the border. Realizing they will get stopped in their three minivans caravan, they decide to make deals for empty seats in our tourist bus. This is where we come in. Without fear of the long prison sentence if caught, our bus driver decides to make a few quick bucks. It gets surreal when just before we pass the border, the bus driver turns around and says we all were picked up in Cluj... got it! While he smokes his cigarettes nerviously. ALl ends up going well though as the under-paid border officials wave us through. We stop at the nearest pit stop and exchange our human cargo. The 3 minivan caravan is back together and a small drinking and dancing party starts in the parking lot. I didn't want to spoil their fun by asking who was the designated driver. Hungarian border officials should really put up security cameras in this spot as this must happen pretty often. On the road again, and our driver realizes that he lost time with his profiteering venture. He decides to see if he can make up the time by trying to break the sound barrier on land with a 5-tonne minibus. My ears do pop a few times but unsure if he actually succeeded. We did arrive 5-minutes before our scheduled arrival time which makes the average speed... well, don't want to scare mom.

12:55 (greenwich time): After circulating (0r hovering) over London for more than 20 minutes, I realize now that Heathrow is one of the busiest hubs at busiest time of the year: summer. It doesn't chagne the fact that London is cloudy, windy and relatively cool. I also realize Heathrow is one of the most badly designed airports I've been too. They seem to have added blocks when traffic increased without any concern for the whole. But I'm here, as I frantically try to find Internet access to see if I've received any messages from Instituto Hemingway or more importantly from Jessica. Good news: message from Jessica about her fun adventures at the Bluesfest! I frantically type a message back to her to let her know I'm okay but the public Internet keyboard makes this very difficult. My time runs out before I can write anything meaningful but I have a feeling she'll understand.

Top 10 reasons to visit Romania

2006-07-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

10. Border crossings! Always fun! You never know what might happen. This time, our bus driver decided to make some extra cash by smuggling 5 Moldavian woman accross the border. So exciting!
9. A series of adventures (or misadventures). Signs are sometimes non-existent or difficult to understand so you have to always have your thinking cap on.
8. Romanian culture: both vibrant, colourful and full of life. Not to mention the food
7. Quirky, medieval towns with their many hidden passage ways
6. Prices - everything is cheaper than in Canada and Western Europe. A beer and pizza combo will cost you less than C$5
5. The castles or fortitied churches in almost every town (and sometimes villages)
4. Optimism about the future. Everywhere, there are signs of change, often positive.
3. Romanian landscapes: straight out of the 16th century, along with horse and buggy
2. Tuica (plum brandy), Romanian beer and Romanian wine.
1. The people are amazing, generous and resourceful (especially Dana, Ioana and Florin... Thanks for making my stay so enjoyable!)

Looking out unto the Romanian landscape

2006-07-06T04:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's day 5 in Romania although it sometimes feels like I just got here. I arrived in Cluj and spent the first night on the couch in Ioana's apartment which is amazing. She just spent a small Romanian fortune in renovating it and it shows. Everything is new, functional and stress-free. The next day was spent sleeping in and viewing the photos from Florin and Ioana's trip to Tunisia which reminded me of the trip Jessica and I took to North Africa. We then had lunch at her families and I met Uyusay and her sister Neli. I also saw her parents again. We had typical Romanian dishes which was very nice (and heartwarming). We then visited part of the city centre together with Florin and Ioana but Ioana still had a sore stomach from a food poisoning event last week. Unfortunately, it got worse at night and she had to go to the hospital although she felt better the following day (and even better the next day)

I also got to eat and spend some time with my Romanian teacher Dana Oltean. She even gave me a free Spanish lesson which made me realize who unprepared I am for the two-week course I am about to embark upon but best to just to do it and think later :)

I took a train from Cluj to Sighisoara on the 5th of July and realized what a lovely and natural country this is. It was so beautiful and so mountainous. As we passed through the villages, I realized not much has changed for the people here in more than 3 centuries (other than cars and trains). They still cut the grass the same way as their ancestors do and tend to their gardens the old fashion way. It was like looking back in time... Sighisoara has a right to be a UNESCO world heritage site. It is beautiful, untouched and peaceful. I was able to reflect many things atop the hills surrounding the town. I am now back in Brasov, enjoying this medieval town and relishing in its simplistic beauty. I hope to visit Bram castle tomorrow as well as Rasnov and maybe Peles castle if I have time (but I realize that things often take longer than expected here so I won't be disappointed if I can't do it all). Then back to Cluj and off to Budapest for the last leg of my trip: Learning Spanish in Bilbao.

From Russia with love...

2006-07-03T00:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I was half expecting to see cement blocks and babuska's begging for money when I arrived in Moscow but I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. A modern, post-communism and not-so rampant capitalism has replaced the old soviet system... but not without its hiccups as my previous blog entries will attest.

Nina and her family were perfect hosts making me feel right at home and part of the family. Their generosity and warm welcome made my stay in Russia so enjoyable and I got to discover interesting aspects of current and past life in Russia (not to mention Russian beers and food!). Nina was an amazing guide showing me the best sights and part of her life here in Moscow. I got to meet some of her friends and discover Russian-style Opera (we saw Don Juan), as well as many great restaurants serving old-style soviet dishes (along with soviet music... very happy stuff!) as well as fares from some of the CIS-countries. I will have fond memories of the interesting and amusing sights in Russia and I recommend anyone to visit this part of the world... but bring patience and a sense of humour along. They always help to get you through the bureaucratic and sometimes bizarre steps in getting through the border and police controls.

Travelling day from hell...

2006-07-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

I arrived safe and sound in Romania (but not without problems). On June 30th, I went to visit the Red Square by myself and as I was walking (purposefully and without a camera around the square), a police officer stopped me for no apparent reason. This is a well-known tourist scam where a police officer checks your passport and tries to find irregularities in order to extract a bribe to supplement his meagre wages. Although totally illegal, it usually works. It goes a little something like this:
"Passaporte, spasiba"
"What for?"
"You speak English?"
"Da... Yes"
"Passport, please"
"Ah, your passport misses stamp. You need stamp from Moscow police if stay for more than 3 days..."
"Oh, I wasn't aware. I have the stamp from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Russia and the entry stamp? That isn't enough?"
"No, need more stamps. See (shows me a crumpled piece of paper with illegible English regulation). You need stamp if stay in Russia more than 3 days"
"When you leave?"
"I wasn't aware I needed more stamps. Where can I get the stamp?"
"When you leave?" They ask this because they want to pressure you by telling you that the police station is far and that you won't have time to get the stamp but that he can issue you one on the spot for a "fee".
"Do you have a badge?"
He shows me his badge. I note that ID number 148553. So, this is Mr. 148553.
"When you leave?"
"Where is the police station?"
"One moment" He calls somewhat on his walkie-talkie while holding my passport.
"You want to go to the police station?"
"Sure, why don't we go together, you and me?"
"You French citizen?"
"No, from Canada"
"Okay, go"... He gives me my passport. Scam doesn't work... I get off scot-free.

I told Nina's mom about it and she said she remembered there was a rule in Russia that I needed a stamp from a hotel to get out so we contacted the agency that gave us the original stamp. It was all very complicated (as is often the case inRussia) and we needed to wait for an hour for the processing of thestamp. Finally, we received it and I had to pay $60 for it (call it an exit visa!).

However, when I arrived at the airport in Shemerodov the next day, I discovered that it wouldn't be so easy. First, we had to go through a queue to check our baggages at the entrance of the airport (I imagine this is to find Chechen rebels wanting to blow up tourists leaving Russia?). Then, I needed to lineup to get to my gate for registering (another security check-point). I waited in line while Russians cut in at all points of the line. But I was patient. When I finally arrived and got my luggage checked, a security guard stopped me and asked me for which flight. I told him that I was going to Budapest and he told me that the check-in only starts at 12:00 (it was 11:30). So I had to leave the secure area. I waited for 30 minutes and then got in the queue again only to see it had doubled in size since the last time I had gone.

At 13:00, I was able to check my luggage again. This time, the security let me go to the registration desk. Upon arrival to the registration desk, there was also a queue but not very long. At13:10, I was served and showed my electronic ticket. The Russian woman looked at me blankly and asked me where my ticket was. I told her that my travel agency had issued this electronic ticket and assured me this was enough. She said that she could not do anything and that I needed to go to the ticket desk to get my ticket issued...which was outside the security area... grrrrrr! Okay, back out again. To the ticket issuing desk of aeroflot. At 13:15 (my flight leaves at 14:15), I was able to talk to the ticket agent. He looked at my electronic ticket and said:"yes, you have a reservation". Thanks! I knew that but I want my ticket (I thought). But he replied that I had not paidf or my ticket (but I had I said!). He stoically looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. I said how much? He said 9400 roubles(that's about $400). I said ok (what was I to do... My visa expired the next day... I decided I had more chances of getting my money back from Travel Cuts that this Russian bureaucrat, and I just wanted to get out of Russia at this point).

So, he issued the ticket. Now, it was 13:20. I ran back to the secure area and made like a Russian. Looking straight ahead, without making eye contact, I slipt through the line and made my the way to the front of the line (which was now even longer). No one even said a word (I was now somewhat Russian). I then went to the check-in. Then went to the check counter and was able to get rid of my bags…Ouf! Wait, there is a 100 person line for the passport check! Shit! I ran to the line and waited patiently as time flickered away. The line was slowly moving ahead. Wait, a whole Russian family of 7 make their way past everyone in the line… grrrr! And another 7 person family tried to cut in front of me... but I managed to hide inside their group and made my way through the line (which sped up the process significantly... you can cut in front of foreigners but don't try your luck with locals!).

Finally, I made it to the passport check and all was clear so this was very good! Unfortunately, I only had 30 minutes to make in it my gate... And guess what! There was another line to enter the gates 6-8... double grrr! This one only took 15 minutes to get in. So I made it 15 minutes before my flight and they had just started to board it. Finally made it through and took a seat. I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, I arrived in Budapest and everything went like clock-work... I had entered the European Union :) I waited for my bus driver... and waited and waited. Finally, it was 4:30 (30 minutes after he should have arrived and 30 minutes before our scheduled departure). So I called him on my mobile only to find out he couldn't speak English or French (only Romanian). But at least I talked to him... Then my phonecard was emptied... grrrr... So I went to a pay phone and phoned him again. I was able to talk to him a bit more and he told me he would be there in "cinch minuti" which meant 5 minutes. He arrived 20 minutes later. But I had been found. He went scurrying to find the other passengers so instead of leaving at 5:00 PM, we actually left at 6:00 PM which was fine in the grand scheme of things.

The drive was fine (we were 10 in the minibus) but when we arrived atthe Romanian border, the driver realized he had not renewed his papers for the car! Grrrr.... So we had to wait 20 minutes while the driver negotiated a "facilitation fee" with the border guards. After much haggling for a "fine", a price was settled and we made it through the border. We were in Romania around 11:00 PM but we still had 150km to do in treacherous road conditions. We finally arrived in Cluj around 2:15 AM. Ioana and Florin came to pick me up and my horrible travelling day came to an end (20 hours later).

It's 10:00 PM and I'm in St.Peterburg

2006-06-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

I have decided to make an anachronical entry into my blog. I should start by talking about my time in Moscow but given I will be experiencing more of that city tomorrow, I thought it best to stop with St. Petersburg first.

I took a night train from Moscow to St.Petersburg tonight (and I am taking another one tonight to get back) and was pleasantly amused by the comfort and great sleep (albeit it short) I received from sleeping on the train. Upon my arrival in St. Petersburg, I discovered I made two vital mistakes... I hadn't prepared for cold or rain (given it was blazing hot and humid and sunny in Moscow) and I wasn't prepared for the cyrillic alphabet or speaking Russian. But resourceful as I sometimes am, I percevered (although a bit cold) and saw St. Petersburg in all its splendour (and lower points).

First off... breakfast with coffee... I needed that... Okay, next, a trip to L'hermitage. Although there usually is a long queue to get in, I discovered that if I acted like the Russians (and skipped in front of the line) while pushing my way to the ticket booth, I got my tickets quicker and got lots of respect from the ticket booth attendant (and some surly looks from the Japanese tourists but hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em). Pleasant discovery: if you are a student, you get in for free at L'hermitage! Okay, you are wondering what l'hermitage is. Well, apart from being an amazing architectural masterpiece where the kings and queens of Russia poured fortunes (and many Russian lives) into the construction of this palace within the city, it also contains one of the most exquisite European arts collection with plenty of Picasso's and Riopelle's to pass around. After an amazing morning viewing these pieces, I took a walk over the Neva river (brrr.... Cold wind from the Finish sea.... brrrr) and visited Peter's fortress which was to be used to defend Russia against the Swedes but never actually got used (other than emprisonning political prisoners during the Bolsevik revolution). Back to l'Hermitage and off to find lunch... Cafeteria? Why not?

Well, I was not very well received... English is not liked in some parts of Russia... Or maybe they thought I was American? I got my food (and I didn't see any spit in it). Then off to Petrodvorets, Peters palace away from the city. Only problem is its 29 km away from the city centre. Lonely planet talks about this nice double decker bus you can catch from in front of the Baltic Station. Well, lonely planet dates back to 2002. After 15 minutes of frantically trying to find the stop, I asked one of the security guards to help me out. Although he didn't speak English, he understand what I wanted to do. He walked in front of the station and pointed to this yellow minibus... I asked: "Petrodvorets?"... He said "Petrodvorets". Okay, so I get in, I ask the bus driver the same thing... He says "da". Okay, good. I ask how much. In broken English, he says: "three". Three roubles? Can't be... 3 USD? Maybe. Well, I figured out it was 30 roubles, about 1.50 CAD. Ok, not bad. So I join the ride. But how will I know when to get off? As we drive around in the minibus, we start carrying more and more people. Soon, there are people standing in the minibus. It's been around 50 minutes drive... Yikes. Did I miss it? I ask the old man sitting next to me: "Petrodvorets?". He says "da". Okay, good. 2 minutes later, he points and says: "Petrodvorets". Bus driver stops, looks at me and I say "spasiba" which is thank-you in Russia.

As I stare in total amazement at the gardens of Petrodvorets which puts the Versaille gardens to shame, I start to wonder... How the heck am I going to get back to the city in time to catch my night train? hmmmm.... After spending some quality time in the Garden, I head back to the main road... There is a bus stop, good... But all the bus stops are in Cyrillic letters... not so good. I ask the first bus that comes along: "metro?" (thinking that I can find my way once I hit the subway map). He looks at me incrudely: "da" as if of course. Okay, good. I take out some roubles to pay... He starts yelling at me... I think he wants me to pay later. Okay, I go sit down. I see he has the same conversation again with the next person. He seems to be the only bus driver that wants to get paid when you leave the bus, not when you enter it. Okay. Well, we get to our metro station, 1 hour later. Okay, metro stop... This should be a breeze... Well, it actually wasn't so bad... I had to make out the cyrillic letters but I found my stop on the map and figured out which line to be on. And once on, I count the stops (7 in all) until I get to my final destination... Phew!

Now, let's find a place to eat. I'm getting hungry. The lonely planet recommends this quaint russian restaurant on a side-street. I have a bit of a hard time finding it (all the street names are in cyrillic as well as the restaurant name) but finally fall right into it. There is a live band, good. A cute Russian girl comes and sits me down, good. She doesn't speak a word of English, not so good. I ask for the English menu... She looks at me strangely and comes back with the menu, a bit hesitant. I open the menu, a bit hesitant but see everything is translated into English, good. I smile and nod. She returns the favor. I get a bliny (stuffed pancake) and an espresso (to enable me to write this blog). Life is good. I'm tired, lonely (I miss my Jessica), lost and in a strange country where I do not speak or even read the letters of the language. But I have eaten and I have found my way and I have seen beautiful things today. I survived another day while travelling.

Germany wins and Munich parties

2006-06-25T01:45:00.000-07:00

... Sam and I arrived safely in Munich on Friday after a connecting flight in London. Joerg met us at the train stop close to his work and we came back to his place to relax a bit before going out to a free party with a few of his friends. After sleeping in a bit on Saturday since we came back quite late on Friday, we made our way back to Munich and Sam went sightseeing while Joerg and I met up with Elisabeth for some bier in the bier garten. It was great to see some old friends from Nantes and to walk around in the sun in Munich. We met up with Sam a little later to see the football match between Germany and Sweden (first round action). The game was actually in Munich so there was electricity in the air as kick-off started. We watched Germany convincingly beat Sweden 2-0 and went to the main square in Munich to see the festive Germans chanting their countries name. I even participated in the action tying a German flag on my back. Joerg translated a few of the chants like: "Swedish football players are better at making furniture"... spoof on Ikea, a swedish furniture retailer. We finished the day in a park in a bier garten with some sausage cold salads... a good day :)

Last day in Ireland and off to the World Cup

2006-06-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I returned the car just in time to catch our bus back to Dublin. I thought it would be fitting to give you the top 10 reasons to check your blood pressure before driving in Ireland:

10. Roundabouts everywhere (I mean everywhere) so you get leg cramps after a while (from shifting up and down)
9. Once you get on secondary roads, bi-directional traffic can be a bit tricky as they are really only one lane roads
8. Most road signs are written in gaelic and some in English. One-way roads are almost never incidated on sign-posts. Makes for very tricky driving for tourists. I wonder how many get into accidents a year?
7. Divided highways are few and far between and passing lanes seem to be a novelty in Ireland
6. Tractors actively participate in the flow of traffic making for interesting log jams
5. There are 10 million cars for 5 million citizens on a small island. You do the math.
4. The main roads (primary) go through small villages which means bottlenecks every 20 minutes
3. Related to point (3), speed limits are never actually broken because everybody knows there is no point in getting to where you want to quickly because of traffic jams in small villages
2. If you like to play with faith, risk the lives of your passengers and yourself by crossing O'connors pass in the Dingle peninsula (but the view is amazing)
1. The scenery is breathtaking so it makes up for all the slowdowns along the way

I hope you all get to enjoy Ireland driving one day :)

Along the rugged coast of Ireland

2006-06-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sam and I went on a road trip with our rented car along the rugged coast of Ireland. We made it out to see a few castles, a plethora of cute villages and even got to see the Moher cliffs! They were wonderful (even if it was windy, raining and cold... but hey, that's a touch of Ireland for you). We got lost and saw some great cliffs because of that (it's getting lost great!). The sun even came out towards 5:00 PM! All in all, a very nice travelling day. Ireland certainly has a lot of charm and beautiful natural outcrops. We will be staying in Galway tonight and then driving down to Killarney but also doing some cliff sight seeing on the Western-Southern cliffs of Ireland.

Driving on the left side of the road, and living to tell the tale

2006-06-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Marc, you will like this one. I'll always remember our crazy trips down the road leading to the school while driving Franky T's parents car... on the left side of the road. We'll, driving on the left side of the car is not so crazy here in Ireland. What is crazy is letting a Canadian drive on the left while trying to remember how to drive stick shift. Great fun! After picking up the car, we went to pick up our luggage at the hostel and drove down this narrow stretch of road. When I found a parking space, I tried to reverse only to find out I had NO IDEA how to reverse. Embarrassing? Yes, a tadbit. I went in the hostel and asked the receptionist if she knew how to reverse Irish cars? She laughed and told me she had the same problem when she moved to Ireland. She went inside and after a few minutes of wigling, she found out how my particular car (A german Opel) reversed. It's all very complicated and I will have to explain it later to you over a pint (or maybe two!).
This morning, Sam and I went to visit the Blarney Castle, another very popular Irish landmark. The area around the castle is absolutely breath-taking and things were simply improved by a sudden mistyness which appeared from nowhere. Straight-out of a fairytale. We went up the narrow steps to the top to see the entire village from atop the castle. We walked around as the sun broke through the clouds and it felt very warm for the first time in a while.
Our trip to Galway was also interesting. We decided to drive through the mainland, going through Limerick and stopping at this small village along the way called Adare which is supposedly the wedding picture capital of Ireland. It was voted the most quaint village in Ireland in 2000 and we soon found out why. The houses lining the main drag had tatch roofs and everything was immaculately kept. Everyone was friendly and the sun was shining bright. I felt like a leprechaun was going to jump out of side street with a pot of gold. But none did so we needed to continue our way.
We drove through Limerick which wasn't that impressive and made us wonder why all main roads need to go through the city center, especially when there is only 2 way roads leading in and out (it took us well over an hour to traverse 10 km in and out of Limerick). But we remained patient and made our way past beautiful villages and rolling green hills. We arrived in Galway shortly after 7:00 PM and found our hostel which is very well situated, has huge rooms and is staffed by very friendly people. We ate a fish and chip at a popular fish and chip joint called McDoguah's. And to finish off the night, we had a couple of pints of Beamish whille watching Tunisia lead Spain (Go Tunisia Go!).
One last thought: last night, Sam and I went to listen to some traditional Irish music at Sin E, a local pub in Cork. THe music was great as well as the ambiance (small pub loaded with people and choice of beer). It felt very much like home and was calming in its own way.

In God's Country...

2006-06-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in Cork, Ireland. After arriving in Dublin a few days ago, I am strangely longing for Nova Scotia. Everything about this place, from the streets, to the people, to the towns to the valleys reminds me of home. If I was to recommend a place for Nova Scotian to visit so that he would feel right at home, I would think of Ireland in a heartbeat.

Dublin is such a vibrant city with almost as many bars as in Halifax and fiddlers all over town. There is also so much history here. Yesterday, we visited the Jail were they sent most of the Irish dissidents from the Dublin area during the Easter rising. We learnt about the tragic events leading up to it and the resolution which divided the country. The United Kingdom is so good in dividing and conquering their countries. We spent a lot of time walking and taking in the streets. We also visited the Guiness brewery (but I still think the one at Keiths is better!). We have drunk a lot and have watched many World Cup matches. It's great to be in Europe to enjoy the atmosphere.

Tomorrow, we rent a car and visit the West of Ireland. It reminds me of the Nova Scotia coast. The weather is also similar (rain, clouds, sun, rain again!). Exams are done and I think I did quite well (with the exception of my first exam) but I believe I passed my program. I shall know by July 1st. It's nice to be seeing some new sites but it makes me miss my home as well. It will be nice to visit Cape-Breton again this summer and see my friends and family in Nova Scotia.

On the road... to the final exams

2006-05-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

D-day minus 22. My first exam is scheduled for May 30th. I feel like I have a million and one things to do and learn before I leave for London but I know that I will do my best which should be good enough to get through these four exams. I hope to take advantage of this great weather we are having in Ottawa to study outside as well as visit Montreal next weekend and Toronto the long weekend of May and the weekend before I leave for London. I also have two days planned next week to participate in a Habitat build. The rest will undoubtedly be devoted to my Spanish and my four exams.

Two weekends ago, we went to my parents b&b and had a great time! My sister, her friend Julie, Gary and Stéphanie and Jessica and I came to visit my parents. We went canooing, biking, and walking. I played golf with my father, Gary and Michel on Sunday. Here are some pictures for those of you who are interested: Pics from Val-Morins (Weekend of April 28th, 2006)

My plans for travelling have been organized. Here is the details:

June 16th-June 23rd: Trip to Ireland with Sam cutting through Dublin, Cork, Galway, Killarney and back to Dublin
June 23rd-June 26th: Trip to Munich to visit Joerg, Elizabeth with Sam
June 26th-July 1st: Trip to Russia to visit Nina (Moscow and St.Petersburg)
July 1st-July 9th: Trip to Romania to visit Ioana (Cluj-Napoca and West of Romania)
July 10th-July 21st: Language training in Bilbao, Spain
July 22nd: Flight back to London for overnight stay
July 23rd: Flight back to Ottawa

News from the front

2006-04-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I have just completed my essay on the effects of Specialized Equity Funds on MFIs and I'm very happy about it. Tomorrow, I will be sending it by mail and I can truly concentrate on my studies for the final exams. I still have a lot of work to do on my Spanish but I am hopeful I can get it from Intermediate Low to Intermediate High by the end of July.

Jess is doing well after her operation about 3 weeks ago. We will be visiting the surgeon tomorrow to confirm everything is okay. She did have a bit of pain on her side but I think this may be part of the healing process.

Sam bought his ticket to London so we are confirmed a go for Ireland and Munich. We will be planning our trip next week. I will also be going to Russia afterwards. Lots to do and see in Europe! Still unsure about my plans for July and August. This will depend on Jessica's work situation and her vacation plans.

Other than that, I can officially confirm I will be going to Toronto next year. My scholarship was renewed for another year so I will be entering the 16-month IMBA program at the Schulich School of Business at the end of August 2006 and completing at the end of December 2007. Then, there is a mandatory 4-month work term either in Chile or France or Switzerland. Will have to see if I can improve my Spanish speaking skills.

Jess gets an operation

2006-04-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

As we waited for news of the operation, we looked at the clock anxiously. It felt like a movie where you do not want to hear bad news but at the same time, you crave the news of how your loved one has done on the operating table. At 11:20, three hours and a half hours after the operation began, Dr. Chadwick talked to Marlene, Jess' mom.

The operation was a success although the tumor was larger than initially expected and its capillars where wrapped around about a foot of upper intestine. The surgeon decided to cut off that part of the intestine and rebuild the intestine using very strong staples to hold everything together.

The pathologist was very intrigued by the tumor since he had never seen anything quite like it. They will be running test for the next week in order to determine its pathology and more importantly whether it is benign or not. For the moment, all signs point to the tumor being benign but this can only be certain after a series of tests.

Jess is doing much better two days after the operation. She has been in no pain since the operation due mostly to a steady stream of morphine but yesterday, she walked and they took out the tube replacing her bowel movements. She is now drinking apple juice and gingerale and hopes to have some jello and puré today.

There is no definite date for her release but we are hoping for Wednesday. We will not be going to Waterloo next weekend for Easter and she will be taking an extra week off from work to recuperate. We are hoping to make it to Waterloo the next weekend. I'll update you with the latest news as soon as more information becomes available. Thank-you for your prayers and thoughts.

Jessica gets an operation date

2006-03-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

On a beautiful sunny and warm day in Ottawa, we made our way to meet Dr. Chadwick, a stomach surgeon at the Ottawa Civic hospital. He usually doesn't work Wednesday morning but felt the problem with Jessica was urgent and needed to be looked at. He first explained to us what he had found looking at the catscan and MRI. He drew some us some pictures (see inset) with a description of the operation and announced he had found a time slot for him and Dr. Ling to perform the operation. It is scheduled for a week from tomorrow on April 6th, 2006. This works great because it is just after the end of the fiscal year (Jessica needs to work this week) but also allows us to go to Waterloo for Easter.

The operation is of medium difficulty because the mass is pushing against her uterus (actually dislodged it from its natural position) and also the anus passage and possibly the kidney. This would explain a lot such as pain in the back (kidneys), on the sides (uterus) and problems with bowel movement (anus). The sheer size of it (size of a softball) was cause for concern by the surgeon from the beginning and you could see from his concern, he wanted it out as much as we did.

Risks include a rupture of the bowel lining with feces still in there (causing an infection) but we will follow all the necessary pre-operation guidelines minimizing any risk. Another two risks are rupture of the main artery to the legs (very, very remote risk) or the two tubes leading to the bladder (very remote as well). All this amounts to a medium risk surgery with two experienced surgeons on hand (a stomach specialist doing the operation and a pelvic specialist on hand if the uterus is lodged and needs to be moved). The only cutting done will be close to the bowel so the doctor was confident that it should be a seemless operation. They will make a vertical incision of about two inches just below the belly button in order to reduce any damage to the abdomidal muscles.

This allows us to brief a sign of relief and thank God for answering our prayers for a quick operation. Thanks for everyone who prayed with us. Praying really does work, I've come to learn. Now, let's pray for a seemless operation and quick recovery for Jessica with no long term damage. We'll know better the situation in mid-April.

Back in Canada...

2006-03-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Arrived safe and sound on Saturday night. When we went to wait for the bus (which doesn't take 2-3 minutes like in London), I discovered that we are still in winter-mode in Canada. The next day, we rented a car and went shopping, visited the bix-box outlets in South Keys, drove around Bank Street and the Glebe and made it back in time for the Sunday night show lineup. Monday was spent completing a series of errands and planning to see everyone I hadn't seen in over six months. It's a crazy thing being back in Ottawa.

Happy to be back but the next nine weeks will be busy with learning Spanish, studying for my finals and trying to spend quality time with Jessica, friends and family...

Today, Jess and I went to see another specialist, this time in the arena of the stomach. He was very nice but the blob (we'll call him Bob the Blob from now on) is about the size of a sofball, quite round and about 8cm in diameter. Bob the Blob is a mass of fat with a bit of blood vessels. He likes to feed off the ovaries and bowel which makes it difficult for the specialist to choose who will take Bob the Blob out of Jessica. Bob likes it in there but Jessica would like to see him move to a new address.

The specialist was surprised with Jessica's symptoms, indicating that these masses usually don't produce any of these symptoms and was not convinced removing Bob would solve the underlying stomach problems. Given we have ruled out acid reflux, allergic reactions, exotic diseases caught in North Africa and Bob the Blob to be the cause of the stomach problems, we are quite perplexed. However, Bob may still be partly responsible for this and the sooner this unwanted guests moves out, the faster we'll know what the next step is in order to bring Jessica back to good health.

She should see the specialist next week and hopefully get an operation time (as the gyneocologist also needs to be there for the operation due to its location near the pelvic area).

Bob the Blob, please go home!

Family Cometh, Family Leaveth

2006-03-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

Well, my family came and my family went. It first started with my sister's surprise visit at the end of February. Unfortunately, she arrived at the busiest time of the year in terms of lectures to attend so I could only do things with her in the evening. This didn't stop her from attending my International Finance course on Tuesday morning. She spent most of the lecture doodling some interesting things. She also met up with some of my colleagues from my program who showed her around town and kept her busy when she was waiting for me at the cafeteria (she makes friends very quickly). While I went to class, Isabelle mostly toured London's art scene. We would have lunch and supper at cool spots and even had a couple pints in my local water drinking hole (Finsbury Park Pub).

On Friday, when the rest of my family arrived, we even had a mini b-day party for my cousin Gabriel, celebrating his 11th b-day (what a great way to have a party... traversing half-way accross the globe). My sister had to leave shortly thereafter to start her own pan-European tour (starting in Vienna). We then started the walking tour (much to the chagrin of my mother's left knee). We saw most of the sights in central London that first day although no museums (this was left for future visits).

On Saturday, I left my family to their own devices while I tied a few loose ends for school. Gabi went to a children's session of Les Misérables Making while my mother and aunt went shopping in Soho and Piccadilly Circus. They then saw the musical Les Misérables and made their way back for supper. The next day (Sunday), we went to visit Camden Town and Portobello Market, two opposing markets in style and substance but both interesting in their own respects. The day was marvellous with lots of sunshine and warmer weather which was a treat, even for me.

On Monday, I left Gabi and Jacqueline went to a British school (she had pre-arranged this to allow Gabi to see a British school and also for her to compare the Canadian system to the one in the United Kingdom) while my mother and I took our time. We then made our way to the British Museum. I had a bit of study time in the Library while my mother saw a few exhibits. Around 3:30 PM, we met up with my cousin, aunt and toured the British Museum together walking past the Near Middle East, Greek and Egyptian artifacts. My cousin thought the mummies were very cool!

On Tuesday to Thursday, my family went to Paris, leaving me to 15 hours of lectures, a project to hand in, three homework assignments due and a number of papers to read. After little sleep, too many group meetings, I was able to complete most of everything by the time they arrived. However, by this time, after sharing my room for over a week and having little sleep, my body was starting to let me down. I had a cold and sore throat and I was exhausted. I had to attend class on Friday from nine to noon so my family decided to visit LSE afterwards. I found them in the Garrick Cafeteria. It was great to have finished my week at school and able to devote myself fully to my family. We toured the LSE campus. I believe my mother really enjoyed this and you could tell she missed her university days. Sometimes you are so immersed into the atmosphere you forget these are the best years of our lives. In the afternoon, we visited the Kensington Palace which was also a treat because it is always interesting to see how the Monarchs live. There was a Diana exhibit which was very well done. We finished the evening by going back home while my aunt and cousin visited the Science Museum nearby.

Saturday was a great way to finish a hectic 10 days. We slept in, looked at some photos from my trip to Morroco and Egypt. In 2010, my aunt and uncle will be taking six months off with the boys and they will hopefully be doing lots of travelling. They are interested in taking the boys back to Europe and making a trip to North Africa. The world is your classroom. We finally made our way to the Tower Bridge where we visited the exhibit (again taking advantage of the 2 for 1 entries which greatly reduced the cost of their trip). We then visited the Imperial War Museum, my favourite museum in London (perhaps the world) thus far. It is one of those museums, so intelligently laid out with something for the ears, eyes and nose (yes, they had interactive trenches, along with some unappealling smells). We finished the evening by eating some Indian food with Sha and Tex, two of my flatmates from Kerala in India. They knew their food and made great guests.

I saw my family off this morning before coming back, sick and exhausted, and holding a copy of today's Sunday Daily Times (thick as a phone book). I dropped the newspaper to the ground, rolled into bed and slept a wonderful three hours. I woke up in silence. And space. It was nice but it felt like something was missing. Although living in a small room with four people was trying and exhausting, it was also nice to wake up to Gabi's non-stop gabbering and questioning the silliest things. He is one of the only children I know who can entertain himself for hours upon hours by simply talking to himself or others (whether they listen or not). Amazing! Yes, it was both sad and welcoming to see my family depart but we will share some wonderful memories from their trip. I truly love them.

Gabi comes to town

2006-03-04T00:48:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official... My family is in town! I went to pick them up yesterday morning. Their flight was scheduled to arrive at 8:30 AM but they only landed at 9:30 AM because of a severe winter storm in St.John's which delayed the trip by about 1:15 hours. But they made it out by 10:00 AM. We raced to get back to my place because my sister had a flight to Vienna and wanted to see us before she left (she needed to leave by 11:30 to catch her flight). When we arrived, we had a cake and a gift for Gabi because it was his birthday today. He just turned 11. My sister then left and we set out to visit the city. My mom was very cute and was like a kid discovering the city. She noticed all the differences like my cousin did. We visited most of the important sites around the city. We finished the day by taking a double decker back home (which my cousin loved) and we then had a relaxing meal. My flatmates were real gentlemen, giving us the living room while we ate and entertaining my little cousin while they watched TV. Dave even promised Gabi to play on his playstation two tomorrow.

Today, my mom, my aunt and cousin will be going to see the Misérables (the musical). I will be taking advantage of the free time to complete my readings (hopefully) and work on a project section which is due for tomorrow (yikes).

For full pictures of our first day, click on here.

The family cometh

2006-02-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, my family is arriving well in a few hours. First, my sister is arriving at 11:00 PM (in less than two hours) and then my mom, aunt and godchild (cousin) will be arriving at 8:00 AM on Friday, March 3rd. It's gonna be fun!

But before they arrive, I thought it would be fitting to give them a heads up on some ground rules to visiting, living or passing through London (this goes for the rest of you hooligans!)

1) Always, always stand on the right side of the escalator on the tube on pain of death (I'm not kidding... me or one of the millions of London will kill you... I once saw a guy literally push the guy out of his way... this is very serious stuff!). For a full list of Tube Etiquette.
2) Driving on the left side of the road but there are one-way streets everywhere... Best to follow the instructions on the ground (they paint handy instructions like LOOK LEFT or LOOK RIGHT on the street to help stupid pedestrians like me not get squashed like a bug. They now have really cool ads of people getting run over on the street because they don't look before crossing. This one ad is really disturbing because IT ACTUALLY happened. These teenagers were joking around on the street with one filming the scene from their mobile phone when one of their friends was run over... I can't watch this but maybe you can: click on link to see)
3) Londoners know this: Recycling is for dweebs and throwing garbage on the ground is cool
4) Binge Drinking is okay and fighting is encouraged
5) Knocking into people is the best way to get from Point A to Point B
6) Best to figure out your route before you get to the tube. I really like the new art piece in front of the tube map... very telling (see bottom of article for a picture of it!)
7) Important to bring wads of cash when visiting London. It is rated as the most expensive city in the world to live in by the worlds city mayors.
8) However, on the flip side, there are plenty of free things to do while in London.
9) Make sure to takes lots of pictures while you are in London. If you forget your camera, you can always download them from google images.
10) Don't forget your rainjacket or umbrella as London gets a fair bit of rain ( per year) but not as much as Vancouver! ( per year) or even Halifax (per year).

I'm sure I'll come up with more great things about London.

Cheers

Hampton Court Palace

2006-02-19T05:21:00.000-08:00

My alarm clock wakes me up. It's 9:15 in the morning on Saturday. The sun is peering through my curtains (I find that very odd). It looks like it's going to be a nice day but I have to get to Waterloo station to join some friends for an outing to Hampton Court Palace. I take a shower, have breakfast, watch a bit of euronews and then I'm off to the station only to realize at the entrance of the tube that I forgot my free ticket to Hampton Court Palace which was the base for why we going to see the palace. I quickly walk back to my apartment and walk back to the tube stop but by this time, I have lost 15 minutes and will undoubtedly be late for our train.

When I arrive at the train station, I have a voicemail and text from Sarah but unfortunately, we missed the train. The next train is in 30 minutes so I go and buy my ticket. As I buy my ticket, I see a 2 for 1 advertisement for those who take the train to attend tourist attractions. Given the price of a ticket is 12 pounds, I let Steph and Sarah know. We make it to the electronic board at London Waterloo to find our platform. They usually only post it 10-15 minutes prior to departure. Unfortunately, the 11:36 is cancelled due to the driver not showing up (he probably had a wicked Saturday night). We need to wait till 12:06 to take the next one. We go grab a coffee and watch the sights unfold as busy locals and bewildered tourists try to catch their train.

We make it to our platform for 12:06 only to find there are mechanical difficulties with our train. We begin to think we'll never make it out to Hampton Court but the doors close at 12:15 and the train begins its slow movements outside of the station. We pick up speed and we are off. We arrive close to 1:00 PM near the grounds of Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court Palace looks like a very large estate, a mix of brick and chimneys. For the casual observer, we could wrongly assume this is a victorian factory given its austere and commanding presence but upon closer inspection, the articulate and imaginative carvings can only signify a person of great wealth and importance resided here. And we would be right. King George the VIII as well as James the first from the Netherlands made Hampton Court Palace their primary residence.

We get our tickets and follow the audioguided tours of King James Apartments, the Tudor Kitchens and King George VIII relishing in the history of the place and the fact we are walking in the same place those monarks set foot several centuries prior. Following our internal visit, we visit the magnificient gardens and the world famous maze of Hampton Court Palace. Although the sun has since disappeared and the weather has cooled off, we enjoy our walk in the park. We stay till closing time, approximately 4:30 PM and make our way back to London having enjoyed a wonderful afternoon.

For pictures, please click on:
Hampton Court Palace Part 1
Hampton Court Palace Part 2

Jess gets an MRI exam

2006-02-17T14:47:00.000-08:00

After a week of anticipation from Jess's last gynaecologist appointment showing that the teratoma was not in her pelvic cavity but in another cavity in her stomach (although we are still unsure), it was confirmed that she would need an MRI exam before an operation could be scheduled. This dampened our spirits due to the sheer length of time it usually takes to get an MRI exam in Canada (as long as 6 months for minor surgeries and sometimes as long as 1 month for life-threatening illnesses such as cancer).

Well, after ranting and raving against Canada's medical system and complaining on how long it takes to get an MRI exam in Canada to my international student colleagues, Jess, again, was lucky and jumped the queue to get an MRI exam for next Wednesday. I sincerely hope they can now pinpoint the teratoma allowing her to promptly schedule a surgery time in order to remove the teratoma from her body.

Microfinance, Gynaecologists, Mozart

2006-02-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

What do those three things have in common? Not much other than they appear in today's update.

Yesterday, the LSE Microfinance Society of which I am the treasurer, organized a very successful event on microinsurance, microsavings and remittances. We had over 48 in attendance and took some pictures of the event.

Today, I had 2 lectures, one for my AC430 course on Corporate Finance and one for my AC421 course on Applied Corporate Finance. In between, Nataly and I went to hear a free concert in the Shaw Library by Mitra Tham. I was amazing. We heard some Bach, Mozart, Grieg and Rachmaninoff. Very relaxing way to spend our lunch hour and cleared my head for the remainder of the day.

Here are some fun facts for you:

My sister will be making a surprise visit from February 26th to March 3rd, then visiting Austria, Eastern Europe and returning on March 17th
My mother, my aunt (godmother) and my cousin (godchild) will be visiting from March 3rd to March 12th
I am leaving for Ottawa, Canada on March 18th in order to spend my study period prior to my exams (scheduled to start sometime in mid-May).
Jessica received an appointment to see the gynaecologist today and will hopefully be able to schedule a surgery time to remove the teratoma.
I was accepted into the IMBA program at Schulich, 10 days after I applied (always a good sign when they make their decisions quickly!). Schulich was just ranked best MBA program in Canada by Financial Times and 18th worldwide. Similarly, it was ranked best MBA in Canada by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 27th worldwide.

Teratoma

2006-02-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

The last week has been pretty worrying for Jessica and I. Jessica had been sent to the emergency room last week with severe stomach pains. They did a whole series of test and found an unidentified mass over her ovaries and below her pancreas during an ultrasound. She had a cat scan done yesterday and an endoscope exam today with the results given.

The good news is that it is not cancerous. The weird news is that the mass is a completely benign tumor which is 12cm in diameter (yes, I am not kidding) and putting pressure against all her organs in that area (which is causing the pain in her pancreas and stomach). She needs to get it removed. The good news about that is that it is not attached to any of her organs (just kind of floating around). But the sheer size of it will mean that she needs at least a week to recuperate.

If you get grossed out easily don't read the following. There is a name for this and Jessica couldn't remember the name but the tumor is a mass of fat, water, blood (and sometimes has hair and teeth).

Anyway, we are breathing a sign of relief. She will be okay with no permanent damage to her organs. She has been referred to a specialist in Ottawa and will undoubtedly have an operation in the next 6-8 weeks (welcome to Canada).

This was Jessica's message:

"As you probably know, I have been having bad stomach pains and other problems since the third day of my trip to North Africa. Despite taking medication for stomach acid, which I had been treated for before, it just didn't seem to go away. When I got back I was treated for e-coli, which it turns out I didn't actually have (I thought it was strange that I had NONE of the symptoms).

Last week I went to the emergency room in a great deal of pain, and that's when an ultrasound revealed a large solid mass in my pelvic area (not the tummy). Some of you know this because I had to cancel my birthday party :( (Don’t worry, take two is to come soon). I think I mentioned at the time that I wanted this little "squatter" kicked out for good. Well.....I was just joking but it turns out that I do have a rather large monster living in my pelvic area.

I had a cat scan and an endoscope exam (not fun) done this week in Kitchener and I learned yesterday that I have what is called a Teratoma tumour, which literally translates in "monster" tumour. They are very big tumours that are all lumpy and bumpy, frequently come out hairy and sometimes have teeth and bones in them (think of the Aunt in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" who had a "biopsy" and found out she had her twin living in a tumour in her neck....except mine probably wasn't a twin). Hence the term "monster". My friend Paul was pretty close when he said that I had probably had an alien living in me.

While these tumours are usually very big, leave it to me to outdo everyone: at 12 cm, mine is larger than average....huge in fact....and taking up most of the room in my pelvic area. Hence the pain. And probably hence the acid reflux (apparently if you've ever been pregnant you know what I'm talking about).

But not to worry, it is all fatty tissue and completely benign and not connected to any of my reproductive organs, so that's good. I just have to find a gynecologist in Ottawa to schedule a surgery. I don't know how long that will take, but I AM starting my new contract at Foreign Affairs next week....I can take a little pain and discomfort and my office will be much more comfortable than North Africa was, and I am assuming that there will be a working washroom near by.

Seriously, however, I have been feeling better this past week – the little monster must have shifted to a more comfortable position.

Happy New Year (well, in China)

2006-01-29T09:09:00.000-08:00

I just came back from the Chinese New Year Celebrations in London (supposedly second to China's celebrations). Well, as the picture attest, there certainly were a lot of people in Trafalgar square for the event but the stage was a bit small so we couldn't see much of the action. We did peruse the square though and saw some hallmarks of Chinese culture such as Chinese food and cheap Chinese imports.

The weather is cold today but very sunny. There is a biting wind coming from the North which keeps us on our toes. This is the year of the dog and I wish every good fortune in 2006!

This is for my little cousin Gabriel

2006-01-28T04:55:00.000-08:00

My cousin Gabriel got angry at me for not writing a blog in over two weeks. I agree with him! Life seems to move either too quickly or too slowly some times. Since our arrival in London, life has been extremely busy with school. I now realized the amount of work it takes to be a student with the non-existence of weekends (although the breaks between sessions are very nice).

I am taking four university courses: Strategic Management, Corporate Assets and Financial Markets, Applied Corporate Finance and International Markets. It seems like we have something to hand in or complete every week but that is good because it builds discipline into the students (something I desperately need sometimes).

I have been in London over the course of the month of January, getting used to living alone again (for those of you just joining my blog, my girlfriend Jessica was here on visit for 10 weeks and left for Canada on January 10th). It was very nice to have her over and extremely hard to see her leave but it was for the best as this blog will attest.

You see, she was still having stomach problems. She ran a series of test in Ottawa and the preliminary test showed e.coli in her system. A refinement to the original diagnostic showed she did not have e.coli (but was never told). She eventually had to go to the emergency room in Waterloo last week because of the pain. The emergency doctor did an ultrasound and found a strange mass over her ovaries and putting pressure on her pancreas (which inflammed it and made the pain worse). She is scheduled for a catscan this Wednesday to understand what this mass is (cancerous or benign) but it has both of us very worried. I will let you know what comes of it next week.

Other than that, I have helped organize a LSE microfinance event on Wednesday, January 25th which was very successful (53 participants). Our next scheduled event is February 8th. And my cousin, my aunt and my mother are going to arrive in about a month!

Pictures, pictures, everywhere...

2006-01-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I think this deserves a post just by itself. In case you are curious about the trip and want to see some of them, click away (we took over 500 pictures during our trip. This is only a flavour of them... You can thank me later).

Egypt Pictures (December 10th to December 21st)

Tunisia Pictures (December 22nd to December 24th)

Morocco Pictures (December 25th to January 3rd)

Spain Pictures (January 4th to January 6th)

Enjoy!

Back in London...

2006-01-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Well, if you thought Spain is nice in January, you are up to a rude surprise. But it was a great lead-in to our return to London. Sevilla was nice and sunny but chilly. Barcelona was just plain wet and cold.

We arrived in Algeciras after our boat left Tanger 2 hours late because the previous boat couldn't leave (for unknown reasons). This made us miss the last bus to Granada (and subsequently where charged 50% of the room fare for our hotel in Granada given we called to cancel the day of the booking... tip: never give the correct credit card number to confirm reservations.)

We decided to make our way directly to Sevilla. It was a good choice given the city is just so beautiful. Although we missed the culture and the amazing history in North Africa, it was so nice to be in a beautiful european city once again (and have a McDonalds in walking distance). Our hotel was great (with hot water all the time and toilet paper! Yes, these things were priceless. There wasn't even a smell in the room. Closest thing to paradise in a while!)

We visited the city the next day and tried to change our reservation in Barcelona from one night to three nights given we had changed our plans (wanted to spend some extra time in London before Jessica's departure from London on the 10th of January). We unfortunately had not chosen the right hotel in Barcelona. Hotel Mari-Luz (not to be recommended to anyone) had a clever policy. If you modified your booking less than 48 hours before the beginning of your stay, you were automatically billed for 2 nights. This was in the fine print in the four-page e-mail sent to us to confirm the reservation (and not mentioned in the phone call made to confirm the reservation). We were blatantly told this on the telephone. Not wanting to carry out a dispute over the payphone (especially when the euros were ticking away on my card), we decided to fight this more appropriately on their turf.

While in Sevilla, I also discovered that my Spanish was not only lacking in vocabulary but it was not being very well understood. I blame the many dialects in Spain but I must admit that people were hurtfully rude when you tried to speak Spanish. It was like I was spitting on them. I decided to speak English, faking an American accent and received much better results. Mind you, not a bloody Sevillian spoke more than 5 or 6 words of English but they pointed, smiled and made wild gestures to explain things when I spoke English. Strange, eh? It's like they didn't want me to speak Spanish. Much different from my experience in Mexico.

Once we arrived in Barcelona, we intelligently avoided a fight with the management of the hotel by explaining we were both tired (it was past 10pm). We had to wait till the next morning to argue our way out of paying for 2 nights. Not that the price per night was that much (40 euros per night or 50 CAD) but because in principle, given I had called a day in advance of our arrival to modify my reservation when every other hotel would have gladly made the change free of charge and because they were so rude about it, I decided to fight it for 30 minutes until the guy gave in, gave me back my passport and relinquised his threat to bill us. Jess was very proud of me and said I did great (you could hear our argument accross the hostel given the walls were paper thin).

We flew out of Spain on the 6th arriving in London and greatly releaved to hear the Shakespearing tongue again (even if they call underwear, pants). We spent the next 2 days resting (i.e. watching a lot of TV and movies... we were entertainment deprived for 26 days!). And yesterday, we saw Brokeback Mountain at the movies (a real movie!). We also walked on the Thames, had a pint of Guiness and ate at Wetherspoons (fish and chips, baby!). Isn't it great to be back?

Last day in Morocco

2006-01-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

Well, we are finally arriving at the end of North African tour. Having spent the last 23 days in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, we can honestly say we have a greater appreciation of the area, the arab, berber and bedouine cultures and muslim faith although we have so much more to learn.

Our stay in Fès was both strange and interesting. The city is beautiful and its old Medina is very impressive (feels like we went back to the 12th century... especially the fruit and vegetable market). However, Jess and I felt stares in the new city of Fès and felt very unwelcome at some places. The good news was finally having taxis with meters (i.e. we were not getting overcharged. We now use the taxi to get everywhere because it is so convinient).

What Fès has to offer above all else is its role as the artistic capital of Morocco. It is the center of manufacturing of many artistic pieces including rugs, silver, metal, leather and pottery products. Jess made some purchases and I kind of wish I had (although we did make some more purchases in Meknès). Our hotel was very cold and the hot water could only be used between 7:00 and 9:00 AM which was akward (plus it was not that hot). Our hotel in Meknès is the absolute opposite (friendly staff, heater in the room, hot, steamy showers). You end up appreciating these little pleasures while travelling.

We do miss television and entertainment. We tried to find a cinema in Meknès that plays movies (mostly dubbed in French) at a reasonable time but most movies started past 9:00 PM and we need to take an early train tomorrow. We'll have to wait till London!

The last leg of our trip is in Spain. Tomorrow, we will see a remake of bus, trains and boats (but no automobiles!). We will be taking a train early tomorrow for about 6 hours until we arrive in Tanger. There, we will be taking the boat over to Algeciras (without too much hassle we hope!). Then we have to take a 4 hour bus ride to Granada where we will stay the night. We then hope on another bus to Sevilla (about a 3 hour bus ride). Finally, we will fly to Barcelona and stay one day before flying into London on January 6th. We cut our trip short by two days to appreciate a few more peaceful days in London before Jessica flies back to London.

Dans le pays des Berbers

2005-12-29T04:19:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas day was strange to say the least. It's always bizarre to spend Christmas day in a Muslim country. To be quite honest, we spent the first few hours of our Christmas day in the Casablanca airport as our flight to Marrakesh was delayed by 2 hours but God listened to our prayers and our luggage arrived safe and sound in Marrakesh. Then, exhausted, we had to haggle our way to downtown Morocco as the Taxi Drivers tried in vain to make us pay an exhorbitant amount to drive 5km. We finally arrived at our hotel, a 5 minute walk from Djeena El Fna, the main square in Marrakesh at around 3:00 AM.

On Christmas day, we relaxed in the Medina of Marrakesh. We visited a few palaces, the Saadien Tombs, made our way through the souks (market in arabic... Marrakesh has one of the most famous souk in the world... very impressive!). We also ate BBQ in the Djeena El Fna (an experience in itself). The main square has a circus of activity including snake charmers (Jess is mortified of snakes, so we had to move quickly when we walked next to them).

We decided to do a 3-day tour of the South of Morocco along with Latitia, Jess's friend in town for the holidays. We left on the 26th, early in the morning and got to see beautiful mountain landscape (along with snow covered tops, yes you read right!), breath-taking gorges, amazing dishes, mostly traditional Berber dishes, and got to sleep in the Sahara desert.

Unfortunately, Jess' stomach pain acted up on her on the second day of the trip. It was the most painful day of the entire trip for her and made us consider finding a way back to civilization (most of the South of Morocco is rural and finding a doctor can be problematic). She toughed out the day though and we slept at the Inn in the desert instead of in the tent in the dunes next to the Sahara desert. We didn't get to do the camel ride but we did get a good nights sleep. The stars in the desert are amazing. This was by far our favourite part of the trip. Jess was also feeling much better the next day although her stomach is still quite sensible and she needs to eat (we have both lost weight on this trip but Jess' weight loss is starting to become a bit worrying).

Oh, I almost forgot to write this little adventure down. Ahmed, our Berber bus driver (we were in a mini bus with 13 others tourists), got us through the mountain range between Ouarzazate and Marrakesh climbing up to 2600 metres and going back down to 400 metres in Marrakesh. To make his job harder, he had to drive in the dark, in the fog, in a snow storm mixed with rain (and I'm sure there was freezing rain in there) with a severe lack of safety on the road considering they were both narrow and treacherous and lacked the adaquate guard rails (considering that there was a 300-400 metre drop next to the road. Jess and I were in the front (I acted as translator for the tour as Ahmed only spoke French, Arabic and Berber). It was a very scary experience, and I hope never to repeat it. We had to help a car along the way that was hanging off the cliff. Had the car rolled over, the occupants would have surely died (only to be found the next day at the bottom of the mountain!)

So, we are back in sunny Marrakesh. We are going to play it by ear today and decide what to do next due to Jessica's health. One of the tourists in our mini bus was a family doctor from New Zealand. She helped us out by naming a few drugs we could try to help her stomach problems. (for your information, a doctors prescription in a developing country is not necessary to obtain any type of drug. Need penicillin? No problem. And it cost a fraction of the costs in Canada!).

De retour du pays des Berbers!

Goodbye Egypt, Hello Tunisia

2005-12-22T03:59:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it. In one piece with all our luggage. If Egypt was the Romania of Europe, Tunisia is certainly the France. It is clean, well built, with a charm ressembling strangely the a French city. Jess told me that the French colonisation strategy was to extend France beyond its border and they often treated the areas in their control as French and part of France so they made sure the countries had strong institutions in education, culture and bureaucracy. They also regarded the importance of law and order and rules as paramount to a functioning city. Well, this is blatantly obvious as you walk through the streets of Tunis. If you forgot people were muslims from North Africa, you would almost believe yourself in the South of France.

We will however, venture into the history and culture of this amazing country. We are planning to see Carthage, where several roman ruins lie and also Sibi Bou Said, one of the most beautiful seaside villages in Tunisia. Tunisia also has some of the most beautiful beaches in the Mediterranen although I think I won't put on my swimming trunks quite yet (it's about 13 degrees outside) . But there is a beautiful sun out there.

The last leg of our trip to Egypt was very nice. We made it to the Giza Pyramids, saw the sphinx. We couldn't come to Egypt without seeing the pyramids. We got lost on our way back to our hotel trying to find our bus stop (they don't indicate them anywhere in the city and the buses stop randomly everywhere. We found 2 girls from Holland also waiting for a bus and we decided to share a cab together to Midan Tahrir (central Cairo). We took our taxi from our hotel and had to fight a bit to get our tickets changed even though I had confirmed it over the telephone centre of Egyptair but at this point, I wasn't alarmed. You have to fight for everything in Egypt.

Both Jess and I were getting tired of the taxing life in Egypt for a tourist. Tunisia is a welcome change which should help us get ready for another taxing trip in Morocco.

I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a great new year. Sorry I can't send individual emails as my Internet time is precious.

Canada Dry

2005-12-19T07:44:00.000-08:00

Typical day in the life of Jess and Serge in Egypt.

"Hello!"
"Hello."
"Want to buy a (blank for anything they are selling)? Only 5 pounds! Good deal. Good deal."
"La Shukran (no, thank-you in arabic)"
"You speak arabic?"
"No, just a little."
"Where are you from?"
"Canada"
"ah, Canada dry (big smile on the Egyptians face)"
"yes, but Canada is not dry (Jess always replies this which always makes me laugh)"
"Masalama (goodbye in arabic)"

Repeat that 10 to 15 times a day and you have an adequate picture of our walks. But it is fun. Most people are nice and helpful although we rarely buy from the street because you never know what you are getting.

Yesterday, was amazing. After Jess recuperated from her allergic reaction (we think it is fish or the spices on the fish we had in Dahab. But it was SO good!). We slowly made our way to the Luxor Temple and then off to the Karnac Temples. Both were very impressive and the fact that some of the ruins remain after over 4000 years of pillaging and annoying tourists taking pictures left, right and center, it is quite amazing!

We were convinced by an enterprising Egyptian to take a ride in his horse and buggy (very much a horse and buggy, egyptian style... pictures to prove it!). We rode around the city and the market (souq in Arabic). It was amazing to see this part of the city and it was less hassle given no one bothers foreigners with guide (very helpful). Saeed, our buggy driver took us to the temples and spent most of the day with us. For this privilege, we paid the handsome sum of 60 Egyptian pounds ($12, not much but for us starving students, it is starting to be expensive!). We did have fun with Saeed and it was relaxing to stroll around Luxor in a horse and buggy. Don't forget to pay baksheesh for Cinderalla (the horses name. Baksheesh means tip or bride in arabic. Everyone expects baksheesh for everything they do for you exept give directions. Directions for some reason is free in this country!).

In the afternoon, we took a felluca ride (a felluca is like a sail boat but an Egyptian sail boat). They have been in use since the Pharaohs. We spent 3 hours on the Nile with our Captain Allah. He took us to Banana Island, an island plantation with real banana trees (we ate fresh bananas from the tree. Bet you haven't done that before!). There were also mango trees and mandarine trees and orange trees. The sunset was amazing and so was the sail back. Our captain was truly a gentleman and although he couldn't read, you could tell he was very learnt with the way the world works. He was dealt a bad hand in life but he had hope. His good spirit and positive outlook on life was really inspiring. We talked about microfinance and what he would do with just US$100. He had some very enterprising ideas but no program exists in Luxor yet (maybe for future reference because the people of Luxor are very hard workers and very friendly and trustworthy as we've learnt).

Today, we went to see the Valley of the Kings and the temples on the West side of the Nile. It was very impressive. We hired a driver for the day for about $20 which is a good deal if you consider the distances between the sites. The tombs of the Pharaohs were very empressive. I was most impressed by the Habu temple. The structure is in very good condition with some of the original paint dating back 3000 years ago. Amazing! We drove around sugar plantations, gazed at ruins of previous villages and saw a multitude of impressive relics. We made it back by taking the ferry to the East bank and walking back to our hostel.

Tomorrow, we will take the train to Cairo at 9:30 AM (10 hour train ride! Yikes). We will see the Giza pyramids and the spinx on the 21st before flying off to Tunisia.

More news of travels to come.

Did you ever wonder what an Egyptian Hospital looked like?

2005-12-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

Or other things you don't want to read as the subject of a blog entry. Well, we got to see the inside of an Egyptian hospital but everyone is doing fine.

Upon our arrival in Luxor, Egypt after our 20-hour bus ride and having spent the better part of an hour trying to locate ourselves in central Luxor after our very eccentric arabic taxi driver dropped us off relieving us of 30 egyptian pounds, we made it to our hostel.

Jess was becoming alarmed by the rash that had developed over the last 2 days and the inflammation of her feet and fingers. I was becoming increasingly worried (keep in mind I've seen Jess get fairly sick after a severe cold and fever, tonsillitis requiring antibiotics and a stomach acid attack lasting the better of 3 days in Egypt). At first, I got quite worried. Could it be Thyphoid fever? Looked through my lonely planet for symptoms... no, no fever and no rash predominately on the abdomen. What about bed bugs? that got me worried because we would have to fumigate all our things but no, that doesn't fit the bill given I did not show any symptoms and her rash was generalized. We didn't know although a mild allergic reaction (untreated mind you) wasn't out of the realm of possibilities.

So, I got out my trusty Lonely planet, found the hospital and then found a taxi on the main street (al Medina for those of you interested). Unfortunately, the taxi driver took us to another hospital (not on my map) and overcharged us for it. However, it was a hospital. We made it to the emergency ward and were immediately looked after (no wait time at all!).

The doctor took one quick look at Jess and concluded it was an allergic reaction. He was preoccupied with the antibiotics she took but she started taken them inLondon over a week ago and usually allergic reactions to drugs manifest themselves within 72 hours (usually the first 2-3 hours). So, we went through the list of things she consumed or used. We couldn't put our finger on it although the sea bass could be it (but it was so good and fresh but Jess might be allergic to some kinds of sea food).

She was immediately administered anti-allergy drugs and Mohammed, her nurse, will come to the hostel tonight and tomorrow morning to administer her one more dosage. She should be fine by tomorrow (we hope). We might do some sightseeing if she is okay but we won't push it.

Mohammed and her doctor were wonderful. We were taken into the emergency room and cared for immediately (and cared is the true word here. not like Canada). We were given immediate treatment and the diagnostic was taken after the regular test. And all this for US$20. Nothing for us but a lot for a nurse who earns US$100a month and works 12 hour shifts (and makes housecalls!). We will probably take Mohammed out for supper to thank him for his attention.

Jess would love your good wishes. Please send her a quick note wishing her a quick recovery at jessica.l.west@gmail.com She will certainly appreciate your good wishes.

Up till now, I have met three Mohammeds in Egypt and all three have been kind and helpful. I think Mohammed is our guardian angel. Strange how this world works.

Dahab, Egypt

2005-12-15T06:28:00.000-08:00

As the sun sets and the full moon starts to shine on Dahab, you realize that this is the place you want to come to relax, and enjoy yourself.

Following our first day in Sinai and after visiting Mt. Sinai, we decided we wanted to stay a little longer in this sea-side paradise. I called and changed our flight to Tunis to December 21st giving us three extra days. This allowed for us to stay 2 extra nights in Dahab and we will probably stay 2 nights in Luxor and 2 nights in Cairo although I anticipate this leg of the trip to be both very amazing (given the pyramids and museums we will see) but also very taxing (so we are trying to appreciate our sea-side resort for a few more days!).

Today, we went snorkelling along the beach and coral reef. The water is quite warm and snorkelling allows us to watch in utter amazement at the technicolour sight before us. There are thousands of fish in every colour, size and beauty lining the coral floor. Of particular beauty is this area where the coral gives way and you find so many fish intereacting with each other. Some are eating at the coral, others are eating each other but most just swim and seem quite content to swim with the humans peering from above. It is these moments you wish you had an underwater camera.

Last night, we tried the sheesha at the hotel. It was very good and very relaxing. We gazed into the night sky (not a cloud in sight) and the light from the full moon was blinding out the light from the surrounding stars. The night sky was beautiful.

We will be leaving for Luxor tomorrow on an overnight bus (yuck!) which will last over 14 hours. We expect to arrive between 6:00 and 8:00 AM.

We have to go but we will keep you posted.

Am I in Paradise?

2005-12-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

Well not quite. But Dahab is quite near it, I'm sure. This is our third day in Egypt and it didn't quite go to plan and many things were far removed from paradise. But I am glad we have found a place to call home for at least a night.

We arrived safely in Cairo although I got a bit scared when my luggage didn't go through until the very end. So, with both our backpacks, we bravely exited the airport doors only to find a horde (literally) of taxi drivers all too eager to drive us to downtown Cairo... all this at 4:00 AM in the morning. They jump on the virgin white tourists that look like easy prey. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for them), we were in no hurry. We had decided to wait till 6:00 AM and take the city bus for 2.5 egyptian pounds each (about $0.50). This was a bit better than the best fare that was offered at 40 egyptian pounds (about $12).

We met up with this American women, also waiting for the city bus. She appeared very frightened. She was part of an organized tour and they had forgotten to pick her up at the airport. So we decided to take the bus together given her hotel was relatively close to ours. We made it to the Egyptian museum and then walked about 10 minutes to our hotel. We dropped off Melanie at hers and then went to visit downtown Egypt.

A few observations about Cairo (for those of you brave enough to venture here!):
1) Cairo is a very very dirty place (keep in mind that I live in London which is also considered
dirty). There was rubble (kind of like a war zone) and garbage everywhere
2) There are millions of people living in a very small area.
3) There are scam artists everywhere. And they prey on white tourists who look prime for the picking. On one particular street we were on, we were harrassed three times within a 100 metre block. There scam is very simple. They start walking next to you and tell you they want to help you find your way. You tell them you are not lost and then they ask you where you are from. They ask where you are staying and your name. And so it goes. You give them no information or else they will hound you. So you keep walking. They try to sell you something or get you into their shop. It doesn't stop until you walk away. They get angry at you and ask you why you are mad. You tell them you just want to be on your way. And so it gets repeated every 15 minutes. Very "taxing". New word I discovered speaking to British tourists also having a similar experience.

Many people visit Cairo in an organized tour group. This is both good and bad. Good because you get less of the scammers in your face (technically, they always find a way!). Bad because you do not experience the real Egypt and meet and speak with Egyptians from Cairo, Nubeans from Aswan or Bedouines from Sinai.

Okay, back to the trip. We visited the Egyptian museum which was great! The history in this country is astounding. We even got to see the mummies (real ones!). Well, we saw the preserved bodies of Seqenenre, Ahmose I, Amenhotep I, Tuthmosis I, Tuthmosis II, Tuthmosis III, Seti I, Ramses II, Ramses III.The other group was found in the tomb of Amenhotep II, consisting of the mummies of: Amenhotep II, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III, Merenptah, Seti II, Siptah, Ramses IV, Ramses V, Ramses VI. Quite impressive and well worth the visit!

We decided to leave Cairo after our exhausting day trying to dodge Egyptian scam artists. We really wanted to visit Dahab and Mount Sinai. This was the right decision! Although the bus trip took well over 10 hours and we had to get through 7 passport checks (more on this in a future blog), we eventually made it to our destination. Checking in at 11:30 PM yesterday, we went to sleep and woke up relatively early the next morning to catch the bus to Mount Sinai (where moses was supposedly told the ten commandments by God). Mount Sinai is about 150 km from Dahab and the bus ride took a little over 2 hours. Jess and I climbed the mountain (and yes, it was really tall). It took us 2 hours and it was a grueling climb. After going up the stairs of repentance, I can honestly say both of us repented most of ours sins through that climb! It was worth it all to see the awesome view of the surrounding mountains. It was a really strange sensation to be up there. It was so quiet... almost eerily quiet. You could hear yourself breath. Very spiritual.

We made our way back only to find no way of going back to Dahab (we had read that there were constantly service taxis... a hybrid between a taxi and a bus... and very cheap). So we grabbed a regular taxi and paid 200 egyptian pounds (around $40) to grab a ride back to Dahab. I can honestly say that I was scared. The car was a Russian made car dating back to the before I was born. There were no seatbelts and we were cruising at 90km plus. Did I mention there are no marked lines on some of the roads in Egypt? And that people tend to drive in the middle of the road. Lots of fun but we eventually made it safe and sound.

Jess loves it in Dahab. It is around 25-30 degrees. The water is superb (The Red Sea, right accross from Saudi Arabia). The people are extremely nice (Bedouines are very very friendly people). And the food is very good. So it is kind of like paradise, I guess. But we were hoping to see Luxor and the Valley of the Kings over 2 days which means we need to leave tomorrow night. I will try to push back our flight with Egyptair by 2 days so that we can stay in Dahab an extra few days but we will see if I am successful tomorrow.

I'm signing off for now. Let me know if you have any questions about my trip in the comments section or by e-mail.

Snowing in Prague

2005-12-05T09:15:00.000-08:00

More pictures are available by clicking:
Prague Pictures
Terezin Pictures

Well, I guess I couldn't stay away from the Canadian winter completely. Jess and I just came back from a 4-day excursion to beautiful Prague where it snowed on the last day of our trip (wet snow that is).

It all started on Wednesday morning (November 30th). We almost missed our flight when the train conductor "replacement" arrived 10 minutes late (we were to arrive at the airport 50 minutes prior to our flight... we arrived 40 minutes with the check-in counter closing 30 minutes prior to flight). We arrived with 5 minutes to spare.

We arrived in the departure lounge of the Gatwick airport starving (because having woken up at 5:00 AM that morning to take the tube and then the train, we were in no mood to wake up earlier to make breakfast). We strolled to a McDonalds and ordered breakfast and coffee. I guess the coffee hadn't sunk in yet when we realized we only had 15 minutes left before our flight was to depart... so we walked very quickly to our gate only to discover our section hadn't been called yet. Finally, we made it on board... took a deep breath... and relaxed for the next 2 hours.

Arriving in Prague was a breeze. No queues for luggage, passport checks or when exiting the airport. We had very good directions to get to the hotel and they proved extremely useful. We took the bus to the metro line and then the metro for two stops and then the tram. We walked the rest of the way (about 5 minutes). We were then shown our humble domain for the next 3 days. We had a very large bedroom (12 feet high vaulted cealings) with an extremely comfortable IKEA bedset. The apartment was along the Neruvoda street, a famous street in the Lesser Quarter leading up to the Castle Steps (for anyone having visited Prague). We shared a full bathroom with another apartment but there was only one night where someone stayed there (we think) and we never heard nor saw the other tenants so we pretty much had the apartment and bathroom to ourselves.

I won't bore you with the details of our trip but I will say Prague is an enchanted, beautiful city which has survived numerous wars, invasions, revolutions and communism. Through it all, the people of the Czech Republic have demonstrated that they could preserve something pristine and wonderful... their city. The city is marked by ondulating hills and amazing 13th to 19th architecture. This ecclectic mix is what makes the city so breath-taking. Every street corner has a different surprise waiting for you. It also has dark secrets as we learnt. After Hitler invaded the Czech Republic in 1938, he commissioned the building of a Jewish museum to highlight the future extinct people. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the museum because we waited till Saturday, our last day, to visit the Jewish Quarter (kind of silly given Saturday is the day of the Sabbath for the Jewish people). But we did get to travel outside of the city to see Terezin, site of a Jewish Ghetto and transit city during the second world war. Over 200,000 Jews were housed in this garrison city during one time or another with a height of 80,000 people living in the city. It should be noted that the city was built for 5,000 people. That meant that when there was major overcrowding in the city, people only had 1.8 square meters of space (this included outside parks and streets).

Close to Terezin (actually less than a kilometer away), there is the Terezin small fortress which was used during the second world war as the Gestapo prison camp. In it, many prominent Czech intellectuals, nationals and Jews were imprisoned. Needless to say, both the Terezin the garrison city and Terezin, the small fortress had a strange eary feel to it. It probably didn't help it was located in the middle of nowhere and that we visited the Jewish Museum, full of drawings and paintings of Jewish children imprisoned in the city during the second world war. None of them survived the war.

But I can't end on such a sad note. We visited the Prague castle which was amazing. We got to see a the Prague string-orchestra perform in the basilica. We also strolled all over the Jewish Quarter, Old Town Square and the Lesser Square. We became enchanted by the people, the sights and the history, even if we were a bit cold (the weather hovered above and below zero... strange how you get used to weather in London which hovers around 5-10 degrees).

Jess and I are finalizing our plans for Africa. We have booked most of our trip with a prelimary itinerary as such:
December 11-12: Cairo, Egypt
December 13-15: Luxor, Egypt (valley of the kings)
December 16-17: Aswan, Egypt
December 18: Cairo, Egypt
December 19-24: Tunis, Tunisia
December 25: Marrakesh, Morocco
December 26-28: Desert Trek in the South of Morocco
December 29: Marrakesh, Morocco
December 30: Casablanca, Morocco
December 31: Rabat, Morocco
January 1: Meknes, Morocco
January 2: Fès, Morocco
January 3: Sevilla, Spain
January 4: Granada, Spain
January 5-7: Barcelona, Spain
January 8-9: Paris, France
And back in London at the end of January 9th! Should be an exhausting but fun Christmas holiday. More news to follow but in case you are interested in getting in touch with us during the holidays, I suggest you contact us by e-mail at lcserge@yahoo.ca.

Brighton, UK

2005-11-20T12:26:00.000-08:00

I am trying not to yawn too hard. After 2 nights of clubbing in Brighton, UK, it is hard to stay up and work on my case to hand in next week. I also have to prepare for two interviews for my research paper this week but I will wait till tomorrow to work on this.

I had a wonderful time this weekend spending 2 days in the beautiful sea-side town of Brighton, about 150 km from London. It was cold on Saturday but warmed up nicely on Sunday. Both days were very sunny. We had some sessions in the morning to get us "motivated" and "career oriented". Needless to say, the important part of the weekend was spent eating, drinking, touring and talking with fellow classmates. It was nice to finally meet so many of my fellow students and wonderful to party with them in the evening.

I really enjoyed the goal-oriented session in the morning. I especially liked the question: "Imagine you are 80 year olds and you have to tell your grandchildren what you did in your life. Name 10 things you would tell them" That got me thinking about what I wanted to do in life and about the direction and decisions I needed to take. It was not a difficult question (I could have thought about it last week) but taking the time out to think about why I am here and what I am doing here was very helpful.

The trip back was uneventful but I did get to do quite a few little things upon my return. Jess is coming back from Paris tomorrow and we are hoping to get our Egyptian Visas but her train is delayed to 11:00 AM so we may wait until later in the week to get this done.

Notting Hill

2005-11-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

We have just returned from an amazing day in Notting Hill and the Portobello Market. Once again, markets in London are amazing and this one is no exception. Although items in this market are a bit more pricey, there are great treasures. It is an antique lovers paradise with everything from old prints to old maps, to vintage clothes, to cutlery dating back to Queen Victoria as well as everyday things of 200 years ago. You'll also find mountains of victoria-era furniture. We couldn't go to the market without getting a few things. I bought a map of Canada and the Maritimes dating back to 1900. I also bought a vintage wine stopper and 2 bronze wine glasses (2 pounds each!).

Jess bought a beautiful necklace which makes her eyes stand out as well as a teapot, a map of Canada and a drawing of a flower dating back to 1794. She also bought a very cute purse for going out. We finished the evening with a great Italian meal in the district of Soho and a beer in Covent Gardens (I got to watch the French-Germany football friendly... oh yes, Jess's friend Latitia was there so I could watch the game).

Ironically, I met up with 5 classmates in Soho and Covent Gardens... Although there are 7million Londoners, I seem to be running into people all over the place (In Camden Town, I ran into Catherine from my Thursday night course). I guess London really is a big village!

Jess has posted pictures from her trip to London which are quite fun to look at... She'll be adding more photos as the weeks progress so I suggest you check them out periodically.

Pictures of London

2005-11-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a week since my last entry and I thought I'd post another quick entry.

Jess arrived last Friday and we've been touring the city as some of these pictures demonstrates... It's great to see the city as a tourist... It's strange how one forgets that you need to explore it as well (even if you are a student spending the next 9 months here!).

We went to Westminster, saw Big Ben, went to Camden Town and China Town, explored the city core and got to see the Regent Street Christmas lights lit up! I had to do some schooling but Jess also got to see St.Pauls and the British Museum today so adventures and discoveries are pilling up. Here are a few pictures to show some of our exploring. I hope you like them!

John Ralston Saul

2005-11-01T05:06:00.000-08:00

As I'm completing another book on microfinance called the microfinance revolution (great book if you ever want to learn about the concept!), I take a pause to ponder about what I heard yesterday in the Old Building on LSE campus. John Ralston Saul is in town and he likes to give his opinion... It's a refreshing look on contemporary politics and more specifically on the collapse of globalism (he defines this as making all policy decisions in the prism of economics). He makes various valid points and I expected his diatribe to center on more controversial subjects but in fact, he had a very logical and pragmatic approach to many of the issues relating to today's problems. I fear he has probably been demonished by main stream media who see him as an anti-globaliser which is not a necessarily bad thing (it is always good to question the foundations of our society... my supervisor for my thesis always tells me to question what everyone holds as obvious because nothing is obvious). Here are a few of his main points:
1) Trade has increased by over 30 times in the last 25 years but global wealth has not. At best, it has increased at a mediocre rate compared to historical trends... Why?
2) Globalism is the belief that through the prism of economic decision making, all policies should be broken down to the effect on the GDP and trade and not on the human repercussions of decisions. There exists many examples of countries having adopted the strictest interpretation of this (such as Argentina, New Zealand, Malaysia). They have all collapsed in some way and recinded on their globalism experiment. China and India are definitely not examples of globalism as they have adapted some of the economic theory and melted into their own social theories.
3) Free trade has in fact freed the multinationals from transacting in most countries around the world. It has not brought increased wealth to the participants other than perhaps the headquarters (often located in the West, more specifically, USA). The multinationals have vertically integrated operations meaning they can purchase and transact in commodities, wages and land at minimal cost in the value chain driving down world prices. This trend predates capitalism and is called mercantalism or the creation of monopoly or oligopoly through the control of important resources.
4) John Ralston Saul believes that globalism is collapsing and western leaders are not seeing the writing on the wall or are perhaps in denial. However, there are signs of encouragement with leaders agreeing on non-economic issues such as the anti-land mine treaty, the international court of justice and the historical cultural international agreement taking cultural goods and services out of the jurisdiction of the WTO. One country has refused to ratify all three. Hint: they are also the biggest promoters of globalism. This isn't bashing, it's just a fact.
5) Globalism has done an about face with previous believers in free trade asking for a closing or tariff increase on goods being imported from China and India. This hypocritical attitude only diminishes the globalism movement.
6) Economics needs a more human face given it has been dominated in the last 25 years by number crunchers and less by philoshopical economists who believe that internationalism is needed and can create good values and international cooperation in fighting a series of problems including poverty, taxation, pollution and health and education concerns.
7) We are living in troubled times where globalism is slowly being driven from front page news but we are unsure about what will replace it. This period of uncertainty will lead to good and bad experiments and could lead to more nationalism, racism and potentially war. If we are enlightened, we can come out with a better solution which provides more fair, equitable distribution of wealth and sees wealth increased by 30 times in the next 25 years in a sustainable measure (both socially and environmentally). There are positive signs as the 9/11 events have given strength to our leaders to start to question the accepted positions and to fight for certain social policies and international conventions unrelated to economics.

Although his views are sometimes simplistic (you may have talked about some of these issues over the water cooler), you will find that this view of the world is very Canadian and in response to this, I think the world really could use a more Canadian approach to these issues because it appears the balance, sensible approach. And the debate continues...

Lessons Learnt

2005-10-30T02:03:00.000-08:00

It’s 3:00 AM in London and I learnt a few interesting things this evening. First, it’s important to check your smoke detectors regularly. Second, every house should have a fire extinguisher. Third, fire insurance is probably a good investment of your money. Fourth, never leave candles unattended.

One of my flatmates (the Vietnamese girl living on the third floor) left a candle lit on her desk. She came downstairs to watch a movie and left the candle burning. The candle holder somehow fell unto her desk and a small fire started… The South Koreans smelled the smoke and pored water over the fire and wet towels which contained the fire. They also moved her laptop which would have been engulfed by the fire. My Mexican roommate called the firemen who arrived within 4 minutes of the call. One of my South Korean flatmates woke me up and tried to explain the situation in his broken English. I was fast asleep on the ground floor when this happened. It’s amazing how calm I was during the entire ordeal. When I woke up, within a minute or two, I had grabbed my cash, my mobile, my keys, my computer, my passport, put it in my MEC bag, grabbed a coat and went outside… Smoke was coming out of the third floor windows.

We stayed outside for a few minutes and then were asked by the firemen to wait inside in the living room because the fire was out and it was drizzling a bit. The landlord showed up with his wife shortly thereafter. The fire marshal completed his investigation and I went to bed. There is no law requiring fire extinguishers and fire alarms to be made available in the building. But I convinced the landlords to buy a fire extinguisher and to change the batteries in the fire alarms (which had not gone off).

Everyone is safe and sound and the damage didn’t look too severe although the firemen discovered a wasp’s nest underneath Lin’s room. She was recommended not to sleep in her room tonight. Also, there appears to be a leaking pipe on the third floor.

I guess this is an opportunity to ensure that in a future fire, we are all more prepared. We need the proper equipment and we need to know how the system works. The fire department was very quick and the firemen very courteous and professional. This is the first time I actually saw firemen attending a fire and they seemed to know exactly what to do and did not waste any time doing it which is very reassuring.

Microfinance Revisited

2005-10-28T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I have my research subject nailed down! I was fortunate enough to have met Dr. Levin, a methodology specialist, who holds one on one sessions with students writing their dissertations. He recommended his book (obviously) but it ended up being a great help in nailing down the scope and extent of my research topic... Here goes (make sure you have had your coffee this morning before reading this part):

"Based on the interviews I will be conducting in London, UK from November 5th to November 19th, I wish to learn whether the interest by private investors and specialized equity funds in providing additional funds to microfinance institutions has resulted in an increased outreach to the poor due to the increased access to funds to MFI’s or has it resulted in a reduction in clients served due to the profitability and sustainability covenants imposed by this additional capital."

Okay, now that we have finished with the scope of the research (and the research question), we can get to work. I will be attending a conference on November 2nd organized by the Microfinance Club of London, a groupment of who's who in microfinance here in the UK. If I can't find relevant contacts here, I probably should give up. But I know that at least the UN representative of the 2005 Year of MicroCredit as well as the global director of Microfinance at Citigroup will be there so they will probably send me in the right direction if I can approach them.

My supervisor is enthusiastic about my research topic and very supportive. Maybe it's because he's a Jesuit priest as well as an accounting professor, but I really feel at ease with him. He provides me with very good suggestions and really is interested in what I am doing. I am certain I made the right decision in choosing him for supervisor which is reassuring. The only weird thing is I call him "Father" when I meet him during our weekly meetings instead of "Dr..." but it seems to clear the air a lot which is quite nice. There is no presumption and we talk like equals which is also very nice.

Okay, I should probably eat breakfast (yes, it is 10:00 AM on a Friday morning... I should be at work by now... but I'm a student! Lovin' it!).

Opening up a bank account in the UK

2005-10-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well, given I haven't entered a blog entry in a little while, I thought I would take this opportunity to rant and rave against the UK banking system. I had heard rumours about the UK's inability to process new savings accounts but I thought these were unfounded and exaggerated. I mean this is the imperial headquarters of the British Empire, well known for their mercantile history. Why would their banking system be slow and antiquated?

Well, not so. I went a first time to see the process involved in opening up a bank account. They categorically denied me access to this service because I needed a proof of residence... "But I have a signed lease demonstrating my address..." No, that will not suffice. You need a bill that has been paid. "But my rent is all inclusive...". Well, if you can get one of your Canadian banks to send you a statement to your UK based address, it should be fine.

So, I went off and tried changing addresses from my Canadian banks to my UK address. I was denied from my banks given it is illegal to ship statements to a foreign destination. Given the firmness of their response, I didn't push it, so I did my second trip to the bank. This time, they were a bit more friendly and suggested I receive my official certification from the school with my new address.

So, I went to the computer lab and changed my mailing address and printed my official certification. Once that had been printed, I needed to go to the Student Service Center to get it stamped by LSE. Armed with this in hand, I made it to the bank for the third time. Well, third times a charm, you might say? I thought so... They allowed me in! I got to fill out a form and they happily photocopied my documents, and they came back saying everything checked out.

Unfortunately, I would have to wait 5 working days for the paperwork to get processed. I would get a statement by mail and I would have to come in to officially open the account. I waited for 8 working days and received nothing so I inquired (especially since a colleague of mine who had opened the account on the same day had already received his confirmation). This was my fourth trip to the bank. They checked in their system and found nothing. They told me not to worry and to come back in 2 days... Everything would be settled by then.

So, I came back for a fifth time to the bank. When I explained myself, the lady shuffled some papers and said she had to go back to check something out. After waiting for an additional 15 minutes, she came back with my photocopied application and said there was a mistake somewhere in the process and they would have to complete the application manually. I was asked to fill out the form a second time. She assured me that the account would be open for tomorrow morning.

I came back to the bank for a sixth time and when I went to deposit some funds into my account, I was told the account was still not active. So I went to the Natwest student centre once again and asked for an explanation. The bank officer recognized me from all the previous times I had come and took my ID and came back about 10 minutes later from the back with a printout and said: "He's your account number... Sorry for the delay but everything should be working... Your bank card will be ready... in 10 working days. In the mean time, please feel free to use our regular bank attendants". But at least, I could deposit the check...

However, a question was always nagging at the back of my mind... Why does it take 20 days to open a bank account and receive your bank card in this country? And why is the British government currently holding a royal commission on why 10% of the UK citizens do not have a bank account and access to financial services? It seems quite obvious to me... Perhaps Microfinance should be used in the UK?

It's raining in London... Bah Hum Bug :)

Driving in the front of the bus

2005-10-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

I am very happy today... I got to drive in the front of the bus on the second floor of a double decker for the first time... Okay, for all you non-Londoners out there, this place is the most prized thing for people living here (with the notable exception of being invited for tea with the queen). Everyone always takes those seats first because you get a huge window on the second floor of the bus and you can see everything going on below you (you actually appear to be flying). It's quite the fun experience and I hope everyone can have a chance to experience this once in their life... Am I making a big deal about a small pleasure? Maybe... but maybe not... You'll just have to come over here to tell me I'm wrong :)

I came back from Camdem market today, having spent 3 absolutely amazing hours with Deborah and Sarunas at the best market I have EVER been in my life (I am not exaggerating although I have been known to exaggerate in the past). The ambience of laissez-faire (gothic-style teenagers run free along with indie-types, tourists, locals, and the notorious punk Brit) along with the thousands of stalls (not exaggerating here!) gives you a choice and an array of goods only the ultimate consumer can really appreciate... You'll find everything for everyone on your list (from the chain pot smoker, to the gothic friend of yours, along with the weirdest t-shirts and most eccletic home devices I have ever seen!).

Deborah and I have committed to going there next weekend. We will bring more friends! Everyone from Canada coming to visit me will have to make a mandatory stop at Camdem market... Best of all, it's only 20 minute bus ride from my place so I have no excuses. The weather, after 3 days of rain and drizzle, is amazing. Sunny with a warm 19-20 degrees. I bought an African print and a very cool, ecclectic yellow pillow cover.

Okay, I have to go meet up with some friends at Butlers wharf (going from hippie to yuppy, all in one day). This new development is very posh and the bars are swanky... I should probably change pants...

Is free trade fair or should fair trade be free?

2005-10-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

I attended a very interesting debate yesterday at the Old Building on the LSE campus. In one corner was the president of UK fairtrade foundation (owned by OXFAM), Harriett Lamb and in another corner was professor Tony Venables from LSE and Alex Singleton, the head of the UK globalization organization.

Free trade is an interesting concept. When ideal conditions are met, no one can refute the immense potential of free trade to maximize the utility of participants in the equation. Everyone benefits in a true free trade environment. The issue is not whether free trade works but whether it really exists. Professor Venables mentions 6 issues which need to be dealt with prior to using free trade as a poverty alleviation device:

1) Pursuade consumers to consume more goods from low income countries (remove people's concepts that buying locally is somehow patriotic)
2) Remove the trade monopolies in domestic and external markets (remove the number of transfers between parties before it arrives to end user... In some cases, coffee will touch over 50 different parties before arriving to your home)
3) Trade liberalization from all parties concerned (removal of all import and export duties, tariffs or other trade-distorting policies)
4) Develop key infrastructures in all markets concerned including developing countries (roads, health centers, education)
5) Remove all subsidies, direct or indirect, that distort the true value of the transactions
6) Account for externalities such as impact on environment in transactional costs

Who can disagree with this? Even non economist see the intrinsic value of commercial trade. You have two parties with 2 values each (one for the good they wish to exchange and another one for the good they wish to purchase). Each party agrees upon the price of exchange and both parties are left with a higher utility from the transaction. What I fundamentally disagree with is that the 6 issues that Professor Tony Venables showed us are far from being realized.

In the context of free trade as defined by George Bush (only when it benefits us and fuck the rest) or by the European Union (CAP is good for our farmers... Don't touch CAP), you find developing countries restrained by the markets they can export to. They can trade amongst themselves (which they actively do) but the true value-added markets are in the developed world.

Is fair trade the answer? Fair trade tries to answer points 1 and 2 and has had some measure of success in making the trading world a bit more fair for the farmers involved in these schemes. However, they do not fix the fundamental issues involved in world trade which is a lack of goodwill between nations. Trade can only occur when mistrust and politics are removed from the equation.

In this context, free trade can be used as a tool for poverty alleviation if it can allow for local manufacturers, farmers and developers to grow their business. I would add that microfinance plays a large role in providing the necessary monetary capital, in working capital, or infrastructure or capital expenditures for these company. This allows the company to grow as their sales grow. Many companies in the developing world stand to benefit from integrative trade as they are more likely to enjoy cost advantages and resources at a lower cost. Tools that responsible the average citizen and allow them to make their own economic decisions are usually the most sustainable.

What they need most is education and key transport infrastructure. This is where the G20 can play an active role. Where governance is being met in developing countries, G20 countries should be encouraged to actively invest in public infrastructure and education schemes to allow the citizens to benefit from their governments actions. This would allow for business investment to arrive and more additional capital to be invested in local companies allowing for international trade, permitting growth in jobs and real wages. Surely earning $3 a day is better than earning $1 a day? We are still far from the ideal but improvement is what is key in poverty alleviation.

Happy Thanksgiving... From London

2005-10-10T01:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I visited the zero meridian in Greenwich... No, this isn't a song by the Tragically Hip. But it was quite neat to view the sign post which started all meridians around the world. It was at the top of the Greenwich park which rises up to provide a great view of the City (London's financial district) and downtown London.

Latitia and I slowly made our way through some of the most interesting shops I've seen so far in London (specializing in 2 pound books... not the weight but the price;, and Maritime items). We got to visit some museums including the Royal Observatory and the Maritime Museum (free of charge, of course... most museum run by the government are free everyday).

We finished the evening at Leicester square where we met Sarunas. We walked to China town which eerily ressembles the one in Montreal. There are tons of restaurants and choices for eating out. We eventually chose this all you could eat buffet for 5 pounds (we are students after all!). The food was good. We went for a pint accross the street at this really neat underground Irish pub with live music (we are in London after all!). Afterwards, Latitia and I went to see this movie called the Green Street Hooligans about football hooligans and their gangs (we are in the UK after all!).

Given the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday is not celebrated in the UK, I will take today in stride although I need to go to the bank to open an account, purchase tickets for a faculty event, meet with a potential supervisor for my research paper, attend an introductory meeting with a nurse at the LSE Medical Centre, attend a debate on whether free trade promotion can help development or fair trade is the real answer... Oh, and I have to do 2 loads of laundry, purchase an ironing board and I'd like to go for a run and discover my neighbourhood... Not bad for my first day off :)

Take care everyone and happy thanksgiving!

Finsbury Park

2005-10-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

I just came back from a run around Finsbury Park (about 4 minute walk from my flat or 2 minute run). It was amazing... The leaves have changed colours, the park is well maintained and has plenty of sporting facilities (including soccer pitches, basketball and volleyball courts, tennis courts and a great running lane. I think the actual run is about 4km but I may be wrong (it felt like that and it took me around 20 minutes to circle it). Unfortunately, I'm out of shape so I will probably only do 1 and a half laps tomorrow and try to do it without too much panting. I'm very lucky to have such a great facility nearby... If I have visitors, make sure to bring your runners along so that we can go for a run or play tennis, volleyball, b-ball or football :)

I've decided to not go to class tomorrow given the subject matter is statistics and I have done enough of it in my undergraduate and CFA to know what is going on. Although our professor likes to deviate from the subject matter to prove theorems, he always mentions it is useless to know this (then why teach it?). I will instead join Latitia, one of Jess's friends, for a leasurely walk in Greenwich (pronounced Grenich... Don't ask me why). Supposedly, you have an amazing view of downtown London from the Greenwich park.

I have to run (excuse the pun here) as I am late for our dinner invitation to Sarunas, our Lithuanian friend. He is cooking us a traditional dish which I am very excited to try out. More to follow...

European Football Tryouts

2005-10-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

There comes at time in a man's amateur soccer career that he realizes that he's out of his league... That is how I felt as I tried out for the LSE division 5, 6 and 7 teams... It was slightly embarrasing trying to mark the mostly 19-21 year olds vying for a spot on this team... I felt old and outclassed and mostly useless on the football pitch. It was an awe-inspiring event as I realized that I was in a drastic need for some conditioning (who knew walking up the multiple escalators in the tube stations wasn't enough to keep up with the lean English football player?).
To be quite honest, the time required to be on these teams is, well, short of amazing. There are 2 games a week and all games are held on LSE sports fields, which are conveniently located in zone 6 in berrylands... about 15 minutes walk from the train station. So, make sure you mark your calendar for a one-hour and 20 minute ride to and fro the football field. Given games last about 2 hours, bank on wasting about 9 hours a week on football... Although, I love football, I don't have the patience... Imagine if I ran 9 hours a week? I would be a marathan runner! Not that I will replace the football with running but I'm just saying...

Back at my new apartment (I can use that term for at least a few more days). I went shopping at Asda last night (the UK equivalent of Walmart with the additional benefit of fresh food). Although it was a hardship to get to the store (took 2 separate buses to get there), it was well worth it (in terms of savings) and I was able to buy some good food for my supper this evening (mom, you would be proud... steak sauteed in garlic, onions and mushrooms, with carrots, green beans... with a glass of wine, naturally, thanks to Norm's stash he provided me before his return to Ottawa).

This morning's class was, well, interesting... Our accounting professor started his course with an interpretation of Macbeth... Then, he went on to sing his favorite poem... Unfortunately, this was the introduction as he went straight into accounting principles shortly thereafter (but he's getting good marks for his entertaining start to the class)... After an hour of accounting principles, the professor went to his second most favourite subject: physiotherapy (he is doing a course right now towards becoming a physiotherapy). He explained why the bicep is, well, called the bicep (there are two muscles there... we even did an exercise examining our biceps). Finally, he finished the class by sending us in groups to complete an analysis on 2 companies accounts. Our group choose the forestry sector.

Mysteriously, our afternoon session was cancelled because the professor was sick? I should mention that the course leader showed up during some of the teaching time... Perhaps, the course leader doesn't like Macbeth or physiotherapy as much as the students do?

Londoner, true and true

2005-10-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

As I took the tube this morning, after waking up at 7:30 this morning in a the borough of Hackney, I discovered that I am slowly getting accustomed to London life. With my eleven roomates (I seem to meet a new one everytime I open the room to my door), I really am living the total student life. Here are the names I can remember:

* Sha and Tex from India (my ground floor mates)... both are graduate students at Middle Essex University
* Lin from Vietnam... she is eighteen and was shipped here by her parents, I think, to get a proper western education.
* David from Mexico... A very friendly, but somewhat nocturnal Mexican.
* Nataresh from Spain... Doesn't really speak English so I got to practice my very rudimentery Spanish... Me llamo es Serge y soy de Canada. Yo vivo en tu casa en la primer piso.
* Honey (not kidding on the name) and his roomate Oye (not kidding on the name) from China... They smile a lot but they don't really speak English either. Everytime I say Honey's name, he giggles uncontrollably... Really strange stuff.
* A Columbian fellow and his girlfriend from Hungary who have introduced themselves three times already but their names are so complicated I cannot understand them.
* A Korean girl whom I forgot her name but looks very quiet.

I travelled throughout London all day yesterday starting at 1:30 PM. I signed the lease but only after 2 hours at the apartment... Lin and Mia (the landlords) were busy running errands and photocopying documents so I got to talk with Sha, an Indian graduate student completing his dissertation for a Masters in Computer Engineering. He lives with a roomate in the room next to mine... The rooms are quite large in this house! Then, I went back to Ted's place to pick-up my duvet and pillows, which ended up being more trouble than anticipated (how does one transport a king size duvet in the tube? In a very large garbage bag of course... I'll let you ponder on the comic relief I provided Londoners yesterday). Then, I had to go to the airport to pick-up my baggage at the let luggage shop. Good news: Manor House is on the Piccadilly line which connects directly with Heathrow. Bad news: it's 30 stations until Heathrow... roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes... But I almost finished the book Jess bought for me before my departure... The end is quite funny and I really like it so the 2 hours and 40 minutes on the tube went by very quickly (thanks Jess!). Has my already long and tyring day ended? Not quite... You see, Norm, a Canadian friend of mine from Ottawa, who is working in London, was flying out the day after (back to Canada). I was very lucky to get a few things from him and made my way to his place, a 5 minute walk from Bank tube stop. By the time I was in the apartment, with all my stuff off my bed (and had a bed to sleep on), it was way past my bedtime.

I also discovered, being on the ground floor does have some important disadvantages (I hadn't really thought of this when I saw the apartment) as my room gives way to the corridor leading to the living room and kitchen... Although I usually get up in the morning relatively early, sleeping in may be a challenge. But this may not be a problem if I conveniently use earplugs on Saturdays and Sundays. This isn't a problem for the time being as I have classes everyday until next Sunday at 10:00 or 9:00 AM.

I have unpacked most of my things but this would lead the reader to believe everything is in its place. You would be wrong. I have a pile of dirty laundry in one corner. I have a pile of food that Norm gave me the night before in another. I have a pile of odd things (like ties, computer cords, squash rackets, plastic bags and whatever else doesn't belong anywhere) in front of my mock fireplace (yes, you read right). I have put some things on hangers (which I can only thank Norm for supplying).

Once I had my morning java (thanks again for Norm's Nescafe instant coffee...), I put on a blazer because today, there is an interesting presentation by bankers on measures of success... Not that I ever want to work in a bank in London, putting in 12 hours days in a stressful environment but I thought the idea of attending this presentation would be mildly amusing... I got dressed, brushed my teeth, grabbed my bag, walked out of the door, made my way to the local shop for a few fruits and croissant... The girl at the counter kind of giggled which I thought was kind of cute (man, I'm making women in London giggle, that's great!)... Then, I made my way to the tube office and purchased my oyster card (what the hell is an oyster card, you might ask? Don't ask me! But I did shell out 21 pounds for it and it gives me access to the tube for 7 days). Again, the women kind of smiled at me (but this smile was more malicious... sort of "you are really out of it this morning, aren't you?"). It wasn't until the break this morning at class that I discovered I hadn't shaved in 3 days, was wearing a blazer with a white shirt and might ressemble a hobo in most countries... But heck, I'm a student, so on LSE campus, anything goes! No smirks, giggles or even looks as everyone is out of whack here!

Just one last thought before I run out of inspiration (which happens very often)... The tube is an amazing invention, allowing thousands of people every minute to get where they want to get, so long as there are no tracks to fix, leaves on tracks, tea spilled on the controls by the conductor as he speeds out of the station. I kind of feel at one with the proletariat, on their way to wherever, everyone minding their own business, everyone trying to get to somewhere... I think this feeling will get increasingly annoying with time (I'm laughing as I write this because one has to in London).

Life is as it should, in a metropolis of 12 million people. I am but a dot in the city's fabric and I'm kind of happy to be here (even if my stomachs is making strange noises... Was it the milk in Sha's tea he maded me yesterday or the gallon of water I drank straight from the tap when I came back last night...)

62 Woodberry Grove, London, N4 1SN

2005-10-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Just provided a deposit for a room in an 11-person house... Sounds like l'auberge espagnol? Well, it kind of is (there are numerous nationalities and mostly students staying in the place)... You see, I haven't met any of my roomates other than 1 Columbian woman living with her boyfriend on the third floor. However, my room is quite large and I will have a double bed as well as a desk and plenty of storage space... Natural lighting is great and I can control the heat.

Location is good as it is about 4-5 minutes walk from Manor House tube stop (on the piccadilly line, which is the line with the best service on the network). There is also bus 341 which passes every 20 minutes which drops you off right in front of LSE. I did the trek from LSE to the apartment and it took around 30 minutes which is fine... Also important are two night buses that drop me 4-5 minutes from my place. For those who do not know, tubes stop running at midnight so if you are out on the town, you are very dependent on the night buses which run throughout the night. Service is quite good so usually, it isn't a problem (it takes around 30 minutes from downtown to get to my place with a night bus).

Apartment is well priced and the only thing that kind of annoys me is this ugly blue carpet (I'm not a fan of carpets...) But there is a cleaning lady that comes and cleans the common areas (living room, washroom and kitchen) once a week so it is almost like living in residence but with more space :)

I'm meeting Mia and her husband, the South Korean owners, tomorrow to sign the lease for a 9-month period... There is a quaint garden and the neighborhood is nice, peaceful and safe. There are two 24-hour supermarkets open within 10 minutes walking distance.

I think I have found a place to call home :) So, let the visiting commence!

P.S. I haven't signed anything and only gave a small holding deposit so I hope to be able to confirm tomorrow that everything is a go!

Departmental Induction

2005-09-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

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 :)

London nightlife

2005-07-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-20T00:49:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-07-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-07-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-07T03:43:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-05T04:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2005-07-04T03:30:00.000-07:00

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.