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Published: October 15th 2007
So I know I've been rather remiss in updating, but I hadn't been doing too much of interest until Brian arrived on Friday. So pre-Brian, I had my first week of class, which was quite good. The lecturers are just outstanding! I'm absolutely loving my law class (Public International Law). PIL lawyers are so optimistic about international society, and the good that law can do, and the responsibilities of international law for creating a better, more just way for states to interact. It's so idealist, and I just love it. It's too bad most PIL involves working for NGOs/the UN/governments, all entities that don't pay very well. At any rate, I'm hoping to do some moot court while I'm here, and I'm applying to the PIL and international commercial mediation teams.
I also really like my Britain and India class, although it can get a bit stuffy and overly academic at times. The class instructor (a grad student, as opposed to the lecturer, who is a full professor) is quite interesting though, from the Cambridge South Asian Studies department, and she told me that every Wednesday night in Cambridge someone presents a seminar on a South Asian topic.
My
geography class is split into the "Political Economy of European Integration" and "Societal Problems in Europe" (things like aging, migration, ect.), and should be easy (it's a first year course) and at least mildly interesting. My final class is International Relations Theory, which is dry and academic so far, but right now we're just talking about "What is Theory?", "Is there a Theory of IR?", and other pointless (I think) philosophical questions like that. I think when we get into the meat of the theory it will be far more interesting.
So Brian got here on Friday, and we didn't do too much Friday night. I had my Bharat natyam class, which is exhausting, and we went for dinner. Then we went to Crush, which is a weekly party at LSE where they turn the whole student union (basically) into a club. Saturday we met up with Jay, Brian's and my friend from Penn, and a friend of his from Penn who is studying abroad here this semester at Goldsmith's College. We went to the Tower of London, but decided 13 quid was waaaay too expensive, so we hopped a boat from the Tower to Westminster to see Parliament.
After wandering around a bit, we took the tube to Camden Town, which has lots of cool funky shops (and some just plain weird shops-lots of punked out kids go here to buy their clothes and accessories), and a really neat (albeit small) international food market type thing. Saturday night we popped over to Brian's Aunt and Uncle's house to see his them and two of his cousins (the other two are away at university), and we ended up staying the night. The next day we had lunch and just sort of lounged around their flat, before heading home to bury our noses in our respective books: I had Indian Society and the Makings of the British Empire, and Brian had Statistics for Business and Economics. Ick.
I had class early this afternoon, and then Brian and I met up at Hummus Bros., which serves about ten different takes on hummus, including the fabulous guacamole and hummus with garlic-lime sauce that Brian and I had today. On our way home, we decided to take a detour to the British Museum, where the permanent exhibits are all free. In the half hour we had before it closed, we saw the
Indian artifacts, the Egyptian sculpture (including the Rosetta Stone), and the Elgin Marbles. We've now returned home to my little tiny room, where I'm updating this and then I plan to stick my nose in yet another book (law this time!). Oh how I wish my classes were pass/fail like many of the other study abroad students!
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Abby
non-member comment
As always, I had a great time reading your blog. If Brian is still there, I recommend you two hit up the Victoria and Albert Museum! It will be quite a contrast from the British Museum.