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Published: November 10th 2007
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Us pre-flight on the Eye
That's me, Eric (who's dad knows somebody who knows Jo?), Brian, and Aliye Hi all! So I realize it's been quite a while since I've updated. School has kept me inundated with work. I cannot say how different the system is here. The amount of reading is incredible, and if you get even a little bit behind it's incredibly difficult to catch up. That being said, the freedom you have on the exam (you usually have to answer three or four questions out of ten) means that if you're not interested in something you don't really need to study it or read about it, because you can just dodge that question on the exam.
Ok, so a few things I've noticed about London and the UK in general.
1. There are security cameras everywhere. You literally cannot walk down the block, take the tube, buy milk, or really do anything without being captured by at least five cameras. You don't really notice it on a regular basis, but when you're looking, you realize just how much surveillance there is.
2. Lots of things seem to work better here. Whilst (see, I am starting to talk like a Brit) many Londoners would disagree with me, I think the Tube is amazing. The
Parliament
I'm in love with this building. signs in the Underground tell you the number of minutes to the next train (usually 2 or 3, not 15 like in Philadelphia), you swipe in with an electronic card that you can top up (one of a friend of mine's favorite British phrases) at a machine or online using your credit card, and the Tube goes just about everywhere you'd ever want to go in London.
3. The variety of food available here boggles the mind. I've found a great Mexican place that sells tacos tinga (boiled meat simmered in a tomato/chipotle sauce) for four pounds. They're just around the corner, so I give them a call, and by the time I've walked there, they've got my tacos ready. As I've said before, the grocery stores are amazing. When Brian gets here, I want to try the Indian Feast for two from Waitrose. It's a prepackaged multi-course microwavable Indian meal. I had a microwavable chicken tikka masala the other day, which was quite good. And there are other unexpected places to find Indian food. I just had a tandoori chicken Domino's pizza for dinner. Yummmm. Also, Europe has Kinder Eggs. My friend from middle schoo, Isabelle, used to
bring them from visiting her family in Belgium when I was at T.H. Rogers. They are white/milk chocolate eggs inside which are little capsules with toys it them. And Dr. Pepper Zero-like Coke Zero, in that it's Dr. Pepper without the calories. I swear, it really does taste like the real thing. In addition to all this, I've so far managed to avoid the sketchy real British food...except that one night the dorm had whole lamb's liver. Ick.
4. London has very cool markets. I went to Portobello Road in Notting Hill a couple of weekends ago, and it was fabulous. It's part antiques market, part food market, and part everything else. See the pics. Tomorrow I'm planning to go to Borough Market, which is just food. It's all charcutrie and artisan cheese and other fabulous things that the Fresh Grocer in West Philadelphia definitely does not carry. I'm super excited. And of course, there's always Camden Market, where the young London punks go for their fashion.
Anyway, other than all that, I'm just trying to keep my head above water with the school work. I should start rehersals for a dance piece I'm in for the big
LSE cultural show, Timeless. It's Indian classical (Bharatnatyam and Kathak...not that that will mean much for most of you) fused with modern. Check out the website: www.lsetimeless.com (pay particular attention to the venue....will I really be performing in THERE?). I've also met the other people on my international mediation mooting team. They're all lovely girls (one Indian girl and two Chinese girls from Hong Kong) in the LLM program here. We're very excited because this year the competition is in Paris!
Anyway, today was the half-way mark for the fall (what we call the Michelmas) term. I'm still in love with my law class. I've decided learning about India is much more interesting from an Indian perspective (as we get at Penn) than from an overly academic white guy. Somehow this class treats India as if it can be looked through the same lens that we use when looking at Western history. India has lost its exceptional nature, and I think that's a problem. But hey, I'm not teaching the course. I'm ambivalent about my other two classes. They're fine, but they don't get me amazingly excited.
Anyway, enjoy the pictures, and Happy Thanksgiving (coming up just around
the corner). I'll be having Jo, Rocky, and AJ here for the holiday, so I'm quite excited. Until then....
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Karen
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GREAT photos!
Absolutely beautiful. Miss you bunches! Kill them with your incisive intellect and thoughtful reflection. You're a star! Love, K