Week in Review

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Week in Review

I have made it through the first week here without going out of my mind. I've nearly set up a bank account, seen much of London, and gotten a bit of a scare from my academic adviser.

First, London. There's quite a bit going on within an easy walk of my house. There's a small park and a few town centers, a grocery, and a train station. Blackheath is a cool area that's the next borough over, and through that is Greenwich (went there yesterday). So plenty to explore around where I am...

The train ride to LSE takes just about 20 min and goes right by the London Eye, an enormous Ferris Wheel overlooking London, then crosses the Themes within view of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. I have been on the Eye as well as on a pub crawl along the south bank of the Themes. Right across the river from LSE is the national theater, and just down the river is Tate modern art museum. I've been on a coach tour around London, and gotten a chance to enjoy several of the pubs around the LSE.

My first interaction with the faculty here came in my advisory meeting with about 20 other general course students in my group. The Reader (one of the tiers of what we call professors in the states) was very brash and had a dim view of the LSE. As we went around the room introducing ourselves, he questioned each of our respective reasons for coming and had a dim view of the general academic climate at LSE. He told us that we would each likely fail at least one class, and told one student that transferring to the LSE after this year would be "the worst possible move of your academic career."

Needless to say, I came out of the meeting a bit disheartened, especially since the marks I receive at LSE affect my GPA. I was quite happily surprised with my first lecture today. It was very well presented, and it was clear that although the material will be challenging, it is also very doable. We shall see what tomorrow's class brings.

In other news, I went to the campus radio meeting today and think I'm going to try for a radio show. Should be fun.

Cheers,
pb

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Comments

[Lauri]

Turner at the Tate
Yeah for you. Great exploring! Hey, there is a major Turner exihibition at the Tate that opened a couple of weeks ago. He is one of my favorite artists of all time...up there with Kandinsky. The interview with the curator I heard on the BBC said a number of works in the show are his version of Renoir paintings. They are not studies, but rather competitive with Renoir 'proving' he is a better fine artist than Renoir. Interesting in that this type of competition is silly in contemporary art as traditional painting skill gives way to meaning rising to the pinnacle. Anyway, catch the show and tell me all about it! Love you. And I 'm so proud of you. Lauri