Here is a comprehensive list of every singe blog post I’ve ever written. Happy Reading!
Bag Lady in Action
Lately, I’ve felt a bit like a bag lady – always packing my life into a bag, or two, or living out of one, or two. Now, I’m once again squeezing everything into two suitcases. Roughly two years ago, I was doing the same thing, heading to Cameroon. This time,…
Literacy for All
Last year’s International Literacy Day helped me spread an important message and bolstered support for the Books For Cameroon project. I received lots of positive responses on my post as to why I started the project and why I value literacy. Here we are one year later, and the project…
Home and Friendship
Tomorrow, I’m off to the next adventure. Though I will back in London town, a place that I know well, I will be starting graduate school at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. I am excited and terrified all at the same time. Will I be ready…
Back in Londontown!
I’m back in London after 3 years of wildly amazing experiences, and I’m deliriously happy. It could be because I’ve hardly slept in the past 36 hours, but I remember this state of contentment from my previous stays. I arrived in London Heathrow at 7:30am. After a long wait at…
Oy Grad School!
Today was the first day of graduate school, but it really was just a meet and greet with everyone in the MPA program. Monday begins the pre-sessional courses which will entail two weeks of intense math and statistics classes. Bundle of joy, I tell you. But the math nerd in…
Simple Pleasures
Been back to London for just a little over a week, yet it seems I’ve been here for a long while. The first few weeks of any new experience always feel this way – so much excitement and time seems to stand still while one adjusts. Yet once the initial…
A Taste of the Royal Life
This weekend, I spent in a lodge where Queen Victoria frequented. I am, after all, in England. The MPA program took us away after a week of intensive math and stats classes to Cumberland Lodge which is one of the royal properties entrusted by the current Queen. Situated just outside…
Work Hard, Party Harder.
This week is LSE’s orientation week, yet us unfortunate first year MPA bunch still have intensive pre-sessional course in statistics. Last night was the postgraduate party hosted by the student union. Though on a Tuesday and we had class this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a good bunch…
afternoon delight du village
Naturally, the day I need to prepare for my first exam in over 2 years was a gorgeous sunny day in London. Luckily, this exam doesn’t actually count for anything, more just an assessment and provide feedback. Yet for some reason, everyone in the program is taking it mighty seriously….
First Day of Big Kids’ School!
The past two weeks have simply been a warm up to the real deal. Today began the first day of graduate school at the LSE. It was, well, exhausting. The LSE is after all a city and an European school. There is not acres of green fields to spread out,…
Piecing the Puzzle
Within the international development stream of the MPA program at the LSE, we are only allowed to have one option unit during the first year. After a quick browsing through the approved option list, I immediately decided upon a course named “Regulations of Financial Markets”. While fellow students were struggling…
Tower Bridge is Folding Up
As a child, one of the first tunes I learned to play on the piano was “London Bridge’s Falling Down”, but we sang it in Chinese, of course. Then later, in English class, we learned to sing London Bridge is Falling Down, in English. Today, after a long day at…
Baby Steps
The first week of real classes came and went. The workload is quite intense already; it took me hours to simply put together the reading list for the term! At the same time, I’m being a complete dork and loving all of my lectures. I went to a few company…
50 Years of Service
50 years ago today, a speech made by President John F. Kennedy at the University of Michigan inspired the idea of the Peace Corps. Many before me have served and many after will. Maybe because I’ve just returned, but this short two years of experience is now a part of…
La vie à londres
Lagging behind on the blog. Grad school is slowly taking over my life, but I’m fighting it. Unlike my pre-Peace Corps self as an undergrad, I am determined to strike a healthy balance between work and life – getting more sleep and enjoying life for what it is.Heading into week…
