Halloween falls on a Sunday this year, which fits nicely into a wild Halloween weekend. I’m not usually one that’s crazy into fancy dress (this is what British people call costume parties), but around Halloween time, I usually can get talk into putting on some silly outfit and have a …
Half an hour to kill. Do I read a 130-pg document on electoral voting in the UK or write something fun in my blog? Not a tough choice there. On a Saturday morning, I was walking toward the London Bridge tube station along River Thames when I heard someone said, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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. …
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 …