I received my Master of Public Administration degree as part of the GPPN Dual Degree program between London School of Economics and Columbia SIPA, where I spent my first year in London, and the second in New York.
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Happy Halloween!
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…
Why, of course!
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
au village no more
I’m currently on the road of my East Coast whirlwind tour and found a little time to update the progress of my reverse culture shock. I find that it didn’t…
Visa Fun
One of the things that come within the territory of being a globetrotter is taking care of paperwork – visa is one of them. To apply for a student visa…
Life Brainstorming
After a long silence, Sciences Po Paris finally gave me an answer. They admitted me, and gave me a oodle of money from the Emile Boutmy Scholarship. The catch: they…
London Real Estate: Student Edition
Since housing in central London is pretty outrageous, living in student housing does come out to be more cost-effective.The process to sign up for LSE accommodation will begin any day…