Yes, it's another condensed post. But this time with more pictures! May, what do I remember about May...It was wet. It was the wettest April to June in the UK since they started keeping records. My rainboots finally gave up the ghost and I refused to buy new ones, thinking that the rain would eventually have to stop. I was wrong. Finals finally began. My schedule was super spread out. I have a final at the beginning of May, before practically anyone else at the LSE and then one at the end of May, beginning of June and end of June (literally the last day of finals). On the one hand it was great because I could study for each subject individually. It was also brutal because I was constantly under the pressure of being in the middle of finals. I watched a LOT of TV to avoid studying, I slept too much and kept going to the gym as often as I could.
I've stalked myself on facebook to try to remind myself exactly what I did with myself this month. Apparently I saw the Avengers movie at the beginning of the month and LOVED it. It was exactly what I needed, to enjoy myself mindlessly for two+ hours. Then I buckled down and studied for my first exam. It was a subject that I really didn't like, Mental health law, but it was only a two hour exam, so it was a nice way to ease into finals. I don't think I did brilliantly, but I felt confident in the questions and my answers. It was a bit hard to adjust to how finals are done here. The question will seem very simple and straightforward, but if you were just to answer the question as it was asked you would fail. Instead, they want you to look at the question, then go back to the very beginning and set the stage, discuss the context of your answer and then finally, finally at the very end answer the question. Once I went through some questions with the professor during the review class I felt I finally understood why I had done so badly on my formative assessment earlier in the year. Also, exams are handwritten. It's not quite a quill and ink, but it's difficult to adjust to writing an exam in ink, where you have to organize as you go and you can only add things in at the end if you think of something extra.
Two days later, everyone at USC Law graduated. I was a little sad to miss out on the experience, but there was obviously no way I could have made it with my finals schedule as it was.
After the first exam I blew off steam. I don't remember how or where but I found these pictures!
Any ideas? That weekend the rain broke briefly and I took the opportunity to check out Hampstead Heath. I hadn't been there before and I thought this was as good a chance as any. I took the tube up north and then walked a mile or so to the park and to Parliament Hill. I passed through a flower garden and by some bowling courts. I had recently been riding in Plumstead (down in Greenwich) on the horse I was loaning and I remembered her owner describing bowling to me but I had no idea what she was talking about. Now I was seeing it in person! Apparently it's a sport played only by the elderly and only while wearing white. It's kind of like shuffleboard, but played on a very level lawn.
I kept going and settled on the hill with my book. There was a great view of far off central London.
Unfortunately it was chillier than I had bargained for. It was great as long as the sun was shining directly on me, but I was cold when the sun disappeared behind the clouds, as it did too frequently for my liking. I napped and read and eventually, when it got cold enough, I went back to central London. Trafalgar square to be exact. The London Symphony Orchestra was playing a free concert of Stravinsky music. I bought an overpriced London sweatshirt and settled in , standing at the very front row.
Eventually I felt bad about blocking the view of the people behind me (not that bad, it's an orchestra, listen with your ears?) and settled to the side for the second half of the concert. I don't love classical music, but I do love feeling cultured.
That weekend was also Mother's day! My mom and I figured out how to skype with video so I skyped into the celebration. It was great to see everyone in real time and except for the part where everyone was eating Dunkin Donuts but for me. Maybe next time we can put the computer somewhere that isn't right next to the donut box?
Time kept passing and I kept avoiding my studying by doing things like continuing to ride, Vogue, the Irish sporthorse cross that I was loaning had been off work for ages following a bout with strangles and then an abscess but even though she is quite young she just got better and better. I spent days at the barn and enjoyed the heck out of myself. In that time her owner collected a couple of pygmy goats, three darling kittens, geese, and 50 bunny rabbits (breeding). I taught my first and still even now, only, BJJ class. It was intimidating but Nilton (the black belt) gave me pointers and was super supportive.
A friend from University of Maryland came out to London for a vacation and we got together for catching up drinks at Callooh Callay with him and Jardena. Then the two of us went to Fabric for some late night electronic music. It wasn't the best night to be there and we got there right after one of the acts had ended, but we made the best of it and then made plans for Ministry of Sound later in the week.
A few days later Marissa and I went to the Louboutin exhibit at the Design Museum in Butler's wharf. There were no pictures allowed but I sneaked a couple. There was this giant hologram of a shoe that transformed into a dancing Dita Von Teese and then back into a giant shoe. It was mind-blowing.
We admired all the insane shoes, listened to an actor telling stories and then went upstairs to admire the winners of the design awards. This wasn't shoe related but there was some incredible stuff up there. My favorite was a giant kinect looking ball, twice a tall as a person, which was a real life mine sweeper! You roll it through a mine field and it bounces around and sets off mines without hurting anyone! Very cool. There was also a small exhibit about the lace working on the Duchess of Cambridge's (Kate Middleton's) wedding dress. Very intricate work. Much more impressive up close. We had our fill of design and eventually left the museum
And then walked along the water, past a very striking Tower Bridge on our way back to Sidney Webb.
The second part of my night was spent meeting up with my UMD friend Dan and his friend Sarah for a night at Ministry of Sound. Typical Ministry of Sound, lots of electronic music, lots of dancing and not enough sleep. I think we left around 4 and it was already light out by the time I got home. Mainly because even in May the sun started to come up that early.
The last cultural event worth noting in May was seeing Swan Lake on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall with Jardena and Simone.
I had never seen the Swan Lake ballet but I imagine doing it on ice skates can only make it more impressive. We were up in the cheap seats, but there were enough open that we were able to move from the extreme side so the center of the upper section so that we had a great view of the rink. Which was tiny. I took a LOT of pictures because I was so impressed with what they accomplished in the very limited amount of space available.
I took enough pictures that you can pretty much relive the experience for yourself.
Swan Lake was May 21, and I just have no real idea what happened between then and the beginning of June...I know at some point Dan came back from his side-trip to Amsterdam and I went to happy hour with him, his friend Sarah, my flatmate Daniel and my friend Camila at the Anchor Pub on the Thames and then to another pub by Borough Market.
I'm guessing I spent the rest of the time studying for my M&A exam, which was at the end of the month. The class was a whole unit, a year course, but because it was also divided into half units we had to be able to answer at least one question from each half of the course (and a third question from which ever semester, it didn't matter). After looking through a lot of the old exams it seemed that there were certain topics that were bound to come up. I focused on preparing those as best I could, but it's particularly nerve-wracking to essentially bet on which topics you think will come up in an exam. Unfortunately I had been really good about doing the reading the first semester and had not been nearly as good a student in the Lent term. Here's evidence
On the left, all the reading that I printed out, AND READ, during Michaelmas term. On the right, everything I printed out and read for Lent Term. Obviously there was quite a bit of catching up to be done. I made it through the exam and overall felt pretty confident with the questions that I answered. The only truly annoying part of the exam was that we were in a very small room, with the door at the front left. The invigilators (YES THAT IS A WORD APPARENTLY! that LSE uses to mean "proctor") had everyone leave their bag in the back right corner. Then when the 1/2 unit people had finished their 2 hour exam, they had to walk squeeze past the desks of the people still finishing up the full unit exam (ME) to get their bags and then bag again to reach the door. Poor planning! I finished the exam and then sprinted out of there to avoid people talking about the exam and their answers. Not interested.
There isn't any more evidence on facebook or in my pictures that I did anything of note between that exam and the end of the month. So I'll leave you with this:
Jubilee M&Ms! for some reason it struck me as really funny that Red, White and Blue are patriotic colors in both the UK and America (and also France and I'm sure other countries as well...).
And that was May! Overall, better than April I think. And now that I look back on it, with an unusual number of cultural events. Lot's of horseback riding, not enough surfing. Can't have it all.
June, the last month that I truly don't remember much about coming to a blog near you soon.
Love and miss,
I've stalked myself on facebook to try to remind myself exactly what I did with myself this month. Apparently I saw the Avengers movie at the beginning of the month and LOVED it. It was exactly what I needed, to enjoy myself mindlessly for two+ hours. Then I buckled down and studied for my first exam. It was a subject that I really didn't like, Mental health law, but it was only a two hour exam, so it was a nice way to ease into finals. I don't think I did brilliantly, but I felt confident in the questions and my answers. It was a bit hard to adjust to how finals are done here. The question will seem very simple and straightforward, but if you were just to answer the question as it was asked you would fail. Instead, they want you to look at the question, then go back to the very beginning and set the stage, discuss the context of your answer and then finally, finally at the very end answer the question. Once I went through some questions with the professor during the review class I felt I finally understood why I had done so badly on my formative assessment earlier in the year. Also, exams are handwritten. It's not quite a quill and ink, but it's difficult to adjust to writing an exam in ink, where you have to organize as you go and you can only add things in at the end if you think of something extra.
Two days later, everyone at USC Law graduated. I was a little sad to miss out on the experience, but there was obviously no way I could have made it with my finals schedule as it was.
After the first exam I blew off steam. I don't remember how or where but I found these pictures!
Any ideas? That weekend the rain broke briefly and I took the opportunity to check out Hampstead Heath. I hadn't been there before and I thought this was as good a chance as any. I took the tube up north and then walked a mile or so to the park and to Parliament Hill. I passed through a flower garden and by some bowling courts. I had recently been riding in Plumstead (down in Greenwich) on the horse I was loaning and I remembered her owner describing bowling to me but I had no idea what she was talking about. Now I was seeing it in person! Apparently it's a sport played only by the elderly and only while wearing white. It's kind of like shuffleboard, but played on a very level lawn.
I kept going and settled on the hill with my book. There was a great view of far off central London.
That weekend was also Mother's day! My mom and I figured out how to skype with video so I skyped into the celebration. It was great to see everyone in real time and except for the part where everyone was eating Dunkin Donuts but for me. Maybe next time we can put the computer somewhere that isn't right next to the donut box?
Time kept passing and I kept avoiding my studying by doing things like continuing to ride, Vogue, the Irish sporthorse cross that I was loaning had been off work for ages following a bout with strangles and then an abscess but even though she is quite young she just got better and better. I spent days at the barn and enjoyed the heck out of myself. In that time her owner collected a couple of pygmy goats, three darling kittens, geese, and 50 bunny rabbits (breeding). I taught my first and still even now, only, BJJ class. It was intimidating but Nilton (the black belt) gave me pointers and was super supportive.
A friend from University of Maryland came out to London for a vacation and we got together for catching up drinks at Callooh Callay with him and Jardena. Then the two of us went to Fabric for some late night electronic music. It wasn't the best night to be there and we got there right after one of the acts had ended, but we made the best of it and then made plans for Ministry of Sound later in the week.
A few days later Marissa and I went to the Louboutin exhibit at the Design Museum in Butler's wharf. There were no pictures allowed but I sneaked a couple. There was this giant hologram of a shoe that transformed into a dancing Dita Von Teese and then back into a giant shoe. It was mind-blowing.
The second part of my night was spent meeting up with my UMD friend Dan and his friend Sarah for a night at Ministry of Sound. Typical Ministry of Sound, lots of electronic music, lots of dancing and not enough sleep. I think we left around 4 and it was already light out by the time I got home. Mainly because even in May the sun started to come up that early.
The last cultural event worth noting in May was seeing Swan Lake on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall with Jardena and Simone.
I had never seen the Swan Lake ballet but I imagine doing it on ice skates can only make it more impressive. We were up in the cheap seats, but there were enough open that we were able to move from the extreme side so the center of the upper section so that we had a great view of the rink. Which was tiny. I took a LOT of pictures because I was so impressed with what they accomplished in the very limited amount of space available.
I took enough pictures that you can pretty much relive the experience for yourself.
Swan Lake was May 21, and I just have no real idea what happened between then and the beginning of June...I know at some point Dan came back from his side-trip to Amsterdam and I went to happy hour with him, his friend Sarah, my flatmate Daniel and my friend Camila at the Anchor Pub on the Thames and then to another pub by Borough Market.
I'm guessing I spent the rest of the time studying for my M&A exam, which was at the end of the month. The class was a whole unit, a year course, but because it was also divided into half units we had to be able to answer at least one question from each half of the course (and a third question from which ever semester, it didn't matter). After looking through a lot of the old exams it seemed that there were certain topics that were bound to come up. I focused on preparing those as best I could, but it's particularly nerve-wracking to essentially bet on which topics you think will come up in an exam. Unfortunately I had been really good about doing the reading the first semester and had not been nearly as good a student in the Lent term. Here's evidence
There isn't any more evidence on facebook or in my pictures that I did anything of note between that exam and the end of the month. So I'll leave you with this:
Jubilee M&Ms! for some reason it struck me as really funny that Red, White and Blue are patriotic colors in both the UK and America (and also France and I'm sure other countries as well...).
And that was May! Overall, better than April I think. And now that I look back on it, with an unusual number of cultural events. Lot's of horseback riding, not enough surfing. Can't have it all.
June, the last month that I truly don't remember much about coming to a blog near you soon.
Love and miss,
No comments:
Post a Comment