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| Sunday, October 14th, 2007 | | 4:54 pm |
drumroll please...
a good four months after taking my exams, my grades are finally out! well, unofficial grades and therefore subject to change (official grades are out nov. 30th). but nonetheless: it looks like i passed all my classes... with merit! i'm so excited. *happy dance* | | Saturday, September 29th, 2007 | | 8:19 pm |
Wow, I cannot believe that it's almost October. Where did September go? And, where did August go, for that matter? When I arrived in Korea in July, I always thought in the back of my mind that a 13-month contract sounded like a long time. But now I'm already more than two months into it. I guess two keys to time flying by in my life is satisfaction and occupation. Basically, I'm busy and I'm happy, two things that didn't quite characterize my time in London! It also helps that there have been some Korean holidays recently. Last weekend I had off Saturday through Wednesday for Chuseok (추석), the Korean Thanksgiving (actually more like a full moon harvest festival). I stayed pleasantly busy visiting friends. This weekend, I purposely planned nothing. Just relaxing and catching up on 'me' time.^^ Ah, life is sweet. | | Sunday, September 16th, 2007 | | 4:45 pm |
Good bye Nari
It was raining this Sunday morning, but I decided to go into work anyway to get some lesson planning done. Well, I was about 5 minutes into my 10 minute walk there, and I started to think it wasn't such a good idea. It was raining pretty hard, and my shoes and pants were starting to get quite wet. When I finally arrived, I was greeted by sandbags piled in front of the door to protect it from the rain. I guess they weren't expecting me, let alone a me that was completely soaked from head to toe. Mascara was dripping down my face, my umbrella was torn, and my heart was kind of racing. It took a surprising amount of mental energy to look for my keys and a surprising amount of physical energy to move and replace the sandbags, all while being pelted with rain and strong winds. But if that sounds bad, it only got worse two hours later when I decided to call it quits and go home (no one else made it to the office that day). The wind and rain had picked up even more. Water was gushing and flooding the streets like I have never seen before and the sheets of horizontal rain were not letting up. I was thinking about waiting longer at my work, but what if it just got worse? So, with my last ounce of bravery, I went outside, telling myself that as long as nothing fell on me (tree branches, power lines, etc), and I didn't fall down, I most likely would make it home safely, although very very wet. Which was exactly what happened. It turns out the rain was really typhoon Nari, a Category 2 storm with winds from 96-110mph, which traveled right over the island. Luckily now, about 4 hours later, the rain has let up and the winds have died down a lot. I'm really happy to not lose power for very long at my apartment (5 minutes here and there). And at home I was able to get three lessons planned to boot. So hurray for adventures with safe endings and productivity. It's been a strange day. | | Sunday, August 19th, 2007 | | 7:42 pm |
I just got back from a weekend in Seoul. What a fun time! I met friends, watched movies, ate good food, and even went to Costco and bought about 10 pounds of Kashi Crunch cereal! Hurray for finding bulk quantities of products that I otherwise can't get on the island. When I got home, I needed some things for dinner, so I rode my scooter down to the store. It was awesome because I was far too tired/hungry to walk (it takes at least an hour round trip), but my scooter allowed me to make a yummy dinner. Mmm... | | Thursday, August 16th, 2007 | | 1:55 pm |
Scooter!!!
I'm the proud owner of a new (used) scooter! Actually, I don't know if it's technically a scooter or a bike. The scooter shop didn't have any scooters in the size and price range that I wanted, so I bought a delivery bike instead. Basically, in Korea, all the fast food delivery people use a certain type of red bike to make deliveries. They are good bikes, dependable and inexpensive to buy because they have the delivery connotation with them instead of the more luxurious look of the scooter. Well, I couldn't care less about a bike's prestige, just as long as it gets me where I need to go. And I think my little baby red will do just that. Hmm... now I just need to think of a name for it. Any suggestions?^^ | | Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 | | 1:08 pm |
Superlatives
The students are learning about superlatives in my Elementary school English class. (Who is the tallest? Who is the youngest? Who is the quietest?) Well, it came time to figure out who was the strongest in the class, so I organized a quick arm wrestling competition to find out. One girl shone above the rest, creaming every other competitor. Just as I was about to conclude 'Sera is the strongest', she looks up at me and says 'teacher!', meaning that she wanted us to arm wrestle. In the spirit of things, I accepted, and boy, was she strong! It was dead even for quite a while, until I started mentally focusing on the fact I couldn't let myself be beat at arm wrestling by my elementary school student! Finally I prevailed, but I don't want to think what might have happened had her arm not been fatigued by the previous eight matches battled and won. Regardless, for now (and possibly forever) 'teacher is the strongest in our class!'. ;) | | Friday, June 22nd, 2007 | | 7:06 pm |
I know I haven't posted in an exceptionally long time, but I have some great news today... I'm done! I'm done, I'm done, I'm done! Donedonedonedone... done! I finished my last final today (three hours), said my first good-byes to some of my program friends, and then proceeded to come home and take a three hour-long nap, which is particularly unusual for me but my exhaustion needed immediate remedy! Next, I'll start packing up my room. I'm only in my dorm eight more days, six of which I'll be visiting Lucie and her family in Prague. But first, I must decide what to make for the potluck dinner I'm going to tomorrow -- there are a couple of vegetarians, and I think other people have already claimed dessert and a rice dish. Any suggestions? Oh, and I just found out some exciting news: one of my classmates was hired to be the director of the UK government's Energy Savings Trust, an organization to encourage smart energy use at home and with personal travel. He'll have 80 people below him! How cool is that?? (He's a mature student, so he has a couple of decades of real-world experience behind him, too.) Check it out: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/ | | Saturday, March 10th, 2007 | | 10:09 pm |
*.* (star struck)
i had an enjoyable week with my mind off of school thanks to a very nice visit by katharine and evan. i finally had a good excuse to do lots of touristy things, and also had much fun celebrating my birthday with various friends over the course of several days. we also finally met up with devon, and had a good time catching up. but anyway, the anecdote that motivated this post: katharine and i were waiting for evan outside the victoria and albert museum just around closing time on friday afternoon. we noticed a film crew there and were interested to find out the cause of the commotion. our curiosities were soon satisfied as we heard a director yell 'action' and a short, slender male dressed in jeans, a gray hooded sweatshirt and brown jacket walked quickly up the front steps of the museum. unimpressed, i still wondered what it was for. a commercial? a documentary? but i didn't feel like asking, so i just continued to stand there as the actor walked back down the steps. this time, i got a better view of his face. a vague familiarity clicked in my mind as i whispered 'he looks like a hobbit!' to katharine. then, and only then, i realized: this was elijah wood! as others whipped out their cameras, i coolly stood back and took a few mental pictures of my first london star sighting. and in case you're wondering, they were filming for the movie 'the oxford murders' due out in december 2007. | | Sunday, January 28th, 2007 | | 9:36 pm |
| | Thursday, January 25th, 2007 | | 11:52 am |
So, it's the third week of classes and I've finally racked up a few life anecdotes to warrant a post. Classes are going pretty well. I've joined a reading/study group for each class, so that's helping to keep me on track and motivated this semester. And, reading, writing, and turing in my weekly article summaries gives me the productive feeling that I was missing last term. I also started working! It's just 9 hours a week at my school's library, but it's money, so that's what's important. And, I think this might be the first week in six months that I actually made more money that I spent. It's just a temporary job as a data collector for the library's 6-week photocopier survey. I basically just sit by my assigned copiers and write down bibliographic information of books and articles being copied. So far, so good. My first day only 6 people came in the 3 hours that I was there. Yesterday... just one person. So, I was being paid to basically sit, read, and write letters. And... it's the most highly paying job I've ever held at 9 pounds per hour (almost $18/hour!!!). Unfortunately, the ridiculously high cost of living in London really deflates the usefulness of 9 pounds. For example, thanks to the 20-30% public transportation ticket increase in January, a 1-way 2-zone tube ticket is 4 pounds if you pay in cash. £4!!! This is why I walk everywhere. I also started taking a Bikram yoga class. It's also called 'hot yoga', named for the 100+ degree F room that it is practiced in. Basically, you sweat buckets during the 90 minute class, but it feels so amazing, especially on these cold winter days we've been having recently. And, I totally feel purified after losing so much sweat. Well, I have seminar in 10 minutes, so I'd better stop here. Today I had class at 9, then 12-1, then 1-2, then a meeting with a prof at 3, then work from 4-7. But my weekend starts tomorrow! | | Monday, January 8th, 2007 | | 4:52 pm |
well, i'm back again in london. second term starts today. i turned in my first assessed essay (5% done with my degree!). went to the gym. yeah... back to school life routines. but this term, i have class four days a week instead of two, so my wednesdays and thursdays won't be so crazy. that's good news. | | Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 | | 11:55 pm |
How much can you really blame on cultural differences?
After two and a half months in this strange new land, today I realized that I was using fabric softener instead of laundry detergent to clean my clothes. Maybe the washing machines really are better here than I gave them credit for... | | Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 | | 12:50 pm |
So, after 80% of the term is over, I've finally written my first essay! No, it doesn't actually count to my class grade, but was rather just a practice essay. But I still received a decent grade, so I'm not discouraged. I definitely could have read more, but if I get the same grade on my final exam essay, I'll can't complain. | | Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 | | 10:06 pm |
| | Monday, November 6th, 2006 | | 5:55 pm |
bus pass? money? map?...
i almost forgot... finally an interesting cultural anecdote! yesterday was 'guy fawkes day' here. apparently, guy fawkes tried to blow up parliament in the 17th century (or something like that). today, this unsuccessful attempt is celebrated by huge fireworks displays. my chinese flatmate said it reminded her of the 4th of july. so, in order to celebrate this festive event, fifty or more fellow dorm residents and i marched our way to victoria park to see the 'best fireworks display in all of london'. or, at least that's where i thought we were going. it turns out that despite all the posters and e-mails that mentioned 'walking' to the park, 'walking' really meant riding the bus. so myself and a dozen other people who didn't bring their bus passes still ended up walking. for at least 30 minutes. but we made it. the fireworks ended up being a sort of fire/theatrical event... you just had to be there, but it was not what i was expecting. and unfortunately when we got there, it was so busy that i quickly lost everyone but two of my flatmates. between the three of us, we had no money, no map, and only one bus pass. whoops. we asked a friendly policeman to point us in the right direction, and we headed off back home, hoping to get there safe and sound. my flatmate who brought her bus pass put in a valiant pedestrian effort before decided to ride the bus home a few blocks later. so then there were two... but all in all, even though it doesn't sound like a very good time, i enjoyed it. it was cold and dark, but fireworks were popping everywhere. it was nice to walk around in a new part of the city, and through that understand a different part of what it means to live here. so many times getting somewhere becomes such the focus of our busy lives that we miss the journey. because through it all, even though i didn't really get to see 'the' fireworks, it was still a beautiful night. | | 5:32 pm |
a satisfying day... i hope that i'm finally getting into the flow of uk postgrad life. or, at least that's my optimistic belief at the moment. why? because today was finally a satisfying day in terms of a good balance in my life. i don't want to bore you with a minute-by-minute run down, but overall, it was nice for many reasons: -i got a good amount of sleep last night, -i helped out my flatmate by editing her 17 page paper at 8am in the morning. despite the fact that i woke up early for it, and it took me over an hour, i still found it satisfying. the more editing i do, i think the better i like it, -i did a lot of research for my elusive dissertation topic. i was researching literally what my topic should be, not actually in-depth research on a certain topic. but it's a start. and through this, i realized how totally unprepared my economics education has left me for doing non-economic social science research. qualitative research? what!? yes, there is a real world beyond those numbers. i guess if i get anything out of this experience, it will be a much-expanded concept of what is social science. -i created a new soup for a second day in a row. well, it probably wasn't new in the sense that no one has ever though of it before, but new to me in the sense that i've never been much of a cook, so it's exciting to throw together a few simple ingredients and have it taste agreeable. -i went to the gym (finally!) and had an awesome workout. really... i actually ran on the treadmill. this never happens, and i don't know what spurred the motivation. -tonight i have my 2 hour clase de espanol. yay for adult foreign language education! anyway, there is more, but you get the idea. this is the life of a (uk? social science? postgrad?) student. totally free, flexible days. i'm realizing that i have to embrace the freedom and through that might come some semblance of productivity. or at least that's what i keep telling myself. | | Friday, November 3rd, 2006 | | 11:17 am |
another week has flown by. i had my usual busy wednesday and thursday, and now i'm starting my 5-day weekend. what a life, right? actually, i've decided that i don't really like this style of education very much. i mean, i came all this distance for the education, and i'm only actually in class 9 hours a week. one of my professors (well, the PhD grad student who is leading one of my seminars) was saying how the master's program here was becoming more like an undergraduate education, ie... it is more class-based and less independent. he also called PhDs in the US an extension of undergraduate education, meaning that you still have classes for the first two years and then you start your research. i guess in his ideal educational system, graduate students start independent research from the start. your first day... boom. you go to the library and read. now, i'm not saying that this is a bad way to educate yourself, but for me personally, i prefer having a more structured learning environment. i mean, the whole reason you go to a university and not just your local library (where, arguably, you can get all the same information for much, much less cost) is to have contact with the professors and the other students. knowledge is dynamic and grows through interaction with others. or maybe i'm just lazy and would prefer to be spoon-fed the information by the top minds in the world on these subjects. is that really so wrong? okay, it's only 11am and the fire alarm has already gone off three times this morning. happy friday! | | Monday, October 30th, 2006 | | 3:41 pm |
so... i'm definitely not coming home for christmas. sorry to everyone who will be in portland! i really do want to see you! but, i'm getting tired of 20+ hour cross-globe commutes and days of foggy-brained jet lag. so, i've decided to stay local for my winter vacation. or at least local meaning on the same continent, more or less. for the first part of break, i'm working on visiting alex... in bulgaria! this will be my first trip to eastern europe. then i'm going to iceland to visit an lse friend who is from rekyjavik. i'll be there for a week (including new year), and already am hearing about lots of fun places we'll explore. somewhere in there, i'll have to write a paper. but overall, i'm surprised at how little actual work i have to do at grad school. even compared to other grad students at this school, i really have very little assigned work. i'm not complaining, but just still trying to understand how it's possible. today is the first day of my spanish class. i'm so rusty after not having used it for about three years (like spanish did me a whole lot of good in korea). so, i'm excited but a little nervous, nonetheless. well, that's all i can think of for now. i've put off my assigned reading for long enough, so i should spend the next two hours hitting the books, er... scholarly journal articles. | | Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 | | 12:24 pm |
so, finally some good news on my academic front: i think i've finally figured out my schedule. i'm going to be taking: -environmental evaluation of economic development -globalization (...globalisation), regional development and policy -population and development -dissertation (topic tbd) it all seems so simple now that it's settled. well, almost settled. i still have to weasel my way into a 10:30am thursday seminar class (the only one that fits into my ridiculous thursday schedule). but i have the permission of the head professor, so hopefully it won't be a problem. now i need to figure out a good system for doing the readings. i'm not so overwhelmed by the amount of reading, per se, because that is obviously the main focus of my time being a student again. but rather, i'm trying to figure out the best way to organize and (most importantly) remember things that i've read. case in point: i have a presentation tomorrow on critiques of cost/benefit analysis and i read all 8 or 10 articles that were assigned. they all made sense when i was reading them. but when i was talking it over with my presentation partner, it became clear to me that i really didn't remember much about the different points that the authors were making about it. this is bad, especially when it's only the third week and i won't be tested on this stuff until may or june. but i think realizing this now is a good thing, and i'm going to go to lectures put on by the learning help center (centre...) about reading strategies, notetaking, effective paperwriting, etc. i know that i have these skills in a us-educational context, but i have the feeling that they only somewhat transfer to what is required of me over here. but anyway, *finally* i had a good morning because things are coming together. that, and the internet was working at my dorm and i found a good recipe for egg flower soup. | | Thursday, October 5th, 2006 | | 5:55 pm |
Today was my first full day of classes, from 9 am to 4pm (with only a 1-hour break in the middle). Although 6 hours of lecture in a day doesn't seem like much, consider that I only have 8.5 hours of class each week. Welcome to grad school in the UK! |
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