Jammed Recap

The end of another semester results in a constant flurry of events, extra coffee, and a lack of sleep. I'm adding a lack of consistent blog posts to this list as well.  In this post, I'm trying to essentially recap a bunch of things I've been doing on and off over the past two weeks in order to be back in the present!

About two weeks ago, I heard Alec Ross (@AlecJRoss) speak at LSE on power in the information age. Alec Ross formerly worked on the Obama 2008 campaign and was Senior Advisor on Innovation for Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. 

I've had  a  bunch of Pi Phi Alumnae events and meet ups over the past few weeks as well. One was a farewell as my friend, Michelle, and her family moved back to the States. Michelle was the first Pi Phi that I met in the UK. She and I met randomly on the streets of London near Holborn in 2010, and from there, we both found out we were Pi Phis! 

Michelle and me

The Pi Phi Alumnae Club also hosted a small Thanksgiving potluck the weekend after turkey day!

Other events over the past few weeks included the MPASA pub quiz (2nd place team!), a UK Panhellenic Alumnae Club Luncheon, a few holiday parties, enjoying the West End, and plenty of Christmas themed treks around London! 

1st Winter Wonderland Trip of the Year

Sorry again for the lengthy catch-up post! More frequent posts are coming to an blog reader/email inbox soon!

Summer Reading: Part 2

Since my last post, this bookworm hasn't stopped trying to get through a massive booklist before school resumes in less than two months! Here is what I've had my nose in lately. 

HUGE JFK FAN!

I saw Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt speak at LSE back in May. I knew I needed to check it out! 

Week Recap

Since my last post where I fully admitted to academic purgatory, I tried to add more fun activities back into my life. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my coursework as I have mentioned numerous time. And, I love learning. It's just that cramming 20 weeks into my brain is not something I enjoy. 

On Tuesday, I attended a Local Levo League event. It was held in one of the buildings that was used in Skyfall. And, the view from the office spaces that we were in...was truly amazing! The evening was spent around asking for more. Specifically, we focused in how to approach situations of seeking more responsibility in the workplace as well as approaching the task of asking for a salary raise.  It was truly a great evening, and  I know the knowledge will be helpful in the coming years. Plus, I was able to catch up with so many amazing women that I know call my friends.

Building used in Skyfall

View from the Levo League Event

Wednesday evening, we had a sorority alumnae club event. I cannot recall if I mentioned, but I am now the Vice President of Event Planning for the Pi Beta Phi UK Alumane Club. I had organized the Founder's Day event in April, but I was in Scotland, so I didn't attend. The event this week was a Wine & Silver Spoons Potluck complete with a Cookie Shine. For my Pi Phi readers, I had been in desperate need of a cookie shine! 

Cookie Shine

Members of the Exec Board

And, on Thursday, I got to attend the public event at LSE with Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt. It has to be the best public event that I have been to at LSE so far! I got there early and wound up in the front row. Despite having a ticket, LSE events fill up quickly. I had to get there an hour early! But, it was worth the wait! Truly inspiring talk about digital media, the Internet, the future capabilities, and the ideas of the changing world landscape. 

Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt!

I'm off to go do some economics revision and laundry before a night out with a friend leaving for the summer! Stay tuned!

Settling into a Routine

Apologies for the delay in posting. As you can imagine now that the semester has started, my hours of free time to blog, watch my favorite television episodes, and sleep, in some instances, has been limited. Now that week two is wrapping down, I can honestly say that I am settling into a routine of classes, homework, networking events, etc.  It doesn't go without saying that the first two weeks have been stressful enough already, but I love it. Being challenged is something that I've always wanted out of academia, and LSE sure does know how to do that.

As for a routine, it's important to note that for everyday of the work/school week, I'm up by 6:30/7 everyday and go to bed around 2/3. You and I can both do the math on that. It's clearly preparation for my future political campaign. Thank goodness for weekends and those occasional 10 minute naps on the tube.  Here's my class schedule:

Mondays: 

10:00-12:00 - EC455: Econometrics Lecture

14:00-15:00- EC455: Econometrics Seminar

with the option of a help-session in the evening for STATA, a statistical program 

Tuesdays:

9:00- 11:00- EC440: Microeconomics/Macroeconomics

13:00- 14:30- GV478: Political Science and Public Policy Seminar

EC440 help session in the evening

Wednesdays:

11:00- 12:00- EC440: Seminar

14:00- 17:00- MG419: Management Class

Thursdays:

Day off currently. This will be the day where I will intern the most!

Fridays:

10:00- 12:00- GV478: Political Science and Public Policy Lecture

All in all, I have a lot of free time to do work for my remote internship, read (a lot!), and go to Starbucks.  With having class in the morning, I feel accomplished by midday. It's been a bit different as I have never had class really before 9 or 10 at Syracuse with the exception of one or two classes.  The Starbucks on campus knows my order when I stroll in around 8 or 9 each morning to get a last minute review session before class each day. I've started to find my favorite areas to do work in. 

The homework load has been a lot. I expected it to be a lot, and it certainly met those expectations. We have problem sets for our main core courses with EC455 ones being graded randomly to make up a percentage of my final grade. We found the fun news today that EC440 problem sets will only be graded to provide feedback, and that the entire grade for the class will be based on the final. It's a lot to think about, but my goal will be to stay on top of everything as best as I can to save trouble come May and June when I'm studying. Back to the books, I go!

#101in1001 Update!

As most of you who follow this blog regularly, I am participating in the 101 things in 1001 days. My list has to be completed by May 22nd, 2015. Check it out here: #101in1001.

Since many of the things on my list deal with traveling and doing new things, I figured it was time for an update even though I have only been in London for around three weeks now.

-Live in a Foreign Country for a Year

-I think I've already got a big head start on this one! 

-Master the Art of Packing

-I think I'm getting better at this one especially after the big move across the pond. 

-Meet one of my Inspirations

I got to meet Kofi Annan on October 4th. 

Michaelmas Term Begins!

Today was the official start of the Michaelmas Term. Yes, that fancy phrase does simply mean the fall semester! And, if you are wondering, the spring semester is denoted as the Lent term, and unfortunately, the summer term does not get a special name. Anyways, while real classes do not start until Monday, today marked the start of the term. It also was a very lucky day for me as well as a day filled with academia.

To start with, I registered for courses this morning. While I had to pre-select the three I had to take, I got  to finally decide what option to take. I am waiting to hear back if I am selected into the course, but if I am, I have quite a lot of free time! We were able to choose our seminars (discussion classes). Couple of weird sentences written here, but I'll do a whole post on classes once they start!

My loan was also released today. LSE officially was able to draw down my first loan check. I won't get it until next week, but at least I can almost finally say I have the money that I will owe for the rest of my life.

Ticket for Kofi Annan

The first part of my lucky day was clearly those two different results.  But, I also landed an internship today! It will be a paid internship that I had the interview for earlier this week. I'll post more specifics on it later since it is actually quite a new position, and it is still somewhat being developed. I start Monday with an introduction session with the rest of the intern class. Looking forward to it!

Kofi Annan

LSE is well-known for having exceptional guest speakers on campus. Today was no different. I had been able to secure a ticket to see Kofi Annan last week, and today he spoke about his new book, Interventions. As I got in line about an hour early (tickets are not guaranteed seats-first come, first ticket served), bought his book, and began to begin to live-tweet his talk, I couldn't help but think that this was an amazing first day to start the term. It reminded me again of how happy I am that I decided to attend LSE. Impeccable opportunities to hear from people who have inspired me (or, maybe I've disagreed with some positions). It's academia at it's finest. There is a reason I choose to come to the best social science institution in the world.

At the end of his talk, I was able to meet him quickly during the book signing.

Signed copy

Signing books

 Following the talk by Kofi Annan, I studied for a bit, but then it was time for my second public event of the day.  The Minister of the Economy and Competitiveness for Spain, Luis de Guindos, was given a talk on the Spanish Economic Policy strategy. Having only learned a bit about the Spanish economic woes from prior classes and what I've read in the news, I decided to go to this event. I requested my ticket last minute, and was thankfully allotted one. While much of the presentation that he presented dealt with a lot of graphs (using those math principles already), a lot of it was information that is often overlooked or underrepresented in reports about the Spanish economy.

Luis de Guindos

The highlight of the event clearly came when the questions were asked by the public. I had somewhat predicted that this event could get of hand with all of the security and the current economic woes. As he was responding to a question given the current day decision by the ECB, a woman interrupted the room with a very loud question. She was followed by two others yelling that Spain is for Sale. None of them were escorted out of the room despite the somewhat five minutes of tension. Throughout the rest of his question and answer period they continued shouting remarks as well as many others.

You can read more about the event here: "Spain Does Not Need a Bailout." 

Sorry that this post is fairly short, but I have my pre-semester math course test tomorrow! Even though it's not graded, I want to make a good showing. Stay tuned for more posts--lots of catch-up posts planned!

Essentials of Packing....Katie Style.

I have had a disease known as over packing since I was allowed to pack my suitcase for vacations on my own.  Over packing has been a consistent family joke since I was young. In the dictionary, my name is listed as over packing. WebMD defines over packing as Katie.

My disease had become so severe that a weekend away at our lake house requires extra clothes, just in case. Keeping in mind, our lake house is less than an hour away from our home, and I have clothes there as well.

College was an entirely different case. I had a moving truck, and I'm proud of it.

Believe me, over packing for college paid off every semester. You'd be surprised at the random things I needed (crayons, a hammer, sleeping bag, etc.).

As I've noted several times before, when I went abroad for the four months in college, I packed lightly. I came home with more, but I worked very hard to keep both suitcases underweight for that adventure. It paid off as I was more comfortable packing for weekends away and had more room for souvenirs.

This time around, I will be checking three very large suitcases. I'll also have a carry-on and a backpack as well.  About a week ago, I took over the guest bedroom with the start of the packing process. I decided that rather than spend time packing by ripping my closet apart, I'd pre-fold everything that I would like to take. Creating outfits based upon a variety of different clothing pieces was essential when doing this. Usually, whenever I moved to Syracuse, I could take just about everything I wanted to. If I only wore a sweater once in a while, it was fine. This time, it's different.

My piles were of basics (socks, etc.) in addition to scarves (most purchased from the last time I was abroad) to my peacoat. Thus, today, when I started packing, I was able to move throughout the room looking at what I had pulled. No need to rush back and forth between my closet.

Piles Prepared the Week Prior...

Today, if you cannot tell already, was the day I packed. I started out putting the toiletries in all three suitcases (double bagging, of course). From there, rather than pack just one, I moved throughout the room adding in things to all of them.  One of the things that I have picked up on from traveling is too stuff shoes (including boots) full of smaller items. It seems obvious to do this, but it can be often overlooked. I laid in my peacoat towards the bottom of one suitcase and proceeded to stuff the sleeves. I did the same for my leather coat. With several of my dresses and silk blouses, I did the roll-method, but was able to place a few smaller shirts between them before the roll.

Starting to Pack

Overall, I was able to get just about everything that I wanted to take with me. A combination of relaxation clothes (new pjs!), clothes for classes, and business attire was packed. One of the nice things is that I'll be able to rotate any clothes at Christmas, if I get tired of them.  I packed the essentials- practical for the weather, comfy clothes, and, fashionable as well for London.

Finished Product

The only things left to pack are my carry-on and my backpack. My rain boots snuck into my carry-on suitcase as they weigh a bit too much. Yet, I'm stuffing them full. I've got the majority of the carry-on suitcase done with just a few minor things left to add in.  Moving into the final week, I can make sure that I have everything that I absoltuely need and make sure I did not forget something!

Get to know LSE...

As the final month of my countdown to London begins, I figured it'd be a good idea to share some facts about LSE.

General Facts:

• LSE was founded in 1895.
• There are 9,300 full time students from 145 countries.
• The founders were part of the Fabian Society. Members included Sidney Webb, Graham Wallas, Beatrice Webb, and George Bernard Shaw.
• LSE is part of the University of London.
• 18 Nobel Prize Winners
• Approx. 45 Heads of States as Alumni
• Has one of most prestigious public events programs in the world. Past speakers include Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, David Cameron, and the Dalai Lama. 

Fun Facts:

• Chancellor is HRH The Princess Royal. 
• Mascot: The Beaver
• Motto in English: "To Understand the Causes of Things"
• Colors: Purple, Black, and Gold
• Newspaper: The Beaver
• My favorite US President is an alum: JFK!

List of Famous Alumni 

The change of a mascot will be weird. Going from an orange to an actual animal...

I love the idea of still having a woman chancellor for two more years!

LSE has an incredible history as well as a long-standing future. I'm excited to begin my final countdown to London!

The Best is Yet to Come...

As I put on the brand new Taylor Swift song (read: HUGE fan), I can't help but think that there are only 33 days left before I leave the country. It's weird, but in a good way. I'm sitting on my bed currently, and I can see the barn lit up. Soon, my image through the window will reflect the city that I fell in love with. A change from a small town life that I lived this summer to the bustling city that I will continue to work on achieving my dreams.

With 33 days left, the majority of my preparations are done. I've paid for my first housing payment,  and I have my visa approved and back. I've gotten a lot of miscellaneous things that I needed, ordered new glasses, said several "see you laters" after a few road trips to visit friends, and have started my master running packing list.

Left to do? Finally get new suitcases, order contacts, and finish my preparations to do math once again.

I've started to get more info on the first few weeks at LSE. The biggest news? 

KOFI ANNAN will be speaking during what is dubbed as Orientation Week. Now, I think that is just pretty awesome. It will be a ticketed event, and I will be working my hardest to get a ticket to see him! Other events have started to be added to the LSE Event Calendar including several lectures that I will hopefully be able to attend!

As for the courses, I've been spending time reviewing the list of options for my final unit during the first year. About five courses at the moment are on my list to take-some are half units which would mean an additional half unit course as well. I have to admit that I would like to take more than one or two as so many of them sound interesting. At the moment, the two half-unit courses that are looking the most interesting to me are the US Legislative course and a course around leadership in organizations.

I've also signed up for the MPA-Student Association (MPASA) buddy system. I'll be paired with a second year student to help with questions and ease the transition.

And, finally, I'm excited to announce that I will be an international contributor for the International Political Forum. I'll be sure to mention when I have an article posted. I'll also be interning virtually for the US Department of State through the Virtual Student Foreign Service program for the second year!