Walking Tour of the City & St. Paul's

Apologies to the delay in posting! I came down with a combination of the flu and lack of sleep this past weekend.  Not a fun time at all, especially with all of the grad school work piling up. Nevertheless, I'm back to my old self.

Right before I took a turn for the worse, I was able to volunteer as a student guide for one of the Syracuse University's London Center "Love London" Weekend. I was a student guide for a walking tour of the City around St. Paul's as well as the inside tour of St. Paul's. Having done St. Paul's in 2010, I was looking forward to heading back and checking out more of the amazing cathedral. 

The walking tour was around an hour and a half. We were able to see several ruins that were still left the way they were found after the Blitz as well as the old London wall and an old memorial to those Londoners who gave their lives trying to help others. One of the coolest ruins was part of a factory that had been bombed by the Germans in WWII. Underneath the bombed out factory, the remains of a Roman Wall had been found. 

Roman Wall in the bottom left corner

Memorial 

After the walking tour was over, we headed inside St. Paul's. While you still cannot take photos inside, I'll leave you with the shots I snapped outside! 

Monster Mash!

Everyone has his or her favorite holidays...and his or her least favorite holidays as well. My favorite? St. Patrick's Day (yay birthday!), Christmas, and Mayfest (Syracuse "holiday"). Least favorite? Halloween.

Most are surprised when they hear that I don't like Halloween. To be honest, I just don't like dressing up. Decorating, yes. Baking, yes....Martha Stewart aspects of the holiday, I'm fine with. Come to think of it now, maybe I should have dressed as a Pinterest board...hmm? When I was little, I had awesome costumes, though. That horse/princess combo outfit...still my favorite Mom. And, that year I dressed as a nun and led prayer sessions for chemistry in high school...

But, despite my opinion towards the holiday, there was a MPA Halloween Party this past week. Naturally, I did need to come with a costume.

But, before we get there, we need a story.  A story that precedes this  past week...even precedes college.

When I was 10 years old, I dressed up as Susan B. Anthony. Yes, I wore period clothes, hair back, glasses on, with a sign. Sister Suffragettes! Clearly, my aspiration to make a difference, emulate powerful women, and be opinionated came from a young age. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Anyways, that Halloween, I went trick-or-treating, and a man did answer the door, refused to give me candy, and shut the door because I dressed up as Susan B. Anthony. Humorous story, to this day.


Yes, I know this song by heart....

Thus, this year, when it came time to decide what to dress up, there was really only thing to dress up...

#bindersfullofwomen

Political, check. Funny, yes. Not an extreme costume, check!

#OBAMA2012

With the election coming up in two days, it was fun.  Party was a lot of fun, but I did cut out early as I did have class early the next Morning. Oh, and with the election coming up, don't forget to vote!

"Spoonful of Sugar"

Well, if you cannot tell from the title of this blog, I've come down with my usual fall cold/sinus infection. The weather, lack of sleep, and being around my peers who have also been sick contributed to my sickness for the past few days. Thankfully, today, I'm finally feeling better. Surviving on OTC medicine I brought from the US, it was clear that I should have registered with the NHS earlier on. I'll be doing that next week, so if I get sick again, I can at least get some prescription medicine.

Despite being under the weather, I've had a fairly busy week. Monday-Wednesday, I had something due in all my classes. For the most part, the assignments that have been due aren't graded. A lot of them are for feedback which is nice, especially with economics! We had our first big STATA problem set due this week in econometrics. That could be graded since three of them are randomly chosen and averaged to make up a percentage of my final grade.

Outside of classes and trying to get over my sickness, I've joined the LSE Think Tank Society. I'm a committee member with helping to organize a roundtables around US politics due to my background. It should be fairly interesting to work on for the entire year. This weekend, the first years are having a MPA BBQ which I'll be attending along with trying to get ahead in some of my reading. It's not a secret-grad school is hard!

Sorry for the quick update, but I'm off to the Public Sphere Journal meeting! It's a journal just for MPA students to contribute too!