I should be studying for exams....

So I should be studying for exams. The British school system works a bit differently, in that you have all exams in one period, regardless of when you took the class. So even if I took a class that only lasted for one term in the fall, I have to take the exam on it now in the summer. There is a summer class term that lasts for 4 weeks and in it everyone has some revision (studying) classes and lectures, but we spend most of our time studying (or, revising, as the English say) for exams which take place in June. I am quite lucky to have 4 exams spread out over 3 weeks. The library is absolutely insane...even if I go in at 9:00 AM, I can hardly find a seat and a plug for my laptop!
But life if not all work and no play. We had a flat celebration dinner for Chris and Kevin's birthdays (they are 5 years and 1 day apart). And Jessica came for another visit (this time for over a week!). About that to come later, when I have some pictures.

Sonali helping to cook the birthday dinner. I think she got a bit tired to chopping!

We made this fantastic crepe cake. You basically make 20-30 crepes and put this vanilla custard creme between each layer. Sound easy, but it took several days! (making the batter, crepes, custard filling, assembling....) But came out splendidly!

Serious, you have to try making this cake. It just looks cool and it's fun to cut through the layers like butter

Our present to Kevin--Elvis sunglasses!

I think we were getting a bit punchy from the sangria.

Gorgeous house in Hampstead Heath

Just after a rain

And now back to famines and genocides and war, oh my!

Spring Break

Believe it or not, at LSE we got a SIX week spring break! Yes, the hard life of a student. I had some grand plans of travelling and getting a ton of my thesis ready, but alas that was not to work out =) However, I did come up with a topic and title for my thesis. I know I don't talk much of schoolwork here, but I'll give it a little plug. It's going to be called something like: "Transnational Criminal Networks and Terrorism in Chechnya from a New Wars Perspective". In contemporary conflicts, threats to the stability and security states seem to come more often from rogue non-state actors like transnational organized crime or terrorism. The driving factor behind the New Wars thesis, globalization, can also be used to look at the connection between TCOs and terrorism. I will be looking at the role of TCOs in contemporary conflicts, as promoting state disorder instead of using the state apparatus, as traditional organized crime groups do. Finally, I will examine the interaction between TCOs and terrorism in the Chechen conflict, arguing that they feed off of each other--both thriving on state disorder, the promotion of fear, and a regressive form of globalization.
Ha, ok so I guess that is enough school talk. But I'm actually quite excited about the topic. Which is a good thing, since I will be spending my summer researching and writing it!
So I decided to go home to Falls Church for the last week of my break. It was wonderful to see so many people and just chill in the beautiful sunny weather. A week of not thinking about schoolwork and studying!

Jess and I at Great Falls park, woohoo for nature hikes!

Chilling by the Potomac River in DC

Beautiful spring--looking out into the Michaelsen's backyard

Crazy Greta!!!

Sheffield and Brighton

The end of March brought two random trips to two random places in England. My flatmate was in a UK-wide university championship boxing thing in Sheffield and I decided to go to root him on and to visit the Peak District. It is supposed to be stunning. And it definitely was! Though the weather was a bit crummy. Amazing countryside...very rustic. And the best part is I met two women with a dog that looks exactly like my old dog, Fritz! The same coloring, abnormally large size and everything!
And then I took a trip to Brighton, a popular seaside town south of London. It was a perfectly beautiful day. I really liked Brighton because it is quaintly run down and a lot of old-school fun. Arcade games and machines where you can win pennies, roller coasters on the pier, fish and chips, rock candy, seagulls.... a great day at the beach =)

So this is Fritz.....
And this is the dog that I saw on my walk in the Peak District! Exact replica....

It may not look that impressive, but it had just rained in Sheffield for probably 4 days straight. So this was looking pretty good to me.


Chris in the boxing ring

Second place! Fantastic!

the Brighton Pier. Love how it has a slight air of neglect. Really a lot of fun!

Walking on the hard pebble beach. The water was very very cold.

Sweden

OK OK so it's been awhile...again =) In March Mary and James came to visit me! Last year we went to see Amanda in Peru, this year England (and Sweden), next year.....? So of course we had a blast, and spent a couple of days in Stockholm. Here are some pictures for entertainment. Interesting fact--it was freezing cold but actually the warmest winter in 225 years. Usually the Baltic Sea freezes over and it didn't this year. Global warming?! But definitely still cold enough for me. It was great to go in the off-season because it felt like we had a lot of the city to ourselves. I also went with a classmate and we stayed in this amazing hotel (very Scandinavian). Let me tell you about the breakfast. It was a smörgåsbord made up of probably 10 kinds of bread, 5 kinds of cheese, a bunch of meat, eggs, sausage, 4 kinds of jam, yogurt, cereal, fruit salad, whole fruit, practically anything you could possibly want!! And of course we ate Swedish meatballs one night.
One tip... turns out that in Sweden (or at least Stockholm) everything, absolutely everything, closes on Mondays. We wanted to take a tour of the Archipelago on Monday because it was supposed to be the warmest. Mistake! Everything (including most museums and tours) is closed! So we had to settle for a sort of crummy boat tour. Oh well, it just means that I will have to go back!

Ice skating in the middle of the town square. We had the place to ourselves! But I felt a bit like Bambi on unstable legs.


Oh so coooooooold!!!

The Vasa is a ship that the Swedish king commissioned in 1660 something to be the fastest and best ship in the Swedish army. He was very very proud of this ship. It set sail for Denmark in 1664 (maybe) and it got about 20 feet inside the Stockholm harbor, fired a salute cannon, tipped over, and sank in the harbor with everyone watching. It's flag stuck up out of the water. People forgot about this embarassing moment and the ship was "lost". A guy found it in the 1970s. They found it almost completely intact underwater. The cold saltwater made it so that the wood didn't disintegrate. They dragged the whole thing up and preserved it. It's the world's most amazing ship because it is like 95% originally intact. It's absolutely fantastic.

free shuttle to Ikea.

Reindeer!!!
Ty and I overlooking the city

Right..so DON'T drive your car off the edge into the harbor.

James being....James


a pro-Serbia, anti-Kosovo independence protest

A Jaunt to the English Countryside

Sorry it's been awhile, I haven't actually led a boring life for the past month, its actually been too busy! A couple of weekends ago I went home with one of my friends from here to her house in Swindon (that's about an hour west of London). It was so lovely to be in a home with beds and a mom cooking etc etc. Just being away from school for a couple of days was so relaxing. And what's even better is that Alex has a car so we got to drive all around the countryside! We spent a couple of hours walking around in Swindon (really a lovely little city, full of parks an stuff) and then went to Banbury Castle. This is a couple of miles outside Swindon in the Marlbourough Downs. Downs are just lovely English rolling hills. And it's not really a castle, but the site of where an Iron Age fort was built many many many years ago. Looking out over the hills was like looking into a storybook. Just stunning.
That night we went to a town called Weston-Super-Mare (yeah, the English have weird city names!), which is on the sea. It was so nice to see the water and be in a little seaside resort. The next day we got to go to Avebury (not as famous as Stonehenge, but stones sticking up in the same style and age) and also to Stonehenge! At first Alex didn't want to stop, but we were prepared to hijack the car and pull it over.
All in all, it was relaxing and lovely to get out of the city for a weekend and just forget the hustle and bustle of city and student life. Little things like being able to drive a car was so nice to have for a short time. Watch out....next time we go, Alex promises that I can drive her car!

I got to play with a dog name Bruno for a lot of the weekend! He reminds me of my old dog, Fritz in that he's big and slow and lazy but so lovable.

Alex and I at Banbury Castle

I think we look like cave paintings. With the Marlborough Downs in the background

Doesn't this look like a picture out of Pride and Prejudice?!

The Avebury stones. These were awesome because you could actually go up and touch them. Unlike Stonehenge which is roped off. The town here is too quaint--little thatch roofed houses and pubs

at Stonehenge! (for the second time in my life)

International Spring Break Year 2

Mary and James are coming in less than a week! For episode 2 of international spring break. Last year for Mary's spring break we went to visit Amanda in Peru (see below!). This year she and James are coming to London and Stockholm. The only thing missing is one very important person--Amandita!

Where will we be next year?

January Sales

Since it's the last day of January, I thought I'd post about the wondrous thing called January sales. In the UK stores don't have many sales. At home, stores have annual, semi-annual, bi-annual, seasonal, holiday, everything sales all the time. Here, there really are no such regular sales, and even sale racks have slim pickings. But all of this is made up for twice a year, in January and July. Every single store has a blowout sale, with literally almost everything 50% or 70% off. This includes clothes from the past season and the current one. And not just clothes stores--I'm not joking that it's every single store. Fantastic!
So, fortuitously for them, Jessica and Jess were here for the January sales. We bought a ton of stuff, for so cheap! So I'm ending January a very happy girl, and very well dressed =)

Harrods...There is only ONE sale! And Harrods is the place to be

One of my favorite stores, Monsoon, usually too expensive, but now priced just right!! Most stores are decorated with these sort of sale signs, just in case you forgot it's sale season