Hello all!
Welcome to my blog! My old blog from my trip to Bath has been repurposed for my time at the London School of Economics and Political Science. As I will be arriving in London exactly one month from today, it seemed like an appropriate time to post what I hope will be the first of many updates (I'm going to try to be better at keeping you updated than I was in Bath). However, don't expect too many updates in the next month--they will really start when I get there.
By now, I hope you all know that I will be going to the London School of Economics (LSE) next month to begin a year long program that will lead to a Master's in the Politics and Government of the European Union. I honestly can't believe that this dream is going to come true! After I did not get any of the four fellowships for which I applied last fall, I wasn't sure that this would work out, but I think this is for the best--if I had gotten one of the fellowships, I wouldn't be going to LSE! Two years ago, I never would have dreamed that I would be going to London for a whole year for graduate (or as they say there, postgraduate) studies! Further, I will be living just off Trafalgar Square and about a 10 minute walk from campus!
Part of the reason I wanted to blog now is that the past few weeks have been really important in terms of developments relating to my trip. I finally got my Tier 4 General Student Visa so I can actually go!! This was something that made me very anxious (I know, it's me so this is no surprise) so I'm very glad it worked out on the first try. I think it was then that I finally realized this was actually going to happen. In fact, when I told my Dad I got my visa, he said, "so you're really going to do this?"--I think this was when we all began to realize this was going to happen!
Shortly after that, I got my plane ticket! I will be flying through Iceland, which I'm really excited about even though I won't be able to see anything of the country. I've just always wanted to go to Iceland. Provided there are no more volcanic eruptions, it will be great. :)
The last development that I wanted to share with you all was I got my preliminary reading list from one of my departments (from what I understand, my program is actually split between three departments). I ordered the books (I think there were 7) from Amazon and I'm starting to read them. It feels great to start preparing for my studies! Further, not only do I get to learn new things from these books, some of them make me feel well prepared for the program. One of them discusses European integration since 1914 and one discusses Europe since WWII. Thank you to Professor Mitchell for teaching me about 20th century European history last semester! :) (I should mention that I also feel really well prepared from my comparative politics classes with Professors McNulty and Linda Hasunuma, my independent study with Professor Matt Schousen, and my government major at F&M in general so thank you to everyone who was involved in getting me to this point--there are a lot of you!)
Well that is probably enough for now--I don't want to bore you all before I even get to London! If you can't tell, I am really excited and not nearly as nervous as I would have expected to be (knowing me, that is a big deal).
Cheers,
Abbey
