Adventures with Sam

Well, in an effort to catch you all up on what I've been doing over the past few months, I thought I would tell you about some of the most fun I've had this year--the adventures I have had with one of my best friends (yes, you can have more than one), Sam. Sam was one of my lovely roommates at F&M and luckily for me, she spent part of the last year in France teaching English. I say luckily for me because that meant that I got to see her and when we couldn't be together, we were at least in similar time zones making internet-based communications that much better and more satisfying. We had two really cool adventures together that I want to share with you.

The first was the day we met in Bath for more laughs than I had had in months! This was the first time I had returned to Bath since I studied there three years ago. It was really special for me to return to this place that had changed my life in so many ways! It was in Bath that I first learned about British Politics. I can say with some confidence that if it weren't for that study trip during the summer of 2010, I wouldn't be in London now! What made this return even more special was that I got to share it with my friend who hadn't been there before (well, she had been there on her own the day before, but let's just put that aside for now).

We packed so much sight-seeing, laughing, talking, and good times into that one day in March! As we are both big Jane Austen fans, the first priority was getting to the Jane Austen Centre on Queen Square (which is coincidently very near the place I stayed on my first-ever night in Bath). The staff there were great, but I don't even know if their wonderful explanations of the life of Jane were really necessary with Sam there--she was answering all their (usually rhetorical?) questions! We had a blast looking around and even trying on some dresses (I know, me in a dress! Doesn't happen very often, but I will do it for Sam and Jane). But my favorite was sitting at the old writing desk they had and practicing with the quill and ink they supplied!

Next, we continued our Jane Austen-themed tour of Bath with a walk up past the Circus to the Royal Crescent. Now I like the Crescent, but apparently Sam is not a fan. Regardless, the real reason we went up there was to travel the path that leads down behind the Circus and back into town. This path was a favorite of Austen's and was featured at the end of Persuasion (one of her best novels in my opinion). Sam and I ambled along "the comparatively quiet and retired gravel walk" twice that day! In fact, I do believe that path is one of my favorite places in England and perhaps the world.

Of course, any trip to Bath is incomplete without tea in the Pump Room! For those of you who don't know the Pump Room is so-called because it houses the pump/fountain from which one can drink the healing waters (although a classic activity, I can't go so far as to recommend this warm and salty water).  Sam and I loved the tea, scones, and little deserts they give you! We were further amazed at all the people who didn't finish their food or drinks (don't worry, we resisted the urge to offer our services (read: stomachs) to help them).

After a lovely tea we explored a few other Jane Austen-related sights before heading to the train station for a much more difficult than anticipated goodbye. It was so hard to go back to London that night! But I am so glad that I got to spend that amazing day with my best friend, in one of my favorite places, following in the footsteps of one of our favorite authors! I was reminded that day of the importance of good friends who really know and understand you! Just being able to talk and not have to explain myself or worry if she was misinterpreting what I was saying was wonderful! And laughing so much my face hurt was pretty great too!

Luckily our parting would not last long. A few weeks later, I went to France on the Eurostar (train) to stay with Sam for the long weekend around Easter. Actually, this trip turned into more of an adventure than I bargained for. It is a long story, but suffice it to say, I missed my connecting train in Paris (not my fault) and got a bit stuck there. It was only after several panicked calls to my parents (isn't that what every parent wants--a call from their daughter in tears in another country?) in the States that I was able to get my credit card to work to get another ticket and finally get to Grenoble, where Sam was living. I'm not going to lie, there were a few minutes when I was wondering if going to France was worth it.

But don't worry, I made it to Grenoble and everything was better when I was with Sam (it didn't hurt that she actually speaks more than the two words of French I know). And things got even better when we began sampling the first of many yummy, fresh, French pastries (I mean, really, who needs other types of food?)! The next day we went on these tiny gondolas up on one of the hills around Grenoble to visit the Bastille. It was a rather overcast day, but it was wonderful to see the city from above! You can tell that Grenoble really is a city in the valley.

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was Easter itself. We decided to sleep in and when I woke up, the Easter bunny had even managed to find me in France (with some serious help from Sam who gave me a chocolate bunny)! Not only that, but Sam shared her very special Easter basket/box from her grandmother with me! We then proceeded to MacGyver one of the best Easter dinners I have ever had (okay, part of what made it great was that we made it by ourselves with limited money and supplies in France). We had ham, green beans, roasted carrots with a sauce Sam made, French bread, and the hero of the meal: the special mustard sauce! Now, you have to understand, this mustard sauce is very important to me. My Mom makes it on holidays and it is so wonderful! It is an easy recipe, but we couldn't find all the correct ingredients/didn't want to buy a lot of an ingredient that Sam wouldn't use later. So we made substitutions and we made additions. When I told my Mom what we did, she was skeptical, but let me tell you, it turned out spectacularly! As good I as remembered! And Sam liked it too! We topped off the day with an Easter egg hunt via Skype with Sam's family!

The Mustard Sauce is working! 

Seriously, look at the awesome meal we made! I want to eat it again! Now!

Finally, on my last day in France, Sam took me to a beautiful Chateau a few towns over. It looked like something out of Beauty and the Beast! Even better, it had the most lovely park and nature preserve. We took a picnic lunch and just enjoyed the scenery!

In the end, the trip was definitely worth the money, time, and panic attack in Paris! Once again, I had a blast with my Best! We got to spend an entire weekend talking, laughing, watching movies, and eating! Just the memory is making me hungry! Thanks for the adventures Sam! Can't wait to have more of them with you back in the States!

Exam nonsense

Hi again!

I know. You all were wondering if I was still alive. Well, wonder no more, I am indeed still alive! Even better...I'm still alive after my exams! I am very sorry for my negligence in updating you about my life here in London. I suppose I would feel less guilty if I could honestly say I haven't done anything interesting or I have been simply too busy to write. I have been busy, but I should have made time to blog. But never fear because my time away from blogging has made me miss it, which is great news for anyone who actually cares to read my blog. In all the time that I spent day-dreaming about not studying for exams (instead of actually, you know, studying) I have planned a number of posts that I want to share with you. So stay tuned over the next few weeks and hopefully I will make up for my horrid blogging practices of the past!

Today* I reached a very important milestone in the life of any student. I FINISHED MY EXAMS!!!!! Now, before we are all carried away with excitement, I should clarify that this does not (sadly) mean that I'm actually done with my degree. In fact, I still have to write my dissertation which is kind of important. But that is a concern for tomorrow. Today, I'm celebrating because I FINISHED MY EXAMS! Other graduate students may celebrate by going out and doing all sorts of things that one shouldn't post on a blog for the world (of parents and future employers) to see. But me, my celebration techniques are entirely G-rated, so I can share. My celebration consisted of lunch with a few friends before coming back to my (mercifully empty this week) room, watching some movies (note to everyone: don't watch Eat Pray Love unless you are prepared to crave Italian food for the rest of the night), having a low key dinner of frozen pizza and writing to you! And boy, was that an awesome way to spend a day!

To continue the celebration, I have decided to share with you my musings about exams at LSE. In other words, I have decided to share with you the things about LSE exams that I find amusing...the light side of graduate exams, if you will. See amid all the stress of exams that count for MY ENTIRE GRADE for those classes (but don't get me started on that and why that is a horrible idea), LSE apparently decided that they would cheer me up with all sorts of regulations that I find really amusing (if not outright funny). Now I should say, that I found these tidbits amusing when I was in the grips of exam stress-induced delirium (in other words, my sense of funny might have been rather skewed). So I can't actually promise you will find the rest of this post amusing, but I wanted to share it anyway.

Before I continue, I should say that LSE (and, I understand, UK schools in general) makes a huge effort to ensure fairness and as much objectivity as possible with exams and other graded work. And I applaud their efforts. To give you an EXAMple (haha), our names are not on any of our exam papers (in other words, our papers can not be associated with us by the graders) and each paper is graded by a minimum of two professors. They must agree on the grade and if they fail to agree, or the grade is particularly high (they don't like giving high grades it seems), or the grade is particularly low, etc. a third reader must be involved. No wonder I won't get my preliminary (that's right, not even final) grades for months! But I digress.

I should also make it very clear that these regulations are designed to limit/prevent cheating. While I will be pointing out some flaws with these plans, it is very important to me that you know I would NEVER consider cheating. NEVER! (Just ask my parents who never had to worry about me doing something bad and then hiding it because I would feel so guilty I would confess my doings to them anyway.) Without further ado, I give you my commentary on LSE exam practices...

1) What allows the objectivity of the graders is something called a candidate number. Each student is assigned a candidate number (which is different from their student identification number) and it is this number that goes on our exam papers. I tell you this as preface to the first amusing exam regulation. See, we are required to bring with us, to every exam, our student ID (with our picture and student number but not our candidate number) and a print out (with no markings whatsoever) of a page with our candidate number and exam timetable (i.e. schedule) on it. These two things are checked during every exam (interestingly, not before one begins) to ensure that everyone is supposed to be there and taking that particular exam. That would all make a lot of sense to me--the need for identification is, by itself, unsurprising and not particularly amusing. No, what I find amusing is that there is nothing (as far as I can tell, and believe me, I have looked) that tie those two forms of identification together. Yes, my student ID proves that I am Abigail and that I am an LSE student. And the printout proves that someone with candidate number XXXXX is scheduled to take exam Y. But my question is, what proves that this LSE student with this valid id is the person with that candidate number?? I mean, the two documents prove that I am me and that said candidate is supposed to take said exam, but they don't prove that I am the candidate that is supposed to take said exam!

2) In every classroom in which exams take place, the usual desks are removed and replaced with folding, individual-sized tables (that remind me a lot of the dinner trays we have at my house only bigger) and different chairs than are usually in the room. Now, I get it. I understand the reasoning. The idea is to separate us so that we can be monitored easily and effectively and to ensure that we don't cheat. But here's the problem with this method: a good half (okay, I'm totally guessing here, but it seems like at least half) of the folding exam tables wobble like crazy! So they have to fold up extra exam booklets to put under one or more of the legs so that we have something resembling a steady table to write our essays on. And the tables still wobble! Because when we are taking two-hour exams, trying to remember all the stuff we crammed in our heads, scribbling in an effort to get everything on paper in time, and all the while remembering that these things count for 100% of our grade, clearly, everyone also wants to be worrying about/dealing with desks that don't stand still!

3) While we're on the subject of seating arrangements...in any given examination room, there may be multiple exams going on at one time (I have seen up to six different exams taking place in one room). Now, perhaps to those of you not suffering from exam-induced craziness (as am I) this makes perfect sense. After all, it is reasonable to use all available space. BUT, there are two aspects that make this worthy of blog space. First, not everyone who is taking exam X will be together in room Y. Meaning that, in my experience, in a class of 30 people, we will be spread over at least 2 different rooms (more if the class is larger). Again, you might say, well this is to limit the possibilities for cheating. To which I say, sure, but those of us taking exam X in room A are all seated together in a group (and further, we know which room and seat we will be in weeks ahead of time). Second, and more amusing/confusing, I have in fact seen exams that are different lengths take place in the same room! This means that there are still people writing when others are leaving the room with all the chair-scraping, jacket-flapping, and other noise-making that entails. Those poor people who still had time to write!

4) This one is one of my favorites. Phones must be off and under your desk. That means, not in your bag which must be left at the front of your room, but actually within reach, under your desk. The reason for this became clear when someone's phone started ringing, but it was in the bag (breaking two rules at once) and therefore no one could stop it. But still. The fact that you actually have to keep your phone with you strikes me as backwards and inviting trouble.

5) Apparently, you are not allowed to even enter the building in which your exam takes place until 45 minutes prior to the start of the exam. When I arrived early for my 10 AM exams, I was told I had to wait outside until 9:15. I ask you, what sort of shenanigans could I get into with that extra time before 9:15 AM that I couldn't get into in 45 minutes? I should also say that being allowed in the building does not mean you will be allowed into the examination room. Despite the fact that the examination regulations specifically state you should arrive half an hour early, you aren't allowed into the room until about 10 minutes before the start of the exam.

6) You can leave to go to the restroom, but you must be escorted and you can NOT leave during the first half an hour or last half an hour of the exam. I get the escort thing. That makes sense to me. But what is with these half hour rules on either end? It's like not being allowed in the building: what am I going to do in those periods of time that I can't do in the other hour or more of the exam period? This also means that theoretically, if I finished my exam 35 minutes early, I suppose I could hand it in and leave (ha-as if I would actually finish early) but if I finished it 29 minutes early, I would just have to sit there for another 29 minutes.

7) And finally, I share with you my favorite regulation of all. We are allowed to have water, but it must be in clear water bottles with no labels on them. If you show up with a bottle with a label on it, you will be asked to tear the label off. I don't even want to know what would happen if you show up with a reusable water bottle such as a Nalgene that is colored and has the brand-name on it. Again, this would seem logical as a cheating deterrent. BUT (apparently) you can have a packet of tissues. What could you write on a water bottle that you couldn't write on a packet of tissues that is not clear and in fact, does have text (brand name etc.) on it?

These musings are what got me through my nearly month-long exam period (but don't get me started on why the scheduling itself is crazy). I'm sorry if you didn't find them as amusing as I did. My only defense...you could have stopped reading (but I'm glad you didn't).


*I started this post on Tuesday 25 June on the day that I took my last exam. But then I realized I was too tired to finish it and went to bed. Sorry for the 24 hour delay. :)