Yesterday, I received an e-mail from my advisor at 1:10am PST letting me know that I had successfully completed the requirements for my MSc in Russian & Post-Soviet Studies at the London School of Economics.
Now I can go back to London in December to parade around in a silly hat and gown. Afterwards, I plan to visit all my old pubs and drink Strongbow.

Also, it would be nice to have a job. Please?

During the time between handing in my dissertation and departing London, I tried to sightsee and enjoy as many pints as possible while also tying up a variety of “loose strings.” I was, in essence, a “super-tourist” who derived most of her sustenance from Strongbow and salt & vinegar crisps.

I FINALLY saw the British Museum, which I cannot believe that I failed to visit over the past year. The British Museum is absolutely amazing – there is no other museum like it in the world (well, from what I’ve seen, at least). The place is filled with artifacts that the British plundered from ancient civilizations while they were in their “Empire” phase. Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia – it’s all there. The Egyptian collection was especially impressive, as I was finally able to see all the artifacts that were missing from the places I visited in Egypt (like the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, if you will). I was reminded of the episodes in which my Egyptian tour guides would point to something (a sarcophagus, statue, etc) and tell us it was actually a reproduction. “The real one,” he said, “is at the British Museum.” Oh. Well, good to know I flew all the way down here to see a reproduction of something that is located in a building a mere 15 minute walk from my school! I’ve always thought that if the Pyramids weren’t so hard to remove and transport to London, the British would have taken those out of Egypt and put them smack dab in the middle of Hyde Park.
After touring the British Museum, I saw a production of “A Few Good Men”, which I didn’t realize was actually a play that Aaron Sorkin wrote before it was turned into a movie. I thought it was the other way around. Anyways, this production is actually a play that is based on the movie which was based on a play. Weird, I know. It was also weird to see a play about the U.S. Marine Corps in London, and even weirder to see Rob Lowe in the role of Lt. Daniel Kaffee, which was played by whackjob Tom Cruise in the movie. The play was really good, though, so if you’re looking for a production in London to check out, I high recommend it. And Rob Lowe in Navy dress whites…not to be missed, TRUST ME. Also, the great thing about going to the theatre in London is that you don’t have to dress up. You can wear a t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops and no one will care. The only ones that do dress up are tourists.

The next day, I went on a tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the Roman baths (pictures up soon). Windsor Castle was great – the Queen sure does have the life, that’s for sure. Stonehenge was, well, really not too impressive. It was much smaller than I imagined, and honestly, I’m not really into that period of history. In addition, my stupid audio guide thing they give me would only work in Russian and Japanese (go figure) so I lost quite a bit while attempting to decipher the Russian. The Roman baths were awesome, mostly due to the fact that we had a great tour guide.

I also went on a tour of the Buckingham Palace State Rooms. For a few weeks during the summer, when the Queen is at one of her 5 million or so residences throughout the United Kingdom, Buckingham Palace opens its doors to allow us commonfolk to traipse through the State Rooms. I’ve always thought that the outside of Buckingham Palace was rather bland when compared to the opulence of the Romanov palaces, but I must admit I was rather impressed with the interior of the palace.

After Buckingham, I had one last tea at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens. I’m really going to miss the scones with jam and clotted cream…and the little cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches with the crust cut off…

For my last night in London, I met up with some friends at our favorite pub, the Anchor. I have spent a lot of time there this past year, so it was only fitting that my last pints of Strongbow and glasses of Pimm’s be enjoyed at the Anchor.

When I arrived at Heathrow airport the next morning, strangely enough, it hadn’t really hit me that I was permanently leaving (although it sure has sunk in by now) so I wasn’t feeling very sad at that moment. It’s an 11 hour flight from London to Los Angeles. As much as I complain about these long flights, sometimes, I must secretly admit that I enjoy them. I like to think of them as a mandated “relaxation” time, in which you watch five movies that you haven’t seen while the flight attendants constantly bring you sodas and candy bars. Sadly, however, I flew United, where they charge a ridiculous sum of $5 for beer and wine. An 11 hour flight, and not one free beer! I could take a 2 hour flight with CSA Czech Airlines to Prague or a 2.5 hour flight to Dubrovnik with British Airways and still get unlimited alcohol! Pathetic American carriers!
I finally arrived in LA a little after 2pm. As we flew over that city, I was reminded of how much I hate it – traffic, smog, a seething mass of nothingness. God, what an awful, ugly city – if it can even claim the title of “city” – characterless suburbs connected by multiple jammed freeways is a more apt description. I wasn’t looking forward to the drive home, that’s for sure. Leaving the plane was a disorderly procedure, as usual. How silly of me to assume that because we had landed in the U.S., we would exit the plane in a civilized fashion. You see, something I’ve learned about European traveling habits is that they don’t exit the plane in a row by row fashion like us Americans do. Instead of allowing the rows at the front to exit first, they all jockey for a position in the aisles so they can rush off the plane as soon as the cabin door is opened. If you weren’t one of the first to jump out of your seat and into the aisle, then good luck trying to get off the plane anytime soon.

When you arrive in the United States, you have to fill out a customs form which asks a variety of questions, one of which is the countries you’ve been to since you left the U.S. So, I listed them all: UK, France, Hungary, Belgium, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovinia, Montenegro, Egypt, Italy, Ireland, and the Czech Republic. The officer looked over it and said “Did you really go to all these countries?”

“Yes.” (No, I only went to one…just felt like throwing a few others in there)

“What was the purpose of your travel?”

“I went to school in the UK.”

“What school?”

“The London School of Economics.”

“How did you travel around to these countries?”

“Uhhh…I….flew.”

I’ve always wondered if, at Customs Officer training, they give them a list of stupid questions to ask, in the off chance I might slip up and admit that instead of studying in London, I was actually training at some terrorist camp in Afghanistan to wage jihad against the United States. Clearly, if I had been doing that, though, my luggage wouldn’t have been weighed down by bottles of Pimm’s, packages of McVities, and a Big Ben teapot.

It took me about an hour to clear customs and get my luggage. After that, I waited for two hours to meetup with my mom. Even the LAX airport can’t escape the ugliness that is LA. All the vinyl seats were ripped up, with the yellowed foam pouring out of them, and the rest of the terminal appeared as if it hadn’t been redecorated since the 1970s.

The traffic home was ridiculous. Where did the fast trains go? I missed the Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted Express…even the Thameslink from Blackfriars to Gatwick. The only good thing about driving home from LA is that there are plenty of opportunities to stop at In-N-Out. Of course, we did, and it was wonderful to have real American beef once again. The following day, we went out for Mexican food…real Mexican food! It’s been eight months since I’ve had it, and it was absolutely delicious…I’ve been here for exactly one week and have had it three times since.

I also had a pint of Stella a few days ago…well, a 16oz glass, as they say…they don’t call them “pints” here. I was a bit surprised to see Stella on the menu, but it just wasn’t the same…I had it at the Cheesecake Factory – a Yuppieville extraordinaire of uninspiring and bland food whose only saving grace is, well, the cheesecake.

Yeah, we’re not in London anymore.

I’m back in California…arrived yesterday evening and will write more later, but had to post this. When I got back home, I had 5 or so e-mails about this, with headlines such as “Um guys?” and “our favourite intern”:

Lewinsky to study psychology at LSE
Monica Lewinsky, who shot to fame as a White House intern under the US president Bill Clinton in the 1990s, is to study for a masters degree at the London School of Economics, the school confirmed today.

One of the leading lights at the institute, George Gaskell, lists a special research interest in “risk and trust” – a field Ms Lewinsky might well have opinions on.

Wow, that sure beats going to school with Vanessa Kerry…there are much more jokes you can make about Lewinsky when she is your fellow MSc student. I wonder if she’ll be a regular at the Three Tuns and Beaver’s Retreat?

I love the smell of toner in the morning, and watching the printer spit out warm sheets of paper that are filled with incoherent thoughts. Today a majority of grad dissertations were due, including mine. I stumbled out of bed at 8am after two or so hours of sleep, and walked to school to add the finishing touches to my paper. Printed it, bounded it, handed it in, DONE. Now I just hope I pass.

Afterwards, we had a few pints (OK, three each) at the Three Tuns, and watched as other grad students frantically raced to their various departments to hand in their dissertations at the last minute.

Oddly, this feels a bit anti-climatic. It’s good to have it out of the way, but what’s next? I leave for California next Thursday, and the more I think about it, the sadder I get. Of course, I’m looking forward to seeing my friends and family and enjoying some delicious Mexican food, but I don’t feel ready to leave London quite yet.

Our network over here has really been sucking, so my internet access has been rather intermittent. And no, there is nothing that I, the network advisor, can do about it.

Of course, I’m convinced that it is LSE’s way of forcing all of its grad students to work on their dissertations. If you don’t have internet access, what else are you going to use your laptops for? That’s right, open Microsoft Word and start typing. One thousand words…two thousand words…three thousand words…really, this lack of internet access does result in a substantial increase in productivity (although seems to have come to a halt now that internet is back – this post being a perfect example).

In terms of the UK being a “babysitter”, the pubs in the UK close at 11, and the tube at midnight. It’s like having a mandatory bedtime. Oh, but please, can’t we have just another pint? No, you kids have class tomorrow! Get outta here!

But…but…pubs can now apply for late licences, effective November 24.

When I won’t be here anymore. Damn.

Unless I miraculously land a job in the next month, I will be departing the United Kingdom on September 8 and returning to my home state of California. How depressing.

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of this city, as there is still so much I haven’t seen. I need to make a list of things to do before I leave and hopefully do a majority of them after I turn in this dissertation.
One thing I can scratch off the list, however, is seeing a play at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I find it slightly amusing that from September until July I lived only a minute’s walk from the Globe and never once diverted from the usual path to Starbucks/Tas Pide/The Anchor Pub to see an authentic Shakespeare production. It just seemed to touristy. And that’s how it usually is, isn’t it? When you live in a city, you usually don’t see many of the sights there (unless a friend comes over to visit, and you can play tourist without feeling like a tourist).

This evening a group of us saw a performance of The Winter’s Tale. I really liked it (and this coming from someone who isn’t a huge fan of Shakespeare). We paid only 5 quid for our tickets because we were groundlings – that is, we didn’t have seats! We stood in the “yard” directly in front of the stage for the entire play (2 hours and 40 minutes) just like the common people did during Shakespeare’s time. I’m pretty sure, though, that there wasn’t a “Ye Olde Starbucks” across from the 16th century Globe Theatre, but still, it’s nice to know that you can watch some excellent Shakespeare while drinking a frappacino.

Seeing a play at the Globe is definitely something you have to do if you take a trip to London. The simplicity is a welcome break from some of the more tech-heavy plays now showing in the West End (The Woman in White, anyone?)

I love these comics.

I’m finally moved into my new dorm, Great Dover Street (Nearest tube stop: Borough on the Northern Line). Packing was pretty painless, although I had to run to Covent Garden at the last minute and buy some cheap duffel bags. Earlier, I had gone down to our local office supply store to buy some large boxes, but they didn’t have any! That’s insane.

Saalim’s solution was to bring back some boxes from his place of employment:

I miss Bankside. I really, really miss Bankside. I miss seeing St. Paul’s and the Tate Modern. I miss Hot Munchies, Tas Pide, and being within a three minute walk from two Starbucks (yeah, yeah, laugh if you must). It is amazing how much of a change in environment this place is even though I am only a 15 minute walk from my previous dorm. The new neighborhood is, umm…a bit “dodgy.” Let’s just say that the tour buses don’t pass through this end of London. Most of this area is residential, with the nearest food place being Morley’s, a fast-food joint that serves BBQ ribs and beefburgers for 99 pence. Appetizing! Oh well, at least we are still in Zone One…barely.

The actual dorm isn’t too bad. My room is a bit smaller and my shower tends to flood the bathroom, but there is plenty of storage space and I have a nice refrigerator in my room. There is no dresser, however, so one of my desk drawers is now filled with socks and underwear. Awesome.

One of the funny things about this building is that there are a number of “blocks” that surround a courtyard. What’s weird, though, is that you can be sitting at your computer, look at your window, and see a dozen people in the rooms across from yours doing the exact same thing. Sometimes you’ll look across and see some student staring out their window, and your eyes will meet and you are like whoa, hello! It is kind of Big-Brotherish, except we don’t have a omniscient voice directing us what to do (but perhaps this will be a feature in the future).

It’s the 4th of July today…In the past four years, I’ve only been in the U.S. once for Independence Day. Not sure what we are doing today…maybe having a BBQ or something.

I’m back from Italy! I’ll post about it later and upload the pics…and of course, I still have to post about Cardiff and the latest Mexican restaurant I ate at. In the meantime, I have to start packing up all my stuff because LSE is kicking me out of my dorm so they can rent the rooms to tourists for ridiculously high prices (and they’ve already started arriving! ACK!). I’ll be moving to Great Dover Street, which is supposedly a ten minute walk from Bankside.

Here’s some stuff I need to accomplish this summer:

Happiness is multiple pipelines
I have to write my dissertation, which is entitled “The Geopolitics of Caspian Oil Transit Routes: Russia and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline.” Basically, I’ll be writing about the BTC Pipeline and how it has affected Russian energy policy in the Caspian Basin. I know you are all very excited about this topic. When I told my dad about it he said “Like in the James Bond movie?” Hmmm…yeah…the James Bond movie. Perhaps I could use it as a reference.

Earning some quid
Yes, another part-time job in which I employ the technology skills I learned as a teenager to make some money. I’ll be serving as the Residence Network Advisor for my dorm and also putting in some hours at the laptop support centre (remember, that’s “centre”, not “center” in Britain) on the LSE campus. It’s a lot better than Office Depot, and they pay me well, so I think it will be a good fit.

Traveling?
I’m going to try and do a bit more traveling, but am not sure what I can fit in between work and the dissertation. Everyone seems to want to go to Prague pretty badly (Eastern Europe is, like, so trendy for some reason), so I think we will be doing that. I’d like to go to Poland…Warsaw and Cracow. I think we might do a few daytrips to the English countryside. But most of all, I really really really want to go to Normandy and see the D-Day beaches (you know me and my love affair with history).

Finding a “real” job
If you had asked me a year ago what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I would have answered that I wanted to teach Russian history or politics at a university. Well, for various reasons, I can no longer see myself in an academic career. So, it’s time to start sending out resumes and filling out applications. I’d really like to work in the oil and gas industry, so if anyone who is with an oil and gas company is reading this and knows of any job openings, send them my way! (Hey, it’s worth a shot)