Freshers week, etc. Thursday, Oct 1 2009

The week before the classes officially start is referred to as Freshers week (for the Freshmen) but there have also been a lot of events and things to do for postgrads, like myself! This past weekend I met some other postgrads at a couple Meet and Greets they had for postgrad students and since so far my friends have been students at Bath Spa Uni, on the other side of town, It was great to be able to meet others here. Then, on Monday there was also a Postgrad Pub Quiz, where my team of 4 (I had to duck out halfway through making it 3, sorry guys!) had little chance against the teams of 8-10. It was fun anyways! I had to duck out because I had plans with the Bath Spa girls to go to Frida’s (from Sweden) favorite restaurant in Bath called 1 Beaufort. IT WAS AMAZING! We all split a bottle of red spanish wine, which went well with the roasted lamb that I ordered. It was succulent and delicious.

Then Tuesday was a big day because I finally met my supervisor Professor Andrew Graves. It was actually by accident that I met someone who is in the Management program while buying a wrist band to get into the Postgrad events and through them I figured out where I am supposed to go to get information regarding my time here and the program I am affiliated with. I enquired to a woman and she actually knew who I was! She gave me some more paperwork, including a schedule for this week and for the term. Because I was given this information, I could go to the inductions for my program and subsequently register for the units I am going to follow while I am here. Tuesday evening there was a drinks reception for the Management department (mostly the MSc, which is the Master of Science as well as the MBA program). After that there was a Postgrad cocktail party, literally 50 meters away. I must say it was a great night and I was a bit sad to have to leave by 11 to catch my bus home.

Wednesday I was pretty tired, so I ended up taking it easy a bit. In the morning I FINALLY could buy my SIM card for my phone here (I had to wait a full week for checks to clear… efficient? I think not). I went to T-Mobile according to plan, but then they said I had not been in the country long enough to have a month to month plan, I would have to pay as you go, which would not be worth it since I really want access to my iPhone while I am here. I then went next door to vodafone, which is a large provider here in the UK and they said they could do it for me, though it would be a bit more expensive (like 5 pounds a month… oh no) and I would have to make a 100 pound deposit… grr. Oh well, it worked out. Until I left the store and tried to use the internet. So, I went back to the store and they directed me to go across town to the Apple store where they could reconfigure the internet settings or something. After making my way there, they said No no no! All  you have to do it get these setting passwords, etc. FROM vodafone and type it in. So, I went back and asked for these bits of info. Oh yes! They of course had these, and once i typed them in I was golden… phew! Whereas I  could  go 9 months sans iPhone, I really was not looking forward to that.

After finally getting that sorted out, I met the postgrads downtown to go on a “treasure hunt” or really a scavenger hunt. We worked in teams to find the answers to 40 questions which required us to run around all over the town. It was great as I learned much more about Bath than I ever would have! Two of us also had iPhones, which helped out immensely.

We ended up getting 2nd Place for that and awarded tickets to a comedy club show at Komedia on October 18th. Yay! However, after so much running around I was dead tired and ended up going home and having a night to recoup. Today I am aroud the Uni until 7 when there is a postgrad barbeque and networking night. So much to do! I also got my office today (who would have thought they would give me an office?) with a computer and pretty nice view of the country.

Overall I have to say that I am very impressed with the vast amount that I can do while I am here! I have to make sure to keep enough time free to actually do my research, we’ll see how that goes! So far I will be filling my time with the following things:

1. I am taking 3 units (classes) including Management of Innovation, Decision Analysis, and Commercialization of Technology. Very interesting!

2. I am joining some clubs… so far I have joined the Bath Real Ale Society and the Bath Economic Society. Others I am looking at are the Wine Society and perhaps doing the sky diving they have here… hm.. I have also enquired with the Cheerleaders (I will attach pictures below) so we will see!

3. RESEARCH – yeah I’ll be doing some of that.

4. I am going to take an Advanced French class that is free of charge so that I can practice before I make it over there. I am very lucky, however, to also be rooming with two native french speakers. They have been very kind and will speak with me if I want or need.

5. I am sure other things will be popping up… I’ll let you know!

I dont have access to my pictures right now but I’ll add some soon! Especially with the cheerleaders!

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Bath, etc. Saturday, Sep 26 2009

I finished up a great orientation on wednesday and headed to Bath on Thursday. The last night was filled with a memorable trip for Italian food with some of the Queen’s Nurses and then just spending some quality time at the hotel in Kenneth’s room. I vaguely remembered some Fulbrighters plotting world domination… though I probably shouldn’t speak about that…. (Sorry!). Then I had the extreme obstacle the next morning of trying to figure out how to get to the coach station, alone with all my stuff. I didn’t want to do the tube, as it would mean i would have to make a switch and carry my bags up and down stairs. A taxi was going to be £18 which is more than a tad expensive. Fortunately Niko (another Fulbrighter) was walking in the same direction as the bus stop so I could catch a bus to Victoria Coach station, or I never would have gotten anywhere with my bags. I also took the coach to Bath from the London… something I will never do again! It was 3.5 hours instead of the 1.5 hours it would take by train.

When I finally arrived in Bath, my roommate Christina was waiting for my at the station to take me to our house! It’s kind of far from the center of town, but during normal hours the buses run every 15 min and take about 15 min to get there. However, they stop pretty early, so we’ll see how that goes. I dropped my things in Lina’s room, my other roommate who was so nice to let me use her room until i can officially move in on Oct 3rd. Then, Christina, Renee (my other roommate from Guadeloupe) and I went into town and met up with two of Christina’s friends from Spain. (Christina is also Spanish, from Catalonia). We grabbed a beer, and then made our way to the hostel (that was actually quite nice) for some fish and chips. My two roommates and myself then made our way back up Fox Hill to our home.

Yesterday, I then woke up pretty late and went into town. I walked around quite a bit, as I had to make a few purchases and see the sites, before I decided to go up to my university. I got up the the University of Bath and got my library card- or student ID card, which was quick and easy. Then I walked around a bit looking for the international office and some other things and ran into a postgrad student, like myself, who is researching Aerospace Forums in the Department of Management! (This is very connected to my own research, which is great!).

There’s also a lot of activities going on this week as part of “Freshers week” for new students, including activities for Postgrads, so this should be a lot of fun! Now, if I could just get the buses to run at my schedules hm…

Last night I went out with Christina and some of the girls she met at her first day at Bath Spa University (a completely different University with pretty similar programs I believe). We met up with girls from Sweden, Turkey, Finland, Germany, Holland… etc. It was a great time and I truly enjoyed getting to meet so many interesting girls! I think once I have a phone it will be much better and we can go on trips and everything! We have already decided to go to this Jamie Oliver restaurant that is in Bath as the girl from Sweden is quite a foodie and has already been! Yay!

Today has mostly been around the house; the landlord came to sign all the contracts and everything. The house itself is ok, though until I figured out how to turn the heat on, I thought I might die of the cold! Theres some stuff left here from previous tenants and some sofas that eat up any common space that we have (that are shoved together so you cant sit on any of them). The landlord said today that he would take them all out and give up a table and chairs, which would be great. A lot of the other girls I met last night also indicated that their accommodations lacked a bit compared to their home standards, but supposedly it’s quite normal here… Anyways, mine is cheap too.

I wanted to include a few pictures I snapped with my point and shoot so you could get a flavor.

This picture is of my house… though you can’t see it very well… it is one of the units on this street.

This picture was taken in Bath! It is quite beautiful, though i think that stores should be open longer and there so be more of a night life than there is!

These are some of the students I went out with the first night! Going from left to right, there is Renee (my roommate), Lara’s boyfriend, Lara and Christina (my roommate).

Some international girls! Julia on the left is from Germany and Frida on the right is from Sweden! Sorry, i used my little camera, so its over exposed!

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Orientation Tuesday, Sep 22 2009

‘Ello Mates!

The past two days have been jam packed with activities with our orientation to the Fulbright Program! I am affiliated with the UK program, so myself and another EU grantee hijacked the UK orientation and overall program while we are in the UK. Overall I must say that I am very impressed with the overall curiosity and intellectual stimulation that exists just speaking with the other grantees. While the projects truly span all specialties and concentrations, everyone seems extremely interested in all topics that we are passionate about. However, I am also happy to report that this overall intellectual body of scholars have not exhibited a huge level of arrogance. To give you a taste of the vast span of projects I’ll highlight some specialty areas:

1. Study of the Feminine voice written by male novelists and poets in Northern Ireland

2. Circus as an Art form

3. Graphic Design and Anthropology

4. Musicology

5. Nuclear Proliferation

Obviously this is a very diverse group of people. I have also been very impressed with the contacts and speakers that Fulbright has access to. Today, for instance, we were able to have an hour and a half of panel discussions with very accomplished and well known people in the British news realm which included John Kay, a well known economist who writes weekly for the Financial Times, Richard Reeves who is well know in the political sphere, and Claire Fox, a very opinionated libertarian who is constantly present in the radio media realm. The whole panel was extremely insightful and very interesting. We also had a lecture with Sir David Cannidine who was a Fulbright Scholar to the US on the topic of the “special” anglo-american political relationship. I must say he was extremely articulate and his observations were extremely insightful. I always love speakers who question the premise of questions asked of them.

To give you a better understanding of what we have been up to, I have included the schedule we’ve been following. Past that it has been a very great but very tiring experience! Tonight for dinner a group of us when to Picadilly Circus to grab some Indian and really got to know each other even more.

Monday 21 September

Venue: JP Morgan Casenove, 20 Moorgate, London EC2R 6DA (a map is attached for those not staying at the hotel)

8:30 am                       Staff will meet scholars at hotel to take them to JP Morgan Casenove building; we will travel via the tube.

9:30 am                       Welcome

10:00 am                     Ice-breaker/Introductions

10:30 am                     ‘Your Fulbright Year’ presentation

12:30 pm                     Lunch

2:00 pm                      Alumni Panels

3:30 pm                      BFSA (UK Alumni Assoc) presentation

3:45 pm                      Fulbright Advisory Service presentation

5:00 pm                      Group dinner and ’Pub Quiz’ at the City Tavern (29/30 Lawrence Lane, EC2V 8DP)

Scholars will make their own way home/back to the hotel.

Tuesday 22 September

Venue: Univ. of Chicago Booth School of Business, Woolgate Exchange, 25 Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5HA

9.00 am                       Staff will meet scholars at hotel to take them to University of Chicago Booth School of Business building; we will travel via the tube.

10:00 am                     Common Purpose-led icebreaker/discussion

10:30 am                     Opportunities Fair

12:00 pm                     Lunch at Pizza Express

2.00 pm                       Panel Discussion – ‘What the UK is talking about’ (with John Kay, Claire Fox, Richard Reeves)

4:00 pm                       Tour of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA)

4:45 pm                       Afternoon tea (and light snacks) at the Crypt in St. Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square

6:30 pm                       Fulbright joint lecture with the British Library – Sir David Cannadine, one of our well-known alumni will speak on US-UK relations over the 20^th century, followed by a drinks reception

8:00pm                        Dinner on your own; Scholars will make their own way home/back to the hotel.

Wednesday 23 September

Meeting Point: Westminster Pier, Central London (tube: Westminster; we will provide a map on Day 1 of Orientation)

9:30 am                       Meet next to the pier, collect tickets for the cruise

10:30 am                     Site-seeing Thames cruise to Greenwich

12:00 pm                     Lunch in Greenwich at Café Sol

1:30 pm                       Travel on the DLR to Canary Wharf

2.00 pm                       Olympics and Regeneration discussion at Citigroup building in Canary Wharf (Steve Frost and David Spence to speak)

3:00 pm                       The US Embassy in London: US Citizen Services (Liza Petrush)

3:15 pm                       ‘Our New Home’ (presentations by 4 scholars)

4:00 pm                       Optional visit to the Dockland’s museum (a fee may be charged) and brief farewell drink at a local pub (not covered by Fulbright)

Scholars will make their own way home/back to the hotel, or their onward journeys.

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Arrival Sunday, Sep 20 2009

Well after all of the planning and moving and hassle, I am finally in London. The last week has been a blur of activity as I struggled to compress my life into a 5×10. Even though I fully understand the fact that I will be in Europe for the next 9 months, it has remained entirely a concept to me. I am not sure when I will realize the full weight of this endeavor.

I know that I just took probably one the longest flights I have taken so far as I had a 5 hour flight to Philly and waited for 6 hours before boarding the 7 hour flight to London. Then, of course, I waited to go through immigration, gather my over 100 pounds of luggage and make my way to the tube. I was not looking forward to this subway ride to the hotel (Tube = Subway) as I would be alone and weighed down by my heavy bags, which always makes me feel quite vulnerable. However, happenstance would have it that as I was paying for my ticket, I saw a very familiar garment bag atop of a black suitcase. Then, I noticed a green flight bag, issued to all army personnel. However, it was the garment bag that suggested to me that the bearer was not enlisted, and in fact went to West Point. I looked to see who it was and I felt I for sure knew him. There were two, obviously previous cadets, traveling together so I stopped them and enquired whether or not they went to West Point. After some explaining, I found out they were BOTH 2009 grads and I was sure that I had taken a class together. It wasn’t until later that we put the pieces together and remembered we had taken advanced physics together our second year with Major Cho as the instructor.

As it turns out these cadets have Rotary Scholarships to study in Cambridge for a year. We ended up taking the Tube together (a relief to me) as they were heading to Kingscross Station (Harry Potter anyone?) and I to Russell Square and these two stations are one after the other. As I write this I am currently waiting for my room to open up so I can finally take a shower!

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Playing with the Camera Friday, Aug 21 2009

I went to the Seattle Rose Garden (which is coincidentally within walking distance from my house) around dusk to play around with my new lens. I’ve mostly shied away from taking pictures on the manual setting, but I really wanted to practice so I just went out there! I was happy with a lot of the results, but then i found out my memory card is corrupted! Gah!!! Micah was able to save some, including my favorites, so it turned out fine i guess. I need to go get a new memory card tomorrow…

 

             

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Investments Friday, Aug 14 2009

A few years ago, while I was still at West Point, I decided to invest in a nice, digital SLR camera for my trips abroad. After some deliberation, and asking my brother what to get, I decided on a Nikon D80. Now, I am definitely an amateur when it comes to photography, but i know the basics. However, I never felt that I could really get the soft shots I was looking for. So, finally, I expressed my frustration to my brother, who quickly replied “That’s because you don’t have any good lenses”. Granted I should have put much more energy into trying to figure things out, and what I needed, but I’m used to going to my brother for Technology (especially artsy technology) advice. He did convert my whole family to Macs and also has been the early adopter in our family, and my big brother… so obviously cooler and more in the know that me. 

So, after pondering my options, and playing with my brother’s 50mm 1.4 lens, I decided to get the 35mm 1.8g lens that would be a good starter lens for me before I invest in a full frame camera. However, this particular lens has been out of stock everywhere, even amazon.com, for months, primarily due to its affordable price point. After debating whether or not I should just put down the 500 bucks for the 50mm, I decided to call up Tall’s camera (Glazer’s was taking a waiting list for this particular item). What do you know? They had it, and I went down and picked up my lens right away! I will post my cool photos, when I am comfortable with them!

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What clubs should I join? Friday, Aug 14 2009

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The Plans Thursday, Aug 13 2009

So back in March, I found out that I was awarded the Fulbright Grant to go research and study in the European Union for nine months. After extensive deliberation, I decided to put my plans on hold and take advantage of the opportunity given to me. Not only am I able to focus on studying some pretty interesting things, I get to live for 4 months in the UK and 5 months in France and take as many opportunities as possible to travel, explore, etc. Things are slowly coming into place, but this will definitely be an adventure as there will not be able “program manager” holding my hand or keeping me accountable. My big, tangible goals for this experience include;

1. Visiting Istanbul! I want to take a ferry to Asia, and from my friends who have been there have told me, its absolutely gorgeous. I am thinking maybe doing this in April. 

2. Visiting Morocco. Current plans place this trip around December, though I hear Morocco can get pretty chilly, i’m up for it! This will be my first, but definitely not last visit to Africa. One of the reasons for going in December is that while the Fulbright is very self directed, they would prefer you stay in your “country” except weekends and holidays, and I feel it would be a good idea to go for a week or so during my “holiday” (practicing my English already). Of course, my “country” that I applied for is the European Union, so I have a pretty large stomping ground. 

3. Joining a wine tasting club. I am going to be in Toulouse, which is only an hour and a half away from Bordeaux by train, so this is an absolute must. Furthermore, as a Fulbright Scholar, it is my duty to experience as much as possible of the culture of the country I am in and this is a great way to do it! 

4. Dublin! This I already have the tickets for! Jaclyn and I have already planned our weekend in Dublin for the second weekend in October! We got some cheap tickets, which is great and we will enjoy some of the great music and pubs! I really wanted to go to Dublin last time I was in Europe, so this will be a good time!

5. At some point, I do have to visit Italy, as it is one of the big European countries I haven’t made it to. If anyone knows of the best places to visit (other than Rome, etc… and perhaps as a UW alum I shouldn’t go to Perugia… ) please let me know!!

6. Play it by ear! If you have any ideas as to what i need to make sure to do/see while I am away, tell me!!

7. Ok, ok, I also really want to really focus on the research project I am conducting while over there. It might bore some of you but I am pretty much researching industry-level competitiveness. It’s something I am very interested in, and I’m such a nerd I am teaching myself econometrics this summer, etc. This will be a great opportunity for me to really take control of my “education” and really experience how some pretty influential companies (Airbus, etc) operate. I am trying to get the University of Bath to let me take a class or two to help my research. I also have two supervisors at the “Uni” (wow, more “english”, i must be prepared) and have a great contact at ESC Toulouse, the Management school. Wish me luck! 

 

This map just shows where I have been and where I want to go during this trip (at least). I will be living in Bath, UK and then will move to Toulouse, France. 

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