Festivals to Check Out!

The Scholar's Shoppe

High Times for the Economy?

Agapanthas & Tree Branches en Route!
My room is boring. I’ve known this for some time now, I suppose. Sure, I spiced it up with a chocolate brown duvet and some latte-inspired sheets, but the drab walls and metal door definitely add to the institutional feel of the place. After visiting a fellow postgrad’s room in the same building, I realized that despite the limitations of room size and overall dullness, there is a huge possibility to make the room a million times cooler and more homey: her place was covered in cool posters, fun accessories and bright colors; very her. In any case, between reading about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and discovering that Michel Foucault was gay, I found my

‘Wicked’ & Wine!
Considering the fact that I have been diligently holed up for the past week, working voraciously on my presentations, papers, etc., I felt (semi)justified in going out a few evenings this week! After Wednesday’s Arsenal match, I needed another amazing event to top off Thurs

Arsenal v. AZ Alkmaar!
So, I feel like I’ve finally been inducted into British life. I saw my first football game at the Emirates last night! In a Champions League game, Arsenal played Dutch team AZ Alkmaar (pronounced ah-zed allck-mahr) and won 4-1! I met up with my friend, Nick, who is an Arsenal fanatic and had saved a ticket to the game for me so I could witness European football first-hand. We met up a bit before the game to explore the Arsenal grounds and hit up a local pub that was a shrine to Arsenal! Our first stop was the new stadium (built in 2006, I think):

a few big smiles in day two of hell.
So, it’s 847P and it feels like it’s about 1130P right now. Despite the wave of tiredness that just hit me, I feel fortunate in the fact that I still have two solid hours of work I can get in this evening. I just knocked out one presentation in my Health & Population seminar this evening and it actually went pretty well! After so many years of business classes/public speaking, I seemed to have forgotten that I actually enjoy speaking in front of people when I have a good grasp on my topic (one reason that a career in academia/university teaching has been of interest to me). I have one more presentation tomorrow morning, followed by preparation for a

Hell begins…
After being on campus from 830A to 730P and having been studying since getting home, I’ve decided that it’s time for a much-needed break/status update from abroad. Update: Life for the next three weeks is going to be insanity. The light at the end of the tunnel? I get to go to Rome on the 12th of November! The thought of Roman architecture and Italian coffee is probably the only thing that’s going to get me through the next few weeks. Some perspective: I have a presentation on poverty reduction & child mortality to deliver tomorrow in my health & population class; Wednesday is a presentation on wome