First day of Classes!
Trip Start
Aug 02, 2008
1
14
21
Trip End
Sep 30, 2009
London,
England,
United Kingdom
Monday, October 6, 2008
Anyway, I went to "Development: Theory, History and Policy," a required Stafford Loan presentation, to "Nationalism, Democracy and Development in Contemporary India," and then back to the Fees office (for the fourth time) to get a letter for the Bank, then to the Bank, then to the American Embassy.
The first class I went to was crowded, with a very sick few students, but it was really interesting. It brought up a lot of important issues about identity and colonialism and the kinds of legacy we leave and can inadvertently return to.
The Stafford loan presentation communicated clearly the irritation that others feel when dealing with the government, just as we do. They spent 15,000 dollars on an audit report demanded by the US government. When they [the accountants] used the date: 15 July, 2006 it was rejected. It should have been July 15, 2006. The entire report had to be recertified. Another problem they had was they have to identify the school year's start and end. It can't be longer than 365 days. So they always like October 1 - September 30. In a leap year that is 366 days, so it was rejected. His point in telling us this was that this same level of critical examination will happen to us to avoid being rejected later on. The director was nice enough, but said that if they wanted to be able to offer loans to other US students in the future, they would have to keep a ridiculously restrictive grip on minutia, per the request of the government.
After the too-long Stafford meeting, I went into the smallest college classroom I've been to yet. It also had the most students of any seminar-style course. This was not a good match. There was probably room for 30 students, desks for 50, and 75 in the room. Very interesting, but I won't be taking it. I think it will require too much backtracking to get up to speed, and not return the kind of value to me that an economics course would. Also, I have to cut a class or two from my schedule since I have 10 classes chosen and they intend each student to take 8 total. That is, 8 classes for the entire Masters. That gives you a sense of how in depth the courses are. The readings are intense and long. Each class is assigning about 100 pages of reading at a minimum per week, not including the background you need to do for papers and presentations. That means 400 pages per week for two terms. As I write that, I realize that it isn't impossible at all, though it will take 60 or 75 pages a night. Anyway, there was lots of talk in this course that I didn't get, except in the general political sense. I'll save my time for the population class :)
I had been carrying around $18,000 dollars in loan checks until today, so I was glad to be rid of them. The tuition is significantly more than that, but this is just the first term. Now I have the checks deposited, and the final one will be ready in a few days. Normally it takes 10-14 days to clear an official student loan check (6-8 weeks for a regular check) but Citibank is doing it in 3 days for LSE students because of a special relationship. It is really nice to have an American bank that operates out here, because that is pretty rare and the exchange issues are handled more smoothly by a bi-national branch.
The American Embassy's Google maps entry is wrong. It leads you to the main Royal Mail Station for the Zip Code. I walked there first, (for a second time, as the first time was on the weekend, when they were closed) and then looked up directions and walked out to another area of London. When I arrived, everyone was acting very strangely. The Eastern European security guard and her Filipino associate were unhelpful. To be clear, I was just confused that I had gone to the wrong embassy. When I asked my Eastern European comrade if I could drop off my ballot, she seemed confused. Eventually, I figured out that she didn't know the word, and said vote for President Obama and she got it. She wouldn't let me in though, which was again confusing, since I was told to go to the embassy to drop it off. She said embassies don't have anything to do with voting, and that I would have to mail it--she even pointed out that no postage was necessary. (Embassies are voting locations in some cases and points of mail in others, and it is only postage free in the US.) She called her supervisor and asked me for the papers I wanted to drop off. I showed them to her, and she started to read the address of my random registrar of voters, as if he would know of Santa Clara County, or Berger road in San Jose. I pointed for her to the line that said "Official Ballot" and "Elections Material Enclosed" but when she read it with the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle it didn't make sense. Her supervisor said he'd come over and see it. When the British guy (?) arrived, he was much clearer. He listened patiently while I explained (now outside the security booth, for security I guess) how I was told to drop these ballots off at the embassy etc. etc. He just responded that it was currently 4:50 and the section closed at 4:30. Oh. Well. I'll just come back tomorrow then.
Exhausted, I took the subway around for a while until I figured out how to get going towards home. All in all though, a great day. I am really pleased with the students and serious intellectual inquiry that is happening here. Hopefully we'll get into some real issues by next week.
