I'm starting to get into a rhythm with my blog and think once a week updates work best. I am going to change the layout in the next few weeks to make it easier to read.
Before I begin I want to ask for prayers for my dear friend Alyssa Van Denburg and her family. Her father passed away Friday morning after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October. His death was extremely sudden and I send my deepest love and support to Alyssa. She has been my close friend at St. Pauls since my family joined in 5th grade. This is not an easy time for her. If you know her and would like to reach out her email address is alyssa.vandenburg@gmail.com. Thanks everyone!
This week I finally made strong connections with teachers at LSE. I met with both my marketing lecturer and class teacher. Each offered good feedback on my performance, and were fun just to talk to and get to know better. I am making the big school small and I'm figuring out that's what I need to do. So now I have 2 other meetings booked for my other classes. Though I do miss being able to pop into any professor's office at Knox and they know your whole story.
Tuesday afternoon I had the pleasure of having lunch with Cat Manning and Christy Dye! They are friends from Knox and it was so good to catch up with them! We went to Belgo and had delicious mussels. When I was in Bruges I didn't get try any ( I was more focused on chocolate), so it was great to have some. They were served in an almost soup base with celery and fries on the side. Very different than the Italian mussels I've had before (aka not saturated in garlic and white wine). Both are great!
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| Ok this is not my picture, but someone else's mussels from Belgo.
Wednesday, November 29, 2011 was a big day in the United Kingdom. 2 million teachers, nurses, transport and emergency services workers walked out of work during the largest strike in a generation. They were protesting the pension cuts. Here's a BBC article on it. The march was staged at Lincoln's Inn Fields adjacent to LSE. I have no classes on Wednesday so instead spent the day firstly photographing my walk to campus and the protest. Here they are!
My room in Passfield. More homey now!
 My room from the outside. I wish I could actually use the balcony. Beautiful Georgian architecture though.    The fountain in Russell Square.  Patisserie Valerie. So tempting to walk past multiple times a day!   Handing out signs at the Holborn station.  I saw tons of socialist signs that day.   How we're on campus. This is my favorite building. And also where the protesters were gathering!    Thanks, but no thanks.    Excitement builds as the march is about to begin. Hundreds of thousands of people were gathered to march from LSE to Victoria Embankment to hear more speeches.    Aerial view from the 8th floor garden in the NAB.  I eat lunch up here a lot. It's so pretty! And great views. 
And that was the gist of the protests.
Here is a link to the complete album with more pictures!
At 2 pm I had a social netball game against the 8th team. We won 40-2! Haha it wasn't a fairly matched game, so we moved things around at the half. But I scored a lot and am really starting to understand the position. It did begin raining so that wasn't so fun. But to tell you the truth, it hasn't rained nearly as much as I expected. Under 10 times for sure since arriving.
Wednesday night I went to a great event at Hub Westminster. It's a brand new space that opened in October and is the largest start up incubation lab in London. They seek to "dramatically scale the emerging movement of civic entrepreneurship." It's a "superstudio for the pioneers" and is "enterprising ideas for a new economy." There were 50 angel investors and about 20 social entrepreneurs. 4 of them gave pitches and were judged by the panel. The winning pitch got £150,000 on the spot. I randomly sat next to the new chapter president of Hub and made great contacts. I was incredibly inspired to see business minded folks tackling societal problems in a profitable way. I want to get more involved there.
Their logo of sorts. A visual for how they envision space to be used.
After the Pitch! event I went to LSE for the General Course winter social. It was a great time seeing people in the program and catching up over free drinks. I met some new friends and shared many laughs with others. Afterwards I hung out with some friends in Holborn. Such an ideal location for a dorm!
After classes on Thursday I went to my usual communion service at the LSE Chaplaincy. I go each week and hear the Anglican communion service and have tea and sandwiches after. The Rev. asked me to be a reader in the LSE Carol service next Wednesday. I agreed and will be reading one of the lessons from advent. I'm really honored and excited!
I also spent an hour or so chatting with the General Course dean, Mark Hoffman. I hadn't gotten a chance to drop in earlier in the term and was so glad to share my experiences in London and at the LSE so far. He's incredibly supportive and nice.
After prepping with my team for a group debate on Monday I went to an alumni networking event. It was on the 8th floor of the NAB (see above) and was really fun. I spent a good hour talking to a senior consultant at McKinsey and explained my great interest in strategy consulting. We shared many stories and by the end she thinks I am more than suited for the work, and especially at a top firm like McKinsey. It was quite encouraging. Speaking of strategy consulting, I have made it beyond the first cut at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. I now have to take a series of logic, personality, intelligence and math tests for their summer internship. I will be doing that this week once papers quiet down. Haha, standardized tests bring it.
And yesterday, Friday, brought AU Carol! Carol is the annual event where each team in the Athletics Union dresses up as a team, doesn't go to classes, and partakes in an all day drinking fest. It is somewhat similar to Flunk Day, but much more structured and openly condoning of alcohol. (Not the case at Knox). My netball team dressed up as genies. You begin at the student bar, 3 Tuns, at 10 am drinking, go to a club at 2 pm, and back for more at night. It was a crazy day that I did not completely finish. By 5 pm I had had enough and retired to Passfield to wash the blue paint off my body and rest. Here are some pictures though!
 Netball 7ths team! Genies genies and more genies.  My friend Jeff! He's on tennis and they were elves.  3rds Football, as penguins.  Netball 4ths as Snow Queens.  Hockey as Indians [native americans] 
Jesslyn and I at the Den! Haha my blue paint was so much lighter than everyone else's..
After recovering I did rally and meet up with Allison, Kelsey and Katie for one of our best nights yet in London. We went to a few pubs (they were all so crowded!) and finally were able to share a large table at Wetherspoon's with 4 LSE PhD grads. It randomly worked out, and we had a GREAT time chatting with them. There were times we were laughing so hard I cried. We unfortunately didn't get contact info but hopefully will meet up with them again soon.
And now I'm up to today. I relaxed in Passfield and hung out with Aleeza. I got some work done and now am about to watch a football with friends in Passfield. We got chips, guacamole, salsa and Becks to enjoy the game. We got our American fix essentially.
With that I will leave you to your lives. Shout out to my mom for hosting a great open house this Thursday at her new office. I hear it went so well. Check out her company site, Basil Financial Group. So proud of you Mom! And my Grandma came out of her back surgery incredibly well. Excellent to hear good things from the family. I go home on the 20th and am so excited to be in Chicago!
This is the song I'm obsessed with at the moment. Home in 16 days!
With that, love to you all!
Hannah
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