Weeks 7, 8 and 9

Why hello!

It never fails to amaze me how fast this term is going. I am one day away from the end of week 9. We have 1 more week of class and then it is the 5 week Easter Holiday! I had my last lecture in Environmental Econ Monday and that was weird to wrap my head around.

Anyway, here's an update on what I've been up to!
And also, I went to Poland in between Weeks 8 and 9, so will have a separate post about that next!

Week 7

Sunday night was Joon's going away dinner. He is beginning school in Korea and to bid him farewell we went to Busaba Eathai and had a delicious dinner. I got siracha! It's been forever since I've had the pleasure of eating that.

Jason, Brianne, Joon and I. 

My beef dish and rice!

Monday night was Passfield Roseberry Valentine's Day mixer at King's Club in Chelsea. It was really fun! The club had an outdoor terrace to hang out on, as well as the main floor. I think one of the rooms wasn't open though. Oh well- can't complain too much for getting into a Chelsea club for 5 pounds.. Here are pictures!

Tessa and I!

On the roof. Ryan, Abdul Bernie and I. 

Tuesday I stayed in and caught up on work and sleep. Had to get ready for Wednesday's wine tasting and Notting Hill Art Club! Haha if you can't tell I'm having a pretty social week. The wine tasting focused on the Rhone Valley region of France. I learned about the vintages there and sampled 8 wines, 2 white and 6 red.

The start of the wine tasting. 

On Thursday we went to Roller Disco in Vauxhall! Haha I never thought I would do that this year. The concept was a skating rink mixed with a club. So there were bars and DJs like a club, but everyone's wearing skates. Luckily they had 2 floors. I skated in the amateur one and still managed to fall, but the good people had their own floor and were amazing. I grabbed a video of them!

Tessa and I.  

The Passfield group! Arne Fionn, Tessa, Bernie, Ed and I, 

Friday night was my dear friend Sofia's 21st birthday celebration! It was a lot of fun. We started the night with dinner at Hutton's in Covent Garden and then went to Cafe de Paris in Piccadilly. There were crazy performances all throughout the night. Such fun!

Aleeza and I at dinner.

Entering Cafe de Paris. 

One of the dancers. She's on stilts!!

The birthday girl, Kevin and I. Happy 21st!!!!

On Saturday I took a great walk with Aleeza to Islington! It's a neighborhood just northeast of Passfield. We're so glad we went there! It was charming. We wandered through the shops, antiques, cafes and more. We spent time sampling scents at the Royal Family's perfumist and even got to sample cupcakes! I would highly recommend going. Just take the northern line to Angel!

Cupcake samples! So good.

Different colognes and perfumes.

The Royal manufacturer of Toilet Requisites. 

This was also amazing. Free samples too!

Sunday I relaxed around Passfield, caught up on some work, did grocery shopping, and skyped Brittney and Cody! So nice catching up with friends. Brittney is going to be in Paris when Hope and I are there- so excited to see her!

Week 8

Week 8 was much less eventful than the one before. I had problem sets to do, focus groups to run, netball team pictures to take, and other little things. I'll share some pictures.

Tuesday
On Tuesday night my marketing project team conducted a focus group with 9 participants in our target market (20-40 year olds, with middle to upper middle income living in urban places) to gain understanding of their grocery shopping habits, as well as their thoughts on our new product- Marks & Spencer Magic!

M&S Magic is a membership program that grants you access to the new and improved check out experience, one that has no lines or waiting. Embedding RFID tags onto all products (think wireless barcodes like on iPass), customers will simply exit through large scanners and the contents on their person will automatically be tabulated and their account charged. No waiting, no scanning, no lining.

It's an innovative project we have been working on since January. It's actually due Wednesday the 14th and will be about 90 pages long once it's all said and done with our research appendices. It's been fun doing a project to this scope. Here is a picture of the focus group.

The conference room in the new academic building at LSE- on the 8th floor! Looking out over the city

In action! We were doing a pricing activity and the Skittles were used as markers.

Which attributes do YOU like least?

Haha and of course we fed them pizza. Still the best motivator of them all.

Wednesday was Netball Team Pictures! In the morning we had the club photo. Only about a third of the girls came out. In the afternoon it was just my team, the 7ths. It was fun taking both the formal and goofy pics.

Actually before the pic. Nicole's campaign tool! We then made them our Facebook profile pics. She won! 

An older shot from the fundraising game. Thought I'd add it in!

Just before pictures. 

My team! FR: Jesslyn, Madhu, Irina, Evelyn, ShuyYee, Samira, Nadira. TR: Ruby, Peh, me, Shareen, Chloe and Meagan.

The Club! Not all of us- but still a lot!

The silly club photo :)

Thursday brought a beautiful walk home. Spring is in the air! I also recieved a Kappa Kare Package from my sisters. It was so amazing reading their letters!! I have hung them on my wall. I also did a few hours of observational research for my marketing project. Haha I got to creep on people as they entered Mark & Spencer and clock how long they took to shop, how long they wait in line, how long they take to pay, how many items were in their basket, how many checkout lanes were open and so on. Haha it was quite a lot. I got in trouble for taking this picture- but that's okay.

Tavistock Square, right by my dorm. So pretty!

My Kare Package! So so so happy to receive it. Thank you again ladies. I will write soon!

At one of the points where the line was longer than they had space for. Our product will do so well!!!

On Friday I went to see a comedy show with a friend. It was called Pajama Men and in a little theatre under the train tracks. I thought it was really funny. Somewhat odd humor, but that's comedy right? Afterwards I went to the General Course drinks reception for a bit, before heading home- because I had a 6 am flight to Poland the next morning!!

We had great seats!

The stage. Haha the actors actually wore pajamas.

And that brings me to the end of week 8. I then went to Poland and returned for week 9. The Poland post will be forthcoming- but basically, the highlight of week 9 was the AU Ball! I had fun dressing up with my Netball team. Here are some pictures from dinner and dancing.

We just arrived!  

Co-captain and captain!

ShuyYee and I :)

Lovely ladies! ShuYee, Jesslyn and Madhu.

Club captain and social sec. Fabulous year ladies!

Shareen and I- goal shooters! 

The dinner room. So pretty!

The first course- marinated salmon with herb salad and horseradish wasabi sauce.

I love my team! 

I'm going to miss my team so much!

On Thursday I got tea with Allie and Katie at Fleet Street bakery- amazing as always! I'm going to miss them on their trip!!

And with that, we are caught up! Haha what a whirlwind.
It may take me a bit to write my Poland post, as I have to focus on finishing my marketing project. Wish me luck!

And in the tradition of me leaving videos, I am going to post one I'm sure you've seen.
Invisible Children posted the Kony 2012 video 4 days ago and has gained close to 70 million views since then. If you haven't watch it please do.

However, I am educating myself more on the issue and may be realizing the documentary is somewhat misleading. Regardless of that, it's a powerful example of how information and ideas transact across the planet. This will go down in history.

Enjoy!

Miss and love you all.
Hannah