Catching Up

Some more Amartya Sen? Why thank you!!

Time sure does fly when you're a grad student- much more so than when you're an undergrad, because unlike when you're an undergrad, you actually have to read during your 'free time' here. There are different strategies that students can take when faced with too much reading. Some simply give up, party almost every night, and hope they will be able to pass their exams at the end of the year. These students I will call the blatantly ignorant. Some students skim each article (we usually get 7-10 articles a week, each article on average about 20 pages), paying special attention to the first and last page. This seems an interesting strategy. Let us deliver to these souls the cognomen: partially enlightened. They will, perhaps, survive their exams. Some people hate the reading so much, they change their focus to math. I kid you not- I've already talked to a few freshers who made the switch. The previous three personality types are found in the undergrads. The grad students, of course, have no recourse other than to do the work (after all, we're paying a lot more for the pleasure of having these incredibly difficult reading assignments). Still, I've noticed that even among the grad students, most of us are struggling to keep up.

Why am I talking about all this? Well for one thing I feel a little bad for not being able to take 30 minutes and pound out an update for the last couple of weeks. This really has little to with me not having 30 minutes, and lot more to do with this overwhelming feeling of ALWAYS HAVING SOMETHING TO DO. Even on the kitesurfing trip, I found myself crouched in a bus seat for 6 hours reading ethical arguments on the rights (or lack thereof) of the government's use of CCTV to monitor people.

Still, I've carved out 30 minutes before I have to go through Elizabeth Anderson's analysis of the free market, so let me use this time to relate what my life as a student has been like the past few weeks.

The typical week here goes something like this: Study all weekend so that you're caught up for the first two lectures in your Public Policy and Morality courses. You can mix the gym into this, and we also have a pretty cool discussion group that meets and debates philosophy over a cup of coffee on Sunday afternoon. Monday rolls around, and you're more or less ready for lectures. Lecturing at the LSE is a bit odd, because even though the teachers are walking around in front of you talking, you're not allowed to ask them any questions until the seminars, which are later on in the week. Monday lectures go until 5, at which point some of us philosophy dweebs head to whatever bar or coffee shop or cheap restaurant to eat and talk .. well.. philosophy. The coolest thing about Monday is there's usually an awesome public lecture- there's one on Israel and Palestine this week.. should be really cool. If you can, hit the gym or go breakdancing on Monday as well.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are all basically the same thing as Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday have only one lecture each, but the reading load for those days is mighty high, as Thursday is the Philosophy and Economics course, which, I am finding, is a tad more demanding than the others. Thursday night is the full-on breakdancing class (I'll have to do a piece on breakdancing once I have the opportunity-- suffice to say, it's like skateboarding, parkour, and yoga combined.. I love it), which is more or less marks the end of the week. Friday is the recuperational holiday, and Saturday and Sunday roll around with more reading to do and another week to prepare for.

Annie, Anastasia, and Emilio dominate the Rosebery Kitchen.
We actually spend a lot of time in this little room.. anything to
stay away from the books.

Such is my life, and to be honest, I really like it. This kind of scholarly existence is not something I would necessarily choose to do for the rest of my life, but studying this seriously is having some profound effects. These authors are truly amazing as well- It's really fun to get a bit of metaphysical banter going with Nobel-Prize Winning Amartya Sen, or Lord Stern and all his colleagues (regarding, respectively, measuring freedom and ethical ramifications of climate change modeling parameters). I recently read an amazing piece by Isaiah Berlin regarding how individuals and societies deal with liberty. The article was in some sense a history of some of these ideals, and it was amazing to see how an ideal as 'pure' as the protection of one's positive freedoms (IE- the ability to find myself as a rational creature and through this 'finding' become one with my desires) leads so easily to a Fascist sort of Paternalism. Berlin does a good job of demonstrating some of the weaknesses of Kantianism, or Rosseau's work, or even some of the wonderfully elocuted ideals of Mill and Bentham.

Not much of what I just wrote will make too much sense to the non-philosphers among us, but I hope it is obvious that I'm a fish in water over here, and I'm very much enjoying the swim :)

As far as events go, there are usually one or two cool concerts/ club events a week. I've been avoiding the clubs more and more lately, but the LSE has some very cool live music stuff on Tuesday evenings, and every now and then there's a cool concert. I still haven't been out to the theatres yet, but I suppose I'll have to.. either that or somebody can come visit and force me to go (yeah, you know who you are :-P) .

Music Time in the Underground Bar at LSE.
Holly rocks the mike (we'll all be hearing her in the future).

Two other things: The Rosebery students are amazing when it comes to throwing parties. I think last Sunday it was that I attended my first ever Diwali party (Indian New Year) and last night the whole dorm got dressed up and had a Halloween Ball down in the bar. Even the grad students get into this stuff, helping with costumes, decorations, music, etc.. Very cool :)

Whirling Dervishes at the Rosebery Diwali Celebration

And of course, the Americans had to carve Pumpkins
for the Halloween Party

Lastly, it SNOWED last Tuesday. Apparently it NEVER snows in London (well, I've been told about once a year), but for a few hours snow was falling from the sky, and some of it actually collected on the ground. This ended up being no fun for me at all as I had to bike home through the slush (damn that was a COLD ride), but when I got back to Rosebery, all the students were up on the roof throwing snowballs at one another. We were having a blast trying to snipe random students walking a few floors below when we heard the hall warden was on the way up to stop us. The proper information can lead to instant crowd dispersion.

In better detail-- SNOW!!!!!! :P

So essentially, I would say my life consists of reading, going to rad lectures on the state of the world, and occasionally hitting the gym/ breakdancing. Once in a while I get to see something unusual, like a russian girl dressed up in a red and gold saari to celebrate Diwali, or a Greek masters student pounding whiskey from a plastic water bottle, or even snow on a random Tuesday evening. But always, always, always, there is the reading.

Speaking of which, I have to get going-- 30 minutes are up.

Next time: The raddest Pro-America Lecture I Ever Experienced.

My Halloween Costume.