GW Hatchet Blogs - blogs.gwhatchet.com

We heard it countless times. At first we thought it was us - three American girls just like the movie, one Asian, one with Drew’s hair and me, the blonde - but after the 15th Turkish man used some variation of the reference to get our attention, we realized it wasn’t individual.

We had been a bit worried to go to Istanbul, just us three girls, because we assumed (as did our mothers) that it was culturally safer to travel with a guy or two (the Turkish population is almost entirely Muslim). But we were wrong.

Istanbul is, culturally as well as geographically, a gateway between Europe and the Middle East. On the path to becoming part of the European Union, yet with a distinctly Middle Eastern feel. Women in fill Islamic dress walk by women exuding that European je ne sais quoi in flowing strapless dresses. You could see a television with the Turkey v Czech Republic game anywhere you where looking, with people cheering and drinking (they won - surprisingly - 3 to 2), yet five times a day Muslim call for prayer would reverberate across the city through loudspeakers on the top of the city’s many mosques. I loved the unique feeling this mesh of cultures gave the city.

Well, except for the 4:30am call for prayer which consistently woke me up.

However, what surprised me most about Istanbul was its families. Everywhere we went where happy children running around, playing with siblings, cousins or friends and smiling from ear to ear at their parents. Growing up in Southern California I couldn’t help but think: I have never seen so many happy families outside of Disneyland.

When a little girl’s brother accidentally fell into the fountain in the park and found himself soaked up to his knees, she jumped in not long after him in an attempt to make him feel better. With two wet children under 10, the laughing father decided it was time to leave, and walked back through the park with a child on each arm skipping along.

Outside our hotel window on the day before we left was a group of five little girls. It only took me a split second to notice what they where doing - they were playing Chinese jump rope. I had loved the game when I was their age and had played it on the streets of Beverly Hills with my friends, just as they were doing now, 15 years, and half a world away. It was nice to know that no matter when or where, somethings - like the joys of childhood - are universal.

While most of my fellow study abroaders have already returned to the States, I, perhaps surprisingly, am still abroad in London. Perhaps more surprisingly, I still haven’t finished exams. And so while most of my friends are almost a month into summer vacation - finals a distant past in their minds - I find myself studying for a test worth 75% of my final year-long grade.

I’m not really complaining - here at the LSE we didn’t start school until the first week in October, and had 10 weeks of break; our third 10 week trimester didn’t even comprise of any classes - but there is something to be said for the fact that the summer equinox is fast approaching, and the only summer I have yet to experience is the 80 degree weather here in London and the sun rising on my way home at 3am from a night out.

On the other hand, except for my four, 3 hour exams, I haven’t actually been in school since mid-march. It is a funny thing studying for an exam for a course you haven’t had or looked at in three months. Imagine taking a final for a Spring semester class the next fall.

However, thanks to this system I have been able to do more traveling and spend more time with friends then I thought possible during an exam period. At the end of last week, the day after my second to last exam, my friend and I hopped onto an Easy Jet flight to spend two days in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was amazing, and I would recommend everyone try to make it there sometime in their life.

Edinburgh is a small big city, with a hometown feel and architecture that ranges from the very very old (the castle as it stands is partly from the 16th century) to the very very modern (the new parliament building was designed by Enric Miralles). As is wasn’t bombed as much during the World Wars, it has less of the random splatter-art -feel that characterizes the London skyline.

We spent our first day at the Castle, and our second day lounging in the park in the center of the city after a tour from a friend who has lived in Edinburgh for 4 years. And while we went to no museums on our trip, it was great to experience the city from a local’s perspective. We couldn’t have been happier sitting on the grass and watching everyone soak up the magnificent weather with the castle in the background - leave it to me to get sunburned in Scotland…

Last week GW England took its students on our last outing of the year. We visited the US Embassy here in London, and then went out to an amazing dinner at this brasserie in Mayfair. It was a great outing, and, in contrast to the woes voiced by students at GW about our university’s study abroad program, a prime example of how well my experience has been with GW England.

At least on this side of the pond, GW England seems to have things firmly under control. Or to be more specific, Resident Director of GW England, Daniela Passolt Olimpio, and Professor Laurie Kaplan have things under control. Since I arrived in London nearly 9 months ago, Daniela and Laurie have yet to expose me to the GW bureaucracy so well known to my fellow rising seniors, and have answered every question I posed to them in a time frame that makes me think they might be super-human.

For example, when I was asked by The Hatchet last fall to interview President Knapp on his trip to Europe, Daniela sent me an e-mail to ask whether I needed help getting a room at the LSE, or anything else for the interview - even though I had never mentioned to her a word about it.

While the GW England program is much smaller than GW study abroad in general, Daniela and Laurie should serve as a example of what a GW study abroad program should be like, and not just because part of their job description is to take us fun places and feed us lots of good food all on GW’s dime.

My fellow GW England students and I have reveled all year at how much our study abroad experience makes us feel like we go to a small liberal arts school, not a university of over 20,000. It was here in London we got to have high tea with President Knapp and Dean Brown while discussing everything from Knapp’s plans for the school (and our takes on them) to Dean Brown’s marriage story, not back in D.C.

And while I have yet to try to get my courses here to transfer to the ones I want back at GW, the time I have spent in London with Daniela and Laurie has given me hope for the future of GW’s study abroad programs.

Yesterday early afternoon I got back from a morning trip to Asda (a.k.a Walmart) and could barely walk from the bus stop on the west side of Trafalgar Square to the east side, where my flat is located.

At first my friend and I moaned about the beginning of tourist season, but then we noticed the plethora of police officers walking in groups of 3 to 6 all around the area; this we thought, is not just an increase in tourism.

It wasn’t a holiday, St. George’s day was last weekend, and May day isn’t until next Monday, so what was going on?

Turns out it was Election day.

As someone who is usually on top of the news and has lived in London over 7 months now, not knowing that it was election day produced a strange out-of-touch feeling I hadn’t known since I stepped off the tube for the first time and tried to navigate my way to my flat.

I told myself I was only out of touch with British politics because I can’t participate it in - I mean, if you can’t vote, why remember when other people can?

You can imagine my surprise when I found out I could have voted.

London, being such an international city, has progressive voting requirements for its mayoral election. Having a valid London address is all it takes to vote - no citizenship or visa required.

I was surprised. I always thought you had to be a citizen to vote in a county’s elections. But now that I think about it, it makes sense. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world - as the video on the Heathrow Express will tell you over and over again during your 20 min ride into Paddington - and it makes sense that all you have to do is live in London to get a voice in how the city is run.

So for all those who find themselves living in the international cities of the world, see if your city is following in London’s footsteps and, as P Diddy would say: rock the vote.

Well, I’m finally back in London from my month long trip through Mediterranean Europe and as much fun as I had it sure is wonderful to be back. Luckily I have more work to do here in a month than I usually have at GW a semester, so the fact that I left Greece where it was, oh, 80 and perfect, for London where it is 65 and rainy (with an even grimmer 10 day forecast) doesn’t seem to bug me that much - I work better when its raining anyway.

I had an amazing time on my trip; I got to see so many different cultures, from chic Zürich with its countless jazz bars to laid back Crete where I got closer to a wild peacock then I thought possible - take a look at the photo I snapped of this little boy taking a picture (who looks strangely like my cousin when he was 10):

There was one thing I found especially interesting about Greece however (it may just be because I’m a cultural studies major) but I thought I would see what other people had to say on the topic:

One of my friends who I traveled with is an American with Vietnamese ancestry. If a Greek asked us where we were from and we answered “Oh, we’re from the States” they would look directly at my friend and ask “no, really, where are you from?” Eventually after responding, “I’m from California” numerous times, she realized the only way to satisfy her questioners was to say “but my family is originally from Vietnam.”

The Greeks (at leasts the ones we talked to on the subject) seemed to think that despite the fact that she was born and raised in America she wasn’t American - she was Vietnamese.

Considering we had spent about the same amount of time traveling through Switzerland and part of Italy without encountering a similar mindset, I thought I would see if anyone else had any thoughts or experiences on the topic.

Greetings from Roma. It’s my last night in Italy after about 1 and a half weeks traveling throughout the country.

Coming from Switzerland, I took a train into the hillside towns of Cinque Terre, and made my way to Rome via Pisa, Florence and Siena. Tomorrow I leave for about two weeks in Greece.

Italy was amazing, as I’m sure Diana Kugel’s post conveyed, so I don’t feel any need to describe my endless travels. Hence I will only say a very few things about Italy:

• It only took one train stop in Italy after crossing the boarder from Switzerland to realize that the two countries hold very different views on “train time.” I have never spent more time waiting for trains then on my travels here in Italy. However, I have also never enjoyed waiting for trains more.

• After spending less then two weeks in the country I no longer know how to have dinner without red wine, or go an afternoon without gelato. This could get tricky when I leave the Mediterranean.

• Lastly, we really lucked out - turns out this last week was the first ever Arts Week, meaning that all art museums in the country were free. Hence, I saw the Uffizi and the Academia galleries in Florence and the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the ruins of Palentine Hill in Rome all for no charge. And because no one had to pay for a ticket - not one line in the whole of my Italian travels. So I would only add one things to Diana’s statement about buying a ticket to Italy: buy one for Arts Week next year.

Greetings from Luzern, Switzerland! I have commenced my backpacking trip, and so far have made it all the way to the center of Switzerland.

We started off in Zurich - a city which I promptly fell in love with. Located on Lake Zurich - original, I know - the city is clean, picturesque, and cosmopolitan. It is also, not surprisingly, a very punctual place. The trains, as we found out our first night, will not wait for three running backpackers. However, once we got there, the view from my friend’s house (where we were lucky enough to stay) was beautiful. And since they were nice enough to take us around we got to experience Zurich from an insider’s point of view.

Since coming to Luzern, I have a new obsession with the Alps. They are amazing, especially when you climb half an hour up a hill to see them. The view does not disappoint.

Tomorrow we head off to our last stop in Switzerland, the capital Bern. It will be my first hostel experience - eek! I’ll let you know how it goes when we get to warmer weather in Italy.

p.s. typing on a Swiss keyboard is more difficult than one would think…

As my spring break is 6 weeks long, tomorrow I depart on a month long trip across Southern Europe.

I never thought I would be one to backpack across Switzerland, Italy and Greece, but I’m getting really excited to see so many new places and visit my friends along the way.

I’ll keep you updated as I can,

Oh, and my friends can stop laughing at me now…

As our web editor kindly pointed out to me a few days ago, it has been a while since my last post, and as I kindly pointed out back to him, that is because I have been extremely busy finishing up everything that is due before the year is over.

See, here at the LSE, we are in our last week of classes; and no, I do not mean until after spring break. Today, at the beginning of March, was my last full week of school in my Junior year.

But before you get jealous, let me point out that this fact doesn’t mean that I am done with school. On the contrary, I now have until May to study for exams, which make up 100% of my grades and span material starting from the beginning of October.

Not so jealous anymore, are you?

The LSE has a completely different educational system from GW. Here we take 4 courses that span two 10-week terms, one from October to December and one from January to March. After our 2nd term we get six weeks off for spring break, and then come back for the Summer Term - a 10-week term that technically goes until July, yet includes no new material, few classes, and in reality ends after you finish your exams around May.

Not having taken an exam since Freshman year, I think I’m in for a interesting ride.

In case no one read the little bio box in the corner, I’m originally from California. And in case you don’t know much about Californian geography, it is located on one of the biggest faults in the world - the infamous San Andreas Fault.

The San Andreas Fault is responsible for some of the worst earthquakes in the western hemisphere, including the 7.8 magnitude, 1906 San Francisco quake that pretty much leveled the city and killed over 3000 people.

What does this have to do with England you say? Well, last night at about 1am the United Kingdom witnessed the biggest earthquake in a quarter century. Being from California, the 5.2 magnitude quake was enough to make me think the earth might be moving, but not enough to get me out of bed.

In fact, my first thoughts were that I must be imagining it - London doesn’t have earthquakes right?

Apparently it does; and ones where damages will run into the tens of millions of pounds.

It also makes me wonder: can tectonic plate activity follow individuals?