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interesting morning

There's a hostage situation going on two blocks from where I live, on Tottenham Court Road. I was walking back from Tesco and saw a crowd of people looking at Tottenham (I was on a street parallel), being held back by police tape. I stopped to see what was going on, and there was someone throwing computers out of a fifth story window, then boxes of papers and filing cabinets. Apparently he had (has?) hostages inside, and some sort of explosive strapped to his chest. I saw three or four people come out with their hands up, I'm guessing they were people he let go. I watched for awhile, then about six SWAT guys went in the building, and what seemed to be a sniper went up the building across the road. They waited in the lobby for a bit, then disappeared, then reappeared in the lobby, which was when they pushed everyone back further and I went home because you couldn't see anything anymore.

I just checked the news, and I guess he's still sending stuff out the window, and there are four hostages still inside. Oh..I think it's over. Looks like someone was arrested a few minutes ago. I hope everyone is safe.

good news?

I just signed up for my first 10k...in Austria. I guess this is actually pretty sweet. How many people can say their first 10k was is Austria? Emily Jones is going to be visiting me from the 3rd-13th of May, and we're both signed up to run in Salzburg on May 6! It does happen that she's running slightly twice the distance that I am...nbd. The bonus is that we get both a t-shirt and a finisher medal, engraved with our names and times for only seven Euro more! What a deal! According to my half training I should be doing a 10k in about five or six weeks, not in less than three. Buuuut I think that Hal Higdon would forgive me for running 10k in Austria given the chance. The day of the 10k I'm supposed to be running a 5k race...but if I'm going all the way to Salzburg I may as well run for an hour or so.

I've encountered some people who can't believe the price of races...paying thirty bucks or so to run for thirty or sixty minutes and come away with only a t-shirt. But, it's more than that. Most races, if not all that I've run, benefit some charity. Think of it this way: running is a sport. You pay for what? Shoes? around $100, some shirts and shorts and socks? If you play it right that's less than another $100. If you do a couple of races each year you're upping that by a hundred..maybe a hundred and fifty bucks. Total..that's $350. How quickly could you spend that on alcohol? Movies? Dinner out?

And remember. You usually come away with a t-shirt.

I've been silent for a bit because I've been acting the Miss Havisham. I admit, I've been a recluse the last four or five days, only venturing outside to run or go to the grocery. I've been toying with the idea of trying veganism for awhile, and I decided to do a seven day test last Thursday, meaning tomorrow will be the seventh day. Honestly, I've really enjoyed it. I'm someone who really, really likes meat and dairy. But, I haven't missed it. It's nice to be in a situation where you consciously think about what you're putting into your body. I've been usually eating fruit and toast for breakfast, a loaded salad with tofu and beans or lentils for lunch with soup, and pasta with veggies for dinner. And occasionally I've made pancakes for dessert using a made-up vegan recipe. The transcendentalists touched me in a special way in high school, and I'm very happy to be trying something so reflective and deliberate. I think Henry David would be proud.

I'm aware that a lot of people have a lot of feelings towards vegans. Usually these feelings range from slightly curious to intensely hostile. The go-to question is: how do you get protein? The smart-ass response to that would be: how do you avoid saturated fats and nitrates? How do you retain the proper balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids? Is half your plate actually made of fruits and veggies as recommended by the USDA? My thought on it is, unless you're a certified nutritionist or doctor, or in remarkable health yourself, you should probably keep your advice to yourself unless you're in a situation where the advice is wanted or needed. In these types of situations, people tend to forget that they can be remarkably rude without meaning to be. You probably don't eat enough vegetables, I probably don't eat enough protein, neither of us are perfect.

I'm trying this out, we'll see how it goes. Right now, I'm immensely happy with how I'm functioning.

Did I mention I'm going to Georgetown Law? It seems strange to announce it online, months and months and months after I started this process. I have to give a special thanks to Annie, who encouraged me to apply there. And thanks to my mom, who's helping me out with the deposit forms, and my dad, who's supported me through everything. I may be cursing you all in six or seven months, but right now, I'm very thankful.

My best to everyone,

Emily

Werk it

Classes officially ended last Friday, the day that I turned in the coursework for my Social Science Research Methods and Methodologies class. The essay was a description of how we approached the quantitative methods needed to answer a research question that was designed by my group. I have absolutely no idea how I did on the paper, I guess I just need to pass. The good things that came out of that class: I can use basic functions in Stata, I now know how to get columns to divide and multiply and add with other columns in Excel to create a new data set, I can make maps in GeoDa, and I can download census data to analyze. Bad things that came out of the class: stress, boredom.

Now it's crunch time. I have three 3,000 word essays due 23 April and one 8,000 word essay due 25 April. I haven't gotten much done this week, so I seriously need to buckle down or there are going to be some sleepless nights in April. Especially because my parents are coming a week from today for five days- yay!

I've taken up running again with the goal of completing a half-marathon this summer. I've been thinking about it for a long time, and I'm finally just going to do it. I just woke up on Wednesday with the urge to go run, which I'm attributing to the gorgeous weather we've had up until today. Wednesday I did a short two miles down to Buckingham Palace via Oxford Circus and Green Park, and took the tube back. The weather was amazing, it was the perfect day to lace up my shoes again. After I got back I started researching half-marathon training plans, and I printed one out and pinned it above my desk. Today or tomorrow was to be the first 'long-run' of four miles. Unfortunately, the weather took a nosedive sometime between last night and this morning, because when I headed out the door at 10 am, it was just below 50° and cloudy. My plan was to head over to Marble Arch via Oxford Street, run down the side of Hyde Park to Green Park, then through Green Park to Buckingham Palace, where I would pick up the road to Parliament, totaling four miles. I made it to Buckingham Palace ok (packed of course, being Saturday morning), but then got lost. Looking at a map now, I think I took a slight left instead of a severe left at the corner of St. James' Park, and ended up by Victoria. When I got there I realized I was turned around, and tried to correct it, but ended up making it worse. Anyway, I finished the four miles somewhere between Victoria and Pimlico, and decided just to walk back to Victoria to get the tube directly back to Warren Street. But, of course, the Victoria line isn't running this weekend, so I took a very roundabout route home. By the time I got back, I'd walked over a mile and half in addition to the run, thanks to the bit of wandering trying to find Parliament. I'm pretty sure that by the time I gave up, I was nearly two miles from my destination, even though I had been only half a mile away when I was at St. James'. I guess Parliament can still be my goal for my next long-run next weekend!

Though I didn't have much trouble finishing the miles, one of my knees was feeling a little shaky. I'm hoping it's just from disuse, I just got my motivation back! I guess I'm going to have to dig out the ol' brace, or find a new one at Boots or something.

Quelle Adventure!!

I've just returned from Rodez, France, where I spent my birthday weekend with my friend from home who's teaching English there. Rodez reminded me of all the things I dislike about London. The crowds, the traffic, the people who aren't all that polite. Rodez is a small town in the Aveyron region of France, which is famous for knives and this potato/cheese concoction known as aligot. I was lucky enough to avoid the knives and indulge in the aligot (which one only needs to indulge in once). It was great to be in a place filled with sunshine, beautiful countryside, and the nicest of people. Don't believe it when people tell you the French are rude.

We spent most of the weekend walking around, cooking, and reading. Kind of my perfect vacation. Friday night we went to hear live music at a bar, which was packed from door to door with people. The music was really lively and fun, I would relate it to what Cajun music I've heard in the states. I was shocked when Liz ordered us beers and he handed us the tiniest of cups. I'd forgotten that beer comes in a size other than a pint.

Sunday we woke up early for, what was for me, the highlight of the weekend. It's a yearly hike titled 'Les Traces du Fromage Laguiole AOP et de l'Aligot de L'Aubrac' which starts about ten kilometers from where the lunch station is, with two stops (burons) before the destination. The first buron was about 4k in, with hot, sweet wine and fouace, a pound-cake like regional food. After walking on 35 degree, highly windy French hills, it was extremely welcome. After the next 4k we were rewarded with kir and cheese, as well as a fire and music. The last stretch was maybe the hardest, since it went straight uphill after the second buron, and the wind was terrible. But, we finally made it after about 3 hours of hiking, and we all enjoyed our lunch of Auberac beef, aligot, Laguiole cheese, tarte aux pruneaux, and wine. Feeling tired, we took the shuttle back to the car instead of hiking another 10k, especially since the snacks at the burons on the way back weren't nearly as tempting. When Liz had told me about the hike I was a little hesitant (mostly because we were planning on doing all 20k), but I'm so happy that I happened to be there that weekend. I haven't been hiking in ages, and it was fun to do it without trails, just wandering over the hills in the general direction of the stop. The weather was a major bummer, but once we got going the cold wasn't too bad. Oh, and the wine was nice, too.

My taxi to the airport on Monday was made to take a detour by the gendarmerie, causing it to be almost twice the price of the taxi on Friday. But, I guess I got to see some more of la campagne. The Rodez airport is tiny, so the delay didn't matter much. I still got there an hour before my flight, which was more than enough time to wait in the security queue of ten people. I touched down at Stansted at 3:40, and by 5:30 I was back on campus doing work for a group presentation that I had today. The abrupt end to my lovely weekend was unpleasant, and I'm still regretting not missing my flight yesterday to stay in quiet Rodez a little longer.

Same old....

There's really not much to say. I'm a pretty boring person when it comes down to it.

I played in last week's rugby match v. Imperial. The first half was brilliant, the second half a little more rough. We ended up winning 41-14, continuing our undefeated record. Contrary to every 'warm-down' technique I've learned over the last..I don't know..seventeen years of playing sports, we sprint after matches. Usually, it's suicides, but lately our coach has felt the need to add Hennie Mullers, and interval training technique that involves jogging the length of a rectangle (width of a rugby pitch) then sprinting the diagonal, on an increasing scale. No matter how long it is, it seems like a lot after playing rugby.

School is the same- classes, trying to work on my dissertation proposal. Being put on the waitlist today at Duke was disheartening. Four schools have decided that they can't yet make a decision. I'm not poor enough to reject, but not brilliant enough to accept. By the fourth school, one starts to feel immensely...mediocre.

I do have a busy weekend planned! Friday I'm watching two under-20's matches at Twickenham Stoop, the location of our own varsity match, and it's possible that I'll be playing in a match either Saturday or Sunday. My dissertation proposal is due on Monday, and I'm going to see Les Miserables with friends from my program. So that means that I'm going to spend the most days until Monday working on my proposal when I'm not doing other things. It's not marked, but it will be that piece of writing that allocates me a supervisor, so it is still important. I'm still waiting on final grades on the two papers I turned in in January. .

So that means tomorrow I'm meeting with a professor and my group about a group project, then spending the rest of the day on my proposal. Thursdays are always dull, no matter where you are.

This is getting out of control

Dear Ms. England:

Thank you for applying to Duke Law School. I am writing to inform you of the status of your application for admission. We have completed a thorough review of your application, and would like to offer you a space on our waitlist for the summer 2012 entering class for dual degree candidates.

Although we are unable to offer you admission at this time, the admissions committee was impressed with your application and you will remain under consideration as the review process continues. As you are likely aware, Duke is among the smallest of the national law schools. In addition, we only enroll 40-45 students in our summer-starting dual degree programs. Therefore, the application process is exceptionally competitive, and we need to act cautiously and deliberately in extending offers of admission. We hope to be able to admit applicants from our waitlist, and appreciate your patience while we collect the information that will let us know whether we are able to do so. More information about our waitlist procedures is available on our website: http://www.law.duke.edu/admis/waitlist

Snow!

Now that it's February, it's finally getting cold here. I'm talking low 30's cold, not ChicagoWearEverythingYouOwn cold. I had a really great day yesterday with my friend Rachel from the rugby team (also American). We met up and went over to Portobello Road Market, and spent an hour or so walking through all of the antique stores and stalls. The food selection is a lot smaller than at other markets, but the German stand was able to satisfy both of our hunger. Rachel also got cupcakes from an apparently famous bakery 'The Hummingbird Bakery', that's on the same road as the market. I don't know why I didn't take a photo of it actually, it was adorable. After the market we travelled back to where she lives to watch the first two of the Six Nations games, a rugby tournament involving France, Italy, England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In the first match France defeated Italy, and then England beat Scotland. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but they were the first rugby matches I've watched, professional or not. I've been playing the game since September, perhaps I would have a better understanding of the rules if I watched more matches. After the England v Scotland game we had dinner at a pub down the road, and by then it had started to snow. I tried to walk to the closest tube stop, but apparently missed it and ended up at the second closest, by which time I was completely frozen because the snow had been blowing in my face the entire walk. Anyway, I got home safe and woke up to a few inches of snow!!

Rugby training was canceled this morning, so I opted to go grocery shopping at the Waitrose that's about .8 miles away....it was an adventure walking there. The snow had half-melted and hadn't been shoveled, so it took me half an hour to get there. I stupidly wore the boots I thought would be the warmest instead of those with the most traction, so walking on snow the consistency of stiff mashed potatoes wasn't much fun. I took a different route back which seemed to have been shoveled a little more, but it was still a pain.

The third Six Nations game (Ireland v Wales) kicks off at 3, so I'm going to head over to the Union to watch it with a few rugby girls. I've correctly picked the winner of the previous matches, but I just can't decide who I want to win this one!

Columbia too???

Dear Ms. England:

We wish to inform you that, after careful deliberation, our Admissions Committee has decided to postpone making a final decision on your candidacy, and we are placing your application in our Reserve Group.

Berkeley

Dear Ms. England, I write to inform you that your application at UC Berkeley Law School has passed an initial administrative review and has been selected for further consideration by the Faculty Admissions Committee. The Committee will begin deliberation on your application on January 27. We anticipate a final decision will be reached on or around February 17. Thank you for your patience. Edward Tom Dean of Admissions

Application hold at Harvard???

Yes, when I found out, I was just like you and had no idea what an application hold is, or why I would possibly get one. Here's a copy of the email:

Dear Ms. England:

The Admissions Committee has reviewed your application and has decided to hold it for further review. Although we regret the immediate uncertainty this entails, the purpose of holding applications is to ensure that each application receives thorough and fair consideration. Once a larger portion of the applicant pool has been reviewed, the Committee will be able to provide you with a decision to admit, deny, or wait-list your application.

These decisions may be made at any time between now and late spring. Unfortunately, it is not possible to predict the next decision on your application or the timing of that decision. If you are facing a deadline with another school, it may help to inform us, but we still may not be able to provide you with definitive information.

A hold decision provides you with the opportunity to update and supplement your file. For example, if you have received additional grades since submitting your transcripts to LSAC, please send these new grades to LSAC. If you have a special interest in attending Harvard, please feel free to tell us about that as well. Any new information that you feel might be helpful is appropriate. All correspondence to our office should include your LSAC registration number and be signed by you.

We will be unable to confirm with you over the phone if we have received any of the above information. If you would like to confirm receipt, please include a self-addressed stamped postcard with any correspondence and we will mail it back to you.

We will make final decisions as soon as possible. However, if you do not hear from us again before mid-April, you may want to reserve a place at another law school while awaiting Harvard's final decision. Thank you for your patience and your interest. We will contact you as soon as the next decision on your application has been made.

Sincerely,

Karen Buttenbaum

Director of Admissions

So....basically they're waiting to make a decision until later. My thought on this is that it's better than an outright rejection, and shows that they have some interest in me. I'm really surprised by it because my numbers are so much lower than what normally gets accepted. I'm planning on sending in an update with what I've been doing since I applied, which has basically been classes, immigration tribunals, and rugby. I'm also going to think about sending in my grades when I get them in three weeks, it depends on what they are. Aaaand since it's the British grading system, I have to be clear that a 70% is amazing or something.

Yeah so besides working on a short thing to send them, I'm also working on an application for the Global Law Scholars program at Georgetown, which requires a language evaluation and some short essay responses. I'm hoping one of my old professors at Chicago will be willing to do it, it's only been a year since they taught me. Lastly, I need to start looking at things for the summer, though I have no idea where I'm going to want/need to be.

Back to the routine

So! Back in London. After flying from St. Louis to Toronto and taking the tube into the city, I made it back to my room fifteen hours after I left. I crashed for a few hours then had to work on my two papers that were due the next day at noon. Sunday night I couldn't fall asleep until around 3 (yay jetlag!), and had to get up early to finish the bibliographies. There was a minor printing scare, but I got them both in on time in the end. After we turned in our work, about half my program went out for a celebratory lunch nearby. I don't really remember what I did for the rest of Monday, but I do remember not being able to sleep again. I'm anxious to get my essays back, but I think it's going to be at least three more weeks. It's interesting here that your professor doesn't grade them, an external examiner does. Kind of frightens me.

Tuesday I had two classes, one from 11-1, the other 2-5. The first Tuesday class is the only new class this term, it's called 'Postcolonial Theory and the Multicultural City' (aka migrants in London), and it's replacing my one-term 'International and European Refugee Law' course. I'm going to miss the law course a lot, that professor was my favorite, but I think the Postcolonial one will be good too. 2-5 is the second half of my Methods course, this term is quantitative methods. We don't have a final essay or exam, just a group project that we'll be working on every week during class. I'm really happy about this, as I have no background in STATA etc. After class I saw 'The Iron Lady' with friends in my program. I know a lot of people haven't really liked it, but I enjoyed it. Meryl Streep is amazing. People haven't liked that it portrays her so neutrally, but I liked that the movie neither demonized nor idealized her and the era.

Wednesday is class 9-11 and 11-1. At 9 is the second half of the mandatory course, titled 'Issues in Global Migration', and at 11 is the same 'International Human Rights Law' course. The first 'Issues' lecture was really good, so I have high hopes for the course this term. HR Law was the same as always, which is to say, interesting and difficult.

So, as you can see, I'm going to have a lot of down time again. I still have rugby, but that doesn't fill the five days I have off. I know I'm going to have to be good at doing all my reading ahead of time, that's always a struggle for me. I did productive things today, like faxing documents and picking up and depositing my loan cheque, but I know I'm going to struggle with the desire to just stay in my room all day and laze about. I finished crocheting my first project (yay!), so maybe the search for patterns and yarn will take me out of Bloomsbury for awhile. Or a job.

I'll let you know if I hear from any more schools!

Law school awaits!

In the last two weeks or so I've been admitted to OSU, Notre Dame, Boston University, and Georgetown Law. I just got the letter from Georgetown yesterday in the post, so I'm kind of still riding that high. I've learned that new mail doesn't appear until about 5pm, so at 5 I put dinner in the oven and went down to check. And there it was! It's a beautiful letter that's personalized with my interests, with a hand-written note at the end. I ran back upstairs to take the food out of the oven and grab my purse, then jogged over to Starbucks to show two of my friends who were there doing work. I think I scared them a little with my enthusiasm, I felt a little like I was having a heart attack. So we went to The Court for a celebratory pint (or three).

I got ND's about a week ago by post, it was a huge envelope with a nice folder and postcards. Oh and a $20,000/year renewable scholarship. Which is obviously very enticing. My only problems with Notre Dame are a) it's in Nowhere, IN and b) they only have two study abroad programs, one in London and one in Milan.

I'm still waiting on UPenn, UVA, Duke, Berkeley, UIUC, Columbia, and Harvard. I'm clearly not getting into Harvard, and I don't think I'll get into Columbia. All of these (minus UIUC) are higher ranked schools than the ones I've gotten into, but a few of them have lower 25th percentiles for admission. Georgetown has a 25th percentile LSAT of 168 (I got a 167), but Penn and UVA have a 166, and Berkeley a 162 (but no one understands Berkeley admissions, so it's no guarantee). Columbia is 170, Harvard 171. I'm really excited about Georgetown, especially because I had the interview in November, and I would feel really crappy if they interviewed me and decided not to let me in. I had my heart pretty set on Penn, but getting in at Georgetown made me so excited that I definitely won't be heartbroken if Penn bumps me. I also applied to a Public Interest Scholarship at BU, and hope I have a shot at it or a merit scholarship.

This term has really flown by. I can't believe that I've been in London as long as I was in Paris. Perhaps it's because London feel less foreign than Paris did, is less of a culture shock. I'm getting a visitor this weekend (exciting!) and flying home in six days (also exciting!). I'm going to have to do work over break on my final papers due in January, but this whole law school thing kind of makes me not want to focus. It's hard to decide if I would have been admitted to Georgetown without being in this program right now, so I don't know if it was the right decision. If it got me into Georgetown, it definitely was.

A very rugby weekend

Friday night I had my rugby Thanksgiving at the flat of one of the girls, and I have to say that it was a huge success.

I met my American rugby friend Rachel at her house to help carry the turkey, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce over to the party. She's living with her sister, brother in law, and niece in a nice part of London that's about 2.5 miles from where I live, so I decided to walk up to her for a nice pre-feast stroll. I'm really glad I walked, because a. it was nice to walk through an area I'd never been (pretty much following the Northern line the whole way, so I could judge my distance by the tube stops every so often) and b. the walk was the exact length of a 'This American Life' podcast that was extremely engrossing. I know I tell a lot of people about 'This American Life', which is broadcast from WBEZ Chicago, so bear with me if you've already heard this speech. You should all listen to it. Or at least give it a try. Each week has a theme, which is usually broken down into two or three stories that center around that theme. The episode I listened to on Friday was titled 'Petty Tyrant', and was unusual because it only told one story- that of 'petty tyrant' Steve Raucci, and his rise and fall inSchenetady, NY.

So after meeting up with Rachel we headed over to the party, smelling very much like Thanksgiving on the underground. We got a little lost, so everyone was waiting by the time we arrived. Other foods at the party were: pigs in a blanket (not the American kind, these were cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon), a veggie tart, fried chicken, pumpkin pie, banoffee pie (my new favorite), brownies, lemon pie...and so much more that I can't even remember. The food was great, and as always with the rugby team, the company was even better. It made me feel a lot better after being extremely homesick the day before.

Sunday was another rugby match, this time against LSE, who we previously played in the freshers' tournament. Kickoff was around 2:30, but with travel there and back I think I was gone from around 11:45 to 5:30. I played the entire first half, and maybe a quarter of the second half. Again, the other team didn't bring enough players, so we played 12 v. 12 (rugby is a 15 person sport). I played the same position I did last time, which isn't really a position at all when you have enough girls. I'm hoping the next time I play, it's a proper match, because it's hard enough to get my head around the game without them changing the number of people on the field. I think we ended up winning 45-5, and we are still undefeated.

Monday is my work day, so I'm heading off to the library soon. I'm flying home three weeks from today! Eeeeee!!! I hope everyone is looking forward to the banoffee pie I'm going to be making for Christmas Eve!

Cheers

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I guess I haven't updated because everything's become so routine, it doesn't seem too interesting anymore.

Rugby has been lots of fun, I played in a game vs. Imperial College, and we smashed them! Both literally and figuratively. I think the score was something like 47-5. I can't play in most Wednesday games because of my class schedule, so Sunday games are really my opportunity to play. The rugby team has socials on Wednesday evenings and usually dinner after matches on Sundays, so I've been seeing the other girls pretty often. Last night was a social with the Chocolate Society, that involved eating a lot of cheap chocolate. I think the Chocolate Society was actually kind of offended, I guess they usually get nice chocolate and savor it, instead of doing boat races with Cadbury white chocolate polar bears.

My Thanksgiving has consisted of buying things to make cranberry sauce, doing laundry, reading, and watching TV online. Pretty boring stuff. But this weekend should make up for it.

I have two Thanksgiving dinners planned, one tomorrow with the rugby girls, and one Saturday with a girl from my program and some of her and her sister's friends. I'm bringing cranberry sauce, homemade. I think the rugby one will be a little untraditional, with the non-Americans bringing things like pigs in a blanket, key lime pie, fries, and brownies.

I had an interview with a Georgetown Law alumni last Friday, and I think it went well. He was a nice guy in maybe his 40's, he's the head of mergers and acquisitions for Wells Fargo..so pretty successful. There weren't a lot of questions, just kind of general stuff. I'm hoping to hear from Georgetown pretty soon now, since I think they were waiting on my application because of the interview. I haven't heard from any other schools, so I'm trying to be patient and not think about it too much.

I'm missing home a lot today! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. It's weird to say that I think I also really miss Springfield. Maybe it's just the holiday, but everyone seems so far away. I think I've been here for 9.5 weeks, and I'm flying home in 3.5. Yay!

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