Halloween last year was fairly crap. I realise that now when comparing it with this year. I hope I remember all the costume ideas I had this past week for next year. Some of the ones I saw on other people were fantastic.

Generally these days I am too busy. I wanted to get involved with uni a lot more and some of the stuff I'm doing is really fun. I'm writing a family history piece for Clare Makret Review on my mum's memories of the invasion in Cyprus, and I've asking the family about what happened 35 years ago. It's been really exhausting. The piece is actually just a short thing to introduce the interviews, and it's really non-sentimental and pragmatic, but even I cried a couple of times while writing it. Maybe I'll have to stop telling people I have a heart of stone now.

Also, life drawing might be starting tomorrow, which is good (and will actually force me to do some drawing, Sharon, I will do some in MOMA!) and I had my first Japanese lesson this evening. This year's class seems much friendlier than last year's, where everyone came in, studied and then went home. I feel like if I suggested that we all go around the corner to the Japanese take away place for discount sushi this year, at least five people would be up for it. Also, it used to irritate me that last year any mistakes made for embarrassed silences. This year they make for embarrassed giggles. :)

On the down side, I somehow managed to get myself elected as official photograher for this new society calling itself Global soc. Don't ask me what it does, I don't know. It claims to connect up all of LSE's national societies, but so far all it has done is united a lot of people who are a bit pretentious with people who want something to put on their CVs. Oh, and they ask me to do a lot of last minute poster designing. I really want to quit, but the web manager already quit and I'd feel really bad.


( all hallows )

After all the flat hunting I did at the beginning of last month, my parents spoke to their financial person and concluded that the recession means it would be better to wait a few years before buying, seeing as both of them could be unemployed in the near future. :S

Part of me is vaguely annoyed that all the work I did was for nothing (chasing up estate agents is a full-time job and now I get mildly annoyed when I still get property email alerts) but the bigger part of me is relieved that I'll only be renting next year. This means that Alice and I can look for a place that is more about her and me and less about my mum and her architectural hang-ups. Yay.

( we take any opportunity to escape the city )


The past few days I've been cooking lots for my extended family who were staying with us. It's nice to have a big audience, since when I was living alone, there wasn't really much point in putting in much effort. The most successful dishes were spaghetti with prawns and sun dried tomatoes, Moroccan fish with cous cous, beetroot salad and scotch pancakes with mango and cream.

& I've been getting ready to go to join Scarlett in Egypt on the 12th, learning all the little cultural considerations, like don't eat with your left hand, don't show anyone the sole of your shoe, cover your shoulders and thighs. I was really nervous, I've never been to the African continent or the Middle East before, but everyone's been telling me to chill out so I just need to remember how terrified I was about going to China and that it turned out fine, better than fine, in fact.

I have to say, this summer is looking like a grand ol' time. What I should say is that it's making up for the two month period of hellish exam stress. The weather has been awesome, old friends are coming back from uni, I have my trusty Canon, and a part time job to keep me in the moniez. Good times.





( pose )


PPPPS. I hope the people in the northern hemishere are having a good summer, and the people in the southern hemisphere are having a god winter.

Yes, there were a lot of jokes about the name of the town we were staying in, because we're mature like that.

Basically, Suze invited Rhian, Becky, Georgia, Tom and me to spend four days in her parents' converted barn in Noramndy. We spent them eating croissants with nutella, walking around the local fishing towns, vegging on the beach, cooking with obscene amounts of cheese, playing cardgames sunbathing on the trampoline, and dancing around to 90s pop hits.

For a lot of these activities we were moderately tipsy. :D





( where? )


Fun, fun, fun!

In the end I guess I am kind of glad of glad the rest of the people didn't come. It was nice to be just the six of us.

So... exams have been over for a few days and unfortunately in the confusion I managed to leave my digital camera in my room at school while my mum managed to get me to move back to Camden so she could use my presence in the house to ward off unwated house guests. What with Sasha's 50s themed birthday party, a much awaited lunch-and-movie date with Melissa and series of post-exam bar hops, I was forced to buy one of these:



which means that my photographic evidence of all these events is in the process of being developed. How quaint.

Anyway, by end of the exam period, I think that a lot of us were about ready to admit defeat. There was a week between my last exam and the one before it, so by then I found myself really not caring whether I got a decent grade. You need 40% to pass the year, so a lot of people were like, 'Well, I wrote something in that exam so I obviously passed, and now it's over, I don't give a monkey's.' Anthropology 100 was one of the very late exams so almost nobody had another one after that. This meant that once the exam had finished there was an almost unbroken stream of people walking from the exam hall into the union bar. :D

What's interesting though is that that night after the last exam was the night where I met met a lot of classmates who I'd previously never spoken to before. I think this year came as a big shock to most people, especially the level of work involved and the kind of expectations put on us by tutors and stuff like that. A lot of my friends wished that they had made a bit more of an effort to make friends and get involed in university stuff. And I think the sense of lost opportunity was common among others as well. As the night went on, people who my have never spoken to each other before invited each other out for summer parties and made promises to meet up over the summer. I must have made a note of more phone numbers that night than I had for the entire year.


( since then... )


And tomorrow I am off to stay in the French countryside with a group of girls where I was promised a lot of eating, drinking, gossiping and photo opportunities. Yay!

At this point I'm just waiting for June 5th, when exams will be over. I don't know what it is about the LSE, but people are going NUTS. They are actually bringing sleeping bags to the library and that is why it is beginning to smell. Anyway, I'm currently in the anxious zone. At some point, this will pass and I will enter a phase of zen, where nothing will bother me. Here's hoping. It just seems as though the institution is doing everything it can to panic us, including sending out mass emails telling us that this year, exams will be harder than ever and we'd better be working hard and looking at past exams papers, P.S. The exam board does not tolerate cheating.

So, here's the last three weeks or so in pictures:

( including a very cute bebe )


OK, now it's back to Japanese. Must pass exam. Have not begun to prepare and it happens to be tomorrow...

Greek Orthodox Easter is this week, instead last week, like everybody else. I think my aunt and uncle (whose house we are staying at) were a bit stressed yesterday on their last day at work. My aunt is a human rights lawyer, my uncle is in insurance and today they've been answering phone calls all day from the rest of the world, which is of course, still working and doesn't understand why Cyprus isn't.

I only got here two days ago but so far I feels like I've visited all my extended family, my grandfather, five elderly great aunts, three of my mother's cousins and their children, my mother's aunt and uncle, my other aunt and uncle... and this doesn't include random people I see down town who stop me and tell me that I am the spitting of Elli Pitsilli, and 'Yes, I am her granddaughter... no, my mother is the middle sister...'

Some people are more fun to visit that others. My grandfather had a lot of sisters, some of whom have already died, some of whom have lost their spouses, others of whom seem to think that being left behind means they have the right to be miserable about being old and anticipate death. Stubborness runs in the family, everyone insists that they can't do anything these days, no one understands, 'ιναμ’ πο’εν να καμουμεν?', 'What can you do?'


( things i have seen )

Remember last post when my neck was feeling lumpy? Well, it turns out I had mumps, (even though I was vaccinated against it. wtf?) I was told in the doctor's office that even vaccinated people have a 5% chace of getting it and apparently there's an epidemic going around the London universities. So I was kicked out of halls and sent back to my parents' house where I was quarantined for a week. Lucky me. On the plus side, I now have immunity for life and the doctor also told me that in this case it was good to be a woman, since mumps is usually very painful for the testicles.

So once I was released into the wild again on Tuesday, I was invited to Sergio's birthday party along with all the first years in halls. Before we left, we all went to Matt's kitchen to have a drink, except I was trying to take it easy because of the whole recovering from a contageious disease thing.

It was probably because I was taking it easy that I could easily watch the developement of my friend's problems.

While Suze was out of the room, Kirsty and Becky were giggling as they poured more vodka into her cranberry juice, and then neglected to tell her what they'd done when she came back. What with drinking games and everything, it worked out that Suze must have drunk about a third of a bottle before we even left, and she is even shorter than me. The glass of ice water I handed her at the bar didn't stop her throwing it all up in the toilets while Kirsty and I tried to take of her. All the time, I was thinking at Kirsty, 'This is your fault, you were the one that tipped that bottle into her glass. That's not right.' I kept waiting for her to offer to take Suze home, but she never did. So that's how I ended up trying to reassure the cab driver that my friend wouldn't be puking in his cab, rummaging in Suze's handbag for her key, trying to persude her to eat some carbs... and back in my room by 11pm.

Discussing it with Nina, (who is back home from Oxford) the next day while we spent gift vouchers on makeup, we came to the conclusion that a lot of first years have an attitude to alcohol that's unnecessary and self destructive. There's a line, right? There's teasing and cajoling, like 'Come on, let's do another shot. Tequilla or sambucca?' and then there's pouring spirits into someone's drink while they're out of the room, or doing what Matt has often done to me, which is press a glass against my mouth and tip so I have no choice but to swallow or spill it down my front.

'God I hate it,' Nina compained. 'The fucking rowers do it all the time. They go out and get totally wasted and play these stupid drinking games. Then they come into college the next day and they're like "Yeah, I got shit-faced last night and got up in time to come to this tutorial and answer essay questions." And I'm like "Great, you're smart, and you're good at destroying your liver. Frankly, that still doesn't validate your existence."'


( crap to fun in three nights )


... & here is my cat, who always finds the place with sun + bed.

( +5 )


Right now my neck feels like a bag of oranges. I really hope it gets better before tomorrow night because I desperately want to go back to KOKO for some indie DJ sets by Bloc Party and the Mystery Jets. Pleasepleaseplease...

Highlights from the past two weeks:

+ Anthropology pub quiz reveals that there's nothing funnier than drunk, competitive teachers. Our team came second, and only because we lost on a technicality about the definition of the word 'Puffkin'. Stanley's team won and now there'll be no living with him. AND we finally got to meet Sasha's boyf, who does exist. Also, apparently hippo milk is pink.

+ Walking from one side of Spitalfields to the other is impossible without spotting at least a couple of famous people. Last Tuesday Sasha and I saw that guy who played the Bond villain in Die Another Day and Gavin from Gavin and Stacey who is now in films about lesbian vampires.

+ Have made friends with Suze, who lives in the flat downstairs. Together we made 17 pancakes in 20 minutes and rolled them up around sliced strawberries, cinnamon and toffee sauce. She is nice to explore things with. We text each other when we want to check out a new cafe/ shop/ pub/ clubnight and also when we want to moan about essays or sleep deprivation.

+ On Sunday night, I introduced Scarlett to the amazingness that is the BYOB India Club Restaurant on the Strand. We popped into the supermarket next door to buy Asian beer before sitting down next to some rowdy theatre goers and ordering coconut rice, mango pickle and spicy lamb madras that just about shaved off the inside of our mouths. Yum.

Have a good week, guys. Do something creative, ok? :D

Saw a prospective flat with Scarlett on Wednesday. Maybe it's far too early for us to be snooping around when we'll only be able to move in July at the earliest, but she explained to me that looking at property online is her version of porn, and please don't judge.

Anyway, flat was basically perfect. On the third floor with no lift, but we can deal. Two big bedrooms, bathroom and toilet, kitchen and living area, really big, and best of alll... in Covent Garden, which is not only one of the fabbest areas in the middle of the city, but 5 mins walk away from school.

Downside is that it's a good £50 more than we can afford and probably won't go down anymore. [Sigh.]





( Hello, Mr Zane Lowe )


Also, twitter?

Back at school. Anthropology seems to have become even more interesting. This term we have been promised questions such as 'Is there any cultural instance in which men and woman are treated equally?', 'Is death instantaneous?', 'Are humans naturally violent?', 'Why do people give things to each other?' and 'Do the different ways that people think about the senses mean that they experience the world differently?'

But the other thing is that we don't just learnt about culture. Sometimes the best thing is learning about what anthropologists thought when they first encountered this culture. For instance in parts of the amazon, some fathers carry out this birth ritual called the couvade where they pretend to be physically ill after the birth of their children. The first anthropologists to encounter this thought What are you doing, man? Get up! You're an embarrassment to humanity! Later anthropologists thought Well, maybe they're doing this because they believe that the father is giving birth to the baby's spirit... Even later anthropologists decided that It's because of the belief that father and baby share the same life blood and that if the father works then the baby is also working. Besides, look at the important kinship relations that emerge through the performance of the ritual...'

Sometimes it's just very gratifying to watch as people develop from obnoxious, dismissive, colonial wankers to people who are slightly more inquisitive and broad-minded.

Anyone else go through spasms of obsessive organisation?





( What comes before part B? PARTAY! )

Annais and I went to the first Union General Meeting where the motion was to condemn Israel's military action in Gaza and send humanitarian aid. The motion was passed. I found it really unnerving and kind of inspiring that everybody had to show their student IDs as they went in and again before they voted. Apparently outside randomers actively try and infiltrate our UGMs when they vote on things like this because the LSE is so internationally well known and its actions so influential.





Before the debate, the union had to get some admin business out of the way, including the vote for the new Chair. The first candidate stood up and made the following speech:

'I am especially excited for the inauguration taking place on the 20th, because it shows that if America can vote for a black man, then maybe the LSE can vote for an American!'

After a large round of laughter and applause, he was voted in.

No longer a teenager am I. :O

The beginning of this holiday was filled with lots of fun things like watching Sasha's Christmas panto with Anna and Alice, okonomiyaki and period dramas with Ayako, shopping and baking with Nina and Ingrid Bergman and Indian food with Annie. Then I got flu until Christmas, which was a great excuse to go home to my parents' house and laze about in bed having soup brought to me and watching Christmas television.

Christmas day was very productively spent helping my parents cook. We made the whole shebang. Turkey and potatos and stuffing and parsnips and carrots and sprouts and little sausages wrapped in bacon with gravy and two kinds of sauce. Ironically, everything was delicious except the Turkey. :S

Then it hit me that I have 7,500 words of essay to write.

...& probably it hit quite a lot of other people too. From the general tenor of facebook and text messages and the atmosphere in halls, many people have left it all until after New Year's. The fact that we have three assessed essays due by 4:00pm on Monday the 12th is clearly making people a wee bit insane. Alice texted me on the 3rd of January for lunch and moral support in the library.

'OMG! I just ran into this girl who recognised me from our course and spent like twenty minutes grilling me on how much I have done. It was terrifying! She was all "How many words have you written? I haven't written anything at all! But I have done the intro and conclusions and read about eight books for each..." I was like, Get the fuck away from me right now.'

So, while Alice and I were industriously typing away that afternoon in the ground floor of the library and dismaying that all the good books had been taken out, I was similarly accosted by a boy from our course.

'Are you doing AN100? Which one are you doing? The unilineal history and racial divisions one? I'm doing that one too! Except I haven't really started. How did you start? What did you write? What was your argument? Can you just quickly explain Evolutionism?'

After he left, Alice and I looked at each other like, Or, you could write your own bloody essay...

There's a line, okay? Alice and I sitting in the library together asking each other things like 'Can you read this and tell me if it makes sense?' or Sasha ringing me to ask 'Do you think I should use Ireland or Israel as an example for this?'... that flies. Asking someone for their basic essay structure and the finer points of their explanation... that's just not kosher.


( Thankfully it got done before my birthday. )


I'd like to be semi-serious for a second and say thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes! You can't know how special the messages made me feel. It felt good that, even as my table reservation was emptying, my inbox was filling. :D

I lurve the Killer's new album.

& I luuurve my degree subject. Social Anthropology is ACE. Every time I stumble out of an AN100 class, I can feel my brain broadening. Who knew that when you have children in Madagscar, you're no longer known by your own name, but by the name of your child? Who knew that there are tribes in Egypt who believe that you have the same blood and are therefore the same person as your father? Who knew that most people are born ambidextrous but automatically favour one hand because religion says one hand represents good and one represents evil? Who knew that teenagers in Tehran go to parties, drink, take drugs and have sex under Sharia law just like teenagers in London do under democracy?

My outside option, or minor, is International History of the Twentieth Century, which is basically a run down of how Britain screwed up the world, (also very good and interesting.)


copy room &hearts




( recent & important acquisitions )


A little known fact about the London Shcool of Economics is that every day, come rain or shine, at exactly 1 o'clock, the Hare Krishna come and give out free vegetarian curry.





As you can see, the line usually runs all the way down Houghton Street. :D