Quantity Theory of Museums

Another few days, another few museums, including a new all-time-favourite.

On Friday, I went through the Museum of London, which had all the history of the City, from pre-Roman to next year's plans. It's still under construction, and will be quite the afternoon come next year, though for now it's about an hour, tops. Right outside the entrance to the museum, however, is the John Wesley memorial. So go Methodism!

That evening I went to the Victoria and Albert, which is now my favourite spot in all of London. I didn't even get to spend much time in the galleries, but rather was attending an event called the Friday Late Programme. The museum stayed open until 10pm and had all kinds of events and speakers going on. I saw two illustration firms battle it out in one hour to create a giant mural, all in the Raphael gallery. Imagine gigantic, beautiful Raphael's in a cathedral sized room, fill with young artsy types and a dj as well as families. The juxtaposition but overall positive feeling was completely moving, and we all laughed at the dancing 2 year old child of one of the artists, running around the floor. Then I went to a lecture by an award winning illustrator who showed us his new works (my favourite was a new interpretation of Great Gatsby--the ultimate American identity story illustrated by a Brit for a German publishing corporation) as well as the prints of his influences, so original Warhols and Rauschenbergs. So many great events. If you're ever in London, look up this programme.

I spent the weekend winding down my trip in London. Lots of goodbye coffees with friends, final (sort of sad) parties, families in town to help kids move. And on Saturday night, a group of us got together to celebrate my (exactly a week early) birthday, so good times all around.

I don't know that much else will occur worth posting, as I'm packing (ugh) and doing laundry (extra ugh), but I've had a great year. From Thailand and Vietnam to all sorts of Western Europe, I've seen and experienced more than I thought possible in 13 months. I'll try to post some more pictures later, and generally reminisce about some Easter Break trips that never made it on the blog, but for the most part I think my adventures will be taking a hiatus while I chill at home for the summer. So best of luck, and thanks for reading!

Here's me at Waterloo Bridge--my favourite view in the city, and one I took to and from school every day this year:

Monetary Policy and GOLD!

The last two days have passed much like the two before them: trying to take advantage of London while I still can. A friend and I went to the Bank of England Museum. This seems (slightly) less dorky when you remember that my friend and I spent all year learning monetary policy and international finance mainly from the perspective of the Bank of England. Plus, in one of the rooms they have a real bar of gold, currently worth 240,000 GBP. We got to touch/lift it! Something like 28lbs.

Also interesting side note, the bank is along the side street of a main square dominated by the old Exchange Building. The Exchange Building has been converted into luxury shopping (Cartier, Du Beers, etc) but still looks quite grand. When all of the G20 protesters were in London, they stood outside this building, chanting and railing against the BOE. So all those protests you saw on tv? At a mall, not the bank...

That night we saw an outdoor (free!) opera at the Scoop, which is the amphitheater outside New City Hall across the Thames from the Tower. It was a modernised, Anglicized version of Rossini's Barber of Seville, with the music mostly unchanged. Very funny, and you can't beat the price!

Then yesterday was another day of sightseeing, this time with a friend's family who is in town to help him move back (guilt trip, guilt trip, guilt trip). And then coffee and later drinks with friends, as people slowly leave and I have to say goodbye. It's by far the worst part about moving so much and seeing so much of the world: every time you get close to people, you invariably have to leave within a few months. Still, wouldn't trade this year for the world.

My best to all!

Rational Behaviour: Exploration

Well I've had two days back in London, exploring some more sites. Yesterday I spent the morning on some much needed errands (probably my last big shopping trip to Tesco! and then some VERY necessary laundry...). Then in the afternoon I went to a photography exhibit up off Old Street near Shoreditch which featured the work by John "Hoppy" Hopkins. He was around all during the upheavals and protests of the 60s, and befriended (and photographed) all the major music stars of the period. So some great candid shots of The Beatles, the Stones, etc., as well as the protests and beat poets.

(Interesting story: At someone's birthday party, the poet Allen Ginsberg got drunk and subsequently naked. John Lennon, still with Cynthia, and Paul McCartney then left the party, because they thought that was inappropriate in front of "the birds." Nice sentiment, but some three years later John and Yoko were bedding down for peace...) That night was just chill--a few drinks with friends and then sleep.

This morning I got up and went with a friend the the Globe Theatre. We saw As You Like It, which was very funny and quite well done. I'd never seen a show at the Globe, and while it certainly is newly reconstructed, I couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that four hundred years ago people were standing right where I was, listening to Shakespeare. Just sort of mind blowing (and yes, in true Prole fashion, we got the 5 pound tickets and stood by the stage--really the best way to see Shakespeare, in my humble...and poor...opinion).

Then this afternoon was a long walk through London, trying to take pictures of all the sites I've come to take for granted. Here's on of my favourites, from the Tate Modern looking across to St. Paul's:



We wandered over towards Hyde Park and met some of my friends for a picnic. We grilled up some corn and kebabs and just chilled, along with 5,000 of our closest friends (the weather is BEAUTIFUL!). Also, I had Pimm's and Lemonade, in honour of Wimbledon.

Really wonderful last two days, and I'm hoping to keep up the luck for the next week and a half, then back to the family! Best to all!

The Risk-Adjusted Present Value of the Sun

Hello!

I'm just now back to London. After finishing exams and finding I still had a few weeks in Europe, I decided to travel a bit (more). So last week a friend and I packed up and went to Stockholm. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so he has all of the pictures. I'll try to post them some time. Not that they will be that spectacular. While Stockholm is a beautiful city (with BEAUTIFUL people), it rained the entire time we were there. Not light London sprinkles, but proper rain, soaking everything, and making sightseeing...rather less enjoyable than it could have been. But then again, there were enough indoor palaces, museums, and bars that we enjoyed ourselves. Also, coming from some Swedish roots, I was anxious to find family. I think I found my long lost cousins, what do you think:



Once back from Sweden, I had about 30 hours to rush around doing laundry, getting a bit of food, and re-packing before heading off to Nice, aka Cote d'Azur on the French Riviera. Another friend and I went, and titled the week 'Most relaxing holiday ever.' We stayed at a hostel that was ten minutes from the beach, and spent the better part of four days doing nothing but lying on the (rocky, so we rented chairs) beach. Reading, sleeping, quick swimming, more reading, swimming. Just an unbelievable relaxing time. On morning we did get up and take the (1 euro!) quick bus to Monaco, which, while beautiful, would certainly be much more fun wealthy than on a university student's budget. Still, rich cars, casinos, yachts, and people.

The beach is Nice; the one with me is Monaco/Monte Carlo:












Now two more weeks in London and then back Stateside. Best to all!

Krugman!

Hard to create a more economic title than that! This is a post about my last three days, each of which ended with and hour and half of Prof. Paul Krugman courtesy of the Robbins Lecture.

Monday I met with a friend who has also finished exams and went to the National Portrait Gallery (it's at the back of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square). I had been before and seen the historic shots, but we spent our time in the modern section. The best portraits, in my opinion, were of Dame Judy Dench and the Harry Potter trio. Who are now fairly old (well, my age, which is old for supposedly sixteen year olds).

That night was Krugman's first section, The Sum of All Fears. I won't go into too much economic detail, but basically it made the case for why traditional monetary policy (in Greenspanesque monetary base expansion) won't work for this crisis (in short, the interest rate is already at zero, so no cut is possible, hence a liquidity trap). Not necessarily the happiest of lectures, but some oh-so-brilliant economics. (On a funny note, he spent part of the lecture making fun of modern economists, including himself, for being so wrong about such things. In fact, the book of his I bought, and then got him to sign, he himself has since made obsolete.)

Tuesday was more museum day. Same friend and I went to the much-publicised London Transport Museum off of Covent Garden--and actually had a really good time. I must admit prior scepticism (I hate that work with British spelling...but my laptop's still set), especially as this is one London museum with a entry charge. But I must admit, totally worth it. We got to drive a tube simulator! Then we ran up to the British museum to catch the India wing before heading back to campus to catch Krugman, part II: The Eschatology of the Crisis. Which is a fancy way of say the end of the crisis. In yet more joy, the traditional equilibria mechanisms aren't so much working, so while the recession may be officially declare over this summer (in the States, NBER can sort of subjectively decide which indicators to choose...) Also, the housing bubbly was sort of obvious and we all should have seen it. But of course we didn't. So better information for the next bubble, at least.

Today, Wednesday, we started off at a play. 'The Eternal Not' is a one act play based on Shakespeare's All's Well That End's Well. It was small production (in the round) at the National Theatre, which we quite enjoyed. The play was entertaining, yes, but so was getting to explore that National. Then we did a library tour of London. Or at least, the UL system. We headed first to King's College. They're are rival, but have a BEAUTIFUL library. If you ever get the chance, check out the Humanities Reference room (all three floors, Beauty and the Beast style) and study in the clock tower floor five carrels. Then to Senate House Library, which is the biggest maze I've seen holding books. But I managed to find the Elizabethan England section and read a bit about the Privy Council, for personal family reasons.

Tonight was Krugman's last, and best, speech. The Night They Re-Read Minsky. He basically gave a history lecture of all macroeconomic theories, from Keynes onward. And then pointed out where the schools had split, and where we should head from here. The sort of sad bit here is the macro wars are not over. For much of the 70s and 80s, two rival macro school existed and essentially waged all out war (New-Keynsians at MIT, Yale, Princton, Berkely, etc vs. Real Business Cycle at Chicago, Pitt, CMU, etc.) During the recent decade, these wars were usually though to be put to rest (I was taught, Econ101 that they were), but since the crisis, not so much. We're back in infighting withing the field, which while intellectually stimulating, makes presenting policy difficult. Though no one get off too easily. As Krugman put it multiple times, econ grad school can be split two ways: those who spent almost none of their time on issues relevant to this crisis, and those who spent none of their time on it. Anyway, we need to get back to fiscal policy as at least a discussed option...especially as we're now spending billions.

Best to all, and please please please if you have any free time, download the podcasts of the last three night's Robbins Lecture by Krugman. He's one of the world's best right now, and while you might not agree with everything he says, it's hard to argue against most of it.

Click here, scroll down, and listen:

Bye!

The Efficiency Locus: Three parks in one

So after posting yesterday, I again met up with a friend and went wandering around London. And again, ended up going really far--though this time rather better planned.

We packed a lunch and bussed up to Regent's Park for a picnic (twice in a week!). We walked all around the rose gardens, which have literally hundreds of varieties. (Above picture from Flickr user: Marcio Carbral) After getting a bit rained on, we headed south towards Hyde Park. We walked the length of the park and cut through down to Kensington Gardens, passing the Peter Pan statue and the Palace. Then all the way through to Holland Park, in Kensington. Holland Park is ridiculously posh. The Kyoto garden has massive koi and peacocks, along with heavily-wooded paths.

Here was the route, again you can zoom in to see better:


View Larger Map

Best to all!

The Correlation Coefficient with Increased Pay

I've finished my finals already, but unusually early. So to help maintain the sanity of my flatmates and friends, yesterday I got up and cooked a big pancake brunch for the group. Bisquick is actually available in London, and a bit of Cinnamon sugar sweetened the deal. We feasted quite well, and then they went of to study...again.

So in the afternoon, another friend who is post-exams and I went exploring. We decided to head over to Canary Wharf, the new (well, "new" might be relative. Early 2000s is when it really built up) part of London, which is the centre of finance and banking. Not necessarily the time in banking's history, but still a great, though LONG walk. Our route (you can drag the map to see the whole thing, and possible zoom in to see the satellite view of the wharf):


View Larger Map


The walk took about 2 hours, but we ended up in a part of London that felt like a completely different city--planned, modern, and highly highly technologically advanced, with and underground mall that covered the whole former-docklands area.

We next (thankfully) bussed to Bricklane and wandered around for about an hour, seeing a bit of early-Saturday evening club life, before meeting at a friends flat for homemade SPICY Indian food. Good food, good friend, good chatting, and then I went back to my flat and...slept. Haha. Not the most exciting Saturday night, but definitely needed.

Today is promising to have another big exploration, so hopefully and update tomorrow. Best to all!

Convergence: Fun with Blogging

So I've been rubbish at posting, but if it's any consolation, I've not been doing much that was worth writing about. Finals time came and took over my life. But I'm now happy to report that finals are over (!) and I am left with a bit less than a month to just enjoy London life. I've decided I will therefore be very good about posting here, if only so my parents know I'm alive and well during what will like be a little contact time.

So to begin, I finished my finals last Monday. We celebrated...exactly as you would expect. Bar outside of campus, pub in Shoreditch with a bit of live music.

Tuesday my friend from college back home came to visit, so we toured around London, taking in Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. And they had the boys choir singing, right under the dome, so just a beautiful, truly angelic music.

Wednesday we packed up lunch with a bunch of friends and headed to Regent's Park for a picnic. The weather held and gave us an amazing London day, surrounded by at least 100 different varieties of roses. Then that night we got student tickets (only 20gbp!) to see The Lion King on stage. What a great show! I can't believe I haven't seen it before. Beyond the great music and singing, the technical aspects were just amazing. Remember the scene with the wildebeast rampage? It looked absolutely phenomenal (that was with a French accent, because my visiting friend has been in Paris all year).

Have to run, but more (and hopefully some pictures...) later!

My Game Theoretical Dominant Strategy? Explore, explore, explore.

So, a great blogger I ain't. But, know my lack of entries is due to the speed of life in London. I'm as busy as I've ever been, and couldn't be happier. Rather than even attempting any kind of chronological order, I thought I'd just share a few things I've seen/done lately.

1. (And nothing really beats this, ever) SAW U2 LIVE! FOR FREE! BBC had a U2 day, to celebrate/promote their new album. And, though it wasn't publicised, they set up a 'spur-of-the-moment' concert from the roof of BBC Tower. A friend heard a rumour, so we set out on a Friday afternoon to investigate. Sure enough, we arrived at the tower to see speakers strapped around the building and a few hundred people already waiting. An hour later, and joined by a few thousand more Londoners and three helicopters, out came U2!!!! They played and we screamed--some new music, but also Joshua Tree, Vertigo, and Beautiful Day. When we looked around at the crowd, we noticed ages from 12-60, all screaming together. It couldn't have been a more perfect start to the weekend (the evening, for those interested, late progressed to a club). So, to summarise, during my year here in London, I've seen the Queen and Bono. To quote Gershwin, who could ask for anything more?

2. The Gershwin quote explained: A friend was stage managing the university musical (some Gerswhin show, I forget), and had a last minute staffing issue, so I was volunteered to help carry things on and off the stage. I show up to dress rehearsal (fifteen minutes after discovering my new role, and after having spent an hour in choir rehearsal, and then another hour at the pub with my choir friends) and help build the stage extension. There's an older guy in overalls assisting, and we all talk like normal people. We're moving things, dropping things, swearing at said dropping of things. And I can't help but think I've seen the man before, but now, it must just be someone helping out. So we finish, and I head backstage to find my friend, who excitedly tells me who the man was. Exactly who I thought: Sir Howard Davies. The directors of my school, former head of the Financial Services Authority, and all-around one of the foremost thinkers on the credit crunch. He's this ridiculously bright (knighted) famous person, and he helped us build a stage! Needless to say, I felt like a teenage girl at a concert for the rest of the evening. [Note: So I realise with that post, I've definitively given away my location, but it's worth it.]

3. Trip to Cambridge and Ely. I took a bus trip to Ely Cathedral, and then Cambridge. Beautiful places, both with airs of importance. The Cathedral has stained-glass windows dedicated to the Battle of Britain air-fighters. And the University has, well, 900 years (really) of history. An amazing place. I would have loved spending three years there doing undergrad. BUT, in light of having but one year in the UK, nothing beats London.

4. Editorship. I was elected, at the beginning of term, to the editorial board of the student newspaper on campus. It's completely transformed my life here in London. Beyond sucking away any free time from my schedule, it has given me the chance to work on something for which I feel true pride. The paper is professional, modern, and ethical (in the journalism sense). The people are brilliant, and, as a collection of Brits/non-Brits, have a truly world-wide list of experiences through which to view the world affecting students. If interested, feel free to email me, or comment below, and I can send you the link to the online version.

Basically, I'm as happy (and healthy) as I've ever been. I feel like I've really created a life for myself in London, and am making the most of my year. But I do miss everyone back home (both homes) and love to hear from you all! Cheers!

An Inter-Temporal Report

I can't believe how long this has been coming. Sorry! A full report:

So, a few weeks before Christmas, I went on another sightseeing trip. This time to Warwick Castle and then Stratford-upon-Avon. Warwick castle is run by the Madame Toussaud's Corporation, and is VERY well done. Four long buildings surround a central courtyard, and each building is divided into a separate time period. One part follows the War of the Roses (for Lancaster, of course), another the Reformation era (wax figures of all six wives of Henry VIII), turn-of-the-century (Winston Churchill--young!), and then the tower climbing part. All the history was great, but I think my favourite part was climbing the really old towers. Pictures below.

Ok, actually, Blogspot seems unwilling to load pictures at the moment BUT below is a link to all of my pictures from last term, complete with short explanations. Sorry about the extra click, but this way you can access more than just one or two photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021724&l=45acf&id=35702026

Moving on, I got to go home for Christmas. It was blistering and freezing and every other kind of cold, but I maintain there's no place better to spend Christmas than Galena. Three weeks of white Christmas, family, skiing, old friends. I don't seem to have any pictures, but I'm rather certain everyone had an enjoyable holiday.

Since coming back to London, I've settled back into my routine of sightseeing, exploring the city, going out with friends and (occasionally) studying. Last weekend a few friends and I went up to Camden Market in North London. We began in the most popular part of the area, with all of the punk/alternative shops. It felt straight out of pictures of London circa 1960 (except all of the "punks" were about 14). Soon, however, we found ourselves in the yuppie part of Camden. Shope had imported antiques and modern art, along with organic, free-trade coffees and teas. And Gluhwein, for some unknown reason. Then we bussed all the way up to Hampstead because one of the guys with us went to grammar school up in that area. Posh doesn't even begin to describe it. Checking estate agencies told us that even smaller flats are selling for around 2 million GBP. We walked along Hampstead Heath as the sun was setting and caught what really is the best view of London. And, on our way back, got completely lost. Though I'd rather be lost (by which I really mean indifferently wandering) in North London than pretty much anywhere else. We finished the evening by meeting up with more friends and have Thai food off of Covent Garden. Legitimate Thai food that legitimately almost burned off my tongue (England has not done much for my palate, or at least, my ability to stand spicy food).

Then we had inauguration. January 20 marked huge change--for London. The city just went wild. All Americans were allowed into Madame Toussoud's for FREE (usually rather expensive) to see the new Obama exhibit. It was great to see our new President in the fake Oval Office, but I also took pictures with the Julia Roberts statue. And the Queen. haha. Then I watched the actual inauguration (5pm London time) from our building's public tv. A whole group of us watched all of the debates and then stayed up all night for the election together. We finished our little group sessions by seeing the inauguration--and then going to pub-crawling to celebrate some more. Usually one doesn't broadcast one's American-ness in London pubs, but I was in an Obama t-shirt and everywhere we went someone cheered or high-fived us. The city is so full of hope, and, though I was only briefly in the States, I feel like most Americans are, too. It was just an incredible day.

Next weekend I'm spending three days in Dublin with friends (we found a free place to stay!). I promise to take a camera, to try to record the trip. If that link to my Facebook photos really does work, I think that will become SOP, as Blogspot Photos and I have never really gotten along.

Best to all, Cheers!

p.s. As always, anyone interested in coming to London should give me a holler. I'm a decent tour guide, and what I lack in knowledge, I promise to make up for in enthusiasm.