The document summarizes the author's experiences as a student living in London, England. It discusses classes on Middle Eastern politics, meeting with roommates from Chicago, and visiting landmarks around London such as Downing Street, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Houses of Parliament. The author also shares photos from a recent trip to Paris, France where they encountered cheese plates, portraits, and accidentally stumbled upon the French Senate and National Assembly buildings.

1. I’m in London and loving it – the accents, the politics,
LONDON the humor, the soccer. I have great roommates and
together we have great travel plans: We were in Paris
this weekend, we’ll be in Barcelona this weekend
UPDATES (birthday!), and we’ll visit Amsterdam soon.
One of my classes, Politics of the Near and Middle
East, is truly superb. The professor, a consultant on
Middle East security, was nice enough to plan an
Egyptian revolution to coincide with the Egypt
session. We spent the last half hour of class watching
the BBC live while he commented.
On the downside, I can no longer get absolutely any
good or service at absolutely any time. And those
goods and services I can get are quite expensive. It’s
also tough to meet British kids our age – but we’re
trying!
Feel free to click through to see where I live, where
I’ve been, and a bit of what I’ve eaten. No hard
feelings if you speed through the political geekery. :-)
All the best,

2. our window
HOME I live on Great Russell Street, in the cream
colored (or coloured) building at the end
of this convenient shortcut. It was built in
the 1700s, which means no elevator (or
lift).The grey building on the left is the
Trades Union Congress, Britain’s influential
“union of unions” which coordinates
organized (or organised) labor (or labour)
across the UK.

3. THE After extensive rearrangement, this
BEDROOM is my end of the room I share with
Matt, a fellow Chicagoan NYU
student I met in New York. So far
this semester, the neckties have
been mostly decorative. And I’m
proud to say I didn’t choose the
bedding.

4. THE It’s significantly less glamorous
HOME OFFICE than the Logos conference room:
I’ve traded two computers for one,
a great TV for an awful one, and a
view of the Empire State Building
for a view of the Trades Union
Congress. On the plus side, I’ve
got BBC News 24/7.

5. ST. PAUL’S I’m a regular secular churchgoer.
CATHEDRAL St. Paul’s is inspiringly massive, the
music is beautiful, and it’s a great
way to get myself up reasonably
early on Sunday morning.

6. PALACE OF Most people know what Big Ben
WESTMINSTER looks like, so I’m sharing a photo
of the other Westminster tower,
which is larger and taller. This is the
Victoria Tower, on the House of
Lords end of the palace. When
the Queen visits Parliament,
she enters through the its base.

7. THE The Cenotaph, which sits on the median of
Whitehall Street, is a memorial to Britain’s
CENOTAPH war dead. It’s a symbol of the street, which
in turn is a symbol for the government.
(The Brits are very sophisticated.) The
white building on the left is the Ministry of
Defense, one of the many government
buildings which line Whitehall.

8. DOWNING The famous Downing Street
STREET is a branch (a twig, really) off
of Whitehall.

9. DOWNING This is the best view we
STREET commoners get of the Prime
Minister’s house, Number 10.
Like at the White House, most
of the Prime Minister’s executive
offices are attached to his
residence.

10. THE The Chancellor of the Exchequer
TREASURY lives next door to the PM in
Number 11 Downing Street, and
works here in the Treasury.
Depending on the administration,
his role can be some combination
of our Vice President, Treasury
Secretary, and Budget Director.

11. THE The very imperially named “Foreign
FOREIGN and Commonwealth Office” is well
OFFICE known for these red gates. They
were the backdrop, for example, of
frantic BBC reporting on the unrest
in Egypt.

12. The UK’s Conservatives (pretty soft
CONSERVATIVE compared with ours) are housed in a
PARTY HQ prominent office tower south of Westminster
on the Thames. In November, a group of
students stormed the building to protest the
government’s hike in university tuition fees.
One kid was brilliant enough to drop a fire
extinguisher from the 400-foot roof, nearly
killing a police officer. He’s in jail, but the
windows are still boarded up and the
protesters are still in action.

13. CONSERVATIVE If you look closely, you’ll see several
PARTY HQ curious office workers peering
down at the protesters below.
All of this must be terrible for
productivity.

14. LABOUR At the start of Tony Blair’s premiership in
1997, his center-left Labour Party were
PARTY HQ with the Conservatives in Milbank Tower.
Then they upgraded to Old Queen Street,
and then they upgraded again to this
building, 39 Victoria Street. Rumor has it
they got a little ahead of themselves and
are running out of cash.

15. LIB DEM The Liberal Democrats are Britain’s
centrist third party, currently in a ruling
PARTY HQ Coalition with the Conservatives. This is
their headquarters at 4 Cowley Street.
The Lib Dems have borne the brunt of the
criticism for the government’s austerity
measures, losing 20 points in the polls
since last May’s election.

16. RIDICULOUS Walking near the UK’s government
STREET buildings, I had the pleasure of
being disoriented by this
ridiculous street.

17. L’ARC DE A few friends and I went to Paris
TRIOMPHE last weekend, where I visited a few
more friends who are studying
there. I’ll make another trip soon to
see family. (Don’t worry; I took this
photo from a comfortably wide
median.)

18. HUMANS! Just to prove that I do interact with
humans and not just landmarks, here are
photos of me with humans. This me being a
conspicuous tourist with my friend Sofie,
who’s studying in Paris, and my roommate
Matt. (If the left image looks strange, it’s
because I Photoshopped my eyes open.)

19. CHEESE Perhaps unsurprisingly, we had a lot
PLATE of great food in France. Steak
tartare, roast duck, escargot, crepes,
and this gargantuan assortment of
cheeses. We also (forgive us) tried
two special McDonald’s sandwiches
available only in France. Imagine
brie at McDonald’s!

20. PORTRAIT This is a portrait in Paris, which is
IN PARIS mostly unremarkable, except…

21. PORTRAIT … It’s a sculpture!
IN PARIS

22. FRENCH On a misguided walk to the Eiffel
SENATE Tower, we stumbled upon the
French Senate. The police officers
nearby were amused by my request
for confirmation: “Ceci c’est le
Sénat… de France?”

23. FRENCH Believe it or not, on the same misguided
walk, we also stumbled upon the other,
NATIONAL lower, more prominent legislative house.
ASSEMBLY Like the US and UK, France has a (pardon
the nerdiness) bicameral legislature. But
unlike the US and UK, the two houses are
in separate buildings. Somewhere, there’s a
political scientist studying the important
implications of this meaningless fact.

24. See you soon!