I Hope I'm Not Getting a Hangover Tomorrow

Man, what a night. I think I've had way too much beer. Plus some wine added for good measure. But at least I'm lucid enough to sit here at my desk, a mug of coffee next to me, writing this. In the afternoon, we had two formal introductory sessions at the School, where we met some of the instructors scheduled to lecture us this coming term. This was also the first time that all the students of International Public Policy were brought together into the same room at the same time, and I was able to speak with many of them. It's a fairly big cohort, with more than 50 of us. And for those of you out there who know me, you can imagine that my name doesn't exactly register immediately in anyone's mind.

But I hit it off rather quickly with many of my fellow coursemates. There were three Canadians I met, two from Russia, two from the US, two from Germany, one from Finland, one from Ireland, and a nice, very lovely, very friendly lady from the UK. The class is clearly dominated by international students.

Many of them were rather young. I had expected that the course would attract mostly graduate students who would have some years of working experience. Instead, a majority of those I met had come straight from completing their undergraduate degrees earlier this year. But a few did have a fair bit of professional experience.

In any case, after the two afternoon talks, a group of us went out to one of the bars run by the UCL Student's Union, where, amazingly, you can get a glass of beer for just £1.60. That's the first thing I've come across in London that I can consider cheap. Thereafter, it was back to the School in the early evening, where welcome drinks had been arranged. Naturally, after that, we returned to the student's bar for another round of drinks...and I think you can work out easily my itinerary for the rest of the evening, which included stops at a pub called The Hope, and a bar at the University of London Union.

It's been great so far. I feel excited to be hitting the books again, although there is some dread at the same time. Hopefully, I'll learn much, make a few good friends, and see more of London, and of the world. I think I'm going to enjoy myself.