Selfridges

Today, I went farther along Oxford Street than I normally do and visited Selfridges, a high end department store.  As a student, this place felt a little out of my price range - I was surrounded by (very) expensive suits, purses, and dresses, among other things on the ground floor, but it was a good experience.  Later, I went to the food court and got some of Pierre Herme's famous macarons (this is the only place they are sold in the UK).  They have some very interesting flavor combinations and are affordable in small quantities - definitely worth a try.    

Chinese New Years Celebration on Clare Market Street

Last week, there were parades and festivals in London (the biggest celebrations near Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square) to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  I felt a little disappointed that I missed out on these celebrations, but as a consolation prize, I did manage to see an LSE group doing its own Chinese New Year Celebration on campus today.  The celebration consisted mostly of a couple people in a dragon costume and another banging a gong.  The gong was awfully loud - I wonder what it was like for people in class at the time...

British Music?

One of the things I was excited about sampling before I came to the UK was British music.  Truth be told, I am not the biggest fan of American pop music and wanted to try out different music in London's music scene.  I have found out that there certainly is quite a bit of variety here and you will probably be able to find venues that suits your taste, whether it is indie, hip-hop, dubstep, classic rock, jazz, etc.  I do have to say the most popular songs among my peers are (mostly) the same as those that are popular in the US - I did not know how much influence American culture had even here in Europe (I will discuss this more in a future blog post)

A Memorable Night at Fabric

Tonight, I went with a friend to club called Fabric in Farringdon.   Fabric was ranked by DJ Magazine as the #2 club in the world in 2009 and 2010 - and after a night here I can tell why!  Definitely a cool place to go if you even sort of like electronic music - the speaker system here is insane!

Apple Store in London

Today, I accompanied my roommate to the Apple Store - I managed to convert him to a Mac user as well.  There are a couple of Mac Stores that I know of in Central London - one in Covent Garden (in the picture above) and the other on Regent Street.  Both times I have been to the Apple Store here they have been packed.  However, Mac laptops do not seem to be as popular in the UK as they were back at Emory (although I see a fair share of iPods and iPhones).  Also, the LSE IT system (at least towards the beginning of the year) did not seem very Mac friendly - in fact, LSE does not own any Mac computers as far as I know and seems to be more Windows based.  

Stay up to date with Housing back Home!

While you are studying abroad, it can seem like you are in a different world in more ways than one.  However, make sure you don't forget about what's going on back home!  In particular the deadline for applying for Emory housing was this week.  Make sure you stay on top of your housing situation so you have a place to live next year!