January 5th, 2009

January 5th, 2009

Today, I packed. It was the first day I organized my luggage, my itinerary, my bags, my books, etc. Packing for three months is a challenge. What to choose, how many shirts, how many dresses, how many shoes??? It’s a struggle. Three hours and approximately 68 pounds of luggage later, I completed my task. I considered all occasions; work, class, play, travel, sleep, and study. My flat is tiny and I am sure I will have to strategically place clothing around the room in order to unload the bags I hauled overseas. Let’s hope for the best.

For the past week I have been doing some background reading in preparation for my classes. Tony Blair’s New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country, and Political Issues in Britain Today, written by Bill Jones. While giving me a great overview of the current policy issues encompassing Britain’s political life, much of it was hard to grasp. Parliament is a very complicated structure!!! With that said, I have confidence I will become a master in this area by the end of my program. Note: New Year’s resolution is: staying positive. Hopefully that shines through in my blog entries during my stay in London. Although I probably retained about 12% of the information that I perused, I recently discovered that Tony Blair and I share similar stances on public policy issues, and he now has the honor of becoming one of my Top Ten Idols of all time.

I currently know only the bare minimum of what my three months in England entail. I know that I will be with other Hansard Scholars in flats located in downtown London. I know that I will be taking two classes at the London School of Economics and interning somewhere in the political arena. The rest…not so much.
I get off the plan at 7:15 Saturday morning, from there, I have zero plans (obviously a local pub visit is in order). Of course my program has meet and greets and events scheduled, but nothing has been distributed to me yet. As you all know, going into things unaware and uninformed is not my style, but I know it will all work out when I get there.

In any normal “crisis” situation, I would send a mass text out to 6 of my closest friends grumbling about my current situation, but that is not an option for the duration of my trip. New outlets will have to be made when I get am stumped, confused, and angry. What those tactics will be, I have yet to figure out.

That’s all for now. Next time I write will be across the pond, in a flat located in rainy downtown London, UK. As the proclaimed British pop group, All Saints say it “I got my bags packed baby and I'm ready to go”.

Rachel S. McCloskey