My
last day at LSE – and the day of my final exam! I woke up quite early to study
in my room, reviewing as much as I could. It’s so much material to understand
in such a short period of time, but I can only do my best. I let Eli catch up
on sleep while I went down to study at the New Academic Building on LSE’s
campus for a little while before I took the test. 
One
of the differences in schools here (or at least a difference between William
& Mary and LSE) is the strictness of exam-taking. At W&M, all students
sign an honour code and are then trusted to be faithful on their exams and
schoolwork; many tests are completely un-proctored by the professor or any kind
of instructor. Here, the regulations during an exam are extremely strict. You
must turn your mobile phone off and have it under your desk during the exam.
You can only use LSE-approved calculators, and you aren’t supposed to have
anything else on your desk during the exam (drinks, etc.). Your student ID card
needs to be out on the desk so the invigilators (such a better name than proctors!!) can come around and mark you
down several times throughout the exam. No one is allowed to leave during the
exam, and in the last fifteen minutes, no one is allowed to leave, even if
they’ve finished. I’m not complaining, it’s good that cheaters are so
discouraged, but it’s quite strange.
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| Goodbye room..... |
Anyway,
after I had finished my exam (and officially finished my program at LSE!), Eli and I met up with my friend from LSE and did a quick
shopping trip to Knightsbridge, yet again. We didn’t get to spend much time
there, but I felt that Eli needed to see Harrods while she was in London. We
had a quick late lunch at the Caffe Concerto across from Harrods, and then had
to scurry down to the tube to meet our friend for dinner. He (very generously)
treated us all to a fantastic Indian meal at Benares in Mayfair. The restaurant
was so beautiful, modern with black stone and fountains and colourful candles.
We had the strangest assortment of dishes: my first course was a lotus kebab
with lavender yoghurt (very spicy!), the entrée was jackfruit biryani (the
jackfruit was almost flavourless and kind of had the texture of an artichoke
heart or aubergine), and dessert consisted of tandoori pineapple (incredible) and Earl Grey ice cream. My
friend also recommended a passion fruit and chutney martini, Benares’ signature
cocktail, which was so interesting: quite sweet but with a rich spicy
undercurrent in each sip. Every single thing I tried was completely different
from the Indian food I’d ever had before; it was definitely a culinary
adventure! Such a great recommendation and experience.
 |
| Passionfruit-chutney martini |
Eli,
my friend, and I then walked the few blocks down to Oxford Street. This is
another busy shopping district, perhaps more accessible than Knightsbridge. We
looked through a couple of British (maybe European) shops that I’d never
visited before, Primark and River Island.
I wish we had more European stores like this in the US: our clothing
shops are either very cheap and horrendously unfashionable, or very fashionable
and expensive. H&M is the one of the few common shops that has low prices
but supplies us with European fashion, but I wish we had more!
It
was quite late at that point, but when we returned home (and after I said my
goodbyes to my friends from LSE!), Eli and I stayed up for a bit planning out
our trips to Oxford and France. We went through many opetions before finalizing
all our various means of travel: bus, train, cab, shuttle, airplanes… This will
certainly be an interesting trip, and we will definitely be experiencing many
different aspects of Europe! It’s strange for me to travel so much without a
car, which I’ve always had, and have to submit to the schedules and fares of
public transportation; honestly, it’s much more of a pain too. But it’s a part
of the experience!
