Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

The view outside the large, cleanly wiped windows was absolutely spectacular: across the River Thames on the Westminster Bridge is a full panorama of the House of Parliament, with Big Ben proudly standing on one side as if an attentive soldier on guard. As the afternoon sun began its descent, a bright red hue lit up the sculptured details of the historical building, giving us, right on the spot, an artistic feast of representing the glorious heydays of the British Empire . And as bright red hue disappears into the darkness of a typical autumn night, subtle yellow and green lights around the building project the fullness of the imperial beauty into the River. And all this, from a well-maintained bed on the 8th floor of one of the most reputed comprehensive hospitals on the British Isles. Dinner is served as we messed around with the fully functioning bedside Internet system. You may ask just how much were we, the poor students of LSE, were willing to pay for this experience (not to...

Amid the ongoing economic downturn, it is easy for people to start believing that a certain degree of globalization has to be temporarily rolled back. Ever since moving to the UK, we the foreign students have been living the fear of not being able to remain on the island after graduation due to the recent government decision to stop automatically issuing 2-year Post-graduate Work Visa. Every time one sees "do you have full authorization to work in UK?" on a job application, an overwhelming sense of anger often boils over, leading to practically meaningless self-blame of living in a wrong country in the wrong age. It is, however, a bit premature to conclude that a country's ruthless reduction in acceptance of foreign labor, even highly educated (and hopefully, skilled), is equivalent to a country becoming more "selfish" and focus on concerns for her own citizens at the expense of others living within her boundaries. After all, the tide of human migration, in a...

Often, it is quite refreshing to simply be out of that never-ending emphasis on egalitarianism that American society and people often insist as a present reality. The Brits laugh out the "myth" of America, where supposedly a whopping 98% of people identify themselves as some sort of "middle class." The Brits, despite living on a continent so often associated with welfare policies to create egalitarianism, often seem to have absolutely no fantasies about how or why everyone in the country should be labelled "equal" in some fashion. Walking around East London a few days ago, it is not hard to see that their realist line of mentality is, in fact, highly appropriate. This little slice of South Asia seems like a whole world away from the central neighborhoods that is home to LSE and much of foreign tourist-student traffic. The same lineup of short stone buildings along the street somehow managed to become a view completely different only a one-hour bus rid...

Three weeks into classes, and it seems like the level of stress among the newly enrolled graduate students are reaching its first peak. No. It is not because of the hundreds of pages assigned to read for weekly discussion seminars. The reading lists, so far, have been largely neglected by the students, who instead, have been busy wondering around the exhibition rooms of the LSE and various high end luxury hotels of central London. Ubiquitously, they spot freshly ironed suits, their newly purchased LSE decorated folders, and, most prominently, an unchanging anxious facial expression. The biggest event of the school year, the great hunt of post-graduation employment, is already underway among a population that has barely gotten used to the life of a studying "academic" here in London. Oddly, even the professors seem to have accepted such a phenomenon as a "necessary evil" distracting students from course contents. My person 5-minute chat with my adviser in the ...

From the iPod, to iPad, to the slim MacBook, the Apple products that inundate our lives today are not simply technological products touted by so many as "cutting edge," as "revolutionary," and as not surpassed or comparable with any rivals. Above everything else, these products are cultural phenomenons, symbolizing the very definition of a modern life and harbinger of a great optimistic future of technological innovations, triggering the endless imaginations of the tech-savvy youth and the fashionable across the world. Yet, mortality of human beings, unfortunately, cannot be annulled by that promise of an ever-increasing optimism of a technological future. And as its chief architect, who has captured our imagination and expanded our dreams, leaves us all of a sudden, we cannot help but wonder if the dreams, so well-encapsulated by his very presence, must now be deterred somewhat. The fact that physical legacies of his achievements are now so ubiquitous, only make...

Britain is by no means a cheap country to live in. This is a fact established by the experiences and constant complaints of so many expatriates calling the city their temporary home. But the existing prices, just as death and taxes, are something that people simply have to accept as constants, barring any sort of sudden economic meltdown that cannot possibly serve anyone any sort of long term benefits. Yet, many seem to just completely unwilling to let the prices off their minds. From the Americans meticulously (and vocally) converting the price of every little thing into US dollars before opening their wallets, to many from developing countries who simply disappear from common activities with friends for fear of excess spending, the financial cost of London, in a way much ore than I could have imagined, is affecting the very fabric of our lives. First-time “nice to meet you” events become inundated with stories of exorbitant prices paid for otherwise ordinary goods, providing readi...

Walking around the meticulously kept grassy grounds of the Windsor Castle, the hordes of foreign tourists simply could not hide their excitement. Snapping away with their cameras at every wall sculpture, every statue, and every traditional-looking signage, they shouted to their friends to stop and look, filling the traditional heart of the British monarchy with simultaneous calls in dozens of foreign tongues. The keepers and guards of the Castle, dressed in the traditional costumes little changed since the Empire's heydays, can do little but to smile politely at the incomprehensible noises. Once, the Castle was the home of a ruler governing half the world, including the lands that now send these enthusiastic tourists. And for centuries, the rulers of the Empire sought to educate these colonial subjects in all matters British, from that standard Queen's accent (which I still find exotically attractive after a week here) to every aspect of the British culture, the highest mate...