Master of Arts in International Peace and Security

I have just learnt that I will in fact be graduating next January with a MA in IPS!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

I am in particular happy with the results of my dissertation. Couldn't have done it without u Kim!!! We did it!!! yaaaay!!!

Kosovo case

The case on the advisory opinion on the legal status of Kosovo has begun at the ICJ. I will be going to the public hearings from the 7th to the 11th.

Call me a nerd, but I am SO excited. I told this to Finn yesterday and he said that the cat is out of the bag. LOL

LONDON

Oh I just love London. I went back to London from Edinburgh last weekend, to visit Hannah. The train ride was long, 4hrs and a half to be exact, but totally worth it.

It made me realize what had been missing in my life for the past two months: My pals from IPS, namely Hannah and Kim, the walk along the Themes, MANGO, MUJI and Food for Thought.LOL

I arrived in London around 3pm on saturday, and since Hannah had a thing with Alert, I decided to use the time to finally go to Sir John Soane's museum in Holborn. From King's X where I got off, I should have been able to take the Piccadilly line directly to Holborn. But this is London. Of course there was 'planned engineer works' on the weekend of 21/22! lol I got on the Northern line to Bank, then from Bank, the central line to Holborn.

Sir John Soane was a famous architect in the beginning of the 19th century who I think build the Bank of England. I guess he was a eccentric guy, and his very unusual home full of his own art collections is now open to the public as a museum. In my opinion, he was like the Gaudy of England, and being in his home reminded me of Gaudy's home in Barcelona (although ive only seen pictures of it). It was remarkable, the collection he had, and I recommend people to go visit if they're ever in London. It's a small house so it would only take 30min to an hour to see the whole building. There was a que outside the museum before I could get in, but the turn over was very quick.

After Sir John's place, I went to Covent Garden for some coffee at Monmouth Coffee on Monmouth street just off of seven dials. I've already written about this fabulous cafe, so I won't go into details here, but oh boy, the coffee here certainly beats any of the coffees in Edinburgh. I wish they would make a branch in Edi...

While in Monmouth, I got a call from Hannah saying that she was done with her presentation at Alert, so we met up at Covent Garden station. I practically screamed when I hugged her!!!lol Hannah suggested we go have coffee at National Geographics on Regents Street, and we went and it was crowded but quite lovely. Then, we went to Soho to a Jamaican restaurant. With Hannah, we used to always try new restaurants and new cafes every week, so it really felt like I was back in London :) Needless to say, we were chatting away about EVEYTHING while eating, drinking coffee, walking, getting drenched in the rain, etc etc. We had so much to talk about!!!!

One thing that we talked about was of course the notoriously unorganized IPS admin stuff, and it amazed us that we still had to be talking about it, even after it was all over. Well, actually its not all over yet, we haven't even gotten our results yet (when will that be, no one knows...). We talked about many other things too, and I felt so good after talking to Hannah.

After that we went home to Hannah's sweet home, and we talked some more over swiss sweets and tea. Then we went to sleep... zzz

The next day, we were planning to go to the Finnish Christmas Market near Marylebone, but it was pouring rain in the morning so we stayed in until it stopped. London weather is always so unpredictable, but after it rained cats and dogs, it was total sunshine, so we decided to go walk along the Themes to Southbank, where they were having the German Christmas Market. It was so pretty and so christmasy!!! hehehe

We listened to some free Jazz at the Royal festival Hall's lounge with some coffee and cake, and then I had to go to my college reunion. It was held at the Park Plaza Sherlock Home's hotel, and it was for the alumni's living in London. About 30 people showed up, and I was the youngest and the oldest person was probably around their 70s. The chancellor and vice chancellor of our uni came as well which was an honour, but seriously, 35 pounds of participation fee was a bit too much...

After that I went home to Hannah's, we talked some more, and went to sleep... zzz

The last day, we had nice breakfast then went to the Strand together where Hannah works, and said bye with a big hug. We will see each other very soon at the graduation, but it was still sad... Then I headed off to MOGA to get my hair coloured again, and to trim the edges a bit. After that I went shopping on Regent's street, but actually only bought stuff at MUJI and the new Japan centre's food market!!! I bought 74 pounds worth of Japanese food, which really amazed me too. LOL

I went to carnaby street to see the christmas decorations (I liked last year's better) and then went to Food for Thought for lunch, and then to Monmouth coffee for one last time, bought some of their grounded beans for espresso coffee, and went to King's X and got on the train at 5pm.

I seriously cannot wait to go back to London again. London with Hannah was really a refreshment for the soul.

times like these

i just found out that a friend of mine from junior high school passed away a couple of days ago. we were in the same group of friends during school.

she was kind of scary but really cared about her friends. We were never best friends or anything like that, and we lost touch completely after we graduated.

but still, it is very very shocking and very very sad, to hear that someone you knew, who you were friends with, someone who is as young as you, passed away.

It is times like these that i feel so useless being far away from home and from friends.

may she rest in peace.

Monmouth Coffee

I love coffee.  I usually have one every morning although caffein doesn't really have an effect on me unless I take more than 3 espressos or something like that.  It doesn't wake me up physically, but it wakes me up mentally I think.  

Anyway, the best coffee that I have tasted in London is definitely the one at Monmouth Coffee.  They have one in Covent Garden on Monmouth Street (where else?), and a branch at Borough market (my favorite market, which I will write about soon).  There's always a long que at borough market, but believe me, it is worth it.

i don't know what the difference is really, but the coffee there are fresh, has beautiful aroma and a very deep taste.  The milk they use too is different I think.  It's much richer than the coffee you would taste, for instance at starbucks.

The coffee at monmouth will be something that I will really miss from London.  But today I went to a cafe in Edinburgh near Old College called Black Medicine Coffee Co., and I really enjoyed their cappuccino.  They have many nice looking independent cafes here in edinburgh, and I look forward to visiting different ones throughout the year.  Maybe I can even try to start a novel at the Elephant House...

Done done done!!!

okay, i refuse to write anything about my dissertation on my status update on facebook.  Therefore, im writing about it here. LOL

it's just that, for like the past few months, people have been constantly updating their dissertation status on their status updates.  i would really appreciate it if people would not keep me posted on how many words they have/havent written.

but all that is over now, and i finished my dissertation and i successfully submitted it today with kim :) yay!!! we did it!!!

i think that we should especially be proud of ourselves coz we handed in three other people's dissertation for them too.  we handled it quite well, dont u think kim? hehehe

the fed ex at the strand was completely full with last minute kings, LSE, UCL students anxiously queing to get their dissertations bound.

  

but may i make a suggestion?  this is probably like the busiest time of the year, and yet why only have two people working there. don't get me wrong, they were doing a very good job, but i think it would have made both their and our lives much easier with a few extra hands.  plus, ive seen more employees in less busy times throughout the year.  very strange.

after we submitted our dissertations, we had a bit of a confusion (again) regarding electronic submission, but after that we went to Wagamama (the first time for me!) and had our last london lunch together.  im really, really sad kim's leaving.  what would i do without her?  i need our daily long random talks about life, work, boys, girls, family and friends.  i guess it's good that im leaving london too, coz seriously, london will not be the same without her.

by the way, i didnt make a acknowledgement page for my dissertation, so im just gonna write it here.

i dedicate my dissertation to all the people who supported me throughout this year.  Especially to my family, who love and support me unconditionally, my employer that made it possible for me to come to London and study once again, my colleagues at my former division, especially Mr.I for inspiring me to write about my topic, and to Kim, my fab friend in London, who gave me an incentive to come to the Strand everyday and type.  Without her, i would have never made it.

edinburgh

 

Hannah and I went to Edinburgh for one night on the 20th of August.  Yes, I know it was right before our dissertation deadline, but we only live once and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to go to the Festival with Hannah!!!  By the time I go to Edinburgh on the 10th of Sep, the Festival will be over, so it was a good chance for me too.

The Festival was great just like last summer.  We saw the Soweto Gospel Singers from South Africa, and a Scottish contemporary dance group.  I really enjoyed both of them, although the contemporary dance was kind of, well, weird.  I didn't really understand it, but then again, maybe not all art are meant to be understood.  

The next day we walked around the city avoiding the crowd and went up Calton Hill which felt really good.  I will definitely come here again once I start living in Edinburgh.

I'll miss london when I leave, but I want to make the most of the time I will spend in Edinburgh this year.  I want to travel around Scotland!  and maybe find myself a scottish boy???  hehehe

our birthdays

Honestly, this summer has been the best summer of my life.

I got to travel to Croatia, Greece, Spain and Holland.  I spent time with my amazing friends and met incredible new people.  I experienced so many new things.  I even fell in love for crying out loud! lol

But the best moment came at the end of the summer, August 17th, my birthday.  Me and kimkim have the same birthday, and we both always keep it very low key.  We've never really done anything big before.

But this year, my birthday started a few days before in the Hague, with a surprise party by my friends.  Then, on the actual day, Hannah made me a special birthday brunch!!!  Then, for dinner, Kimkim, me, Vassilis and Hannah decided to go to a very fancy restaurant called Rhodes 24 situated on the 24th floor of Tower 42 besides the Gherkin.(The service not to mention the food was superb, by the way.)  Then on the weekend, we celebrated again with some of our friends from uni(It was Martina's birthday on the 17th and Anis on the 19th too!) at the bedroom bar where we SO love.  

Just the fact that I got to spend my birthday with 3 of my closest friends in London was amazing, but just everything, it was all so perfect.   

i am a really lucky girl, and i am really truly happy.

dissertation deadline in... 5 days!

okay, so i'm in the middle of writing my dissertation right now.

i have to write 15,000 words, and so far, i've only got about half.  5 more days... 5 more days...  will i make it???  

i will if i can just keep my face out of facebook.

stressed

i am really stressed at the moment.  moving, friends, guys, health, dissertation, bills, bills, bills, etc... 

the only thing that stops me from exploding and keeps me going forward is my friends. especially my dear kimkim and simonster.  okay, i never call her that i just made that up. LOL  cute isnt it??? should mention it to her sometime. hahaha

anyway, like the old proverb goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed.  old people know what their talking about. 

Thessaloniki, Greece

i havent wrote about the greece trip not to mention everything that happened after that trip yet.  because im too lazy, i am linking my kimkim's blog here coz she described it best. hehehe i already got permission from kimkim, and besides, she's my only reader, so it's all good. LOL

KAL

Ding Deng Dong Video by K A L - MySpace Video

my fav band at the moment. we saw them at 'celebrating sanctuary refugee festival' in southbank last sunday.

our angel

angel is HannahS and my town;)lol we go there all the time, (well, Hannah does live there, but that is besides the point!) and we always always always have a brilliant time!!!

today it was the first post-exam angel day, and so we went to a small cafe that we always wanted to go to, and then we went to figs and olives for dinner.  I had a small but delicious berry tart and latte at the cafe, and then had stuffed aubergines (hannah's favorite :) ) and hannah had figs and olive salad.  it was very tasty.

i loooooove spending time with HannahS.  She's one of my bestest friend here in London :) i made many exceptionally good friends (something that i never expected would happen at the postgrad level, but to my pleasant surprise did) and i am so grateful and so happy for that.  

especially with HannahS, i can share so much of my feelings with her although we have only known each other for 10 months.  She is such a wonderful person, so caring, so fun to be with, extremely intelligent, so loving, great listener, so stylish, and we never run out of things to talk about.  

I love London because I love my friends!!!

we are free!

omg we are done!!!  i finished my exams today.

the post 1.15pm (that's when my exam ended) world is so much better.  seriously, a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders.  now we just have to forget about that small thing called dissertation that we have to write over the summer, and enjoy our freedom for, at least a couple of days ;) hahaha

Kim, Elaine, Ruth, Marie, Sarah, Kai (being the only guy there again :) he likes our harlem. lol) and i had sushi today at Yoshino.  they have really good japanese food there.  i, being japanese and picky about my national food really really recommend it.  I also like Asakusa near Mornington Crescent.  

after sushi, Kim, Elaine and I went to Westfields in Shepherds bush.

It is THE biggest mall ever, and so much better than the tourist crowded and not so clean Oxford/Regents Streets.  Of course we went to MANGO, ZARA, and the one and only H&M.  I got a skirt and sandals for Greece. I need to make contact lenses tomorrow...  

anyway, at home Elaine and I watched Sex and the City the movie :)  good stuff.  a bit too much here and there, but i enjoyed it.  we can never have enough of these chick flicks can we.  My eyes watered up several times, but I tried to hide it from Elaine, cause i was afraid she'd think i'm lame for crying over SATC. lol  

that's me trying on a MANGO dress. waitin for the sale...  hehehe

 

Guitar!!!

I bought a guitar!!!  My friend who was studying at Cardiff Uni is going home to the US (boo...) so, she needed to sell her beautiful acoustic guitar to someone.  and I bought it from her for 75 pounds!!! yaaaay!!!  

it's so beautiful.  i'm quite amazed at how loud it can play, because i only had an electric guitar back at home and obviously you need a speaker for that.  i can just keep looking at it all day... (i'm not really capable of making beautiful music out of it just yet.lol)

tomorrow's my last exam.  International law of armed conflict.  very exciting. post-exam events are going to be SO fun.  we're going to japanese food for lunch at Yoshino, then we'll go to Westfields to do some MAJOR shopping, and after that, we'll just play it by ear :)

I can't wait til after 1pm!!!

we can do this!!! 

the beach of london

in london, we don't have the beach.  So on a sunny day like today, everyone goes to the park instead.  

It was so nice today. Kim, Panos and I went out for lunch at Lincoln's Inn.  We took away at food for thought, an amazing veggie restaurant.  It is a must go.

it's panos's bday today!  happy birthday panos!!!

the Terrazza

the terrazza is my favorite place to study at the moment.  It's one of the canteens at King's, facing the river thames.  my friend Kim introduced it to me, after I was distressed about the horrible conditions at my beloved Maughan library.  

During exam times, people just seem to emerge out of no where, and I always wonder, 'where were you all through out the year?'.  

The usually quiet uncrowded nice library becomes full with noisy people, eating while 'studying', making out, and making the desks and hallway as well as the loo disgusting.  

I'll be honest.  I'm not always studying while I'm at the library either.  I go on facebook, I drink beverages besides water (and be scolded at from that scary librarian), occasionally whisper and giggle with Hannah.S and B my library buddies.  But too much is too much.

So until exam period ends, I am seeking refuge at the nice and breezy Terrazza.  The windows are so big that you feel like you're studying outside, there's always air and good amount of noise in the background.  Just the right amount so that you can just block it out.

Today is Russian study day.  

Я говорю немнога порусски! Но я люблю порусски!!!

... you're fired!

call me superficial, but I love TV. Reality shows, documentary, drama, you name it. I've seen it all. I know, it's bad. hahaha

anyway, my favorite show of the moment is 'THE APPRENTICE' on BBC one. As many people already know, it's a reality show where there are 14 contestants competing to be Sir Alan Sugar's APPRENTICE (the original is from the US with Donald Trump). It's like the intelligent version of America's Next Top Model, but the cat fights are still there. and let's be honest, that's the real reason why we're watching these things right?

watch the highlights

first exam ended.

my first exam was today.  

4 questions/3hrs on international law, international relations and contemporary issues.

i feel really bad because i'm thinking that i would be happy just as long as i pass.  

i had always aspired for a distinction during my undergrad.  But for this, i'm just thinking please don't let me fail!

 

i believe strongly that i should always keep aiming for the highest, even if that is too high for me to reach.  it keeps me motivated and consequently leads to a better performance.

i'll try harder for my next exam. ganbarimas!

Should Japan also become a 'melting pot'?

My friend Elaine told me about this blog by Stephen Walt.  He's an American realist teaching at Harvard, and I like him because although he obviously thinks that realism captures world politics in the best way, he admits that no one theory can actually explain everything and asserts that a healthy debate between different theories develops conventional knowledge.  

He says that 'The "compleat diplomat" of the future should remain cognizant of realism's emphasis n the inescapable role of power, keep liberalism's awareness of domestic forces in mind, and occasionally reflect on constructivisim's vision of change' and so that's how I want to be.

I've never done IR theory until now, so all the different theories and the theories within theories (classical realism, neorealism, offencive and defencive realism, etc etc) are so confusing.  I didn't really understand why we need to learn these theories in the first place.  But as Walt convincingly says, we need to know theories, in order to know how the world works.  When we do that, we can actually use this to decide the next step in world policy.

Anyway, back to his blog.  He wrote an interesting article the other day on Realism and Toleration this was after he wrote a post on the 'don't ask don't tell' policy in the American Navy, where if you're gay, you're only allowed to serve only if you don't say that you are.  The Navy won't ask you, and you don't tell the Navy.

Basically, you need to hide who you are in order to sacrifice your own life for the people of the US.  Very strange.

So Walt says that this policy from a realist's point of view is a bad policy, because it prevents great talent from serving in the army, thereby making the American military less effective as it should be.  In the rough world of power politics, maximizing your own power is the key to survival, and this policy doesn't allow the US to do that, he says.

In his next post, he then applies that in a more global context and compares Japan and the US.  Japan is a ethnically homogeneous aging society that has some issues with coping with foreigners in their turf, and he says that this un-attraction of qualified and talented people from the outside world is threatening the survival of Japan.

On the other hand, the US is an attractive destination for foreigners, and it's the 'model' of a 'melting pot society'.

Maybe there is a problem with Japanese policies.  

Our population is decreasing, the economy is in deep recession, and creativity doesn't really seem to be promoted in Japan.  I don't know if it's the culture and history of isolationism, but we tend to be closed to the outside world, even in the 21st century.  Are we strangling ourselves with our own hands?

I don't totally agree with what Walt says, and would like to write about the 'closed' society and how we perceive the world and how the world perceives Japan on a different day (because this post is already too long),  but I would just like to say, that I think that this is one of the reasons why I'm here.  Here, in the outside world, in the UK, absorbing various knowledge, culture and values.

It's kind of like, if we can't bring the world to us, we'll bring us to the world.  

It'll take time to change Japan into a 'melting pot', so until then, maybe we the young people can and should be Japan's own little 'melting pots'.  

At the very least, I guess it's better than 'don't come, don't go', if you know what I mean.

(source of image:http://www.i-italy.org/bloggers/1701/italian-american-culture-illusion-or-reality)

New opposition party leader decided

The DPJ(Democratic Party of Japan) has picked its new leader.

Hatoyama.  No big surprise there.

Hatoyama is from a political dynasty.  His brother is in the LDP(Liberal Democratic Party) who is currently a minister in the cabinet, and his father is Ichiro Hatoyama, who is the founding father of the LDP.  

I read that he's sometimes called an 'alien' because he says weird stuff sometimes, and you can't really tell what he's thinking.  Nakasone called him a 'soft ice cream' what ever that means.  I've met him once, and he gave me a very calm and nice impression.  He was the kind of guy who would take time out of his busy schedule to meet a group of undergrad students studying politics.

Anyway, I was more shocked to see Ozawa the former party leader resign in the first place, after a fund-raising scandal flared up in his face.

It seems though that he will keep his strings attached tightly from behind the curtains.  After all, I guess that's what he's good at. (Here is an interesting article comparing Ozawa and John McCain)

Elections are bound to be called by Prime Minister Aso by this September.  

Is Japan ready for DPJ to rule?  Better yet, is the DPJ ready to rule Japan?

Kew

I went to Kew gardens a few weeks ago with my friend kim.

I've always wanted to go, cause I heard it was under UNESCO protection (being Japanese, UNESCO protection means everything), and my friends told me it was worth visiting.  Also that day our german friend organized a german beer garden night in Richmond, so we decided to go on the same day.

(btw the beer garden served really good german food.  but they closed at 6pm, due to security reasons.  6pm...  how do they make any profit??? (apparently if we had told them earlier, they would have arranged so we could stay longer, but still...))

anyway, kew gardens was beautiful.  The glass houses were warm and tropical, had many different kinds of plants, and I especially liked the water lilies.  I also liked the japanese garden.  It was Japanese, probably made by a japanese person, but i dunno... it felt western.  It didn't have that sort of, wabi sabi feeling to it...  maybe it's just me being overprotective of my own culture.

It's a 5 min walk from Kew gardens station on the district and circle line.  You can't miss it.

sunny in uk

I'm a postgraduate student in London, studying international relations and international law.

It's the end of the year, a.k.a exam time, a very appropriate time to start a blog.  

Yes, I am the Queen of procrastination.