Pride 2010

Here is the first of my catch up posts about what has been going on. I have just had a visitor (Hi Erica!), and so this is my first real chance to start posting. So, lets take a little journey back to July 2010. In the beginning of July, the 3rd to be precise, the pride parade and festival took place. Now, I have to be completely honest with you. These pictures are not very good. I just could not get it together enough and really take any good pictures of the parade. But here are a few I have picked out to show you.

The Gay Liberation Front led the parade. It has been 40 years since it began, and 40 years since the pride parade began. An interesting anecdote about this photo is that the white conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is here arm-in-arm with a transgender rapper of colour (who performed at the festival after the parade).

Here is Ellie with our friend Alex, who came with us to the parade. After the parade, and before the festival, we went to a pub to watch the World Cup.

I think this next picture sums up the parade in general in that it was all a bit chaotic. Not even the people in it knew what was going on. But it was good fun overall.

The festival after the parade was held in Trafalgar Square, which was packed full of people. There was a large stage set up for performers.

If you've ever been to Trafalgar Square, you might have noticed the fountains. I would not call them the most clean of all fountains. And especially during pride, for some reason, everyone was throwing rubbish into the fountains.... and swimming in them.

It was a different experience from Seattle pride. Not as many people dressed casually. Loads of groups from different sections of the city. I don't think I felt too connected to the groups I saw going by. I guess that is more about not having been very involved here. I am so glad I experienced it though.

Ok, that is all for now, I will be back for more catch up posts soon!

Well thats summer gone....

Hello dear readers (if you're still out there!),

I know I have been rubbish at posting. And that I have a lot to catch up on. But now I am officially done with my Masters! I turned in my dissertation today. So I have time to catch my breath and figure out what has been going on here.

Dissertation title:
"The Battle Continues!"
Queer Affect and Gay British Activism in the 1970s-1990s
(I will take requests for copies ;) )

Now that thats done, I will be able to post a bit more! Some highlights to come:
-End of Masters - where to now?
-3 weeks in France (Cagnes-sur-mer to be exact)
-London Pride (maybe that is too long ago now to post!?)
-Weekend in the countryside of England
-More knitting
-More baking too

End of June happenings

I have come up with a dissertation topic! It has been a struggle for me to think of something I would be interested in writing about. But here it is:

I want to explore the idea of queer affect*, what are queer affects and how people mobilise on the basis of queer affects. And my case study will be UK LGBT activist groups from the 1970s-1990s (the dates could be revised). I specifically want to look at groups that work across multiple sites of gender (such as disability, race, and gender).

*Affect is a field of study/inquiry concerning emotions and how bodies move through the world. It began in psychoanalysis, but has been used in the social sciences to look at how people mobilise or arrange themselves around things like pride, fear, rage, shame, etc. A book to read to help understand this would be "The Cultural Politics of Emotion" by Sara Ahmed.

I am now going to spend my days in the archive room, looking at old newsletters, pamphlets, and posters.

One of my goals for the summer is to explore more of London. Yesterday I went to Kensington Gardens, which houses Kensington Palace - the place where Princess Diana lived. There is also a Diana Memorial Walk and a Memorial Playground.

Ellie and I are going to spend this weekend in Banbury, a village in Oxfordshire with my friend Alice and her parents. I am excited to see the countryside, and will try to take some pictures! Saturday is our 3 year anniversary, so it will be a nice relaxing way to spend the weekend.

Now, if you have been following the World Cup at all, you'll know that the USA won the top of the group and qualified for the next round along with England. Its quite exciting watching the World Cup in a place that loves football/soccer so much!

Summer begins

I am done with my exams! I think they went well. One of them was 3 hours, the other 2. I have not hand written so much in years.

Did anyone watch the England vs USA world cup match? It was a good match! The goal that the English goalkeeper let in was excruciating for the English fans (the second goal in the video). I am happy with the result because I don't know if the diplomatic relations between the US and the UK could have taken a win either way. :)


Ellie is working full time, and I am now going to work on my dissertation, which is due September 1st. I am not sure at all what I will write about - but I am meeting with my advisor tomorrow, so hopefully something will be illuminated.

The weather here has been off and on - sometimes rainy, sometimes sunny. I have spent a lot of time outside with friends. Last Saturday, I went to the beautiful Battersea Park to have some chips and wine in the park.

Yesterday I went to a knit crawl around the South Kensington area. Arranged by Stitch London. I won a book in the raffle!
It seems a bit advanced for me, but maybe I will work up to it.

Middle of exam season

Hello lovely people! I am sorry for not updating for so long, I have been quite busy. I have just taken a big exam and have one more on Monday. While revising for exams, it has also been so sunny and beautiful outside. Anyway, I don't have a lot of time for a real update, but here are some pictures I have taken over the past month. :) After my exams, I will update more!

A deer in Richmond Park, where Ellie, her mom, and I went for Ellie's birthday

Banana and Baileys Bread and Butter Pudding from Jaime Oliver


A part of the Parliament Building

hilarious/helpful sign near Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives)

Elliephant

Horse crossing sign near Buckingham Palace

going to see the queen

Election night!

Tonight is the big UK election - will I wake up tomorrow in a conservative Britain? It hasn't been conservative since 1997. Labour has been in power since then. It does not look good for labour in this election however. Ellie and I did some campaigning for the Liberal Democrats in Ealing! We delivered letters and flyers for our local prospective MP - Jon Ball. He's a silly and tall man. We spent the last 2 evenings out around Ealing and Acton. I have a bit of a new sympathy for mail delivery people. Its hard to get things through some people's mail slots! I messed up a few by accident - because some of them have these brushes that don't move very easily and then the outside metal flap gets caught. Below is Ellie, holding the letters we delivered, ready to go out:
The Lib Dem prime minister candidate is Nick Clegg. If you remember anything about British history from high school - the liberal democrats were the wigs and the conservatives were the tories. This will be quite an interesting election. It seems like the conservatives will probably win, but the Lib Dems are putting up a fight. And it seems, at least from what I have seen in papers and on the news, that Labour are not going to have a good chance.

Ellie and I are going to watch the results coming in, and instead of the traditional BBC election coverage, we will be watching the alternative election night coverage on Channel 4. David Mitchell, of peep show fame, will be one of the presenters.

In other news, my old co-worker, Laura, and her husband, Matt are coming to visit soon and I have turned in my four papers! Lots of exciting things. In word count, the papers equal more than my dissertation! Now I am studying for exams and starting on my dissertation. Oof. I think this month is going to be very busy for me in terms of work.

Some recent events in my life:

1) I pretended to be interested in an event about Jesus in order to get free coffee from the Christian Union. I bought a conservative paper for £0.40 because they were giving away free chocolate bars with it. These chocolate bars cost over £1 in a store.

2) I signed up for a Spanish certification class! I start next Tuesday.

3) I talked to a professor at the GI about a PhD there, she is going to help me with the proposal.

4) Confirmed my RSVP to my friend's wedding in Bilbao! Gay wedding in Spain, best thing ever! Ellie and I are going to book the plane tickets soon.

5) Patrick gets here tomorrow!

Also, here are some pictures from the vigil I went to.

Feels like Saturday...

Last night Ellie and I went to an event held at Imperial College to launch Stonewall UK's job recruitment guide. The event launched the guide and was also a networking event for students and other job-seekers to meet with queer-friendly employers. They had free wine and canape. I did some networking! I met this American man who works for Stonewall, he moved to the UK to be with his partner, he got his master's at the GI! We have a lot in common. He gave me his card, so I am going to make sure to keep in touch. He also said he would connect me with one of his colleagues who works with LGB youth, as that is where a lot of my experience lies. Ellie talked with someone from the Arts Council and has a possible internship! All very exciting.

Today I have not done very much! It is nice to relax. I have been sick with a cold, but today started feeling a lot better. Tonight we're going to a vigil against hate crimes in Trafalgar Square.

Chelsea and Kensington - shoes that pass in Soho do not pass here

What a strange night. Ellie and I went out to Chelsea because of her friend's birthday. She wore these converse, along with a collared shirt, sweatervest and jeans - quite smart I think. When we got to the club and informed the bouncer we were on the guest list, he looked her up and down and said that she wasn't aloud to come in with those shoes on. "Sporting shoes of any kind" are not allowed in this club. Who would wear those shoes for any sport?!? He actually said "you would come out on a Saturday night and go to a club wearing those shoes?" It was so rude and elitist. I basically can't believe it happened. Bastards! We were in a posh neighborhood I guess.

It took us an hour to get there because there are partial closures on some tube lines in our area. The whole night felt like a bit of a waste as we didn't even get to see her friend. There was no use arguing with the bouncer person about the issue, he was basically a brick wall of bitchery. I think some homophobia/sexism was involved in this encounter, because if some famous footballer man came to the club after a game at Chelsea stadium, he probably would have been let in. The bouncer actually checked Ellie out before saying anything and was incredibly judgmental. Ellie is planning on writing a letter to the management of the club talking about how rude the bouncer was. Yes, weird situation. We ended up going to Ealing Broadway, getting chips, and walking home. Quite an exciting Saturday night, I hear you say. Yep.

Small world!

Today I ran into someone I used to go to school with in Guadalajara! He is from Canada and is in his second year of his PhD at the LSE! I used to hang out with him 3-4 times a week. And we hung out for a whole weekend at the beach right before I left Mexico. It was quite strange to run into him. I think we are going to go out for a pint at some point.

I have had a frustrating day. I went to my bank to deposit my financial aid checks and was told that I wouldn't be able to deposit them because they were made out to me and LSE. The man behind the counter said I would have to have it just made out to me. But this is how everyone's financial aid checks are! After he denied me (a bit rudely I might add), I talked to another person walking around the bank and finally had it resolved. It was stressful for awhile though! The same man who refused to take my checks was the one who had to enter them. He was just uninformed. I really need that money, I am living off of my money in my American account.

Speaking of money, I took £100 out of my American account today and I am left with £10! I spent £80 on course readers for 3 classes. I was not happy to find out that total. I also bought lunch, coffee, and allergy medicine - and thus the £10 left. I can't wait until my financial aid checks clear.

I spent the rest of the day working on reading for tomorrow's class. I am only about 1/2 way through the reading. I plan to go to campus early tomorrow to finish the readings. So much reading! I really have to keep on top of it or there is no way I can keep up.

I have joined a study group for my "Gender Theories" class. I am optimistic about keeping up with the course work this year!

Overwhelmed, Excited, Nervous

Sorry its been so long since my last update, I have been quite busy! I just got home from my first day of class. The class is called "Gender Theories in the Modern World: An Interdisciplinary Approach." I have an hour and a half of lecture and an hour and a half of seminar (like a section, its for student facilitation and discussion). I am very excited about the whole thing. The class is team taught by all the faculty of the gender institute. Tomorrow I have "Gender, Knowledge, and Research Practice." On Thursday I have "Cultural Constructions of the Body."

Here is what I have been up to since my last entry:

Wednesday 30 September:
I attended a public lecture by Amina Mama on "Militarism and Underdevelopment." The Gender Institute (GI) has a public lecture series and this was the first one. Amina Mama is a quite famous woman as a pioneering academic for gender studies in South Africa. After the lecture was a reception at the GI. I met a bunch of my fellow students. And there was free wine. Very nice night!

Thursday 1 October:
3 hour orientation to the GI. The faculty introduced themselves, their research interests, and what they teach. The director of the GI started by saying that we probably all feel overwhelmed, excited, and nervous - and that she feels that way all of the time, such is the life of a gender theorist. After the large orientation with all of the MSc students, we broke off to our individual tracks. I am doing the Gender track (there are others like Gender, Development, and Globalisation and Gender, Media, and Culture). I met with my cohort and the convener of the course.

A few hours after the orientation, I stayed on campus to go to the LGBT society's bar hopping night. It was really fun! I was nervous at first going alone, but I ended up talking with people all night. I only went to the 1st three bars. I met some people who were really nice and will maybe hang out with them again.

Friday 2 October:
On this day I had an all day induction for the GI. This was lead by a PhD student. We learned the ins and outs of the GI - how courses and course work actually work, what is expected of you, how to be involved, etc. I found it really helpful, the whole thing felt scary after that. We had ample time to ask any questions we had at all. After the induction, there was a reception with free champagne and snacks. I talked with a bunch of people in my program. They like social receptions at the GI! I didn't stay late at this, as I went to Ellie's friend's house for dinner.

Saturday and Sunday:
Ellie and I finished Buffy. She loved it. I worked on my reading for my first day of class. Pretty nice weekend!

Other than that, I am working on making friends. I am having lunch with someone from my course tomorrow. I am also working on keeping up with my studies. There is an incredible amount of reading every week. They say probably about 40 hours a week worth of reading. This is my new full time job after all!

Fall is in the air

I have been here for a week now and am starting to get stuff together. I ordered a phone online! It only cost £10 and as a result is a bit of a dinosaur. It will get here tomorrow, although I may be out when it comes. Tomorrow I have registration, I think I will be getting my student card. I am not sure what to expect. I am quite excited to have access to LSE's library.

Today, I went for a walk around Ealing Common. It is cloudy and there is a slight wind - fall is in the air! The leaves are turning colors and falling off the trees in the Common. Fall is great, and I think London in the fall will be beautiful. I can't wait to start school and really get into the swing of life.

End of the First Weekend

Today Ellie and I took it slow- she starts work tomorrow and I must begin my life tasks. My interest in Julia Child has been renewed since seeing "Julie and Julia" and so I have been watching clips of her programs. Ellie and I watched this one about omelets. Ellie actually made this omelet this morning! It was awesome. The egg is too runny for me (I need my eggs overcooked), but it looked delicious and Ellie enjoyed it. Julia Child's method makes the egg very fluffy and light.

In the afternoon, we went to the National Portrait Gallery to see the "Gay Icons" exhibit. It was very interesting. The exhibit featured pictures of people who are considered gay icons as "selectors" - and those people picked 5 others who are inspirations to them. It is a special exhibition, so we had to pay £5 to get in, I think it was worth it. After the exhibition, we went to First Out for coffee and cheesecake. All in all a low key day. Not much to report at the moment, these posts will become more interesting as I start school!

Anthropological Film Screenings and 3rd day in London

I think I have overcome my jet lag. Today I spent the day at the Shortwave Cinema in Bermondsey. All of the people on Ellie's MA in Visual Anthropology showed their films in a proper theater. Ellie was 3rd to last, but we went for the whole day, starting at 10am. The film subjects varied, in subject and quality. And the room was uncomfortably hot. However, it was a good experience- Ellie's film was quite good and I got to meet some of Ellie's friends and spend time with her family after.

On an unrelated note, I am astounded at how fast the £10 I put on my oyster card goes away. I took 2 trips on the tube today and over half of the money is gone. I am going to get a student oyster card soon, which will help reduce the pain of £'s rushing out of my possession.

Fall/winter is in the air and I am excited for the premiere of Strictly Come Dancing.

2nd day in London

I got here on Wednesday and Thursday has now passed. Today I spent the morning and afternoon on Regent Street helping Ellie pick out clothes for her first day at the BBC (!). I am excited for the winter time when you get a glass of mulled wine upon walking into the Gap on Regent Street.

Oxford Circus is obscenely full of people, I forgot how overwhelming it can be. Seattle, while a large city, cannot measure up to the normal number of people in Oxford Circus in a day. I am sure I will soon become jaded to this fact, but at the moment I am still in awe.

Ellie and I went to see Julie and Julia tonight. I liked it a lot, but the ending disappointed me. I think the story ended up being a bit incongruous.

I have quite a few tasks to complete to actually feel like I live here - bank account, phone, start school. I am nervous about school, but excited to meet new people. I haven't had to do this in about 5 years - go out and make friends. I think that once I get into the swing of school, I will start feeling more normal. At the moment, everything feels strange, like a dream. I think I still can't believe I don't live in Seattle anymore. I don't even know how to react.