By maxikaplan
I’ll admit that I’m jealous of students on other study abroad programs who are able to afford more free time than me given their class schedule and workload, but my decision to come to the London School of Economics was made knowing that I eventually would face this harsh truth. LSE isn’t easy, and I don’t anticipate it getting any easier from here, but I don’t regret, not even for one second, my decision to come. When I tell my other friends abroad about my work schedule, they lament how this is the one time in my life to really travel, and that I could have chosen to make my time abroad much more fun. I do agree that my time here is work intensive, but I wouldn't have it any other way. A simple revelation made me understand why.
Classes at LSE are different from lectures—it is the smaller meetings with your TA’s that consist of only 10-15 students, whereas lectures are much bigger lessons taught by professors. But classes are no walk in the park. They are taught by PhD students studying at LSE extremely well versed in your lecture topic, and they challenge you constantly. Exhibit A: it is my third week of class and I have a 45-minute presentation to make this coming Friday. The revelation I had occurred this past week during a student’s discourse with a group making their presentation in my Business in Britain class. The way in which he spoke, the nature of his question, and the expectations he had of the students to fully answer his question, all provided me with an odd sense of inspiration. This, I thought, is the reason I came to LSE, because although traveling and seeing the world is undoubtedly a learning experience and something I look forward to, it is an entirely different experience to have your beliefs questioned academically in a way that forces you to see the world from a new perspective. Both avenues—travel and academia—provide different paths for a person to perceive the world, and it was clear to me during this argument that my view on things is never going to be “right”, but the way in which I change my view is where I find my inspiration to work and to live. LSE is a special place to do this, and it goes almost without saying that the rest of the students in my class were keen to voice their own opinion in just the same manner, which I found incredible.
Contrary to my rambling, I have done other exciting things this week, such as take my first tour of Parliament and eat Indian food three nights in a row. But what really made my week was sitting in that class. I’ll be back to report how my own presentation goes this week, and maybe during my next blog I’ll learn to not focus so narrowly on my own experiences. For now that is all as I enjoy the fact that the clocks in London were set back by an hour.