I went to the St. Paul’s Cathedral with a few flatmates on Christmas Eve for the midnight Eucharist. Given I haven’t been to church for a long time, my state-of-mind seemed to have changed a lot from my previous church attendances. The architecture of the Cathedral’s impressive and its grand interior reminded me of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel (here are some photos of the church online). And a bit surprisingly, I found I enjoyed the Baroque style church music very much. The sound of the harpsichord was lovely, the choir was professional (my friend said he felt like he’s in an opera), and the church’s well-designed acoustics further accentuated the musical effect. The music and the interior created a solemn atmosphere that invoked certain spiritual, larger-than-life experience which I very much enjoyed.

Another thought I had at the night was the similarity between the message and experience the church’s conveying and communism’s. It first came to my mind when the priest said ‘this day is the birth of hope and the death of the self’. Various messages on suppressing the self for a larger goal are at the opposite end to the Ayn Rand novel I’m reading. Given the novel’s main adversary’s the communist society, the similarly between the church and communism dawned on me. The priest talked about men’s sinfulness, the need to be saved, the wars, hatred, and fragmented family in modern world, and provided a way to salvation. The utopian future portrayed by both was also similar: one’s everlasting happiness in heaven, while the other one is on earth. There’re definitely differences between the religion and the ideology, and I believe both exist to serve a certain human needs and purposes. All said, Christmas is still my favourite holiday, and I definitely enjoyed the experience at the Cathedral.

Coffee Mania

A flatmate who used to work at Starbucks introduced me to the world of coffee. It has since been a part of my daily schedule (I limit my consumption to two cups a day, and usually have green tea in the evening as substitute). Ethiopian blend is my favourite so far, and I plan to sample more beans from different areas by the end of the break.

Job Hunting

Continue tussling with the ‘gruelling and soul-destroying’ market to land a job in management/economic consulting. The track record so far is pretty depressing: lots of rejections, a couple of unsuccessful interviews. Recently received interview invitations from two top companies (Gosh! time to prove myself). I plan to post a detailed entry after the process is over. It’d be interesting to see how my application statistics evolves (it’s already pretty impressive now).

Body Rhythm and Productivity

There would probably be lots of activities and distractions during Christmas and New Year, thus provide my other-self with lots of excuses not to work (even my rational self would probably want to do something different as well). Knowing this, I figure I should use my time as best as possible now (ideally should do it always). With a few experiments, it seems like I’ve discovered my body rhythm and hence a more productive way to use my time. So far it has worked pretty well for me. I’ve reviewed econometric coursework and working on Macro now.

Here’s how a typical day looks like:

7:00 Wake up, study for an hour

8:30 Breakfast, coffee, check mail, RSS feeds

9:30 Continue studying coursework

12:00 Take a 30 minutes nap, lunch, and stretch

2:00 Work on maths, problem sets, or past exams

6:00 Dinner, online

8:00 Business reading, interview & case preparation

10:00 Extracurricular reading, miscellaneous impulses, reflections

1:00 Bedtime

*The schedule (especially the nap) tends to shift around a bit, depending on how I feel.

Extracurricular reading lists:

Knowledge and the Wealth of Nation—David Warsh

Unended Quest—Helmut Kohl & Karl Popper

Lateral Thinking—Edward de Bono

Inside The Economist’s Mind—Paul Samuelson & William Barnett

Atlas Shrugged—Ayn Rand

Exit, Voce, and Loyalty—Albert Hirschman

Life of Schopenhauer—William Wallace

The Philosophy of Schopenhauer—Dale Jacquette

Finished the first two, now reading the next three items, and hope I could finish the rest before school begins.  For Schopenhauer, I mainly want to see his views on art and music.

It’s been a while since I posted my last entry. A lot has happened since then: received a diploma from Cambridge, seeing friends and enjoying life in Hong Kong and Thailand, and now coming back to UK to do my master at London School of Economics.

After spending two weeks living in Ko’s place, I’m currently living by myself in a LSE Hall (dorm). At first I don’t like this place: situated in a relatively unsafe area, far from the campus (about 40 mins walk), and not really cheap. But as I get used to the place, I actually think it’s not that bad. It’s spacious and quiet compare to many other dorms, and I also got my own fridge. And as I figured out the shortest route to school, I’m now walking to and from school everyday, which is a good way to exercise and save money. It took me about 30-35 mins if I walk fast.

The tuition and accommodation cost in London’s much more expensive than in Cambridge, and since I only have the same amount of money, I have to cut down on my living expenses to survive. Fortunately, Ko taught me how to live cheaply in London. The secret is sandwich and sandwich. He literately has sandwich every meal for the past months before I arrive. It’s indeed the cheapest way to live. But to stay healthy, I refined the strategy a bit. I’m not having cereal in the morning, homemade sandwich afternoon, and some vegetable and fruits the evening. It’s amazing that I could survive a week in London with about 20 pounds (roughly half of what I used to spend in Cambridge). I guess if there’s a need, then there’s a way. I recently also found a part time analyst job in a real estate company and get pay pretty well, so if I save the money, I probably could enjoy life in London once in a while. For now I’ll stick to the free museums and galleries.

I was mainly studying math during the past month. The one month pre-session math course just ended with exams earlier this week. Some of the materials are quite tough, but so far I’m enjoying my study here. I’m also quite fond of LSE, although I felt the average student quality might not be as high here as those in Cambridge, LSE seems to have a more dynamic atmosphere. I also think it’s more organized and has a better IT system (although I still hear a lot of other students complain about it). The students here also tend to be more active and extremely career oriented. Not sure if being around lots of social activist and career focused people is what I enjoy, but I guess it’s good to see a new place and meet different people. After all I’m living in London now. A professor once told me that if a person is bored in London, then he’s probably bored with life. I might not have a life here (no money, no time), but this is definitely an exciting place to have living experience in.