Guess the Passfield Alum: Round 2

Every day I find out more and more cool people who've walked the hallowed halls of Passfield. Here's another one. See if you can guess. This one's easy.

1. It's a man.
2. He was here in the 50s.
3. He studied for a degree in accounting and finance,
4. He had a minor in physical education, though you'd never know considering he's still so skinny.
5. He couldn't get any satisfaction. He left after one year and didn't graduate.

Give up? Check it out.

Quiz time

I've told you about my neighborhood being home to some famous faces (Darwin, John Maynard Keynes, etc). Well, I forgot to mention a more contemporary famous face who lived in my residence. Here are some hints about their identity:

1. She is American.
   
2. She was a student at LSE in 2006 quite a bit of time after the scandal that made her infamous
   
3. Her received an MA in Social Psychology.
   
4. Her thesis was entitled "In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third Person Effect and Pre-Trial Publicity."
5. She had a pretty famous face--and dress--in 1998.
   

Click here, to see her identity.

Tales from a Crypt Walker

There’s a first time for everything and the weekend I went to Paris was full of them. It was my first time in Paris. Nicole’s first ride on the Eurostar. My first ride on a funicular. And my first time playing tourist in a cemetery. The Père Lachaise Cemetery is a located on the outskirts of Paris. It’s in a rather non-descript area of the city and looks kind of run down.

The Père Lachaise Cemetery

We don’t usually hang out in cemeteries, so you’re probably wondering why we did, especially in Paris. But it’s packed with celebrities. Literally. We were doing some star gazing, or at least gazing at their graves. Even in the middle of the day, with people all around, cemeteries are still creepy.

Jim Morrison's grave

Edith Piaf, pride of France

Irish author Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde, I don't understand the kisses

Surrounded by celebrities,
here is one of many memorials to the Holocaust

Composer Chopin

Coincidentally, it seems being around dead people was a theme in Paris. Aside from Napoleon and those in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, we visited the Panthéon which holds some of France’s most celebrated thinkers, politicians and scientists.


They say Americans are the most gratuitous flag waivers and blatant nationalists, but I think the French could give those Yanks a run for their money. The Panthéon used to be a church, which is a good indication of the reverence this country shows these men and women.

Inside the Panthéon,

That circular thing in the middle proves the Earth's rotation

While it was really cool seeing "the places they were interned," it was also incredibly creepy. For one thing, the entry to the crypt contains an urn with the heart of a former PM of France. That sets the stage for what is to come. That is, several large halls full of empty rooms in the crypts just waiting for the next great Frenchmen to die. Let me tell you, I don't envy them. These are some pretty big shoes to fill.

The graves of Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Both famous French philosophers of the Enlightenment era . Rivals in real life, their final resting places are facing each other. I don't know if that's ironic, funny or respectful or insensitive.

Victor Hugo, author of "the Hunchback of Notre Dame"

Alexandre Dumas, author of the "Three Musketeers"

The crypt that contains Hugo and Dumas

The Curies.
Marie Curie, the chemist, is the only woman buried in the Panthéon.

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

There are a lot of reasons I chose the residence I’m living in. It’s only a 20 minutes walk to school, and relatively cheap. It’s catered—a mostly fabulous dinner is included. And I have a single room. But a nice addition is the neighborhood.



My residence is located in the Bloomsbury area of London, a place that’s known to be home to artists, academics and yuppies. In the early 20th century it was home to the likes of John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf and the many members of the Bloomsbury Group. In fact, you could say we’re neighbours now as their houses are on the next street from me.

Keynes' House

The proof

Meeting place of the Bloomsbury Group

the proof

A nice feature of the neighbourhood is the parks. There are no less than four parks within five minutes of my house: Russell Square, Gordon Square, Tavistock are just some. And Regent’s Park (link) is just a 10 minute walk and five minute run away (I know this because when it’s nice outside, Ericka and I would go for runs in it).

Tavistock Square

These parks are gorgeous, especially in the autumn with the leaves changing. They have fountains, statues (like one of Gandhi in Gordon Square) and plagues on the benches engraved with dedications, just like in the movie Notting Hill. They’re a nice detour from the mundane sidewalks on my walks to and from school.


I choose this place hoping that it’s chill, bohemian vibe would rub off on me and I’d learn to be relaxed, artsy and chill like them. So far, this hasn’t happened.

Of all the chocolate shops in all of Belgium…

Last weekend we went to Bruges for the day. A self professed chocoholic, one of the first places we hit was the chocolate museum. All in all, it was worth our time. It was very comprehensive and top marks for high production values. It explained the history of chocolate from the time of the Aztecs and Mayans up to present day Belgian chocolatiers. There was even one room dedicated to statues made out of chocolate.


Naturally, we ended our tour in the gift shop perusing for chocolate souvenirs. Meandering down one of the lines, I looked to my right and I saw a middle-aged man with khaki shorts, white T-shirt with “Autism Run 2008” on it and a fanny pack with a Canadian flag on it. Typical tourist uniform. But in the millisecond I had to look at him, one thought flashed into my mind: Man, that guy looks like Howard Hampton. As I was surrounded by mostly friends from British Columbia, no one could confirm my sighting. Even my friend from York University was unsure. The man had a few days beard growth and besides, what were the chances of seeing Howard Hampton in a tiny town in Belgium?

Well, apparently very good as it was Howard Hampton. Turns out he was visiting Bruges with his wife and kids and assorted family members. They had come from Vimy Ridge the day before and were staying in Bruges. He was a very nice man. He asked us what we were doing in Belgium and how we were liking it. He didn’t even object when we dragged him out of the store for a picture. I’ve lived in Toronto for 18 years and Ontario for almost 22, but it takes leaving Ontario for Belgium for me to meet an Ontario politician.

Yes, Mr. President

The Tour ended on a high note. We went to the European Parliament for a long day of parliamentary politics. Much has been said about the EU’s democratic deficit—and most of it is true. When the Parliament was first set up in 1952, parliamentarians had no power and operated in an advisory fashion. Even today Members of European Parliament (MEPs) can’t really propose legislation, that’s the job of the Commission. But it was still interesting to hear from their side.

The obvious highlight of the day came in the morning when we met the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering.

For those of us not familiar with the inner workings of European Parliaments (and less face it, Europeans are not even experts as one of our speakers, a communications representative, had to defer to his assistant many times), the President is similar to the Speaker of the House in Canada. He has to make sure order is kept and presides over the session (with its 785 MEPs). His signature is needed on all legislation. It is also the President that represents the Parliament externally and so Pottering gets to travel abroad on the EU’s dime.

And so when he arrived in the small room where we had sat for 20 minutes awaiting his arrival, it was like meeting a President of a country, not a Parliament. People who had left the room two minutes earlier to go to the bathroom were quickly ushered back in and the room instantly filled with a dozen more bodies as his entourage flowed in. We stood respectfully when he walked in and clapped after we were introduced. He talked about who he was and the like--and was pretty funny too which was a surprise--but I can’t remember any of it now. What I can remember was the Q&A afterward where I asked him a question. My questions was, “What do you attribute the declining voter turnout in European Union elections to? Especially considering turnout has declined as the Parliament has gotten more power?” The answer: the media. He said voter apathy is a result of the media reporting only bad things about the EU. He then gave an example about how in light of the European Central Banks tenth anniversary a pole found two-thirds of Germans thought the Euro was a good idea. But the paper used as its headline “1/3 of Germans unhappy with Euro.” He ended by saying, “If the media reported better things about the EU, perhaps people would like it more. See what you can do about that.” What’s funny is he didn’t even know I was a journalism student.

The rest of the day paled in comparison. We got to talk to some MEPs (a Irishman, a Brit and a Hungarian). All were great—but especially the Hungarian’s take on Enlargement was irreverent.

Then we saw a plenary session of the Parliament where I was literally 5 minutes away from hearing Javier Solana (aka the EU's foreign ambassador essentially aka an international relations student's idea of heaven) give a progress report to Parliament.

The Govenator

Like I said, one of the amazing things about the Tour is the chance to meet interesting people. Case in point: today.

After a stimulating day at the European Central Bank, we returned to Hachenburg for another economic lecture. This one was from David Murray Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada. He gave a talk about the inflation targeting of the Bank and the economic outlook for Canada. As a big shot in the Bank, his talk was a bit biased. According to him Canada is doing just great despite the rising currency and disparity across the country. But that's national monetary policy for you. It was still slightly thrilling to have a brush with that kind of fame.