Back to writing...

If anything, this blog should have been titled The One Time Londoner as I've only had one chance to really experience London and reflect upon it in writing. Ever since arriving to this city, London seems to have outpaced me. I have never been so caught up in "busy-ness" as I have over the past couple of months. In retrospect, even though I didn't get to enjoy London as much as I was expecting, I believe that all my hard work must have paid off.

First, I achieved a huge feat by securing myself my dream job. Second, I have learned so much and that has given me confidence that I can add value in whatever environment life takes me next. Third, I've formed a great web of connections with the LBS network. In that sense, I've really excelled in my career. Also, my strife in moulding something out of myself over the past couple of months has brought me closer to God and it is only because of His mercy that I consider myself victorious in the above mentioned feats.

Having said that, I still feel like I haven't visited London. Other than a few jogs on the Thames and a walk or two through Regent's park, I haven't really seen much of this spectacular city. And just when I get the opportunity to get to explore, the city has to suffer from its worst snow storm in 20 years. Its funny how life works, but I'm still determined to make the most out of this city while I'm here.

Yesterday, I visited the British Museum. Its amazing how the Brits brought the whole world to this island of theirs. I had the distinct pride of walking through the grandiose of halls of the museum to witness the splendors of my Muslim and Ancient Egyptian ancestors. I also had the opportunity to witness the controversial Greek Parthenon exhibit. The beauty of the Egyptian and Greek masterpieces that the museum hosts are worth all the ruckus both Egypt and Greece have made to retrieve their antiquities, but the way I look at it is that it makes much more sense for the world to view these treasures in a global capital like London. These relics not only serve as ambassadors of these two ancient civilizations, but might incite curious minds to eventually visit the lands where these treasures originate.

The rest of my yesterday was spent touring bookstores on Baker Street. Its quite relaxing have some alone time where I can think things over and recuperate from the stress of school work and exams.

It doesn't do justice to just recap on a couple of months in a lousy, unpolished blog post such as this one, but I just had to get some writing out of my system. For today, I plan on visiting some more museums, namely the Tate Modern and the National Gallery, to weather the snow. Let's see what impressions London leaves on me today...

First London Photo Tour

First Impressions

It is almost 2am on Thursday, and I find myself sleepless in London. Life in London has kept me very busy juggling academic work, job-hunting, participation in my school's community, and many other things on the side that I haven't had time to sit down and reflect on my experience here hitherto.

Since I find myself sleepless, what better way to kill time than to ponder upon my experience here for the past three weeks. I realized that I hadn't really experienced London until last weekend; it was when I was stressing out about schoolwork and doing some research for my career that my parents suggested I take the day off and just tour London. They couldn't have given me better advice to unwind. So I took their advice, strapped on my camera, and was out the door on a walking tour that took me to Russel Square park, where I enjoyed a tasty meal from Pret-Au-Manger. I then walked all the way down Southampton Rd down to the Thames River. This was my first time actually seeing this murky river, which reminded me of our Nile. Actually, there's an Egyptian Obelisk erected near the Thames referred to as Cleopatra's Needle. I took immense pride in seeing it to be honest.

My tour then took me all over, from Big Ben, to Westminister Abbey, to the London Eye, to Tate Modern, and finally to St. Paul's Cathedral. All of these sights seemed to intriguing to me, even though I had not the slightest clue of their history and purpose. I realized that Western Europe, and more specifically, the U.K is one part of the world I know very little about. This tour opened my eyes to so much and made me realize that while I'm here, I should endeavor to educate myself about the history and culture of Britain.

The thing I enjoyed about walking around London was that I really got a "feel" for the city... Unlike many other cities, London is one of those cities that walking is an enjoyable pastime because the urban landscape is quite pleasing to one's eyes. Fortunately, I had a digital eye to capture all of these memories for me. The camera Omar gave me really came in handy for that purpose. I have tons of photos I want to remind me of this tour.

I'm glad I was able to "make" time to just go out there and enjoy this magnificent city. I'll definitely try to dedicate more time to actually enjoying life in London and tell my readers all about it. I think next Saturday's tour will be in the British Museum, so keep tuned for more...

The Genesis

"You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

-Samuel Johnson

London had always seemed as if it were some distant dream in my mind awaiting to be lived. Never thought I would come the day when it would be such a magnificent reality. I always had this notion that if the world were to have a capital, London would be it simply because of its cultural, economic, and political prowess. To be honest, I could never quite imagine what London, or the U.K. as a whole, would be like. But after landing at Heathrow and commuting to Regent's Park, the mere glimpse of what I had scene had far exceeded my expectations. This city truly lived up to its grandiose reputation as rightly told in the novels of Charles Dickens.

So this is the genesis of a new piece of my literary work and a new page in my life. For some strange reason, it seems to me that London is where I really need to be at this point of my life. Ever since arriving to Charlottesville in 2006, I immediately started craving the big city life of my former residences, namely Cairo, New York, and New Delhi, and from that point on, London had always seemed as the ideal place to move to next. Why? Well, from my general knowledge, London seemed to be a very cosmopolitan metropolis, which has a rich history and cultural scene as well as vast career opportunities for anyone seeking to "make it" in any profession.

The Londoner Annual will hopefully serve as a blog in which I publish all of my experiences as a Londoner for the coming year. I have just commenced my postgraduate studies at London Business School, one of the world's top business-schools, with the hope of living me dream: i.e. to succeed in life to the extent that I would be able to impact the world in a positive way. Now this seems like a very lofty, vague mission statement. But the fact of the matter is that I believe that it's possible to achieve this goal in an infinite number of ways; its just a matter of finding your "right fit" and that's what I'm here in London to do.

Already, I have to say, I'm infatuated with this city and with my program at LBS. I consider myself blessed to be attending a school where over 130 nationalities are represented and a city where all of the world's ethnicities mingle in harmony.

This blog doesn't have any specific objective other than reflecting my life in London. It might end up being a messy combination of musings, experiences, travelogues, critiques, etc..., but I hope that by the end of my year here I'll be able to track some sort of progression in my writing, outlook, personality, and life.