Athens to Al-Qaeda

Although there is a whole plethora of summer programmes to choose from and I could have spent three weeks practically anywhere, LSE Summer School had one big advantage over the others: the subjects offered were those usually taught during the academic year, only concentrated into three weeks and terminated by a proper exam. To learn something new, I chose to spent those three weeks pondering about the history of political thought in a programme called Athens to Al-Qaeda: Political Theory and International Politics.

Every morning from Monday to Friday I therefore spent debating individual political texts and thinkers for an hour and a half among a small group of classmates; afternoons were taken up by three-hour long lectures. As tiresome as these tutorials and lectures were, spending the rest of the day relaxing in my room would be a sin. I was in my beloved London after all. Consecutively, I spent the beginning of my summer not only with Plato, Machiavelli, Kant or Marx but also with Saniya from India, Javier from Spain, Anna from the USA and Hugo from Portorico. And I had a blast. I learned much and discovered something that truly interests me. Aside from that, I bicycled through Chelsea, visited all the museums I did not have time for before and made great friends.

But time flows fast and school is about to start again. However, after such an amazing summer I am looking forward to it because the second year of the English and American studies offers an interesting variety of subjects and projects. But I will leave that topic for the next time.

Before I leave you, dear reader, I would like to give my thanks to the Kellner Family Foundation for enabling me to go to LSE Summer School and so again allowing me the access to an excellent education. Thank you.