jo, sharon and me
jonathan, shim, me and jiayan
rachel, eva, charmain, me and eva's friend
triston, yanneng, me and johnathan
me, yanneng, chi chwan, ian tan, simon and ian cheng
me, andre, yanneng and jiayun
yanneng, me and bo jing
full view
the frills
clockwise: carler serving food, yummy spaghetti and salad, me with carler, from right: Ghiom, me, Elizabeth, Zheng Lei, Adam:)
I arrived at cambridge at 2pm on Sat, after which I followed Jiechao, my family friend, to her college. She's at newhall and on the way I got to know that we can pratically walk to everywhere in Cambridge..hee guess it's really a small town..after which she brought me on a college tour to some of the most prominent colleges like Kings, Trinity, Trinity College, Caies, St John..all the colleges seem to have this rule that all students should not step on the grass, they will be expelled if they do so. And I heard they trim the grass everyday or so and that's why they look so pretty in every college. ALso, the architecture in every college is different, some colleges have the river Cam through them while some do not. I like trinity the most and i heard it's the richest out of all, their meals and accomodation are heavily subsidised and they give out scholarship generously. But well, it's very hard to get in too. Oh ya, I also fed the ducks along the way hee..so fun!
After the college tour I met up with Grace, the one I went with to Cambridge. She went punting while I was doing my college tour. Punting is a game whereby u use a very long stick to manoveure a boat down river. You have to stick the long stick into the river bed to move the boat. It seems really fun but pity I din get a chance to try it. The tour was nice too..hee..After which we went to her friend, Andre's room at trinity. His room is about two times the size of my room, im so envious. hee then he brought us to Trinity's dinner. It is not the formal kind whereby all the diners have to wear their academic robes, but it is held in that kind of harry porter hall (maybe not so big) and the food is sumptous! We had french onion soup for appertiser, im sure there was red wine inside:) pork chop with broccoli, cauliflower and potato for main course and bread and butter pudding for dessert. hee yummy yummy. I couldnt take a photo of the place and the fruit as it was not allowed in the dining room. After feeding ourselves, we went to the trinity bar where they played a game on the quiz machine, so me and grace just watched with everyone else who crowded around the machine. Everyone was so smart and there are bound to be someone who knows the answer to any of the quiz. After that we went back to Andre's room while I had to wait for Jiechao to come pick me up to go back to her hall. We listened to music, chatted and drank fresh apple juice made in an apple farm owned by trinity. It is the nicest apple juice I've ever drank..hee..The guys who stayed on the same floor as Andre popped over and they are all doing math at cambridge except for one. They are fun people and they cant stop discussing math prob no matter whether they are at the dining room or Andre's room, guess they are really enthu and passionate about what they are doing.
After which Jiechao finally came to pick me up at Trinity and we walked back to her hall. It was colder in Cambridge then in London. Jiechao has a lot of work to do, pity she's doing Bio Natural Science, so she had to finish two physio essays by 3pm on Sunday. And she has tons of homework from Cellular BIology, Chemistry and Math. That's like doing trip sci without physics. I'm so glad Im not doing them anymore. I think I've made the right choice hee..so we din really have time to talk much and we slept at about 12 pm. And this morning, we got woken up by the fire alarm! I thought it was her alarm clock haha They seem to have fire drills very often at Cambridge and it is super irritating that it kept running for about twenty min maybe cos no one bothered to get up except a few. I heard they must see enough people b4 they will stop the alarm.We forced ourselves to get up but by the time we were ready to go out, it stopped..oh well..haha..Then, we made breakfast together with Shuanglin, her senior, and Chen Yu who's doing Math. SHe was from S3 in hwa chong. hee nice to meet familiar people around. Although we din talked to each other at HC but we hit it off quite well and she's a cute and friendly girl. After breakfast, I used her laptop for a while and I left for the coach station, and of cos doing some window shopping along the way. hee and the coach left for london at 12.45 i reached london victoria station at about 3pm. SO thatmarks the end of my cambridge tour.
Well my feelings about cambridge: I feel that Cambridge is really very very different from LSE. In cambridge, you feel that you are in a university town, well it is, and sort of away from all the rush and fury of a city, the peak hours, the working crowd. Most of the people there seem to be students or tourists. It is really a very good place to study, very quiet and serene hee..but at the same time. Students there are really enthusiastic about what they are studying and they really have a lot alot of homework and lecture hours..maybe it's just jiechao I'm not sure. In a way it's good as it keeps you off from the temptations of the bustling citylife like they probably only have the city centre to do their shopping, and it really helps you to concentrate on ur studies. BUt in another way, I fear that they may lose their contact with the real world, the world that is moving so fast and happening. That's the feeling I get and I'm definitely not criticising them. It is just completely different from london. In london, there may also be the possibility of losing oneself in such a happening place. It is really up to the individual I guess and we really have to know our reason for being here and we have to exercise self control. Which is what I have to do now. I feel that I've been spending too long cooking everyday. Maybe it takes longer in a group and perhaps I should only join them on certain days like Friday and when I'm less busy. I really should be using my time wisely as there is so many opportunities here and there is so much to learn. There are talks happening in lse everyday and I would really like to attend them. Tomoro lessons will be starting in full swing :S...Ganbatte neh Serene..hee..
It's really really really super duper sweet of waiyin to send me such a big parcel in london! I was super shocked when i see the parcel at the reception. It's nearly one metres tall and 50 cm wide!!! And when i opened the parcel, three sweet balloons flew out of it:) Thank you girl! You are my sweetest friend ever!!!:) Thank you for specially making this arrangement for me in london and you really made me feel very loved. I should have received the balloons on my bday but guess i was really blur that i didn't know how to check the white board which states the room no of those with parcels and registered mails. But anyway, it is still such a BIG BIG BIG surprise and i guess you are the only one who has sent me such a BIG parcel and it's definitely going to be a memorable note of my stay in London. THANK YOU GIRL! I was really touched, REALLY!
