knock knock! i am finally here! sorry this update came so late. every day i return back to hall feeling so exhausted and drained i just brainlessly surf the internet, play with facebook, and randomly chat to people over msn. it has only been two weeks yet so many events have happened, and i have so many words to say. is this what loggorhoea feels like? loads of nonsense bombarded with utter incoherence. let me attempt to find the right words to describe everything that has happened so far.
farewell with lots and lots of lovei realize i've yet to thank all those who have touched me in one way or another before i left sunny singapore for loony (just for the sake of alliteration, but saying the weather here is loony is such an understatement) london! thank you for all the presents, the letters, the cards, the smses, and thank you to those who came down to the airport to send me off. right on my desk now i see ze's photo frame, the calendar from cihan yihan mavis, my sack of chieh-up mushrooms, a mushroom lamp from yeehwee (i was so sad when i couldn't bring my blue mushroom lamp over! but now i've got a red one greeting me every single day) and so many little mushroomy things and presents from my beloved friends.
on my noticeboard i have pasted so many photos of my family, and i just spent an hour today affixing photos and cards from all of you. it felt so sweet listening to the cds from my bridge friends; half the time i was just laughing out loud in front of my computer, the other half of the time i was extremely touched by how thoughtful they were to have come up with such an awesome concert for me. i remember what a baby i was when i cried so badly at the airport before entering the gates, and then how huiwen's card made me tear again when i read it on the plane. after i settled down in hall and played the slideshow cihan made for me, i cried again. but i know those were tears of joy, not of sadness! so to whoever reading this, thank you for making me happy and i love you!
hall lifeit was quite terrfying when i had to settle down alone since i'm the only singaporean staying at this hall of residence. but i think such circumstances only make a person grow stronger. i am slowly learning how to venture out alone and find my own bearings in this foreign land.
this is the exterior of my hall! i stayed in a twin room that was really spacious and comfy for more than a week! i had the whole room to myself because my roommate's visa was rejected. in the end she couldn't make it here to london at all and i had to move to another twin room in my hall. my new roommie is from liverpool, england, and she's really sweet. i'll post photos of how she looks like soon.
the collage above shows my previous room - big and nice and warm and fuzzy! the new room now, which is shown in the second collage, is not bad either, maybe just a teeny weeny bit smaller than my original room. the bottom left picture is my night view from the window!
the area i stay in is near oxford street, which is something like singapore's orchard road (maybe at least 20times longer), so it's really convenient for me whenever the need for shopping arises. my hall is near supermarkets and grocery places too, so i can get food any time i want to if hall food fails to satisfy me! by the way, these days i've been eating so much, which explains why my msn personal message is permanently "omg so full so full so full". everyday i keep on eating potatoes. i'm pretty sure the chefs at my hall follow a "1001 ways to cook potatoes" cookbook for every meal they prepare. potato wedges, whipped potato, mashed potatoes with pie, french fries, scrambled eggs with potatoes, baked potatoes.. that day i told ying2, the only kind of potatoes that has yet to appear in their menu is potato chips! oh my goodness im really turning into a potato soon!
there're people from all over the world here! i've never even heard of some of their countries before. it has really been eye-opening, meeting all these people, talking to them, trying to learn and find out more about them. despite the communication problems (their thick accents, slangs and my occasional singlish which slips out), it's nice interacting with my hallmates. digress: i know this cyprus girl who is a 10nov baby too! so far we've had this welcome drinks party where i've mingled with some of them, and we also had a warden's buffet where i totally pigged out while talking to people. sometimes it gets a little tiring, especially when i try to remember their names, where they're from, their colleges, the courses they're taking, and which block of the hall they're staying in. the novelty of making new friends and opening up to new people does wear off, but im glad that at least i don't feel lonely over here. there are people for me to talk to when im eating breakfast and dinner, there are people for me to talk to on my way to school and when i am in school, and there is always the special bunch of people for me to talk to when i go on msn and skype :)
so you see, hall life is almost perfect for me - i have a nice room set with bedsheets and duvet all prepared for me, warm and friendly hallmates, and most importantly, catered food! so why am i the only singaporean here? simply because.. ta dah! my hall is light years away from school! i have to walk through hyde park everyday before i get to school. i take about 35 minutes? 25 minutes if i walk really fast, and 20 minutes if i take bus. so far i've been meeting up with some other singaporeans/malaysians at wilson house (an imperial hall that is 5 minutes away from my hall) before embarking on my long long, journey to school. sometimes i leave hall with khai ming, this malaysian guy staying in the same hall as me, if his lectures start at the same time as mine. im really grateful for the wilsonites, in particular, yahting, mark and leefeng! without them i don't think i'll ever find hyde park as beautiful as i perceive it now.
schooli've been enjoying my lectures! maybe it's the lecturer, maybe it's the subject matter, or maybe it's because i've found some innate passion towards biochemistry in me, but it's been really exciting delving into the fundamentals of the chemistry of life! okay i know this seriously sounds geeky, but i'm not the only crazy person thinking this way. my other coursemates agree too! im relatively happy with my course apart from the shock i got when i saw quantum mechanics in biological chemistry. i almost died when i saw that wave-particle duality thing and all those quantum physics graphs in my notes! why is it so impossible to escape from the evil claws of physics?
biochemists! the girl on the left is leefeng, a malaysian who stays at wilson house! the guy on the right is xuekun, fellow singaporean doing the same course. we usually have lunch together after 2 hours of lectures in the morning!
mark and yahting. our thrilling once-in-a-lifetime experience in the 'casino royale' lift in one of the buildings in imperial! can you sense how nervous and tense we felt at that instant? i swear we weren't doing anything illegal!
places and eventsi can't believe i'm barely halfway through my recount of my first two weeks in london! shall let the pictures speak the words for now.
the splendours of hyde park:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16735&l=c3019&id=576831789
natural history museum! yahting and i had such a great time there we're going to visit it again!
chinatown at leicester square! i've been there countless times within this span of time. everytime i go there i seem to have eaten duck. i tried the roast cantonese duck with the wilsonites, peking duck with vincent (yes i met up with vincent in london!) and chris (my hallmate from hongkong), and the day before i had some "crispy aromatic duck" with huixuan and twinnie!
london tour organized by imperial singsoc! we went to the icons of westminster - the london eye, big ben, river thames, trafalgar square, leicester square, covent gardens.. at the end of the day we had dinner at nando's and stuffed ourselves full with roasted chicken.
rcsu freshers' ball at zoobar in leicester square:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17100&l=41e42&id=576831789 don't we look really high and happy!
alright im really tired! i think this must be the longest blog entry i've ever posted. i don't think anyone will have the time and patience to read on too.. anyway i just came back this afternoon from a fabulous weekend with twinnie and hx, will update again when i'm energized! i don't know when that will be though! hopefully soon :)
we visited the british museum
and left our mark on the guest list
in the museum, we took photo with venus' butt
before we set off to borough market where we had raclette (melted cheese with potatoes) and paella (rice with seafood) for lunch!
then we went to the famous london bridge, which was quite a disappointment. don't you think it resembles the tuas causeway?
and we visited the tate modern art museum and tried appreciating the beauty of art. my favourite art piece is The Snail, which depicts the arrangement of pieces of brightly-coloured construction paper, and embodies how life goes round in one full circle. sounds so abstract right!
then we walked over to the tower bridge, which is so much prettier!
at the end of the day we cooked our own dinner at hx's hall! that's the crunchy cabbage that twinnie and i cooked, and hx's fabulously yummy fried rice!
the next morning we went to st paul's cathedral!
and with that i concluded my little adventure with my dearest buddies!