2012: a (too) relaxed year?

my results for this semester were released about a week ago, and as i'd expected, it was one of the worst set of semester results i'd achieved in my nearly 4 years as an undergraduate.

it was not as though i'd not foreseen such an ending to the semester: it started off on a really lethargic note, where i kept telling myself i had to beat the 'post-SEP syndrome' (if there exists one!). but even towards the end of the semester, when project deadlines were due and reading week was coming up close, i was still half switched-off.

looking back, i thought i was actually more hardworking during SEP itself than in the most recent sem (the results garnered during SEP made me wonder if i'd have a better-looking results slip if i studied overseas)! i did try and analyse why this was so, and what my mind came up with was the mindset of 'fear of failure' during SEP. even though modules were on S/U basis, the thought that there's a possibility of flunking masters-level module exams which doesn't rely on the bell-curve kept me and my friends on our toes during the 3 exam weeks in Sheffield. of course, experiences from other friends' seniors who studied in other European universities (and really did flunk one or two modules) added to this fear.

the only saving grace for this semester? probably FYP. having a good start for the first continual assessment which required me to do quite a hefty literature review on what looks more like a chemistry-based project rather than a electrical/electronics project is something refreshing. it does help that i have two very conscientious supervisors as well, and helpful graduate students who occasionally help to point the way. i've heard stories of course-mates whose supervisors rarely meet them (or the other way around), or take little interest in knowing the progress of their projects. the feedback from the supervisors and the examiner (who is a rather new staff that joined the department just over a year back) were encouraging too, and hopefully i won't lose this good momentum for the final stages of my FYP (i'd just relaxed the rest of the december away after i was done with the 2nd CA in the middle of the month).

alright, apart from academia being just average over the past year, i think i gained quite a lot from the 20 weeks i spent in the UK, from meeting other undergraduates of different backgrounds and nationalities, working on a project with a group of 3 other Sheffield students, travelling around the UK almost every weekend, experiencing snowy weather not long after i set foot on the UK, doing a backpacking trip around west Europe over Easter, cooking meals for myself (and my new found friends) in Stanage apartments, meeting my JC classmate who had been studying dentistry there for the last 4 years (and I'd not known until the day I got to Sheffield). these 20 weeks will definitely be one of the most memorable moments of my life, i always smile to myself when i look back at the huge collection of photos i took on my travels.

looking forward to the new year, according to a fengshui book i saw at kinokuniya authored by a famous local geomancer lilian too, it seems like the year of the snake will be a good one for dragons born in 1988. so i'd like to be more motivated for my remaining undergraduate days before i embark on the next phase of my life, as a salaried employee (or...?). and there's a grad trip to look forward to as well... kyoto, perhaps?

lastly, that little wish of mine still hopes to be fulfilled in the coming year~

windows 8.

just updated my laptop under the upgrade offer, and this is the end product! it seems like windows doesn't expect you to turn off your comp, cos the shut down button is well hidden and it takes an eternity to start up! after the initial slew of updates that had to be downloaded and installed with every restart of the computer, now my laptop is up and running in half a minute!

the tiles look good!

more thoughts to come, perhaps.

edit: apart from the new start menu, everything under it still looks and feels like windows 7, with some features simplified for the average user to access.

AFA2012.

another year, another AFA. this time around, much attention was paid to the madoka magica movies, which was released in movie theatres in japan just a month ago:

part 1 was up till the point sayaka turned into a witch, part 2 carries on from there until the ultimate madoka ending

the contents of the movie itself wasn't new, it was a total repackaging of the original anime series, with some backgrounds elaborated, transformation sequences getting longer and more detailed, sayaka having a new hairpin, and a few scenes cut away. nevertheless at $50 for the 2 movie tickets were quite a bargain, especially when there are goodies thrown in as well:

 2 accompanying books for the movie with cast/staff comments, scene shots and character sketches. each book costs 900yen in japan according to the movie website iirc. there's also a A2 movie poster and a illustration board drawn by aoki ume, the character designer, and autographed by the director shinbou akiyuki and scriptwriter urobuchi gen

 one of the volumes of lis ani!, a music magazine focused on anisong artistes

there was a official movie merchandise booth, but since the stuff were a little overpriced ($15 for a set of two clear files, for example), i decided to try my luck at the ichiban kuji (lucky draw), like last year. walked away with the lousiest prize this time around, it was a random mini figurine (not too bad actually), and of all characters i drew a sayaka figurine.

after the movies i'm hooked on the OP theme song by ClariS, luminous. the OP sequence that went along with it was good too!

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3 weeks later, results.

my results for the exams taken on SEP were released last night. for once, there was no way i could have been woken up by an SMS sent at around 8am in the morning, instead, i had to login to my partner uni's website after 2pm UK time to check my results manually.

i still remember being rather worried prior to my first exam paper about even passing my exams (especially the level 4 modules which were supposedly taken with other masters-level students in the uni), since to be honest i'm not as dilligent with my revisions on SEP compared to when i'm in NUS - starting revisions proper only one week before my 1st paper, done barely any tutorials (because there were few to begin with!) & going on a short weekend daytrip during the middle of my exam period. what's more, the UK system of absolute marking (as opposed to the bell-curve system in NUS) meant that what you score is what you get, with the occasional moderation of marks.

but after looking at my results about 2 hours after they were officially released, i felt that my fears were rather unwarranted. not only did i do much better than i'd expected, my results on the whole were better than any previous semesters at NUS (it's quite difficult to compare actually, since the marking scales are slightly different between the 2 unis).

with the release of results, my SEP has concluded, what's left is to transfer the credits back to NUS before next sem begins. my mind's been coming up with little thoughts of SEP for the past 3 weeks but i've not been able to type them here or pen them down in a journal. i ought to start on it soon before they fade away!

in the meantime, i'll try to finish posting the photos i took on my travels on fb and blog about them here, those easter europe trip photos are certainly long overdue!

back where i belong

5 hours train + 3 hours to check-in at the airport + 7 hours flight from Manchester-Dubai + 3 hours transit time + 7 hours from Dubai-Singapore = 25 hours of consecutive travelling covering thousands of kilometres.

and i'm finally back home. the air in S'pore sure smells different! and the stark contrast in temperature is too obvious. reduced from 3 layers of tees to just one as soon as i stepped out of the arrival hall this afternoon. i must be too acclimatised to 10 degrees C temperatures already.

to be honest, i was thinking a lot about how much i'll miss the UK just before i moved out of my room, but when one gets too fatigued from travelling, you'd probably wish to be back home ASAP. which was exactly what i felt after the post-exam travelling around South Wales and the southern parts of England. maybe the 'missing' feeling will come back again after i've fully recovered from my tiredness and the daily grind here returns.

time to catch up on some sleep, and it's back to business tomorrow!

end of an SEP journey

i'm still trying to churn this out at 5.35am, very exhausted now having not slept over the night so i could pack up and clean up and saw the sun rise at 4+am. haha.

the last 24 hours have been very hectic, it was my last exam paper in the morning, and i went on a walk around Sheffield capturing pictures in the rain with my phone, enquiring at the Student Services office about my statement of results, sending off a HK exchange friend off, doing laundry, having dinner at a friend's place and watching Euro 2012 Russia vs Czech, before finally coming home to start the packing at 1am.

i'll miss this city a lot, even though it's not some touristy city unlike Bath, London or York (it had more glorious days during the Industrial Revolution though). after all, it contains 19 weeks of my memories around school and the city itself! didn't really have the depressed feeling unlike a few days back, probably because i'm too busy with the packing up to even feel depressed.

even though i'd hate to say this, but goodbye Sheffield, thanks for being a part of my life!

now to try and catch perhaps half an hour's worth of 40 winks. i still need my shower too!!

oscillating feelings

i can't wait for exams to be over, but yet that means i've got less time to prepare, and it also means my SEP stint is ending soon and i'll be moving out of the city of Sheffield which i've called home for 19 weeks. sigh...

one moment i can be yearning to be back home in s'pore, and the next moment i feel a little depressed thinking about how i'll miss this place when i leave on Saturday. is this bipolar emo-ness? lol... i try to alleviate the latter feeling by taking more photos of my room before i have to pack it up on Friday night.

in the meantime, i'm praying hard my final two papers on Thursday and Friday will be smooth-sailing for me.

down south-west over the weekend

after visiting my coursemate on exchange in Southampton yesterday, i really feel that i've made the right choice in choosing to come to Sheffield instead at the very last minute during the SEP application process more than a year back. i really love how big and newer my accomodation room is, and the general feel of my partner university.

anyway, we visited Stonehenge and Bath as well today, Stonehenge was just a bunch of stones (some of which have already been misplaced or fallen according to the audio guide), but the architecture of the buildings in Bath was significantly different from other UK cities. i had the impression i was in a mini-Rome when i got out of the train station. not to mention their well-known Roman Baths, which is a few hot pools of water constructed by the Romans during the Roman empire.

photos and more in-depth description to come probably after i'm done with exams. but then again i'll be so busy moving out of my room and travelling around south-west England and Wales again after that, so i might just blog about this trip after i return to S'pore.

talking about my room, i really treasure that 12m-squared space of mine, and i can't bear to move out of it actually. just 6 more nights left in the space i called home for the past 4 months.

and it looks like it'll be very eventful over at London this weekend, a pity i still have that last 2 exam papers to handle, otherwise i'd have jolly well spent the extended weekend (monday and tuesday are bank holidays) at the capital city trying to spot the Queen... mehhh!

the examination weeks

this week, i've completed 2 out of the 4 final exam papers i've got to complete before my SEP semester ends... and my last 2 papers aren't due till 1 and a half weeks later, on the final days before i move out of my room.

i consider myself fortunate to not end up with 6 final exam papers, because 2 of my modules consisted of 40-60 assignments. one was a group report, submitted at the end of the lecture weeks, and the other was a MATLAB assignment, which i enthusiastically started doing the day after the lecturer released it, and completed it within the day itself before uploading it online (and realising i can't edit it after that). but at least, i was done with it and needn't worry about it during the exam weeks.

i never felt the significance of S/U on SEP, until the exams crept nearer and nearer. as the semester winds down, the distractions of post-exam travel, how to pack up/ship back your stuff, catching up on lectures you've been sleeping in thru' the sem or didn't revise at all because you were busy planning daytrips for the weekends means there's a lot to deal with in your mind as you begin to cram a semester's worth of info into your brain. before my first paper, which was a Level 1 Geography module as a Arts GEM, i was actually considering the possibility that i could very likely fail it because i can't remember all the content covered in lectures & the extra readings i had to do (which i obviously left till the last minute).

but, after giving myself some time to reflect on what's happening, i identified the reasons for my lack of confidence: the unfamiliarity with the main form of assessment here - 100% finals.

frankly speaking, i don't like the idea of 100% exams here, even though the passing mark here is 40% rather than 50%, and there's no bell curve system in most UK universities. it doesn't encourage or reward consistent work throughout the sem. or perhaps i'm too used to the 'safe' form of assessment in NUS, which was usually a 30-70 or 40-60 ratio of CAs to finals.

fortunately, the 3 essays i had to write for Geography turned out to be alright (although i hope i didn't write out of point!) and i feel i have a fairly good chance of passing it after emerging from the exam hall (which was held at the local Sheffield Wednesday football stadium)

so, while i continue to tackle the last 2 papers (and squeeze in a daytrip to Stonehenge & Bath this weekend), here's some photos of what happened during my exam week:

had to take the tram at 7.30am in the morning to the football stadium on Thursday for my first paper, the Geography module

i've visited Sheffield Wednesday stadium's merchandise store a few days after i arrived in Sheffield, but i've not seen their main entrance and the Hillsborough memorial, which remembers the Liverpool fans who died during the FA cup clash between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest held here in 1989

we had our exams while sitting at the grandstand.

nah, just kidding. the grandstand seats were offered to us as a waiting area before our papers commenced in the various function rooms in the stadium itself

a day later (which was also a day before my 2nd paper), ben&jerry's was at my residence village to give out free tubs of ice cream!

they gave out these spades with the tubs of ice cream, which had to be shared between 2 people because there weren't enough to go around. everyone was enjoying their ice cream while seated on the gigantic grass patch, it was a warm and sunny day after all!

last 4 weeks in the UK...

in another 3 weeks i'll be moving out of my room, and less than a week after that i'll be back in sunny S'pore. the contrast in weather will definitely be huge, since the weather in Sheffield hasn't been very warm even after Easter, with temperatures seldom rising above 15 deg C maximum on a good day. today was even worse, although there's no rain, but a very cloudy day meant that BBC reported just 8 degrees C throughout the day and the lack of central heating in my apartment these few days left me no choice but to wear socks even while i'm walking around my room.

ah, my room. i still remember the day i moved in, coincidentally, it was snowing! and now, i've gotta start packing up my stuff from the 12 square-metered space which i called 'home' for the past 4 months. i'd be kidding myself if i say i don't feel any emotional attachment to my room, after all it's a space that i've personalised throughout the weeks, by selecting my own bedsheet, buying my own kitchenware for cooking, decorating my noticeboard with a map of the school, postcards, and photographs, etc.

exams are coming up over the next 3 weeks, i'll be having two papers this Thursday and Saturday, followed by a week without papers, and finally two papers over two days just before i move out of my room. i'm glad not to have 6 modules that has a 100% exam component, unlike my friends from Chem Engine. a Mech Engine module in which i did a mind map for 1st assignment and a group report on an innovative product for the 2nd assignment was submitted on Wednesday, and i did a final programming with matlab assignment for Control Systems Engineering module on Data Modelling and submitted it online yesterday, thus completing two modules already.

i'm bringing this mindmap back to S'pore in my luggage

if you were to ask me whether i preferred the form of assessment here in the UK, or back in NUS, i think i'd choose the latter. somehow some mid-term tests and minor assignments takes some pressure off the fear of failing a module, and i definitely appreciate a modular form of assessment more now. a 100% examination is just too scary.

to end off the semester we had a gathering of sorts two nights ago, 3 of us cooked the dishes:

actually, one person cooked most of the dishes (and that's not me haha)

my contribution to the feast was fried egg tofu and mushrooms with prawns (or shrimp?), two of the dishes i like preparing most on SEP

didn't expect the feast to last till late, it was 11pm when we had ben & jerry's ice creams for dessert. here's a 'family photo', each of us has a role in the family...

and that's some closing thoughts for the end of the semester! i should be hitting the books (or rather, notes) now, but the UCL final between Bayern Munich & Chelsea is just too hard to miss:

hopefully the distractions of the Stonehenge & Bath trip during the middle of the exam period and post-exam travel plans won't affect me too much!!

12may12: back to the Hope Valley

it was exactly 3 months ago that i first ventured out of Sheffield, to the Hope Valley in the Peak District with a friend. this time around, with exams coming in about 2 weeks (and making this probably the last daytrip until my 1st week of exams are over), i ventured out to another part of the Hope Valley with 4 other apartment mates:

the very poorly maintained Northern Rail trains that take you through the minor stops along the Hope Valley. other trains just zoom past them

duck & chickens

Stanage Edge. now i know where the names of my apartment and the facilities block for the apartments around here originate. we climbed to the top of the Edge through a rocky path by the side

looking at the valley from above

some cars will honk at you (as a friendly gesture?) as you walk along the pavement

just an open field of grass

mehh mehh!

4-7may12: a taste of Scotland in 4 days

with a long weekend thanks to the May Bank Holiday, i took the opportunity to visit Edinburgh & Loch Ness with one of the nus exchangers from Chem Eng...

straight after my Geography lecture on Friday noon, i went home, grabbed my backpack, and was off to the train station to catch my train to Edinburgh. almost 4 hours later arrived at the Royal Mile in Edinburgh...

st giles cathedral, and a statue of Adam Smith the famous economist, in front of it

the elephant house, where J.K. Rowling is said to have written her first Harry Potter book while sipping a cup of tea/coffee in this coffee house with a nice view of Edinburgh Castle

greyfriars bobby. his story (which has quite a few variations) kinda reminds me of the story of Hachiko, the loyal dog at Shibuya in Tokyo. basically the story revolves around the dog's loyalty to its owner even after the owner's death

a must try in Scotland: Haggis, which to me, feels like a compacted lump of minced meat. this dish comes with a layer of turnip and mashed potato as well, below the layer of haggis

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postcards...

...they make a thin, light, flexible and cheap way for me to record the places i've been to. after all the daytrips and the europe tour, i've collected a stack of postcards and even mailed out a few of them to friends and family.

as exams draw near, i look back at some of the places i've been to for the past 15 weeks and sometimes wonder if i've fully appreciated the significance of them. i've seen a lot of friends on SEP posting photos on facebook on their travels around europe, and heard of them skipping classes every few weeks just to go exploring. but, given just a few days in one city and usually without any tour guide to provide explanations, do they truly understand the meaning behind the attractions they've visited, or are these travels just for the sake of showing (off?) everyone else that 'i've been there & done that?'

28apr12: the bridges across River Tyne

i went on a daytrip to Newcastle with two other exchangers from nus & a project group mate we knew from the mech engine course on the first Saturday after Easter.

the Tyne bridge (background), spans across the River Tyne. this photo was taken from the High Level Bridge. the other red & white bridge in the foreground supposedly swings 90 degrees when boats/yachts need to pass through

the other iconic bridge in Newcastle, further down the River Tyne is the Millenium Bridge

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a very rare 'lift without doors' left in the world

the only other time i'd stepped into the Arts Tower block in my partner uni was when i did my formal registration with the University of Sheffield and got my U-Card (equivalent to the NUS matric card). that was 3 months ago...

the Arts Tower, the tallest university-owned building in the UK, with almost 20 floors

back then, at the lift lobby, opposite the main lifts, was what seemed like two vertical chutes:

when i first saw these, they weren't in operation and a chain was hung across the 'chutes' indicating that it was not in use

when the school semester finally began, i started to learn about the true story behind these 'chutes', they were meant to be lifts without doors, otherwise known as a paternoster.

i never had an urge of walking all the way to the Arts Tower just to ride on them throughout the last 3 months, but as my semester here draws to a close soon, i thought i should see how they work for myself!

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long weekend ahead~

since there's no Labour Day here, but there's a Bank Holiday on Monday, i'm taking this opportunity to head up even further north to Edinburgh over this weekend, catching the train right after my classes end tomorrow. the train tickets for this journey is the most expensive i've purchased in the UK to date, close to 70 GBP for a flexible return ticket. that's nearly twice of what i paid to go to London and back.

with 3 weeks left before my first exam paper, i ought to buck up after i return from Scotland.

Easter in Europe: Munich

3rd city on the itinerary, and we stopped here for 2 days as well. it was colddd...

right after we arrived at their Central Station, we dumped our bags at our hostel and were on our way to Neuschwanstein Castle...

snow on the mountains => cold!

you had to take a bus (or walk uphill for 45mins!) to get to the castle. this was a breathtaking view from the top:

Neuschwanstein Castle is known as one of the few castles that inspired Walt Disney's Cinderella Castle. it's more clear if you view the castle from the front, but this photo was taken while standing on a bridge suspended over a river, a couple of feet below us:

the clouds were moving in quick and we knew it was time for us to hide from the incoming rain

one cannot miss the sausages & sauerkraut (something like sour cabbage) while in Germany

back at the train station, we finally see some familiar trains:

the ICE

a double decker train! was also found in Italy, and the Netherlands.

next thing to check out in Munich was their city centre, where Marienplatz is:

shop selling cuckoo clocks of all designs

Frauenkirche, most famous cathedral in Munich

we went to Hofbrauhaus for dinner, it's a beer garden that sells food & beer (what else?), a noisy place for people to drink & make merry

pork knuckle

back to the Marienplatz at night, hoping to get a nicer view of all the historical buildings. this one's the Glockenspiel

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over-napped

hm, how many times has it been that i decided to take a nap straight after dinner, setting my alarm clock for me to wake up within the next hour and the next thing i know, it's past midnight already...?

happened in s'pore during one of my busiest semesters about a year ago, and now it's happening again while i'm overseas, even though the reasons are different: pure laziness, or i'm hibernating in response to the cold weather?

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finally the sun came out today, but the bright skies are short-lived as the weather forecast predicts more rain and clouds for the rest of the week...

even though it's Labour Day in s'pore tomorrow, it isn't celebrated in the UK. however, there is a long weekend coming up, because next Monday's a Bank Holiday!

finally, just a short digression, i finally realised that the bunny character Miffy is not created in Japan, but was done by a Dutch artist! that explains the Miffy soft toys i saw in shops at the windmill region of Zaanse Schans then!~

Easter in Europe: Venice

stop number 2, also for 2 days.

we took an overnight train from Rome to Venice, which we almost couldn't make it because we forgot to activate our Eurail pass earlier and the ticket office was about to close. fortunately a member of staff who misdirected us initially helped us to resolve the matter quickly, and we could get on the train which we had reserved seats for.

but that wasn't the last of our problems: because one of us mis-read the conditions of the Eurail pass, thinking that the validity of the pass could start on the next day since our train was an overnight one, and we'd planned our transport such that we'll take the last train from Amsterdam to Paris on the last day of validity of the Eurail pass, we had to cut short our stay in Amsterdam by a day...

anyway, here's Venice - the island with no cars, just gondolas and powerboats. it's also easy to get lost within the dense network of streets and canals:

San Marco Piazza

the Rialto Bridge as seen from a gondola

on our 2nd day we ventured out to the neighbouring islands of Murano and Burano:

murano is known for its glass artwork

restaurants, souvenir shops by the river

it's THE tiramisu!

burano: also known as the island of colourful houses

the tower's slanted, isn't it?

Venice at night, before we hopped on our 2nd overnight train to Munich.