A What Specialists?!

And so, to break the mounting tension of exams, here’s a little comic relief. This was sighted in front of Trinity Great Gate today.

Yaz.

It’s Approaching

So it’s hereby announced that my exam is next Monday! The whole shebang ends on Thursday so until that time, expect me to be busy like a bee. Out of 11 subjects, I still have three more to revise. Not too bad, except for the fact that I got so annoyed at my separations course today (because revising it is such a pain, what’s with all the charts manipulation and everything) that I just aborted it and studied something else. But I’m calmer now, so we’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and because you’ll probably be bored hearing about exams by now, here’s a good news about something else. A while ago I applied to do research at the BP Institute (BPI) in Cambridge for the summer, which is ideal for me because it’s in Cambridge so I don’t have to worry about finding accommodation or food, and because I really want to see how working on a research is like. Well, yesterday they got back to me and gave me an offer! Yay! So that’s what I’m gonna do for 12 weeks this summer. The pay’s (obviously) less than if you work in industry, but it’s good enough so I’m not complaining. Furthermore, the research projects will be centred around energy/oil and gas/ carbon sequestration/ all that jazz, so I’ll probably help combat global warming too.

Wish me luck for the exam.

Yaz.

Making Good Progress

So now, it’s two more weeks before my finals (and yes, I’m still alive). I think I’m making good progress. There are about eleven subjects altogether, and I’ve finished revising three.

Okay, that doesn’t sound good, but they’re not of the same weight, so I’m doing fine really. I’m focusing on the important ones first. This morning I felt satisfied for being able to do a few past papers that I took a break and just sat next to the river, enjoying the calmness, the fresh air and the ripples on the water surface interspersed with punts going by. I did a light revision there but then it got cold so I had to return to the department.

Wish me luck for the exam!

Yaz.

A Three-Week Countdown

Well, in another three weeks, I will be having my end of year exam. Hence, I will be spending my April revising for it. So if the blog posting is sparse or you don’t hear from me in the meantime, you’ll know why.

Wish me luck!

Yaz.

Music on a Sunny Afternoon

Okay, so now I’m safely back in Cambridge after spending about six days in Benelux (that stands for Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg). It was a good trip, the only drawback being the weather. We were hoping for a spring trip, but the weather in Luxembourg reminds me of the UK, just with the rain replaced with snow. It rained in Brussels and Amsterdam, so it’s a good thing that I always carry my umbrella in my backpack. Guess being in the UK for some time (about five years, to be more precise) will do that to you. Fortunately for us, the last day (which we spent by looking at tulips) was quite sunny. I might have cried otherwise.

Also, there won’t be any pictures until the person responsible for compiling and distributing them to us is finished with his task. So you guys have to wait a while for them.

I arrived back in Cambridge on Sunday. And the thing that I can say is that it feels... invigorating, to be back here. The familiarity of the town, the comfort of my own room, the presence of people I know. It sure is nice to be back.

Busking is a regular occurrence in Cambridge. Especially on weekends, you can often see people playing music all around town. I was on my way to the Lion Yard’s O2 shop (to replace my phone, which you know was lost) when I saw a group of people performing in front of the Great St. Mary’s church. They were called the Thudbox, and they were playing with drums and percussions. Unable to resist savouring the moment, I just stood there, enjoying the drumbeat, the music and the warmth of the afternoon. It felt good. It was about twenty minutes before I continued on my way.

Oh, and by the way, the Trinity punting station is open. So if you fancy a punting trip, then drop by.

Yaz.

Off On A Trip

Right, so I'm going to Luxembourg, Brussels and Amsterdam. See you guys in a week's time!

Yaz.

Lazing Around

And how can I not? For starters, it wasn’t a very good weather in the morning. Might have rained for a few minutes, but still okay enough for me to walk across the Great Court for breakfast. Afterwards, it hailed. And then it kind of snowed. Not enough to accumulate, unfortunately. This kind of weather continued throughout the afternoon.

View from my bedroom window:

I was planning to do some revision, but I guess it’s just the kind of weather that makes you feel cosy indoors. I was tempted to just snuggle up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate. In any case, it seems there’s no studying for me today. Oh well, I can relax, exam’s still a month away.

(Yeah, that’s what they all say. And then suddenly the Tripos is tomorrow and we’ll all be panicking).

The kind of weather that makes me feel the cosiest (which unfortunately you can’t get in the UK) is when there’s a really heavy rain and the temperature drops and it just spatters on the window pane and you just sit there and you can smell the rain. When I was in AC, my bed was just next to the window. So what I sometimes do is that I sit on the windowsill and just calmly enjoy the moment. Oh, and I always draw the curtain so that if somebody walks into the room, he or she will not realise I am there. Unless you can see the silhouette.

I wish I’m able to do that a lot more now. Just blank my thoughts, forget everything and savour the moment.

Yaz.

A Taste of Freedom

It is actually pretty painful when everybody else around you is packing and going back home for the Easter break or planning a trip to somewhere and you’re stuck with a coursework that you have to do. Unfortunately for me, since I was absence during the last week of term, I got an extension for the last exercise deadline, and that means staying in Cambridge until yesterday. Although to be frank, my friends remind me that one exercise only counts for about 1.4% of the final exam marks, so I can not finish them and it will not affect my grades much. But honestly, who’s really gonna do that? I don’t think I’ll be able to live with myself if I take the easy way out (god, that sounds so cliche!), so the past few days have been full of staring at the computer screen and working with Word and Visio and basically just making my exercise report look pretty before the Wednesday deadline.

And hence, starting from today I’m essentially free! No more lectures and supervision work or exercises to worry about. And here are my plans for Easter break:

- Study. With exams at the start of next term I’ll be crazy not to.

- I’ll be travelling to Luxembourg, Brussels and one other city I can’t remember for next week.

- Learning some software such as Photoshop, Hysys and AutoCad in more details. This might involve watching a lot of Youtube vids. After all, you’ll be amazed what they can teach you (I learnt how to tie a bow tie from there)

- Punting!!! I need to work on not going in zigzags anymore. The Trinity punting station is supposed to open after Easter, although I have no idea when that is. So, if you know me and fancy a punting trip then drop by!

Yaz.

Back From Paris

Hey guys! I’m now back in Cambridge after four eventful days in Paris. They’re worth it, though, so I’m not complaining. If you don’t have a clue on why I was there, well... the short story is that Cambridge won the UK level of the L’Oreal Ingenius competition, an engineering competition with energy efficiency as its theme; and hence the Cambridge team (three chemical engineers including myself) represented the UK in the International Finals which was held last Wednesday until Friday.

We arrived in Paris on Tuesday and stayed in the Holiday Inn Hotel, where I found that the price per night is around €130, equivalent to £100 and almost about the price of a May Ball. Not that I’m paying for it, but I’m still astounded on how much is spent on bringing us here, not to mention all the food they’ve been feeding us. I remember stuffing myself with sushi for lunch, and tasting the best apple juice in my life sometime on Thursday night, and eating a lot of other tasty food as well.

Anyway, back to something more relevant, they were 11 teams in total: us, Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Belgium, France, Spain, Poland, China and India. Germany was supposed to be there as well but for some reason they dropped out. On Wednesday, which for me is the most enjoyable day in the whole program, all of us were split up and put into groups. We then went on a team-building rally/some kind of treasure hunt around Paris where we went around locating places with GPS, singing to a person with a cowboy hat in French, playing petanque, looking for lions, having a rendezvous with a skeleton, among other things. For me, the reason why it was so fun was that we have all sorts of people in the group and we all get to mingle and know each other and do stuff together, something that for some reason was missing in the UK level. I found that my thought was also shared by other members of the group, and one of them (from Poland) remarked that it’s so amazing how now you can meet all sorts of people of different nationalities compared to a few decades ago where this is highly unlikely.

The main event was on Thursday, when we presented our solutions to a panel of judges. To cut to the chase, I’ll just say that we lost. However, in our defence I should probably mention that this is the first year that the UK has entered and things might have been different otherwise. Regardless, all the teams have performed very well and shown a high standard (it is an international competition after all) and hence, any one of them could have won. The winner of the day was the Canadian team and they grabbed a €10,000 worth of a trip to a city of choice.

Well, that’s the long and short of it. I had a really enjoyable time there and despite not winning, it really is worth all the effort that we put into it. To tell the truth, it’s not really the competition itself but the people we met that makes the whole thing so memorable. Like one of my team member said on the train journey back, she missed them already.

Yaz.

P.S. Just one thing that marred the experience: I lost my phone. And this is the first time ever that I lost my phone too. Oh well.

The Stomping Dinosaur

And on those occasions that I got bored or can’t comprehend the snippets of wisdom that they impart during lectures, I tend to do these things:

- Daydream

- Watch other people, see if they are concentrating or not

- Write backwards (mirror writing) with my right hand

- Write normally but with my left hand

- Write song lyrics, either with my right or left hand

Today about ten minutes after the start of our 9 o’clock lecture, a friend of mine walked into the lecture theatre. He probably doesn’t notice it, but he stomps his feet, thus announcing to everybody the arrival of his royal highness. And since I was in a daydreaming mode, I thought of a dinosaur, or maybe Godzilla; and I drew these on a piece of paper:

When he walks in:

When he sits:

The SHE on the picture refers to ‘Safety, Health and Environment’, the course we’re having at that moment. Oh, and if you noticed, there’s an arrow pointing to Mr Dino, but it’s blank. I erased the name to protect privacy, heh heh.

He inadvertently saw the drawing later on in the day so I had to come clean. Oops!

Yaz.

P.S. I’m going to Paris tomorrow. Yay!

A Nightly Interlude

At this moment, it’s dark in Cambridge. Friday night, so people are abound. Two policemen are prowling Trinity Street, catching unaware cyclist offenders who ride the wrong way up the street. The lights are mostly off in the Chemical Engineering department, with the exception of the computer room. There, three sad people are working on some kind of project/work/assignment, and one person is typing this blog.

Hello! If you felt that you haven’t heard from me for a while, that’s because I've been a bit busy. Just came back from Wales on Wednesday, where I’ve been giving a presentation. Got an exercise to hand in next week, except one of my L’Oreal team members asked for an extension until Monday the 17^th, and we got it. We are going to ask for more, though, since it seems like we may need it. And oh, because of the Wednesday presentation, I missed the UCCMixed volleyball dinner. And I was really looking forward to that one too! On the other hand, I’ve decided to leave Paris early so that I can make it to the Commemoration Dinner.

Wait a minute, didn’t I tell you? Yup, I'll be going to Paris for the L’Oreal Ingenius competition on Tuesday next week until Friday. All expense paid, isn’t that nice? And I hope I can win, so wish me luck!

Yaz.

My First Earthquake

So what really happened was that on Tuesday night I went to bed at about twelve or so and at around one I woke up because I felt some shaking. Being in the subconscious state between sleep and awake, I wasn’t really able to discern what was going on. I thought it was the people in the room above me jumping up and down and I remembered thinking, ‘Why can’t these people sleep like everybody else?’

It’s only later in the day that I found out that the tremors were really earthquakes. Apparently it was around 5 in the Richter scale and the strongest that the UK has felt in about 25 years or so. My first earthquake! Don’t know whether I should feel happy or scared.

In other news, a friend of mind brought one of those brown, about A4 sized envelopes with him to the department. In the tea room, he opened the envelope and brought out... lo and behold, a Macbook Air! I don’t know how to use a Mac and I’m not fond of laptops with small screens, but even then, I can’t keep my jaw from dropping! It was so thin! Other people in the tea room saw it and they were fascinated as well. It really is an amazing design.

Yaz.

Indecent Exposure

And so it is the case that in the University of Cambridge, there are two student newspapers, The Cambridge Student and Varsity. The former comes out every Thursday, while the latter on Fridays. Normal national newspapers are supplied in the common rooms every weekday, but I often don’t have time to read those.However, I made it a habit to read the two student newspapers since a) they come out weekly and it doesn’t take much of my time and effort to read them, plus they’re kinda fun to read; and b) more often than not I find them very informative of all the happenings in Cambridge that I might not realise or know about.

But anyway, I guess sometimes even the most eagle-eyed editors will miss some things that shouldn’t appear in a paper. The last issue of TCS features a picture of the Christ College’s rugby team posing for the camera and one of the guys is, errr... exposing himself more than he should. It’s not obvious at first glance. I wasn’t aware of it until a friend who visited my room today pointed it out to me. We had a great laugh out of it. Add the fact that one of the other team members is clearly staring at it. My friend pointed out that he’ll be forever known as the guy who stares at the other guy’s exposed anatomy in a newspaper.

The hilarity of it just made my day.

Yaz.

P.S. No, I'm not gonna post the picture, so don't ask =)

Dinners and Tea Towels

Okay, so sometimes in Trinity (or any other Cambridge colleges for that matter) they have these dinners for special occasions and more often than not, not everybody can go to them. Sometimes you’re randomly invited, sometimes you have to be invited by a fellow and sometimes you have to be a scholar. So I was complaining and whining to my friend the other day on how I wasn’t invited to the Rice Exchange dinner for two years now and how some of those who were invited by the fellows got to do things that are not usually allowed e.g. walking on the grass or going on the roof with the said fellow’s permission. Then, just the other day I got an invite to the Commemoration Dinner and this invitation is only extended for scholars but unfortunately enough, I can’t go because I’ll not be in the UK at that time. Great. So I don’t get invited to the ones I can go but was asked to go to the ones I can’t go.

There’s this particular Trinity third year who got the bright idea of producing tea towels with everybody’s faces on them, like those tea towel projects that were done in primary school. Well, maybe their primary schools, I certainly can’t remember having done such a thing. So anyway, the third years all got this small piece of paper each and everybody’s doing a drawing of themselves on them and submitting them to the person in charge. I can’t remember myself ever being artistic, so forgive my humble soul if the drawing doesn’t even closely resemble the subject matter:

Can you recognise me when you see the picture?

It's a small drawing so I'm sorry for the blurriness.

When I was handing mine in, I got the chance to look at all the other submissions. Some of them were bloody hilarious.

I am so buying the tea towels.

Yaz

Frank Morton day

Well, it’s Frank Morton today (yesterday, actually, since I’m writing this early in the morning). For those of you who don’t know, Frank Morton is sort of a sports day for chemical engineers in UK universities. I wrote about it too last year. This year they’re having it in Leeds and the same as last time, I didn’t go. Why? Because one, they don’t have volleyball and I suck at other sports. Two, last year I was lazy and couldn’t be bothered waking up early in the morning to take the bus to Manchester. So if I go this year to Leeds which is even further up north, that’ll be an inconsistency, will it not? Hehe.

Anyway, because of Frank Morton we don’t have lectures or anything else in the department today so I took the opportunity to finish all my work. Overall it’s quite a productive day. I essentially finished the two exercises that are due on Thursday. Oh, and when I say exercises, I don’t mean jogging or aerobic. I also don’t mean something like a few easy practice questions either. Exercises, in Cambridge chemical engineering speak means coursework or assignments; they typically take two to three weeks to finish. There was a relatively new supervisor who told me that she was surprised when her supervisees (is that even a word) complaint that they cannot have supervision at this particular week because they were all busy finishing some ‘exercises’. She now knows that the exercises are more serious and stressful than the name might suggest.

It’s nearing two in the morning now. I guess it’s been a while since I last worked past midnight. Usually I’ll stop doing anything that requires heavy thinking straight after dinner.

Yaz.

Impending Doom

Ever since the incident where I have to wipe out and restore my hard drive, I have this feeling of impending doom in which my laptop will just fail and refuse to start up again. It is nearing three years since I first bought it, so I think the end of its lifetime is looming in the horizon, just that I can’t see it. It might be another one (or two) years if I’m lucky, might be another few months.

Lately there’s this weird noise coming out of the hard drive sometimes. It made me worry. Despite that, the laptop’s actually working well. I guess the wisest step for now is just to backup everything of importance and hope for the best, that it will not fail anytime soon.

Yaz.

It’s Half Term

Well, now (actually tomorrow) is the fifth week of the eight weeks of term, so we’re halfway there. I’m feeling the pressure of things, which is noticeable because I just complained to a few people today about work. I never complain about workload so you can tell how ‘under pressure’ I feel. Don’t you ever wish that there exists a device that you can press a button and time goes by really fast and then in the blink of an eye the term is over and you don’t have to do anything anymore? If it’s just lectures and course-related work I can handle it but I have to finish the L’Oreal project with my team on top of that so things get a bit crazy.

The May Ball tickets are now on sale so people have started asking Trinity students whether they have any spares. Unfortunately, since I’ve been to the May Ball last year and will probably go next year, I don’t think I’m attending it this time around. So, for people asking me for tickets, tough luck.

Four more weeks to go... maybe I should start a countdown.

Yaz.

Mathematician’s Cake Hunting

Yesterday there was a career fair called The Works in the New Museum site where my department is and it’s all about alternative paths like voluntary works and environment and the like. There I met two other Cambridge students from my previous school (Atlantic College), one of which I haven’t seen in quite a while, the other I haven’t seen at all since I left the school. That reminds me of the fact that unlike in my first year, this year we haven’t had any UWC meetings or gatherings where we can get together and see each other’s faces, which is a pity really. I guess I might meet up with one or two other people later at some point and organise some reunion kind of thing. That would be nice.

I was having some difficulties with my stats course because the notes weren’t very clear, so I thought I might be able to get extra help by visiting the stats website. My lecturer is the head of this Computational Modelling group in Cambridge and he puts all his supplementary materials on the CoMo website, so I looked there. In the middle of this, I found out that they put an Easter egg on the site. There were several images on the site that contain pictures of cakes, and when you click on the cakes you’ll find a link to their recipes. There were eleven cakes in total. As it turned out, instead of looking at the supplementary materials, I spent my time hunting for these cake recipes within the site and didn’t manage to do any work at all.

Well, at least I got all the cakes.

Yaz.

Pancake Day?!

My friends were cooking pancakes for dinner yesterday. I thought it was a bit odd because unless they’re savoury pancakes, people don’t normally eat them for dinner since they’re not filling enough. Didn’t really say anything though, since I enjoyed watching them spent their time tossing the pancakes into the air.

Turned out that yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day. That explained it, even though such a concept sounds strange to me. Oh well, guess you learn something new everyday.

Yaz.

It’s Been Hectic

Hello there! Didn’t mean to be reclusive for quite a while but life has been busy lately. Some people from L’Oreal came to discuss with us about the International level competition which will be held somewhere around 12-14 March in Paris. Apparently, we also need to write a four-page report on our solution by the 28^th, which we will present during the competition itself. Furthermore, our current solution, while sounding good initially, doesn’t seem to be working very well (and this also seems to be the opinion of people in the Chemical Engineering department, that it’s not very practical) so we have to either modify it or come up with a new one. If we don’t come up with something good it’ll be very embarrassing (the competition being international and all) so this sets us off to a busy week with researching, meeting people and other stuff. Plus I have assignment deadlines on top of that. Oh, how I miss the first 20 years of my life when I’m never so busy.

People from Mars came to the department today (the chocolate company, not the planet). Well, actually it was just one person and he was a recent graduate of Cambridge and a friend of mine. Anyway, the point is, today during break we enjoyed ourselves with free chocolate bars and all that he brought with him. There’s also a free draw with more chocolates as prizes, the largest being a tin of Celebrations chocolate. Guess who won?

He he he.

Yaz.