Minister Visit

The Experience Islam Week is coming to an end. Just now we had a Friday prayer that was open so other people can see what’s going on and hear the khutbah.

Apparently, tomorrow (Saturday) in Cambridge there will be a visit by the Malaysian Deputy Minister of Higher Education. Seems like he’s interested in holding a dialogue session to collect views about Malaysian students abroad, especially (quoting the e-mail that I received) at the centre of excellence. Tempting as that may be, it will be for two hours, and it clashes with my practice, so I might not turn up*, hee hee.

* Yeah, you can see how well organised my priorities are. Kids, don’t be like me**.

** So much for the centre of excellence.

Oh well, I’ll make it up by studying harder. Promise.

Yaz.

Busy with stuffs

I suppose there are two kinds of busy, one is when you’re like Oh my god, I have tons of work, can’t possibly finish all this..what am I gonna do??! The other one is like Hmmm, I’ll do this now and that later on, and I’ll have to do the exercise tomorrow afternoon… and then I’ll be done. Mine is probably the latter, though that still means I won’t be free. It came to a point when I did some maths work in my lecture, which I felt really guilty afterwards since I wasn’t paying attention to the lecturer. Wonder where that came from. When I was in MCKK I did maths and read novels in class all the time and was never bothered about it. One of my teachers commented on it in passing at one point. In retrospect, I wonder why he didn’t hate the snotty big-headed little brat that I was. Oh well…

I did pretty much the same thing at UTP. I got bored in one physics lecture and started to take out my maths book and do stuffs. The person behind me made some derogatory remarks which I can hear but pretended not to notice. It’s probably funny that we actually became friends afterwards.

So anyway, life has been a bit busy, but I don’t mind that much since the Easter holiday is coming up. Five weeks of pure bliss! I can’t fathom why Cambridge students get so much holiday time, even compared to other UK universities, which have very long holidays. Still, even if I don’t think it’s beneficial, I still won’t trade it with anything.

Currently we have the Experience Islamic Week in Cambridge, where there are talks and events for people to discover more of what Islam actually is, what with all the things that happen in the world now. I went to one of them, which is a talk given by three recently converted Muslims, all of whom are Cambridge students. That was very interesting. I also wanted to go to this one about Islam and science but I couldn’t because it clashed with a lunch with my tutorial group. It was okay though since the lunch was nice and I met a few people that I know but do not meet often due to our schedules. Kinda reminded me that I do have some very very nice friends in this strange world that is Cambridge.

I told a friend of mine about the lunch and he decided to go to it, even though he’s not in my tutor group. I thought he was joking, but he apparently was not, and I kept thinking he would sneak in and eat some food and leave or something like that. Instead, he walked to my tutor and chatted with her while eating the food. I had a laughing fit over that. Gosh, the audacity of some people! Thou have no shame, ha ha ha.

Yaz.

The Internet Is For Porn

Ha ha, they’re at it again. I gotta watch this one.

P.S. FYI, the Magpie and Stump is a (humorous) debating society in Trinity College. Ever so often, they come up with crazy motions like this.

P.P.S. The date on the flyer is wrong. It should be this Sunday, the 25th.

Yaz.

Frank Morton

No lectures today. Everybody’s gone to play sports. Except me. I’m sitting in my room playing Worms while doing the occasional work…

Well, today’s the Frank Morton Sports Day. It’s basically a sports day for chemical engineers. This year it’s held at Manchester, so most chemical engineering departments of universities in the UK will send their flock of students there. Those taking part from Cambridge had to leave in a coach at four a.m. this morning. Good for them, I’d say. Volleyball is not contended, and for the life of me I don’t know how to kick a ball, so I’m not going. I’m sure they’re all having fun there, and at this time, they’re probably gone clubbing. Oh well… looking back, I can’t say today has not been a good day for me too. Got lots of work done, not to mention I’ve figured how to do my potato of death’s write-up.

I think they’ll probably arrive back in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately for some, that means only a few hours of sleep before facing the 9 o’clock lab session. That includes my two lab partners. I doubt they even have time to read the lab manual. After all, who in their right mind will bring a lab manual to a sports day in Manchester?

I asked one of them yesterday, “You don’t hate it when you come to the lab unprepared and not know what’s going on?”

His reply, “Yaz, it’s the excitement of the unknown. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Yeah, try doing that for an exam.

Yaz.

May Ball

The tickets are on sale!!!

Okay, for those of you who don’t know, a May Ball is sort of an end-of –the-year event in Cambridge. Each college has its own May Ball, with the smaller colleges having it maybe once every two or three years, while the bigger (or richer) colleges like Trinity have it every year (okay, for those who don’t know, Cambridge is a collegiate university comprising of 31 colleges). You have to buy tickets to go to these balls, and Trinity May Ball, arguably being the most popular May Ball in Cambridge, is one whose tickets are most sought after. For Trinity tickets, you have to buy them in pairs, one for yourself and the other for your guest, which may or may not be a Cambridge student. So people often ask around for Trinity students with spare tickets. Heck, I even got asked for a ticket within the first week after I first arrived in Cambridge. I didn’t go last year though since I stupidly forgot about the May Ball while planning my trip to Hungary. A few people have asked me about the tickets this year. One even wanted to ‘book’ it for next year but I declined, just in case I find a special someone to bring to the ball at that time, he he.

Anyway, the ticket application process is now ongoing and the deadline is this Friday. A pair of tickets is £215 for Trinity students. I’m still thinking about it, but I might go, and I’ll probably give (which means sell, of course) the spare ticket to a friend. A bit pricey, especially if you multiply it by seven to convert it to Malaysian Ringgit, but I figured a Trinity student should go to the ball at least once for the experience. Otherwise, it’ll be a shame.

Other colleges also have their May Balls and they sometimes advertise it with posters and the like. I walked to lecture this morning and I saw these green balloons everywhere. Turned out they're advertising the Robinson May Ball. Ha ha, pretty cool.

Yaz.

Spuds

Hey ya! Guess what my culinary adventure is this time around? Ta da!

That’s right, cooking potatoes! I’ve decided to be British, so I have to master the art that is the making of potato dishes. After all, who doesn’t like potatoes? With their creamy taste and versatility, we can prepare hundreds of different dishes with potatoes. Mmmmm… =D =D =D

Just kidding.

Ha ha, it’s actually part of my latest chemical engineering exercise/coursework in analysing heat transfer. The lecturer(s) suddenly have this bright idea of making every student cook potatoes and determining their cooking time. I wonder if that has something to do with the lecturer being Irish. Though in their defence, it’s not a hard thing to do. In truth, you only have to cook one potato and find its cooking time to get the answer, though lots of my colleagues haven’t realised that. They also probably haven’t realised that the answer is in the notes already and this experiment is just sort of a check. Oh well…

Wonder what I should do with the potatoes afterwards? Hmmm, I can’t possibly eat them all. By the way, those in the picture are only of the 4 cm diameter. I still have a few more in the fridge in case I need to do further experiments. We’ll see how it goes.

Yaz.

I Got It!

The rooms, I mean. The thing about the ballot is that they put the list of still available rooms on the web, so during the ballot you can see the rooms disappearing one by one as they are being chosen by students. An hour before the ballot I was staring at the computer refreshing the screen every now and then. My top choice was still there and I was fervently hoping that nobody would choose it. 30 minutes before my turn, a friend called and advised me to go to the accommodation office since the choosing process was unexpectedly fast this time around and if I don’t go soon I might miss my turn.

So I went there and true enough, my turn came just after a few minutes. I went in and the guy there asked me where I want to stay and brought up the list. As luck would have it, it’s still there, my top choice that is! Frankly, I was surprised nobody had grabbed it, all the other similar en-suite (with attached shower/bath) rooms in the same vicinity have been occupied. But oh well, I guess not everybody can afford to choose expensive en-suite rooms, though at around £800 a term, they really are much cheaper than London and the like.

On another note, yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and a funny thing happened during our biotechnology lecture. We were in the middle of it when suddenly a group of guys in white shirt and vests and hats started standing up and singing. It turned out a guy had sent those guys to sing to his girlfriend, who was in the lecture hall. It was really amusing to watch, though if I were the girl I would be terribly embarrassed.

On yet another note (I'm overdoing this, aren't I?), I’ve just finished book five in The Wheel of Time series, The Fires of Heaven. An amazingly good fantasy series, I highly recommend it. The thing is, the book was in my possession since December, and it’s really embarrassing that I only managed to finish it now. God knows what I’ve been doing all this while.

Yaz.

Catching Up and Choosing Rooms

Ho ho ho!

Hiya! It’s been awhile. Lately I’ve been busy with work, no thanks to the dreadful weekend. I was thrown out of equilibrium, and had some catching up to do. Luckily things have been under control a bit now, but the past few days were a bit hectic. In fact, yesterday was the first time this term that I had to do work after 9:30 p.m. Usually night time is the time for me to surf the internet and download stuffs, so it was quite annoying. But now I’m free!! Muahahahaha!

Tomorrow (or rather, today) will be the day of the room ballot. Basically, it’s the time when we get to choose our rooms for next year. I’ve been keeping an eye on a few rooms that have a shower (that’s a must) and in the centre of town. Some even have fridges inside the room! There are some room with baths instead of showers but I think baths are inconvenient, time-wise. Of course, I never actually had a room with a bath so I don’t really know how that feels like. Any opinion?

Ballot’s at 3 o’ clock today. I’m a Junior Scholar so my ranking is quite high (30th out of around 190) so there’s a good chance I can grab those rooms, if the other Junior Scholars don’t get them first. Anyhow, I’ll post again after it happens.

(Eager) Yaz.

Pitcher Puzzle

It seems everybody I know is applying for banking internships.

I went to an internship fair last year to scope up what jobs are available for the summer. I wasn’t that serious because I’m almost guaranteed a job with my sponsor after I graduate and therefore is not in dire need of tons of work experiences gracing my CV. My friends, however, were another matter. So I went along with them, just looking around but mainly to collect the freebies that they give away at the fair, like mugs, umbrellas, pens, squeeze toys (don’t laugh!) and the like.

The thing we noticed is that since we are second year Chemical Engineering students, we’re not actually good or knowledgeable enough for serious internships at chemical companies. They usually take third year students, so we were only left with non-chemical engineering companies. That explains why every second year in my department applies to do banking.

A friend of mine just had his interview yesterday, in which he was asked a logical puzzle question. I just thought it’s interesting to put it here.

You have in your possession a 5 litre pitcher and a 3 litre pitcher. They both have no scales on them so you can only measure exact 5 or 3 litres of water. Given a supply of water, how can you make it so that you end up with exact 4 litres of water?

Note that if you pour water out of the pitcher, it will be gone because you don’t have anything to contain the water with. In other words, you can’t solve the puzzle by: “Filling the 5 litre pitcher, pouring it into the 3 litre pitcher, so you end up with 2 litres of water in the 5 litre pitcher, putting the 2 litres aside and repeating the process so as to have another 2 litres, which makes 4.” After all, then it would not be much of a puzzle anymore.

It took me two minutes to find a solution. Do have a go at it.

Yaz.

Is This A Science Lecture?

“… So largely, most of these models are a leap of faith rather than science…”

- overheard today during biotech lecture about models of cell growth.

Yaz.

Drawing blanks

Don’t you hate it when you open up your work, read them a bit, and try to understand the bits and pieces but all that comes out are blanks? Isn’t it annoying when they all seem like Greek* to you?

I mention on the other post that I had a sore throat. Well, at some point last weekend it turned into a cold. What’s worst is that I have a deadline coming and I was planning on making full use of the weekend to finish the work but because I was sick I wasn’t able to think at all. It was frustrating.

Late Sunday night, I call my friend. Or rather, he called me to ask about the exercise. I told him that I have no idea how to proceed.

“Is it alright if I come over? I might need help on this one,” I said to him.

“It’s so unlike you.”

I ended up asking him about almost every step of the exercise. Usually, I don’t like doing that because it defeats the purpose of the coursework itself but at that time I was in a no position to argue. I just hope that later I’ll be feeling better after a good sleep and able to get my brain functioning.

I hate being sick.

***

The next morning. I woke up feeling refreshed, had breakfast and managed to finish a huge chunk of the exercise: some formula derivation using numerical integration together with an economic analysis. I even managed to do a ‘spare’ derivation using smaller step size for the integration which I can use instead of the first derivation if I feel like it. Ooooh, the joys of being well again and having your brains functioning back to normal. It feels gooood!!

Yaz.

* My lecturer made this joke while doing some formula manipulation which consists of loads of Greek letters. Okay, maybe it’s not a burst-your-stomach-laughing kind of joke but it’s still one of those thing that makes you smile, albeit often accompanied by a shake of the head.

Non-conformist

A friend of mine said the other day that he’s a non-conformist.

Well, since non-conformists do not conform to the rules and whims of society, then that means they are following a guideline which says do not follow the rules. Hence, by definition they are conforming to something, thus they are conformist. So, non-conformists do not exist.

Heh heh heh. I was feeling particularly evil.

Yaz.

Urghh...

I have a sore throat.

I'm feeling a bit better today but yesterday was really bad. It feels like a sharp object in my larynx.

At one point I couldn't stand it that I walked straight to Boots and bought some sore throat medicine. Ate three of them in a row, then I read the instruction and it mentions to take one dose every three hours.

Wooops!

Is it possible to die of sore throat lozenge overdose?

Yaz.

The Morning Walk

So, what will you do when you realise that none of your classes start at nine in the morning?

I think I lucked out this term for my timetable. I don’t have any of the early morning lectures at all. Well, except for lab on Wednesday but that’s once every two week so that’s okay. There are also only two lectures maximum per day except for Friday when we have three. Seriously, if you look at my timetable you’ll think I’m slacking off.

Most people, normal people that is, will see this as a perfect opportunity to not get up early. However, since I’ll get hungry if I don’t get breakfast, and I’m quite cranky when I’m hungry, I suppose I’ll still wake up at appropriate times. One good thing of not having early lectures is that you can still go to the gym early morning, not having to rush through breakfast and have a nice walk to class. Being in a rush is something I don’t like, so I’m always grateful for these morning walks.

On the way to the dining hall

a closer look...

Passed King's along the way

Probably one of the most featured on Cambridge postcards

Still along King's

The New Museum Site

Destination reached

Ahaha, sorry about that, just thought it's a fun thing to do. Anyway, can't take too many pictures, lest I look like a tourist. Eeeek, the horror!

Yaz.

Credit card

Ooooh, I felt so adult-ish!

Ha ha, okay for those of you who know me very well, you can stop giggling now. Or rather, giggle all you want. Don’t care. I’m feeling a spout of maturity and I’m gonna bask in it while it lasts.

I went to the bank the other day to upgrade my card. The reason was because at that moment I have a solo debit card. Hence, I can’t use it that freely in the cyber world, such as buying things from National Rail or Dell. The people at the bank told me, however, that I can’t upgrade unless I change my account to a student account, which I’m applicable for since I’ve been in this country for three years already.

Okay, so I went back to see my tutor, asked for a verification letter, went back to the bank and got my account upgraded. We looked at the options available, and I managed to get a maestro debit card. Yoohoo! Then the bank worker mentioned that I’m applicable for a credit card. Huwow! Credit card! Seriously?!

First of all, I actually don’t know nothing about using a credit card (did I just use a double negative? God, I’m an embarrassment to the scientific community). But then again, it’s there, so why not? So, after answering a few questions with yeah’s and uh-huh’s, I got my card. Well, I got approved, and the card will arrive later.

So there you go, I’m not even working yet and I’ve got my own credit card. Feels unbelievable. Of course, to tell the truth, I’m likely to not use it since I’m still vague about how the whole credit thing operates and I’ve seen far too many ‘Kisah Benar’s (True Stories; it’s a TV show) on TV to know that it can ruin your life if not controlled properly. Oooo, that gives me the chills.

Heh heh, so here I am, feeling all grown up. Welcome to the adult world of money management. Okay, not really. Plus, when all these happy-giddy excitements are over I’ll probably treat it as I normally do. It’s probably a good thing I was given so little pocket money in school in those old days, it teaches you self-constraint a little. Ha ha.

Know what a friend said when I told him about the card? “Great, let’s party!”

*takes a deep breath*… self constraint… self constraint….

Yaz.

Snow

Alright, so… following from the bizarre meteorological phenomena post the other day, I would just like to announce…

… it snowed!!

Ha ha ha, I looked through my window in the morning and there were these white stuffs falling down. It was beautiful. Regrettably, the snow didn’t pile up to more than a few centimetres so we couldn’t make a snowman or anything like that but it was still really nice.

That same morning, rumour has it that some worker had accidentally cut off the power supply to the New Museum site where my department is. Don’t know whether this is true or not, but all lectures for the day are cancelled because of the blackout. Of course, they will be replaced at a later time but why worry bout it? Free day!

Yaz.

Of Cold and Warmth

Ooookay, so I was naïve! It was a fine morning, well… a bit cloudy but other than that it was all okay. I would only be gone for half an hour anyway to breakfast. It’s not even that far. Unaware of the impending doom, I put on my jacket, left my umbrella on the table, and walked out to the dining hall. Halfway there, there was a tap-tap-tap sound and it felt like grains of something falling down on you.

It sleeted.

Yeah, after three years here you thought I’d have known better. Mentally cursing myself for the apparent stupidity, I ran towards shelter. Luckily it wasn’t liquid water coming down from the sky or I would have been drenched.

It was a bit more pleasant today. It snowed. Well, not really snowed because it was very light and lasted for only a few minutes. It didn’t even have time to settle on the ground. That was okay though coz it was quite pleasant.

Talking about meteorological phenomena, I was baffled the other day. Err, maybe shocked-into-silence-by-the-cluelessness-of-some -people is a better description (is cluelessness even a word?). You know how America used to not care about the environment and global warming that much, what’s with not signing the Kyoto protocol and all. Well, I was browsing the web and I came across this comment by some random person:

“…I still don't believe that global warming is happening. So far there has not been any conclusive scientific studies that prove that global warming is happening. I think that this warm feeling is a warming and cooling trend in the climate that is natural and has been cycling since long before humans were here.”

*shocked into silence*

Arrghhh, idiot!!! (Napoleon Dynamite style)

I really want to scream that out loud! Okay, so it is a bit (actually a lot) ridiculous that this guy, which I’m assuming represents quite a chunk of the population of the said country does not know things that the rest of the world have agreed upon eons ago. How clueless can you be?! Of course, can’t really blame him entirely since said country has sheltered its denizens from the truth for ages but still, it’s totally preposterous! These ignoramuses are killing me.

Last year there was a documentary film titled ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ released in the US about global warming. The US government also recently changed its stance, when it finally agreed to study whether the polar bear should be considered an endangered species because of melting ice caps due to global warming. Heh heh, finally.

Yaz.

Einstein?! Hawking?!

Is hallucinating about famous scientists a sign that you've been pushing yourself too hard?

I was tidying up bits and pieces of my work in the library when Einstein walked by along the aisle.

Wait a minute. That can't be, he's DEAD!

The entity turned around and... phew! It was just the library caretaker with the trademark messy white hair.

Yeah, maybe I should take a break.

On the other hand, Stephen Hawking is of Gonville and Caius college, so those observant enough might luckily see him around. I haven't yet, but a friend of mine has spotted him a few times in Cambridge. Grrrr, I'm envious!

Yaz.

Sadly misunderstood

With nothing better to do with my time, I was browsing through Facebook (if you don’t know what that is, then you’re missing a lot) when I came across a note that was posted by a friend. It was a collection of Bush quotes: you know, the stupid and absurdly funny things that came out of his mouth that would sometimes make people wonder if the person who said it is really mentally retarded. Amused, I read through the list. Some of the stuffs were hilarious.

And then, I came across these two.

I thought, hang on a minute, I don’t get it. What's so funny about that?

That’s when I realised. Oh. My. God.

See, the thing is, everybody knows Bush lies to people, so it comes as no surprise that you don’t automatically believe everything he said (though I sometimes wonder why on earth people would elect someone who blatantly lie to your face as president). However, this time he spoke the truth and sadly enough, a lot of people have associated Islam with terrorism that when somebody equates Islam with peace, they all laugh it out as a joke.

(I’m not including the friend in this group of people because I know him and this is probably a mistake in his part, maybe he didn’t realised it before posting… or something)

This is a depressing truth, but hardly surprising to some people I suppose. What’s with all the stuffs about bombings and terrorism going on on the media, some which give a really distorted version of what’s going on, which certainly doesn’t help. I read an article on Iran’s nuclear weapon on Digg the other day. As an aside, I stopped reading comments on Digg because I was always left with a sour mood in the end, what with all the comment bashings and people acting like they know everything whereas in fact, they simply don’t. For this article, I steeled myself and scrolled down to the comments section, knowing fully well what I would find. As expected, lots of heated… discussions, seem to be going on. And then, just as I predicted, someone made comments that sneakily changed the ‘Iran is a threat’ to ‘Islam is a threat’ and hardly anybody noticed. The frustrating thing is he presented ‘facts’ that were supposedly taken from the Qur’an showing how violent Muslims should be. To an average naïve person, he probably came across as convincing.

Now, I know that not everybody is like that, but still, the number of people who are like that is staggeringly large that it’s just disheartening. They are probably just average people that get all their information from mainstream news and TV, so in a way, they’re not all to blame. I would really like to strangle the person(s) who spread the disinformation about Islam in the first place, but that would just defeat the purpose. Oh well…

So, what to do? There is another piece of comment I found on the net. Albeit actually being posted on a different website and topic, the gist of it is really relevant. It goes something like this, “Whenever things like this happened, I try to remind myself that I have Muslim friends, none of whom are in the slightest bit like those portrayed on the media.” I guess, being a Muslim student studying overseas, that is the least (and probably one of the most effective) of things that I can do: show people that Muslims are normal people too, instead of some bloody violent savages they're all being lead to believe.

Yaz.

Recycle bin

I was wondering… you know how when we delete a file and it goes to the recycle bin? Well, why is it named the recycle bin? What exactly are we recycling anyway? It’s not like we got anything new once we put something in the bin. Is it?

Confused Yaz.

Resolutions

It was 7:30 a.m. and still dark. Slowly, I made my way to the porter’s lodge for the swipe card. The gym opens at 7:15 everyday but you can’t get in unless you use the card. Security features. Anyway, it will probably be empty; no sane person would be there in this cold a morning. At least, I hope so. It’s kinda embarrassing when you’re this puny kid wanting to go to the gym. Made you self-conscious.

7:31 a.m. “Can I have a gym card?”

The porter’s first words to me are, “Are you mad?” Of course, it’s not like I can tell him my real intentions.

“It’s my new year resolution.”

And I got away with it, heh heh.

Yaz.

In the gym

This is on the notice board next to the badminton court in the Trinity College gym. Well... a bit tattered and old but still...

Proud? Heck yeah!

Yaz.

Starting... almost

Technically the term starts tomorrow but the lectures won't start until the 16th. A good thing for procrastinators who haven't finished their holiday work yet.

I did some fluid mechanics example sheet on Excel just now. Only after I saved it that I realised the file is suggestively named 'fluidsexsheet'. Oops!

Yaz.

A New Year

I'm back!

Just in case you don't know, I went to London for New Year’s Eve. The real reason for me going is because I needed to return a calculator that my friend left in Cambridge when she attended her interview. It was a TI-83 Plus, quite expensive and it’s actually her dorm mate’s, so she really needed it back. I also needed to overcome the frustration of not being able to be in London during Christmas, unlike the past three years, hence another reason for the visit.

This was my first experience of watching fireworks for New Year in London, and even though a friend of mine said that I had done this a few years ago, for the life of me I really can’t remember. Tis’ very strange indeed. They closed the Embankment and Westminster tube stations, hence people had to walk to the River Thames, and since I’m really unaccustomed to navigating London on feet, I had to just follow the crowd and hope that they’re really going to the London Eye instead of some random pubs or something.

Still, I made it at the end. It was crowded but not in an extremely bad way. At least, nobody was squashed to death or anything. It was also a plus that I got a clear view of the London Eye, only obstructed a bit by some tree branches and a lamppost. I can’t really say the same to some of my pals who went to watch the fireworks separately. Only the top bit of the Eye is visible to them since the rest are blocked by buildings. Awwww… pity.

I was planning to follow my friends to their place after the event. However, on the way, I lost them in the crowd, which was pretty embarrassing because we were talking about my disappearing acts (people who always travel with me will know) just minutes before that happened. Yeah, I can be a klutz sometimes. The same thing also happened in a bus station in Hungary, and some other occasions which I would rather not remember.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the night and videos as well. Let’s hope my camera skills have improved from last time. As an aside, I’ve made the observation that fireworks are far more spectacular in real life compared to what’s shown on photographs.

The countdown was displayed on a building and started a minute before midnight. You can see the number 42 on it.

Yaz.

Solitude

Hiya! Sorry for the lack of update. It’s been three days since I pulled my head out of the game that I’m playing that consumed most of my time (Final Fantasy VII) and I realised that there’s nobody around. Everybody’s back home or had gone somewhere. It’s not bad or anything, just… less merry.

Sigh… oh well. Better make good use of the holiday nevertheless. I actually planned to do some advanced studying, wonder where that had gone to. Anyway, in a few days, some friends of mine are going to visit so I’m looking forward to that, even though why on earth do they want to visit Cambridge in winter I have no clue.

p/s If you're sharp you can notice the connection between the picture and something else on the page =)

Yaz.

Americans get quizzed

Some random stuffs I found on Facebook which lead me to this clip. A few are pretty hilarious.

"How many world wars have there been?"
"Three."

Ha ha ha.

Yaz.

The holiday guilt

Have you ever worked really hard for a long period of time that when you’re having a holiday, you feel guilty for spending it by doing absolutely nothing that’s beneficial? Well, I kinda started Final Fantasy VII and I guessed I got hooked and now I can’t stop playing. The game is so addictive! I still have some holiday homework and I feel bad that I’m putting them off for the moment. Sigh…

I found the TV room a few days ago and it’s totally empty now that students are gone. The same can be said about the gym as well. I also have the kitchen and the fridge in my floor all to myself so I can put whatever stuffs I want in it and cook whatever I like. It feels great! Guess I’m a bit reluctant to travel around now that things are really getting comfy here.

In other news, apparently the great river mystery was linked to the case of a missing person in Cambridge not long ago. The river was drained for some building inspection work and the police took the opportunity to search for the body in the river and they found it. Apparently the poor soul had a heart attack when he fell into the icy cold water. Gosh!

Maybe I shouldn’t have brought that up =(

Yaz.

What's the score?

A picture in an article I read about. It's a signboard advertising the upcoming Oxbridge rugby match. Kinda cool, if you think about it. They also have signboards on the number of Poet Laureates, Prime Ministers and heads on postage stamps.

Yaz.

The river mystery

Two days ago I realised the river Cam became noticeably shallower than usual.


But strangely today, it became normal again. Hmmm... what's going on, exactly? Government conspiracy? Secret experiment being done upriver that uses the water? Or have I been watching too many Torchwood episodes?


Yaz.

An irksome exaggeration

I went to breakfast this morning and what ho – the hall is full of interview candidates again. Sat amongst them since I’m interested in hearing what they thought about this interview process and Cambridge in general. I was about to open my mouth and say something when this student came, sat with us and started talking.

I listened for a few minutes when I was like, “What the heck?!” The guy was giving a really skewed description of Trinity! He said that the porters in the college treated girls differently than guys because they are prettier. He also said that college formals are divided into two parts: the one when the fellows are there and the one when they aren’t, in which the formals will turn into a raucous party. I was thinking, “Oh. My. God!” and had to refrain myself from blurting out that NO – the porters don’t have a predisposition towards girls; NO – formal halls aren’t always being out-of-control and disorderly and we definitely DO NOT have to report to our tutors for being rowdy and wild in formals every time because that DOESN’T HAPPEN OFTEN! What is he telling these people??

So when the guy was gone, I talked to one of the candidates, “Hey, whatever he said, just take it with a pinch of salt because it’s not necessarily true.”

He replied, “I know. I met the porters before and they’re really nice.”

How I love people with common sense.

Yaz.