London Life: First Week

Okay, so I've been in london for a week now, how has it been? Time passed really slow, probably since there was nothing much to do, except trying to settle and all those admin things (which can be really irritating at times). All these things don't really take up much time, but they do suck all the energy out. Like what everyone probably know, london is a REALLY expensive city. I mean, if you look at the prices without the pound, things are actually affordable and comparable to singapore's, but when you put the pound sign back, you get, wellllll, depressed. Luckily I'll only be studying for a year, so I think I can avoid depression >< Maybe there will come a time when I will subconsciously ignore the pound sign just to make myself feel better and buy more groceries. Andddd achievement unlocked: I've cooked nearly every meals here, except for one lunch! I guess I have a stomach made of steel, seeing how I survived. But guess what, my cooking gets worse after each meal, does that even make sense?!? So masterchef after year? I don't think it'll happen. I don't even think I'll fall in love with cooking. Although I like buying groceries teehee. Commuting here is costly too, so I walked a lottttt to get from place to place (especially the bank; I've made 3 trips -.-). Then decided to get a travelcard for zone 1-3, even when it's more expensive because I haven't gotten my student oyster card yet. IT MADE THINGS SO MUCH MORE CONVENIENT. I can take the train or bus without the need to work out which is the cheapest route. Just take the fastest route. About my accommodation, I'm sooooo grateful to my housemates, they've really helped me out a lot. And I hope I haven't disrupted their usual way of lives or irritating them with my questions, because it's my first time sharing a flat. Okay, so introducing my neighbourhood:

THIS IS A PRIMARY SCH CAN YOU BELIEVE IT

I love the architecture here, it's bricks everywhere! Makes me feel like I'm in the movies some times. If only I can own one of those pretttttty houses some day.

Besides roaming around in my neighbourhood, I've also been to school a few times for admin stuff and talks. I like walking around in the strand campus building, it does have the harry potter kinda feel. But my classes will be held in waterloo campus, which has a more modern interior. Had the welcome party for the forensics science class yesterday. It was quite unexpected, like I expected a formal address by a professor or someone, but no, it was a pure socialising event. Which I cannot handle, I was sooooo tired halfway through the thing that I didn't feel like talking to anyone and just stuck to a group of people that I felt more comfortable with. Plus, we were placed in groups for school. LIKE WHAT?!? I don't mind being in groups for games and stuff, but study groups? :O It's okay I CAN DO THIS RIGHT? Okay, some photos from roaming around the strand campus area while waiting for the intl postgrad orientation to start:

Other than this, I didn't do much sightseeing and stuff because I keep telling myself that I'm gonna be here for one year anyway right, so there is no need to rush. The one place I did went to was the natural history museum, and it was SO BIG AND PRETTY. I couldn't finished looking at everything. It was quite nice, cos they tried to write the descriptions in an interesting way, and I liked the exhibition explaining the development in kids, besides all the animal stuff.

SO PRETTY RIGHT

This is pretty cool, wood exterior, stone interior

Scientists make great artists too

Giant baby, 8x the normal size

 And to conclude this one week, I went to Wimbledon Park today, which was close by. My housemate suggested to me to visit a park today, since the sun was out and the weather was really nice. And we never know when the sun will next show its face again. It was a really nice park! It was filled with a flurry of activities, probably cos it's a sat. I have to say, the dogs here are extremely disciplined. Most of them go about without their leashes, and there were so many different breeds of dogs. Then there were kids riding scooters, people playing tennis, elderly playing a ball game (no idea what it's called) and people just sitting around on the grass. And the lake filled with swans and ducks. Like I knew they were going to be there, but I didn't expected SO MANY. And you can go so close to them, it's so cool! Now I know where to go when I do get depressed haha.

This has been a pretty long post! Hopefully I'll be able to update regularly, erm given that I do have anything to update!

Gratefulness

Whoo it's been too long since I wrote, my laziness is amazing >< I've never got time to finish writing about my tw trip, hopefully I can share another time! Been working for the past 2.5 months and I swear, working sucks my soul away that when I get home, I just knocked out. And the work was quite mundane, so I found myself counting down to my last day. But on the last day of work, something happened that made me feel so touched that I thought that I should pen this down.

Okay, so at my company (or particularly my office), it is quite common for temporary staffs to come and go, so I understand that the permanent staffs working there would not put in the extra effort to get to know the temp staffs. At first I wasn't used to this kind of "cold" enivronment haha, but I got better and I know that they're all actually nice people. So on my last day, I naturally thought I'll go as quietly as I had come, just doing my work as usual until the time comes for me to knock off. Since I interacted most with the perm staff that I was directly under, I decided to leave some chocolates on her table. Then, as I was silently doing my work, my manager quietly came beside my desk and passed me  red packet. I was like :o. And then she thanked me. I was like, I don't think I've done that much to deserve this, or rather, I didn't know she thought so much of me. At that moment, I was super super touched, and felt bad that I didn't have anything in return. When it was time for me to leave, I was a little disappointed that the perm staff wasn't around cos I wanted to hand the chocolates personally to her. But I saw her at the lockers when I came out! Turns out she was waiting for me to pass me the gift that she and another perm staff shared to buy. The second time that I was touched that day. Two times in a row, and seriously my heart can't take it. She was like," don't need to feel bad for accepting this, you really did a lot for us." TT So while I thought they didn't care about temp staffs, they actually thought so much of us. I was really damn grateful for this.

Actually being grateful was always somewhere on my mind, and it usually surfaces when I'm doing nothing and just stoning. For instance, I'm really grateful that my parents are fully supportive of my reading my master's overseas, even though I'm not under a scholarship and they need to fund me. And all my friends, who made time to plan and meet up with me, and showering me with gifts when they don't need to, hey I'll only be gone for a year! Hahaha. But I'll take everyone's blessings with me, and do my best when I get to london!When I thought this day would never come, it has become time for me to fly tomorrow. Hopefully I can get everything settled when I get there, and adapt!