I realised I didn't really post anything yesterday. Yeah but there wasn't really anything to say . . . spent the whole day at home again . . . did some more readings in between watching E! news and Fashion TV hehehe.
I think today I might head out to do some well-deserved shopping.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
- Anon
Saturday, 30 September 2006
Thursday, 28 September 2006
Misery oh misery
Down in the dumps today - I really wanna see the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" but just realised I have no-one to see it with. Now that's a depressing thought.
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
- Edward de Bono
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
- Edward de Bono
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
Tuesday = day in hell
We'll get to why later, but I'll start from the beginning:
Tuesday 26.09.06
Cos they don't do "course materials", I had to make a trip to the library to see if my luck was better today in locating those books I needed:
Impressive, but is a statue really necessary in a library?!
Entrance into the Economics section - there are double doors and I was wondering why when I was walking through them. Once I got inside, I knew why. It was DEADLY quiet. There were people in there but no-one made a sound. Was really bad cos I was wearing shoes that made those "click-click" sounds and as I was walking, people would look up.
So after photocopying what I needed (the stupid books were on those 3-hour loans so I couldn't take them out of the library) I had to haul-ass to my tax class. I really don't like that class as the people aren't really friendly and everyone basically gets to class right before it begins and leaves immediately after.
Then the horror begins - I had to trek the Waterstone's (a bookstore) to buy my textbooks which I was dreading cos there was a pack of legislation that I needed for tax and that consisted of four books which equals MEGA-heavy. I had to buy another book and I was already carrying one I needed for later on (alternative dispute resolution), so I ended up having to carry all this with me:
I got a coffee in the bookstore and sitting there, I wanted to cry. I, being a strictly no-backpack-wearing person, would have to carry all that in bags, through peak hour on the tube and also walk home as well. Oh, and I forgot to take a pic of the coffee. I only got a medium latte but that was the biggest glass I had ever seen!! Looked like it had nearly a litre of milk in it (and speaking of milk, they sell it in pints over here, which I thought was quite amusing, as I had always associated pints with beer).
So in the arvo, at 4, I had my ADR class. The people in this class were more friendly than the tax losers and when I got to the classroom (early), there was another dude there already and he started talking to me. Then another chick came in and she started talking as well (she was a French exchange student so it was hard to understand what she was saying. Nevertheless, I was like "Woah, I actually have a chance to have a normal conversation!" For those of you who don't realise, besides speaking to my family here, friends from home (over the net), I basically don't have a reason to speak so actually saying words out of my mouth and having someone at the other end listening felt so good.
When everyone was here, we had to do the whole introducing the person next to you to the class thing which I was actually looking forward to as it would be easier to talk to everyone from now on (oh, by the way, the class, like tax, is also very small. I think they don't admit very many people into law every year, probably just over 100). We had to say one interesting fact about ourselves and this one dude had said that he had been kicked by an emu. Everyone laughed and a lot of them looked at me (this was after I had been introduced and so they all know I'm Aussie). I'm thinking, "Why are you guys looking at me?! The last time I've seen an emu was when I was like in primary school!" But overall, I really enjoyed this class, which is encouraging as I am a type of person who either really likes a class or really hates it. And I was so proud of myself, I actually asked a question!!! Hahaha Deb will know what I mean when I say I don't usually say anything in law lectures . . . ever . . . most of the time cos I never do my readings and all my energy is being used to keep me awake. There is no space in my brain left to think of an intelligent question to ask.
Then the time which I was dreading arrived - home time. Lugging those books home is up there on my "10 worst lifetime experiences" list. By the time I set foot inside the front door, my fingers were all red and swollen from the plastic bags and I was sweating all over.
Wednesday 27.09.06
Today I tried to start doing some readings:
Books and folders scattered everywhere . . .
Oh I forgot to post something about Sunday (24.09.06) - I made my first two shopping purchases since getting here! I'm so excited:
Classic brown-leather heels: very scholarly-looking (looks great with my Tsubis)
A Sally Smith purse - was getting sick of my Fendi one and this one matches my handbag that I have back in Sydney!!
Tuesday 26.09.06
Cos they don't do "course materials", I had to make a trip to the library to see if my luck was better today in locating those books I needed:
Impressive, but is a statue really necessary in a library?!
Entrance into the Economics section - there are double doors and I was wondering why when I was walking through them. Once I got inside, I knew why. It was DEADLY quiet. There were people in there but no-one made a sound. Was really bad cos I was wearing shoes that made those "click-click" sounds and as I was walking, people would look up.So after photocopying what I needed (the stupid books were on those 3-hour loans so I couldn't take them out of the library) I had to haul-ass to my tax class. I really don't like that class as the people aren't really friendly and everyone basically gets to class right before it begins and leaves immediately after.
Then the horror begins - I had to trek the Waterstone's (a bookstore) to buy my textbooks which I was dreading cos there was a pack of legislation that I needed for tax and that consisted of four books which equals MEGA-heavy. I had to buy another book and I was already carrying one I needed for later on (alternative dispute resolution), so I ended up having to carry all this with me:
I got a coffee in the bookstore and sitting there, I wanted to cry. I, being a strictly no-backpack-wearing person, would have to carry all that in bags, through peak hour on the tube and also walk home as well. Oh, and I forgot to take a pic of the coffee. I only got a medium latte but that was the biggest glass I had ever seen!! Looked like it had nearly a litre of milk in it (and speaking of milk, they sell it in pints over here, which I thought was quite amusing, as I had always associated pints with beer).
So in the arvo, at 4, I had my ADR class. The people in this class were more friendly than the tax losers and when I got to the classroom (early), there was another dude there already and he started talking to me. Then another chick came in and she started talking as well (she was a French exchange student so it was hard to understand what she was saying. Nevertheless, I was like "Woah, I actually have a chance to have a normal conversation!" For those of you who don't realise, besides speaking to my family here, friends from home (over the net), I basically don't have a reason to speak so actually saying words out of my mouth and having someone at the other end listening felt so good.
When everyone was here, we had to do the whole introducing the person next to you to the class thing which I was actually looking forward to as it would be easier to talk to everyone from now on (oh, by the way, the class, like tax, is also very small. I think they don't admit very many people into law every year, probably just over 100). We had to say one interesting fact about ourselves and this one dude had said that he had been kicked by an emu. Everyone laughed and a lot of them looked at me (this was after I had been introduced and so they all know I'm Aussie). I'm thinking, "Why are you guys looking at me?! The last time I've seen an emu was when I was like in primary school!" But overall, I really enjoyed this class, which is encouraging as I am a type of person who either really likes a class or really hates it. And I was so proud of myself, I actually asked a question!!! Hahaha Deb will know what I mean when I say I don't usually say anything in law lectures . . . ever . . . most of the time cos I never do my readings and all my energy is being used to keep me awake. There is no space in my brain left to think of an intelligent question to ask.
Then the time which I was dreading arrived - home time. Lugging those books home is up there on my "10 worst lifetime experiences" list. By the time I set foot inside the front door, my fingers were all red and swollen from the plastic bags and I was sweating all over.
Wednesday 27.09.06
Today I tried to start doing some readings:
Books and folders scattered everywhere . . .Oh I forgot to post something about Sunday (24.09.06) - I made my first two shopping purchases since getting here! I'm so excited:
Classic brown-leather heels: very scholarly-looking (looks great with my Tsubis)
A Sally Smith purse - was getting sick of my Fendi one and this one matches my handbag that I have back in Sydney!!The thrilling excitement of shopping was just enough to get me through the two hours of church I had to endure afterwards. I try to make it seem like I'm thinking deeply but in reality, when I close my eyes during church, I'm nodding off.
A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.
- Don Corleone, in The Godfather
Monday, 25 September 2006
And so it begins
So, just had my first day of uni:
- Russell Baker
- Not a good start - when I got to uni I was trying to find the room of my class and I jammed my right index finger in the hinge of a door. Not only did I take a chunk of flesh off, it's now all swollen and bruised . . . gross
- Was raining today so was not looking forward to heading out when I got out of bed. Luckily I left the house around the same time as my cousin leaving for school so got a lift to the tube station.
- My first and only class today was tax law. Man, the class was so small, like around 20 people - I wonder if it's cos it's a mega-hard course or sth, I swear I thought more people would be doing tax.
- Found it hard to talk to anyone today as tax is a 3rd yr subject so most of the people in the class knew each other already and they were clumps so hard for me to jump in and introduce myself. And they were all doing the whole "What did you do in the summer?!" thing so yeah . . . I kinda wish that I am doing first year subjects so that I would be in the same boat as everyone else but also, I would be super-old then and all those subjects I've already done.
- Another thing which I found was very different: I was the only Asian chick. Number of classes I've been in at UNSW where this was the case = 0.
- Their timetables are really weird, like they sometimes don't have a lecture every week so you gotta be careful and check your timetable and see what weeks the lectures and tutes are on.
- The campus is kinda confusing - it has these north and south cloisters which are like corridors and then there are doors everywhere and not enough signs. Took me ages to find where the international office was today. And don't get me started on trying to find the loos - seriously, they have like one for the whole main campus.
- The library's pretty cool - you need your student card to swipe in (yeah I know, had to go to the library on the first day already). They operate on the stupid system of you going off and finding your own reading materials in the library. Haven't they heard of course materials?! Geez, by the time you get to the library, some loser has already got to the book and it's either been borrowed or it's "missing". If the lecturer knows that everyone needs to read it, why not photocopy it for us and get us to buy it?!?! Argh, this is one thing that is really gonna frustrate me.
- My user id is zctlcb1: please explain!! And in case you're wondering, that's not my student number, which is something else. My password is even worse, and on top of that, there's my library barcode and pin that's I need to use to log into the library website. Why can't they consolidate everything?! Yeah, so that means that my email is zctlcb1@ucl.ac.uk - but luckily, I get an email alias which is elvina.li@ucl.ac.uk.
- My bag got super-heavy by the end of the day - I had borrowed a couple of books and had to buy a textbook so my shoulder's killing me.
- For those of you who are fellow law students: AustLII here is BaiLII, which I thought was quite funny.
- And yeah, just a caution for those of you thinking about it: don't bleach your hair . . . like successively. There's this clump of hair at the base of my neck now which is bout 7cm long - it's just gone!!! I dunno what I'm gonna do - next time you see me, all my hair might be chopped off, I think I might have to start afresh.
- It's beginning to set in that I don't think I'll be able/bothered to go out at night while I'm over here. Means no more clubbing for me for the next year. I'm in bed at like 11pm every night which is a first of me (although I don't actually sleep till early in the morn - old habits are hard to shake and I have so many cable tv channels to choose from!)
- Yeah I know I'm getting lazy with the picture-taking, will try to take some tomorrow
- No-one in today's class used "the" paper - I'm losing hope . . .
- Russell Baker
Sunday, 24 September 2006
Sorry, I know, this is long overdue
I've kinda been lazy over the past few days so I'll be good and make this an extra long post.
Thursday 21.09.06
So this was the first day of the International Students Orientation Programme. The day didn't start off very well - for a start, Justin and I had planned the day before for us to meet at 9:45 cos we read the note and thought that the day started at 10am. But turned out that they did it in groups and it was the grads who were supposed to be there at 10am. Since I live so far away I had already left and was on the tube when I got the message from Justin saying it actually started at 11am. Was kinda pissed off as I was in the city at 9:30 already. I went to the uni anyway and there was a mass of people. I lined up to get the orientation pack and then left.
It was weird walking in there without knowing anyone - you know that feeling you have on your first day at a new school where you don't know anyone? Well I was definitely feeling that but for me, it was worse cos everyone there was foreign - I could hear Americans, Germans, French people and even honkie people but alas, no Aussies.
I had nothing to do so I got a coffee somewhere and bummed for like over an hour. Then it was time to head back to the uni again. It didn't help my mood that Justin was half an hour late - I swear, I've had it to about here *hand to throat* with him - he's ALWAYS late (a note on that later on). Anyway, so he came about 11:30am but which time I was so over the day. The welcome talk by the Dean was filled with the usual "this-uni-is-the-best-uni-you're-so-lucky-you're-here" bull crap so there wasn't anything useful in the speech. Oh another note - I think the English are so used to cold weather that when it's a bit warmer, their air-conditioning systems SUCK. I was boiling hot in the lecture hall where the speech was being made and don't get me started on the tube rides - seriously, two words - no ventilation . . . at all. They rely on natural air to flow through, but seriously, how much air can flow through all the way down to the tunnels?! Ahem, sorry, letting off a bit of steam there (hahaha I'm so sad, bad pun, sorry very much . . .)
Back to Thursday - then it was lunchtime - now I understand that beer is a bit part of the English culture, but seriously, 2 out of 2 times I have met up with Justin we have ended up in a pub. How can u have a beer in the middle of the day?! Luckily, most pubs in London have decent food so I was content.
We then had a couple of hours to kill before out meeting at the Faculty of Laws with all the other affiliate students. Justin wanted to head back to his place as he only lived around the corner so I went shopping for a bit. Not my usual shopping, but I went scouting for paper again (still haven't found any) and I had a look at printers as I feel bad using my aunt's printer as I know the s#$tload of stuff I'll have to print out (this was before I found out I get free unlimited printing at uni - at least that's one they UCL has up on UNSW). So I trudged back to the law building (which is called Bentham House, after a Mr Jeremy Bentham who was a very influential philosopher back in the days and whose body has been preserved and is on display at the uni (gross I know):
His actual body - apparently, he donated himself to the uni . . .
So yes, the meeting - there are 52 affiliate law student this year . . . all from Europe except for Justin and me. Did I mention before that Justin and I are the first Australians to do this exchange programme? Yup, UCL law faculty has never accepted exchange students from outside Europe except for this year and Australia's the first non-Europe country and UNSW is the first partner uni. Talk about pressure . . . I really hope that they don't except me to be the model student cos I ain't!! At the talk, the exchange coordinator mentioned this by saying "Welcome to all of you. Most of you are from different parts of Europe with the exception of our two Australians." Was so embarrassing . . . she made another reference to us when she pointed out that students shouldn't miss lectures etc to pop a visit back home, but she was like "But I don't think our two Australians can do that." Argh, wanted to crawl under my seat . . . but was talking to other students and am so envious of the fact that it takes them less than an hour to go home and it's so cheap for them to fly back.
Oh by the way, I had to go into the meeting myself as I had planned to meet Justin at the door beforehand but he msged me right before and said that he fell asleep and that he would be 15 mins late and that I shouldn't wait for him. But it actually was good cos I wasn't stuck with him and had managed to talk to quite a few people on that day. However, I have a feeling that I won't see a lot of the other exchange students as they all seem to be doing core subjects whereas I am doing options (and yeah, I do feel old when people ask "So, are you 2nd r 3rd year" and I go, "Ah, actually, I'm in 5th year").
We had a quick tour of the law building from some of the Law society guys and then they took us to the UCL Union bar for a drink (why are the all obsessed with drinking?!). Again, absolutely stifling hot in this place. I couldn't stand it and had to leave about 45 mins after we got there.
Oh, a mention about my timetable - the gods above must have been on a lookout for me cos I only need to go to uni 3 days a week, which is awesome as some people had to head in everyday of the week. But I have to say that no-one else has to travel quite as far as I have to.
So yeah, that was Thursday in a nutshell.
Friday 22.09.06
I had to go back to uni today to formally enrol. They said that enrolment started at 9:30am so I got there around 9:45 to find a mile-long line for enrolment. ARGH! I had to stand in line for over one and a half hours to enrol. So that was my whole morning gone.
Then I had to register at the Library and then with the IT people to use the computers and to get my user id and password.
By the time I left, I was so tired I didn't wanna do anything - I pretty much went home after that. I stopped by the local shopping centre just to browse what retail jobs were available. The Gap caught my attention, they were looking for people. It's a thought, I dunno yet.
Saturday 23.09.06
Didn't do much today either - woke up pretty late and we all went out to do to do some grocery shopping.
We went to TK Maxx as well (anyone heard Robbie William's song, Rudebox?). Yeah, it's like a discount chain where you can find designer brands. Had a look through, was some nice stuff but didn't buy anything in case it started a flow-on effect, where I can't stop buying.
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
- Bill Cosby
Thursday 21.09.06
So this was the first day of the International Students Orientation Programme. The day didn't start off very well - for a start, Justin and I had planned the day before for us to meet at 9:45 cos we read the note and thought that the day started at 10am. But turned out that they did it in groups and it was the grads who were supposed to be there at 10am. Since I live so far away I had already left and was on the tube when I got the message from Justin saying it actually started at 11am. Was kinda pissed off as I was in the city at 9:30 already. I went to the uni anyway and there was a mass of people. I lined up to get the orientation pack and then left.
It was weird walking in there without knowing anyone - you know that feeling you have on your first day at a new school where you don't know anyone? Well I was definitely feeling that but for me, it was worse cos everyone there was foreign - I could hear Americans, Germans, French people and even honkie people but alas, no Aussies.
I had nothing to do so I got a coffee somewhere and bummed for like over an hour. Then it was time to head back to the uni again. It didn't help my mood that Justin was half an hour late - I swear, I've had it to about here *hand to throat* with him - he's ALWAYS late (a note on that later on). Anyway, so he came about 11:30am but which time I was so over the day. The welcome talk by the Dean was filled with the usual "this-uni-is-the-best-uni-you're-so-lucky-you're-here" bull crap so there wasn't anything useful in the speech. Oh another note - I think the English are so used to cold weather that when it's a bit warmer, their air-conditioning systems SUCK. I was boiling hot in the lecture hall where the speech was being made and don't get me started on the tube rides - seriously, two words - no ventilation . . . at all. They rely on natural air to flow through, but seriously, how much air can flow through all the way down to the tunnels?! Ahem, sorry, letting off a bit of steam there (hahaha I'm so sad, bad pun, sorry very much . . .)
Back to Thursday - then it was lunchtime - now I understand that beer is a bit part of the English culture, but seriously, 2 out of 2 times I have met up with Justin we have ended up in a pub. How can u have a beer in the middle of the day?! Luckily, most pubs in London have decent food so I was content.
We then had a couple of hours to kill before out meeting at the Faculty of Laws with all the other affiliate students. Justin wanted to head back to his place as he only lived around the corner so I went shopping for a bit. Not my usual shopping, but I went scouting for paper again (still haven't found any) and I had a look at printers as I feel bad using my aunt's printer as I know the s#$tload of stuff I'll have to print out (this was before I found out I get free unlimited printing at uni - at least that's one they UCL has up on UNSW). So I trudged back to the law building (which is called Bentham House, after a Mr Jeremy Bentham who was a very influential philosopher back in the days and whose body has been preserved and is on display at the uni (gross I know):
His actual body - apparently, he donated himself to the uni . . .So yes, the meeting - there are 52 affiliate law student this year . . . all from Europe except for Justin and me. Did I mention before that Justin and I are the first Australians to do this exchange programme? Yup, UCL law faculty has never accepted exchange students from outside Europe except for this year and Australia's the first non-Europe country and UNSW is the first partner uni. Talk about pressure . . . I really hope that they don't except me to be the model student cos I ain't!! At the talk, the exchange coordinator mentioned this by saying "Welcome to all of you. Most of you are from different parts of Europe with the exception of our two Australians." Was so embarrassing . . . she made another reference to us when she pointed out that students shouldn't miss lectures etc to pop a visit back home, but she was like "But I don't think our two Australians can do that." Argh, wanted to crawl under my seat . . . but was talking to other students and am so envious of the fact that it takes them less than an hour to go home and it's so cheap for them to fly back.
Oh by the way, I had to go into the meeting myself as I had planned to meet Justin at the door beforehand but he msged me right before and said that he fell asleep and that he would be 15 mins late and that I shouldn't wait for him. But it actually was good cos I wasn't stuck with him and had managed to talk to quite a few people on that day. However, I have a feeling that I won't see a lot of the other exchange students as they all seem to be doing core subjects whereas I am doing options (and yeah, I do feel old when people ask "So, are you 2nd r 3rd year" and I go, "Ah, actually, I'm in 5th year").
We had a quick tour of the law building from some of the Law society guys and then they took us to the UCL Union bar for a drink (why are the all obsessed with drinking?!). Again, absolutely stifling hot in this place. I couldn't stand it and had to leave about 45 mins after we got there.
Oh, a mention about my timetable - the gods above must have been on a lookout for me cos I only need to go to uni 3 days a week, which is awesome as some people had to head in everyday of the week. But I have to say that no-one else has to travel quite as far as I have to.
So yeah, that was Thursday in a nutshell.
Friday 22.09.06
I had to go back to uni today to formally enrol. They said that enrolment started at 9:30am so I got there around 9:45 to find a mile-long line for enrolment. ARGH! I had to stand in line for over one and a half hours to enrol. So that was my whole morning gone.
Then I had to register at the Library and then with the IT people to use the computers and to get my user id and password.
By the time I left, I was so tired I didn't wanna do anything - I pretty much went home after that. I stopped by the local shopping centre just to browse what retail jobs were available. The Gap caught my attention, they were looking for people. It's a thought, I dunno yet.
Saturday 23.09.06
Didn't do much today either - woke up pretty late and we all went out to do to do some grocery shopping.
We went to TK Maxx as well (anyone heard Robbie William's song, Rudebox?). Yeah, it's like a discount chain where you can find designer brands. Had a look through, was some nice stuff but didn't buy anything in case it started a flow-on effect, where I can't stop buying.
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
- Bill Cosby
Thursday, 21 September 2006
Exhausted beyond words
Cant' type *yawns* . . . been a very very long day *yawns again* . . . have to do it all again tomorrow . . . so must sleep . . . will tell all tomorrow night.
Peace out.
Elvis
Peace out.
Elvis
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.
- Alice Walker
Wednesday, 20 September 2006
First Encounter
Today was an interesting day. I started off meeting one of Calvin's friends, Wei, who here in London studying medicine. Had my first taste of Indian food here and then he gave me a quick tour of the campus:
UCL
Yeah, finally found out that this building's called the Portico and it's like the landmark of UCL. Kinda like the main walkway in UNSW.
After the meeting with Wei, I was just about to leave (actually, I was having another McFlurry at Macca's hehehe) when Justin called and said that the coordinator in charge of affiliate students in the law faculty was free that arvo if we wanted to have an informal meeting and chat with her.
Waiting for Justin
So I hung around and we met Pamela in her office. She was really nice and reminded me of those English grannies who would bake apple pies and have really cool antique things in her house. Anyway, I digress. We had a good little chat but our formal orientation day is tomorrow so I will probably have more to report then.
After talking to her, I realised that they are so inflexible when it comes to timetables and choosing subjects here. Basically, as soon as you choose your subjects for the very first time, you're stuck with them. You can't swap in and out of different subjects and worse still, you can't choose the times of your lectures and tutes . . . at all. You're given your timetable and that's it. Pamela added "Hopefully, you won't need to go into uni five days a week." I was thinking, "HOPEFULLY?! wft?! I ain't computing an hour and a half each way every day by train to attend a 2-hour lecture per day!!!" Note to self: must not jinx myself . . . Their excuse of not being able to run the same lecture multiple times per day on different days is that they don't have enough funds to get lecturers to teach them. I was wondering, "If UNSW can . . . it can't be that they are funded more than UCL . . ." This means I better have made the right choices when I picked my subjects . . . if they're crap, I'm stuck with it. Worse still, if I get a crap lecturer, I'm stuck with him/her for a year. A year!!
And what's with the personal emails from lecturers?! Got another email today from my tax law lecturer (yeah I know, tax law, must have been slightly delusional when I signed up for that) telling us when our first lecture is.
Ok, had a slight panic attack today - some of you know how pedantic I am about my stationery and books and stuff. I only write on loose A4 lined paper (with the red margins and plastic-reinforced left hand side) and only that paper. I've been into like 3 stationery stores so far and I can't find them!! I can only find stupid notebooks where you tear the pages out. I mentioned this to Wei and when he said he didn't really know what I was talking about, I nearly cried *whimpers* he pulled out a notepad from his bag and said that's it when it comes to paper here in London. NO!!!!! Can someone fed-ex a pack to me?!?!?! I only brought one pack with me thinking I could buy them here. I'm being serious!! I can't not use that paper!!
A good designer must rely on experience, on precise, logic thinking; and on pedantic exactness. No magic will do.
- Niklaus Wirth
UCL
Yeah, finally found out that this building's called the Portico and it's like the landmark of UCL. Kinda like the main walkway in UNSW.After the meeting with Wei, I was just about to leave (actually, I was having another McFlurry at Macca's hehehe) when Justin called and said that the coordinator in charge of affiliate students in the law faculty was free that arvo if we wanted to have an informal meeting and chat with her.
Waiting for JustinSo I hung around and we met Pamela in her office. She was really nice and reminded me of those English grannies who would bake apple pies and have really cool antique things in her house. Anyway, I digress. We had a good little chat but our formal orientation day is tomorrow so I will probably have more to report then.
After talking to her, I realised that they are so inflexible when it comes to timetables and choosing subjects here. Basically, as soon as you choose your subjects for the very first time, you're stuck with them. You can't swap in and out of different subjects and worse still, you can't choose the times of your lectures and tutes . . . at all. You're given your timetable and that's it. Pamela added "Hopefully, you won't need to go into uni five days a week." I was thinking, "HOPEFULLY?! wft?! I ain't computing an hour and a half each way every day by train to attend a 2-hour lecture per day!!!" Note to self: must not jinx myself . . . Their excuse of not being able to run the same lecture multiple times per day on different days is that they don't have enough funds to get lecturers to teach them. I was wondering, "If UNSW can . . . it can't be that they are funded more than UCL . . ." This means I better have made the right choices when I picked my subjects . . . if they're crap, I'm stuck with it. Worse still, if I get a crap lecturer, I'm stuck with him/her for a year. A year!!
And what's with the personal emails from lecturers?! Got another email today from my tax law lecturer (yeah I know, tax law, must have been slightly delusional when I signed up for that) telling us when our first lecture is.
Ok, had a slight panic attack today - some of you know how pedantic I am about my stationery and books and stuff. I only write on loose A4 lined paper (with the red margins and plastic-reinforced left hand side) and only that paper. I've been into like 3 stationery stores so far and I can't find them!! I can only find stupid notebooks where you tear the pages out. I mentioned this to Wei and when he said he didn't really know what I was talking about, I nearly cried *whimpers* he pulled out a notepad from his bag and said that's it when it comes to paper here in London. NO!!!!! Can someone fed-ex a pack to me?!?!?! I only brought one pack with me thinking I could buy them here. I'm being serious!! I can't not use that paper!!
A good designer must rely on experience, on precise, logic thinking; and on pedantic exactness. No magic will do.
- Niklaus Wirth
Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Morning at Tooting
So, this morning I was woken up by my aunt at 9:30am cos I was supposed to go with my grandma to Tooting, a suburb kinda like Parramatta, where things are cheaper, but it's basically not a very glamorous part of London (like our Western suburbs) and the area is predominantly Indian.
It was, how to put it nicely, a very B-O-R-I-N-G outing. There were hardly any clothes stores worth going into (and I felt bad if I looked at things for long cos my grandma would just stand behind me, making me feel quite awkward) and I'm not the best person to go grocery shopping with.
Really didn't do that much today - will probably have something more interesting to post tomorrow as I am meeting up with a friend of Calvin's who is here in London doing medicine. He offered to show me around the UCL campus.
Get mad, then get over it.
- Colin Powell
It was, how to put it nicely, a very B-O-R-I-N-G outing. There were hardly any clothes stores worth going into (and I felt bad if I looked at things for long cos my grandma would just stand behind me, making me feel quite awkward) and I'm not the best person to go grocery shopping with.
Really didn't do that much today - will probably have something more interesting to post tomorrow as I am meeting up with a friend of Calvin's who is here in London doing medicine. He offered to show me around the UCL campus.
Get mad, then get over it.
- Colin Powell
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