Cambridge Diary X

Somehow I only managed to pen 9 entries about my life in Cambridge last year. One year of undergraduate studies in an 800-years-old institution surely worth much more than that.

The workload may be a valid excuses. However, there are plenty of periods that I didn't do anything meaningful. Just sitting there mindlessly browsing the net or wandering from kitchen to toilet and my room.

I didn't upload any photos either. Any person reading this must be really bored. The blog probably stayed too true to its name; just writes. I am just too lazy to upload photos that were already uploaded onto facebook.

So much for the diversion. Anyway this year I'm living in an very old room in D staircase. It has sort of 2 parts: one for sleeping and one is sort of a living room (but no sofa). Size-wise I am very satisfied. It also has a slanted roof, and combined with its old age, can more or less give me some inspirations. Facilities wise it was horrible compared to last year. The gym room is small, toilet doesn't have a sink, and the bathroom literally just has one bath tub. For shower I need to go down all the way to the first floor. Good thing that on the staircase there are Daniel and Yongsheng so things are much easier and more convenient in a lot of ways.

On the work front, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are completely packed. After heeding advices from Dr Keeling and Guanghao I had chosen practicals to be on two separate afternoons. This would allow me the weekend to think through the experiments, but at the same time means traveling to Cavendish twice a week. This journey so far has been quite enjoyable in some sense as Pembroke physicists cycle together there. My supervisors are much better than last year. They know their stuff and are quite easy to talk to. However I need to prepare much more than just the supervision work and I have not been doing that.

Will probably leave it now as my eyes are trying too hard to stay open. Will talk about being a "parent" and other happenings.

Isn't this what you want?

This has been a hot topic in China for many years. Given its population, total economic power, and rich history, shouldn't at least one Chinese have won the Nobel Prize. Technically there are. Quite a number of ethnic Chinese have won the award, especially in the sciences, but none of them were citizens of the People's Republic of China at the time of award. If we use proportions, 1/5 of the prize should have gone to Chinese. This is clearly not the case as well.
It can be quite an embarrassment to certain people, and some are puzzled. Go to any bookstores in China and you're bound to find books explaining the current situation. Titles such as "we will win the Nobel Prize in a certain number of years sells pretty too. The entire country seems quite obsessed with this. To them, winning Olympic (Olympiad) medals and Nobel prizes are signs of a stronger nation. To me, this is just silly. A country or people's achievement can't be measured using such parameters, not evenly remotely.

Now the irony comes. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel peace prize! He is a proper Han Chinese (unlike the 14th Dalai Lama) whose citizenship is not disputed. The country should have been immersed in jubilant celebrations marking this historic moment. However, such a heroic achievement to the Chinese people was absent from all news channel in China. People don't hear a thing about this (as was the case with Dalai Lama). This just shows the level of censorship in Mainland. I feel sad for the nation and sad for the people. Clearly the communist party is set to continue its policy on human rights and rule of law. Any attempts to induce changes were met with "you're meddling with my internal affair". The crackdown on such reform-minded people can only increase as it feels more threatened than ever. The change will come someday, one way or another, yet the struggle ahead for Liu and his friends will be long and hard.

Cambridge Diary IX

May Week! :)

I have never seen a period of havoc like this before. The motto is “Party and alcohol”. Drunkenness is the new cool and sanity is a taboo. Seeing such things going around myself inevitably pulled me towards such craziness.

No I didn’t get drunk, or do anything stupid. The highest point reached is tipsy. I Played croquet for the first time (not while tipsy). This gentlemen sports is not so gentlemen after all, as we are supposed to sabotage each other. Friendship can be really tested here. There are the meetings with fellow Singaporean friends, some of whom I haven’t seen for such a long time due to my self imposed seclusion.

While “abandoned” by many of my friends who went travelling around the UK, I am “stuck” to find things to entertain myself. There are garden parties, sports and just random fun. Each has its own function during different time of the day.  The most fun of them is to play bridge with Paraic, Eunice, Andrew and Lizzie. While bridge is not new to me after playing for 4 to 5 years, it is different when the people change. The lack of seriousness and experience  makes each game very hilarious. Such activities dominate my May Week time, other than a short trip to Nottingham and Birmingham. The trip is decent but somehow I missed Cambridge during it, the kind of feeling you get when you miss home.

I wonder what is life for? We study hard and then play hard. We drink, we dance. “Some dance to remember, some dance to forget”. What do I do that for? Have I past that age that you can get truly crazy and let go of all the troubles at once. Or is it my inbuilt character? I just can’t do it.

There was a trip to Gardies with Paraic that would make me remember it. The behavior of that girl was truly disgusting. For a free burger she was willing to exchange herself in such a degrading way. While there was some salvage to my impression with Cambridge University on realizing she was a local, I most likely wont go back there again.

Cambridge Diary VIII

Can’t think of a single word to describe this month. So much happened that all other months pale in comparison.

First is the all important Tripos. So overwhelming was it that basically I never stepped out of my room except for toilet and food. I deactivated Facebook. While the intention was to get me focused, other distractions such as games and Youtube proved more potent. The revision went alright nevertheless, until the exam started. Between each paper I didn’t do any revision, thinking that last minute study may make me nervous. The end result was that I forgot some basic information that could have helped me scored much more in Chemistry and Materials. Physics and Maths were not affected much. The result would be out on 25th this month, and I hope for the best. And judging by how the exam went, I will definitely be doing Physics and Maths next year.

Just as a reflection, next year I would definitely not lock myself up like this year. Studying together, at least for a few days a week would be really helpful. And studying in the library, as it would make me focused. My thinking just before the exam was right, but I should have taken the opportunity to rest my brain, instead of listening to music and surfing the Internet.

The end of exam was a a sweet moment. Some friends came to cheering for us in front of the entrance at the last day. Suddenly the realization that there are no more exams or supervision to worry about. The academic life as a fresher has ended.

There were so many people celebrating at that day as most of the NatSci finished on that day. Champagnes were popped everywhere and alcohol was downed like water. Although I disapprove alcohol consumption in general, this was perfectly understandable. Get drunk people, you deserved it!

Cambridge Diary VII

The glorious weather!

Never seen so many sunny days in a row in Cambridge before! People are taking the opportunity to enjoy the sun on the lawn; be it a book, a friend or by oneself. This is certainly the most cheerful time of the year. Went punting again, and this time but this time the feeling is really different. The weather and people makes all the difference. Will play tennis soon, otherwise it is no justice for the hard work the sun has put in.

These few days are not too great though, with temperature dipping into the regions of 5 degrees Celsius. Nevertheless, still expecting more days with the sun out.

I came back to Cambridge before the volcano ash. A few friends were stuck until term has started. I bet if there’s a survey on what people think of each country right now, Iceland will come bottom of the list. I didn’t accomplish even close to a third of what I planned to study during the holiday. Most of the time was spent watching movies, and talking and sleeping.

Now the pressure came and that’s why I fell sick. Sore throat and cough and sneezing. Luckily this time the cold didn’t bring me down to fever. I think this blog will cease to be updated until late June.

Looking at it, the gap between this post and the last was not much shorter. Where did my April go?