I attended 7 lectures and 1 tutorial this week.
Monday- Restoring freshwater and Ecosystems
Sociolinguistics
Tueday- Semantics and Pragmatics (Linguistics department)
Past Global Environmental Change
Environmental management
Thursday- Geospatial Informative Systems (Teach you how to create maps... collect
data... Involves lots of IT stuff..)
International migration
Sociolinguistics tutorial
So its decisions which modules to take that gives me a headache now.
Some modules, esp the Linguistics module are very hard to understand... in fact I'm totally thrown off the chair and I foresee myself struggling if I take them. But yet, all i need to do is to get a C grade and above, because all my modules are on 'Pass/Fail' when I come for exchange. Meaning the grade will not affect my Cumulative points back in Singapore. And some of the geography modules are not exactly easy. Some of these modules have a 'junior' module touching on some basic concepts and graphs that I have never heard of before. Some of the lecturers' Bristish accent is so strong that I just lose my attention after a few minutes... the best is some of them even mumble. World Best.
More complains!!!
In Singapore, if lessons progress from 1-3,
the lecturers usually finish off 15 minutes before 3 to allow some of us
to travel to the next venue, because some of us might have another back to back lesson.
BUT.... its not the case here! The lecturer nags all the way till the last minute and its so Pai seh to leave early because most lectures are in a tutorial setting and I have to crawl through many congested spaces to get my way out.
The best thing is, in UCL, the buildings are all scattered. The faculties that are outside of the main building may be in the midst of public houses and other buildings. Let me try to localise the geography of UCL. The main building is in SMU... the Law faculty is say at Plaza Sing.. the Linguistic faculty is say at Selegie Tao hui store's back alley. And even if you're studying Linguistics, your tutorial may be in the Law faculty.. so its like.. HUH!!????!!
And because of that, I was late for ALL back to back lessons. At least for 20 minutes! It was the mother of all today. I was looking for this place called Wolfson house for my tutorial. There were no address given and I was using the orientation map that was not very detailed. I spent 20 minutes walking from the main building to the nearby vacinity and another 10 in asking for directions... Holland-ing... and when i finally reach the place which was in some back alley.. I was 40 minutes late for tutorial, and the sociolinguistic tutorial ended in less then 10 minutes after i arrived.. World best.
The Sociolinguistics venue at the back alley
After that bad experience, I decided to cheer myself up abit and spent my 1st pound on food! Kit kat chocolate! 40pence... which is SGD$1.20. Cheaper than home!
I went back to the UCL main campus and headed to the computer cluster rooms to look for you guys since its the peak period in Singapore- 2330hrs
Right now I do not have internet connection in my room. It costs
36 pounds to open the connection for 16 weeks and 70 pounds to open it for 52 weeks.
So if I open it now for 16 weeks, I will have no internet access in my last month.
And i have to survive w/o internet in my room for the next 1 mth. But meanwhile, I can either 1. Go to the computer room in hall or
2. Go to the common room and steal wireless from Marks and Spencer that is
just beside us. (The common room is about 15m from my room)
At night, I was watching the movie 'Phonebooth' in the common room myself.
Met alot of random people from all over the world as they pop in one by one.
Some from Spain, germany.. etc. After some time, Gordon and Kai Xin (Both frm Spore) came in and sat down with me and say 'Lets talk about life...' I was like.. 'What the heck.. why so serious one? Are they trying to evangelise me or what?..' In the end, it was just their intention of helping me familiarise with the place, where to get cheap groceries, what do they do at night sort of stuff, and I really appreciated their help in doing that! So after that, it was talking..talking and more talking about home in Singapore, and about all of the above.
Until... at 2230 hrs... some Ang mos came into the common room with ciagrettes, beer and Umm Hmm... I was offered Marijuana!!!!! Took a bit and got really high..
OF COURSE NOT!!!! did i manage to scare you???
They brought in a basker in one of the tunnels.. a black guy with dreg locks..
and started having a small jam session at the common room. Some of the Ang mo girls got really high with the ciagrettes and beer in their hand...VICE
And this is Gordon, the Singaporean hall mate
And some of them getting really high
Away from me Alcohol, always Cokacola!!!
Went up to have a little chat with one of the guitarist in the picture who stays on the same floor as me. Man somehow all the people I talk to looks up to Bob Dylan like crazy somehow.
At the end of the day, they got so high that they started doing crazy things that was quite funny. Because the doors here are pretty heavy, they challenged each other in kicking the doors wide open with 1 foot. Boy we made so so much noise.
So whats the conclusion of the day?
The title of the song by radiohead came to me 'High and dry'
Well perhaps because we're from different nations, different cultures and different worlds. But i seriously don't know whats so high about that.
I went back to my room and after all that being exposed to the 'world'
Somehow there was just this feeling, God I'm not filled, I'm not satisfied and there was this unique longing to be with him, because I know only in him am I whole.
I don't want to be high with the things of the world, but I want to be high because I'm drunk with the most High God.
Why is it so fun everytime we guys gather at timbre, at YCK chalet or anywhere else?
Because God is in our midst, in our hearts.
I echo the word of the psalmist. 'One day in your courts, is better than a thousand days without you, I just want to be a keeper at your door, than be a servant of my Lord'
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