The scene is set: you’re stood in front of the entrance to a cave. Visibility is non-existent past the few metres in front of you. Suddenly, you hear footsteps. The footsteps slowly turn into a dishevelled figure and soon enough you’re met by this haggard stranger. He brushes his wild hair out of his face and as your eyes meet his, it strikes you that you know this person. But who is it?
Wait a second.
Abhishek?!
Yeah, that’s right. It’s-a me! It’s been so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if all of you thought my exams had completely annihilated me. Although it wasn’t quite that bad. my conversations after my final paper went something like this:
To enlighten you a bit more, I had 8 exams over 10 days and it was… not the most pleasant of experiences. Nevertheless, I made it through in one piece (more or less) and felt like I was walking on sunshine the final time I left the exam hall. With the exam period finally over, I contemplated all that had occurred over the past few months and came to the conclusion that something had to change. Seeing as the term was approaching it’s end and summer was eagerly creeping in, I decided the best course of action would be to get a haircut. I’d like to compare it to Alex Turner’s drastic change before releasing AM but frankly I just wanted to try something new.
Why growing up can be tough, and why you’re still allowed to make up words.
School life tends to be very linear. You wake up begrudgingly at a set time every weekday; you spend most of the day studying and hanging out with friends; you get home sometime in the evening and eat/do homework/relax to varying degrees; you fall asleep at a time that’s socially acceptable; you repeat. And it continues like this, more or less, from the age of 5 till you’re 18. Come to university, and it’s a whole new ball game.
Suddenly your days are irregular. And non-linearity rules (unless you’re solving differential equations, in which case I wish you the best of luck). You’ve still got lectures and tutorials to attend but aside from those, how you choose to spend your time here is completely up to you! No teachers running behind you to make sure you’re you’ve got your homework. No parents to make sure you’re eating properly or check that you’re not going to bed at ungodly hours. Freedom!
But with all this excitement comes responsibility. Now this would be the perfect moment to deliver a Spider-Man monologue, but all I’m saying is that people expect you to manage yourself. This includes your studies, your interests, your free time, and your general well-being. And that’s actually a really big deal.
Your alarm didn’t ring and you missed morning lectures? It’s down to you to find the time to catch up otherwise you’re just setting yourself up for more work come revision time.
You forgot to go out and buy groceries over the weekend? Well, now you might end up spending a lot more for dinner than you bargained for. (Or you gloriously exclaim once you realise the fact that there’s a Sainsbury’s right around the corner that’s open till midnight and you’ve still got time to make some teriyaki chicken. Yeah, it’s the little things that bring joy to my life.)
Hopefully, you’re not reading this as some sort of ominous warning about the trials and tribulations of university life. It’s honestly not too difficult once you get into the rhythm of living here. It’s just that growing up, part of me thought I’d hit 18 and bang: I’d be an adult with a perfect understanding of how to live life. Turns out, that’s not really the case. To be honest, the older I get the more I realise that ‘getting it all figured out’ doesn’t really mean anything. You’re still allowed to have conversations about the most random of things like how being ‘up for something’ and ‘down for something’ mean the exact same thing (it’s weird right?), complain about how adult stuff is always too confusing, and laugh at corny puns (oh, you haven’t learned the meaning of punny until you come to university). Everyone just does their best to cope with what they’re doing and, for the most part, that’s good enough!
One of the fun things about living right in the middle of London is that there’s always something to distract me when I enter my hyper-contemplative philosophical mode. Last weekend, I had a whole lot of fun eating at Bar Shu, a Chinese restaurant specialising in Sichuan cuisine. As you may expect, they really do love their chillies and peppercorns. Here’s the chicken with dried chillies:
After viewing the photo you may wonder why it wasn’t named dried chillies with chicken; to cut a long story short, you’re not actually meant to eat all the chillies and my dad found this out the hard way.
I was half-way through my regular Sunday antics when it hit me that March had arrived.
“Where the hell did February go?” I wondered to myself.
Granted, it’s a few days shorter than the other months but even then you don’t expect 28 days to just fly by. After 4 months of adjustment, it seemed it was finally time to (sort of) stick to a concrete timetable throughout the week. I’d say it has a lot to do with the reappearance of Easter eggs. Normally, Easter eggs are great: they signal the coming of holidays, the end of winter, and the moment you eat one you know you’ve committed to at least two more. But with all these wonderful things comes the ominous exam horizon, beyond which no student can escape. Though we’ve still got two months till any real exams, the general level of seriousness is definitely ramping up.
That being said, there were a number of fun things that happened last month!
When in Imperial, bungee jump (for charity)Chinese New Year approaches…and it’s here!Night-time walks are underratedChicken wings and buns, however, need no introduction
When we last left our intrepid hero, he was deep in the catacombs of Maple coursework, fighting to factorise some worryingly large semi-primes. Now, suddenly, it’s suddenly 2015.
10:49.
Wait, it’s 10:49.
~
After the initial wave of panic that I had missed my morning lecture passed, it dawned on me that it was still on winter break. Gone (at least temporarily) were the days of running to morning lectures whilst gorging through a mystery mix of whatever fruits I could find in my kitchen shelf. No more having to micromanage laundry, dinner, and problem sheets on a daily basis. Sounds perfect, right? Well, somewhere along the way last term, not only did I get used to the chaotic way university life works, but I grew to enjoy it.
The time surrounding New Year is meant to be a time where we reflect on the year that’s gone by. I stress the word meant because most of the time between great meals, mountains of presents, and global firework displays, self-reflection tends to take a back seat. When you’re blogging, you get all the time in the world to self-reflect but even then, it’s very difficult to try and summarise the last two months eloquently. Instead, here’s a 10 photo summary! (Seeing as a picture is worth a 1000 words, this is basically a dissertation.)
Abhishek in (Winter) WonderlandWho said students can’t cook?Christmas Dinner ReloadedAt this point, I’ve probably made it clear how much I love food.Spain, it’s December. How do you even manage to stay like this.Even the mountain towns look great!There’s definitely no shortage of breath-taking views.And plenty of market stalls.And there’s no way I could forget to mention Spanish cuisine.But at the end of the day, it’s always fun to be back in London!
I’m very wary when it comes to making resolutions. Most of the time, it’s something that just ends up being impossible to stick to. Nevertheless, this term I’m definitely going to be more organised than the last!
As I mentioned in my first post, I actually had a whole post about my experiences over the first few weeks. Here’s part 1 of 2 (respecting chronological order of course) !
“Hey!”
“您好!”
“Γεια σας!”
A barrage of languages greeted my ears as I walked into the college bar. After completing my backbreaking ten mile journey from the suburbs of north-west London to Imperial, I suddenly felt as if I had entered a different world. Three weeks into the term, the wide diversity of people on campus is still astonishing.
But let’s backtrack .
Fresher’s Week has been elevated to an almost mythical status by students across the UK, but it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s an experience unlike anything else. At the Mingle and Fresher’s Ball it felt as if I was meeting someone from a different corner of the world every ten minutes. I’ve definitely learned a lot more about some cultures in the past few weeks than I have in the last few years. Within all this variety we share the common backdrop of South Kensington, a neighbourhood with world renowned museums, a perpetual flock of visitors, and an eclectic mix of street performers. Whether it’s a flaming trombonist or a break-dancing monkey, you never quite know what you’ll see!
Then came the Fresher’s Fair which was an assortment of practically every activity known to man. Like everyone else, I was hit by a wave of euphoria and keenly signed up to anything and everything that caught my attention. A 1000 emails later, I realise this was probably a miscalculation on my part. Nevertheless, I did manage to find quite a few clubs which genuinely interested me and just last weekend I went on a photo walk with PhotoSoc around Borough Market. The results were hunger inducing to say the least, but it was a nice way to meet other photographers and learn a surprising deal about exposure and composition. The “work hard, play hard” mentality is definitely a motto most Imperial students take to heart, with a great deal of people knowing as much about their interests as they do their fields of study.
Disclaimer: Do not go to Borough Market if you are broke and hungry.
The “word hard, play hard” way of life is a two-sided philosophy and would be nothing if we forgot about the work! The first week was fairly gentle and consisted primarily of introductions to my various courses, but from the second week we hit the ground running. It’s a big change from secondary school where it was expected for teachers to stop and clarify content during lessons and provide individual help. It definitely takes time to get used. At the same time it’s been fun to approach the so-called “simpler” areas of mathematics such as logic and probability with a lot more rigour and formal, mathematical language.
And now, just like that, three weeks have gone by. In between lectures, problem sheets, societies, hall events, and catching up on sleep (or, at least, attempting to) there’s hardly any time to catch your breath. I’m starting to understand why people liken university life to a whirlwind. It feels like 2015 is right around the corner.
Well, I could pretend I’m the next Chris Nolan and that this is all part of my grand plan to create an anachronic blog which will eventually make sense when someone in the far future decides to piece it all together. In reality, it’s more an administration issue and this blog will most likely continue in chronological order after the first two posts.
With that out the way, I’m proud to say that I’m officially an Imperial blogger! I’m Abhishek, an aspiring mathematician with a list of interests far longer than it should be. If I’m not trying to convince you that maths is awesome, I’m either jamming to The Strokes on my guitar, navigating through my seemingly endless backlog of anime, or taking photos around the streets of South Kensington. One of my more recent endeavours is in-line skating which has so far been a hell of an uphill climb. If you’ve ever wondered why humans have yet to evolve to have wheels for feet, the first session of in-line quickly teaches you why. Long story short, I spent most of the first session on my back, which only got more painful as the day went on. Frustrating as it may have been, it’s been great to actually improve over the past few weeks and be able to build up a decent pace. Hopefully, I’ll learn to stop sometime soon.
I also woke up today to the somewhat startling realisation that there are only two weeks left of this term. It really feels like Fresher’s was just last week! Managing uni life can be downright crazy at times but, on the bright side, I’ve taken home some very important realisations:
1) Between sleep, work, and socialising, sleep always loses out. If you’ve been gifted with the ability to power nap, you’re already winning.
2) Nothing good happens after 2am. Turns out, HIMYM had a very valid point and sleep deprivation is a big no-no.
3) Setting multiple alarms is usually a life saver.
4) Panopto is always a life saver. It’s terrifying to imagine a time when lectures weren’t recorded.
5) Washing dishes night on night requires an unprecedented amount of mental fortitude.
The most important thing I’ve learned is that it’s important to do as much as you can. There are next to no consequences if you decide something isn’t up your alley, but there’s everything to gain if you find a new sport or activity you really enjoy and a whole bunch of new people to meet! Thankfully (I guess?) mathematicians don’t have any tests until the start of next term so I have a multitude of Christmas dinners and Maple coursework to look forward to over the next fortnight. I leave you with an inspiring image of our bustling union:
