Student blogs

We are more than half way through our Spring Break already (where did the time go??!!) and it has become clear that I have fallen in the latter category: the people hibernating and pulling all-nighters. It’s just that I’ve slacked off the last month and there’s so much to catch up on and revise if I ever hope to pass the exams, now about a month away.

Despite that I still managed to slip away from the mountain of work to enjoy the long, sunny days (England is experiencing unusual weather patterns; it got all the way up to 20°C this week) and went to London Zoo to celebrate my friend’s birthday. Believe it or not, I have never been to a zoo before so I was actually quite excited; almost like a 5-year-old when you tell them you’re getting ice cream. It was absolutely amazing to take in all these animals that I have watched for years on National Geographic documentaries and to see them in real life. Though I was a bit disappointed that there were no bears or lions (they’re bringing lions in the spring of 2016 but no word on the bears yet) but the other animals more than made up for it, especially seeing a real life okapi (a weird looking animal that resembles a mule in height, a zebra in the stripes on its back and a giraffe in its tongue. It’s too difficult to explain so I added a picture!). It was also great to see the zoo’s effort at conservation activities like growing coral and breeding programs done by ZSL (Zoological Society of London) around the world, although they did strike me as pessimistic when they labelled animals as ‘not YET threatened’ as if it were inevitable that every animal would be (which I know to be false because flour beetles can survive a freaking nuclear fallout-even better than cockroaches! And let’s be real, insects do not seem like they would go extinct anytime soon; you kill one and twenty more appear!).

I then went on a shopping spree the very next day; spring is finally here and I needed a few items as my closet is not prepared for temperatures above 15°C. And while I was procrastinating anyway, I thought, ‘Why stop?’ and watched Dior and I’ (a documentary giving the world a unique look into one of the last fashion houses that still follow the ‘haute couture traditions’).

But I am afraid I can no longer procrastinate any further if I have any hope of covering all the material I have left before the exams. Alas, I must turn to Heat and Mass Transfer for now.

Read Spring Break in full

I know, I know, it’s been a while but I have just been swamped under a mountain of work this month. It seems like, the closer we get to the Easter Break, the assignments just multiply by ten. After submitting my lab report, Business project and finally completing the rig building assessment on Friday I can finally say: I’M DONE!!

It has been a gruelling month, but as every lecturer completed their final lecture of the course I started to feel nostalgic for some unknown reason. I mean, it’s not like the year is over yet, plus I am still going to the revision lectures after the break. I think it’s just the fact that this academic year is drawing to an end and I have to say it has been one of the most challenging, liberating, mind opening, fun experiences of my life this far. I don’t know what I am going to do by the time we get to the fourth year and it really is all over-assuming that I’ll make it to that stage of course!

I don’t want to go on about my nostalgia, it’s not particularly interesting. I wanted to write a little summary of the things that have been going on this month at the college and around England in general. Please be patient; it’s a long list. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Malaysian Night

This is perhaps one of the most anticipated events of the year. The Malaysian Society puts on an extraordinary show, which includes a play, dances (both western and traditional) and singing. The performers are mostly, if not all, freshers while the seniors do most of the backstage work like choreographing, producing, writing the script etc. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this event, the performers started working on the project way back in October.

Despite technical difficulties that led to cancelling the Saturday show, they brought their A game on Sunday’s show. All their hard work really paid off; it was absolutely amazing to watch the traditional dances and grain a greater insight to their culture.

(This time I didn’t bother with photos seeing as how badly the previous ones turned out so if you want to see any go on to https://www.facebook.com/icumalaysiansociety/photos_stream?ref=page_internal)

Solar Eclipse

The media had been going on and on about one of the biggest solar eclipses (more than 90% sun coverage) in quite a while, building a sense of overwhelming anticipation by the time Friday, 20^th March, arrived everybody was expecting to witness a spectacular phenomenon. And this being Imperial, it meant that lecturers were just as eager, if not more, than the students and so we stopped half way through the lecture so we could watch the eclipse.

Queen’s Lawn was packed; some students managed to get up on Queen’s tower with their laptops to better record the event. But the day ended in great disappointment; the sun was nowhere to be found! There was a sea of cloud rendering the sun completely invisible. We couldn’t even locate the sun, let alone see the moon covering it. With dampened spirits, we returned to lectures. So much for an almost total solar eclipse.

Trip to Stonehenge and Bath

After seeing a post by a fellow blogger about a trip to Bath, I decided that I should also discover another part of England other than London. Though it was tough to wake up in the small hours of the morning (6:20 am to be exact; I haven’t woken up that early in almost a year now) and also ensuring my notoriously lazy friend to be ready by 8 am so that we catch the coach. But it was all worth it. I can understand why the Stonehenge is considered one of the wonders of the world; the sheer size of those rocks is tremendous and how they were erected is perhaps a mystery that can never be proven (archaeologists couldn’t find any tracks that the rocks could have been slid along on or any other method which would explain how these rocks ended up where they are). It would have been great if we could touch the rocks but the immediate vicinity was deemed too fragile for many tourists to stand on all at once. The rocks did look weather beaten and it appeared that a bit of vegetation managed to spring through the holes. In spite of that, these rocks have withstood the test of time and still manage to bewilder us.

We were allowed to enter the tiny huts where, presumable, the builders of the Stonehenge lived. They were no bigger than a standard room, circular and with no windows. In my opinion, a pretty poor compensation for all that arduous work they have put in. However, the weather was anything but ideal; it was cold, raining and extremely windy that people couldn’t even hold on to their umbrellas. So, I suggest that you make this trip in May, when the weather would have, hopefully, gotten warmer.

In Bath we visited all of the tourist-y places like the Roman Baths (the water was actually warm! On a side note: is that why Bath is called Bath?), Bath Abbey (the walls and even the floor were adorned with ceramic tablets of people who contributed in one way or another to the society since the seventeenth century) and the Royal Crescent. The city had a more intimate atmosphere than in London, more like Reading where people are more likely to run into friends on the street. All of the buildings that I saw were at least 100 years old, so seeing ‘Banana Republic’ etched on a wall was, admittedly, quite bizarre. It is an amazing city with so much history and a LOT of Thai restaurants (I guess Bath-ians love their Thai food!!).

It was nice to get away from the buzz of London and discovering a new place though pretty exhausting-I slept till 1pm the following day.

Easter Break

With a month off, two distinct categories of people emerge: those who enjoy their holiday, going on road trips or sunny coasts around the world, out an about every day and those who hibernate for a month and pull out all-nighters every night, who emerge out of their cocoons blinking confusedly at the sun.

I would like to think that I fall in the middle of these two categories, perhaps leaning more towards the latter. Well, only time can tell.

Read Feeling Nostalgic Already in full

Last Tuesday (wow, it feels like a month ago now) I attended one of the biggest events in the Chemical Engineering Department: The ChemEng Talent Show 2015! It is a fantastic opportunity for Chem Eng students to chill for a night and enjoy some great performances as well as see another side to our lecturers who always prepare a surprise performance at the end of the show; no one knows what it is but you are certain that it will be memorable.

Most of the shows were of people singing and playing an instrument. There was a gymnastics show that was cancelled last minute due to health and safety issues though it would have added greater variety to the show. I quite enjoyed a performance by two guys in my year; they wrote their own lyrics to a rap song and their execution was spot on. They knew how to get the crowd excited and on their feet. Their lyrics dealt with a typical first year ChemEng student life so all of us could relate to it.

It seemed like the lecturers were planning to put on two shows because half way through they had a sort of comedy retort were a topic would be suggested and the lecturers would take turns to come up with a, hopefully, funny comment. These are the ones that still stuck with me until now.

Things you won’t overhear a first year say

“I got a girlfriend.” (That was met with great laughter and, dare I say, a few nods)

“Cambridge was my insurance choice.”(That was met with a lot of boos but I just smiled; it is a well-known fact that many ox-bridge rejects end up at Imperial, including yours truly!)

Another intriguing performance was an alumnus singing ‘Poker Face’ by Lady Gaga with three male backup dancers who wore masks with the faces of some of the lecturers only for us to realise that one of them is a fellow lecturer!

Two and a half hours later we finally witnessed the most anticipated performance; the lecturers’ show. And let me tell you they did not disappoint! They danced to “All About that Bass” by Meghan Trainor and they were all wearing bright polka dot skirts including the male lecturers (thank God they wore wearing leggings as well with the dance moves they were doing!)

And finally the award ceremony and I am proud to announce that the two guys from my year won it! They couldn’t have represented us, the newbies, any better!

All in all it was an exciting night, and I could tell that this will become a new tradition for me. Well, for the next three years anyway.

(For clearer photos of the event please visit:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chemengsoc/sets/72157648881475814/)

Read ChemEng Talent Show 2015 in full