Welcome to Round 2 of the Imperial Survival Challenge! Getting back into the ‘zone’ after weeks of slacking off and chilling on the couch during Christmas break does take a lot (especially if you forgot how to write over Christmas :))
Start of Autumn Term
I remembered what the start of the Autumn term looked like. All the “freshers week” events, so-called ice-breakers, socials and “introduction” lectures to the various courses ran through my exhausted mind. The time I got to spend with new faces, exploring the city and attempting to sort out finances (clearly didn’t work for the first few weeks, thanks to my amazing cooking skills). More than anything else, it was about getting myself sorted mentally and emotionally (and obviously learning to hate the weather a tad bit less..). This is the period of learning life skills and also having your dose of adventure.
Start of Spring Term
Fast forward a month later. After all the standard protocol of wishing everyone a great new year, the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering has its own way of wishing its students. No matter how cool the department name sounds, pretty much love to keep its students on their toes! My Christmas was hijacked by a portfolio deadline during the holidays, and if things couldn’t get any worse, within a day or two of returning back from my relaxed holidays in Jakarta (the capital of the country which has Bali!), I confronted my first, formal examination consisting of a 2-hour long Maths exam (what can I more fun than that!). The fun ended with yet another assessment, this time a programming one.
And the final words…
All in all, for most people, it was a reality check of the academic standards and rigor that Imperial expects. Better to have to it now than later, because before I realize, within 3 months, the great grand finale round, i.e the final exams will arrive, ready to challenge my capacity (and ego!)
Its the end of first term and with second term just around the corner, I find myself packing my suitcase with a slightly heavy heart. The last time I was packing for uni, I had no idea what was waiting for me but I knew it was going to be exciting. Fresher’s week came with new friends and experiences and, surprisingly, so did the weeks following it but sadly, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. The last few weeks of the term came with fewer lectures and a lot more exams and when the exams ended it was time to go home.
I know when I go back to uni now I don’t have a week full of fun activities to join in on and I can’t deny that I feel disappointed. On the positive side, I’ve realised that just because Fresher’s week is over, doesn’t mean the fun has to stop! So, for anyone feeling the same way, here’s my list of 5 things you can do to help push through those post-freshers blues.
Socialise
Meeting people, whether they’re old friends or new, is always a great way to remind yourself of that first week of uni and for those of you who didn’t have the opportunity to do so, it can also be a way to join in and feel like you’re part of the Imperial community. Organise dinner with your flatmates or have a movie night in your accommodation when you get back. Going on a night out can also be a great way to get those endorphins rushing but if if you fancy something cheaper or have exams to be revising for, there’s always the option to have a group study session or go to a nice coffee shop with your friends instead.
Join Societies
Even though a whole term has passed, its not too late to join a society and the best thing is, you won’t be the only one! Maybe you were getting to grips with your timetable and workload last term and didn’t have time or you just weren’t too sure if a particular society was “your thing”- whatever your reason, you don’t need to wait until second year to join. Most societies will have a stall at the Welcome Back Fair (which is on the 22nd of February this year) so feel free to sign up!
Go to Student Union Events
After spending a whole term at Imperial, I can safely say that going to one of the college’s events is probably one of the best ways to take you back to Freshers Week. Whether its an infamous ACC Sports Night or a pub crawl, SU events give you the opportunity to get to know your peers as well as meet new ones. Don’t worry if you don’t get the chance to speak to a certain someone on the day- chances are there will lots of funny stories from the night if you need conversation starters for lectures!
Redecorate
I think a lot of us forget that a major part of Freshers Week was about settling in and getting to grips with uni life. For those of you living in halls, I would highly recommend bringing small furniture or books from back home to decorate your room with and give it a more homely feel. If you’re up for it, spending a bit of money and giving your room a makeover might also be a fun way to go back to that “a new chapter begins now” vibe. It doesn’t have to be much – a few houseplants or a new cushion can make a big difference to any room. This goes out to all of you commuters as well – why not give your own room a bit of a makeover?
Get into a Routine
I know right now uni is a lot about work, work and more work but it doesn’t have to be. I’m not going to lecture you about having a good work life balance but I will say that its honestly so important. The amount of work I have now compared to when I first started is noticeably different and, sometimes, I do end up feeling swamped with problem sheets and deadlines. For fellow procrastinators like myself, here’s a tip – say “no” more often. I’m often envious of my friends who seem to be on top of work, can go out clubbing and are able to get out of bed so they can hit the gym. This usually leads to me saying “yes’ to anything not related to work but I’ve realised that just because you have to miss one night out doesn’t mean you can’t go to another. If you get things done and then treat yourself, you’ll feel much better about things in general. Also, for those of you who are hard at work and still feel swamped, remember to take it slow – pace yourself, you’ve made it this far so don’t burn out now!
Similarly to a little bird flying away from its beloved nest, leaving home to come study in a huge city can be extremely daunting for most prospective students. Add to that the many responsibilities (for example grocery shopping, cooking, washing) of an independent life and it is easy to be terrified. However, this is something that we have all been through. Been an accommodation tour guide on the open days and post to discussions with freshers have shown me that many prospective students are concerned about finding a part time job or knowing if it is even possible to reconcile their studies with a job. I am now going to tell you something that will definitely put your mind at rest.
You can easily get a part time job at Imperial College. Yes you heard me… you can EASILY get a part time job at Imperial.
Still not reassured about coping with work and studying? Imperial’s part time jobs were designed for students like yourself to enable them to work alongside their studies which means that YOU decide when YOU want or can work for most of the jobs. For example, your timetable can be quite empty one week meaning that you can do more shifts but packed another which means that you may only do a few or no shifts at all. The take home message is literally is that you are master of YOUR own time. You decide when you work according to your timetable provided that your work commitment is reasonable.
Okay so now you have a job but I think we can both agree that the next question is what type of jobs should I be expecting?
Again let me take that chip off your shoulder. YOU pick the type of work you are interested in based on your interests and skills you wish to develop or sharpen. There are so many part-time job options you can choose from, proposed by different services around the college which look for help throughout the year. Here is a definitely not exhaustive list:
– Working in the University’s bars to help serve the food and beverages or helping out at the Union shop which sells Imperial merchandise, stationary and basic necessities
– Being a DJ or pub quiz host at the Union’s events
– Helping out in Careers and departmental fairs
– Helping out during Open Days and events targeted for prospective students through the Imperial Student Ambassador Scheme
– Participating in research projects and receiving student bursaries
– Tutoring and translation opportunities
I hope that this blog has answered some of your interrogations and reassured you greatly. Keep smiling!
Imperial offers first-year students a series of optional courses outside of their degree in design, the humanities and languages, called Imperial Horizons. During my first term I experience some of two of these modules: Nature of Science and Making and Prototyping.
Nature of Science
In the first term I was initially allocated my second choice of course: Nature of Science. It’s a module where we discuss the philosophical and sociological aspects of science. In the first session, we talked about the utility of scientific thinking and the criteria to determine if knowledge is scientific. We discussed the ideas of falsification and the need to attempt to disprove scientific claims.
This session was lots of fun for me, largely because of the new students I got to meet and having a lot of time for discussion in small groups. Even the introduction question: “What is a science? Is science the best form of knowledge?” generated different perspectives within our group. However, 4 hours before the second Horizons session (and after I’d done the assigned reading) I got an email: I could switch to my first choice as some people had dropped out.
I think I would have enjoyed the course a lot if I stayed, even though some of the content would probably be less interesting to me as I already hold many strong philosophical opinions. However, it was great to be in an environment where I was with other people interested in the topic and I miss losing that opportunity.
Making and prototyping
The course I transferred onto, making and prototyping, is a very different option to Nature of Science. It’s held in the Imperial Hackspace, half an hour by tube from South Kensington, in White City. The hackspace has 3D printers, power tools and a biohacking lab (where they can prepare modified bacteria and yeast). We got to learn to programme arduinos to read sensors, control motors and write files. Additionally, we got to learn to design and print components on the hackspace 3D printers.
This was quite fun and interesting for me, as someone who regularly becomes lost in programming and enjoys the challenge of making things work. For the final 3 weeks of the course, we had to work as a team of 3 to create a system which would measure the absorbance of a solution containing bacteria. This was quite an interesting task which taught me a lot about the specifics of using photodiodes. Our setup was then left out overnight in order to collect data about the evolution of a bacterial culture prepared by the group doing biohacking. Unfortunately our group didn’t get to collect good data as at some point our setup stopped logging data. We think one of the wires fell out, as the incubator for the solution to which our arduino is taped (the blue box in the picture below) is actually vibrating in order to stir the flasks with the solutions. For the final assessment of the course we had to create a poster and presentation for the class. Although Horizons in first year doesn’t count towards our degree credit, it is listed on transcripts if we pass the course.
*The final setup, with way too many wires everywhere”
This module was interesting from a technical perspective, particularly in terms of learning to build the circuit and deal with considerations in the data collection. However, at times I definitely felt unengaged, for example: I already had some experience with modelling software, so going through this didn’t teach me anything new. Additionally, studying material more alined with my degree, as we were building an experimental measurement setup, lead to a loss of variety. Finally, my group mates, while pleasant to talk to, were less engaged in the project work than me and didn’t always show eagerness to learn or challenge themselves, which made the class less fun from a social perspective.
Perhaps I just didn’t get lucky with my group, but not having the same lighthearted social interaction definitely made the class less fun. I think the benefit of activities like Nature of Science is that by being distinctly unappealing to a significant portion of the student body, they act as a filter for only those students who are passionate, creating a more entertaining learning environment.
Overall Horizons has been an enjoyable experience for me. While my time in Nature of Science was short, I still managed to have some interesting conversations and meet new people. (Although I also learned an important lesson: if you don’t have someone’s contact details, you might never see them again). Making and prototyping also gave me an insight into the resources available to students at Imperial who want to design or make something. However, next time, I might have stuck with Nature of Science, as I think the biggest potential value of Horizons, is meeting new people.
This term I’m taking sound technology, which is about the technical aspects of sound recording as well as music theory and music composition.
With all the hype in the media about saving the planet and trying Veganuary, I thought I would do some research of the best Vegan/Vegetarian places to eat around London and give you some ideas of meat-free meals to cook.
Let’s be honest, if you like eating meat and don’t think you could go without it, then Veganuary probably isn’t the challenge for you. I truly respect people who have a diet without any animal products. Saying that, there is no harm in making the challenge more achievable for yourself, maybe trying one or two vegetarian meals, or even days, a week. Or maybe you don’t want to try it out at all and you just want some inspiration of places to eat and meals to cook!
Mildred’s (Soho/Kings Cross/Camden/Dalston)
This is a really popular café among Vegans and has most items on the menu under £10 so it is student budget friendly too! They do a variety of salads, mains, snacks and desserts so whatever food you’re feeling I’m sure there will be a choice right for you.
Genesis (Spitalfields)
This restaurant is a bit further afield but has a great reputation. They do sharers, mains, sides and vegan drinks too, although a bit more pricey it could be a nice treat on the weekend?
Kalifornia Kitchen (near Tottenham Court Road)
Slightly more expensive as well, but most dishes are under £15 so for a weekend treat this could be a good choice too. They do sides, salads and vegan burgers and mains.
Koshari Street (Covent Garden)
With all items under £10, treat yourself to a salad bowl, soup or wrap for lunch at this Egyptian inspired vegan café. A trip to Covent Garden is always worth the time too!
My favourite vegetarian dish that I make is a Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Curry, try out this recipe from BBC GoodFood: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cauliflower-potato-curry with some naan bread or rice if you want to make it more filling.
For a quick dinner there’s always my go-to Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad with tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and onions. There is no specific recipe just chuck in some of your favourite veggies to make a nice sauce and add some pasta.
I hope I’ve given you some inspiration if you’re trying Veganuary or if you just wanted to try out a few new cafes or recipes. Being vegetarian can be a great way to reduce your weekly shopping prices too as meat/fish can be quite expensive, so if you need some extra cash one week why not give one of the recipes above a go? They also freeze well if you like cooking in batch and saving portions for later.
Good Luck with whichever challenge you chose for January and I hope these restaurants and meals live up to your expectations!
Instead of flying back home for the holiday break, I ended up staying in London. Since many of my friends were out of town or spending time with family, I was afraid that I would be unbearably bored— fortunately I found that London has plenty to offer displaced students over Christmas.
Christmas Markets
As expected from a city where the Christmas lights come out in October, London is overflowing with Christmas markets come December. Whether purposefully seeking one out or stumbling across one accidentally, I loved passing through them for the lights and lively atmosphere.
Staying In Shape
Parkrun, which facilitates free timed 5k runs in the UK, has been a key part of my fitness routine while in London. Shops and transit may have been shut down for Christmas, but Santa hats and elf ears were out in full force at my local park’s Christmas Day Parkrun. Dashing (okay, jogging) around the park on a beautiful morning made me feel better about all the food I was planning to eat later, and I even managed to achieve a personal best with my time. A real Christmas miracle!
Eating
In addition to getting treated to Turkish food on Christmas, courtesy of my accommodation, I ventured around London to try some of the great food the city has to offer. Curry on Brick Lane, sandwiches from Borough Market, takoyaki and ramen, Malaysian noodles, classic pub food… My stomach was very happy, although my wallet less so.
Museums
December is a great time to visit museums and cultural centers since things are pretty quiet. I went to the Wellcome Collection and British Library for the first time, spent a cozy afternoon at the Barbican, and saw the Nam June Paik exhibition at the Tate Modern. Protip: if you’re 25 or under, join the Tate Collective (it’s free!) to get discounted exhibition tickets.
Catching Up On My London Bucket List
The biggest (or tallest) thing on my bucket list was to check out the view from the Skygarden, aka the observation deck of the Walkie Talkie building. I had a friend from home visiting, so I didn’t feel too bad about embracing my inner tourist.
All in all, I had a quite fun and relaxing break. If you are in London alone over the holidays, not to fear: there is plenty to do, and quite a lot for free!
Lots of people say that they’re a bunch of rubbish, and that if you want to change, you can do it anytime. I’m a big proponent for them, though. For sure, New Years resolutions come with problems. I’ve been unrealistic with mine sometimes, with crazy past resolutions being hitting 100% in tests, getting 8 hours of sleep every night (never gonna happen, haha), going from a cheese obsessed vegetarian to vegan (I want to, but not overnight!).
New Years resolutions are great because with the start of a new year, the changes you make can be traced back to January 1st, and it feels more significant. Also, leading my lifestyle of junk food eating and being lazy, it allows me more time to enjoy this hedonism before I reform.
I also think New Years resolutions can be a great thing for university. If you’re anything like me, you may have found achieving a balancing act hard. At Imperial, there’s a lot of work to be done. However, it’s also healthy to sometimes just sit back, put on some Netflix, grab some snacks, and relax after a day of study. In my first term, I found I was definitely overworking at times, and overindulging in nothingness at other points. With a new year, I want to change some things. Maybe you do too.
Here are some New Year’s resolutions I’m going to apply to my life at Imperial. I think a lot of prospective students may benefit from reading these before they start here, don’t make the same mistakes I did in first term!
Cook my own meals. I didn’t think I would become a cliche, but my god is it easy to just get a 50p pack of ramen, put on the kettle, and voila dinner is made?! It saves money and reduces the risk of developing heart disease significantly to cook from scratch. This term I want to make some healthy meals for dinner. I’m thinking lots of lentil curry, vegetable pasta, bean burritos and the like. I shouldn’t have fallen down the ramen rabbit hole…
Study better. It’s not untrue that Imperial sets a heck of a lot of work. However, it’s been easy for me to get disorganised, work too much on things which shouldn’t have taken as long, and cut around corners in other areas. Too many times I’ve spent hours pondering tutorials when I should have just cut my losses and asked in person, it’s so inefficient and frustrating! It’s something which is difficult to get used to. A lesson I need to learn, and others may need to as well, is that it’s okay to ask for help.
Get more sleep. 5 hours really isn’t enough. This is such an easy habit to fall into as well, under sleeping at uni. A lot of the time I’ve done it to juggle my work and social life, with sleep going into the gutter. This year I want to not do that, and instead work more on weekends and aim for a decent 6.5-7 hours a night at least. I think for lots of new students it’s common at first to struggle with getting a decent schedule in order, and it’s something which takes time. Term two, work your magic!
Connect with people more. I can be a bit of an overworker, and it’s made me miserable at times as I’ve just become distant from people. Again this is such an easy mistake to make as a student. I’ve found losing connections to hurt mental health, and reconnecting with people has had the opposite effect of instantly improving the mood. I want to keep in touch with people, particularly my friends who are farther away. I want to allocate more time to replying to my friends and reminding them I love them.
Exercise. Exercise is so great for focus and maintaining good mental health, and I’ve always felt at my peak happiness when exercising somewhat regularly. At Imperial, the exercise facilities are actually affordable as well. iGym is £40 for a year, it really doesn’t get better than that. I think the university wants us to get those endorphins going! A weird thing I’ve discovered is just after a workout, my focus amplifies for a couple of hours, so this is extra incentive.
So happy New Years! I hope readers are feeling refreshed and happy to be back. If you’re not, everything will be okay 🙂 It’s certainly bizarre being back at university after having adjusted to being at home again. Here is to a 2020 full of productivity, love, and good times.
With Imperial being in London, it’s more than simple to get some plant-based grub! Right on campus, there’s a vegan restaurant that serves up a variety of cuisines that are entirely plant based. On top of that, every restaurant on campus offers plant-based options; from tofu dishes to veggie burgers.
If you love cooking and like me, cooking is where you find solace from the hustle or you’re simply on a tighter budget, cooking is the way to go! Although it can be true that eating plant-based may cost more, I’m here to give you some insider tips on how to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to grocery shopping! I’ve done a whole year’s worth of investigation and it’s safe to say that I’ve got a pretty good guide for you!
1. Buy in bulk
Buying things in bulk, especially kitchen staples like flour, sugar, salt, herbs and spices will definitely cost less in the long run! Head to your favourite grocer and keep these stocked up in your pantry! If you’re afraid that it’d be too much that you’d never get to use them up, you could share these items with your housemates as well! Another plus, it’s better for the environment!
2. Buy your favourite pulses dried
Chickpeas, kidney beans black beans and all, it may be tempting to buy them in the cans that are pre-booked/soaked and it may seem rather cheap initially, but if you buy them dried, it is a lot cheaper! One downside is you’d need to soak them for a couple of hours prior to cooking or you’d need to cook them longer but that’s totally worth the trade-off.
3. Buy locally grown produce
Head to your nearest farmers market and scoop up some fresh fruits and vegetables at a fraction of the price at the grocers! I don’t mean the South Kensington farmers market because honestly, it’s too bougie and I’m broke.
4. Meal prep
Prepare your meals for the week in advance! This ensures that you’d always have food at home ready to go and you won’t need to resort to take-out or delivery. Plus, it’s always satisfying to see all the food that you’ve cooked up, take a few pictures and send them to your family to prove that you’re adulting right.
5. Keep on watch for good bargains!
Your local grocers will have regular deals and discounts so keep a watch on them! I find so much joy in snagging up good deals. I’ve actually got a deal buddy and we send each other good deals that we find at the grocers and I find this friendship beautiful AHAHHAHAH.
That’s about if for this entry! Of course there are more but I’ll leave those for a future post! Have fun snagging deals and let’s spread the joy and love of plant-based food!
Cramming is inefficient but sometimes continuous studying is not gonna happen. There’s no denying it, Imperial like any other research-intensive university requires the utmost diligence to time management, you have coursework, social club activities for downtime which means you need to learn how to prioritise your independent studying – which is the most important part of your course, often worth at least 50% of your degree if not more (for Life Sciences it is 75%). In a way, it’s great because it gives you more time to prep and to give your all after the holidays but because of how vibrant life is at Imperial it also means you don’t have time to study! Even I wonder sometimes how the majority of us graduate with an excellent grade.
However, unlike school that often has normalised exam marks (at least through the UK system of UCAS, and I know in Asia for internal exams they often rank you against your classmates), everyone can graduate with a first. Of course, it will feel competitive, but you are not competing against your coursemates, especially in research. You don’t see single Nobel Prize winners- the awardees succeed because they collaborated. Which brings me onto my first tip:
Find a friend to study with and motivate each other. I used to have insecurity around one of my besties because of how smart they are. You can still admire them without hiding who you are in front of your friends. If they are truly intelligent they know not to judge people by something like grades. Friends are there to help, not judge you. Good grades are important and you should always strive to get them not for someone else but for yourself to feel good. Bad grades don’t mean anything about you if you’ve done your best – like you shouldn’t put off responsibility but sometimes it could just be a topic that you’re not as interested in as you thought were. If you suspect even a teeny bit that it could be conditions like mental health or dyslexia mitigating circumstances can definitely be arranged by speaking to your department. They are super willing to help if you tell them about it.
Give your 100% concentration when studying. There’s no point in studying for long periods if you’re not actively studying.
Do something that doesn’t completely distract you during your breaks eg. a short motivational song, 5-minute workout routine, not Stranger Things – you’d pause but keep thinking about it when you’re meant to be concentrating on differential equations or memorising enzyme mechanisms.
Pretty study blogs on Instagram and Tumblr are a great inspiration for trying out different note formats and see what works best for you. If you need an immediate push to study there are study servers on Discord.
I hope UCAS application outcomes are going well for prospective students considering Imperial, and for those of us at Imperial best of luck with upcoming January exams.
Like many students coming to university the first time I was quite apprehensive about leaving my high school friends behind. Never having moved school in my life, it was the first time I would be somewhere where I knew nobody.
I need not have worried. The first day I arrive in my kitchen and right there, everyone’s playing cards against humanity. Perfect, it’s a social game, I know the rules and the awkward “Hi what’s your name? What do you study?” conversation starter will be much easier once we’ve all laughed at some inappropriate jokes.
Looking back at the last week, I’ve massively appreciated the hall events I’ve attended. Even as as teetotal who hasn’t got the sleep schedule for parties, partaking in bowling, the welcome breakfast, curry night and a massively under attended sports day have all been tremendous fun. Consequently, I’ve made friends, many of whom I see daily in our kitchen and who are a much needed source of advise on living and shopping in the UK.
Nevertheless, most enjoyable have been the sport taster sessions. Trying volleyball has long been something I wanted to do and despite being very busy, the taster was a lot of fun. Out of curiosity I also attended the taster for Taekwondo, which was one of the most exhausting workouts I’ve ever had. I have never had to lift my foot to chest height so many times in an hour. I also enjoyed the very personal nature of Taekwondo, where awareness of one’s training partner is simultaneously a source of feedback, learning example and necessity for safety.
In both of these activities I greatly appreciated the quality of instruction provided, with specific and varied drills while including plenty of fun activities, such as the skirmishing at the start of Taekwondo practice and the serving games in volleyball.
Of course, there are also the vocational and social societies.
As an introduction the robotics society ran a simple challenge: controlling a motorised vehicle using only bits of string taped to the ground in the starting zone, in order to bring a hockey puck a close as possible to a designated target.
It was interesting see how while most of the other teams just tried to hold the robot down with strings, the most successful strategies were our group instead using the string to pull out the power once the target was reached and the winners, who used the string to pull the puck off the back of the cart. It was cool to see how key a single design decision was a key deciding factor, as well as how creative some of the teams ended up being with their robot designs.
Whatever your interests are, when you come to imperial there are a huge variety of societies and activities to get involved with. Even if you aren’t someone who likes nights out and clubs there is more to get involved with than you will ever manage to find time for.
