Final Year in London

This is almost definitely my last year staying in London.

I love London but I love Hampstead more, so much so that when I touched down, I immediately had Hampstead crepes for my first meal.

And I love my new place. I’ve got my own TV cum DVD player, kitchen, fridge, oven, gas stoves, rice cooker, pans, 1 small sofa, 3 chairs, 1 big cushion, 1 fireplace, bathtub, 1 comfortable bed, few bottles of wine, 3 flavours of Whittard Hot Chocolate powder, 4 different kinds of coffee powder (Cappuccino, Mocha, Latte and double chocolate coffee) and many different kinds of tea (Coca Tea from Peru, Ginseng Tea from Korea, Chrysanthemum Tea and Herbal Tea from Singapore). And I just got my internet connection set up in my bedroom, which took an entire week to complete the installation. And just opposite me is Hampstead Heath. The creperie is just 5 minutes away. What more can I ask for? (I’ll possibly put up a few pictures of my place soon.)

To top it up, I have only 3 hours of lectures per week this term, and the rest of the time is dedicated to my research work.

It sounds too good to be true, yah?

Now that I’ve done practically nothing and just stone in Hampstead since arrival in London, the past 10 days has been a well-deserved break after the hectic schedule from late May to late September, so hectic that I only managed to meet up with 2 friends back in Singapore.

It’s time for me to get the engine started again.

A few major things are going to take place concurrently.

Research work for my dissertation is on the right track currently. I’m still in the process of designing my experiment which should be ready for testing in a few days’ time.

Applying for graduate school is one big headache and time-consuming indeed. I’ve gotten my financial letters from SPH and I finally booked my GRE which is scheduled on October 26th. I expect to retake it, especially because I haven’t started preparing yet. Who knows I might have to take it when I’m in Egypt in December? I’ve filled up the basic details for some graduate schools' applications online. I’m left with the Statement of Purpose, CV/resume, Research Proposal, transcripts and letters of recommendation (Shen Jiang has kindly to write one out of the three required, so I need to source for two professors in university). And Oxford needs 2 extra pieces of recent written work, which I don’t have, so I might just give up applying to Oxford. So basically, I need to sort out the above for 5 universities I’m applying to (Cambridge in UK and four others in the US) and the deadline isn’t far ahead. By the way, the application fees are freaking expensive.

And I’ve also booked my air tickets to Cairo after Christmas. I need to plan my itinerary for Egypt and then to source for my air tickets to Prague and back from Budapest for the Eastern Europe trip I’m undertaking prior to Egypt as well.

That’s a preview of my life for the next few months.

回来后，我想念的竟是秘鲁的天气。