Big Shoe to Fit In Here...

It's been an entirely hectic week to begin with. It will not get any better from here. Sorry for the daunting introduction. But I am glad I had a great time in Japan and Malaysia before I came here. Had been running around to get a bank account opened, activating this and that card, registering courses and attending talks and briefings. Apparently one may be deceived by the neo-Gothic architecture of Cambridge with old facilities and stone walls, but everything here runs on a smart card system and you will be surprised how self-contained this university is and the equipment it owns. Everything here is done electronically and can be done from the internet, which means anywhere in the world . We don't really get handouts, so we just download them off the student webpage and print them out ourselves. It is a good way to control paper usage. Well, I guess this is what Sustainable Development is all about....

Briefing at site by an expert from Mott MacDonald

We had our class trip at Twyford Down, Stonehenge and Hyndhead. We made a brief stop at this old city of England called the Winchester City, on the second day of our trip. Winchester is a lovely English city and the scenery is just magnificent. Apparently, Winchester is where the elite group of Britain would send their kids to be educated and where all the top politicians would like to be associated with. Do google it and tell me if you find more information about it.

The Stonehenge

Don't misconstrue that I am enjoying (again) here just because you see me putting the photo of Stonehenge. Our field at Stonehenge was to look at how the road system in Stonehenge has affected the World Heritage site with the constant movement of vehicles and damaging environment surrounding it.

Group discussion for the Stonehenge road project

At the hotel, we were supposed to come up with our solutions to solve the national issue. We were only given a few maps, drawings and one hour to present our proposal. Yes, that's all. Obviously, we were not expected that at the end of the day, our proposals would be presented to the government for this long-standing national issue. However, it is really interesting to be looking at such a high-profile case study and have speakers who are good in this subject to talk to us about what exactly is happening to Stonehenge, and why are the people so unhappy about the roads there and how our studies could build opinions about the subject.

Winchester City

All I can say for certain is that things are really getting more interesting and exciting with lots of balancing between social, study and spiritual life here. Cambridge is surely going to stretch those limits even further, and really, it is not for the faint of heart and if you are not ready, it is quite a big shoe to fit in here....

I have published this blog and suddenly I remembered something which I really need to shout out to release some sort of a frustration after being whacked again and again by the same "calamity" and that is....

"I really hate the erratic weather here. I have been soaked on many occasions and it's always when I have to attend important functions. Just a few hours ago, I had to attend a formal hall* organised for all MPhil students in the CMI** programme, and I was all soaked. Terribly embarassing...."

*Formal hall= A formal dinner in the College's dining hall. Think Harry Potter...

**CMI= Cambridge-MIT Institute