Well, what can I say? It’s been an unpredictable ride of high’s and extreme lows.First of all, the entire experience of living in the heart of London city; the commercial hub of the UK, the heart of all activity, the home of Freddy Flintoff and Johnny Wilkinson, is truly exhilarating. I’m sure I’ll never get this opportunity to experience living in one of the most expensive and happening cities in the world again, so I’m making the most of it.
However, it does have its downside. Like I just mentioned, the ‘one of the most priciest cities in the world’, has made me completely budget conscious. The change from being a working “enjoy life to the fullest” professional to a student has been a steady and disciplined one. But I’ve done it. I’ve become prudent with my expenditure, conscientious with my recordings of income and expenses and mindful of future expenditures. It’s all contributed to the entire university experience.
I’m thoroughly enjoying my university life. I enjoy the whole process of sharing ideas and seeing our ideas materialize in diverse artifacts. Be it goal models, design and architecture models, distributed stock ticker systems, to strategies for investing millions of pounds. The most important ingredient which has allowed me to thoroughly enjoy my university life is my classmates. They are simply great! We have a great sense of comradeship, ever willing to help one another out to get through a difficult exam, assignment or even advice on filling out those grueling application forms.
I have come to understand the importance of preparing for class! This was something I never did during my undergrad days. As always preparation is key, and it definitely applies here. I just did my first written exam, in years, today, and I think I did alright. My handwriting sucks big time, but I think through all that mess I actually wrote something ok.
Living on my own is not soo great. At times the cooking and cleaning definitely makes me wonder “why did I leave all the luxuries of living at home to come to this?”. But I keep thinking, yeah, it’s all contributing to the learning experience. I have now extended my culinary expertise to making pasta; the lazy mans gourmet dinner. All it takes is 20 mins and I’m done, unlike the regular rice and curry I generally prepare, which takes me a good 1.5 hours. I’ve also added my own flavor into the pasta by occasionally mixing in tuna and corn.
The sad and most regrettable setback of me coming to London, is the pain, stress and harm it has caused to my relationship. The time apart has made me say the most regrettable things to the person I value and love the most. I don’t know what came over me. And now it’s over. I know it’s all my fault. I wish I could have done things differently. I often wish I had applied to a US university. But now its over.
