Consolidation

Term's finally over, and I'm now trying to recover from the the trauma of a hactic term, pick up the bits and pieces which I've managed to get during the term, fill up the gaps, and put them all together. If only reality was as simple as talk.

A lot of things on my mind now, but I've got some time to recover and settle them.

Sweden Trip
Top on my priority now would be the Sweden trip. Gotta get a number of things done:

1. Book my bus ticket there,
2. Pack up. Gotta bring lotsa thermals.
3. Buy proper gloves. Just dropped a glove today while cycling, it had a growing hole in it anyway, so didn't really feel so bad losing it. Think I'll go to ASDA and try looking for the 10 pound glove I saw last time.
4. Consolidate all my travel documents, like plane ticket confirmation number, and bus tickets.
5. Find out from Carphone Warehouse if I can use my uk handphone in Sweden, if not gotta find out the Swedish country code and transfer serene's number to my Singapore simcard
   

Think that's the main thing for the Sweden trip.

Will worry about word alife after the Sweden trip.

End of Term
Have been trying to relax since friday, and catch up on all the entertainment I've been missing during the term. So,

1. Got the game Enemy Territory,the freeware equavilent of CS that is very popular in Cambridge, and
   
2. A facebook account, friendster for UK and US uni students.
3. Took part as a demonstrator at a science fair on Saturday,
4. Hung out into the night with people from CCCF, they usually hang out as cell groups, and I've been crashing various cell in the past two days.
   
5. Tried to get dc++ to work, but with no avail.
   

Switching to Physics
Spoken with the Peterhouse DOS on Friday who took me for the supervision to go through the mock test I had at the beginning of term. Quite relieved to talk with someone who knows my academic status, and who might possibly be able to help me.

He told me that academically I'm actually doing fine, at least for the topic he is supervising me in. And that he hasn't recieved any bad reports about me, so he's assuming that the other topics should not be too bad either.

But I told him how unfulfilled and unsatisfied I've felt with my work, and about being stuck at my work with no one to turn to for help. And he agreed that Hughes Hall should not take in Maths undergrads, and that they should advice maths undergrads to apply to undergrad colleges who have more mathmos.

He also gave me a few advice. About how I can actually decide to switch only after I recieve my tripos marks, and about the options I should take if I wasn't sure whether I would be continuing with my course - Matric and Topological Spaces, because it is a very important topic and I'll definitely need it if I do maths next year; and Special Relativity, because it is the course which the first year physicist have covered.

And he also adviced me to get in touch with the natsci DOS soon, as well as inform my DOS about the situation by email, cos I haven't been able to meet him in his office or by email.

Also met a few physicists at the science fair. They all seem so friendly, and I think my interests correspond much more with that of a physicists than a mathmo, judging from the people I met at this event - I met many physicist, but not a single mathmo from any year!

And found out that Cambridge has links with the Caltech physics department, which allows Cambridge physicists to participate in 10 weeks long research projects at Caltech during the summer holidays! So I won't have to forego any time in Cambridge, and I'd still be able to experience a US university. This just adds to the list of exciting things I can look forward to if I do physics!

The physicists I spoke with also assured me that I wouldn't have a problem keeping up with the physics course next year. And they talked about getting irritated from experiments and stuff, and how tough the competition for physics PhD places are because of the increase in PhD applicants due to the completion of LHC in Geneva. Looks like I can identify with these conversation topics better than I can engage in discussions about maths theorums - another reason why I should do physics.

So it looks like I'm all set to make the switch! Just need to email the two DOS'es now, and hopefully I'd get to speak with the NatSci DOS soon, to make arrangements and see what are the neccessary practical steps I'd need to take.

Financial Matters
One of the few administrative things I've procrastinated through term time, and which I should accomplish during this hols - Submiting the tax examption form, so that they don't deduct any money from the interest I'm earning.

Also just recieved the bank statement today. I spent around 370 pounds this term, the figure includes the 22 pounds I earned from the brainscan. Was working out the relative cost I spend studying overseas, scaled all the spending to reflect the cost per week in a 24 week year.

Relative Expense in a Week

Miscellaneous (Mainly Food, and other neccessities):	45 pounds
Accomodation:	90 pounds
University and College Fees:	460 pounds
Air Ticket (If I go back every holiday):	80 pounds
Recieving from Bursary:	300 pounds

So just realised that the bulk of my expenditure studying here actually goes into paying the school fees! And my accomodation actually makes up two thirds of my living expenses. So saving a little more in a week probably won't make much difference to the amount of money I'm spending coming over.