Sunday, June 08, 2008 . 5:07 AM
c-AM-br-I-dge week 1
hey folks,
a very quick update on what went on during my first week stay here in Cambridge.... yes, I AM in Cambridge! =) Cambridge is a very lovely university town. The weather is rather gloomy the past week, and it has been surprisingly cool at this time of the year. I would have been fried if I were in Madison this time of the year... Not to mention, the research environment here is nowhere less inferior compared to research in the US. People here really make the effort to get to know you, teach you and most importantly, make sure you learn something at the end of this 8 week stint. Even though they may come across as "slack" (think 30-45min morning coffee break AND another 30-45min afternoon tea break), they do get things done. I'm now seriously considering doing grad school here, and reasons, I shall ruminate over it and blog about it when I have the time....
For now... let's meet Viren!! =)
Isn't he adorable? Viren is Sonali's 16 month old son (ps: Sonali's our landlady). She quite a nice lady, except that she can get just a tad too obsessed with cleanliness in her house. She has in place a list of "house rule".... quite daunting at first, but nothing too hard to accomplish.
This is the bedroom Xiaoyang and I share....
Sonali's living room....
and where we have our dinners... Sonali's always not around at night as she'll be over at her mother's.... she comes back in during the day to clean up the house and cook dinner of us, and by the time we get back from work, she and baby viren would be gone.
first day of work... snack queen chenli couldn't resist yorkie, even though it specifically says that this "testosterone loaded chocolate" is NOT FOR GIRLS!!!*** hahaha....
This is where James Watson and Francis Crick first announced that he discovered the function of DNA.
Snapshots of Cambridge...
Kings College
Our first formal dinner over at Shireen's college - Corpus Christi. We were all quite worried that we weren't suitably dressed for the occasion.... Everyone was clad in iron-pressed black coats and gowns. I had to borrow a gown from another Singaporean coz I didn't bring my coat along, had to borrow Xiaoyang's tie and sneak into the hall with my slack Nike sneakers... *ops* Dining "Harry Potter" style was quite an experience! *beams with a megawatt smile*
it took ages to be done with dinner. this is me, with gerald and xiaoyang.
Gotta thanks Shireen (extreme right) for coordinating this! Thanks Shireen!!! :)
So today, I finally get to see and play with baby Viren again!! *applause*
and we did our first PUNTING! Just to reiterate one more time...NO.. punting is NOT illegal and has nothing to do with horse betting. For those who aint a clue what punting is..THIS IS PUNTING....
Thanks to HK, we were able to punt 3 hours for just 1.5 pounds.... HK lives at Queens College, which rents out punts to students at amazingly low rates. I hear a tourist punt in Cambridge will cost at least 12 pounds per hour! That's me, hard at work, trying to learn the ropes of punting.
it's not that difficult, but it takes a while to get used to the steering. I had a hard time trying to keep the punt moving in a straight line.
with HK (punter) and Yaofeng (2nd year Med student in Cambridge)
Thanks to HK, we were able to punt 3 hours for just 1.5 pounds.... HK lives at Queens College, which rents out punts to students at amazingly low rates. I hear a tourist punt in Cambridge will cost at least 12 pounds per hour! That's me, hard at work, trying to learn the ropes of punting.
it's not that difficult, but it takes a while to get used to the steering. I had a hard time trying to keep the punt moving in a straight line.
with HK (punter) and Yaofeng (2nd year Med student in Cambridge)
our first attempt at cooking over at sonali's place. simple mushroom pasta with chicken brocolli and sunshine eggs... nothing elaborate but it was uber filling! till the next update, ciao.... 
dash
dash 
