Random Muses

Been slightly busy this week. Just finished a presentation for Chem Eng & Society module. My group members were very varied. There was Nonso, a Nigerian who's pretty cool and a bit more work-orientated....and Sam who's like the super party English type...when we met for discussion he looked as if he haven't slept for days! Anw things are done a bit differently here in the UK...our lecturer and grader for the presentation was quite bo chup abt project grp members not turning up...as long as there was somebody presenting for the grp can liaoz..(btw my group had a 4th member but he went MIA) Anw....the presentation went successfully despite us preparing at the last min....we aced the Q&A session. Lol....i guess throwing alot of smoke bombs helps :)

Also had a lab session for Polymer Processing....frankly this is one of the mods i'm most terrified of...it's stuff like extrusion, molds, welding....much more detailed stuff abt MLE last sem....and there's a lab for it!! No senior lab reports.........awww......anw luckily my first lab was some simulation-based one...so it turned out ok...

On the whole, this week got to interact more with the students here...prob. cos i'm taking a whole range of mods, two yr 1 mods, two yr 2 mods and one yr 3 mod. Realised tt the yr 1s tend to be much more friendlier and much more slack. Also felt tt international and exchange students such as those from the carribean, americas, nigerians and asians are a bit more friendlier than the Brits.

Other interesting points i observed:

1) Tutorials are done on the spot in class...with the lecturer going through the answers with us....way way different b in NUS.....and some mods dun even haf tutorials....hmmm......

2) Lecturer still uses the chalk and blackboard in class.....wow....reminds me of primary sch.....

3) Chem eng population in Loughborough numbers to abt 80 plus ppl....compared to the 250 we haf in NUS...so it's a small community....their 3rd yr is done wif an IA, so tt means they squeeze most of their heat transfer plus chem kinetics and alot of er xin chem eng stuff in yr 2...well actually NUS has a damn heavier workload than Loughborough's.

4) There are also large-scale lectures like those in NUS...esp. more so in the business sch....like the Organisation and Management mod...lecture feels like tt in LT7A...

5) I dunno y but for chem eng and just chem eng only...attendance during lecture is marked...so we haf to sign on this sheet of paper....unlike mods from other faculties.

6) Cliques exist in the lecture. Oh well i guess as long as there's ppl....it happens...I see a whole grp of blacks together, the Asians in one corner, us exchange students at another and misc. grps abt.....though after class everybody blends in together...

7) Lectures are usually 50min...and tt counts for 1 session....earliest class is 9am (sure much better than in NUS) and last lesson ends at 6pm....although tt rarely happens... Lectures with 2 sessions are exactly as tt in NUS, with a 10 to 15min break in between

8) Unlike NUS, nobody talks during lecture....and i realli mean nobody!! Not even during Organisation and Management when the class size is so big....instead....i see ppl passing written notes abt during class.....and i was one of them too! lolol....started chatting up wif the Nigerian girl who was sitting beside me during Process Systems Engr lecture...

9) Printing here costs 5 pence per A4 copy. Yes....5 p!! That's freakin 15 cents b in Singapore.....but fortunately the good thing is tt unlike in NUS, the lecture notes are photo-copied for us and given as hand-outs in the lecture. Sure saves a lot of money like this.