British weather

The infamous British weather had not lived up to its reputation for the first month since I was here. The weather was mild, and even though it rained on a few occasions, there were lots of sunshine throughout.

Well, it now seemed that the weather was just putting up an autumn charade to welcome us. These past couple of weeks has seen the typical UK weather upon us:

strong wind...	clouds, rain...
	more rain, and frost.

The last picture was taken last Friday morning from my room's window. It is the first time since I came here that the weather is cold enough for the roof opposite to turn white with ice. As you can see from the middle picture, the roof is actually black in colour when it isn't so cold.

But we are considered sheltered. York city, and the university, are situated in the Vale of York, and so are protected from the rain and snow by the surrounding high grounds. A senior student told me that it snowed only once last year, so there goes the romantic, white Christmas we are awaiting.

So, to get a white Christmas, I'll be traveling with two friends to Austria during the Christmas vacation. Yes, the land of Sound of Music, so I'll be updating with lots of photos when I get back. Remember to tune in back then!

Block 2

With all the assignments for Block 1 subjects submitted, it's time for Block 2! Block 2 is a short one, just one week. We'll have one intense week of "Practical Software Project Management" plus "Java refresher" from 9.15am to 5.15pm(almost) every day this week. But PSM* doesn't end after this week. In fact, it is just the beginning for this 20 credits subject. We'll be divided into groups and be working on a project which will last till the summer semester.

* Acronym for the subject. Like TP, each subject has a acronym, but for York it is 3 letters instead of 4. The acronym for Java Refresher is JAR.

Recreation and cost of living

What do you do when you want to take a break from your assignments? Well, if you have been reading my posts and looking at my photos, the answer is obvious:


It's a sure way to quickly attract wild attention. Look at that seagull heading straight for me! (Don't worry, it is just an optical illusion. It didn't even come close)


But with the weather starting to turn quite cold, exercising outdoors is almost out of the question. My hands are like frozen numb everytime I finished my jog.

Ok, there is the gym at the sports centre (and now you know why gyms are so popular in "ang-moh" countries), but at £4.50 or S$13.50 per visit, it seems helluva expensive to me.

Yes, I still couldn't help but convert the prices to Sing dollar. The exchange rate automatically makes everything 3X more expensive.

10 minutes bus ride to city centre: $4.50
1 dinner at the canteen - 3 dishes, no rice, no soup, no drinks: $10
1 page of printing b/w: 18 cents
1 minute on handphone: 45 cents
1 day's fine per open shelf library book: 90 cents
if book's reserved: $1.80
1 week's hostel rent: $300
1 wash+drying of clothes: $9
1 loaf of bread: $3.30

I miss my bicycle. I regret not shipping more things over.

No wonder even the Japanese find the prices here expensive!

Guy Fawkes Night

Nov 5 is Guy Fawkes Night and the British celebrate the occasion by letting off fireworks in their backyards. The fireworks had already started a week earlier, though it was sporadic and far in between. The fireworks really sounded like rifles, tracers and mortars, and my initial thoughts were that the soldiers at the nearby army camp were practising live firing. It reminded me of the days at NTU where the campus was situated next to the SAFTI live firing area, but I thought that it was strange that the residents of York would allow a live firing area so near their residential area.

That is until someone told me about the Guy Fawkes night. Even though there were no official fireworks display, almost everyone take this opportunity to play with some fireworks. So you can imagine the noise on Nov 5 evening, the whole place sounded like a battalion live firing exercise was going on nearby.

As it turns out, Guy Fawkes is from York, and here is a description from the university's website on the origin of Guy Fawkes Night. Here is Wikipedia's entry, if the first link doesn't work. Will the British be celebrating a Osama Night come 29 June 2407, I wonder?

Autumn

Last Sunday, the clock was moved back one hour to GMT, and overnight, the sun sets one hour earlier at 4.30pm. By 5pm, the sky is already completely dark. The clock adjustment is a signal that autumn is well underway. Because the sun is low in the sky, it feels like evening time even at 11am. The photo on the right was taken at almost noon time, but it looks like evening time when the sun is setting, doesn't it?

Anyway, the scenery is turning red and brown, and trees are shedding their leaves. Click on the image on the left to view the complete album of the changing seasons.

Ok, back to working on my assignment.

Assessments in next two weeks

Well, time flies, especially so when a block is only 3 weeks long!

The assignments for the subjects in the first block will be released this Friday, and as luck won't have it, the assignment for the most difficult subject, "Formal Specifications" will be the first to be released and submitted. You can get an idea of what this subject involves from the image below(click on image for full size), which is a screenshot from a page of its lecture notes.

As the marks in the assignments counts for 100% of the subject grade, I will be spending all my time in the next two weeks doing them. So, blogs entries, if any, for the next two weeks, will be few, short and trivial.

Wish me luck!

Not Previously Seen - Part 1

Here is a picture of some stuff which I don't see in Singapore:

My "Formal Specifications" lecture notes listed a proposition¹: jaffa cakes are biscuits. So to find out whether the proposition is true or false, I bought some. Jaffa Cakes are a kind of biscuit covered with chocolate, wrapped around grape flavoured jelly. It taste quite good too.

The white disc in the picture is called a flying saucer. It looks like a toy but is actually a candy. The shell is made of flour and the hollow contains sour candy powder.

We have avocado in Singapore, but this is a rather large one that cost 68 pence (around S$2). The pen is placed there to give perspective to the sizes of the objects.

¹ A proposition in mathematical logic is a statement that is either true or false.

First week of full timetable

So, time is starting to pass quickly. We have started the full timetable for one week and things are getting hectic. As mentioned in my previous post, the time table is in "block mode". For the non-TP readers, this means that instead of spreading all the subjects out evenly over the term, we do lesser subjects in intense "blocks" of smaller number of weeks.

My first "block" is 3 weeks long with 2 subjects. My initial feel is that this is better for learning as there is less context switching. However, the student must be very conscientious during lesson, and keep up with all the given homework. Otherwise, there'll be no time to catch up once you are lost.

For CCA, I have signed up with the Singapore Society (must support, right?), Yoga Society and the Astronomy Club. Actually I'll like to join more clubs (Tai Chi, Outdoors, Skydiving etc), but studies have to come first (and it isn't cheap as each club cost at least 4 pounds, I was told imposed by the Uni, to join). The Yoga Society is surprisingly very popular, and about 60 students turned up for the first session. Hopefully, some (or most) of them will drop out as it is difficult to follow the instructor with such a big crowd.

The Astro Club met up for the first time last night at the campus observatory. This is a small one, with only about 30 members in total. Last night's attendance wasn't very good because the rugby world cup finals was playing live at the same time. We learned how to use the telescope, which is quite easy, with technology to help track the stars. But it was really cold last night (3C maybe?), so we have to stop after about 1 and half hours as everyone was freezing. I could hardly write my name as my fingers were too numb to feel the hold of the pen.

It's good to be a student again!

Academic calendar or rather, Best time to visit

Here is a summary of my academic calendar:
Autumn semester: 8 Oct - 16 Dec 2007
Christmas vacation: 17 Dec - 6 Jan 2008
Exams: 7 Jan - 13 Jan 2008
Spring semester: 14 Jan - 16 Mar 2008
Easter vacation: 17 Mar - 20 Apr
Exams: 21 Apr - 27 Apr 2008
Summer semester: 28 Apr - 29 Jun 2008
(but Project and Dissertation continues till end Sep 2008)
Summer vacation: 30 Jun - Oct 2008

As you can see, the assessments are at the beginning of the subsequent semester. Thank you, York, for being so considerate to give us sufficient time to study, and thus spoiling our vacation.

Anyway, if you are planning to visit, try to do it in the early part of the vacations. That will be the best time I can give you undivided attention.

Platform 9-3/4

Well, I supposed this would not merit a post by itself if not for Harry Potter.

Went to the railway station at the city centre yesterday to buy the Young Person's Pass (ok, I am not young, but mature students are also entitled to it) which will give me 30% discounts on trains tickets. After that, I wandered on to the platform (apparently tickets only need to be shown after boarding), and was pleasantly surprise to see another familiar scene from Harry Potter. The photos are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/puayc/tags/railwaystation/

Apparently, there is a real Platform 9-3/4 at London's King Cross station, which can be reached via a direct train from York.