Pardon me for the last 2 posts. Well it’s some extra cash that I could always make do. Well, the first one was on travel which I don’t really mind anyway since it’s something that I like talking about. Heck, it’s part of my life now - travelling around! If you don’t understand what I’m blabbing on for the first few sentences, then just ignore it and move on to the next paragraph.

Basically, I’m really guilty for not keeping this blog updated. I’m such a bummer. Yes I know it. I always tell people I am busy here. Well not exactly busy with academic work, but with all the other social aspects of life which makes uni life interesting. So far I would say I am really living out my uni life. It is what it is supposed to be. Maximum fun while keeping a balance with studies. I’m probably really lucky to end up in UCL instead of the States or in Oxbridge. I’m positive that I would be so much more worked out anywhere other than UCL where the workload is so much more and there are so many more tests. I really hate tests. It just stresses me out for no reason. Well at least here all my exams come at the end of the year, so I really just need to concentrate and focus on studies for the last two months or so and I will be alright. Besides the weight for my degree classification for the three years of uni are in the following order 1:3:5. This basically mean my first year only counts for 1/9 of my overall degree, which really mean I can really play and still graduate well at the end of 3 years.

Life is really sociable here. I enjoy being around with people all the time. My room, so conveniently located near the entrance of my hall is practically a common room for the hall. Everyone just jams around here all the time. Elston, my British roommate here brought a PS3 and it’s permanently on Fifa10. We play Fifa all the time with friends from all over UCL. We have movie nights here every fortnight or so. Everyone just pops by our room whenever they passes by the entrance. We practically have no private life here. But I’m cool with it. It’s quite fun considering that you meet lots of new people and some end up being really close to you.

London is interesting in the sense that you meet people from all over the world. I’m really lucky to meet so many people from diverse backgrounds in the first few weeks of uni. London is also filled with Malaysians and Singaporeans. Some say it’s good, some say it’s bad. I won’t deny that it is really possible to spend 3 years of your uni life in London without hanging out with any non-Malaysian/Singaporean. There’s just so many of us here you, especially so when you are doing a subject like Economics.

I have no idea before UCL that Economics is such a popular course among the Malaysians. Almost all the Malaysians here in UCL are Economics students. The same is for LSE. Basically in my course, it’s really all filled with Asians. Half of my coursemates are Chinese - Malaysian, Singaporean, Hong Kong, China, British. Another quarter is Indians - British, India. The rest are white people from Europe.

Economics in UCL is really a course for international students. This is the course where UCL actually milks all the international dollars from students. We provide so much revenue for the university to ensure its day-to-day running. A case in point. Local students pay only about £3000 per year on tuition fees while international students pay 4 times more at about £12000 per year on tuition fees alone.

Well that’s the price we are paying to get an overseas education and by that subsidizing the local students. If you are going to compare academic quality with the price you are paying, I would definitely say it’s not worth the money. But really uni life in Britain is not all about studies. It’s the whole experience. And to many people who are not taking the opportunity to travel around Europe while in UK, you are really missing out a lot on uni life.

Well so far I would not say I have travelled much. But this is my target. I plan to visit all the countries in Europe (or at least most of it) plus Turkey and Egypt before I finish 3 years of my studies here. It’s really manageable if you plan your trip well and manage your financials well. Also a lil bit of creative thinking on travelling plans DO help in saving a lot of money.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 1:29 am and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.