Leaving for Summer.
Finally I'm done with my packing and planning... and will be flying to London later in the afternoon.It doesn't seem that long ago when my family abandoned me at the airport BK before I left. It is really true that as long as there is something to do time will pass before we know it, and neverending papers, lab reports, midterms, presentations and finals surely help in contributing to that.
Our school has an insanely long 4-month summer break. It is really hard-earned... we have ultra short winter breaks (provided that we do classes over Intersession), and because our semesters are 13 weeks long (vs. 15 weeks in other schools) we have on average 7% more work to do over term time (assuming we learn the same stuff).
Though 4 months is simply too long to be slacked off... so we tend to fill it up with all kinds of stuff. I have done 3 weeks of work here, and there will be another 8 weeks at least in Singapore after I go back from 4 weeks in Europe. Yi Chung will be in France for 6 weeks (he'll be there when I am there, but he will be in Avignon :P), Grace will be going to Cambridge to do summer school; most of the juniors will be around for quite a while, and James will be going to Mayo Clinic for his internship. Even graduated people like Xiaosai are still around doing lab work... we just refuse to rest.
Anyway, this summer will be a considerably slack one for me. I seriously want to do internship somewhere else other than Hopkins and Singapore next summer... Places in mind now include Cold Spring Habour and MRC-LMB (Cambridge). Certainly it is not easy to get into these places, but it is always worth a try :)
I have decided that I won't start a journal for my upcoming Europe trip. I will post everything here and in the photo journal... I will keep blogging as long as I have time and Internet access :)
So a brief itinerary!
27/5 to 1/6: London.
1/6 to 3/6: Cardiff.
3/6 to 7/6: Bath (Avebury, Stonehenge, Bristol).
7/6 to 9/6: Birmingham (Stratford-upon-Avon).
9/6 to 11/6: York.
11/6 to 13/6: Fort William, Scotland (Ben Nevis).
14/6 to 17/6: Cambridge.
17/6 to 21/6: Paris (Versailles, Disneyland, Cologne).
22/6: Singapore.
If you know where Fort William is, you will realise that that part of the itinerary is very strange. I could have gone to Edinburgh instead for that three days which will save me a lot of money. Haha lesson learnt here is, avoid booking from a hostel that requires you to pay in full, which effectively eliminates the possibility for cancellation. On the other hand, I cancelled the reservation in Edinburgh (highly recommended by Jessica by the way) by just an email...
Will certainly go back to Edinburgh some time :)
Now GCS believes that 1 month before flying is not early enough if he wants to fly cheaply in summer. Anyway, because of his unwillingness to act (i.e. nuahness), now I get to take the Eurostar, go to Paris, go to Disneyland, and back to Germany again. So it isn't bad after all :)
All set to go!
