complicated simplicity

After arriving at the hotel, I was told I couldn’t check in until 2pm. Great, so I had about 3 hours to kill. I requested to place my luggage at the hotel, and decided to do as much as possible within these 3 hours so I could rest in the late afternoon. I took all my documents with me, as well as my laptop, and started my exploration of Kensington London.

I have to thank ICSS for giving me a map of London in the first place, without which I would have been very very lost. After I got my bearings, I took a quick stroll around the area, marking out the essential shops. Next, I took a brisk walk in the cool London breeze to Imperial College. It was a 7min walk from my hotel. I have never seen the college in my life, with the exception of photos, so I had absolutely no idea what kind of buildings to look out for. After poking around for about 10minutes, I finally found the campus. It’s not a huge campus, probably the size of 2 football fields, with about 10 buildings cramped in the small space. I guess this is what they call a city campus eh? The campus was a mix of victorian architecture and modern glass buildings, giving it a classy touch.

I decided to do registration first, so I went up to the Registrar in Sherfield building. Once the doors of the lift opened, I found myself cursing and swearing again. Another long long queue. God, don’t the Brits get sick of their god damned queues? Yes, so I had no choice but to queue for another 40mins to get myself registered, as well as getting a stamp for the Imperial College Swipe Card, and Oyster Card. I was told to go to the Security Counter and get a photo taken for my Swipe Card. And so I went down, merrily, thinking that the worst was over. And yes, I saw another queue. Ok, I had enough of queues today, so I told myself I would come back the next day in the morning. Screw the damn queues in this place. Brit administration is worse than SAF’s. I made my way to the cafeteria, and got myself a sandwich, and some water, my first proper meal in the London for lunch.

After a lunch of Tuna Mayo Sandwich and Iced water, I explore the campus grounds a little. Realising I still had alot of time to spare, I decided to test how long it was gonna take me to walk from Orient House to campus everyday. That must have the worst idea Ivan came up with in London. Remember, I was lugging my laptop around with me. That about another 5kgs of weight. Anyway, I followed the map and walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. Ok, I think you got the point. It was damn far. It took me 1.5hours to find the bloody place, partly because I got lost somewhere along the way and had to ask for help. Roads in London don’t exists on maps, and roads on maps may not exist at all. So it was a good 1.5hours of walking, with about 5kg of stuff on me, after I got off a 13.5hour flight from Singapore. Simply amazing.

** Late for meeting with ICSS peeps, so that’s all for now. Gotta thank Elwin for his laptop to lemme blog. **

Tags: Personal

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