day two

on the second day we were led to imperial college to attend the welcome session for international students. since meals are not catered in hall, we made our way with empty stomachs across hyde park to imperial college in the rain. not a good way to start the day. however, the day is darkest just before dawn, and when we reached campus we were led to a room where there was free tea and cookies. it was like finding an oasis in the desert. being the kiasu singaporean (and also because food is bloody ex in london), i 'koped' a few packets of cookies. following which we were led to a hall to listen to the welcome session. lunch was catered (fortunately) and after that we went to register with the NHS.

Following which we went to somerfield (i.e. british ntuc) to get groceries for dinner. i loosely used the word groceries. we actually bought heavily discounted sandwhiches and microwavable food for dinner.

notice the half price sticker and the yellow 'reduced price' tag

living in a more expensive country makes people appreciate the little things in their home country. it definitely made me appreciate that food (and toiletries) is really very cheap in singapore (and even more so in malaysia). it also strongly encourages (i.e. force in SAF lingo) me to be more thrifty when shopping (euphemism for becoming "auntified"). we were actually scouring around for discounts and offers whilst buying groceries (like those buy 2 get one free, 30p off etc etc). the main factor when buying groceries in london is not the brand nor the quality of the food, but rather the price. but not all is bad, the food was pretty decent, either that or we were dem hungry. could be both.

ah my first taste of the wonderful life of a starving college student.