It’s a real pleasure to bring you the next instalment of my “On Location” series from the Queen’s Lawn.

Winter this year has been very eventful. The above average levels of snowfall lead to a sharp increase in snow-fight induced frostbite and befriending of snowmen, but those are treats that are exclusively for ones free-time. The sun is a treat that can be used whether you’re skipping a lecture on-campus or off.

One great thing about it getting warmer is that it’s one of the rare times all the local departments mix on a causal level. Everyone comes out to graze on the Queen’s lawn, whether it’s to eat lunch, go over notes or get a mild to minimal suntan. I personally like to use this opportunity to wander round the clusters of people till I recognise someone and can engage in the “spontaneous-hug” followed by a lovely conversation about who just had the worst lecturer or who has the most work to do tonight.

Great conversation and a good helping of oxygen. Certainly beats 3 hours in labs at the mercy of my computer!!

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

A while back, one of my friends from the Chocolate Society was desperately bored and decided to join me in my Signals and Systems lecture. Unsurprisingly, she discovered a new level boredom, one which all leading scientists are still trying to quantify (as, thus far, it defies all known laws of time, conservation of energy and neurone activity in the brain). Today I returned the favour by coming in an hour early and attending a biology lecture. So the next instalment of the “On Location” series comes to you from inside a biology lecture hall.

Fortunately for me, it was a fairly easy one on redox reactions. I hadn’t had the prerequisites of A Level biology and chemistry, but I was still able to keep up with the general direction of the lecture. Dr. Steven Cook talked about Oxidation (loss of electrons) and Reduction (gain of electrons) and gave a few examples of when that happens using colour images and big diagrams of complicated molecules, but nothing so challenging that a layman like myself couldn’t follow along. Not once did I have to resort to my usual means of lecture-procrastination, my iPad Mini. The general atmosphere was far more relaxed than my usual, even the lighting had a cheerful disposition and the hour drifted it’s way through time unimpeded. I also had a wide smile every-time the word voltage was mentioned, as effectively, redox reactions are what happens in old-style batteries. It was also very nice to be in a lecture which had a fairly even spread of ethnicities and more than 10 females (as 2nd year ISE consists of 20 people, all with fully functional Y chromosomes).

What I took away from the lecture is that Biology is far nicer than anything we experience in the EEE department. That’s not to say I will continue this blog next year as a Bio student; I definitely find ISE more manageable and enjoyable. But I will be so bold as to say that we have a much harder route to our degrees!!

I want to start asking more questions in my blog posts, just to spice up the comments sections a little bit. I may also start bribing you all and offer a packet of skittles to whoever gives me the most hilarious answer

What do you think is the hardest subject at Imperial?

Thanks for Reading,

Chris xx

Monday morning  is the most varied of any morning. 60% of the time, it begins with me clawing at my pillow begging for more time to sleep while cursing the fact that it’s no longer a weekend and I must leave the comfort of my pyjamas before 1 o clock. The other 40% occurs when you are genuinely excited about what is to happen in the week ahead and you are eager to get it started. Admittedly, since the term started the ratio has shifted to about 95 to 5.

In the mist of all this variance, one thing remains absolutely consistent: I will wake up late. My alarm on a Monday is more of a decorative detail than any sort of functional device. Regardless of what time I successfully turn it off at,  I will wake up whenever my body sees fit. This happened this morning, so in my long walk to uni I was almost rehearsing the apologetic blog post I would have to write. Fortunately, past experience has improved my morning routine and I was able to walk into uni at exactly 11.

If I were to use one sentence to summarise my trek around the campus, it would be this: “The Queen’s Tower can be seen from everywhere”. The majority of the time, it is the most attractive feature of many of the buildings. I also had a chance to use the lift systems in many of the buildings and came to the conclusion that the EEE Department has the worst lifts in the entire university. More of a rant about that at a later date. Here are the fruits of my sleepy labour:

Thanks for Reading,

Chris xx

I’ve had such a great response to the first of my “On Location” series that my enthusiasm for exploring the college has sharply increased. Unfortunately I am currently, and will be for most of this week, strapped to my swivel-ly desk chair with: a long set of maths equations; scribbled expressions of my frustration (usually in the form of stick figures hanging from integration symbols) and cold, undesirable tea in front of me. So in the interest of time and the aesthetics of this blog page, on Monday I will do a “photo-blog project”.

My mission will be to quickly summarise the whole of the “On Location” series in a single hour using my digital camera. To be specific, at 11:00 before Spanish. I want to go to as many different points of interest around the college and try to find the hidden gems of Imperial; all the interesting scenery this college has to offer, like the one from the Blackett Common Room I talked about a few posts back.

So this is where I ask for a bit of help. Where are the hidden gems of Imperial? Do you have any recommendations for my hour long trek round the South Ken campus? Let me know and I will be sure to have a visit and get back to you all on Monday

Thanks for Reading,

Chris xx