Since I seem to be in the habit of writing nigh on 1000 word Blog posts every few weeks, I thought I’d chop this one up into friendly chunks for you to enjoy at your leisure. This is part 2 of 2. Read part 1 here.

Showing off: Me getting my new orange belt from Olympic and World champion Maki Tsukada (I will post photos of things other than judo soon...)

So a world and Olympic champion in Judo has been training with us… More photos at the end of the post!

Other Extracurricular Activities

I’ve had several weekends away in the last few weeks. There was a wonderful (if exhausting) weekend in Cambridge with the choir. This was mainly to rehearse, but also to have a nice time away together. It’s a lovely city and an enormous contrast to London, reminding me why I applied to go to university there a few years ago. I must say, it’s a quite a contrast to London and imperial.

The whole place feels much smaller and focussed around the colleges and the university. Imperial is more one of many focal points in a massive city filled with focal points. Of course, this means that there are lots of focal points (national art galleries, museums, a mind-boggling selection of entertainment venues…) around you all the time. Sometimes it feels like being at the centre of the world.

I also went home for the third time this term, to go and refuel (both in terms of food and spirit) with my family.

Elsewhere, I’ve joined a Confirmation group at the main Catholic Chaplaincy near UCL. It’s really great, and I think I’ll have to write some more about it as part of a general comment on the (excellent) London chaplaincy services in the near future.

Physics

“So, everything is great! But how about your physics degree?” I hear you ask. Well, physics is ticking along. At the moment it feels like more of a day to day job than one of the great passions of my life, but I think that’s because unlike at A-Level, I don’t have other things to compare it with. Problem sheets feel like a chore rather than being immediately interesting. Passion clearly needs rediscovering, and it’s a problem the department is, pleasingly, trying to fix.

This is, I think, a symptom experienced by many in the middle of a long degree, rather than any kind of black mark against physics or Imperial! At the end of the day, I maintain that physics is hard but ultimately rewarding. To give an example: learning about quantum mechanics has felt difficult and overwhelming at times, but there is a palpable sense of satisfaction when one steps back and examines the entirety and the implications of what has been learnt. Perhaps I need to do more “This is Awesome” posts about physics!

So, to summarise: Choir is joyous and going to be much of my life next year, Judo is painful and invigorating, my family and friends are beacons of awesomeness, and physics is fascinating if occasionally draining.

- Reuben

Read the rest of this entry »

Since I seem to be in the habit of writing nigh on 1000 word Blog posts every few weeks, I thought I’d chop this one up into friendly chunks for you to enjoy at your leisure. This is part 1 of 2. Read part 2 here.

DAY OF ANGER, DAY OF TERROR! Are words that I currently know the (rough) Latin translation of rather well*. And that’s not because I’ve been getting spooked at Catholic Mass. (I can already hear the “obvious joke” groans).

Choir

It’s nearly concert time again with Imperial College Choir and Verdi’s Requiem is filling my mind with its thunderous crescendos and poignant quiet moments. A musical friend of mine once affectionately described playing in the orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem as ”Quiet, quiet, quiet, then… LOUD NOISES.” It’s rather more beautiful and captivating than that might suggest, but I must admit that the chap in who’s memory it was composed must have lead one heck of a dramatic life if Verdi was trying to give an accurate reflection!

I keep forgetting to take pictures of the things I do, so please forgive this one not showing you a lot. Shiny though!

I really love singing all this classical music in the choir. Perhaps the novelty will wear off at some point, but I do find it extraordinary that ordinary me gets to be a part of such extraordinary music. It’s quite a privilage. Anyway, enough gushing.

This time of year all the clubs and societies have AGMs. These involve finding out how the club is doing, the Very Serious Business of electing committee members (to the delight of vote counters everywhere, the union insists on a second preference voting system for all elections) and plenty of mild banter. I managed to persuade the other members of the choir I liked it so much that they elected me Vice-Chairperson for next year. Apparently “I don’t know about you, but I love choir!” is a winning line.

My new job started today, as I went to help sort out the choirs enormous (and fascinating) collection of music, some of which was quite old when the choir began in the 1950s… One person noted that the whole thing would have taken a lot less time if we hadn’t stopped all the time to practice singing the pieces.

Cheeky plug, since we need people to come and see us perform to keep the Choir afloat:

Imperial College Choir’s performance (with orchestra) of Verdi’s Requiem is at 19:30 on Saturday the 17th of March at Holy Trinity Church, Sloan Square. Tickets can be bought from Choir members, here, by calling 0207 594 9354, on the door (less cheap) or in the Sherfield Lobby on Wednesday and Thursday Lunchtime. Selling points: Great music, great choir (who have put in lots of effort), great venue, it has me in it, and Verdi’s Requiem is awesome.

Now back to the serious business of discussing my life…

Judo

Judo is as painful and invigorating as ever. The whole club is focussed on the looming inter-university BUCS competition, success at which decides much of the funding for the club. I’ll spare you a Reuben Rant on how unfair the funding system for clubs appears to be (it’s based on the number of points gained at certain qualifying competitions. Except not everyone can get points, and different sports are elligible for different numbers of competitions and points. Grrr…).

To the detriment of my big toe, which took a nasty strain when being swept from under me a few weeks ago, everyone is training extremely hard. I thinks it says something that even though every session causes me to limp off in pain at the moment, I still absolutely love it. (Whether it “says something” about my mental well-being or the sport of Judo, I have yet to decide.)

Oh, and former Olympic and World Champion Maki Tsukada has been popping in to train with us. Pictures soon.

Read part 2 here.

*I’m not sure quite how good the translation in our copy of the music is, but it’s definitely along the lines of “WRATH!” and “TERROR!”.