Moved.: University of Glasgow

The Tassel was Worth the Hassle

I had one of the most memorable day on Friday the 13^th as I finally graduated with a Bachelor in Computing Science! My convocation ceremony was held at The Star Vista Performing Arts Theatre, which was a nice venue since SIT’s ‘actual’ campus is not ready yet. The ceremony took place in the morning and in less than 15 minutes into the ceremony, my name was already being called up to the stage. It was quite nerve-wrecking because unlike polytechnic’s convocation, we had to bring our sashes to the stage. On the stage, the professor will drape the sash around our shoulders. Then, the vice principal will tap our heads with the mortar board. Not to mention, about 40 other professors were sitting on the stage to witness all these up-close! But I swear, once you are up there it flashes so fast! While walking up, I only remember concentrating on not falling over since I was wearing heels, lol. The ceremony ended with the signature Scottish horn sound ushering the professors and guests out to the food reception – which I thought was a cool finish!

Reflecting on my university life, it made me so grateful to be a student of University of Glasgow, and now an alumnus?! Everything happened in a blink of an eye! The past 2 years of study was not an easy feat but its easily one of the best blessings in disguise. The best memory from university would be the 1.5 months of overseas immersion programme in mid-2016 where I got to experience life in Europe/UK. I would love to go back to Scotland one day, but let’s just earn some kachings first! And of course, I’ve also made awesome new friends throughout the 2 years.

Now I'll let the pictures do the talking!

October is an Amazing Month

Anyways, did I mention that October 2017 is such an amazing month? Apart from it being my birthday month, I also graduated twice! Well, the story behind my second graduation ceremony goes way back to 2013. When I was doing my 2^nd year in polytechnic, I enrolled myself in a part-time diploma study. Growing up as a Muslim, I believe that we should always instil the spiritual knowledge in ourselves, and hence I signed up for a 4-years diploma in Islamic Studies. Yes, it was freaking 4 years and I finally completed it in 2017. The lessons were held every Friday night till 10:30pm and I got to admit that I dragged myself to school most of the time. But at the end of the day, the things that were being taught are always valuable in life – and that’s the utmost important.

My Backbone, My Everything

Of course, amazing things would not have happened without my parents’ blessings and support. They should be getting more credits that I do for giving their children a good upbringing. Father never complains when I ask him to drive me around even when he’s tired. Mother never fails to give me the support that I need, mentally and emotionally. They have sacrificed a lot for us and I hope that I’ll be able to do the same, if not more. While we are growing as adults, we often do not realize that they, too, are growing old. I wish to do everything I can to make every moment count. Insya Allah, Amin.

Lastly, Alhamdulillah for everything. :)

Yes, as weird as it may sound, I am experiencing a little bit of wanderlust. Eventhough I just came back 16 days ago, I have this strong urge to get out of the city again, specifically to Ho Chin Minh. I’ve heard a lot of good news about that city - plus I have never been to Vietnam, so why not kan hehe. I hope to go there with my family but nah, don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon (at least not this year) cuz the cousins' getting married in 2 months.. so things will get busy during the last quarter of the year. Other than that, I never knew how bad jet lag could be until I returned from UK. To date, I still have trouble sleeping and worst, I tend to get hungrier at 3am-ish. But meh, it is just a temporary disorder and things will go back to normal sooon I hope (especially when the semester break ends cuz school makes me sleep a lot).

Anyways, I have pretty much blogged about all my trips except for Glasgow mainly because it was 28 days looong and I couldn’t settle on what exactly to blog about. There were just toooo many occurences! I miss Glasgow so effing bad and wait - I actually didn’t visit my uni for the last time before flying back HAHA hais why dear self, why?! Did I mention that my school has the best architecture ever???! It is soooo harry potter-ish I thought I was in Hogwarts, not kidding.

Spent most of my time in Glasgow for this Europe trip mainly cuz of school. Well basically, we had to take one mandatory module there before we can complete year 1 of university. It is a 10-credit module, which has the same weightage as other examinable modules so we really need to score this as well. Had to do a test, a group work (video task) and an individual essay. I dread the test the most because first, who enjoys test right?! Secondly, it unfortunately fell on the day after hari raya, which made us study our brains out during the first day of hari raya itself (also cuz I studied at the very last minute lol). I remember crying over the phone while talking to momsie on raya morning, complaining about the test and all heh. Well, that week was when my homesickness was at its peak I felt like flying back home right away. But trust me, that was the only time I felt homesick hahaha. xD

Other than test and those boring stuff, we did explore a bunch of beautiful places in Glasgow! Proud to say that we managed to cover most of the attractions, even during our last few days there (when people were busy packing their luggages). I’ll just spam the photos below lah hor! :)

School

University of Glasgow, Class of 2015, Singapore
BSc (Hons) in Computing Science.

Main entrance of the university.

University's open field, chilling spot.

Entrance walkway to the university.

A mandatory shot in front of the main building.

Another mandatory shot in the university's compound.

Orientation day with my group.
In front of the School of Computing Science.

Orientation day. Near the school library.

Last day of school cum Pizza lunch with the classmates and lecturer.

The faces we gave after completing our project video.
Taken in the school library.

Every day sight. Our hostel, Murano student village.

Attractions

Loch Lomond, Glasgow.

It is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault. It is the largest inland stretch of water in Great Britain by surface area. We went there on the 2nd week of school with the computing science students, toured by our seniors from there. It was breathtaking, the view, breeze and all. No regrets.

Glasgow Botanic Garden.

A place with the prettiest flowers and greenest grasses. Also a nice place to chill and perhaps lay out some mats for a picnic? You can also stroll along the nearby park or have a good workout/yoga at the grass field. For our case, the kinda workouts we did were jumping shots and selfies. Well, fair enough la kan.

Kelvingrove Art Museum and Hunterian Museum, Glasgow.

Other than greeneries, Glasgow is also field with museums, and more museums. The architectures there are amazeballs (even though they all kinda look the same). Kelvingrove Art Museum has gotta be my favourite cuz it displayed a variety of things (sculptures, animals, portraits, history etc). Hunterian museum on the other hand is smaller - but thats mainly cuz its located in a university (yes, a museum in my uni guys, how cool is that?!).

Glasgow Science Centre, The Riverside Museum & Tall Ship.

We spent our "free days" exploring the other side of Glasgow (read: out of the city area). A couple of them were the science centre, which is very interesting and biiiig and also the riverside museum which is quite antic. My pick would be the tall ship cuz we got to experience how being in a sailing ship is like, plus the exhibition was awesome! Definitely some of the places to visit while you're here in Glasgow.

Glasgow Bridge, People's Palace, Lighthouse and City Chamber.

These are the few attractions that are located near the city area too. Sadly, one of the museums (3rd pic) was closed on Mondays but its okay la cuz we went to a number of museums already lol. My fave would be the city chamber (6th pic) cuz there was a guided tour and they brought us into the courtroom! Didn't take any picture in the courtroom though, but videos are linked below!

The Necropolis. Glasgow.

The pictures above were taken on our last day in Glasgow when people were busy settling their luggages. We still haven't had enough of Glasgow so we've decided to explore this last attraction which is basically a hill filled with graveyards hahaha. What's great is that we got to see the top-view of Glasgow from above! So that was pretty much a fair trip.

Hari Raya 2k16