Enrollment

Went to UCL today for the first time for orientation and enrollment - what we used to call "matriculation" back home. What a quaint word. Many moons have come and gone since I first matriculated.

The campus wasn't exactly gleaming new. Certainly, you wouldn't find the modern facilities of NUS or NTU, both of which I had attended, but then, you can certainly feel a sense of history here. The professor who welcomed us spoke of how well-regarded and highly-respected UCL was. It was also pretty hilarious to come across that boxed figure of Jeremy Bentham tucked against a wall - something I had read about previously. Of course, I have to remind myself that it's not just an effigy there. His skeleton lies within as well.

The enrollment process brought together thousands of new graduate students, with uncertainty and unfamiliarity in the air, and it was a necessarily tedious process. But all's done, I hope. I retuned to Goodenough and had lunch for the first time at Freddie's Bar. Shared a table with someone from Costa Rica who had just moved in two doors away from my room. It's pretty neat to be able to meet someone from a country I had visited before. I made sure to tell him of my fond memories of Cafe Britt.