Graduation

It was a journey that started 3 years ago, and it has finally come to a completion. It feels almost as if I’ve just started my first day of law school at Inti. And now, fast forward time, I’m donning the graduate robes in Leeds. Graduation is definitely worth it when you get a first..lol.

My moment will only be in the afternoon, so the morning is reserved for grocery shopping at Morrisons. Besides, I also wanna show Mama what I have been feeding on for the past year. The ceremony is slated to be at 1.30pm but we have to be there way earlier to collect our graduation gowns and also handle administrative matters such as registration. While in town, I took the opportunity to get a couple of black socks and formal shirts from Primark. My bulky suit which I brought all the way from Malaysia has finally got the chance to prove its worth. After suiting up in the house, it was time to head out to uni.

The first place to go to was the Arnold Ziff building where I had to confirm my attendance and collect the tickets. Since Mama is the only one here, I had an extra ticket given to WY so that her two siblings and mother can be there in the graduating hall. Since we share the same surnames anyways, it would look like the same China family village affair..lol. As I was coming out after collecting the tickets, I bumped onto Jerrine and her mother – the first of my law classmates that I see after the long break. I proceeded on to the opposite building to settle paperwork for the official photography session. I lost track where I had placed the receipt, so I had to go through the hassle of filling up the form again. After that, I went to another room to collect and wear my graduation gown. The renting price for the gown comes is actually a whopping price of £42. Gosh, I can’t believe that I have to pay to graduate. It’s only renting! I guess the company that is handling all these graduation gowns are earning lots of moolahh. The people stationed inside the room to help the students to put on their gown were very quick in handling their jobs. It’s easier to put on the gown for boys and I got mine done within less than 5 minutes. It seems that Leeds University’s graduation tradition do not come with the graduation hat. I’m told that without hat looks more professional, and also in line with the Oxbridge tradition. With everything settled, I made my way to the Great Hall. I’m one of the early birds there so I started snapping a few photos of myself first while waiting for the others. Soon, many others arrive too and when the time came for us to enter, I was naturally feeling very excited. Graduates and their parents are divided as graduates enter through a different door and both groups sit in different areas too. I had a small bungle when I handed what was supposed to be my seating ticket to Mama. I only realised the mistake when the attendant at the door asked for my ticket. I ended up needing to backtrack before Mama ends up in another section. Whew!

A couple of weeks before, I had been checking out last year’s graduation service to see what they do during the graduation ceremony. I see that they do not have rehearsals for even for these kinds of major events in Britain. If this is Singapore, there will be a couple of kiasu sessions to ensure that the graduates don’t ‘embarrass’ themselves on stage. So, in Britain, it’s just DIY and learning through observation. Anyways, at my row, I have 2 other Lee ladies in my row, WY and Serena.

The graduation procession starts off with the hall organ being played and the entrance of the law professors. They took their seats on the stage, each of them wearing robes of the university in which they had gained their pHD or Masters from. It’s funny to see them on stage, and I’m wondering whether they will feel bored sitting there for an entire hour being scrutinised by the crowd. After everyone had settled down, the emcee comes forward to introduce the presenter, a senior staff of the university. There’s the opening address and then comes the presentation ceremony for the graduates starting alphabetically. It was almost around 15 minutes before it was my row’s turn. As I got up to walk towards the aisle, my heart started skipping faster. The moment is here! Lol, I can imagine the presenter’s raised eyebrow at the presentation of two consecutive first-class awards to two international students sharing the same surname(since WY is in front of me..haha). So after WY walked off, I took a slow walk up the stairs, took a bow and gave a wide grin at the camera as I receive my graduation certificate. The presenter had a look at my cert and congratulated me, so I had slightly longer airtime appearance on the uni’s official graduation video because of that..haha. As I walked down the stairs, a sense of elation came over: I’ve done it! Woohoo..primary objective accomplished! :)

It was another 15 minutes before all the names are called. At the closing of the ceremony, the pipe organ is played again where the professors will depart first followed by the rest of the graduates, row by row. Outside of the Great Hall were massive gatherings of friends and family of the graduates. It’s also time for photo taking! Some of the peeps from LCCC and our Malaysian bunch came over to congratulate us. Ahhh, halfway taking photos, I was handed a bouquet of graduation flowers, courtesy of my Malaysian gang in Leeds. According to them, it’s chosen carefully to ensure that they are ‘manly’ colours. Hilarious! And then we proceeded on to Parkinson’s building to take photos with the grand front building. I also went inside the building to have a few photos taken with the Brotherton library. There was also this giant mural with the words ‘Stanley and Audrey Burton’ gallery which I had always wanted to have a photo with since entering. There was not much time left as I need to rush back to Michael Sadler building to settle and take the official graduate portrait. Ahhh, of course, to ensure that it looks strikingly and obviously a graduate photo, the photo studio had graciously lent every graduate the graduation hat to pose with. The robe has a fixed time period for it to be returned, so I had to immediately head to the next door robing room to return the rented goods. That wasn’t the last of things to be done of the day as I heard that there is gonna be a reception for graduates at the law school. It would also be a good opportunity to meet with some of the lecturers and have some photos taken. While I was on the way in, I bumped onto Ian, a fellow team-member of the law school’s newsletter so I had one taken with him too. Inside the law school, there was free flow champagne for the guests. Inside, I bumped onto my jurisprudence lecturer and I was quite surprised that she recognised me from class! Haha..this is because jurisprudence class is really huge with hundreds of students so it’s not easy to pick out students. I’ve also met a couple more of the school of law staff and had a quick chat with them. It was almost 6pm when we reached back in the house. We had a short rest and I changed into T-shirt and jeans before coming out for dinner. I brought Mama to Brown’s since that was the only place I can think of that provides good food at quite a reasonable price. At the same time, it’s not too noisy too and has a nice ambience to it. I ordered a steak while Mama went with pasta. It’s always great to celebrate times like this with family and I’m glad that I can share this special occasion with Mama. Afterall, this first class degree also belongs to her and without her hardwork and sacrifices, this would not have been possible.

Hmmmm..the final word on graduation: to some extent, I felt vindicated in that I’ve proven how wrong my detractors were from the old days of the southern island. The years of being sidelined and being regarded as ‘not good’ enough for that system – today had just proven how flawed the southern system is in measuring the amount of potential that I have. If I had stayed on at the island, I’ll never be given the chance to study law merely because I did not achieve perfect As for my A Levels or are part of the elite bandwagon from elite schools. I chuckled. The same joker who failed all of his Add maths exams, scored F9s in mid-year and was hopeless in his Economics paper achieved what many in that southern Island could only dream of. I guess I had the last laugh in the end. What’s left is a matter of getting through the last hurdle by passing the qualifying exams and being part of the profession to silence the critics once and for all. As of now, I’ll savour my moment and thank God for His grace in allowing me to graduate well.

Mama in England

Mama is finally in England! Initially, I told her not to come because it’s quite expensive to fly back and forth Europe. However, she insisted on coming because it’s a once in a lifetime experience and she wants to be there. She has even taken a weeks worth of leave in order to fly over to England. So, on the 16th of July, she landed in Manchester Airport in the night, her first experience on European soil. I had arranged to meet her at the Leeds Rail Station since she’ll be taking the connecting train from the airport. On her way to Leeds, she happened to come across Steph Chai and her parents. It seems that Steph’s parents were actually on the same flight with her! I’ve only discovered about it quite late before that and told Steph to keep a lookout for Mama in case she sees her at the airport. There were more surprising revelations that I discovered about Steph too­-­­­ her primary school was SKSJ and since she’s from the 89 batch, this meant that we would have shared the same canteen for at least 4 years and to think that of all places to get to know each other, it would be Leeds! Haha, small world indeed. At the Leeds station, I bought a 20p platform ticket to enter the train area so that I can pick Mama straight off from the train. I did not need to wait long at the cold platform for her train to arrive and I was naturally glad to see her in person after almost 9 months abroad.

I saw Steph and her parents too and her parents claim that they recognise me from my Subang Jaya days. It seems that they also knew about the tuition centre and mama as a chem teacher. Hmmm..I didn’t know we were that famous in Subang in the past..lol. Since it is already so late at night, both Steph and I shared the cost for a taxi to bring everyone back to the houses. There isn’t much to be done at night apart from asking Mama to rest and get ready to get up early the next day since we have an early morning bus to London to catch.

Our bus was 8.15am in the morning and by the time we reached London it was 12pm+. I had already booked accommodation at Premier Inn Euston Road, which is probably the cheapest decent hotel that I can get from London for a visiting guest. Bed and breakfast, although would be cheaper, is a nono since it’s gonna be squeezy for two people. When we checked into Premier Inn, I was quite impressed with the layout. It’s very cosy, spacious and clean. I got to know about the quality of PI after previewing it earlier in January when I pay a visit to Mike and Grace’s room while they were staying in Manchester. With the accommodation settled, it’s time to get to the next order of business. I had actually wanted to bring Mama to visit Hillsong London but seeing that she was supposed to meet her long-lost school friend in the late afternoon, I decided it’s better to stay focused at it. To kill time, we walked around seeing some sights around Euston Road while walking on the way to King’s Cross Station. London was having some random short burst spells of rains, so we had a short stop at Burger King before taking the tube to Liverpool Street station. We waited there for quite some time because Mama’s friend had several train delays before she could reach. When she finally arrived, we moved to one of the cafes to have food while the two women had a chat with each other. Mama’s friend departed at about 7pm and afterthat, I thought of bringing Mama to eat at the place where Miss Kwok brought me to eat last month. However, alas, none of the shops at the market were open. Since daylight is still on but not for long, I told Mama that we should go to the various sites to take photos first before nightfall. So off we went to the London Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square. There was a slight drizzle when we were taking photos with the Westminster Parliament. At the end of it all, we were really tired and we just settled with takeaway Burger King and sandwiches for dinner.

It was early checkout the next morning as we needed to catch the 7.08am train to York. I am rather impressed with York for my two previous visits so I thought that it was vital that Mama should have a look at the capital of the Northern England. We reached at around 9am and once again, for the third time charming lucky, it was raining in York. One of the first destinations that I brought Mama too was the ruins of the abbey near the museum. We proceeded next to the York Castle Museum. Since I’ve bought a ticket last year when I went in with Megan, I get to enter it for free this time while Mama had to pay for her ticket. We spent some time there before getting some souvenirs. Next up is the Clifford which is located just opposite the museum. I didn’t enter in there for my two previous visits but I was thinking of going in this time since I won’t be in Europe anymore. I myself am pretty curious what this old Norman castle on top of mound contains inside. When I went in, there wasn’t much to see apart from admiring the old walls within and the stairs. However, one could get a small overview of York city, although Clifford Tower exactly that high enough to see very far. On the way down from Clifford Tower, I bumped onto Qing Wei and his whole family. Woahhh, he literally brought his extended family along with him too cos it was such a big group! We proceeded on to York Minster for photos. By then I was feeling kinda hungry already. One of the things not to be missed was to head to Bettys for some posh expensive English teatime. The thing which intrigues me in Bettys was the assorted cakes and pastries on the tea tray. We had to queue for a short while before we were ushered to the lower levels. I ordered Moroccan Mint tea for my drink and Mama ordered the ordinary English tea. This entire experience is costly, so every sip of the tea definitely must be enjoyed. After savouring the tea session, we popped into a shoe shop to get a new shoe for Mama since she has difficulty walking with her current one. Our last activity for the day in York was to attend the evening prayer service in York Minster, the only chance during the day to enter into the Minster for free. Ahhh, apparently Mama is not used to the Anglican rituals, so she ended up dozing in between..lol. We took a slow walk back to the York rail station and waited for our 8.11pm train. We reached Leeds at around 9pm or so. Oh well, time to get some rest now. Tomorrow is the long awaited graduation ceremony where I’ll be ‘crowned’ as a graduate! =D

Benvinguts a Barcelona

I woke up really early at around 3am to pack my things and prepare to depart the place early so as to ensure that I get to the airport on time. I settled all the immigration checkpoint matters and had around 45 min to spare at the transit area. The plane was supposed to take off at 7.45am but it was delayed. Spanair operates as an internal carrier around Spain and it is somewhat like a Spanish version of Air Asia. The flight to Barcelonna took around 1hr 15min. Once I touch down at El Prat Airport, I proceeded straight to find and purchase the Barcelona Card. Unlike Madrid, the Barcelona card covers all transportation and includes some discounts for attraction too. It seems that the cost of a train ride from the airport to Barca’s city centre is around 10 Euros. That’s a lot compared to Madrid where I pay a mere 2 Euros to get to Barajas. Since I have the Barca card, it’s included inside and I guess I’ll need to pay that 10 Euros when I return.

The first impressions of Barca that I have is that the weather is gonna be as hot as Madrid. But the main difference that I spotted instantly was the presence of palm trees and I remembered that Barcelona is a seaside city. I reached the city centre station at around 10am+ and transferred to another line. Even by just looking at the train lines, I can tell that Barca is a much of messy city than Madrid. The trains in Madrid are operated under one standard Metro company but in Barcelona, there are different types of trains – much like Malaysia’s LRT and Monorail. For the stop that is the nearest to my hostel, I have to take the FGC train. These FGC trains are a lot older than the Metro trains and they look rather run-down. By the time I made my way to the El Putxto stop, which is where I’m supposed to be at, it was already 11am. I thought that it would be a jiffy to search for the hostel and it wouldn’t be too hard but it turned out that I was taking things for granted by not checking properly on the exact location. I didn’t even write down the proper address! I circled around the area for countless amount of times. I was on the right street but somehow, I couldn’t find the correct shop lot for it. Without the proper lot number, it’s gonna take ages and I can’t find any free internet nearby. I was on the verge of giving up when I bumped onto the correct door. This is crazy. The hostel is so inconspicuous and there’s not even a proper signboard. I went up and the reception front door was big wooden door which was locked. I had to bang a couple of times before somebody responded to it. Ahhh, it seems that this so-called hostel is actually a university residence. My room has nothing except a bed, a table and a cupboard. There’s not even a fan, which is not good news for a weather like Barca. The funny thing is that it has a fridge inside the room of all things. Oh well, at least I could store some cold drinks inside or chocolates. In addition to that, there’s also a familiar smell of basic uni hostel accommodation which I’m very acquainted with during my first two years of undergraduate studies. Toilets are shared and they are located quite a distance away. Woahh..the standards here are certainly a far cry from the one I stayed in at Madrid but I gotta make do with it since I wanna save money. The only extra good thing that this hostel has is that it has a kitchen with water dispenser and microwave. This provided an avenue to actually buy raw food from supermarket and heat it up myself. That is really a useful money-saving tool considering that I am confident that I won’t be able to find a Museo Jamon clone in Barca.

I was pretty exhausted and would wanna sleep for a while after searching so hard for the hostel. However, I also knew that I had to cover some ground to ensure that the free coupons from my Barca card are not wasted. The first destination that I’ve decided to go is CosmoCaixa – which is somewhat like a science center sponsored by the Spanish Caixa Bank. It turned out to be further away than expected from the FGC station and I had to walk up a steep luxurious neighbourhood to reach the CosmoCaixa. The interiors look superbly new and modern plus the aircon is blasting high. Ahhh, the aircon is most useful with the burning Barca heat outside. There was much to offer in CosmoCaixa for people of all ages and I’m quite impressed by the range of scientific exhibitions that they have there. There’re dinosaur bones, strange marine creatures, recycling models, and physics exhibition. The most impressive one for me was the presence of an Amazon rainforest right smack within the building itself. It was built in such a way that one can have a cross-section look of the rainforest through the glass windows. Once I’m satisfied with exploring around, I made my way down the hill and took the train back to city center to get dinner. In the process, I took the opportunity to explore the city centre too. Hmmmm..for some reason or so, the supermarkets were closed early so I had to pick one restaurant outlet to take away. I decided to try the Pans Company because it looked pretty much like an ubiquitous Spanish Subway company. I didn’t try it in Madrid, so I thought that maybe I could give it a shot here. It’s not exactly cheap food but at least it fills the stomach. Anyways, I got myself an early rest on the first day as I try to figure out how to spend as many coupons from the Barcelona card as possible.

For the second day of Barcelona, I started off with the La Familia Sangrada which is a basilica that is still under construction even after more than 100 years! Work had began in 1882 and it’s completion date is purported to be 2026. The queue to enter the basilica is extremely long and I had to queue for a good 45 minutes before I could buy tickets to enter. The entrance fee ain’t cheap too but with the Barca Card, I got a small discount off the original price. The inside of the church is magnificent, with a myriad of bright colours juxtaposing against the white marble background. There were plenty of visitors but somehow this gigantic structure still had plenty space for visitors to walk around. One of the interesting monuments in there is a giant slab which contained the Lord’s prayer in various languages and I could find Bahasa in there..haha! There was no time to waste after I’m done with the Basilica. I was tempted to pop in for a buffet lunch at a restaurant opposite but then I realised that I do not have much time left to explore if I spend the time munching on food. As usual, two Hamburgers from McD will do the trick for lunch and I headed straight to find the music museum which is located in Auditori. On the way, I had the opportunity to bump into Barcelona’s bullfighting arena. It looks almost the same as its Madrid counterpart but is now defunct as far as bullfighting is concerned since the sport Is banned in the Catalan region. Anyways, it’s free entrance through the Barca Card for the Museo Musica. Plenty of musical instruments to explore and see and exhibits are arranged according to the individual cultures that they come from. There’s also another section which charts the evolution of music throughout the ages. Not many people were present there because I guess it’s not a popular area to visit unless you’re really into playing musical instruments. Time is ticking, so I hastily made my way to the chocolate museum to ensure that I have ample time to explore it before it closes in the evening. The chocolate museum is another free entrance case and the ‘ticket’ that I received is actually a bar of chocolate! Mhmmm..the chocolate museum is not just a place that exhibits plain old chocolate bars or just mention about the history of cocoa. This little museum houses artistic confectionary masterpieces made entirely from just chocolate! These artisan chefs do not see chocolate only as a delicious source of food, but also as moulding materials like clay. Visitors are treated to a wide array of plain brown chocolate sculptures and also colour painted ones which features well-known characters such as Asterix, Tintin and Bambi. The impressive thing about these sculptures is that they look exactly like the 3D version of their print/screen counterpart. They look almost too good to be eaten..haha. I stayed there until the museum is closing for the day. There’s still some daylight evening time left, so I head off to the docks to find the Columbus Column. This column is located at the end of the La Rambla stretch. The highlight of this place is that one can take an elevator up to the top to have a bird’s eye view of Barcelona city centre from the coast. Entrance is free from the Barca card. There was a short queue to board up the small elevator where only 4 people can go up at a time. The elevator sorta reminded me of the elevator in the Merlion. The space to move around the column at the top of the column is extremely narrow. It has just enough space for a one lane circumference. If one is too fat or is claustrophobic, this place will definitely be a problem. Nevertheless, the view from up there is fantastic. Besides the city centre on one side, I can also have a bird’s eye view of the docks, the World Trade Center and the ships parked near the coast. When I’m satisfied with the pictures taken at the top, I returned back to ground. It was nearing evening, at about 7pm and I was contemplating whether to take the boat ride today or tomorrow. Finally, I decided to take it tomorrow instead as a form of finale to the Spanish voyage. Meanwhile, I walked along the docks and checked out the Barca beach and its seaside attractions. I couldn’t walk the whole coast of course, so at some point of time, I did a u-turn to return back to La Rambla. By then, shops were already closing and I spotted a Carrefour there. So I went in to see to find whether I can get anything to eat and I had a hard time deciding. I bought a raw pizza in the end because I thought that I could bake it in the oven in the hostel. In addition to that, I bought a packet of chips too because it was on promotion. While looking through the shelves, what attracted my attention was bottled Sangria being sold in supermarket shelves. Woahhh, in England, this is like cocktail which can only be obtained in bars but yet in Spain (the country where Sangria originates from), Sangria is just dirt cheap and although it is alcoholic, it is bottled like fruit juice! Carrefour even has its own range of Sangria in box packets. I grabbed one 1.5l bottle and since I have a fridge in the room, I’ll place the bottle in to chill it and drink it for dinner the next day.

On day 3, it’s the moment I’ve been waiting for – it’s time to head off to Nou Camp! I was supposed to start moving in the morning but slackness dragged me on my feet and by the time I reached Nou Camp, it was close to afternoon already. Nou Camp is located on the outskirt of the city centre and it’s literally a Barca sports village by itself. As I was walking to the stadium, I passed by what I believe to be one of the facilities used by the legendary Barca academy to train their young kids. Once I reached the main compound of the stadium, I went straight to queue up for the tickets. There were loads of people snaking to go into the stadium, even more than the Bernebeu I would say. If you thought that Bernebeu’s 16 Euros was expensive, wait till you hear Barca’s entry price of over 20 Euros. Since I had Barca card, I managed to get a small discount. Ughhh..expensive, but it’s a once in a lifetime experience. After getting my ticket, I joined the long snake by going up the escalator and crossing the overhead bridge which brings me directly into the stadium museum. Like the Bernebeu, this stadium tour is self-service. Visitors can also get a free audio guide to accompany them during the museum visitation. Since the museum extremely crowded, I just had a look at the exhibits and let the audio guide do all the talking. At the end of the museum trail, visitors can enter into the main stadium arena with the playing field where the magnificent ‘Mes Que Un Club’ slogan laid majestically among the seats across the other side. Bernebeu feels squarish and high but Nou Camp is more on the rounded side with a lower and its seating arrangement spreads out.

I took my time to savour the view from my place and at the same time, tried to scout for any appropriate candidates among the other tourists to help me to take a photo of me with the stadium. It was quite a chore to cycle a few bunch of people before I managed to get a satisfactory shot of myself with the stadium. I continued to follow the route of the stadium which also leads to the area of the press box where the TV commentators sit. I was keeping track of the time very closely and I try since I had a few other destinations in mind to complete. After feeling satisfied with Nou Camp, I made my way to another sporting venue – the Barcelona Olympics Museum. Since Barca hosted the Olympics in 1992, the Olympic Stadium would still would have been there. The Olympic Village (where the museum is located) is located at the top of a hill and I had to take a special FGC funicular tram to reach the top. This special FGC funicular tram looks exactly like the Penang Hill trams, only more modern. The ride did not take long and from the summit station, I had to walk around 5-10 minutes to reach the museum. The Olympic Museum had various exhibits on the origins of different sporting events. I did not stay long to read the long narratives, so I just skimmed through the areas which are interesting enough for me to explore because of the time. The quick browse of the Olympic Museum was over quickly and I’m off to have a look at the Barcelona Olympic Stadium. Hmmmmm..it still looks well-maintained despite it being mostly devoid of any activity apart from the tourists. My next area of exploration was kinda discovered by accident. Nearby to the Olympic Village was the Castell de Montjuic which was actually a 17^th century military fortification overlooking the Barca coast. As this castle is located on the highest point of the hill, visitors can basically have a bird’s eye view over the whole of Barcelona city centre. It offers an even wider view compared to the Columbus Column. The only setback is that there’s lots of smog permeating the air, and as a result, the camera couldn’t capture a good overview of it. Climbing up and down the various spots in Montjuic is very physically demanding and tiring and by the time I reached the base of the hill, I was brimming with exhaustion. There was still one last thing for me to complete and I’ve just arrived in time before it is closed for the day. It’s the free boat ride along the coast of Barcelona courtesy of the Barca card! It’s an old ferry but the ride was very relaxing. It went past the cargo bay area before making a u-turn back to the docks. Along the way, the little old ferry passed by the gigantic cruise ships too. I think it’s a fitting finale for my time in Barca – to end it off with a boat ride in the evening. For my last dinner, I just grabbed some pasta from the frozen section in the supermarket and reheat them using the hostel’s microwave. To top up my meal, I also have a bottle of ice-cold bottled Sangria which I’ve placed inside the fridge the night before. Ahhh, looks like I’ll drink myself drunk and just fall asleep on the bed. Mhmm, I remember feeling very sleepy at half a bottle and then I dozed off.

My flight back to Leeds is scheduled to be at 12.45pm on 13^th July. I’m not going anywhere on the last day and the morning shall be reserved solely in getting ready for the flight and making sure that I don’t leave any valuables behind. I woke up considerably early and started packing up and took my time to wash up. My time estimations were all spot on and I was at the airport way before time. 3hrs on, I’m safely seated back in my base of operation at Leeds. Well, that concludes the first half of my European voyage. Right now, I’ll take a nice break first from all the travelling and look forward to Mama’s arrival and graduation!

Viva La Madrid!

I had been trying to piece together a trip to at least one of my targeted destinations in Europe before the arrival of Mama and graduation. Now, I definitely do not want to be caught in a situation where I ended up travelling alone to these places. I dread thinking of the fact that I may end up getting lost alone in Europe. It’s always better to have a 2^nd person since that would mean accommodation would be cheaper and taking photos would not be such a hassle. Leo joked that I should do a ‘Carrie’, in reference to our mutual female friend who had travelled around England and Europe by herself. Ahhhhh,,I’m trying very hard not to go down that road!

After much deliberation and checking, I decided to make Spain – Madrid and Barcelona as the destinations to go to during this early July period. I did a couple of flight checks to get the best pricing and in the end, the cheapest combo that I could come up with was to start off with Madrid first using Easyjet from Manchester, followed by a connecting flight in midweek via Spanair to Barca and returning back to Leeds from Barca via Ryanair. With that settled already, I went around, asking in desperation for people to join me. The response was not very good though, as people were either not free, going with parents to the destinations I am going or have gone back to Malaysia. In the end, I got quite fed up asking people or waiting for their replies. I made the final decision, albeit reluctantly, to go ahead with my plans alone and to book the necessary accomodations.

The flight from Manchester was in the evening on 6^th July and when I reached Madrid, it was already 10pm+ or so. When I walked out of the plane onto the Madrid runway to take the transit bus to the terminal, I could feel the Spanish warm air. Ahhhh, it looks like somewhere in Europe, there’s a place where there is tropical Malaysian weather! Naturally I was delighted because I could get rid of the Northern European cold for once. The hostel that I booked is in the region of Barajas, which is where the airport is located. I decided to stay near the airport since my Spanair flight is early in the morning at 7.30am. The area where my hostel is located looked a lot like some small town in Mexico..lol. I think that’s how the Spanish influence the Mexican in terms of town planning. I was quite surprised to find a Chinese provision shop near my hostel too. Hmmm..seems that the Chinese are everywhere! I managed to find my hostel without much problems and my room is actually located in a separate building from the reception office. I was quite surprised at the size and nature of the room though because it felt like a hotel room and the toilet inside the room was quite nicely decorated with marble tiles. There was air-con and Spanish cable TV, so I ain’t complaining much about it. The only left to do is to get a good night’s rest and prepare to explore Madrid the next day.

On the next morning, I headed straight to the train station to purchase the Madrid transport pass which enables me to have unlimited travelling on buses and trains for 3 days straight. The first destination that I had on my card was to head towards Puerto del Sol, which is the main square for Madrid. I was supposed to be there early for the free tour but because of my lateness, I had to go for the free tour in the evening. So, with plenty of time for me to burn, I did a short exploration around the central square before heading to one bakery stall to get some food. I got myself a jamon, which is someone like a raw cured bacon ham in a croissant and it costs only 1 Euros! I topped it up with some juice from the supermarket and that was good enough. After the small lunch, I decided to head off first to check out the Chamberi Train Station, which is one of the ghost train stations in Madrid. One of the reasons why I started from there is because it’s free too..lol. Chamberi is a train station that’s abandoned for decades and has just recently been reopened as a small museum. It’s interesting to see the retro ticket barriers still in place and some of the painted rail map is still in existence. I head back to Plaza Mayor to join up with the free tour group. As usual, we had a basic run through around some of Madrid’s main attractions. That gave me some idea on where to go and what to plan for the next few days. As you can see, I’m pretty impromptu coming into Madrid with not much expectation or plans on where to visit except for the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

For the 2^nd day, I decided to start off the day by heading to bullfighting ring at Plaza de Toros. Bullfighting is a controversial sport but it is part of the Spanish cultural heritage. There are occasional bullfighting matches in Madrid but it is totally banned in Barcelona. So, if I wanna have a chance to see how the inside of a bullfighting arena looks like, this is the best opportunity. I went to have a look at the museum first which is free and it exhibits a lot items related to the gory sport. There are bull heads, matador costumes (including one which still has blood-soaked stains), weapons and portraits of famous matadors. After feeling satisfied exploring the museum, I headed out to the main gate and purchased ticket for the tour. It was very much like a stadium tour as the guide brought us around the arena. He had to speak twice though, once in Spanish and another time in English. The waiting areas around the arena are somewhat like a football stadium, they do sell snacks and drinks. We did go down all the way to where the bullfighting takes place and it’s nothing but sand and dust. After bullfighting business, I went to check out the Vincenzo Calderon Stadium, which is Athletico Madrid’s stadium. From the distance, it looks rather huge and impressive. I tried to search for a main reception area (like Anfield or Old Trafford) but found none. It seems that outside the stadium is quite plain. The interesting thing about the stadium though is that it has an active road traffic running under the stands. Athletico certainly has a bigger and modern stadium than Anfield and I wonder what Torres thought when he first transferred over..haha. I didn’t have lunch or anything yet, so I went to search for El Tigre bar which I read on the Internet serves free tapas for any drink that you buy. It took me quite some time to search for it because it was hidden in a small alley. I came at the right time around 4pm-ish where the crowd is the least. I ordered cider, thinking that they will give me the typical English cider. Instead, they gave me somewhat like a dark red Spanish cider cocktail with peppermint leaves. It tasted quite good and refreshing actually, especially under the hot blazing cloudless Spanish sun. I was given free tapas as expected and it’s quite a generous portion of paella and meat. My drink cost 5 Euros, and I suspected that I may be overcharged as a tourist but I still think it’s worth it if I were to put the meaty tapas into consideration. In the evening, I went to the Madrid Maritime Museum. It was listed as free on the web, but when I went there, I was requested by the guard to make a ‘donation’ of 3 Euros. Ahhh, I paid up anyways since I’m curious to see the artefacts of the Spanish as a former seafaring colonial power. They would have some remnants about Isabella being pwned by Elizabeth during the Golden Age..lol. I stayed until the museum closes. My free tour guide told my group the day before that Madrid has the largest collection of art pieces in a city. It would be a waste if I don’t visit at least one. Apparently, some of these world famous museums do offer free entrance at a particular time. I picked Museo del Prado as it has free entrance from 5pm-6pm and it fits in just nice with my schedule. Inside Museo del Prado, there’s hundreds of Biblical themed paintings. With such a short span of time, obviously I can’t finish seeing everything but it’s good enough to have a glance for a free entrance. I waited for quite some time for the sky to get dark. It’s the peak summer period and even at 9pm, the sky is still bright. Finally, when nightfall did settle in at around 9.30pm-10pm, I walked around the city centre area to enjoy the night lights of Madrid. I went to the Bernebeu for a quick preview and to check out to see whether the stadium is litted up at night. To my dismay, the stadium was pitch-black but outside the stadium were some “pasar malam-ish” food stalls. Oh well, looks like I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the full view of the stadium.

For the last day, I took the train down straight to the Bernebeu station. The Bernabeu is a massive complex situated in the middle of Madrid’s high end commercial hub. Most stadiums are located in the outskirt but Real Madrid’s stadium is right smack in the city. I proceeded to a long queue to buy the stadium tour ticket and it costs 16 Euros. Unlike the stadium tours in England, visitors to the Bernabeu are allowed the freedom to explore the stadium on their own and stay however long they wish. So, it’s not only the museum that visitors can have the leisure of wandering around, but also the spectator stands, commentator box and dressing room. There are barriers to guide visitors to walk the correct path in this self-guided tour. The first point that visitors came across is the highest point of the spectator stand in the Bernabeu stadium. That point of height is at least 9 to 10 storeys high. Afterthat I went through the museums and the trophy display room. The Champions League sections reminds us that the last time Real had won the CL is in 2002. At ground level, visitors have the opportunity to get a feel of the seats at the substitutes’ bench and of course, Mourinho’s seat. It was there that I got to know for a short time a Bulgarian who strangely had a fancy for Celtic. It was towards the last part of the tour, so he helped me to take photos for the last stretch. After Bernabeu, I went back to the town center for lunch. Once my stomach is filled, I decided to backtrack to some of the places that I came across during the free tour. I came across the Royal Palace but I declined to go in because the price is quite expensive. Instead, I entered inside the Almudena Cathedral, which I thought was a very unique structure. It does seem weird to have a cathedral with an Arabic sounding name but I guess it’s due to the Moorish influence in the past. The interior Almudena is quite impressive while it’s exterior is a reminiscence of Moorish architecture.

My last stop in Madrid is the Buen Retiro Park which is the largest green space available in the city. It houses the monument to King Alfonso XII. Looks like there are plenty of activities to do there. There’s a huge lake in there too where folks can ride a boat around. The most interesting structure that I came across was the Crystal Palace The entire structure was built somewhere in the 19^th century and consisted predominantly of glass. With that, I closed the chapter on Madrid and prepared to go back to my room early to get sufficient rest before waking up early for my flight. My overall conclusion for Madrid: clean, excellent rail service and it certainly did not look like the capital city of a country in debt. I was quite fortunate to have supermarkets selling 1.5l of orange juice for 1.38 Euros and Museo Jamon to sell those cheap 1 Euro croissants. That saved a lot in the food department. Ahhhh, the next stop will be in the Catalan region and I’ll be interested to see how they would differ from the capital city.

By God's grace, it is Classification One!

As mentioned before, I’ve heard of rumours swirling around in Amsterdam but I did not want to confirm it until I’ve returned back to England. Anyways, I’ve deduced on the possibilities of situation by figuring out that if I had gotten a mere 2:1, people would not have start to message me on facebook with such excitement. There is a high possibility that my results could have gone beyond 2:1. Of course, at the same time, I was also worried and did not want to be so upbeat about it only to find that my deductions were wrong. Afterall, people could be just be nice to offer customary notes of congratulations for doing well for degree at a 2:1. Not only that, mathematically, it seemed very improbable in my prediction of my own marks that I can hit a First based on my own evaluation of performance.

I came back on a Saturday, so there’s no way that I could find out from the law office. The only way to get a clue on that was to check from the online portal to see if they had released any list. There was no list at all, so I searched deeper by going to the LFL webbie where there list career opportunities etc. I checked to see if they had updated my profile and true enough, they did update it! So I read through to result and..and I just went WOW! It wrote down there – Classification: ONE! =D

Let’s start from the main talking point first from the bottom. I’ve always expected my EU Law paper to be a major screw-up and I would be contented just to have passed it. I honestly didn’t think that I would get higher than a 2:2 grade for it but It turned out in the end that I secured a 2:1 for it at 63. The surprising eye-brow raiser was that Jurisprudence was actually the one which got the honour of being the lowest marks at 61. Ahhhhh, perhaps I should not be that surprised considering that I didn’t submit a good performance for the law as fiction question .

Now for the good news for the rest of the subjects which helped me to seal the grade – Criminology was the subject which I placed the highest expectation on and it duly delivered a first class grade as expected at 70. Evidence is somewhat like my A Levels Eng Lit paper – not a guarantee First but a possible one. And yes, in the end it was 70 marks for Evidence for another first grade! Evidence was one subject I would say that I would not have expected to get the first grade but I guessed my focused calibration during preparation paid off in the end, especially with that last minute decision to focus on bad character. The most glorious of it all is of course, my long dissertation – a whopping 73 marks and I’m glad it turned out well after months of working on it. For LD, I already had predicted that I would get at least a 2:1 without much problems and a small nagging feeling that I would get a first if my supervisor sees my work and ideas as revolutionary and fresh. I, to a certain extent, felt surprise at the given mark at 73 because this meant that my supervisor found my dissertation to be much better than the prerequisite first class 70 borderline marks. Like football, additional goal difference is welcomed and having 73 for LD is a tremendous boost for the average marks classification. (A win is 70, anything more is goal difference) Since LD occupies 40 credits, it’s akin to scoring 73 for two subjects. Big gamble to stake two lives with one attempt, but in the end it paid off big time. That additional 6 marks could be used to shore up the deficit in EU and Jurisprudence. Mhmmm..analysis wise on the distribution of marks, it looks like I woke up my ideas for the last two papers and got back on track for my aspired first classification unknowingly along the way.

The final average marks that I’ve accumulated was 6.83/10, 0.02 marks off the guaranteed 6.85 border for First class. It would be inequitable to deny me of the first for that 0.02 difference, but in anycase, my grade was secured by a proviso which states that any average marks difference of 0.10 would see the student being awarded the higher classification which he is eligible for. Furthermore, a student can also score a first if 50% of the credits that he has taken is a first class grade. I’ve scored a First for 80/120 credits that I have taken, so that factor would have secured me the grade too.

I told Mama to keep the excitement down when I saw the results over the weekend since it is not finalised yet. Then today, 1^st July, I popped down to the law school to see the finalised list and praise God, the first class grade was confirmed. It turns out that my fellow Lee sister, WY, got a First too! Haha, I knew it that she would get it! I had the feeling about that in Amsterdam and I’m not surprised considering that she put in quite a lot of hard work into her studies compared to a slacker like me. My average of 6.83 was right at the borderline and if I had gotten anything less in any subject even by just 1 mark, I would have been off the scale. Part of me figured that if I had prepared for my EU paper properly, my average marks would have been higher and I would not have sat at the border. Hence, this gift of first class for my degree can only be attributed to divine intervention and it is only by God’s grace that I have gotten it. Such a small margin, and it could go either way in the slightest change of circumstance. The laurels of being exceptional and being average are just separated by a thin thread. It’s a big difference in future opportunities or the response of the people around. Honestly, I did not really believe that I would get a First Class for my degree. Mama told me to pray about it, but I shrugged it off telling her it’s a mathematical impossibility. Yet again, I’m proven wrong by God for the umpteenth time. O ye of little faith! Is anything even too improbable for God! I felt disappointed at myself for doubting Him but at the same time, thankful and glad that God never stopped watching out for me.

Then, I remembered the words of one of my friends, who pointed out that God will give us the necessary grades that will help us to advance in life according to His plans. I’m not sure why He has given me a First class award eventhough I didn’t do anything to deserve it but I’m certain that it’s a key that He wants me to have it in order to open doors which He wants me to go through in the future. Thank you Lord once again!