i finally started my attachment and its been really busy since.
walk about 30 minutes each way everyday, and the first thing i do is to put down my heavy bag. i was wondering why my bag is ALWAYS heavy. so i did some mental calculations.
i have:
a macbook - 2kg
some papers - maybe… 0.5kg? okay. maybe not some papers, but many papers.
i have a pencil box - 0.2-0.3kg
i forgot my huge water bottle so my small water bottle - 0.5kg?
the empty bag itself - slightly less than 1 kg?
my coin purse - maybe 0.3kg itself? i know. i have a lot of coins.
in total - ~5kg.
okays. sounds like im carrying the medicine ball on a hiking trip. good exercise. daily. an hr.

so needless to say, im exhausted after each day of attachment, and this is like what? the 4th day of attachment. plus everything's new and im easily stressed. not sure how i behaved daily is correct or not, whether its socially acceptable, whether i should have said something else. i'm trying out an accent, just to get myself understood. i have had enough of repeating myself 10 times - no joke. by the 10th time, i'm confused by myself.

the work's interesting, even exciting. the people here are kind and fun. they are interested in each other's research and they looked driven. the board is pinned full of lab jokes like the 9 kinds of postdoc, 9 kinds of PIs, 12 kinds of graduate students.

so far, i have attended one lab meeting. one person presents during the lab meeting, and he's often interrupted by everyone. i wonder how he still can make sense of himself after like 10 questions in the second slide. and he had like 10 slides? the meeting lasted for about 1.5hrs. feels like a 1.5-hr-long interrogation.

the lab has many rooms, i'm lucky. i came when many students have left. so i have a desk for myself in the student room. imagine that. after a yr of fyp, in which i stood around because there were no seats for me, i have a desk to myself. its still pretty empty, still not uniquely soki, but all i need is just time ;)
the other rooms are places for specific experimental apparatus/instruments/machines.
theres one common area, in which its called a tea room (not quite a room). people contribute about 4pounds a month, and you get free flow of coffee and tea (all day), and there's cakes, ice-cream, brownies, ETC during tea time. as i said, i came when many students were leaving. on the first day i was here, the tea time was to bid farewell to one, so the tea time was pretty elaborate. on the second day, my predecessor was leaving so we had wine on top of cakes and snacks during tea time. yea imagine that WINE. plus he was french, so they got him french wine. wine in the middle of the day, between experiments. (oh may i mention, the french guy looks good. and j'ai parle un peu de francais avec lui! Sa petite amie est tres jolie!)
people packed their lunches here, and there's microwave.
the place here is abit ulu so its difficult to find decent food at affordable prices.
im pretty happy with my own home-cooked food and microwave to eat it warm. most people's food are cold here, like cold sandwiches, so i'm contented.

i didn't know world cup has started. and how do i know that its the heat of the season? there's a tv in the tea room. its pretty difficult to talk to my mentor during a game. and many people are locked to the tv. even if someone's doing expt, they just poke their heads out to take a peek at the scores OR. they check their iphones. daily conversation includes "which team do you support?" they stopped asking me because i gave a blank look. the english team is playing in 17minutes and the tv is switched on already to watch the buildup. and my supervisor is pacing the floor outside the tv room.

its very diverse here as well, there's an intern from michigan, another from sydney, a postdoc from germany, and etc etc. im not talkative = i dunno everyone yet. plus.. they don't understand my singaporean accent.