Quite a bit has happened since my previous post on the blog. The last one was a workout update published on August 29th. The following week, I had received my offer letter for a fully PhD position in the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics group at University of Southampton. The first thing I had to do after getting my offer letter was to apply for an ATAS clearance. This was a scheme that the UK government had, its job was to make sure that people coming to the UK from outside do not use the knowledge that they have gained in UK to make Weapons of Mass Destruction. And it took me 53 calendar days, or about 37 working days. They are supposed to process an application in 20 working days. I can understand the delay if I was studying nuclear physics or microbiology or something like that. But my research was about fluid flows in pipes (its actually about characterizing skin friction on rough surfaces using lower-order models, but I know that only mechanical engineers can appreciate this stuff, so there I'm working on flows in pipes).
During the time I was waiting for my ATAS clearance, my gym subscription had expired. I was already getting bored at that gym. There were no good training partners, the gym was too cramped to do any olympic lifts, doing deadlifts with the barbells was not possible, my knee was still hurting, and I couldn't count on anyone to spot me for bench presses. So, I didn't renew my subscription. I decided to learn tennis. There was this tennis academy about 4 km away from my home and I went there every morning. It was nice, there were three good coaches and they had enough courts for all members to play. I went there for about 8 weeks, but I couldn't play for 2 of those 8 weeks due to rain.
I finally got my ATAS clearance in the last week of October, and booked a visa slot for the next day. When I had gotten to the visa office with all my documents, they said I needed to get a mandatory Tuberculosis test done, which was frustrating since it was not mentioned in the website or on the document checklist. So that delayed my visa application for 4 more days. I finally applied on 28th October, I think. And the next 3 weeks were spent having farewell parties with friends. I've heard of people getting their visas in just 5-6 days. Considering that I was going from a reputed Indian college to a reputed UK university, to take a fully funded position, and with a clean passport and complete documents, I thought mine would be done in just a week. So every day I told myself that I may get my visa the next day, and every weekend I went and partied with my friends.
Finally, I'd gotten my visa on 21st, I booked flight tickets for 23rd. My friends had come to see me off at the airport, but turns out people without a ticket aren't allowed in (I didn't know that). I had to transfer in New Delhi, met with more friends over there, then took my flight to London. It was a long one (8 hours or so), but it landed ahead of schedule and the flight itself was good- clean airplane, good service, movies and games on a personal screen- pretty good for a cheap ticket (32k INR for the two flights-Hyd to Delhi and Delhi to London, including food and drinks).
The first thing I'd noticed when the flight was landing was that it was quite dark at just 4 30 PM. Back in Hyderabad, it would still be pretty hot at 4 30 PM, but here, the sun sets at around 4 PM and by 6 PM it gets totally dark. From London Heathrow airport, I'd taken a local train to Greenway and then to Waterloo. I had to carry about 22kg of luggage in those busy train stations at peak hour, but I somehow managed it. The train wasn't very different from the Metro in Delhi, it wasn't faster either. From Waterloo, I'd taken a train to Southampton airport, and this train was quite expensive (35 pounds, about 3,500 INR, for a 200km ride). It wasn't a first class ticket or a superfast train either. I'd met an IIT Kanpur alumnus in the train, this dude graduated around 2000 and works at IBM. He got off a few stations before mine, and I finally got to Southampton at around 9 45 PM.
I took a taxi, and we went looking for an inexpensive hotel. There weren't as many hotels in Southampton as I'd expected (considering that there are a lot of international students arriving here). I took a room in a good hotel, it cost about 60 pound a day, breakfast included. That was where I first found that the tap water in UK is drinkable-everyone drinks tap water. I'd seen this in a sitcom from the 80s, but thought it would have changed now. It was a very comfy stay, I was there for 2 days and then I moved into a shared house. There are a lot of shared houses here owned by landlords. Sometimes the landlords, sometimes letting agencies, rent out either individual rooms or the entire house to students. All houses have a kitchen, a few bathrooms, a lounge, and maybe a garden and garage, which are shared by the residents of the house. I was introduced to a really nice landlord by one of his tenants, and I'm quite comfy with the house.
The second thing I have noticed about UK (first thing being the sunset), especially Southampton, is that people are very nice and cheerful. Anytime a guy (or a girl) in a car sees me waiting to cross the road, he stops so that I can cross. Imagine that. That never happened in Hyderabad, and never will. And there is good reason for that. Life here is very peaceful. There are too many cars and very few bikes, and signals at most intersections. Cars don't overtake each other, they just keep moving in a line. There are footpaths everywhere, and pedestrians just need to press a button on a signal to stop the traffic and cross. No one every honks. Most stores close at 5 PM. Even PhD students and professors are not allowed to work in the University after 11 PM. If someone's working after 11 PM, security chucks them out.
The university is not bound within walls, its not even a single campus. There are a lot of buildings, randomly numbered. There are rules and regulations for everything, these people take safety extremely seriously (it is not just a matter of being safe, but it's actually required by law). There are lots of students and researchers around, a lot of them are Chinese. Apparently there has been some university policy that has opened the door to a lot of students from China. And each floor in my building has a kitchen, sometimes two kitchens. There are microwaves, fridges, coffee machines, and even cups and spoons in the kitchen. There are vending machines for soft drinks, candy bars, and crisps and stuff. People are not allowed to smoke inside the building but just outside is fine. There are some cafes, and also a couple of bars, in the campus itself. I have two supervisors for my PhD work. I was worried about ending up with not-so-good supervisors when I had applied for the position. I'm still not used to the life of a PhD student, or to interacting with supervisors, but my supervisors here are like cool nerdy dudes. I have just started working, but I already know I'm gonna love my work. But then, research is always exciting.
I've been to the gym in the university, seen one guy bench 140kg for 3 reps, and he must weigh about 90kg or so, which is qutie impressive. They have good equipment at the gym, including 6-7 Olympic sets, and there is another gym coming up with new equipment for Crossfit and Olympic lifting. I've joined the volleyball and table tennis clubs, looking to join the tennis and rugby clubs too. They have clubs for everything here, and students need to pay to become members. This is one of the few things (like the boring traffic rules- I prefer riding a bike like a boss to stopping at each signal) that I don't like. There was never any membership fee for any sport back at IIT Madras, and it should be that way. The volleyball court is indoors, on wooden floor, and compared to the outdoor courts at IITM, these courts are great to play on.
I haven't done a lot of stuff here yet, I haven't even been to the city centre,but I'm already loving the place. The university closes down for 10 days from 20th December or so, for Christmas (which is a very big thing here). I'll probably get around the city then. And it is already quite cold here, the minimum is about 5 degrees and the maximum is only 10 degrees . And "Winter is coming". It doesn't snow every year, but it did last year, and apparently this time it's going to be colder. Hopefully it will snow, strange how life can change so fast- I got from a lazy dude partying every weekend in a warm, vibrant city, to an excited researcher working everyday in a cold, relaxed city in just a few weeks. This was a much needed break from my habit. Other than the horrible Chennai climate and the crazy admin, this was one of the biggest reasons for wanting to go to a new place- I had just gotten used to the way of life at IITM, and going to a different insti in India would not have made much difference either. I had to start new if I wanted to get off my ass and do something. Only time will decide if I've made the right call. I now sign-off and go to sleep. I have installed Debian Linux on my system today, and tomorrow, I'm going to learn Python and write my first code as a PhD student, and read very good journal papers. Tomorrow's going to be an exciting day.
During the time I was waiting for my ATAS clearance, my gym subscription had expired. I was already getting bored at that gym. There were no good training partners, the gym was too cramped to do any olympic lifts, doing deadlifts with the barbells was not possible, my knee was still hurting, and I couldn't count on anyone to spot me for bench presses. So, I didn't renew my subscription. I decided to learn tennis. There was this tennis academy about 4 km away from my home and I went there every morning. It was nice, there were three good coaches and they had enough courts for all members to play. I went there for about 8 weeks, but I couldn't play for 2 of those 8 weeks due to rain.
I finally got my ATAS clearance in the last week of October, and booked a visa slot for the next day. When I had gotten to the visa office with all my documents, they said I needed to get a mandatory Tuberculosis test done, which was frustrating since it was not mentioned in the website or on the document checklist. So that delayed my visa application for 4 more days. I finally applied on 28th October, I think. And the next 3 weeks were spent having farewell parties with friends. I've heard of people getting their visas in just 5-6 days. Considering that I was going from a reputed Indian college to a reputed UK university, to take a fully funded position, and with a clean passport and complete documents, I thought mine would be done in just a week. So every day I told myself that I may get my visa the next day, and every weekend I went and partied with my friends.
Finally, I'd gotten my visa on 21st, I booked flight tickets for 23rd. My friends had come to see me off at the airport, but turns out people without a ticket aren't allowed in (I didn't know that). I had to transfer in New Delhi, met with more friends over there, then took my flight to London. It was a long one (8 hours or so), but it landed ahead of schedule and the flight itself was good- clean airplane, good service, movies and games on a personal screen- pretty good for a cheap ticket (32k INR for the two flights-Hyd to Delhi and Delhi to London, including food and drinks).
The first thing I'd noticed when the flight was landing was that it was quite dark at just 4 30 PM. Back in Hyderabad, it would still be pretty hot at 4 30 PM, but here, the sun sets at around 4 PM and by 6 PM it gets totally dark. From London Heathrow airport, I'd taken a local train to Greenway and then to Waterloo. I had to carry about 22kg of luggage in those busy train stations at peak hour, but I somehow managed it. The train wasn't very different from the Metro in Delhi, it wasn't faster either. From Waterloo, I'd taken a train to Southampton airport, and this train was quite expensive (35 pounds, about 3,500 INR, for a 200km ride). It wasn't a first class ticket or a superfast train either. I'd met an IIT Kanpur alumnus in the train, this dude graduated around 2000 and works at IBM. He got off a few stations before mine, and I finally got to Southampton at around 9 45 PM.
I took a taxi, and we went looking for an inexpensive hotel. There weren't as many hotels in Southampton as I'd expected (considering that there are a lot of international students arriving here). I took a room in a good hotel, it cost about 60 pound a day, breakfast included. That was where I first found that the tap water in UK is drinkable-everyone drinks tap water. I'd seen this in a sitcom from the 80s, but thought it would have changed now. It was a very comfy stay, I was there for 2 days and then I moved into a shared house. There are a lot of shared houses here owned by landlords. Sometimes the landlords, sometimes letting agencies, rent out either individual rooms or the entire house to students. All houses have a kitchen, a few bathrooms, a lounge, and maybe a garden and garage, which are shared by the residents of the house. I was introduced to a really nice landlord by one of his tenants, and I'm quite comfy with the house.
The second thing I have noticed about UK (first thing being the sunset), especially Southampton, is that people are very nice and cheerful. Anytime a guy (or a girl) in a car sees me waiting to cross the road, he stops so that I can cross. Imagine that. That never happened in Hyderabad, and never will. And there is good reason for that. Life here is very peaceful. There are too many cars and very few bikes, and signals at most intersections. Cars don't overtake each other, they just keep moving in a line. There are footpaths everywhere, and pedestrians just need to press a button on a signal to stop the traffic and cross. No one every honks. Most stores close at 5 PM. Even PhD students and professors are not allowed to work in the University after 11 PM. If someone's working after 11 PM, security chucks them out.
The university is not bound within walls, its not even a single campus. There are a lot of buildings, randomly numbered. There are rules and regulations for everything, these people take safety extremely seriously (it is not just a matter of being safe, but it's actually required by law). There are lots of students and researchers around, a lot of them are Chinese. Apparently there has been some university policy that has opened the door to a lot of students from China. And each floor in my building has a kitchen, sometimes two kitchens. There are microwaves, fridges, coffee machines, and even cups and spoons in the kitchen. There are vending machines for soft drinks, candy bars, and crisps and stuff. People are not allowed to smoke inside the building but just outside is fine. There are some cafes, and also a couple of bars, in the campus itself. I have two supervisors for my PhD work. I was worried about ending up with not-so-good supervisors when I had applied for the position. I'm still not used to the life of a PhD student, or to interacting with supervisors, but my supervisors here are like cool nerdy dudes. I have just started working, but I already know I'm gonna love my work. But then, research is always exciting.
I've been to the gym in the university, seen one guy bench 140kg for 3 reps, and he must weigh about 90kg or so, which is qutie impressive. They have good equipment at the gym, including 6-7 Olympic sets, and there is another gym coming up with new equipment for Crossfit and Olympic lifting. I've joined the volleyball and table tennis clubs, looking to join the tennis and rugby clubs too. They have clubs for everything here, and students need to pay to become members. This is one of the few things (like the boring traffic rules- I prefer riding a bike like a boss to stopping at each signal) that I don't like. There was never any membership fee for any sport back at IIT Madras, and it should be that way. The volleyball court is indoors, on wooden floor, and compared to the outdoor courts at IITM, these courts are great to play on.
I haven't done a lot of stuff here yet, I haven't even been to the city centre,but I'm already loving the place. The university closes down for 10 days from 20th December or so, for Christmas (which is a very big thing here). I'll probably get around the city then. And it is already quite cold here, the minimum is about 5 degrees and the maximum is only 10 degrees . And "Winter is coming". It doesn't snow every year, but it did last year, and apparently this time it's going to be colder. Hopefully it will snow, strange how life can change so fast- I got from a lazy dude partying every weekend in a warm, vibrant city, to an excited researcher working everyday in a cold, relaxed city in just a few weeks. This was a much needed break from my habit. Other than the horrible Chennai climate and the crazy admin, this was one of the biggest reasons for wanting to go to a new place- I had just gotten used to the way of life at IITM, and going to a different insti in India would not have made much difference either. I had to start new if I wanted to get off my ass and do something. Only time will decide if I've made the right call. I now sign-off and go to sleep. I have installed Debian Linux on my system today, and tomorrow, I'm going to learn Python and write my first code as a PhD student, and read very good journal papers. Tomorrow's going to be an exciting day.
