It's weekend again, and we're halfway through the first term. I'm quite busy every day, with all those projects, assignments, lectures and of course boxing. Some deadlines are coming up in November, when we have to hand in several reports for Strategic Management, Supply Chain Management, the Automotive Group Project and Research Methods.
Last week actually nothing special happend, a lot of studying and we are meeting regularly in different groups for the different projects. By the end of this term 13 reports or assignments which are all graded should be submitted. That means not much time for other things than studying and boxing.
I am training regularly at the boxing gym near to Aston University, and on Saturdays I'm training in another gym where my trainer is teaching. This other gym has very good facilities, it is a Mixed Martial Arts gym, with nice shower and even a saune. Of course I spent some time in the suana this morning after a good training with a lot of sparring. Actually we are sparring every training, because there is a match coming up next month, the 28th of November. Next week, probably Wednesday, I will have my medical check-up for boxing, hopefully everything is fine ;).
For my studies everything is going fine as well. The high study load is because I am doing an extra module this term, so I have a module less in the next term. This means in stead of doing 5 modules, I am doing 6 now and can do 4 after Christmas. So after Christmas everything is going to be much more relaxed :)!
Well... that's about it for last week... not much special happend actually and I haven't got too much time anymore to write long stories. I haven't made any photos anymore as well, maybe I will make some this week, but I can't promise...
31 October 2009
21 October 2009
Study, Study, Study.... and some Boxing
Sunday (last week, not last Sunday) I did some studying and preparation for classes next week. After studying I went out for dinner with Vikesh and his cousin, to the Pizza Hut. We shared a large pizza and pasta, which tasted good.
Monday morning I spent doing some homework in the library, before my class started at 2 pm. In the evening I went to boxing class again, where we did some sparring and exercises on the heavy bags. After I came I didn’t have much energy left to study, so I did that Tuesday morning. Tuesday’s class was methods of research, which was about critical literature reviews. After class I immediately went to boxing, because the schedule is quite tight. Class finishes at 5 and boxing starts at 6. At boxing we discussed boxing matches and I’ll be registering with the English Amateur Boxing Association, so I can fight matches in England. I was also invited to go sparring at another club, Birmingham City, on Wednesday.
Wednesday morning my class on strategic finance starts at 10AM, and takes only 2 hours, until 12. After class I went home to make myself some lunch and then I went off to the library, first to chat a little with Koy and to study. At 5 o’clock my trainer Dave picked me up at the Uni to go to the Birmingham City boxing club for the sparring sessions. The sparring session was nice; I sparred with two boxers from other clubs and did quite well.
Over the weekend I did a lot of home and project work. For every module we have at least 1 project which has to be completed by December or earlier, that’s a lot of work to do. Saturday morning I took some time off homework though, to go with my trainer to another gym where he is teaching about 7 km from the Uni. In the very well equipped gym I spent practically the whole morning sparring with big MMA fighter guys, but it was a good work-out. With a lot of studying the weekend passes very quickly, and I even didn’t have the time to write on my blog…
Monday morning we started with a class in research methods, which is quite boring. For this module we are having 2 classes of 3 hours a week now. Monday evening I went to boxing again, where we had a good work-out concentrating on the legs… My legs were hurting a little when I woke up Tuesday morning.
The rest of the week until today had been a lot of studying. Yesterday I had a sparring again; some guys were coming over to our gym to spar. I am training 4 days a week now, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning. My ABA boxing license has been ordered and I can probably fight my first match in the end of November, in the middle of December I can participate in the English University Championships.
For now it is a lot of studying, every evening, also after boxing training…
Monday morning I spent doing some homework in the library, before my class started at 2 pm. In the evening I went to boxing class again, where we did some sparring and exercises on the heavy bags. After I came I didn’t have much energy left to study, so I did that Tuesday morning. Tuesday’s class was methods of research, which was about critical literature reviews. After class I immediately went to boxing, because the schedule is quite tight. Class finishes at 5 and boxing starts at 6. At boxing we discussed boxing matches and I’ll be registering with the English Amateur Boxing Association, so I can fight matches in England. I was also invited to go sparring at another club, Birmingham City, on Wednesday.
Wednesday morning my class on strategic finance starts at 10AM, and takes only 2 hours, until 12. After class I went home to make myself some lunch and then I went off to the library, first to chat a little with Koy and to study. At 5 o’clock my trainer Dave picked me up at the Uni to go to the Birmingham City boxing club for the sparring sessions. The sparring session was nice; I sparred with two boxers from other clubs and did quite well.
Over the weekend I did a lot of home and project work. For every module we have at least 1 project which has to be completed by December or earlier, that’s a lot of work to do. Saturday morning I took some time off homework though, to go with my trainer to another gym where he is teaching about 7 km from the Uni. In the very well equipped gym I spent practically the whole morning sparring with big MMA fighter guys, but it was a good work-out. With a lot of studying the weekend passes very quickly, and I even didn’t have the time to write on my blog…
Monday morning we started with a class in research methods, which is quite boring. For this module we are having 2 classes of 3 hours a week now. Monday evening I went to boxing again, where we had a good work-out concentrating on the legs… My legs were hurting a little when I woke up Tuesday morning.
The rest of the week until today had been a lot of studying. Yesterday I had a sparring again; some guys were coming over to our gym to spar. I am training 4 days a week now, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning. My ABA boxing license has been ordered and I can probably fight my first match in the end of November, in the middle of December I can participate in the English University Championships.
For now it is a lot of studying, every evening, also after boxing training…
10 October 2009
First academic week
The weekend I was feeling a little better, but still I was not fully recovered. The night from Saturday on Sunday I couldn’t sleep at all, probably because I had been sleeping too much the days before. The only thing I did was going to the fresher’s fair on Sunday. At the fair all the different student societies and sports clubs present themselves. Also the boxing club was presenting, and I signed up for the season’s first training on Monday night.
Monday was my first lecture, Strategic Management. This course doesn’t seem that hard, however we need to read a lot and do a lot for it, it will take a lot of time. But it seems to be a quite interesting class. At night, after my dinner, I went to the library to get some of the books the lecturer wants us to read. A 900pg book, a 500 pg. book and an 800 pg. book, of course we don’t have to read and do everything in those books.
At 8:30 the boxing class started. The class was not really suiting me, since practically all the boxers were beginners. We only got to learn the stance, how to punch and how to skip the rope… I knew that already. After the training I had a talk with the trainer and he suggested I’d come to his boxing club for the next training, that would be Tuesday. When I came home, I made a start with me homework reading the first pages about strategic management.
Tuesday I had lectures again, starting at 2 PM. Therefore I could spend the morning in the library, working on the homework we have got for Strategic Management. We should make a “learning diary”, containing what we learn, what the implications are, which articles we read etc. etc. The afternoon class is about Methods of Research. The materials actually are a little bit boring, but we didn’t get any homework yet. The class was over around 4, which gave me some time to chat with Koy before I went to the boxing club.
The boxing club wasn’t very far away from the university, about 10 minutes by bicycle if you get it the first time right. Obviously I didn’t get it the first time right, at least, the building itself was quite hard to find. However I still was on time for the start of the practice. After some warming up we started sparring right away, which went quite good. After 3 rounds of 3 minutes sparring, we did some pads work out and then the cooling down. The cooling down was including some heavy exercises for the abs.
Wednesday I got the morning class, starting at 10 AM. This class is about Strategic Finance, but the first lecture was really more about corporate strategies. Wednesday afternoon I got the required books for this course from the library and did some reading in the subject.
Thursday is the busiest day of my week, lectures start at 10 AM with Management of New Product Development. This course is quite nice, considering al l the different aspects of product development and how complicated very simple things actually are. After a 1 hour break, which is just enough to run home and make myself a sandwich or something, in the afternoon we got the introduction to a group project. This project is about penetrating the European market as a Korean auto maker; this project had the potential to become some fun as well.
In the afternoon we had our class in Supply Chain Management. This class is given by a French guy with a French accent from here to… well… let’s say Paris. But the materials are quite interesting and also this course involves a project, which is about the supply chain of oil to the UK. After class I quickly went home to pack my stuff and go to the boxing club. However, when I arrived at the bicycle stall... I found I had a flat front tire . Therefore I took the bus to the boxing club, but unfortunately I took it to the wrong direction and got a tour around town before arriving at the boxing club. Luckily I was not very late (only a few minutes) which allowed me just to join the warming up. After the training, which had a lot of short, intensive exercises, I went back to the Uni jogging.
Friday morning I did my laundry filling up the 7 kg laundry machine, and I got it all stuffed! After doing the laundry and putting my stuff in the tumble dryer, I went with Vikesh to a bicycle repair shop, not too far from here, to get my bike fixed. I’ll pick it up Saturday. For the rest I have been cleaning my room, doing some studying and chatting with Koy on Friday.
Today (Saturday) Koy woke me up at 8:30 with a phone call . After I woke up, I put my sports clothes on to go jogging the 20 story building in which I live from Ground 0 to the 20th. After doing some studying in the morning and having my lunch (a baguette with boiled egg, cheese, meat, salad and tomato!), I went to pick up my bike from the bicycle repair shop. For 6 pounds they had put in a new inner tube.
Monday was my first lecture, Strategic Management. This course doesn’t seem that hard, however we need to read a lot and do a lot for it, it will take a lot of time. But it seems to be a quite interesting class. At night, after my dinner, I went to the library to get some of the books the lecturer wants us to read. A 900pg book, a 500 pg. book and an 800 pg. book, of course we don’t have to read and do everything in those books.
At 8:30 the boxing class started. The class was not really suiting me, since practically all the boxers were beginners. We only got to learn the stance, how to punch and how to skip the rope… I knew that already. After the training I had a talk with the trainer and he suggested I’d come to his boxing club for the next training, that would be Tuesday. When I came home, I made a start with me homework reading the first pages about strategic management.
Tuesday I had lectures again, starting at 2 PM. Therefore I could spend the morning in the library, working on the homework we have got for Strategic Management. We should make a “learning diary”, containing what we learn, what the implications are, which articles we read etc. etc. The afternoon class is about Methods of Research. The materials actually are a little bit boring, but we didn’t get any homework yet. The class was over around 4, which gave me some time to chat with Koy before I went to the boxing club.
The boxing club wasn’t very far away from the university, about 10 minutes by bicycle if you get it the first time right. Obviously I didn’t get it the first time right, at least, the building itself was quite hard to find. However I still was on time for the start of the practice. After some warming up we started sparring right away, which went quite good. After 3 rounds of 3 minutes sparring, we did some pads work out and then the cooling down. The cooling down was including some heavy exercises for the abs.
Wednesday I got the morning class, starting at 10 AM. This class is about Strategic Finance, but the first lecture was really more about corporate strategies. Wednesday afternoon I got the required books for this course from the library and did some reading in the subject.
Thursday is the busiest day of my week, lectures start at 10 AM with Management of New Product Development. This course is quite nice, considering al l the different aspects of product development and how complicated very simple things actually are. After a 1 hour break, which is just enough to run home and make myself a sandwich or something, in the afternoon we got the introduction to a group project. This project is about penetrating the European market as a Korean auto maker; this project had the potential to become some fun as well.
In the afternoon we had our class in Supply Chain Management. This class is given by a French guy with a French accent from here to… well… let’s say Paris. But the materials are quite interesting and also this course involves a project, which is about the supply chain of oil to the UK. After class I quickly went home to pack my stuff and go to the boxing club. However, when I arrived at the bicycle stall... I found I had a flat front tire . Therefore I took the bus to the boxing club, but unfortunately I took it to the wrong direction and got a tour around town before arriving at the boxing club. Luckily I was not very late (only a few minutes) which allowed me just to join the warming up. After the training, which had a lot of short, intensive exercises, I went back to the Uni jogging.
Friday morning I did my laundry filling up the 7 kg laundry machine, and I got it all stuffed! After doing the laundry and putting my stuff in the tumble dryer, I went with Vikesh to a bicycle repair shop, not too far from here, to get my bike fixed. I’ll pick it up Saturday. For the rest I have been cleaning my room, doing some studying and chatting with Koy on Friday.
Today (Saturday) Koy woke me up at 8:30 with a phone call . After I woke up, I put my sports clothes on to go jogging the 20 story building in which I live from Ground 0 to the 20th. After doing some studying in the morning and having my lunch (a baguette with boiled egg, cheese, meat, salad and tomato!), I went to pick up my bike from the bicycle repair shop. For 6 pounds they had put in a new inner tube.
3 October 2009
Fresher's week
Saturday all the new UK students started coming… there were large queues in front of the elevators with students and their parents with more stuff than you can ever imagine. Of course I didn’t wait in the queue every time I wanted to go to my room, but I just took the stairways. Saturday I didn’t do much special anymore, the afternoon I spent for a large part in one of my new friends’ (Vikesh) room, watching sports matches. For the evening we wanted to watch match of the day, the English premier league football show on BBC, but unfortunately the TV room downstairs in my dormitory already closes at 10 PM.
Saturday night there were a lot of parties going on and noisy , drunk students walking around campus keeping everybody awake who wanted to get some rest. But that’s part of the fresher’s week I guess. Sunday morning Koy waked me up with a phone call around 8 AM. She just received my message that I was trying to call her and called already 10 times but her phone wasn’t working… I sent this message 2 days before, hehe. But never mind, I’d rather be woken up by my girlfriend calling me than by the accommodation services knocking on my door and telling me I have to move out (like on Saturday).
On the campus there was some kind of small fair going on, including a barbeque. Me, Jaffer and Vikesh participated in some games and even won some prizes. I won a cute little lion teddy and I got a great balloon in the shape of a sausage dog. At the BBQ I bought myself a nice and fresh hamburger with onions and cheese. Don’t worry about my diet, I’m taking good care of myself eating a lot of fruits and vegetables and of course my fromage frais with muesli and fruit for breakfast.
Monday morning there were no activities scheduled by the university. Therefore I took this time to visit the English Language School where Koy wants to study English for 2 terms, The Brasshouse. The school is about 20-30 minutes walking from my university, just past the city centre. At the school I received some information about the courses which are provided and the visa, which should be no problem.
In the afternoon the University planned a welcome talk for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where I study. The talk was given by the CEO of the University and wasn’t all that special. After the welcome talk we went to the fire safety talk, which seemed to be endless. All the rules regarding fire safety in the University were explained to us thoroughly and often with examples. Listening to two long non interesting talks a day is quite exhausting…
As was the party the same night, to which I had me talked in to by Vikesh. The partyLoaded @ Gatecrasher, was held in Birmingham’s largest club/disco Gatecrasher. As you all know me, I danced the roof off the place the whole night (not ), but after all it wasn’t too bad. Around 2 Am we arrived home, because we had to wake up early the day after.
Tuesday morning the enrollment for the engineering students started at 9 AM. There was quite a queue of people for the enrollment and it took me about 30 minutes before it was my turn. After all the information I had given was checked I could continue to the next queue, to pick up my brand new Aston University Student ID. As from now I am officially an Aston University Post Graduate student!
After I was finished with my enrollment I went to the market to buy me some food and things. The market is about 10 minutes from the university, next to the large Bullring shopping centre. I bought tomatoes, peppers, bread, bananas, apples, eggs and a pot to boil my eggs.
Later on the day there was a information market in the Great Hall (the main hall of the university), with all sorts of promotions and stuff and a lot of freebies including a Philips energy saving lamp (unfortunately I don’t have a desk light to put it in), bags, pens, key chains and candy. After the information market I went with Vikesh to a food cookery demonstration for students, which was held on the campus in a party tent outside the main building. The lady doing the demonstration wasn’t that good of a cook; after tasting her smoothie, bean casserole and stir fried something… we figured we can do much better.
When I wanted to go back to my dormitory after the disappointing food, the fire alarm in my building had just gone off. This meant I couldn’t go in and had to wait for about 45 minutes. It was just a practice, and nothing was going on actually. At home I made myself a nice salad with tomatoes, a pepper, apple and egg, much better than what we had on the food cookery demonstration. At night we wanted to watch the Champions League football match downstairs in the TV lounge. Unfortunately it wasn’t broadcasted on the public channels, why we ended up watching the match on a laptop in Vikesh’ room. Wednesday’s match will be broadcasted on a public channel, so we’ll watch that one on a large screen in the TV lounge!
Wednesday morning the Engineering Postgraduate students had a workshop in BlackBoard, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment. It was all quite easy actually… Before the workshop we were all given our 2nd USB flash drive since we’re here, the first one we got during the library tour. Halfway the workshop I got a call from a truck driver he was parked in front of Aston Business School, with my suit case! It wasn’t hard to find the large truck in front of the Uni, as it wasn’t hard to find the fat tattooed truck driver without teeth either! I brought my suitcase to my room and then headed off for school again, since we had a welcome talk from our program director David Carpenter.
The welcome talk was mainly about the contents of the course and the planning of the course. I will be studying and doing normal coursework until the end of March, and then I’ll have to start my project and dissertation from April and finish it in September 2010. In March 2011 will be the official graduation of the M.Sc. in Engineering Management program. After the welcome talk we got (again) a free USB flash drive, which means we all have 3 Aston University USB flash drives!
After the welcome talk I went to the fair which is still going on on campus, because today they’ll be selling second hand bikes. The second hand bikes came from the police who got them from I don’t know where (probably found them, or they were stolen and not reclaimed or something). Anyways, I bought myself a very nice mountain bike in superb condition for only 40 pounds (45 euro)! The guy selling them could surprisingly speak a little Dutch, since he had been a semi-professional cyclist in Maastricht. The University was also selling by the police subsidized padlocks to secure the bike in the bicycle stalls, so of course I also bought one of these. In the afternoon I had to register with the National Health Service (NHS). Who gave me a vaccine against meningitis. At night we watched the Man Utd footbal match, downstairs in th TV room.
Thursday I went with Vikesh and his cousin, who also studied in Aston, for a lunch In the city centre. We went to a place called “Nando’s” where they sell all kinds of grilled chicken. I had an extra hot pita with chicken breast, which wasn’t really that hot, but tasted very good. That night I became really ill, my eyes were hurting, all my muscles were hurting, my throat and nose were hurting and I had headaches. Friday I have spent the whole day in my bed and luckily I’m feeling a little better now.
Saturday night there were a lot of parties going on and noisy , drunk students walking around campus keeping everybody awake who wanted to get some rest. But that’s part of the fresher’s week I guess. Sunday morning Koy waked me up with a phone call around 8 AM. She just received my message that I was trying to call her and called already 10 times but her phone wasn’t working… I sent this message 2 days before, hehe. But never mind, I’d rather be woken up by my girlfriend calling me than by the accommodation services knocking on my door and telling me I have to move out (like on Saturday).
On the campus there was some kind of small fair going on, including a barbeque. Me, Jaffer and Vikesh participated in some games and even won some prizes. I won a cute little lion teddy and I got a great balloon in the shape of a sausage dog. At the BBQ I bought myself a nice and fresh hamburger with onions and cheese. Don’t worry about my diet, I’m taking good care of myself eating a lot of fruits and vegetables and of course my fromage frais with muesli and fruit for breakfast.
Monday morning there were no activities scheduled by the university. Therefore I took this time to visit the English Language School where Koy wants to study English for 2 terms, The Brasshouse. The school is about 20-30 minutes walking from my university, just past the city centre. At the school I received some information about the courses which are provided and the visa, which should be no problem.
In the afternoon the University planned a welcome talk for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where I study. The talk was given by the CEO of the University and wasn’t all that special. After the welcome talk we went to the fire safety talk, which seemed to be endless. All the rules regarding fire safety in the University were explained to us thoroughly and often with examples. Listening to two long non interesting talks a day is quite exhausting…
As was the party the same night, to which I had me talked in to by Vikesh. The partyLoaded @ Gatecrasher, was held in Birmingham’s largest club/disco Gatecrasher. As you all know me, I danced the roof off the place the whole night (not ), but after all it wasn’t too bad. Around 2 Am we arrived home, because we had to wake up early the day after.
Tuesday morning the enrollment for the engineering students started at 9 AM. There was quite a queue of people for the enrollment and it took me about 30 minutes before it was my turn. After all the information I had given was checked I could continue to the next queue, to pick up my brand new Aston University Student ID. As from now I am officially an Aston University Post Graduate student!
After I was finished with my enrollment I went to the market to buy me some food and things. The market is about 10 minutes from the university, next to the large Bullring shopping centre. I bought tomatoes, peppers, bread, bananas, apples, eggs and a pot to boil my eggs.
Later on the day there was a information market in the Great Hall (the main hall of the university), with all sorts of promotions and stuff and a lot of freebies including a Philips energy saving lamp (unfortunately I don’t have a desk light to put it in), bags, pens, key chains and candy. After the information market I went with Vikesh to a food cookery demonstration for students, which was held on the campus in a party tent outside the main building. The lady doing the demonstration wasn’t that good of a cook; after tasting her smoothie, bean casserole and stir fried something… we figured we can do much better.
When I wanted to go back to my dormitory after the disappointing food, the fire alarm in my building had just gone off. This meant I couldn’t go in and had to wait for about 45 minutes. It was just a practice, and nothing was going on actually. At home I made myself a nice salad with tomatoes, a pepper, apple and egg, much better than what we had on the food cookery demonstration. At night we wanted to watch the Champions League football match downstairs in the TV lounge. Unfortunately it wasn’t broadcasted on the public channels, why we ended up watching the match on a laptop in Vikesh’ room. Wednesday’s match will be broadcasted on a public channel, so we’ll watch that one on a large screen in the TV lounge!
Wednesday morning the Engineering Postgraduate students had a workshop in BlackBoard, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment. It was all quite easy actually… Before the workshop we were all given our 2nd USB flash drive since we’re here, the first one we got during the library tour. Halfway the workshop I got a call from a truck driver he was parked in front of Aston Business School, with my suit case! It wasn’t hard to find the large truck in front of the Uni, as it wasn’t hard to find the fat tattooed truck driver without teeth either! I brought my suitcase to my room and then headed off for school again, since we had a welcome talk from our program director David Carpenter.
The welcome talk was mainly about the contents of the course and the planning of the course. I will be studying and doing normal coursework until the end of March, and then I’ll have to start my project and dissertation from April and finish it in September 2010. In March 2011 will be the official graduation of the M.Sc. in Engineering Management program. After the welcome talk we got (again) a free USB flash drive, which means we all have 3 Aston University USB flash drives!
After the welcome talk I went to the fair which is still going on on campus, because today they’ll be selling second hand bikes. The second hand bikes came from the police who got them from I don’t know where (probably found them, or they were stolen and not reclaimed or something). Anyways, I bought myself a very nice mountain bike in superb condition for only 40 pounds (45 euro)! The guy selling them could surprisingly speak a little Dutch, since he had been a semi-professional cyclist in Maastricht. The University was also selling by the police subsidized padlocks to secure the bike in the bicycle stalls, so of course I also bought one of these. In the afternoon I had to register with the National Health Service (NHS). Who gave me a vaccine against meningitis. At night we watched the Man Utd footbal match, downstairs in th TV room.
Thursday I went with Vikesh and his cousin, who also studied in Aston, for a lunch In the city centre. We went to a place called “Nando’s” where they sell all kinds of grilled chicken. I had an extra hot pita with chicken breast, which wasn’t really that hot, but tasted very good. That night I became really ill, my eyes were hurting, all my muscles were hurting, my throat and nose were hurting and I had headaches. Friday I have spent the whole day in my bed and luckily I’m feeling a little better now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
