My 2014 So Far : UK Trip Pt 2

The Wheel of Manchester

So Yong and I reached Manchester Picadilly station at around 1 before we met up with her friend, Magdelene who brought us for lunch at the Northern Quarter. It's this eclectic part of Manchester which has a lot of quirky shops and tea places, as far as I remember. Magdelene took us to this really cosy cafe called Home Sweet Home.

SWEET POTATO FRIES <3 <3 

Cookie Milkshake, I think it's called. So yummy

 Loads of places in Manchester served milkshakes, I realised. There are even some food trucks around selling them.

After lunch, Nadia/Ned brought us back to her residence a little way off the Curry Mile in Rusholme. We spent the next couple of hours catching up, then Fira, Atikah, Derrick and Yvonne came to meet us for dinner. They brought me to this AMAZINGGGG Indian restaurant on the Curry Mile. All I remember about it is that it was across a corner shop selling ice-cream/gelato.

I don't remember the name, sorry!

 We just chilled in Ned's room for the rest of the night playing cards before Derrick went home and the rest of us girls had a sleepover at Ned's :)

I was the only one who got any sleep that night despite Ned's super loud snoring. Twas because I was still super exhausted on my 2nd day in the UK. Mind you, I was sleeping next to her too, hahaha.

View from Ned's window on a cold morning

The next morning, Yong took a train back to London and the rest of the girls went off to class, leaving me home alone. Ned left me with full access to the pantry, fridge, laptop and TV. In between reading up for my interview, I was watching Big Bang Theory on TV or on Ned's laptop Youtubing. In the evening, Ned took the liberty of showing me how to get to the university for my interview, as in which bus to take and which building to enter. Then we had falafel for dinner while watching the Kardashians.

Ned made me scrambled eggs for breakfast, heavily infused with love :P

Here are some random shots of buildings of the University of Manchester.

Opposite the main building

The way to the Manchester Museum (and also the dental building) 

The main road the uni is on

This and the next few buildings are further away from the main building

Walking to the Northern Quarter

Super creepy Archimedes getting into his tub of water (I think)

Where Tik studies EEE (???)

I wouldn't say I was particularly nervous on the morning of my interview. I didn't feel 100% prepared but I felt prepared enough. There were maybe 14 other people, 2 of which were international applicants. First, there was a nerve-wrecking group discussion. We basically had to discuss how to handle a patient's case, and it wasn't easy to catch the local accent, let me tell you. And because the discussion was timed, they were all talking really fast. 'Die la', I thought to myself. After the group discussion came individual interviews and I was the first one up. I was so grateful because it left me little time to ponder over my performance in the group discussion and potentially discourage myself. My interview went miles better and I left feeling good about it, like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, like 'My trip to UK has just started!'

 After my interview, Atikah and I walked from the main building to the Northern Quarter to find some Adventure Time merchandise! It took us a good half and hour, I think, but it was a fairly nice, sunny day and, at the time, I thought it would be good to get a feel of the place I'd potentially study at.

I was dead hungry so we had Archie's burgers for lunch (even though Tik had already eaten haha)
Eating places and stores along the road actually have lower grounds here! Like this place, we ordered our food at the counter at ground level before descending down a flight of stairs to the dining area.

I got this Adventure Time snapback with Finn and Jake on it over the word 'Schmowzow!' 

Love it, but I've given it to my sister who loves Adventure Time way more than I do.

One night, Ned and Ra went to a Rizzle Kicks concert so Tik had to babysit me again. She came over after her Muay Thai class before we went to hunt for her post-workout protein - we had fried chicken and jalapeno poppers. We then sat on a double decker bus (top deck front seat yo!) to her place, where we baked soy sauce+honey chicken (basically winged it, what could possibly go wrong?) and made potato salad.

To accompany such a decadent, scrumptious, fresh, homemade, warm meal (lol), Tik introduced me to BBC's Sherlock - which I love and had gotten me hooked! Spent the next hour or so reminiscing and laughing about high school before Ned and Ra picked me up to grab supper at this Arab food place.

Spent one night over in Ra's flat, where I edited her personal statement and watched a bit of a movie, and followed her to the gym in town the next day (using Ned's membership hehe). After showering, we took a bus to Trafford Centre to shop.

While waiting to meet Ned and some of her friends, we went for Gourmet Burger Kitchen for dinner. Neither of us had had GBK before but we kinda had pretty high expections. Having said that, you can guess that GBK wasn't that good. Ra said it just tasted like a cold McD burger, and I agree. Maybe they just had a bad day? The skinny fries were addictive though!

Yvonne and Fira took me to this small Korean place to eat, Seoul Kimchi. It's towards the Northern Quarter, if I'm not mistaken.

Had their kimchi pancake, japchae (? too lazy to check if this is correct) and spicy chicken. EVERYTHING WAS SO GOOD I STILL THINK ABOUT THAT  SPICY CHICKEN. If you are going to study in Manchester or even visiting, you must try this place.

Was too hungry to snap photos of the place or food.

Attended my very first TED talk too! 

After a week in Manchester, I took a train back to London. Yong kept me well fed with the best Belgian waffle ever, Shake Shack burgers and cheesy fries at Covent Garden (which I totally recommend) and Four Seasons duck rice in Chinatown!

Oh yes, I made Ned's bed and threw out all her trash before I left. She was in class when I left her place. I did, however, fail to make her do her ginormous pile of laundry over the week.

For my last night in UK, Yong and Florence took me to my first musical ever! Initially, we planned on watching The Book of Mormon, which we hear is really really good, but the tickets were wayyyy too pricey :( so we picked a musical much lighter on our pockets, Jersey Boys. It was about the rise of a real band called The Four Seasons. They preceded the Beatles on the music scene, were not as popular but their songs are really damn good. If you asked your parents if they listened to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons back in the day, they would probably say yes.

It was so good, Florence and I gave them a standing ovation. A short one though because we were sitting at the balcony and it was a looong way down.

I didn't even know one of my favourite songs 'Begging' by Madcon was originally sung by The Four Seasons.

I got told off for taking photos in the theatre but I managed a couple :p

On the way back to Yong's place, I got to try the insta-famous Amaretto gelato rose. You can choose as many flavours as you want and they will sculpt out a rose for you with them. I picked pistachio, nutella and tiramisu. Winning combination? I think so :P

The day after, I left Yong's place and embarked on the long journey back home, ending my trip to the UK.

I got rejected my Manchester U in the end. I was disappointed at first because I thought 'There goes my chance at the scholarship.'
Luckily though, JPA came up with an updated list of universities they would sponsor us to, and Cardiff was in the list! After months of anxiety, I felt so relieved that everything worked out.
So yes, I made it into Cardiff U this year! :)

Procrastinated a lot on this post. I think it could be more than a month old, haha. Kinda half-assed it halfway, lazy to proofread too. Glad I saw it through though.