My Life as a PostGrad

From September 1998 until September 1999, I will be at the University of Bath studying for an MSc in Management. I live in a University residence in the town centre. I have to cook for myself now.

In September 1995 I became a student at Royal Holloway, University of London, to study Physics. Since that time I have met many interesting people and had a lot of fun. This page is a brief account of some of the things we do.

Royal Holloway was founded in 1886 by Thomas Holloway, a Victorian entrepreneur, who made a fortune from patent medicine. The original college building, Founders, was modelled on the Chateau de Chambord in the French Loire valley. In 1985, the college merged with another London college, Bedford (founded 1849) to form Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, or Royal Holloway, University of London as it is now known.

The academic part of my life takes place at the Department of Physics. As well as lectures, we spend time in the labs. This year we are studying topics such as optics, qunatum mechanics, maths, general relativity and particle physics.

Much of the social life at RHUL is based around the Student Union. The Union building boasts the largest dance floor of any London college, and regular functions are held there. The SU also looks out for the interests of students at RHUL, and provides welfare services.

The Union also runs Clubs and Societies to cater for just about every interest, and has teams for most major sports.

The Stumble Inn

The Stumble Inn is our preferred Student Bar. It is decorated in the style of a real English pub, and has a real pub atmosphere. The prices are reasonable, especially during 'happy hour', when beer can be purchased cheap in 4 pint jugs. We have 'claimed' our own corner of the pub, where we play our favourite drinking games.

I used to live in Reid Hall, which is part of the New Halls complex at Royal Holloway. Reid is a catered hall, which means that I get to eat in the Athlone dining hall, which is nicknamed 'Boog'. Boog food is characterised by slop and badly cooked vegetables. My room is spacious, with an en-suite shower room, and a large sunny window overlooking the grass.

I now live in Kingswood Phase 2, which is is a much newer block, but with one problem: it is 20 minutes walk away from the main campus. Fortunately the college provides a bus service, which is, unfortunately, a bit rubbish. They have a habit of sending 11 seater buses, when a 20 or 30 seater is needed. The official line is "size of bus sent depends on what assignment the bus driver was on previously." oh, and the food is worse.