#its 1 : 40 AM and i have an 80 mark paper in a few hours

[heartstringgs]

something something about how when Aaron found Andrew bruised and bloodied in the bedroom, he held onto Andrew like he would disappear if he let go and how when years later, Aaron and Andrew, before going their separate ways after college, held onto each other, an embrace, the culmination of their growth, the realisation of their love, a promise for the future, and how Andrew was the last to let go. How that said everything that he couldn't voice out loud. I'm not disappearing. I'm here. You're here. You don't have to worry. You'll be alright. And so will I. We survived.

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Thursday 20 August 1835

7 ¾

11 40

No kiss. very thick fog F72° in my dressing room at 9 at which hour breakfast in ½ hour - wrote out the first 25 lines of Tuesday - A- called me for a few minutes and then called down to Mr Husband about 10 ½ - walked with him to Whiskum quarry - and then to Northgate - looking over the house and the working plans till 12 - the casino and portico Ionic to suit the style of the house - the stables backing up against the houses in Broad street that I particularly desired to be all 3 story high are one ½ or less 2 stories and the rest only one story, Mr Washington advised this! It was evident I was annoyed - said I should hear what Mr Harper had to say about it - it seems that from 1st to last 5,000 yards of the stuff should come away from Northgate - 1,000 for the casino and its adjoining buildings - 300 for the stables and their courts, and 1,000 along the casino street + about 150 yards in front of the hotel - Mr. Husband wanted me to go with him to the Lodge to settle with Booth how the coin stones were to be tooled - whether smooth with a broad chisel ‘boasted’, or picked out (rough with a pointed chisel) - said I would meet him there in 1 ½ hour - called at Mr Parker’s office - out - wrote on a piece of paper and left it on his desk that I would send tonight for a note from him to say if the Barraclough cottage title deeds [be] would ready for signing tomorrow - then up the old bank to Park wood - Robert Schofield and his man Joseph Sharp cutting the grass from around the seedling oaks - a few minutes there when Mark Town came and asked me to go with him to the cottage (Barraclough) went with him about 12 ½ and staid looking over the buildings and talking till it was 1 ¾ or 2 when I got home - met Booth the mason - Mr Husband had been at the Lodge, and was gone - ¼ hour with A- while B- had beer - then took him to Whiskum quarry and to Barraclough cottage and so long looking about and planning that it was six when I got home - B- advises pulling the lowest cottage down and building a new one 2 rooms on a floor cellared to be done for £80 or there about - perhaps the mistal (dry-walling backing up against what is to be a little barn) etc may perhaps be done for from £20 to £30 including old materials and shifting 160 yards stuff at 4d. per yard from the top of the ground to the bottom to be a nice little garden - A- who had ridden the grey horse and George Ruthin to Cliff Hill at 2 ½ were back about 5 ½ - had Mrs Pickells to pay the Whiskum turnpike money - my aunt gave her 5/. for the moor bird Pickells had sent her 2 or 3 days ago - said I supposed P- would leave me the house as soon as he could - very civil to Mrs P- she poor soul! almost in tears - dinner at 6 ½ - coffee - then had Joseph Mann - ¼ hour out with him - they have found water at the Stump X Inn - to see Holt tomorrow - then a few minutes with my father and Marian -  Note from Mr Parker to say the title deeds and all will be ready tomorrow morning -  Letter 3 pages and ends and the 1st page crossed (affectionate) from M- Lawton - thought me long in writing - going from home into Wales etc for 3 weeks - ½ hour with my aunt till 10 then till 10 ½ wrote all the above of today  - thick fog and damp falling (drizzling small rain) till about 11 am afterwards very fine day - F69° now at 10 ½ pm in my study

[rigelmejo]

Comprehension Levels

I did the actual words-known/words-on-page to find out my comprehension % of chinese (so characters known/characters on page to make things simple to count). i wanted to see how close I am to reading at that 98% sweet spot they tell people to read. so here’s my comprehension % of some novels of mine, as of 7/20/21:

撒野: 98.9% comprehension (I should just extensively read it, I could speed read the page I glanced at and guess the unknown words once I saw them)

SVSSS: 97.9% (pretty much at a comfortable reading level, the unknown hanzi were mostly parts of multi-character description words I could roughly guess the meaning of, but I was marking every unknown character)

小王子: 96.8% (again, this is as of today, I flipped to a random page so I wouldn’t have myself remembering the plot to affect how much I ‘knew’)

DMBJ 1: 96%

Peach Blossom Debt: 96% if I count name characters as unknown, 97% comprehension if I ignore character names. (I imagine part of the difficulty is my lack of xianxia reading vocab, so if I intensively read a few beginning chapters I could probably fix that).

Guardian: 95.7% understood (I picked the last page of the first print volume, as I figured if I picked the first chapter which I’ve studied and reread my comprehension level would be higher than if it was a part of the novel I haven’t read)

Update: the current fanfic I am reading 夜半衣寒，I tested my comprehension of the new chapter 16 I started. Out of 705 characters, I didn’t know 9, 695/705=0.987 so I have 98.7% comprehension! This is interesting to me, because I would guess (since I didn’t actually measure at the time), that I did not have above 98% comprehension when I started reading it (of course I’ve read like 34k+ characters of it now so I’d hope I’m more familiar with its vocab now). So this is just info for me, that if something starts out as ‘hard’ as this fic to start, if I intensively read for a while (and I’d guess probably the first few chapters since that’s where author’s own specific language is the most new and their setup/genre words hopefully get introduced), I might be able to learn enough words to put it into a more comfortable regular comprehension level for myself. I do think, at least now that I’m into the flow of this story, I’m reading it a bit faster (still on the slower end since I look up every unknown or ‘fuzzy’ word to double check the pronunciation). To be fair to me? These chapters are 20 pleco pages, which used to take me 1-1.5 hours ToT. Now they take 30-40 minutes, since I slow down to look up things and listen to certain sections, but considering they’d take 15-20 minutes to follow along to someone narrating out loud, I’m getting closer to a normal reading speed. If I sped read/extensively read these chapters instead of intensively looking things up, I may well be at 20-30 minutes a chapter. 

Last night I read 4496 characters, chapter 1 of 福尔摩斯  血字的研究. I used the click-dictionary for new words, and there was definitely a lot of new vocab (though mostly places and names confused me). All of the experiment related new vocab it was nice to see though and learn, since I like reading mysteries I’m sure those words will come up again in other stuff I read. 

Some things I find interesting about this information: I read 小王子 extensively months ago so presumably when I comprehended a bit less than the current amount (since I learned a lot of new words from context or from glancing at the english translation for some words). So whatever my personal ‘minimum’ level of comprehension I can personally tolerate when reading extensively is, it’s below 96% comprehension. 

Listening Reading Method and other activities I’ve been doing has helped my comprehension a LOT. I did NOT expect the comprehensions of all these to be as close to 98% as they are. Particularly Guardian, being at 95% - that isn’t very far from the comfortable reading material level of ‘98%’ I’m aiming for. I’m not sure how fast I can boost up my comprehension just a BIT more, but wow is it close to the goal...

On a related note, that explains why Guardian and Silent Reading have felt relatively easier for me to ‘extensively read’ when I feel like it lately. While I still have some difficulty, since I have familiarity with the general story (Guardian) or have read the english translation (Silent Reading), the new words are not super hard to guess and therefore following the main idea is not an issue. Guardian is above the 95% comprehension level for me now, and its likely I extensively read a novel I had NO prior knowledge about -  小王子 - also at 95% comprehension or less.

I looked up the comprehension level I had because I just read this article about how to pick reading material when learning a new language, and it made me curious how far Below that 98% comprehension level I usually try to read.

For comparisons, I’m curious how my personal comprehension compares to the general-vocab-difficulty tool and results I got from that (which can be viewed in this post more in depth). 

This was the novel’s ranking, from easiest to harder, based on that tool (lower number = more difficult):

小王子 2.004

DMBJ 1 1.992

撒野 1.98

SVSSS 1.9

Guardian 1.9

Peach Blossom Debt  1.858

I am guessing the difference in order of difficulty compared to my personal comprehension levels, might have to do with the materials I learn from? Or may have to do with the fact the tool sorts by full words, not characters, so 2-4 character words/phrases that are unknown would only count as one unit. Whereas when I calculated my comprehension I counted by character (since I was physically counting on paper it was easier to just go by character when counting unknown versus amount-of-content on the page). Also, the tool took a bigger sample of 2,000 words for each novel, whereas I used 300-500 characters per page samples.

It’s also possible, because of the small amount of characters in my comprehension % samples - Guardian overall may have more unknown words and put it lower than 95% overall, and stuff like DMBJ may well have a lot more words I know and potentially be more comprehensible than 96% overall. 

For the most part I had 4-15 unknown characters per page. Which could realistically affect my reading more or less depending on what role they served in the sentence. Characters in descriptions I can figure out the rough meaning of easier when reading because they’re often part of 2-4 character words and phrases where I know the rest of the characters, or they’re an emotion/mood description another word I know on the page will also re-state, but unknown characters for critical verbs or nouns affect story comprehension a lot more. Xiao wang zi is a good example of my overall actual reading level, since some unknown hanzi were in descriptions and I could ‘guess’ well enough to follow just ine, but some of the unknown hanzi on the page were verbs and nouns which makes those sections harder to comprehend. 

Some promising notes from articles!

From FluentU: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/reading-in-a-second-language/

So I am at the spot for most novels I want to read right now 95%+, where if I read with a dictionary it probably feels okay and I will learn a lot, but it will feel challenging at times.

And for a few (at least SaYe) I can really just extensive read the way its supposed to feel. 

Reading Rockets: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/fluency-introduction

This article puts 95% as the minimum comprehension level for a person to read to improve reading fluency.

This https://readingmatrix.com/articles/september_2011/prichard_matsumoto.pdf

is an interesting paper, and puts 95% as the minimum for comprehension to read unassisted, but also mentions it could be a spectrum rather than all-or-nothing. Readers who use strategies to comprehend more can improve their comprehension a bit, and readers who have background knowledge on the subject can improve their ability to comprehend the reading material a bit. 

This part was also fascinating: “ Hu and Nation (2000) sought to examine the lexical threshold more deeply. They tested the comprehension of a narrative text by 66 advanced learners, adapting the text to include frequent words estimated to be known by all the subjects. They replaced uncommon words with nonsense words in order to set coverage levels to 80%, 90%, 95%, and 100%. Comprehension of the various versions of the passages was measured by a multiple-choice comprehension test and a recall measure. Subjects at the 95% level had a mean score of 10.2 points out of 14 on the multiple-choice text, while the readers with 90% coverage averaged only slightly lower at 9.5 points. There were a wide range of scores at these two coverage levels with 7 of 16 subjects at the 90% level getting a higher score than the mean score of the 95% coverage group. The results were similar on the recall measure. Overall, while there was a clear and strong correlation between coverage and comprehension, the existence of the 95% lexical threshold was not supported by Hu and Nation. They estimate that if there was a comprehension threshold at all, it may have been between 80 and 90% since all the readers with 80% coverage had difficulty comprehending the text. Hu and Nation state that learners at the 90% were able to reach comprehension through reading skills and background knowledge. They also hypothesize that 98% may be the coverage required at which most learners can comprehend the text adequately. The mark they set to determine this was about 85% comprehension, which was much higher than that used by Laufer (1989, 1992). “

“ Lower threshold: A percentage at which comprehension becomes possible; a percentage at which few learners below have any significant comprehension of the text (referred to by Hu & Nation, 2000, as potentially being between 80 and 90%). 211 

Significant increase threshold: A coverage point above which learners’ mean comprehension increases significantly (95%, based on Laufer, 1989). 

Adequate comprehension threshold: A percentage at which most learners achieve “adequate comprehension” (suggested as 95% in Laufer, based on 55% comprehension; hypothesized as 98% coverage in Hu & Nation based on 85% comprehension). 

Upper threshold: A point above which an increase in coverage does not lead to improved comprehension (Laufer, 1992). If it exists, it is likely 98-99%.

That study may explain why some people with lower vocab knowledge ‘feel’ more ok with reading at lower comprehensions (that’d be me lol ToT). When I was learning french, I started reading extensively at a somewhat low vocab level, and in english I knew in elementary school I’d pick up novels for adults and read some sometimes, and by end of elementary I had a college reading level, so mm.

[donqwxx]

Takeaways from JC and A’Levels

Hello! I am from Singapore and I just completed my GCE A’Levels. It was a tough ride and these are just some things I would like to share with students who are going through junior college (JC) or a similar education journey. No doubt Tumblr has a strong ‘studyblr’ community, but I realised that many A’levels related posts are generally from the UK, which may not always be applicable for JC kids. These are some things I wished I had someone tell me when I was going through JC and I really hope that you can relate to something from this and feel less alone in your journey! 

1   Get a routine  

I was never a planner and I always work on tasks based on its priority and my mood. But over the course of preparing for A’levels, I found it very helpful to establish a set routine every day, especially during the months leading up to A’levels after graduation. Routines are basically a series of regularly followed actions and I find that it helps me to feel in control of my time, and to power through the day and stay motivated. My routine consisted of me waking up at a fixed timing of 7am every day, doing simple workouts for 30 minutes, having my breakfast and a shower before starting my revision at about 9am. This morning routine became a ritual for me and made it easier to motivate myself to sit at my desk and get work done instead of falling into the temptation of lazing on my bed for 30 minutes more. Find what works for you and once you instill the self-discipline to keep it going for the first few weeks, it will eventually become much easier to stick to it eventually.

2   Don’t lose momentum!!  

I believe that A’levels is similar to a marathon. Once you stop, it’s easy to lose your momentum and eventually your gears will turn rusty. In the months leading up to the A’levels, I had shifted my focus onto the subjects that I was weaker in and I paid less attention to Geography, which I felt I had generally mastered both the content and skills. And naturally, during the A’levels itself, I also spent more time on the subjects that were more imminent and neglected Geography, which was my last paper. Although I made sure to do at least 1 practice paper per week, I found myself unfamiliar with the content and trying to cram the heavy content in a few days was just too late. I felt that I underperformed for the paper as the content felt somewhat foreign to me, which was disappointing as I had worked so hard to master it before. Thus, it is extremely important to not neglect any of your subjects. Time is indeed tight, but it is important to continue to look through and revise the content of the subject regularly, no matter how confident you are in it. This is really important to not only keep your momentum but also boost your confidence for the paper! During our mock exams, my teacher told us that from our essays he could tell that some of us were losing our momentum already. This really shows how a loss in momentum can really show in your writing in the form of a lack of rigor, which highlights the importance of constantly revising and going through all of your subjects. I am not saying to not focus on the subjects you are weak in but to also make sure not to neglect any, even if it means just half an hour flipping through a particular set of notes. It is a difficult balancing act but try your best to do balance all your subjects and I believe it would really ensure you are at your best during the A’levels.

3   Don’t compare

I think this is the number 1 problem for many JC students, whether it is when we compare our grades or the opportunities we are awarded against our peers. In the fast-paced, competitive system, it is inevitable that we sometimes get trapped in these bouts of anxiousness that everyone seems to be doing so much better than we are. I clearly remember my first few Geography lectures and tutorials where I would just come out feeling so lost with so many question marks in my head and sometimes I would just burst into tears thinking that everyone else is coping so well and understanding everything while I did not pick up anything at all. However, with time, I realised that most of the time, whatever we tell ourselves in our heads is often more exaggerated and extreme than reality. You are definitely not the only one struggling and lagging behind, and most of the time, it’s just that people do not show their struggles on their faces. By comparing yourself with someone else, you are equating someone else’s strengths with your own weakness and obviously, that is not a fair comparison. Acknowledge your strengths and the efforts you are taking to improve yourself. A quote that personally helped to frame my mindset is this: “My best, my 100% might be someone else’s 80%... or 60%... or 40% but it’s my best and it’s good enough. And that’s what matters.” Getting caught in a never-ending race of trying to outbid others will only cause you to lose sight of what is truly important to you and who you are. This was something I had learnt the hard way as I lost much of my self-esteem because I just felt that I was never good enough. But the truth is, none of us are and as long as we strive to grow each day to become better, it’s enough. You are enough.

4   Be kind to yourself, give yourself the rightful credit

This is never easy to do and I struggled with this for many years and I am still trying to become better at it. Every single human being makes mistakes, including you. Don’t beat yourself over an answer that you could have written better or that careless mistake you made during a math paper. Yes, you screwed up but so what? Don’t discount all the times when you persevered and spent hours trying to understand that particular topic. Failure is not always a bad thing. Think about it, it is because of all the times when you fell that you picked yourself up and became stronger. Failing is an unavoidable experience of growth, don’t be too hard on yourself. Don’t equate taking responsibility to taking the blame for everything. Many times when something goes wrong, I always tend to take the blame even when it is not my fault or something that I can control, and most of the time, I do not even recognise this. This made me learn that overly-blaming yourself will only continue to hurt your confidence. Recognise that some things are out of your control and that not every outcome is because of something you said or did. Some decisions are primarily the responsibility of others. Be mindful of what constitutes your responsibilities. Part of attaining self-love is learning to set your own personal boundaries and making it clear to the people you love about these lines. One such personal boundary that I drew was to set aside the time I take to travel on public transport to and fro school as a time for myself to reflect and be alone. However, unlike all my previous failed attempts at self-care, this time I learnt to speak up and to let my friends know of this personal boundary of mine so that they respect it and do not cross the boundary. This helped to boost my self-respect and confidence greatly as I learnt to mark my own boundaries and convey it to others. 

5   Burn-outs

Burnouts occur in different periods of time for different people. I experienced my first burnout in my 2nd year of JC and it happened at a time when I was overwhelmed by my commitments in extra-curricular activities and my academics and I also fell into the trap of comparing myself to others. I felt sleepy all the time, I did not want to get up and the thought of giving up was a constant in my mind. It was a very trying time for me as I felt the need to have to go on with my everyday life as if nothing was happening. However, it is important to recognise that it is a way your body is alerting you that you are exhausted. Listen to your body, do not force yourself to “snap out of it” or feel guilty about not being as productive. Burnouts reflect a state of our mental health, and it takes time to recover from one. Many of my friends, including myself, started to burn out in the second to the third week of A’levels as well. The exams stretch for 1 whole month and there are hardly any breaks after the mid-year exams as you engage in a cycle of constant revision, prelim exams and finally the A’levels. Hence, I can’t stress the importance of pacing yourself enough. Make it a priority to schedule breaks and to allow yourself to rest. For example, if you find yourself less productive at night, stop work at 9 and just do whatever you want till your bedtime. I made it a point to sleep at least 7 hours every night leading up to A’levels. Not only did it helped to regulate my stress, but it also allowed me to be more awake and productive during the day! Many people feel guilty for sleeping early because their friends burn the midnight oil or because they tell themselves they have to make better use of the time. But I strongly believe that everybody works differently. Find out what sleep schedule works for you and stick to it. After all, you are the one who is accountable for yourself, not them. Other than plenty of rest, what helped me out of my burn out was reading and listening to other people’s stories. These 3 sources really helped me to feel less alone in my stuggle: 1, 2, 3.  It is also important to discover the cause of your burnout as this can help you to tackle the problem at its root. Take time off school if you need to and reflect on the stressors in your life. Engage in activities that you enjoy and give yourself time to recover. Don’t suffer alone, talk to others about it. It is okay to ask for help, you don’t have to do everything alone. I had decided to talk to my family members about it and contrary to what I expected, I received heartfelt advice from my siblings who had gone through similar experiences before. Talk to someone who you are comfortable with about your feelings. It can be daunting but sometimes, it enables to open your heart and mind and discover perspectives you have never seen before. Recovering from burnout can take a very long time and it is normal. Don’t push yourself to feel 100% every single day, listen to your emotions and prioritise yourself. Afterall, your health is the most important. 

6   Actively reach out to your support system

One of my biggest regrets in JC was failing to recognise that I could ask for help. I was always hard on myself and I felt that at 18, I had to be independent and mature and do everything alone. I shamed myself when I asked for help. When I was on the verge to talk to someone about my problems, I was always held back by the thought that I would be a burden to my friends or family, especially since they are having their own struggles as well. I felt like I would just be adding on to their problems and no one would be genuinely interested in what I had to say. This made me feel unimportant and lonely. It was as if I was in a dark pit alone with no way out. As if my screams were in a different frequency that cannot be heard by anyone else. However, my sister taught me that there would always be people willing to listen to me and to be there for me. It was difficult for me to believe it at first, but once I started to open myself up to others and allowed them to be there for me and enter my life, I felt so much more secure and loved. I learnt that the person who is responsible for building my own support system is no other than myself. Nobody can read my mind. If I do not express my thoughts, how do I expect others to be there for me? That said, not everyone here reading this post may be good at expressing their feelings. However, talking is merely just one of those ways. Find your way to let your family or friends know that you need their support and company. This could be certain physical cues or even through writing. I can comfortably say that JC was one of the loneliest periods in my life. It can sometimes feel that the world is revolving regardless of how you are doing and you are trapped in so much action around you but you have so little involvement in them. Therefore, I cannot stress how important it is to establish a support system for yourself, no matter if you are someone who needs a lot of affirmations or not. Be proactive in searching for people to support you in your journey and likewise, be there for them when they need you. 

7   Forgive yourself and move on

After my economics paper 1, I felt extremely dejected because I did not perform as well as I wanted to. My time management was poor and there were questions that I did not understand. I was disappointed and angry with myself. I blamed myself as I felt that all the efforts that I had put in in the past 1.5 years would just go down the drain. I cried for an entire afternoon and I was so disheartened to the point where I just wanted to give up and not take the other papers. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that there is no point in crying over spilt milk and to let it go. My point is, it is okay to feel sad, angry or whatever emotions you have, but it is important to let it go. Sometimes, emotions are just chains locking people down, and dwelling in them only makes one feel worse. I had allowed myself to wallow in self-pity and to wish that I had done better. But these are things I cannot change. Regardless of the outcome, if you had done your best in that instant, you did well and you deserve to tell yourself that. Yes, you made some mistakes but so what? Despite it not being able to fulfill your expectations, your best is all you can do, no one can do more than that. My teacher had said this once: “Never indulge in your feelings, be it emotions of joy or sadness. We feel, pack it up, remember and move forward. Don’t live in past glories and don’t live in past regrets.” Give yourself some time to internalise your emotions and organise them. Acknowledge your efforts and forgive yourself. Move on, allow yourself to breathe. I once watched a video and an analogy that they used has since been held close in my heart. It said a rocket has many little fuel tanks that it carries with it that brings it to the sky. But once it is in the sky, it has to drop it all so that it can continue with its journey. Likewise, this applies to the bad things that happen in our lives. It spurs you on and helps you grow and then you just need to let them go so that you can move further. 

8   Your life is not just about studying.

Your life is more than just those notes and exams, there are so many opportunities awaiting you and so many meaningful things around you. While our main responsibility as students is to study hard, it is important to find life out of the books. I read an article recently and it puts my point across very nicely: “Our education system is built on the idea of merit, so people ... equate merit with performance in exams”. We allow our academic performance to influence how we feel about ourselves, our sense of self-worth and confidence. It is important to find your worth outside of the affirmations of others when you do well academically, or else it is easy to fall into the belief that you are nothing but a grade-making machine. After my A’levels ended, I felt a low in my life as I had dedicated so much of my life to studying that I lost my purpose and I felt worthless because I was no longer being “productive”. I forgot how to enjoy myself and to have fun, and this made me realise that I had indeed lost myself in trying to meet my own expectations academically. I cooped myself at home for months and the only time I left the house was to the library or school to study. Make it a point to engage in your hobbies, do not put it off just because you feel that it is a waste of time or that you feel pressured to study. It is difficult to see it now because you might be caught in the frenzy of studying, but when you look from a wider perspective, your academic journey is only such a small part of your life. There are more permanent things that you carry throughout your life, like your relationships with people, social skills that will continue to shape you as a person. Dedicate time for these important things and I can assure you that you will not regret it.

9   Find joy in learning

At some point in JC, I found that I lost my joy for learning and I was instead trying to memorise all the information in my head without trying to understand it. I was only studying just for the exams rather than to develop my critical thinking skills and my knowledge. Studying got very painful and I lost interest in many of my subjects, even those that I liked initially. When I realised this problem in the middle of JC2, I made it a point to relook at all of my study material and to slowly go through everything to try to genuinely understand them. It took a long time but this helped to spark my interest again as the content was no longer as dry as before. Blind memorisation may seem to be a shortcut and an effective way to ace the exams, but for me, I found it difficult to apply any of the concepts as I did not know how to adapt them to the questions. There is a difference between learning and studying. Be mindful to sieve out whether you are learning or purely just doing it for the exams.

10   Tough times will pass

For me, the JC experience was so tough that it is indescribable in words. The best way I can put my experience is that it is like a rollercoaster ride, except that everything is perpetually going downhill. Of course, there have been good days, but there has been a fair share of difficult days. It is extremely demanding to have to learn this giant chunk of content in only 1.5 years and the commitment for extra-curricular activities will undeniably drain you. It may be unbearable at times and you might feel that you want to give up. I have also gone through these moments in my life but I can confidently tell you that you are stronger than you believe and you will overcome them. Think about all the times when you felt so small and vulnerable, but in the end, you managed to get through them and now the painful experience is only just a speck of your memory and it no longer hurts you as much as before. Likewise, you will be able to overcome whatever struggles that come in your way. I read the book ‘The Last Lecture’ and there was a line that said “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” All the struggles and heartaches will only bring you closer to your dreams. It will teach you lessons, grow you to become stronger and equip you with more wisdom to tackle other challenges in the future. This was a song that comforted me through many of my bad days and I hope it can also bring you some strength to continue to push on: https://youtu.be/4KdUGnowXS0 You will be okay, this soon shall pass. The storms may be tough but the sun will shine again. It will get better! Don’t give up!

While you are caught in your endless to-do list, never forget you are human. I mean these 3 things- resting, making mistakes and feeling. Make time for play and rest, for development. As we grow up, there will be new emotions we would be experiencing for the first time. These eventually will make up who we are as a person which we will carry throughout our lives, so invest time into these things as well.

I know how tough JC is. You may feel that you will never see the end of the tunnel but as long as you are taking small, new steps every single day, you’ll make it. Take challenges, fight. Even if you get beaten up, live your life how you want okay? This is our youth and we will only live it once. Leave no regrets and chase your dreams! Lastly, let me leave a youtube video from one of the artists I admire very much, there were many meaningful messages I got out of the interview and I hope you will too! 

Thank you for reading this, no matter whether you are studying in JC or not, I hope this has been helpful! Hang on and your hard work will pay off! Believe in yourself!

[juniperpublisherscasestudies]

Juniper Publishers- Open Access Journal of Case Studies

Kambô: A Shamanic Medicine - Personal Testimonies

Authored by Jan M Keppel Hesselink

Abstract

Since the beginning of this century more and more people in Europe and USA make use of a shamanic product based on the secretion of an Amazonian frog, the Phyllomedusa bicolor. This secretion contains a great number of bio-active peptides and is administered in a ritual via a fresh burn created on the skin of forearm or leg. The desired effects are related to acute intoxication and consist amongst others of nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and swelling of the face as in Quinke’s edema. These effects occur within minutes after the inoculation with the secretion and last mostly for few hours. After this intense period people feel rejuvenated and many participants of the cleansing ritual claim long lasting positive effects for their health. We present the history and context of Kambô use and some case-studies based on personal testimonies. Clearly the increasing use of a shamanic intervention as Kambô is also an expression and a signal of the dissatisfaction of consumers with the results of Western medicine.

Keywords: Phyllomedusa bicolor; Shaman; Healing; Target; Side-effects

Introduction

Phyllomedusa bicolor is an Amazonian frog and the source of Kambô. Kambô is the dried secretion from the frog’s skin, a concoction containing many bio-active peptides. These peptides have a broad range of activities related to many potential interesting indications, such as hypertension, chronic pain, anxiety, depression and endocrinology disorders. Frequently new targets are discovered. In in vitro and in vivo models for a number of disorders, many of these peptides have been found to be quite potent, much more potent than the golden standard. However, the bioavailability is not optimal, due to the peptide nature of the compounds.

During the Kambô-ritual the bioactive compounds are introduced in the bloodstream via a fresh burn; the secretion is subsequently rubbed into the wound and thus will quickly enter the blood. This induces a fast action of onset. One can recognize the past experience of a Kambo ritual based on discoloration on the skin due to the healed burns, see Figure 1.

The exact mechanism of action of many peptides is still a matter of debate, as new targets are continuously identified. It is therefore of interest to study the personal experiences of Kambô-users, in order to understand why consumers increasingly turn to this exotic shamanistic intervention.

Original use of Kambô

The early and mythological use of Kambô is suggested to be related to a shaman from the the Kaxinawa tribe in Brazil [1]. This tribe also is known for its use of the strong psychedelic tea Ayahuasca [2]. Kambô was and is used by native Indians from the tribes around the Amazon in various rites, in order to increase their hunting powers [3].

The use of Kambô as a stimulant by indigenous populations of the upper and middle Juruá river was documented in 1925 by the missionary Constantin Tastevin [4]. He is supposed to be the first author describing the ritual and the purpose of administering Kambô, which he referred to as ‘Kachinaua campon’. As his first description contains some important pointers for its current use, we quote Tastevin verbatim:

‘When an Indian becomes ill, he becomes thin, pale and swollen; when he is unlucky in hunting, it is because he has in his body a bad principle which must be expelled. At dawn, before dawn, while still fasting, for the sick and unlucky hunter, small scars are produced on the arm or belly with the tip of a burning stick, then they are vaccinated with the “milk” of frog, as they say. Soon violent nausea and diarrhea starts; the bad principle leaves its body by all the exits. As a result, the patient returns from being big and fat and recovers its colors and finds more hunting than he can bring back. No animal escapes from his sharp sight, his ear perceives the smallest noises, and his weapon does not miss its mark [4].

In this first description, the most frequent side effects of Kambô are described: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and edema forming as in Quicke’s edema. The vomiting and diarrhea are supposed to cleanse the body and the ‘bad principle’ thus leaves the body and a more vigorous state appears.

In a recent ethnography (2008) the authors describe the diffusion of the use and knowledge of Kampo, due to the members of the Katukina tribe. It is based on their discourse that the use of the secretion as perceived as an ‘indigenous remedy’, and a very special remedy as it is that the substance is used ‘traditionally’ both to eliminate ‘bad luck’, ‘panema’ (negative energy), and ‘weakness and lack in harmony with nature’ [5].

In some recent sources in the internet Kambô is claimed to be ‘one of the strongest, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antimicrobial and anesthetic substances on the planet’ [2].

The above context makes it understandable that Kambô is perceived as a therapy for many different disorders. Within shamanic and healing contexts Kambô is often explicitly referred to as ‘medicine’.

Katherine Milton, an anthropologist, described Kambô use among the Mayoruna tribe in Brazil in the 1980s and Peter Gorman recorded the use of Kambô within the Matse Tribe in Peru in the same period [6]. Since this century Kambô use has spread to the West, and meanwhile many people are looking for medical solutions via the use of Kambô.

Bio-Active Peptides

There are a number of different bio-active peptides in the secretion of frogs from the Phyllomedusinae subfamily, and fundamental work on these peptides has been conducted by the group of Erspamer, starting around 50 years ago in the 60s of last century [7-10]. Instead of the expected bioactive tryptamines and alkaloids, high amounts of different bio-active peptides were found, belonging to the groups of caeruleins, tachykinins, bradykinins, bombesins, sauvagine (a corticotropinreleasing- hormone-like peptide), tryptophyllins and opioid peptides such as dermorphin. These peptides extracted via methanol from the frog skin have a small molecular mass (700- 4600 Da). Dermorphin for instance was the first peptide found in high concentrations in the skin, of the Phyllomedusinae, about 50-80 ug per g of fresh skin. Dermorphin is a very potent analgesic, in vitro models centrally administered, it is 500- 1000fold more potent than morphine [11,12]. However, due to its suboptimal pharmacokinetic properties, its potency after peripheral administration is comparable to morphine. In the lay press so called scientific facts on Kambô are presented without the context outlined above, leading to absurd claims such as: ‘Dermorphin and Deltorphin are potent opioid peptides 4000 times stronger than morphine and 40 times stronger than endogenic b-endorphines [3].’

All these Kambô peptides however have indeed impressive endocrine, cardiovascular and nervous system activities [13]. Frequently new targets of these peptides are described, for instance phyllomedusin, has been shown to be quite selective for the Neurokinin 1 receptor [14]. This all creates a whole chapter of various disorders where one or more of these peptides could bring meaningful effects in the treatment of a variety of diseases. The fact that the peptides from the frog’s skin are entering the bloodstream after subdermal application (application via a fresh burn), might indicate that plasma-levels after administration could become high. This is probably also the reason why the side-effects start very soon after administration Kambô, within minutes. In how far the effects on disorders can be achieved after a limited series of repeated Kambô-rituals is still unanswered. More detailed case-stories are needed to bring more light in this matter. In this paper, we present some qualitative testimonials, serving to indicate the perceived value of the ritual on a personal

Kambô Testimonials

Many of these experiences can be found on the net [15], for the purpose of this article we selected only a few and will quote these verbatim:

a) on alcohol addiction,

b) depression,

c) chronic pain,

d) chronic pain with alcohol craving and

e) Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and celiac’s disease.

i. My first Kambô session knocked me out - literally, I passed out briefly - but it also cleansed my liver and helped me heal a long-term toxic relationship with alcohol. A month after my first Kambô session with Simon, I decided to stop drinking and did so for two years. While I knew it likely wouldn’t be a forever thing, my relationship with alcohol and other substances is forever changed, and the break that my first experience with Kambô helped me to take gave me a chance to reassess my priorities and learn better selfcontrol.

ii. I feel different. I am different. My life has synchronistically altered to reflect all that has opened and continues to evolve inside me. The emptiness I have carried for so very long is now felt as space permeated by air thick with grace and possibility. The chronic, long-standing grief has been lifted. My heart is both full and light. I simply showed up with the cautious hope that perhaps some of the weight might be left behind. Little did I know that I would be given so much more. The initial euphoria was accompanied by a vision of my life in stunning clarity with a sense of urgency and direction. The beauty of all things whispering to me that it is not too late. It is not too late to live what matters most. I remember now and have been remembered. And that is the gift and the work of it.

iii. Besides having more strength and vitality then I have had since I first became sick 5 years ago, and the pain from my back nerve injury earlier this year completely gone, there is a focus and clarity, a lightness and spaciousness, an otherworldly heightened intuition and perception, a visceral, felt sense of my soul and energy body and its expansiveness, a quietness of the mind I have only ever previously achieved through hours of meditation, and so much more. You can feel the medicine scanning your body and building up intense pressures in certain areas that need healing. Kambô has an intelligence and plan, and each day, each experience, is completely unique. On the third and final day of the 3-day course, I was filled with childlike joy; hysterically laughing, clapping my hands and feet. Somewhere along the way, I learned to stay in line, be quiet, and fit in, so I couldn’t help apologizing for my laughter, then laughing even harder at my absurdity of apologizing for being joyful.

iv. After days two and three though I did start to notice some positive changes. I have had chronic lower back, hip and neck pain for the past several years and I noticed by day two that my back pain was almost gone. By the third day I noticed my neck started popping every time I turned it and it felt like it was loosening up and I noticed I could turn it farther to the left and the right. Those were things I was hoping for but not knowing if I would get those types of results or not. Having had problems with alcohol dependency for years was one of the main reasons I went for the treatment and after all three days I didn’t have any cravings for alcohol, nor did it even sound good to me, so I was quite amazed at that and very happy. Another big thing for me was I just felt good and in a very positive mood and with more energy than I have had in a long time. Those changes have continued to this day, as I just feel good and in a good mood and enjoy being around my family and friends much more than before.

v. Six years ago, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and celiac’s disease, both of which are autoimmune diseases. Because I fundamentally disagreed with Western medicine’s treatment of Hashimoto’s (which is to put you on thyroid replacement hormone for the rest of your life, without actually treating the autoimmune system), I had been looking for a treatment that could get at the underlying cause. After years of research, I believed that Kambô might hold the answer. After my experience with Kambô in Peru I stopped taking my Western meds, because the shaman told me I needed to be off of my prescriptions medicines for the Kambô to work. After six weeks, blood work revealed that my thyroid markers had improved, but still indicated hypothyroidism.

Adverse Events

Because things were better, but not “normal,” I decided to go again. A three-day cleanse instead of a single session. Six weeks after the three-day inoculation, my blood work was perfect. Even though I hadn’t taken any thyroid medication for over 3 months, all of my thyroid numbers were well within the normal range. Just to be sure, I did another round of blood work just six weeks later and much to my delight, the markers were even better.

We will discuss the adverse events (and transpersonal experiences) in detail in a different paper

a) Den Brave et al. [16] only reported on some scars on the shoulder of a patient [16].

b) Leban et al. [17] dealt with the emergence of a transient syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) secretion, due to the combination of Kambô burns, and the drinking of six liters of water after the ritual [17].

c) Pogorzelska and Łapiński [18] dealt with a patient with signs of a transient hepatitis, a chronic history of alcohol and Cannabis use, who used Kambô to maintain abstinence of drinking and smoking [18].

d) Aquila et al. [19] described a sudden death of a 42-old overweight man with signs of coronary pathology [19]. It was suggested that in this case perhaps the hypotensive effects of Kambô could have resulted in reduced myocardial perfusion, tachycardia perhaps leading to a cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death.

e) Li et al. [20] described a 24-year-old woman, brought to the emergency department, due to nausea, vomiting, flushing, facial swelling, altered mental status, and agitation 22h after a Kambô ritual [20].

f) Kumachev et al. [21] described prolonged nausea, very frequent episodes of vomiting, (circa 50), and abdominal discomfort, up to 8 hours after a Kambô [21].

g) Roy et al. [22] described a labile woman who took multiple doses of the Kambô and developed a paranoid psychosis, responding well on risperidone [22]. The causality of this case seems questionable.

These reported side effects all were transient apart from the one reported by Aquila et al. [19] and should be a warning to be extremely cautious during a Kambô ritual. It is clear such rituals should and can only be guided by quite experienced moderators, who can differentiate early on between effects which are benign and transient versus life threatening adverse events. Based on case-reports it seems that it is wise to define contra-indications, such as severe cardiovascular conditions and hypotensive syndromes such as Shy-Drager, and to recommend not to drink too much water after a ritual, in order not to provoke a SIADH syndrome. Furthermore, as Kambô seems to be used by the tribes to terminate pregnancies, one would like to exclude pregnant women.

Discussion

Kambô is used increasingly by Western consumers in order to achieve positive health effects, or to cure certain disorders. This use of a shamanic intervention such as Kambô might also be perceived as an expression and a signal of the dissatisfaction of consumers with the results of Western medicine. It seems a tendency, as more and more consumers also start using healing rituals based on other natural sources, such as the psychedelic tea Ayahuasca.

An increasing number of users report positive effects on a great variety of disorders, from auto-immune disorders up to chronic pain. Kambô contains many bio-active peptides in high concentrations. It is administered into the blood stream via rubbing it in a fresh burn. The effects are immediate and last mostly only for some hours. Many consumers report positive health effects, and effects related to healing. Adverse events have been reported in literature, mostly of transient nature. However, severe reactions can occur, and it is discouraged to use Kambô without the presence of a very experienced therapist. Kambô seems a rich source for new therapies.

For more articles in Juniper Publishers | Open Access Journal of Case Studies please click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/jojcs/index.php

[winter-and-little-brunettes]

85 Questions Tag

I was tagged by @vldrocketeer! Thanks, sweetie, sorry Im getting to doing this so late!!!

— What was your last…

1. Drink: Coca-Cola! And, Im about to go grab another can...

2. Phone call: My mom! I sent her some cute bird videos, and called her to hear her reactions to them.

3. Text message: A good friend I made in first year! His name is Colin, and he lived across the hall from me in residence first year. We’re both the same major (English Lit), and we both have similar interests in video games, so we got along great. I won’t post what I said, since we’re catching up and it was a long ass text message, but it was basically me explaining why I haven’t seen him around lately (since I’m usually holed up at work when I’m on campus)

4. Song you listened to: “Turning Page” by Sleeping At Last. It’s a favourite of mine!

5. Time you cried: Oh jeez... Uh, last month? March has been pretty stressful, and April will make me want to rip my hair out...

6. Dated someone twice: I almost did! But no, never actually dated the same guy twice.

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Its hard enough to get me to kiss someone, let alone do it and regret it.

8. Been cheated on: I have. He was my first and only heartbreak (so far)

9. Lost someone special: Hmm... I think my best answer here is “yes”.

10. Been depressed: I mean, Im usually a pretty happy person, but everyone has their ups and downs. I cant say Ive been clinically depressed, but I have had a very dark part in my life, and I feel like another one is coming.

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: HAHAHA uh... no... I mean, that totally wasn’t me...

— Fave colours

12. purple!!

13. blue, like, a royal blue, yknow?

14. pink

— in the last year have you…

15. Made new friends: I have, fortunately!!

16. Fallen out of love: “I need to be in love for that to happen” god Erin, same

17. Laughed until you cried: Those are some of the best moments. I’m a loud laugher, and it happens like, once a week probably.

18. Found out someone was talking about you: I don’t do anything special enough to be talked about

19. Met someone who changed you: I feel like every person I’ve ever met has influenced me in some way or the other, so yes.

20. Found out who your friends are: Oh man, I certainly have. Fortunately, I have that cliche best friend story where I’ve literally known her since SK, went to the same elementary school, high school, and university together... And she lived around the corner from me when I still lived in my hometown.

21. Kissed someone on your facebook friends list: Well, considering my one ex is my friend there, I have to say yes.

— General

22. How many of your facebook friends do you know irl: Every single one. Although I’m never on facebook so don’t ever add me; itll take a month to hear back from me.

23. Do you have any pets: I have two cats! Well, one lives with me, and the other is at my parent’s place. But Perriwinkle is with me, my precious kitty, and shes all I need!

24. Do you want to change your name: Hmm... I do quite like my birth name, and I adore my last name, but my middle name... Im not super fond of “Marie”.

25. What did you do for your last birthday: hahahaha uh, well, Id been working at my new job for about a week at that time, so I was working on my 19th birthday.

26. What time did you wake up today: 11:35am

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: I was working on The Power of Faiths upcoming update! ;)

28. What is something you can’t wait for: to be done university... As much as it’s a cool experience and all, all the stress it brings is gonna kill me prematurely.

30. What are you listening to right now: “I Get To Love You” by Ruelle

31. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: I work with a guy named Tom. He’s a music major, he plays piano and is overall a super cool dude

32. Something that’s getting on your nerves: when people I call for my job pick up the phone on a Sunday and bitch at me that I’m calling on “the day of rest”. Like?? Bitch, you did not have to pick up the phone. You saw the caller ID, just, let it go to voicemail?????????

33. Most visited website: It’s a toss-up between tumblr and ao3

34. Hair colour: brown, like, chocolate brown I guess

35. Long or short hair: It’s long for some people’s standards (it comes to between my shoulder blades) but still pretty short for me. I’m used to my hair reaching the small of my back.

36. Do you have a crush on someone: Oh hell no, aint nobody got time for that

37. What do you like about yourself: Uh... You guys wouldn’t like my answer.

38. Want any piercings: I seriously thought about a tongue piercing, but idk.

39. Blood type: You’d think, from the amount of blood Ive had taken for allergy tests and the like that I’d know. But nope, I have no idea.

40. Nicknames: Sam, Sammy, Samserban, Pretties, Samuel.

41. Relationship status: Single

42. Sign: Gemini!

43. Pronouns: she/her

44. Fave tv show: Voltron

45. Tattoos: I’m looking into tattoo parlors to get my first tattoo over the summer. I’m gonna get a bunch of flowers on my back, over my heart, for my grandma <3

46. Right or left handed: Right

47: Ever had surgery: Nope! Worst I’ve had are x-rays

48. Piercings: I do have my ears pierced, just once.

49. Sport: Hahahaaaa not anymore, I’m lazy af. But I used to figure skate competitively, row competitively, and ride horses.

50. Vacation: I hardly ever travel. Ive been down to Florida twice, and been to England and Scotland around this time two years ago with my two best friends.

51. Trainers: ...no? Again, I’m lazy af.

— More general

52. Eating: I dont eat as often as I should.

53. Drinking: Coca-Cola. Or coffee. Not sure which I’m gonna get yet.

54. I’m about to watch: I mean, I should be working on papers or something... Or even writing... But I just finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood the other day and I loved it!!!

55. Waiting for: my English prof to give me my marks back for a paper I wrote.

56. Want: a lot of money so I don’t have to work as much as I do to live in my bachelor’s apartment with my cat.

57. Get married: Maybe..... It depends on if I ever find the right person. But if I dont, I am more than happy to be alone.

58. Career: I really reeeaaally want to get into a writing/editing career. I want to one day work for a firm to work one on one with authors to help them edit and publish novels!

— Which is better

59. Hugs or kisses: Hugs!

60. Lips or eyes: Oooh, eyes man!

61. Shorter or taller: Taller...

62. Older or younger: Older

63. Nice arms or stomach: Ooooh... arms...

64. Hookup or relationships: Definitely relationships, but I’m terrible at keeping them,,

65. Troublemaker or hesitant: Oh gosh, I mean, Im definitely more of a trouble maker... But like, a cautious one.

— Have you ever

66. Kissed a stranger: Oh hell no

67. Drank hard liquor: Im Canadian... Yes

68.Turned someone down: Haha, I sure have! I got asked out by two different guys on the same day before.

69. Sex on first date: Oh god no

70: Broken someone’s heart: Probably.....

71. Had your heart broken: I most certainly have!

72. Been arrested: Fortunately, not.

73. Cried when someone died: Yes. But, only once.

74. Fallen for a friend: I have no idea what this means???

— Do you believe in

75. Yourself: hahaha uh... No???????

76. Miracles: Id like to??

77. Love at first sight: I do, but not for myself.

78. Santa Claus: Nope

79. Angels: Oh god no

— Misc

80. Eye colour:  like, a warm brown colour?

81. Best friends name: Kaylee!

82. Favourite movie: I love too many movies... But the ones that come to mind are Spirit: Stallion of the Cimerran, Stardust, The Swan Princess, and Toy Story!!!

83. Favourite actor: There are days I can barely remember my coworkers names, and I see them for like, 15 hours a week. Let alone someone I’ve never met???

84. Favourite cartoon: It’s Voltron ;)

85. Favourite teacher’s name: I dont really consider myself to have “favourite” profs. But I am fond of a few that I’ve had!

I’m gonna tag @forsakenangel88, @mardimari, @dumb-birdd, and any of my followers who want to do this! Just tag me, I’d love to see your answers <3

[arplis]

Arplis - News: Great seat, so-so service: A review of KLMs business class on the 787-9 from Amsterdam to Toronto

TPG Rating

80 100

Pros

Beautiful, comfortable seat and bed; ample options for inflight entertainment; greatly improved lounge at Amsterdam airport.

Cons

Slow, disjointed meal service.

16/20 Ground Experience

26/30 Cabin + Seat

12/15 Amenities + IFE

15/20 Food + Beverage

11/15 Service

Dutch flag carrier KLM is a major presence in the U.S. and Canada, with year-round flights to Amsterdam (AMS) from 14 cities. It sends across the Atlantic pretty much all of the airplane types in its long-haul fleet: the Airbus A330 and Boeing 747, 777 and 787. The last one is the only one offering business class with direct aisle access for all seats, while the other types feature configurations with seats in a 2-2-2 layout.

Its a much different story on the 787s, which began joining the fleet four years ago and sport a 1-2-1 configuration in business class, with seats laid out in a reverse-herringbone pattern. On paper, its a totally competitive offering across the Atlantic, at least in terms of seat.

KLM is also a member of SkyTeam, the alliance that includes Delta Air Lines, so flyers can earn and redeem Deltas SkyMiles on all flights, as well as Air France and KLMs own Flying Blue miles.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

Weve reviewed KLMs business class before several times, including the classic upper-deck experience on the 747. Every time, we found it to be a good, but not great, way to fly at the front of the plane.

What would we find in 2019, which also happens to be the 100-year anniversary of KLM, the worlds oldest airline?

Booking

The Flying Blue program has become complicated lately, but youll be able to navigate it easily using our guides. You can also get Flying Blue miles by transferring points from Citi ThankYou Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

When we found a great award fare from Amsterdam to Toronto (YYZ) for 45,375 Flying Blue miles plus $226.15 in taxes and fees, we went for it without hesitation. We value Flying Blue miles at 1.2 cents each, making this a transatlantic flight in business class for $750.65. You can pay a lot more in coach!

On the KLM app, I was able to select my seat in advance not my meals, unfortunately and I was off for one of the cheapest premium-class Atlantic crossings of my entire frequent-flyer career.

Ground Experience

TPG Rating

16/20

PH-BHP

Tail

1yr

Age

11%

Late

h 16m

Avg. Delay

17:45

Departure

7h 37m

Duration

Amsterdams Schiphol Airport is one of the easiest airports in Europe to navigate. Connections are a breeze compared to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or London Heathrow (LHR), getting there from the city is easy with plenty of trains and the airport itself is well designed.

When I arrived at the departures hall at 2:40 p.m. for the 5:35 p.m. departure to Toronto, I found the check-in area and departure gate already displayed on the monitors.

Biz-class passengers and elite members of the SkyTeam alliance could check in using a separate gated area, indicated by the SkyPriority logo.

Within this area were both traditional, staffed desks and self-service kiosks, useful if you dont have baggage to check. KLMs institutional blue color, with accents of Dutch orange, appeared in tasteful touches.

Despite having already checked in on the app, I got a paper boarding pass from a desk employee you never know when you might need it. Then I used the priority access to security and the departure gates, clearly indicated within the gated area.

After a quick and painless security and passport check, I was out in the departures area, headed to a duty-free shop for the delicacies I always make sure to bring home from the Amsterdam airport stroopwafels, salty licorice, Gouda cheese and then to one of the KLM lounges.

Even without lounge access, I would have had plenty to see and quiet areas to sit in. Schiphol is a nice airport to be in if you dont have lounge access. Its also a quiet airport, with no announcements on loudspeakers.

TPG contributor Eric Rosen has reviewed in depth the renovated KLM Crown Lounge, one of the two at AMS (the other one is within the area restricted to flights within the European Unions passport-free zone.) Eric explains in detail what you can find there, but I can sum up my time in it with one word: Wow!

This was a far cry from the cavernous, rather boring space it used to be. It had been completely transformed into a large, world-class lounge.

Immediately upon entering, I could see things had changed from my previous visits.

As befits the name, it now had lounge chairs. And much, much better food options, including an la carte restaurant on the second floor, called Blue. (Too bad it was not free, unlike the food and drink in the lounge.)

I spent a delightful hour exploring, and liking, the buffet food and the decor. Another reason to pick a transfer at AMS over other European gateways.

Monitors in the lounge included a mention of how long it took to walk to a specific gate. Armed with that knowledge, I could maximize my time in the lounge and timed my arrival at the gate just four minutes before the start of boarding, long enough to admire the beautiful blue 787-9 that was to fly as KL695 to Toronto.

KLM names its 787s after flowers, and this one, a year-old Dreamliner, was called Tulip. How much more Dutch can you get?

Priority and general boarding lanes were clearly marked, and nobody was crowding the boarding area. At 4:50 p.m., boarding began right on time.

Cabin and Seat

TPG Rating

26/30

1-2-1

Configuration

81in

Bed Length

2

Lavs

KLMs 787-9 has 30 business-class seats, in a single cabin. The longer 787-10 has 38.

It was, even at first sight, a huge improvement over the 2-2-2 biz classes of previous KLM birds. The reverse-herringbone layout and that particular seat type have been around for years, but in KLMs incarnation, they exuded quiet elegance.

Of course, as is usual on this aircraft: No window shades! 787 windows are dimmed electronically, with the touch switch under them.

The inflight-entertainment screen swiveled out with a press of the blue button to the left.

Headrests were adjustable in height and angle, and had adjustable wings. The seatbelts had airbags, as happens more and more in premium seats.

In the lie-flat position, the 22-inch wide seat turned into an 81-inch bed. Though a mattress pad for sleeping was not available, the bed offered enough space in the footwell to move comfortably. The only thing I didnt like about it in bed mode was the clunky airbag belt, and the pillow could have been firmer, too.

When sleeping under a blanket or comforter, fasten your seat belt over it. That way, if theres turbulence and flight attendants come to check if youre buckled in, they can just take a look and not bother you and youll make their job easier, too.

The armrest on the aisle side could be lowered with the blue button. Flight attendants asked passengers to keep them in the lowered position for takeoff and landing.

It would not have been possible to store large electronics like laptops or tablets anywhere other than the overhead bins, but the closed storage cubby next to the IFE remote was ideal for wallets, phones and other small items. Headphones for the IFE were hanging in it from a hook.

I especially liked the clever mirror inside the door, in classy KLM blue.

An international power outlet and powered USB outlet were under the armrest by the window, with a sign indicating their location.

The tray table extended from the same armrest with the press of another blue button. It was a bit small, but still OK for a 15-inch laptop, and once extended it could slide forward, letting the seat occupant get up during meal service. This is a key element that not all airlines get right; for example, Virgins swanky new Upper Class forces you to stay seated when the table is out and a meal is on it.

The seat controls were intuitive, and I didnt see any other passenger have to ask a flight attendant for help figuring things out. From the top, the four buttons are: slide seat forward and back, bed mode, seat back up and overhead light.

Besides the overhead light, which could be controlled from the remote too, there was a reading light built into the seat. Two adjustable air-conditioning vents were above the seat, the latter a feature not found on all aircraft. (Some European airlines, like Lufthansa, are notorious for keeping cabins far warmer than what Americans are used to.)

The bathrooms were more or less normal, save for a KLM classic, the Delft-house decorations. Theyre found all over its branded materials, and even on the escalator to the Crown Lounge.

Amenities and IFE

TPG Rating

12/15

16in

Screen

250

Movies

200

TV Shows

No

Live TV

No

Tailcam

As customary, I found pillow and comforter already on the seat, and headphones in the mini storage locker. Amenity kits were distributed later.

The amenity kit by Dutch designer Jan Taminiau, featuring the colors of the Dutch flag, was distributed to each passenger just after flight attendants closed the overhead bins prior to pushing back from the gate. It had the basics for a long-haul flight: socks, toothpaste and toothbrush, eye mask and earplugs, moisturizer, lip balm and a pen useful for immigration forms.

More toiletries were found in the two bathrooms exclusive to business class, which were spotless throughout the seven-hour, 40-minute flight. Hair gel, body mist and hand-and-body lotion were a limited edition by Rituals for KLM. Besides the pillow and comforter, I didnt receive any other amenities like slippers or pajamas.

These KLM aircraft feature crisp, 16-inch screens, with about 250 movies to watch in at least 14 languages, and a gorgeous moving map: this was a good IFE, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Wi-Fi internet disconnected a few times, but was otherwise quite usable. I paid 18 euros ($20) for the whole flight, a much better deal than the other choice of 8 euros ($9) for one hour. (If you just wanted to send or receive text messages, that was free.) The Speedtest app kept timing out, but the internet was fast enough for videos, albeit with some buffering.

The headphones supplied by the airline were of the fairly rare three-prong kind, with OK not outstanding sound quality.

The beautiful 3D moving map could also be loaded on the smaller display in the remote, which retained full pinch-and-zoom functionality.

The cockpit-view function is increasingly popular in IFEs, and for aviation geeks its a delight every time. After our takeoff on schedule at 5:45 p.m., I followed on the screen our climb from sea level straight to our initial cruising altitude of 36,000 feet in 25 minutes which happened in near silence, despite my position just in front of the righthand engine.

The flight unfolded entirely in darkness. In late June, say, the views out of the window would have been spectacular, one long sunset seen from the edge of the stratosphere, but in early November we flew at night from start to end.

Food and Beverage

TPG Rating

15/20

2

Meals

Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rserve

Champagne

No

Dine on Demand

Are you even flying on a Dutch airline if youre not offered a Heineken? Of course not, and a can of the national beer of the Netherlands was on the tray that a flight attendant brought down the aisle as boarding finished. There were also Champagne, orange juice and water. (Incidentally, the two stripes on the flight attendants sleeve identified her as a senior cabin attendant in the KLM rank insignia system.)

At my seat, I found a menu and wine list, with the KLM logo inside a Delft-porcelain motif. The airlines Champagne may have been a midrange Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rserve, but its taste in graphics was impeccable.

On the wine list, I noticed a cocktail described as a special lighter, crisper version of a Negroni, with Dutch genever (a typically Dutch kind of gin), chosen because both KLM and the Negroni were born in 1919. When the drinks cart arrived at my seat, half an hour after takeoff, I asked for it, with a small bowl of nuts and sparkling water.

The nuts should have been warm and the drink in a wider glass, but those are minor quibbles to have at 36,000 feet, and the Negroni-ish was indeed lighter and crisper than the original, a true pleasure.

For dinner, I could choose among two appetizers, three entrees and two desserts. For the appetizer, I had tomato soup over the other choice, salmon and spicy mango with hazelnut-cucumber-pepper-and-mango dressing.

All three main courses featured potatoes, in an apparent nod to a classic Dutch staple food. My choice was panfried cod and Dutch prawns with herb potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes and broad beans in a mussel gravy. The other two entrees were miso-marinated chicken thigh with carrots, potato puree, Brussels sprouts in an orange beurre blanc sauce; and beef stew with red cabbage, potatoes and cornichons.

For dessert I could have a cheese plate blue cream cheese, Klaver Roem and Leerdammer Caractre, all Dutch cheeses, served with crackers and grapes or sweet bites: brownie with ganache, a chocolate-caramel tartlet and a lemon cheesecake with raspberries. I went with the cheese, and a glass of New Zealand riesling from a simple, five-wine list. It also featured a Chilean chardonnay and three reds: a grenache from France, an Argentinian malbec and a South African shiraz.

Things sounded promising on paper. But when dinner service began, they went awry.

The galley ran out of the salmon appetizer for everybody who wanted it, and flight attendants proposed alternatives to at least two passengers. This happens, I said to myself, no biggie. Space on board is limited, and not everybody gets their first choice on every flight. In any case, I had the tomato soup, which was very good, and though the salad was a bit wilted, it came with a zingy beetroot dressing that was as cheeky as the salt and pepper shakers in the shape of Dutch clogs.

But then I waited 30 minutes between the appetizer and entree, and the flight attendant assigned to my aisle got confused and thought I had ordered the chicken, not the cod.

They hadnt loaded enough cod anyway, he said, seeming a little confused about what was going on in his galley, but after some inquiry he turned up one stray cod entree for me. And good thing he did, because it went beautifully with the riesling.

The silverware had pretty inlaid handles, and the carts were ornamented with the same motif as the menus.

With dessert, the flight attendant brought around a box of chocolates in the shape of, you guessed it, Delft houses. I had two, and I could have had more. They were excellent, and so were the cheeses. By the time I was done with all of it, though, it had been a 90-minute dinner, and when your flight is under eight hours and at night, you may want a service flow that maximizes sleep instead of time spent eating.

A half hour later it was lights out in the cabin, when we were already nearing the southern tip of Greenland, four and a half hours out from Toronto.

Ninety minutes before landing, after some sleep, it was time for the second meal service. The appetizer was a sweet-potato salad with white cheese and pomegranates, followed by either a cheese quiche or an Angus beef burger with cheese, and then by an apple pie. The meal was served with pepper jelly and deep-fried onions on the side. I got the burger and a Coke, which proved to be a good choice. And the apple pie that followed was perfectly warm.

KLM did not let me go hungry. It wasnt top-quality, but it was perfectly competent airplane food, in abundant amounts.

Service

TPG Rating

11/15

No

Extra Pillows

No

Turndown Service

Would you like a house, Mr. Riva? the flight attendant asked me after the last dish had been removed from my tray. On any other airline, I would have thought that a weird question, but in KLM business class it could mean only one thing. It was time for the distribution of the miniature Delft porcelain houses filled with liquor, which the airline gives away as souvenirs to business passengers.

The one distributed on KL695 that day wasnt any old house, either.

Its the house where our king and queen live, he said.

According to the booklet that came with it, Huis ten Bosch is the residence of King Willem-Alexander, Queen Mxima and their children. Thats the very king who occasionally moonlights as a KLM pilot, but there was no royalty at the controls on my flight: His Majesty is qualified on the Boeing 737, not the 787.

That very nice interaction with the flight attendant and the story behind the Delft house ended the flight on a high note for me, but overall, the service was OK, not great. There were moments of slight confusion during meal services, and dinner lasted way too long.

Overall impression

You dont need to be an aviation enthusiast to see how pretty this 787 was on the inside and out, and even a casual flyer notices the Dreamliners smooth, quiet ride. Add a very good biz-class seat, and you have the makings of a very nice Atlantic crossing.

Coming off the flight on a cold night in Toronto, I reasoned that Id just flown in a better biz seat than most Delta One seats, certainly better than any Lufthansa seat short of first class, and on par with the best seats offered on KLMs sister airline, Air France. It would just have needed better service to compete for greatness. That said, you would not be disappointed if you redeemed a reasonable number of miles for KLM biz class on the Dreamliner.

All photos by the author.

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/great-seat-so-so-service-a-review-of-klms-business-class-on-the-787-9-from-amsterdam-to-toronto

[gamedesignerben]

Baldessari’s (optional) assignments for his 1970 Post-Studio Art class at CalArts

I could only find abridged versions, or blurry photos of the original handouts, so I transcribed everything, and here it is.

1. Imitate Baldessari in actions and speech 2. Make up an art game. Structure a set of rules with which to play. A physical game is not necessary: more important are the rules and their structure. Do we in life operate by rules? Does all art? 3. How can we prevent art boredom? 4. Write a list of art lies, un-truths that might be truthful if we really thought about them. However consider this: Art truths that we have often are boring in their correctness. 5. How can plants be used in art. Problem becomes how can we really get people to look freshly at plants as if they've never noticed them before. A few possibilities: 1. Arrange them alphabetically like books on a shelf; 2. Plant them like popsicle trees (as in child art) perpendicular to line of hill; 3. Include object among plants that is camouflaged 6. How can gallery use be subverted, as in land art? Exchange locations with another business? Photo gallery sq. ft. for sq. ft. and paste up in another space? One way glass in front of gallery? 8. Give police artist verbal description of Baldessari and have him do drawing. Perhaps everyone in class do verbal description. 9. Describe a neutral object completely with fileand tape or video. Do it until you have fully translated all its qualities to the medium. Perhaps better a class project in that more insights would be available. 10. Create art from our procedures of learning. How does an infant learn? How do we continue to learn. How do we learn speech? To count? To know danger? Investigate Montessori methods, books and learning and perception. 11. Do a tape recording of raw sounds and edit into a composition. 12. Make up a list of sound as art projects (see example). 13. How can a gallery space be used rather than put art objects into it? 14. Two man film project. Each shoots up an amount of film. Each edits the others film. A film collage problem. Important that the footage be "found" 15. Given: The availability of an airplane or helicopter for a short time use i.e., an hour. What would you do? 16. Given: $1. What art can you do for that amount? 17. Cooking art. Invent recipee. They are organizations of parts, aren't they? 18. Subvert real systems. I.e., dial a number that records passages while the person is out and dial another number that gives recorded messages. Put the two phones together. Put a sigh that says "SLOW" in the middle of a street. Get it? 19. What art can arise from magic and myth. Or just a magic trick on video. 20. A sensory deprivation piece. A sensory overload piece. 21. Ecological guerilla art. 22. Disguise yourself as another object--a tree maybe. Or becoming a tree. A big bird? 23. What are the minute differences in things that are supposed to be the same? And vice versa. If you took 36 photos of a lawn, would they all be the same? Or of 36 sections of the same lawn? Or of a wall? Or 36 identical nails (either, finger or kind you hammer). 24. File loops of slides of all the objects one stares at in a given interval when in an arbitrarily chosen room. Or recorded on a tape recorder as one's eyes look on them. 25. 36 slides from start to finish of simple motion like picking your nose, scratching your ass and so on 26. Slides of #24 projected in correct places in another room. 27. Wet and dry. I.e., how does wet gravel in a parking lot look next to another dry area. Perhaps an actual situation, where something would be constantly wasted. 28. Recreate sculpturally with other materials in a magic realist approach any 12" sq area of earth land. Perhaps better yet to keep your own seeth out of it would be to have another choose it for you. 29. Have some take a photo portrait of you just before you go into a store to steal something. Have your portrait taken immediately after the act. Photo the object stolen. 30. Design and have printed your calling card. 31. Steal the trash from Pres. Corrigan's wastebasket and make a collage of it. 32. Have yourself photographed in act of insulting a person. To repeat each time insulting a new person. 33. Pay homage to a movie star, rock musician, etc. in form of a pilgrimage visit. Photograph is required of the two of you with a personalized signed greeting by the culture here. Or it could be a famous person's grave. In this case a photo of you at the grave. Person's name on the gravestone should be visible. No signiture necessary. 34. Defenestrate objects. Photo them in mid-air. 35. What kind of art can be done with real animals? 36. Record all actions, thoughts, for 1/2 hour on tape recorder. 37. What kind of works can be done literally under the earth. 38. Liquid works. 39. Chemical works. 40. Biological works. 41. Photograph landscape in color. Make 8x10 color print. Make some color changes. Color landscape to match retouched photo. Color landscape to match photo. Rephoto. 42. Class make up list for scavenger hunt. Exhibit works at end of day. 43. Forgeries. Each in class tries to forge my signature on a check by looking at an original. Or forgeries of forgeries of forgeries, etc. 44. Take any sentence of text to 6 signpainters to be lettered in letters of same style and height. Study differences. 45. Punishment. Write "I will not make any more art" "I will not make any more boring art" "I will not make make good art" (or something similar) 1000 times on wall. 46. One person copies or makes up random captions. Another person takes photos. Match photo to captions. 47. Serial TV works. 25 ways to fold a hat, to comb your hair, 25 different people spitting. 48. Develop a visual code. Give it to another student to crack. 49. Disguise an object to look like another object. 50. Do a film or TV script or scenario. Use TV layout paper. 51. A video tape that is a result of reading a book. You give book report in front of camera. 52. Smell pieces. 53. Touch pieces. 54. Art that you see by looking up or down 55. How do we get eyes off the visual and into experience. Rent a service rather than an object from Yellow Pages. 56. Take a canvas stretcher, size of your choice, to an upolsterer and have it upolstered with fabric of your choice. 57. A piece that deals with measurement--up, down, right, left, etc. and where spectator is located. 58. Make up list of distractions that often occur to you. Recreate on video tape 59. Make up art parables. 60. Edmund Scientific Catalog project. What art can you make my ordering from this catalog. Maybe grow plants chemically. 61. Hypnosis. Can art ideas be planted and removed in a mind? 62. A wall drawing based on numerous persons height--each marks his height on wall with line, signs name and date. 63. What art can arise from such phrases as: 1. Entasis. 2. Gestalt with some left over information. 3. Simple shape, simple experience. 4. Unitary form with reduced relationships. 5. Unitary form with line of fracture. Or can pure information be art? 64. The structural movement of cameras as subject matter. 65. Performance pieces. I.E. Speak thru your hand to your thigh but not with your head. Or talk with your knees t osomething knee-high. Or what are your dog-like traints without imitating a dog. Or the delivery of a speech to an imaginary person in different spaces in a room. Do a series of artificial voices. Can the various positions of the hand change the resonance of the voice? Say "good morning" every morning into a tape recorder for the length of the tape. See Growtowski, Towards Poor Theater. 66. A snapshot album of things to see in Los Angeles with exact locations so that others could locate sights (sites). 67. Document change, decay, metamorphosis, changes occuring in time. 67. Do good an bad compositions (by photo) of same scene, object. Frame a photo in viewfinder and move camera a foot to side before shooting. 68. Make up a list by looking at art books. Talking to artists on things to avoid in making art. Do them. Ask yourself if results are good or bad art. 69. What art can come from the use of a set of walkie-talkie radios? 70. By using movie camera to follow actions and by your observations into cassete recorder, document the movements of someone secretly for an entire day. Or have someone follow you. 71. Photos are flat. Photograph flat surfaces. Maybe exchange them. 72. Change, control, alter, arrange light in room environment. 73. Art Powers. How much and what kind of art can you make from kleenex and masking tape, for instance. 74. A film video tape etc that deals openly with a physical flaw of yours (in your estimation). A film called PIMPLE? 75. Information exchange. You writer letters to someone and they to you and so on. Framed letters of Refusal (I am sorry, but...) for instance. Or Thanks (That you for your ...blah blah etc). 76. Random photos. End of, beginning of, roll photos. Camera sent up with pidgeon, balloon, given to another person with shooting instructions, shooting from hip, etc. How do we avoid our good taste? 77. Using of time devices. Time clock (that prints time in and out), random time devices (red dot on cash register tape), a fuse, a candle 78. Large scale art that can be seen in its entirety. For instance, if you dyed sheets each a separate color and arranged them checkerboard like, say a hundred or more, they could only be experienced by walking through them, but the ycould be seen (also photoed) by helicopter or airplane. 79. Photograph backs of things, underneaths of things, extreme foreshortenings, uncharacteristic views. Or trace them. 80. Put labels on things that list their contents. 81. Design an art test. 82. Can one give and take away aesthetic content? 83. Street works, art determined by locaiton. What would you do on top of a 30 story building? What would you do under water? 84. Given $50, could you increase the sum in a period of time? 85. Describe the visual verbally and the verbal visually 86. Film of, or video of, children's play activities--walking on a ledge, drawing a line in the dirt, etc. 87. Do a work of art by telephone. Or use TBA (John Collins). 88. An all word TV tape. Or a single word. 89. A real time movie or video tape. A steaming cup of coffee. 90. If photos come from reality, what kind of reality comes from photos? Reconstruct a photo tree-dimensionally. 91. Scenarios. Do a movie for an existing, stock scenario. Or 1 person write scenario, another shoot movie. Or grabag scenario--everyone write 2-3 scenes, drop in box, someone pull out maybe 10 and they are shot in the order drawn out. Or everyone do their version of the grabag scenario. 92. Video tape of making sound effects. 93. Design a secret handshake (for our class members?) 94. Verbally describe a landscape instead of painting one 95. A distinctive work that is based on parts and not a whole, that is one see the parts and never teh whole 96. Prove a point as in a science fair diorama, display tableau such as, "How quickly does bread mould under certain conditions?", or "a plant growth hampered by use of conditioned water?", "The effect of colored lights on plants", "Is untreated seaweed useful as fertilizer", "What effect does ultra Sonic vibrations have on plants?", "The effect of asperin on potato plants", "Why is a rainbow round?", "Do race, color, texture affect the strength of hair?" and etc. 97. Take the titles of any amateur art exhibit and illustrate them. For instance much titles as, Ah, Toro!, Autumn Leaves, Mexican Patterns, Xenogeniala #2, Xanadu, Wharf Enchantments, French Restaurant, Boat Patterns, blah blah 98. Repaired or patched art. Recycled. Find something broken and discared. Perhaps in a thrift store. Mend it. 99. Art that requires the rental of a Service rather than an Object. 100. How does one react to a minor stress problem. Perhaps compare what he is thinking to his outward behavior. 101. Put new canvas over old paintings. 102. Composition based on the duration of say, one gal of paint. 103. A 30 day continuous line of adding machine tape. 104. The shapes of shadows of well known people (or well known artists for a specific example) 105. Reversals. Be black, say things backwards, all while standing upside down. 106. Put make-up on dogs and other animals. On trees and plants. 107. "If each of us were to confess his most secret desire, the one that inspires all his plans, all his actions, he would say: 'I want to be praised.'" (E.V. Cloran). Do a piece that deails with Praise as a theme. 108. Photograph of umbrella and sewing machine on an operating table. That's Surrealism isn't it? 109. Blow powdered color through straw on drawing made with fat on wall underground. That's cave art isn't it?

[walterteng-blog]

Ultimate (Exchange) Student Guide + Travel Tips! [University of Surrey x Nanyang Technological University EEE]

After more than 171 days away from home, I am finally back in time for the reunion dinner in homely Singapore which is nice! :) Back to the topic, this is a short guide that I decided to put together for the benefit of the students who are going to/ interested in going for an GEM exchange programme at University of Surrey(UoS).  Writing this also serves a good time for me to reflect all the experiences and lessons learnt from my time at University of Surrey. Before I begin, I would like to mention that one of such article have been written before by getsurrey.co.uk which you can refer to as well. Academic: In case you are wondering, I am a EEE/3 student specializing in infocommunications and I did my Y3S1 at UoS. The 4 modules I took are: EEE2045 ELECTRICAL SCIENCE II Lectured by Dr David Carey and Prof Ravi Silva aka EE3001 ENGINEERING MICROMAGNETICS (4AU) - 100% Lecture and 100% 2 hour Written Paper. EEE3008 DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING A Lectured by Prof Mark Plumbley aka EE3014 DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING - 20% Weekly Flipped Classroom Assignments which are basically group presentations for your self learning of the new topic before the lectures. 80% 2 hour Written Paper - More theory explanations and derivations than calculations as compared to the usual NTU teaching style. - I realise there is a different syllabus for DSP B offered in Sem 2 while studying for my finals. I am not sure about this. EEE3033 RF AND MICROWAVE FUNDAMENTALS Lectured by Dr Peter Aaen and Dr Tim Brown aka EE4151 RF AND MICROWAVE ENGINEERING (3AU) - 20% Lab (Advanced Design System) and 80% 2 hour Written Paper - Really skeptical about taking this mod at first since I am taking Electromagnetics mod concurrently. - Lab was a little hard to grasp at first since the overall learning curve was pretty steep for me. - Glad that I have plenty of help from my EPS project mates :)

EEE3035 ENGINEERING PROFESSIONAL STUDIES Lectured by Dr David Carey and Supervised by Prof Klaus Moessner aka EE3080 DESIGN & INNOVATION PROJECT (DIP, 2AU) - Probably biggest takeaway mod; an eye opener - Project on creating a wearable tech for the medical field with a group of 6 - Lectures on various industry standards was very insightful. Topics like technological adoption life cycle, hype curves and sustainability management are a few of the many materials covered. - The UoS students have stronger hands-on skills like coming out with PCB designs and testing. Their 1 year placement/internship really gave them an edge that I am still hoping to catch up on my own. - Learnt some EAGLE basics and reinforced my knowlege of 3D design which I self learnt prior to this. - Efficient use of team management apps like Slack which was also new to me. University of Surrey EEE Faculty was highly regarded in the UK and it is a real privilege to do an exchange programme there. As mentioned, the teaching approach is very different as compared to NTU. It is very vocal with its flipped classroom teaching and there is a lot of self learning to do here. I have to refer to the textbooks a lot here. However, there is a need to memorize essential formulas for the finals which I am not used to, since the formula booklets for NTU papers are specific to the mods and comprehensive.

Play (Travel):  I went a 44 days pre-exchange trip with my friends from 8 August 2016 and we mainly covered the Scandinavian countries and Central Europe. I traveled on plenty of day trips around UK during the semester and explored the Eastern Europe during the winter vacation. I did a custom google maps to detail my travels and wrote about it a few times before. It can be overwhelming at first so it is easier to refer to the legend as a guide. Article and Legend WallEEExplore v17.01.21 Map

Helsinki, Finland (09 - 11 August 2016) Hameenlinna & Tampere (11 -12 August 2016) Turku, Finland (12-13 August 2016) Stockholm & Tyresta National Park, Sweden (14 - 17 August 2016) Norway Road Trip: Oslo Trolltunga Bergen Lysebotn Larvik, Norway (17 - 23 August 2016) Copenhagen, Denmark (24 - 27 August 2016) Aarhus, Denmark (27 -29 August 2016) Hamburg, Germany (29 Aug - 01 Sep 2016) Berlin, Germany (01 - 04 September 2016) Frankfurt, Germany (04 -07 September 2016) Luxembourg (07 - 09 September 2016) Brussels, Belgium (09 - 12 September 2016) Antwerp, Belgium (12 - 14 September 2016) Rotterdam, Netherlands (14 - 17 September 2016) The Hague, Netherlands (17 - 19 September 2016) Amsterdam, Netherlands (19 - 21 September 2016) London Day Trip (09 October 2016) Windsor Day Trip with Students’ Union (22 October 2016) Oxford Day Trip (23 October 2016) Woking Day Trip (02 November 2016) Bristol + Northern Ireland + Glastonbury & Wells (04 - 09 November 2016) Scotland(Glasgow & Edinburgh) Trip with Students’ Union (11 - 14 November 2016) Cambridge Day Trip (19 November 2016) Brighton Day Trip (26 November 2016) Paris + Disneyland (02 - 06 December 2016) Manchester + Lake District Road Trip (19 - 21 December 2016) Stonehenge + Bath Tour (23 December 2016) London (24 - 27, 30 - 31 December 2016) Prague, Czech Republic (01 - 04 January 2017) Salzburg + Hallstatt + Vienna, Austria (05 - 09 January 2017) Budapest, Hungary (10 - 12 January 2017)

It will take me a while or forever to ever write about the details of all the places I have been to, so if there is any particular places that you might want some tips or itinerary, do contact me directly. I don’t bite. :))

Here are some other custom maps I did during my researches for new places to go. These are mainly within the UK.

UK Top Places to Visit (Detailed)

Lake District Day Drive Trip

: This was meant for a day trip to the Lake District from Manchester during the winter when the daytime is short. Nonetheless, it is still recommended to spend more time there and go for a hike!

*** Tips for travelling around UK 1. Get a 16-25 Railway Card first! It cost  £30 and it’ll save you 1/3 on rail fares. You’ll cover back that  £30 in no time if you go for a lot of day trips. 2. Going for day trips with University of Surrey Students’ Union (SU) is a lot cheaper (even with a rail card). It is more worthwhile if they are able to get discounted admission tickets to castles etc. However, in my opinion, it is not recommended to go for a long trip with them though. You’re more restricted in terms of time and (super) long bus trips is tiring. :( 3. Generally, you can go for a day trip anywhere as long as the ride one way is about 3 hours or less. You’ll still have enough time to explore the city/town. Avoid going those that are far away during winter as you will have little day time. Unless you want to fork out more money to find accom. 4. Get advance tickets if you are able to plan about 2 weeks ahead. It can be very cheap. However, day trips tend to be impromptu, so super off-peak tickets bought on the day itself are your best bet. But still, try to plan ahead. 5. The best part of Guildford is that, London is just 40 - 60 mins away! A day travel zone tickets covers both your travel to and fro plus unlimited London tube travel! 6. Get an Oyster card if you travel to London a lot. Don’t forget to link it to 16-25 Rail card for 1/3 off. You have to go to any station and ask the station attendants to do that. Remember that daily fares caps are at about  £6 or  £ 6.45 and it costs nothing after that. UNLIMITED POWER~ 6. I prefer the National Rail app over Trainline cos it tends to be more detailed. But you will need trainline app if you want to buy tickets online.

Where to go in Guildford?: 1. Picinic / BBQ by the university lake 2. Short hikes / Picnics around town like The Mount, Pewley Downs, St Martha-on-the-hill, Guildford Castle 3. Tea Terrace  at the top floors of House of Fraser 4. Bike / Walk along River Wey to nearby towns like Godalming, Shalford or the Riverside Park. Refer to this route guide.

Giffgaff or Three: Personally, I used giffgaff when I know I am not travelling out of UK for the month and Three if I am going to travel. Yes, in the end, I kept 2 UK lines since my android phone support dual sim anyway. Here is why: Giffgaff: Good: More data tiering than Three. You can buy data for 1, 2, 4 GB and so on, depending on your usage. Three only has 1GB and 12GB packages. (who uses 1 GB anyway?!) Three: Good: You can use your data in many other European countries. No more trying to connect wifi on the streets to upload your latest snaps or instagram stories. UNLIMITED POWER~ x2 Santander Basic or Current: Basic. I think it will still be confusing even if I explain the differences between the two here so, you should listen closely when you are at bank then. Here is the why: 1. You will get used to transferring money between your bank card and debit card in no time. 2. No  £5/mo

BTW, remitting money from DBS to Santander is free and it offers the best exchange rate. It is almost instant during office hours (both UK and SG), but it can be a nightmare if you ran out of money and it is the weekend.

Food: There are food places like Young’s Kitchen, Hillside and some kebabs stalls nearby in school, but trust me, you will get used to cooking for every meal in the end. Deals varies from time to time in Tesco and Sainsburys’ but there are 2 things that are certain. 1.  £2.50 -  £3 B&J or Haagen Dazs is irresistible 2. Poundland for your snacks, chocolates and Haribos. 

Useful Apps (Android): 1. National Rail / Trainline: For your railway timings etc 2. Santander: Banking 3. Giffgaff / Three: Check your data usage 4. Tube Map London: London tube can be confusing and there is no reception once you are inside! 5. Moovit: Shows transport route options in many European cities when Google Maps fails 6. Flixbus: Mostly used this bus service in Europe like Germany. Track its prices religiously if you desperately need a cheap getaway from studies to Paris Disneyland 7. Skyview Free: Just cos you tend to see more stars wherever you are in Europe than Singapore 8. Maps.me: If you need an alternative to Google Maps. However, I used Google Maps extensively by starring important places. You can label them for easy identification when your maps get too crowded.

Tip: Use location history in Google Maps to review the places you go before, in case you want to research further on the place you been to when you are back.

Tell me your experiences! :  While I spent a rather fruitful time in UoS, I didn’t really join CCAs or had any sort of party life. Haha. I had plenty of the “chill in the kitchen/room” life though. Besides, my housemates kept telling Rubix, the school nightclub was always mediocre anyway. There are plenty of interesting CCAs in UoS like Equestrian Club, ABACUS, the Singaporeans Society or the SurreyEARS but I didn’t get myself to join in the end because: 1. You need Surrey Sports Park membership for sports CCA. 2. I want to travel around during my free time. Hope this guide have been useful so far and do share with me your exchange stories, I would love to listen to them! Go out there and create your own memories if you started your exchange!

PS. Pardon me for any major grammatical errors etc, I am writing this at 5am, Singapore time in the morning. Jetlag is hitting me pretty bad. Haiz.

[ Teng Kok Wai (Walter) - Nanyang Technological University x  University of Surrey, Email: teng0107@e.ntu.edu.sg EEE AY16/17 Y3S1]

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Thursday 20 August 1835

7 ¾

11 40

no kiss very thick fog F72° in my dressing room at 9 at which hour breakfast in ½ hour - wrote out the first 25 lines of Tuesday - A- called me for a few minutes and then called down to Mr Husband about 10 ½ - walked with him to Whiskum quarry - and then to Northgate - looking over the house and the working plans till 12 - the casino and portico Ionic to suit the style of the house - the stables backing up against the houses in Broad street that I particularly desired to be all 3 story high are one ½ or less 2 stories and the rest only one story, Mr Washington advised this! It was evident I was annoyed - said I should hear what Mr Harper had to say about it - it seems that from 1st to last 5,000 yards of the stuff should come away from Northgate - 1,000 for the casino and its adjoining buildings - 300 for the stables and their courts, and 1,000 along the casino street + about 150 yards in front of the hotel - Mr. Husband wanted me to go with him to the Lodge to settle with Booth how the coin stones were to be tooled - whether smooth with a broad chisel ‘boasted’, or picked out (rough with a pointed chisel) - said I would meet him there in 1 ½ hour - called at Mr Parker’s office - out - wrote on a piece of paper and left it on his desk that I would send tonight for a note from him to say if the Barraclough cottage title deeds [be] would ready for signing tomorrow - then up the old bank to Park wood - Robert Schofield and his man Joseph Sharp cutting the grass from around the seedling oaks - a few minutes there when Mark Town came and asked me to go with him to the cottage (Barraclough) went with him about 12 ½ and staid looking over the buildings and talking till it was 1 ¾ or 2 when I got home - met Booth the mason - Mr Husband had been at the Lodge, and was gone - ¼ hour with A- while B- had beer - then took him to Whiskum quarry and to Barraclough cottage and so long looking about and planning that it was six when I got home - B- advises pulling the lowest cottage down and building a new one 2 rooms on a floor cellared to be done for £80 or there about - perhaps the mistal (dry-walling backing up against what is to be a little barn) etc may perhaps be done for from £20 to £30 including old materials and shifting 160 yards stuff at 4d. per yard from the top of the ground to the bottom to be a nice little garden - A- who had ridden the grey horse and George Ruthin to Cliff hill at 2 ½ were back about 5 ½ - had Mrs Pickells to pay the Whiskum turnpike money - my aunt gave her 5/. for the moor bird Pickells had sent her 2 or 3 days ago - said I supposed P- would leave me the house as soon as he could - very civil to Mrs P- she poor soul! almost in tears - dinner at 6 ½ - coffee - then had Joseph Mann - ¼ hour out with him - they have found water at the Stump X Inn - to see Holt tomorrow - then a few minutes with my father and Marian -  note from Mr Parker to say the title deeds and all will be ready tomorrow morning -  Letter 3 pages and ends and the 1st page crossed (affectionate) from M- Lawton - thought me long in writing - going from home into Wales etc for 3 weeks - ½ hour with my aunt till 10 then till 10 ½ wrote all the above of today  - thick fog and damp falling (drizzling small rain) till about 11 am afterwards very fine day - F69° now at 10 ½ pm in my study