Las Palmas!!

After a storm comes a calm.
Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry was an English commentator on the Bible and Presbyterian minister during the 1700s. His quote describes the last week of mine in, what else to call it but: PARADISE.

Las Palmas for those of you how do not know of it, is one of the 7 islands that together form the Canary Islands. Politically we are Spanish, but if you look at a world map and find Spain the islands are no where near the country. 90 km of the western coast of the African Continent. Thats where you'd be able to find the Canary Islands. Still the one and only word I can use to describe my Island: Gran Canaria is PARADISE. The place is beauty beyond belief. The climate is just perfect, never too hot never cold that temperature everybody loves, where a light jacket may be needed on ocassions but a short sleeve t shirt will do mostly.

The island where I grew up gets me for a period of 3 months after years, and I am not going to miss the chance to make the most out of it.

Now my life has gym, driving school and chilling, plus the occasional party. The next 3 months are definitely going to be amazing and relaxing.

For starts this weekend we have the biggest football game the island can have played here. Its the Las Palmas v Tenerife derbi. Its really not a big match this time though. Tenerife have been useless this season and are already headed for the Spanish 2B so its basically going to be like a funeral game, where they get to play in their biggest rivals ground before going down. It is going to still be fun. The RIP slogan which their fans keep stating to Las Palmas is going to be a big one for them this time at our stadium. Loving the idea of it already.

So after being a week here, it really has been the calm I have lacked for the last few months. Its the perfect cure for all the stress I had left from disso or exams, and the hangovers from that last week of partying.

My life to quote Matthew Henry has really been "after a storm, comes a calm."

Farewell, God knows when we shall meet again.

Rishi...

A Chapter ends...

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

-Winston Churchill

The average years a male human is expected to live is around 67 years of age. I am 22 so if I follow the average calculation I could be somewhere near the end of the first third of my life expectancy; if I am to only live the average age. To follow the quote of the great British PM during World War II, Winston Churchill, I am at "the end of the beginning in my life."

By Tuesday this week a chapter of my life will definitely come to an end. The university period of my life ends, or even the English adventure comes to its finale. I may be back but it doesn't seem to be planned for the near future.

Life in the UK, has been interesting! to use the right word. There have been ups and downs and it has been a roller-coaster of 4 years. I still remember that first night in September of 2007 when I came to this country and ended up in my university campus alone with no known faces whatsoever. It was definitely a tough start to a great period in my life. I look at myself today and I can for sure state that I have changed a lot from that day in September.

Brunel has seen me for 3 out of the 4 years I have spent in this country. 4 years full of memories. Amazing ones and the not so tasteful ones as well unfortunately. The silly things I remember from my trip here is how my first meal here was at Nando's with 7 random people. How my first night out was in pyjamas, as it was a pyjama party. I remember my first time at Ministry of Sound, during first year and what an amazing night that was. There are so many things that have made me what I am today, and these 4 years have been so much fun too.

After the 4 years I can say I am much better at IT, but of course one would expect that doing a degree in Computer Science. My English skills have dramatically improved, I can adapt my accent to different situations for some reason. My culinary skills can now be called basic, altough I feel I may be pushing it, and last but not least I have met a lot of interesting and/or wonderful people in this country. I will remember London more for the people and how each and everyone influenced my time in the city.

But as I write these words, my bags are now packed except for the last one of course. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you do things last minute. Love it!

Despite not being in love with this city, I am going to miss it for many things, but yet I will also be glad I can leave. My Life will just carry on I guess, because this isn't the end, its not even the "beginning of the end", it may "perhaps be the end of the beginning..." and I am ready for whatever is coming my way for the rest of the adventure. Until then...

Farewell, God knows when we shall meet again.

Rishi...

Bizarre Letter of complaint to Uni

Here is as promised the most bizarre letter I have had to write in a very long time. University decided to let me down last week of exams...

It was really a joke.

--

Dear Members of Staff and Student Body,

I am writing as representative of the student body to make a complaint regarding the CS3100 exam on 11th May 2011.

The examination is a final year core module: Software Project Management. I am not aware if all disciplines of DISC in level 3 undertake this exam but I can confirm Computer Science, Information Systems and Network Computing students were part of the examination.

The examination began under normal circumstances however after the initial 10 minutes students started to question an aspect of question 1. After seeing many students raise this issue, the invigilator asked all students to discard this part of the question.

25 minutes into the examination, the same invigilator announced that the wrong set of questions had been given and that a new set of questions was being printed. Students then had to wait while this was carried out.

45 minutes into the exam we were given a new set of questions. We were told that due to the disruption we will be allowed and extra 30 minutes to continue the examination. This did not account for the loss of time in the examination, in total students should have been given an extra 45 minutes.

I have been asked to raise this concern by a number of students who undertook this examination, who are deeply concerned by the universities processes in relation to examination administration. A formal apology has been given for this mistake or the stress and anxiety this caused by this discrepancy, especially considering it is a level 3 examination. However there has been no other notification of what is going to happen with this examination, and the promised transparency in this whole process is yet to be proven.

Generally student’s opinions of this module have been poor; the module seemed to be taught by a broad mix of teachers as an extra module that did they showed little interest, enthusiasm or vigour in teaching.

As fee payers, contributing to our education, we are entitled to a certain quality of education; this is not it. If AQA, Cambridge or Edexcel made this kind of error at GCSE or A level, it would be considered a serious incident that would be reported to JCQ.

From my understanding this situation has not occurred before and I understand that everyone can make mistakes but it seems unfair to be awarded less time for an issue that had nothing to do with the students. Please can you let me know how you will prevent such incidents in the future and how you plan to rectify the current situation.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all members of staff in the department (support and teaching) and thank them for the otherwise wonderful experience I and other students have had at university.

Yours Sincerely,

Rishi Chandiramani

Level 3 Computer Science Student Rep.

--

Lets hope something is done about it, they did say the process would be transparent, but students have only received an apology letter on the 11th since then.

Also note I will try to post a real personal update before the end of the week! Until then..

Farewell, God knows when we shall meet again.

Rishi....

All falls into place...

"Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON."
— Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer was a Franco-German (Alsatian) theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary.

He was definitely an optimist in life. His famous quote may have seemed one made by a laid back, maybe lazy person. But this man won a Nobel peace prize, I wonder how many actual laid back people have done this...

In fact this famous quote is probably the best quote to describe my life for the last few weeks and maybe months if that...

My year 3 at university has been exhausting and has proven to be quite challenging. My social life as a result of all of this has disappeared. But I must admit sometimes you just have to work your socks off for a year to collect the dividends. There have been moments of confusion, stress and disappointment. I would lie if I said that I wasn't hurt after having a job interview and getting a rejection despite thinking the interview went well.

My final year project came to a close late March and after that it was a hard month of revision that brought me to my last 2 weeks at university with 4 exams to do. The first 2 were actually the harder subjects of the 4 being held in the first week. However the highlight day of my year falls on the Thursday of that week, 05/05/2011. I got a phone call on my Spanish mobile at around 2.30 pm. It was a blocked number, and just days earlier I had got a call from Vodafone asking me if I was interested in switching lines. So I assumed it would be Orange or some other company. To my surprise PwC called and offer me a JOB! something I had been hoping for since at least January.

To quote Albert Schweitzer again "eventually all things fall into place.." that just seemed to happen to me on that day. I had finished one of the toughest papers I have had at university and I had a plan now. I wasn't headed back to Spain without knowing where the future was taking me. Come September I have a job!

The following week lead to some more good stories, including the university handing out the wrong set of questions for an exam and wasting 45 minutes of our time. I promise I will publish more on that as I need to fight the case as a course Rep. I am writing a letter to the department so I will probably post this letter so that everyone can see what exactly happened.

But yes now its Tuesday 01.38 AM and I am exactly 7 days away from closing, what is probably the turning point of my life. A chapter that has probably made me in many ways what I am today. The UK experience, the University experience. The country is going to be missed in many ways, but at the same time there are so many things I am going to be glad I am getting rid off. After all I am going back to SPAIN!!

So guys just remember, life is an interesting experience but hold on if you're having a hard time right now, just laugh at all the confusion because remember everything falls into place, it seems to have done that for me at least, till now.

Farewell, God knows when we shall meet again.

Rishi....

Location:Isambard Close,,United Kingdom