London Spring

However, even invariable weather and uniform environment can sometimes surprise. For example, my bedroom commanded a view of a cherry tree in full bloom at the beginning of January and Londoners lived to see a rare even of big snowflakes falling down the ground throughout one entire day in early February. It should be noted that this rather exotic weather did not discouraged me from doing parkour with my friends around Waterloo at that day.

‚Play hard, work hard’ is Imperial’s motto. The exam time was followed by the very well-known cycle of lectures and labs without giving us much break. I did a physical experiment of quantum dots synthesis this term. These nanoparticles comprising selenium and cadmium absorb in the UV-VIS and hence the samples were nicely coloured. Usually most of our chemistry experiments involve colourless or white chemicals, so I really enjoyed this change. There is only one synthesis experiment left, which means that I won’t have to enter the organic labs any more this year! Right now, I am filling in a risk assessment form for the final experiment and most of the chemicals are classified as harmful, irritant, highly flammable, potentially mutagenic... Not that I would be biased against our organic synthesis labs, but I am a bit scared of all the nasty chemicals we sometimes deal with.

Members of Czecho-Slovak society endured the exam period successfully as well and we met twice for a movie and game nights. In comparison with the first term, the overall attendance of Czechs significantly decreased. Even though many people turned up last time, I was the only Czech. At the end of January, there was a highlighted event International Food Fair going on. Among many societies participating, we cooked and sold ‚halušky s brynzou‘ to Imperial students to let them literally taste our culture.

I am enrolled on ‚Chemistry with Research Abroad‘ course and now is the time to choose a university, where I would conduct my final research project. There’s a list of partner universities having a deal with Imperial; They’ll send their students to Imperial and the same number of students from Imperial will be sent over. Usually students pick university from this list, but initiative of making new connections is accepted. I am personally very interested in graphene and Australian culture and therefore I decided to get in touch with The University of Adelaide. I believed that nothing is impossible if there’s will and enthusiasm. Sadly, I was wrong. I found a supervisor, who would have been happy to have me in the team, and a project exploring the utilisation of graphene as a construction material. The university was willing to establish the exchange scheme, but it failed on Imperial bureaucracy. I was told that it would have taken very long time to get the paperwork done which would not have been managed before my potential departure to Australia. So, I had to come up with alternative solution; Currently I am applying to Emory University in the USA and I have also a backup plan ETH Zürich or simply staying in England.

Winter is tiring, not only in London. On my way home last week I took a shortcut via the Brompton Cemetery. There were yellow daffodil heads peeping out from the grass between the headstones and a sea of crocuses lined the pavements. A clear sign that London April Fool‘s Time is gone and true spring arrived. And new energy and enthusiasm to study came with it.