Fatigue

Tired, exhausted, fatigued, these are few words best to descibe myself now. I have been at this condition most of the time since last year. Year of 2006 was a busy, problematic and most happening year to me; I was doing two things at one time at most of the times, and one event happened after another, without a pause in between. Besides my best friend, the chronic headache, which has been following me since I was small, I started to suffer the neck and shoulder pains, and severe gastric that pushing me to the border of depression. Fortunately, with the cares of my family and friends, I was alive to cross from 2006 to 2007. Nevertheless, the "damge" caused to my body is irreversible, the weary condition has been brought forward, and on top of coping with the new life in cambridge, I am physically and mentally exhausted!

Early of this week, I wrote to the Hillwalking Club to pull out from this summer Scotland camping trip, a trip that I have been looking forward for so long. For the past 5 months, I tried to include every aspect in my new life in the UK: Study, reseach, voluntary works, making new friends, hillwalking and now, I have camping, traveling which acquire my attention off from my research work for weeks. While I am trying to fill up every moment in cambridge with activities, I start to feel stressed, again, I feel extremely exhausted and weared out. At last, a friend pointed out that I should concentrate and focus on my research work at the mean time in order to see some results. I gave it a good think, flashed back to the 9 month working life in Shin Etsu for my master project in 2004. Yes, I was extremely committed that time, I worked 12 hours every day in the plant but tried to escape on every saturday to friends' place to refresh myself. Yep, may be I should go back to that life, a committed research life: Simple, focus, concentrated but still can have little fun every week.

Student was taking nap in one of the empty corner in Betty and Gordon Moore Library. This phenomenon is very common in this library. You can see lots of students taking nap under the tables during Tripos exam period.

The UK Holiday Working Visa

At my first job, many of my colleagues regarded me as a workaholic. That time, a friend even hinted me: "please ensure that you still have other things to treasure in your life upon awaken from your career dream!". This was a fallacy! I am not a career woman, I never ever have the ambition to climb the corporate ladder. However, I tended to work for long hour just to ensure that I catch the pace of this semiconductor industry, a field that is irrelevant to my background. After three and a half year in that company, I made a shocking decision that dropped most of people' glasses: I stepped down from a "high-paid" engineering job and became a no-pay trainee. From here, I am glad to learn that there are countless of precious elements in my life besides my career.

Surprisingly, with all these twists in my life, today, many perceive it as daring and colorful. However, I do not intend to push my friends and my brother to pursue my steps. I always believe that everyone has different definition of a wonderful life. For some, they aspire to see the world; In contrast, others may long to have fun with their grandchildren. As I grow older, I wish to get wiser and able to respect others' choice of life.

I love to see friends talking excitedly about their dreams. The passion can stimulate the heartbeats of people around them. Some dreams are realistic such as a managerial post or a big house; On the other hand, some friends dream wildly, hope to learn flying or getting a UK holiday working visa. Most importantly, put the dream into action and then enjoy the process of pursuing the dream. I always believe that there is no right or wrong decision, even though we may make a "wrong" decision at the beginning but if we believe on it, it will turn to be a right decision at the end. Gambateh!

About the UK holiday working visa
Guidance - Working holidaymakers (INF 15):
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1018721068240

Summer activity at St. John field.

Wow! It is very rare to see woman, especially wearing shirt punts.

Punting along St. John College.

Junior chorus of St. John College are returning from their evening church service.