Goodbye to London

4 years did slip-by, and just as it did not seem too long ago that I moved to London for my undergrad studies, I have completed my postgrad and moving home once again. Still recall those rather sad and quiet moments when I first moved to London. Then, still young, and in many sense, much afraid, unaware and very uncertain. 4 years on, moving seemed like a normal sort of thing, yet, it is with both much anticipation, and much memories that I have left behind. The difference being, that I have grown a lot over the years, seen and learnt a great deal both academically and in life, and hopefully, these will prepare me for the challenges ahead. The future is not without many more uncertainties, like whether my new boss will be good, whether the crew will be helpful, etc... the list continues. Yet, I think in many ways, I'm less that brash kid years ago, but someone who remains quite stubborn at times, but more mellowed.

Walking around London, especially the West End, has been such a large aspect of my life here, that I almost do not notice myself moving in and out of places like Covent Gardens, Neal's St, James St, Shaftesbury Ave, Charing Cross Road, in which they become such everyday things in life. Meeting at Borders along Charing Cross Road and you might meet people you never expect, heading to Blackwells or Foyles for more serious books, Chinatown for weekend Dim Sum or simply lunch or dinner, walking through Covent Garden and Seven Dials looking for interesting things (or simply walking thru to get to school) or nice music and performances, going to Holborn (and more recently Borough Market) for fresh seasonal fruits, going to British Library and Senate House library to look for ancient books, Kam Fong for dinner with complementary soup and fruits, Noto for take away dinners, and the list goes on. And of course, the LSE located at Alydwych, and especially, the wonderfully old but quaint Dept of Geography and Environment located on 4 & 5 floor of St Clement's Bldg,the wonderful new computer lab with nice air-con at the basement of St Clement's, the corridor with automatic doors in Old Building, the copy-shop above the quad in Clare Market (I still recall how hard it was to find that building when I first came to LSE), and the L, Y, Z buildings which I always walk by and very much prefer not to have classes in. Oh yes, and there is the LSE BLPES, which had a great collection of books, but at times, you wonder whether it was built as a library or a book warehouse/shop. Apart from chairs and tables which are plentiful but not always sufficient, the lifts and toilets are atrocious!!! sigh... But well... Oh, yes, since I was saying this, there is the Geog's Map Room, with many interesting maps! ok, ok.. its not really about maps, but it does contain a lot of maps though.

If there are many wonderful places and things, it is really the wonderful people I have gotten to know over the years, which made life in London such a great difference since I first came. London to me, began as a sad, quiet and rather lonely place, but today, it is far from that. The list of special people does go one, but from the Bankside people in 2001 (especially Jingliu, Eugene, Junjie, Weijie - forming the Elm Road household), IH group (especially Lim, Hock, Huilin, Chin Chum, Jian Jie, Wilson, Jennifer, Guanming, Audrey, Kenneth, Maria, Ellyana, Mun Loke, Li Min (x 2), Kennet household (Zhaotan, Yingxi, Elaine (Ei-leen), Xinmin, later on Tim), Singsoc people (especially Kelvin, Marc, Bao En, Yunlin, Leng Tuan), the entire CSS group (which includes Mariane of course!), and Carolyn, Shuling, Ciaran, Ling Jing, Chung Ki; it was just a really special group of people. Of course, many did leave as time went by, but they made a huge difference to me, in my life in London. It is them who made my life in London that bit different, and that much nicer. I guess some I will still see in the near future, but many, I'm much less certain. Only time will tell.

London to me, is a wonderful city, yet, it can be a really lonely city as well. In some sense, I do look forward to moving back home, back to where my family is and where I have many wonderful special friends. And like many before me, who have come and gone, it is now me, which will make this journey is a couple of hours. The real trip home!

This will probably be my last post from London, for a very very long time. Till then, goodbye to this wonderful city which hosted me for 4 great years of my life. To the city of such vitality and strength, yet not without its problems, life will go on, and so shall I.