The Manchester weather still continues to amaze me – even after being here for almost 10 months now. For a person coming from a tropical country like India where day ends at 7 PM – even on a long summer days, being in Manchester, summers seem to be a whole lot different. Waking to a bright sunshine at 5 AM and the sun still up when I go back to bed at 9.45 PM was something, which took a while to get used to. Just when I felt I had seen all colours of the UK weather, comes this 14-hour daylight surprise (and I have been told that it gets longer!!!).
The exam season is finally over, and I feel the past one month has been quite challenging. Focusing on exam preparation and at the same time doing a background study for my final research was tough. But I should say, the bright, sunny and pleasant weather outside did help to drive away any dark, gloomy thoughts of stress or tension within. Cycling around the city in this pleasant weather was a great way to break from the evil clutches of exam stress and a recommended activity for the summers. Another activity for which I have developed an interest for, ever since reaching Manchester has been cooking. Cooking has been therapeutic in its own way. Though it all began with the sole intention of saving money, it has now graduated into a genuine interest. Starting with the basic staple food of rice and chicken, the experimentation has now entered the domain of baking cakes, cookies and brownies. Though the experimentation has not always been perfect, the experience of trying out something new has been unparalleled with the treat for the taste buds acting as the icing on the cake (literally !!!).
With the exams out of the way now, the focus shifts to the final part of the MSc course -the Dissertation. While majority of my friends are moving back to their home country for the research data collection, few of us would do the data collection based in UK itself. The next couple of months would both be exciting as well as hectic as we would be delving deeper into and researching certain topics of interest to complete our dissertation. Hope that the summer, along with the sunny days, brings along with it a great dissertation-writing season and good grades (because at the end "shining" in the exams too matters).
