Marita’s Blog

My last ten months saw me go to Imperial College London with the intention of getting my act together and regaining my “perfect student crown” while travelling around Europe. Unfortunately, student-on-weekdays/ backpacker-on-weekends didn’t quite work out for me. I got distracted by important things during the week such as Cheese Society (eating cheese with people), going to West End, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as my urge to organise, namely mew (a robot-building team), Robogals (a non-profit that actively works to promote science, engineering and technology to girls 11 ~ 14) and Nudge. My studies didn’t exactly take top priority. Fortunately, I maintained my commitment to travelling around Europe, and managed to get many good ol’ life experiences under my belt.

A short list of my last 10 months abroad includes:
- travelling to
1. Thailand
: Bangkok (stopover, both ways)
2. United Kingdom
: Oxford (4 times - sightseeing, visiting friends, VentureFest, TED)
: Cambridge (windsurfing)
: Bath (sightseeing)
: Windsor (sightseeing)
: Stonehenge (sightseeing… what else?)
: Brighton (relaxing… missed my bus to Stratford-upon-Avon)
: Cheddar Gorge (tour with the Cheese Society)
: Southern coast of Wales (sightseeing)
: Scotland (sightseeing and the Introduction Leaders Program)
: Belfast, Northern Ireland (sightseeing)
3. Ireland
: Hill of Tara (my first night in Europe ever. Spent sleeping out under the stars to catch the sunrise… in December. Brrr!!!!)
: Dublin (intention of sightseeing… but was too exhausted)
: Cork (sightseeing - really recovering from the Hill of Tara experience)
France
: Paris (sightseeing, visiting friends)
Germany
: Frankfurt (New Years, sightseeing)
: Bonn (Beethoven’s House)
: Cologne (chocolate factory)
: Berlin (Heart of Gold, freezing!)
: Bremen (slept in the Airport)
: Hannover (stopover)
: Braunschweig (German Workshop on Robotics)
4. Czech Republic
: Prague (sightseeing)
5. Denmark
: Copenhagen (sightseeing)
6. the Netherlands
: Amsterdam (sightseeing, the Introduction Leaders Program)
7. Sweden
: Stockholm (aerial sightseeing)
: Helsingborg (Mini Seedcamp pitching to VCs, investors and mentors)
8. Egypt
: Dahab (windsurfing)
9. Greece
: Vass (windsurfing)
10. Spain
: Madrid (sightseeing)
11. Portugal
: Porto (sightseeing)
12. Belgium
: Brussels (visiting friends, sightseeing)
- seeing the following musicals at West End
1. Wicked
2. Phantom Of The Opera
3. Dirty Dancing
4. Hairspray
5. Avenue Q
6. Chicago
7. Billy Elliott
8. Lion King
9. The Sound Of Music
10. Les Miserables
11. Mamma Mia
12. We Will Rock You
13. Priscilla Queen of the Desert
- joining the following societies at Imperial College
1. Cheese Society (explained above)
2. Art Society (cheap tickets to West End productions)
3. Website and Software Development Society (programming lectures)
4. Windsurfing Society
5. Innovation Society
6. Imperial Entrepreneurs (officially, the VP of Marketing)
7. Krishna Society (philosophical discussions and free food)
8. Freetrade Society (to get discounted chocolate!)
- setting up:
1. mew: meeting and making awesome and talented friends, building a robot
2. Robogals: finding great people to work with, running amok in London with setting up the Robo Gala
3. Nudge: finding great mentors, Imperial Entrepreneurs’ Ideas Empowered Finals, Mini Seedcamp London (invitation), Mini Seedcamp Helsingborg, Winner Hooples Ideas Competition
- getting into the semi-finals for the Imagine Cup Photography Competition
- completing the Introduction Leaders Program
- participating in ignite: having a ball and improving my public speaking skills
- staying up all night roaming London and Hampstead Heath
- setting up my blog
- getting into and attending TED
- seeing countless musical concerts at the Royal Festive Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal College of Music and many other locations!
- staying together with my amazing Australian boyfriend

Fortunately, I love learning. So whilst I did lots of stuff, I also learnt lots of stuff…

From feeding my curiosity by watching hours and hours of TED talks, while reading and devouring every tidbit about entrepreneurship I could find, sometime between the Imperial Entrepreneurs Ideas Empowered Finals and Mini Seedcamp Helsingborg (i.e., in the 4 days between those two events), my thoughts broke through the chasm and I got “how to be an entrepreneur”. The whole process of setting up an organisation suddenly just seemed so clear to me, and I subsequently mapped out about 4 new projects in quick succession. Yes, TED talks and entrepreneurially planning is how I procrastinate.

I learnt that I could relocate anywhere and still be successful. For me, being successful is being happy, setting stuff up and learning. The first time I did this was when I left Cairns to Melbourne, knowing no one. The second time I did this was when I left Melbourne to London, knowing no one. Maybe I should test this one out by moving to Antarctica next? I don’t know anyone there…

I learnt independence to a whole new level. A whole new level of being self-reliant, self-confident, selflessness, self-empowerment, self-generation and self-integrity. When you’re by yourself in a foreign country where you do not speak the official language, it’s dark and you’re broke, you learn to rely on yourself. :)

But perhaps the most pertinent lesson I learnt to a whole new level is that of love and friendship. The friends I made in the past year were all amazing and marvellously fun people. The biggest shout-out goes to Hok. Hok, you never fail to remind me of the importance of friends and friendship. Thank you. To everyone I met over the past year - thank you so much. You made my past ten months rich with experiences, love and happiness.

Live life to the fullest, people!

Marita

• What’s in it for me?
• What are you going to do with your life?

Tags: experiences, life, London, travel

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 4:43 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.