The Final Chapter

Summer of 2018 passed by, so did our 3 months of free time but little did I notice that it was the last summer of its kind.

Coming back to UK for the final time to complete my degree, it was amazing to see how fast 3 years had gone by. Nevertheless, I had a fantastic summer with plenty of sunshine, flip flops and a fair amount of king coconut juice.

Below is short video of a Sunday Fun Run I took part in, organized by the Ceylon Exotic Automobile Club, showcasing the Classic cars of Sri Lanka, most of which are of British make :

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They say time flies when you are having a great time, and it certainly was the case!  Before, I knew it, it was time to “get back to work”. But this time it was different! It was almost as if you would miss waking up to go for a lecture (or take an extended nap thanks to the gloomy weather) and most certainly miss the people around you whether it was a course mates or merely someone you met at a sports club or society.
On the other hand however, you’d feel extremely relieved to be done with the university life which comprises of constant assessments, living alone and in the case of an international student, the feeling of living in a foreign country which makes you miss and also appreciate the beauty of your motherland.

With all these mixed emotions I departed to the UK, with a short yet exciting pit stop in Milan, Italy. While enjoying the world class cuisine of Italy, I had the privilege of joining my Dad for the world’s largest ceramic and tableware exhibition, Cersaie and Tecnargilla.

A glimpse of the beautiful scenery in Bologna, Italy (click to uncover the video) :

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With a rather extended summer break, it was not long before I departed Milan to complete my degree in Southampton.
Despite the repetitive lifestyle, it was good to be back at Southampton given the fact that it has been my home away from home for the past year.

While Southampton in general had no big difference in terms of infrastructure, it was pleasant to see an upgrade to our beloved uni-link buses. Nevertheless, it was always a pleasure to re-unite with the USMC squad and continue making our ever so funny jokes together with the occasional pranks we play on each other. Comparatively however, this year, we’ll have a substantially lower time together with each other due to the time spent in our final year GDP (Group Design Project).

The GDP in fact, have currently turned out to be a part of our lifestyle thanks to the work it requires us to do (I’ve seen my GDP teammates more than I’ve seen myself in the mirror). But all in all it’s an interesting experience, and definitely will be an enjoyable one if teams could pull of their tasks without any major issues. Since it’s just the initial few weeks, we are still in the planning stage with regard to the GDP. But, I can guarantee, that by the start of the New Year, I’ll have a book full of events ready to be shared with you.

Despite everything going on, we hope to keep in mind that it is our final year, and we probably won’t have the time and energy to do the exotic adventures we do right now in the future. Therefore, however much we complain right now about the workload and stress we go through, the University chapter in all of our lives will always have the bookmark on it to reminisce the memories that can never be duplicated.