Yesterday, I saw a flock of five white egrets flying by just as I started my morning walk towards the bus stop. They glided by with an elegance only we could dream of but could never recreate.
If this was to be a start of the months ahead, what a delightful start it is! Our new PHD students are arriving and our orientation program with them will begin on 7 July. They will start their preparatory classes soon. We are again privileged to be invited to welcome them to our library and to introduce them to our many resources and services.
I get all warm and fuzzy when it comes to the PHDs. They are a nice, small, cozy group. When I arrive for their welcome lunch, I see bright, eager faces mingling with the seniors and lecturers. They ask lots of questions and are a friendly lot. When I start my orientation talk with them, all eyes would be focused on what I have to say and what appears on the screen. Even after a sumptuous lunch, they do not nod off. Don’t you just love them?
But still, the proof of the pudding is when we start connecting when we meet up to discuss how to effectively do literature searches. As we continue with follow-up sessions, we start getting to know each other better. I find myself learning a whole lot from them. You can’t beat a one-to-one when it comes to learning.
Welcome, PHDs. And thanks!
July 7, 2008 at 11:51 am
Talking about birds in NUS, couple of weeks back I saw 4 white yellow-crested cockatoos in the tree at E3A’s carpark..
July 7, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Really? I havent seen these squawkers for a long while now. I call them squawkers because they are such a noisy bunch. Did you know we used to have beautiful blue kingfishers at the patch of land that was between Guild House and BIZ1? I saw a big brown rabbit there too. Well, they are all gone now because the new Alumni House is being built there.
July 8, 2008 at 9:55 am
Yep, they were there alright! I was a student in NTU and just outside my hall window there was a tree where all kinds of birds – kingfishers, parakeets.. – would perch when it rained. But then they cut the tree down
Anyway, I enjoy reading your blog!
July 8, 2008 at 10:03 am
What we sacrifice for the sake of development! Oh yeah, today I saw 2 cats – one a muddy mix of black and brown and the other white with brown and black patches. They were playing at the back of LT14. When you walk along the back path from Central Library to School of Computing, you will see them.