After 4.5 years…
Finally, the day arrived.. when I presented my work.
The day of… Oral Defence!!!

Phew, I really tried my best to impress the audience and the professors.
In the end… thank God I passed!!!
“It was more like a show than an Oral Defence”, an examiner commented.
Well, even the closed door session was a session of laughter!! :P :P :P

Took photos with my brothers in arms.
Really, PhD life is more bearable when you know others who share the same hardship like you.

Dinner treat from my PhD supervisor!
Super yummy food and I was the one clearing the food ~ ~ ~ ~

“Jefri, what do you do in your work?” a professor asked during dinner.
“I scrubbed and mopped the floor.”

Yes, I am serious. Scrubbing the floor is my bread and butter.
:P :P :P

Signed a 6-month contract as a Project Officer with NTU 6 months ago.
So, yesterday was my last day of working.
Since it was the last day, I took photos with them as keepsake.

  

   

 

These are my brothers and sisters in arms.
I previously blogged about the importance of network in doing graduate study.
Yup, these people are of great emotional and technical support as I conducted experiments after experiments.

  

  

Farewell lunch with my colleagues. A lot of Chinese food.
Pretty oily but we compensated it by taking fruits. Hopefully the fruits will handle the oil problems  

A farewell card from my colleagues.

Well, farewell is not that farewell, I should say.
Once in a while I will drop by NTU and say hi to them.
For instance, next Monday I will attend an Oral Defense of a PhD friend.

A new chapter of life is coming soon!!! ~ ~ ~

Food. Food. FREEEEEE food.
This is how my school gave a treat to the students.
Well, initially the banquet was intended for the faculty and admin staff.
Of course, they could not finish the food.
The students (including me) were there to scavenge clear up the extra food.

  

  

Well, a treat on Valentine Day.

The faculty and students were gossiping discussing over food.
Yay!!!

~ ~ ~ YYYYEEEEESSSSHHH! ~ ~ ~
Was invited to a group meeting of another lab.
They had pizza and snacks throughout the presentation.

  

 

Toward the end of the meeting, they still could not finish the food.
Sooooooo…. the food went to me!
It was my dinner yesterday, breakfast+lunch today!
Niiiiicceee! Swweeeeettttt!

Last night my group had a combined dinner with another group.
We all went to Chinatown and enjoyed the spicy food there.

The venue

  

  

  

Fantastic dinner. Spicy and oily. Hence, I did not take them much. I want to build muscle, that’s why.

 

They kept refilling their beer and cheering. I guess they finished at least 20 bottles of beer.

 

The hungry people last night.
Well, I have a feeling that this is the last group dinner I can join them….

Finally, the conference ended with a dinner banquet! It was held at Traders Hotel near Orchard Road.
I was happy and sad: happy for the free food and sad because there will be no more free food   

 

Hungry students and professors. The visit to Garden by the Bay really drained our energy.

 

A surprise Lion Dance performance to start the banquet!

A welcome speech by Prof. Lee Soo Ying.

Some instrumental music accompanying our dinner.

  

  

 

Great food!! Well, luckily I sat with my guy friends so we all unleashed our gluttony. Oops.

  

I didn’t win any award. Yet, I was happy for my friends who did a wonderful in making great posters.
Well, time to return to reality, Jefri!~~~

On the fourth day of the conference (last Wednesday) we went to Garden by the Bay in the afternoon.
It was my second time there, the first being outing with the bookstore ministry people last year.
It was also my first time visiting Cloud Forest and Flower Dome.

The school provided free ticket to enter into these two places.

First thing that greeted me inside Cloud Forest

  

  

I really admired the layout and the plants there.

It is pretty educational too. In short, we should be careful with Global Warming.

My re-entry stamp into Cloud Forest.

  

  

  

Plants and plants everywhere. I can live among the plants forever!

  

  

Pretty educational too

The circle stamp is re-entry stamp into the Forest Dome.

Saw a couple taking a wedding photo shoot.
Maybe I should do the same in the future??   

The last day of conference.
Somehow the day was full of happening. I can’t possibly put them all into a single post.
There are three parts. So this is the first post.

  

  

Lunch session before the last two plenary sessions.
As usual, I could not each much lunch as my tummy was still full from coffee break meals.
Also, I took photos of the names of the food too, in case friends on FB ask me what food it is  
Do look forward to the next posts, ok?

Well, I was more serious on day 3 of conference.
That is, I really went into lecture theatre and listened to the presentation.
I should say I did not understand all the content of presentation.
But at least, I managed to ask questions.
I really think asking question is a way to respect the presenter. It shows I am not asleep when he/she speaks

  

  

  

  

Needless to say, the highlight of the conference is not the content of scientific knowledge.
It is the food.
I really ate plenty mango yesterday!  
Anyway, tomorrow will be the final day with the best activity and food. Yay!

A big event in my school.
It’s a gathering of spectroscopists, people who often stay in the dark room  working with laser under cold air con.
That includes me too, obviously.
In case you are wondering why I start with day 2 instead of day 1, it is because day 1 was on Sunday and on Sunday I attended another event.
Well, to be expected, I was there mainly for the food. Free and nice food. Yes!

  

Hungry spectroscopists mingling over coffee break.

 

Here are the sponsors who are trying to make sales. They offer latest photonic products.

    

Seem cool, don’t they? Nah, I wasn’t there at all. I was busy doing experiments.

  

  

  

  

Abundance of food!!!! Coffee break, lunch and dinner!

 

They said the beer was nice. I did not take it, though.

My poster and me. I was like salesman too, telling at least 5 people how good my project was.
Day 3 and day 4 of the conference are coming!