Hello, welcome back to the podcast. This is Sienna. How's everyone doing? As I'm recording this, it's a beautiful morning here in Oxford.

Today’s Thursday. I moved into my new accommodation in Oxford on Monday. It felt like such a long trek because I had to take a 12-hour flight from Guangzhou to London first. Normally, I would go straight home to London, but now I’m moving cities, so I had to take the train to my friend’s place first, where I left all my luggage back in June. Then I called a taxi because I had too much stuff — four suitcases, some bags, my ukulele, and my violin. It was most convenient to get a car to drive me from doorstep to doorstep.

There was a really nice, sweet girl at the reception. She saw that I was struggling to move all my things to my room by myself, so she helped me. She’s Chinese as well, and later we became friends. We’ve been hanging out every single day since then. Actually, in about an hour, we’re going to Oxford’s most signature landmark — the big round library. I don’t know how to pronounce the name, and I don’t remember it exactly, but we’re going there and will probably have a mini study session for two hours. After that, I’ll be meeting up with my friend for brunch.

It still feels so unreal that I’ve now moved to Oxford and have to start my new life here — rebuilding my life, my social circles, everything from scratch. When the taxi started driving out of London, it made me feel so surreal. I had a lot of thoughts, because London is a place I lived in for three years. I knew every bit of the city so well, especially the area I was living in. I memorised all the tube stations and all the bridges over the Thames River. I memorised all the tube lines. I knew exactly where I was going. I was so familiar with my surroundings and had built such a solid social circle there. I had many friends in London and felt so comfortable there.

But now, as I said, I’m moving out. I’m no longer a Londoner, and I have to start a new life elsewhere. It always makes me feel a bit emotional and unsure how to feel when I move, especially because I don’t move cities often. The last time I moved was when I moved from China to London for my undergraduate degree.

I’ve noticed how different London and Oxford are. I lived in the central area of London — very central, very touristy. I used to live right opposite Big Ben and just a five-minute walk from the river. It was really busy and so convenient. I could get everywhere very quickly. Oxford, on the other hand, is so much smaller. You can basically walk everywhere. From my accommodation to the city centre is about a 10–15 minute walk. There’s no tube here. A lot of people have bikes. I don’t know if I’ll get one — they do have buses, but I prefer walking. I’m a walk girly.

My room here in Oxford is really nice too. It’s big and spacious compared to my old room. At least I have a double bed now. I lived with a really small single bed for almost three years of undergrad, so I’m happy to have a bigger bed now. I also have a big desk. My old desk used to be really narrow — if I put my laptop on it, I couldn’t put my notebook below it in a straight line. Now I can. There’s a lot of space, including plenty of storage.

I’ve settled in pretty well now. I printed some pictures to decorate my room. I bought a reed diffuser because I really like having a nice scent in my room. I got myself my favourite matcha hojicha honey tea and coffee. I even bought a matcha latte from Oatly — I didn’t know they made that, so that was a nice surprise.

I used to think I had lost the thirst for making new friends and new connections as I got older. I remember that I used to be so social and extroverted. Three years ago, when I was about to start university, everyone was so social, and I was literally talking to people in the dinner queue, in the lift queue, even inside the lift. I would see people in the laundry room and start talking to them. I would see people in the canteen and sit next to them and start a conversation. I was so eager to make new friends then.

If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said I had definitely lost that now because I already have friends and don’t crave making more. But it turns out that especially when you’ve just moved to a new city, deep down you still long for connections. I think I’m pretty social here. I’m actively making plans, meeting friends, and I’m excited to see how the term goes when it starts.

We have a mass induction course next week, but the term officially starts in two weeks. That’s quite far away anyway.

The gist of this episode is to show you my bucket list for these two years of my master’s at Oxford. I made a bucket list for my undergraduate journey, and I really lived by it. Back in June or July, I revisited that bucket list and, surprisingly, I had ticked off about 70% of the things on it — places I wanted to travel, experiences I wanted to try. I think that’s pretty cool.

I don’t have a long list this time, just some things I hope to try or do in the next two years.

1. Get a summer internship and a job.

This is the most important one. Even though I’m doing an MPhil — Master of Philosophy — in Economics, I don’t plan to do a PhD or DPhil afterwards. I just can’t see myself in academia for that long. These two years are as far as I want to go. So I should probably start now and apply for summer internships.

Job applications are such a pain because I’ve experienced them. Two years ago, when I was looking for my summer internship in my penultimate summer, I was getting three rejection emails every single day for a week. There are so many rounds of job applications: you have to do a cover letter, a CV, and then an online test that I could never pass.

I failed the online tests so much that it got to a point where I didn’t know if I was stupid or something because they were just math or logic games I could never pass. After the online test, there’s a video interview, which is ridiculous because you have to talk to yourself for two minutes straight. You get a minute to prepare and then answer for two or three minutes, with probably no chance to re-record.

After that, there’s a day-long assessment centre with group interviews, individual interviews, and case studies. It’s a lot of pain, and I don’t want to go through it again, but I have to. If I don’t get an internship and a return offer, I’ll have to go through the same suffering again next year.

Professional experience and job applications are definitely my main priority for now.