Checkpoint

It's been 16 days since I came to London. As I don't have to wake up early tomorrow and rush off to a 9 am lecture, I shall allow myself a bit of contemplation here.
These 16 days have been crazy, but in a good way. There's so much to say, but I feel that I've made the right decision to come to London. So far, I have been enjoying myself, feeling like a kid in a very large candy shop. Even now, although work has started and there are readings to be done, I'm still taking time out to explore a bit.
It was a bit daunting at first, with so many stuff to be settled, but thankfully there's Alvin and Nick around for advice and help.
I also just realised, that apart from that video call on that fateful morning my laptop gave up on me, I have not called home. All correspondence have been through emails and the odd msn conversation.
And somehow I don't seem to feel too much of home longing. Sure I miss the food (paid 4 pounds for average roasted duck rice, which was nice as I was damn hungry and the portions were HK sized), the warmer weather (the wind at the waterloo bridge this week has been damn strong, almost got blown off, i kid you not), and the more reasonable prices, but there's is no overt longing to be back home.
I think I have learnt to accept the fact that you should adapt yourself to your environment. So that means accepting cold sandwiches, slow and inefficient service, high prices for everything, cold weather with blustery winds, the works. After all, I chose to be here.
And over the course of the 16 days of socialising, I can't help but think of something. I administered a lot of DISC tests in my previous job, which made me think about some issues. Those who are unfamiliar with DISC, it's a personality test which allows you to see what is your dominant personality, with D standing for dominant, I for influencing (ie good with people), S for steadiness, and C for conscientiousness.
I realised that, when faced with different situations, we cherry pick the best personality that will best deal with the situation and assume that persona. For example, even though you may be a introverted person, when it is during orientation, you attempt to be more sociable to interact with the group. Sure, it may not be very effective, but you consciously decided that a more extroverted and friendly persona is better for orientation, and assumed this persona.
Which leads me to think that the only difference between people like that and the teens that I counselled in my previous job is that the teens do not know how to interchange their personalities like that. Thus, in a sense, "maturity" is merely knowing what kind of persona to assume in what kind of situation.
Just a random thought from me.