My Blog

Summer wrap up and a beginning of a new year..

Summer this year..well, I guess the best way to describe it is to say that it was certainly interesting and not boring :p. It wasn't the best summer ever but it certainly wasn't horrible either. The events that occured were definite milestones for me as I suppose the experiences have taught and changed me somewhat for the better. No need to go into what the happenings were, not much point dwelling on them really. I've moved on to focus on bigger and better things, particularly with regards to passing the coming year.

If you don't know by now, I'm back in Cork to begin a whole new year. Its only the first week in and already am feeling slightly overwhelmed. Looking at the timetable this year, I know I'm in for a tough yet interesting time. On a positive note, I'm so glad that I made it into second year, considering the amount of ppl that failed the summer exams. I was super shocked to find out that 50 ppl had failed the first year exams and had to retake the exams and that out of that 50, 25 failed and had to repeat first year. So yea, major changes in my classes...we have shrunk in number from 130 to about a hundred.

But work aside, I am glad to be back in Cork. I forgot how much I actually do like this place. I know I whine and moan bout how bad the food is here, how disorganised everything is but minus all of that, it really isn't a bad place to study in. Plus, I'm no longer a fresher, a major bonus.

Oh, speaking of freshers, Jing and I (in case I didn't mention it before, I'm now living with Jing and Jess T) along with the usual suspects i.e. Vanessa, Brandon etc went down to Fast Eddies last night to check out the new talent aka the First years ;). The first years had gone on a mystery tour (I did that last year as well btw) and were going to Fast Eddies after. I mean, that wasn't the only reason why we decided to go...one, we didn't have class the next day and two, we wanted to catch up with everyone in our year. It ended up being a pretty good night as we got to meet some of the first year North Americans ( I think they were mostly Canadian except for this one guy from California). Oh, and I totally forgot to mention, there's a first year from KK too. His name is Hui and he's Doctor Heng's son. So yea, the Sabah clan is slowly growing...woohoo! :)

Anyway...I should probably stop here for the night. I have a BIG day tomorrow...9am to 2pm non stop *sigh*

Finally back home

So after 9 months of being in the land of leprechauns and guinness, I finally have made my way back home. I can't tell you how good it is to be back. Oh and yea..sorry for the late blog..I have been back for more than 2 weeks now. The only connection to the net I have at home is dial-up (and we all know how annoying that can be), so have now resorted to heading out to coffee bean to sponge of their Wi-fi.

Its been great catching up with friends and family. So much has changed during the 9 months I've been away. KK has developed tons and my friends, they've grown even more. I suppose I have changed too, but its kinda hard to see the differences in yourself you know? Better let someone else point it out for you :p

I've also been stuffing my face with food!!! Oh God, you don't know how much I missed food back in KK. SO SO SO much better. Oh, which reminds me, I should probably start hittin the gym soon. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably explode with all this food I'm consuming.

Basically, life right now couldn't get any better than this :D

5 more days till home

So yea...if you read my previous blog you'd probably know that I am currently in London and am staying with Jen and her fam. I didn't realise it at the time but yea, my timing was slightly off when I arrived because all 3 of my cousins were and still are having exams. No matter, it was good to do some shopping (and a lot more window shopping :p!) and just do nothing for the first time in months.

Anywho..Jen has her last exam today. So, I'm off to Cambridge tomorrow to celebrate the end of exams and her last year of uni with her :). I haven't partied in Cambridge before so it should be an interesting experience..hehe. And then we'll head back to her parents' place on thurs for Ben's (her lil bro) birthday and then I'm off! :) Off to begin the second leg of my journey home.....

If you may be able to tell, I'm super excited bout going home. :D Its been a long time and yea....I miss home desperately.

First year wrap up and headin home...

So my first year of med school has come to an end. I know I've said this a gazillion times before but time definitely has flown by. Its been a good year, full of laughter, silliness :p, disappointments and frustration. I pulled through this year stronger and more determined than ever to finish :). In the words of my fellow meds, I'm 20% a doctor now...:D.

On a sad note, one of my dearest meds is leaving us. Vicky (or dearly called 5'12") got a place into med school at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. I am super excited and happy for her that she finally got what she wanted but am super sad to see her go :(. Hopefully, I'll be able to make my way down to Vancouver one day to visit. I'm really goin to miss her. For pictures of Vicky, just look through my photos, she's the unusually tall Asian girl..definitely not hard to miss.

Anyway, on a happier note, finals finished last wed. So like typical meds, we wrapped up the year in STYLE :D. A class party was held on the night of the last exam. It was good to catch up with everyone (we all became hermits during the exam period) and say goodbye for the summer. Its going to be so weird not seeing everyone for the next three or four months, especially since I've seen everyone everyday for the past 9 months. But, meh, there's always bebo and facebook :p.

The next night we had pictionary and sangria night. As expected it got super loud and maybe slightly rowdy..hehe. The following day it was Scott's birthday bbq. It was awesome to chill and relax with 'the gang' (when I mean gang here I mean the usual crowd of ppl I hang out with aka the Canadians) before we all scatter for the summer. As with all of our parties, there was good food, good alcohol and best of all, excellent company :).

On Saturday, I finally made my way down to the Jameson distillery. We went on the heritage tour where they described to us how whiskey (particularly Irish whiskey) is made. I now know the difference between bourbon, scotch and Irish whiskey..hehe....more random facts for me to spout out :p. We finished the tour with a complimentary glass of Irish whiskey and I gotta say, I prefer it much much better to scottish or american whiskey. To all my fellow whiskey drinkers out there, seriously, switch to Irish whiskey...way smoother than the other two. :)

The next few days will be filled with packing and moving. I can't believe I'm leaving Cork in 3 days...am SO excited. I'll be flying down to London first and will be staying there until the 15th of June. And then..its homeward bound!!! :) To all my KK and KL friends, get ready to PARTY your arses off! Can't wait to see all of you!!! :D

I am SOOOOOO SICKKK of STUDYINGGGG.............

I think the title says it all....... :p

Viva O Portugaallll!!!!

The trip to Portugal and Spain was AMAZING, especially the time spent in Portugal. We flew down to the Algarve in Portugal, which is further down south and bunked down in the small town of Albufeira, located right at the very southern tip of the Algarve. LOVED the place so so much..good and cheap food, good and extremely cheap liquor (alcohol was even cheaper than water!) and the best weather ever! :) I definitely got the vacation I needed.

The people there were super nice too. Met some really cool locals. And thanks to them (and Vicky's Portugal socks!) we got into this really swanky club for free! There are tons of other stories throughout the trip but I think I'll save them for when I see you guys if you're interested..hehe..;). Anyway, some of the pictures have been put up under my profile so feel free to peruse...

Anyway, it was really hard to leave and I would absolutely love to go back there again. But now, and as much as I am dreading it, its back to hitting the books again for the finals. Just two more months and I'll be back home..yay!! :)

Portugal Sunshine in T minus 8 hours...

Exams came and went. It was the WEEK FROM HELL. Some of you copped it from me and I apologise. I was in a really bad place last week and was not myself. But thanks to everyone for putting up with me. Let's hope it was worth that and I actually do pass those damn exams ....

Anyway, this past weekend has been AMAZING. I feel like I've never been this relaxed in the longest time. Friday night was absolutely crazy and an ABSOLUTE BLAST! :) Everyone came out and let loose and partied hard! All the stress and tension build up over the past one month just disappeared that night. Yes, I did get super trashed but hey, you wouldn't expect anything less of me right? hehe

The next few days after we more mellow as we were all busy getting ready for the trip to Albufeira (Portugal) and Madrid. I've been looking forward to this all month too. Its going to be amazing! There's six of us going : Me, Jess, Jen, Jing, Vicky and Hakan (yes, the one lone guy in the group! ;p). Its still going to be so so so good though! :) And we're leaving in 8 hours..woohoo!!!!

Will definitely try and put some pics up when I get back. Till then, see you on Sunday! :D

A little break from Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue

Okay...the title is so not what I'm spouting in my post today. It was just the last thing I was reading in my FM1003 Metabolism and gastro-intestinal notes so its kind of still lingering in my mind atm....

So yea, exam prep has been going super hardcore. I've more or less fallen into a routine now...up by 11, have brunch and coffee (I'm addicted to it, need it to kickstart those brain cells), start studying by 1, break for dinner at bout 6:30 to 7, start again at 9 and finish up at bout 2:30am. It is super unhealthy I know but yea, you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm probably not the best person to be around right now as I'm just edgy and moody as all hell. And yes, I know I look like crap (don't need that pointed out to me at all!), my hair all flat and lifeluster, horrible bags under the eyes, and definitely sloppy clothes..basically, I don't really care what I look like right now.

Its only 2 more weeks before all of this is over...that's what is keeping me goin. Oh, and yes, the fact that I don't want to fail :p. LOL..all the med peeps have been going slightly nutty. My fav quotes have been " WE ARE GOING TO GET SO DRUNK AFTER THIS WEEK FROM HELL...LIKE BLACK-OUT DRUNK", " I NEED TO DANCE NOW!" and the best was "YOU'RE NOT WEARING ANY PANTS! I'VE HAD 7 SHOTS OF ESPRESSO! (You go Billy! hehe :) ).

That huge fishbowl in SOHO is definitely calling to me right now. 25 euros fishbowl of blue curacao, vodka, malibu and lemonade over ice with pineapple and sparklers! I think I deserve it after these past few weeks don't you? ;)

Past, Present and Future

Someone dear to me the other day posed two very interesting questions: Why is it so difficult to let go of the past? Why is it so hard just to forget? Hmm...that definitely got me thinking: why do we ultimately agonise over and over what has already happenned?

Well, after much reflection (figured this was a better way of procrastination then looking through the Victoria Secret online catalogue over and over again, oohing and aahing over clothes I just can't afford right now! :p), I reckon its because the past is very much a part of who you are now. It defines you in a way, shaped and moulded you into the person you are right now and possibly for the future. I'm not going to lie, there have been a gazillion times where I've looked back and thought.."if only I had done that then instead of this "or "why did I do that? That was just ever so slightly dumb". But yea, at the end of the day, one: there's no point worrying bout it, its been done, and two: yea, huge learning curve right there..must REMEMBER never to repeat that same mistake.

And yet, there are times, where I find myself doing the same thing over and over again, sometimes without even realising it and others, being fully aware of it but still choosing to do it anyway. That pattern baffles me..if you already know the outcome of the situation, why do you set yourself up to be disappointed again? I guess it all boils down to faith and hope, hope that things this time round will be different. Yea, underneath the pessimism or as I like to call it: the realism, lies the eternal optimist. Regardless of how dire the situation is, a happy outcome is bound to eventually appear...right??

Anyhow, try as you may to dissociate the past from the present and the future, its utterly impossible to do. Might as well accept the fact that regrets and hope define who you are as a person, flawed yet somehow perfect human being.

Procrastination break

Hmm...just finished reading two lectures on gastointestinal physiology. Pretty intense stuf..my brain kept on whining, telling me to stop torturing myself and stop for the night and after about 2 hours, yea, decided to give in.

So, I figured I'd write a blog to kind of wind down for the night..to try and temporarily forget about the secretion of gastric acid by the oxyntic cells of the stomach and how our stomach somehow manages to protect itself from being eaten by the acid (in normal situations). Before I started doing this, I skimmed through Jen's blog. Jen, your blogs makes my blogs look super shallow (even without hers as a comparison, I know its superficial! :p). My cousin, the philosopher...kudos definitely go to you hun :).

Anyway, after the birthday weekend, partying activities have somewhat calmed down. I did celebrate CNY with a dumpling night at Jing's but that itself was quiet. Figured it was time for me to buckle down and get to work anyway. We were just recently told that we have 3 big assessments in the last week of March..all in the one week! How brutal is that? Ppl are trying to get it changed and all but I seriously doubt that will happen.

What else is new? Aside from work, the house-hunting panic begins once again. Whoa, has it been a year already since I applied for med school? Damn...the thought just crossed my mind. So the whole thing begins again, but this time, I have ppl to live with (Jess T and Jing) instead of roughing it alone :p. Can't wait...its going to be so so awesome :). Oh, and yea, we've started to plan easter break trips. Am dying to go to Barcelona but the flights are super expensive from here. May forego it this year and head over to Dublin and Galway instead. Afterall, I should probably explore the place I'll be calling home for the next 4 and a half years...:p. But we'll see how it goes..am still trying to swing the Barcelona trip..I want sun damnit..sun! :(

Right...I'm definitely rambling pointlessly now...will update soon.