Friday, August 31, 2007

Happy 50th birthday, Malaysia

It's 31st August which means Malaysia's Independence Day! Most of us wore traditional clothes to uni today and all of us looked colourful in our costumes! During lunch break, we gathered at the Campus Centre for lunch + took pictures!


Grace, me, Adilah


Li Ping, why that kind of look?? (I couldn't stop laughing looking at this pic) =P


Ivie said that she looked retarded in this pic


Okay this is more normal...


Gouri, Chean Ying, me - Chean Ying was eating nasi lemak!!!


The batik shirt Ryan was wearing looks like the PIBG of my secondary school


I realise that both of us have the same smile - look at our cheeks and teeth! =D


Group pic but some people were missing


At lecture theatre - Yu Wan, Yeu Sheng, me

p/s: see that lecturer standing at the background? The lecture had not started that time so we took pic



After 3 hours of lecture, a grand group pic at the Lemon Scented Lawn..see we have the big Malaysian flag!!


This guy claims that he is from Malaysia


WHAT are YOU tring to do??!! Don't hurt my Daniel!! =P


Us near the lake at the halls


While taking pictures, we saw some people coming...we shouted, "Come come take picture!!"


And so..Christina...then Cheng Khoon...then Nadiah and Safiahani



Atuk: "Wait for me!!!!"


This is so colourful!!!

lOOk!



A picture of us during yoga selective...this was taken by our yoga teacher and we were at the lawn outside Monash Sports Centre doing the balancing act =D Can you find where I was?

p/s: By the way, tomorrow is National Day...we are going to wear baju kurung to uni tomorrow! I can't wait to see Ivie wearing cheongsam =P

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Finally...

Exam's over!

And...Merdeka is coming! Which also marks the first anniversary of the loss of my first 6280 phone...yes I know I'm lame =P

Time really flies (I have said this countless time, but I'll use this phrase when I wanna emphasize something). Last year 30/8 midnight was the first and last time I went for a countdown at KL before I came to Australia. At that time, we had just came back from BTN, trial exams were approaching, and that was the period I had to bear some heartache as well...

Anyway, back to the present! It's getting warmer here; but the weather these few days were just weird. It'll be one day cold and the next day warm. The temperature changes very often unlike in Malaysia where the temperature difference is about 1 or 2 degree Celsius. Two days ago it was 25C but today it's about 17C! (No I never check the temperature or weather forecast, I heard this from my friends.) No more wearing thick thick woollen jackets, covering myself in the thick and warm quilt, no more turning on the heater all day, no more shutting the windows...coz it's hot in the room!

I can't wait to go home - it's only 3 months away from now! I can't wait for the gathering with my old college friends (ST & LW, you know what you should do), I can't wait to go yum cha with my KB friends, I can't wait to play games with them at my house =P

Saturday, August 25, 2007

考试“前奏”

窗外的风景:

蓝蓝的天空。
少许的白云
绿绿的草和树,不同层次的深绿、浅青色、褐色,显示了大自然的美色。
阳光温柔地照射大地,它没有像夏天般炎热。一丝丝冬天的凉风吹着。春天即将来临。

今天天气很好。

可是……

我却躲在房间读书。

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Hello, my blog...

Some bits on what I had been doing...

- studying for the coming mid-sem exam in Week 7 (one and a half week from now)
- had my first dissection with Christina last Thursday (we dissected the posterior part of the arm)
- celebrated Ye Chia's birthday last Tuesday night
- doing rural placement group assignment

Not much interesting events happen recently actually.

I just can't wait to go home; there are many things that I wanna do once I get back.

1. Learn how to drive!!
2. Play with the dogs and rabbits (haven't even seen them)
3. Eat eat eat (nasi lemak, roti canai, beef noodles, laksa....the list goes on)
4. Give my gifts I bought here to people I love =P (that means, you, you, you, you.....)
5. Develop photos! Wonder how many photos I will develop...hehe...
6. Yum cha with friends
7. Karaoke! Kinda miss it!!
8. Enjoy holidays fully and not thinking anything about medicine (too bad this is impossible....)

I can't wait for spring too!

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Last Days of 18

One month left.

Time really flies and soon it's gonna be spring! And also something else =P

Friday, August 03, 2007

I am back from rural placement!!

Yes, that's the reason I didn't update my blog for so many days - I went for rural placement at Sale! Sale...quite a name for a place, isn't it? Hehe..

Anyway, it was a five-day rural placement for all first year medical students, starting from 30th July to 3rd August. There were 21 students who were going to Sale and during the pre-placement briefing, each of us was given a return V-Line train ticket to Sale. We had to take the train from Southern Cross station near the city and the time of departure was 7.45am. Cheng Khoon, Ryan, Chau Wang and I decided to stay overnight at College Square on the night before we left (Ryan and Chau Wang were going to Bairnsdale but all four of us were on the same train, Sale is on the way to Bairnsdale). That was my second time staying overnight at Amelene's place. The guys were staying at Sree's place. The next morning (30th July), all four of us woke up early and gathered at 6.50am, then took a tram to Southern Cross station where we saw a lot of our Monash med buddies with luggages. It was a three-hour journey to Sale and I slept all the way there.

Upon reaching, we were greeted by our coordinators who drove us to our accommodation - Sale Motor Village, a caravan park. The cabins were better than I had expected and I was so happy to see that we could cook our own food coz there were stoves, oven and microwave oven! I shared the 2-room cabin with Afrah, Nadiah, Safiahani and Cindy. One room had two double deckers and the other had a king/queen (I can't differentiate between the sizes of 2-persons bed) sized bed which I shared with Nadiah. I had known the three Malay girls earlier before the rural placement and did not know Cindy well then, and it was a good opportunity to know her better. After putting our luggages in our cabin, our coordinators brought us to a nearby shopping centre to buy some groceries for our dinner in the next few days. After lunch, we had a presentation session on disability and part A of PCL session at the Monash Clinical School tutorial room. We were also given the journal booklet to write our journals in during the five days of rural placement. It was about 4pm when we finished our PCL so we headed back to our cabin, took bath and watched TV for a while till 6pm when we walked to La Porchetta for free dinner. I ordered a large pizza (we had $15 limit each and a large pizza cost only $9.90) but I couldn't finish it, so I took the leftovers for lunch the next day.

On 31st July, we had a emergency servises presentation by a volunteer from SES and a sergeant from Sale Police in the morning. After lunch, all of us headed for primary industry visit - some went to Fulham Correctional Centre (it's a prison!), some went to Heyfield and some went to RAAF Base. I was in the group going to Heyfield and we went to three places that afternoon!! It's a nice and interesting experience! First we went to timber mill, then to Heyfield Medical Centre and to a robotic dairy farm (which just means that the cows are milked using robotic machines). It was really a fruitful day!

After coming back from the dairy farm, I rushed to grab a few pieces of biscuits from my cabin and then headed off to Central Gippsland Health Service Hospital for my Emergency Department placement with Cheng Khoon. It's a 2-hour placement from 6 to 8pm and an intern there told us that 'it's such an odd time' to have our placement. There was really nothing much for us to do or observe, except that we got to see a surgical doctor stitching a lady's fingernail to her index finger which was bitten by her horse. The intern also taught us how to see an ECG. To me, the 2 hours that time seemed longer than the usual 2 hours...I couldn't just stand and walk around without any purpose, plus I was hungry and there was no conversation between me and Cheng Khoon. There was nothing to talk about anyway. I tried doing yoga by standing on one foot but got bored of it after a few minutes. Finally two other students came for their placement from 8 to 10pm and we left. I went back to my cabin and had spaghetti for dinner which my other cabin-mates had cooked earlier. They had gone out to watch The Simpsoms movie; so I wrote my journal, took bath, had dinner and watched TV. When they came back, we played UNO and poker till sleeping time. Thanks to Isyak for the cards!


The manager said that the safety jackets are a fashion!



The robotic machine which scans the udder using laser


On 1st August, we had community health service attachment. Danielle and I were attached to the community mental health services. It's a day for home visit. Both of us went to different patient's homes to visit with a Case Manager from the mental health service. Guess what did I realise from the home visit? --------I love the house!! And the area there! I love the trees...the greenery, the nature, the sky...the scenery!

I went back to my cabin in the afternoon and Cindy suggested to go and play the swings. I was quite surprised then, but I went with her anyway. We took some pictures around the caravan park while waiting for dinner time.


The 'spoilt brat' + coke addict who taught me how to climb fences - Cindy

At 6pm, Afrah and Safiahani prepared to go for their ED placement while Nadiah and I cooked macoroni with tuna and macoroni sauce. We ate dinner together with Cindy who just took her bath, and I was glad that she said the macoroni's good =) After dinner, Nadiah left for her placement at 8pm. The other two girls didn't come back for dinner at the time I expected, so it's just me and Cindy in the cabin. We chatted a lot that night while playing cards - from details of her friends in high school to characteristics and personalities of a boyfriend should have! It feels like I have known her for years as we were chatting like good mates. And I super cannot tahan her when she won and made that kind of face! She kept saying, 'I want my coke' and 'I can't wait to go back home' which I would continue 'yeah yeah, back to your room, your bed, your sheets, your pillow and your pig!'


On the 4th day (2nd August), it's the day for hospital visit. Each of us were allocated to different units in Cental Gippsland Health Service hospital. Safiahani and I were allocated to Physiotherapy from 9 to 11am and from 11am to 1pm I had to go to the Day Procedure Unit. It was a good experience to get to know the hospital, what is Physio and DPU about, how to take blood pressure, temperature etc. We had Part B and C of the PCL in the afternoon and after that we're free again. Back to cabin, we watched TV - there were a lot of cartoons going on, cooked dinner (we had chips and wedges, garlic bread and macoroni with spaghetti sauce) while Cindy went for her ED placement. At 8pm, Isyak and Cheng Khoon came to discuss our group assignment after Cindy came back. It took only a few minutes, and then all 7 of us played poker!

Last day (3rd August), we had a brief presentation from two local GPs, wrote the last day of our journal and handed them in for tutor evaluation. After lunch, our coordinators drove us to the railway station - it's time to go back Melbourne!



Yeah!


Overall, it's very relax during rural placement as we had a lot of free time especially at night. Special thanks to MISU members for the messages EVERY night and some mornings to report how's it going and say goodnight. Thanks for the calls too. You guys are so sweeeeeet! =P