Winter Break '10

so over the last 12 months i have subjected myself to lazy blogging through microblogging site twitter and tumblr. oh how many times have i come back to blogger and vow to change?

this trip to Kuching has undoubtedly made me think about certain things which i am dying to write about. too many that i do not know if i will have the time.

know though, that i will be back soon!

smile

yes, i'll admit it once again. i am a lousy blogger. just take a look at when my last post was -  over a month ago!

 I didnt sleep much last night because of a radiology test we had on at 9am this morning. Dr Koong gave us over 10 chapters for us to read - over 300 pages in all! lucky we had some hardworking seniors who collated the notes and compressed everything into 105 pages. Even then, it didnt do much to boost my mood for study. i am currently in my 4th week of uni, but for most of the other collegians, the journey into 2nd semester has just begun. little work, and a lot of play for them at the moment.

after numerous episodes of napping, studying, napping and studying again throughout the night, the fire alarm rang. it was a drill of course. college administration takes joy in waking students up in the wee hours of the morning. at 6.30am, i was one of the crazy few who were awake, not to mention one of the few who managed a "good morning!" with a smile :)

today in removable pros we finished the base and rim stage of denture-making. ours looks like the pink block in the background at the moment. it's hard to imagine how i'm going to place all those teeth in the correct positions.

on our way back from lunch, we saw this HUGE cat on the roof. Yuqin and Noe were like, "so uglyyyyy!" but me and Jin went to say hi. haha. It just stared at us, without even a hint of a smile on it's face. How i envy the life of a cat. No worries about the deadlines we have to meet, making our amateur dentures, and that never-ending drilling and filling of teeth. all they do is sunbathe on roofs, enjoying the warmth of the winter sun.



well it's 10pm. i'll have to end it here. got to catch up on some sleep. goodnight!

Singapore!

I just got back from Orchard and Yuqin's place. Took some pictures in town but they're in my old camera. will upload them later. Yuqin has the sweetest dog and the laziest cat! haha. spent some time in her room looking at pics before heading home.

walking out of the airport this morning, i could feel the humidity and the heat almost instantly. even in the early hours of the day when the sun had barely risen. we touched down in singapore at about 6am this morning. the Jetstar flight was bearable, although i couldn't sleep properly. Noe's parents came to pick us up, and we had Macker's for brekkie (well now that i'm back in Asia, we had McD for breakfast. haha) Then me and Noe went back and slept the morning away.

yesterday was a race against time to finish packing up my room. it was very wise of me to go back into the city that afternoon to look for a camera. i had wanted a new one so that i could take pictures when i landed in Singapore but i still wasnt sure which one i should get. i ended up not getting a camera so i might as well have stayed home to pack. here's how the top floor of my block looked like:
The view from my room door. Sarah didnt close her door when she moved out so moved all my stuff into her room. i seriously cannot imagine packing in my small room.

Oops. how did i manage to collect this much stuff? :S

Even used the heater to dry my handwashed clothes overnight. It didnt work and so i resorted to using the dryer. Sheesh. Beats the purpose of handwashing them in the first place!

break!

yes, the studying has finally come to an end, and now it is time for a well-earned break.

I am currently in the midst of packing my room and waiting for my final load of laundry to be done. my clothes are mostly still unpacked, and my desk is a complete mess. bits and pieces lie here and there -- i have no idea how i accumulated so many things! i must somehow find a way to get rid of them.

I had my last paper yesterday morning. dental microbiology and immunology. with 33 lectures in total containing all the mumbo jumbo of bacteria, fungi and virus names, their diseases, their vaccines, and all the names of the molecules and cells involved in immunology (think of abbreviations like ADCC, CDK, CMI, APC, IL-1, IL-2, TNF, IF, TCR, BCR, NK etc etc), i wasnt planning to sleep at all. it was my last paper and i might as well go all the way right? read on.

2am - we are all in the college library, burning the midnight oil wayyyy past midnight. Russell finally gets up and says he is going to bed after nodding of at the table for about 10 minutes. He tells me to wake him up at 4.30am.

4.30am - i am sleepy. i just need to go through for a 2nd time my 2nd part of notes. i wake Russell up and go down to brush my teeth

4.35am - i call him a SECOND time. "Don't go back to sleep yah! i'm going to sleep. make sure i'm awake by 6!" i say. "Mmmmm!" was the reply. no words -.-

6am - my phone alarm rings. i hit snooze.

6.09am - my snooze alarm rings. i switch it off and lie in bed a while.

8.42am - i wake up, squint at my phone and SPRANG out of bed. my paper was at 9am. Russ was still in bed. Surprise, surprise.

i didnt even brush my teeth. i grabbed whatever clothes i could find and put them on. gathered my notes (goodness knows why. i had no time to go through them again) and ran out of college. Lucky i live across the road from uni.

I was just in time to walk in with everyone else and sit down at my table. Phew. Thank God i woke up just in time! any later, and i would have had a very stressful winter break. THANK YOU GOD!

Ants in my ears

I remember years ago when i was young, i made a general visit to the doctor's. For some reason that I can't remember, he decided to have a peek into my ears, with a whatever-you-call-it-scope. He looked at me after switching off his instrument and said,
"You have ants in your ears!"
He wore a smirk, and I looked up at him, trying to read his expression. Was he kidding? In my childish mind i somehow found it insulting. Ants in my ears! He didnt say my younger sister had them! I tried to picture it. Ants walking among ear was in an unknown world. Or maybe they got stuck? And why wasn't the doctor doing anything to get them out??

But now, i'm wondering where all that wax would come from. And i suppose all the docotr could see was my tympanic membrane/eardrum at the end of the tunnel that is my auditory canal? too bad we're only studying anatomy and not physiology this year. or maybe that's a good thing. haha ;)

Study period has been having it's usual effects on my lately. Just the other day i saw the superior and inferior colliculi of the brain on an orange. And what about willing my prefrontal cortex to do a good job and get me motivated for study?
Oh, and i also saw the false and true vocal cords on my room door. oh, the insanity!

Happy studying and good luck in exams :)

P.S. microbiology is going so slowly! Do they really expect us to know streptococcusmutans-staphylococcusaureus-porphynomonasgingivalis-clostridiumtetani-bacillusanthracis-supercallifragelisticespiallidocious and their characteristics and functions and diseases all by heart?!

Caught Red-Handed

We go through many firsts in life: first words, first steps, first crush, first kiss, first time away from home, first rollercoaster ride (and i mean emotionally and literally) ...

Today was the first time i got caught by aussie police, and i was on a bike, not in a car! Not supercool drifting along the highways of WA, or speeding in a convertible with the wind in my hair, enjoying the thrill of the moment.
No. I was just trailing behind LAZILY, at walking pace, behind Yuqin and JinJin after our last lab session of the semester. We were on our way back to college and we weren't even on the main road. Can you guess what my offense was?

I remember many a time when i was leaving college grounds without a helmet, i would be alert, looking out for police cars. And one time i DID spot one, but i was wearing a helmet, looking like i had a tortoise sitting on my head. Hah. I was thinking. You can't get me :)

But today I wasn't the one laughing. I had already had a bad session, when the compound on my special tray broke within the last 5 minutes of the session. Anatomy results were out online. I had yet to check it, but i had a feeling i failed. And now, when i least expected it, two police riders had to come by in their fluorescent green vests proudly scouting those tortoise-shell helmets with letters that plainly spelled out POLICE.
DARN.

"Do you have any ID on you? Drivers licence?"

No, i thought. That's why i am riding! (and without a helmet, i might add ;)

They saw my student ID conveniently dangling from the side of my pants. I had it attached to one of those gadgets that let you pull it out and bleep it against the sensors that let us into our labs and locker rooms.
Thank God (and my lucky stars) that they didnt charge me! It was AUD50 for the offense, and it was double demerits this weekend.
Phew. From now on i guess i have to settle with the tortoise on my head.

P.S i passed anatomy! and it wasn't a borderline pass! :) HAPPINESS!

"It's 12am. I'm sorry, but we have a plan"

And so the story goes every time a person in college officially turns year older than they were a few seconds before. Some would hope for some cake and well-wishes, but here you can bet that it's not the only thing you're going to get.

Water comes down from the balcony above, and eggs are pelleted. The others back away he is showered with flour. Caked. He is blindfolded and escorted to the JCR where a real, (smaller) albeit tastier cake awaits.

...But not before the 21 shots of wasabe/chilli/honey/cough syrup/moscato/pepper/soy sauce cocktails.

I can only say that i'm glad i'm a girl, and that Noe's and Yuqin's birthdays were celebrated in CLEAN classier style (waiting for pictures!)

Happy 21st to Gary,
and Happy 17th to cousin Annie. Hope you have an awesome day :)