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 :)

Heaven, I'm in Heaven!

Many a time we have played the game Angels and Mortals, and here in college it is a week long affair of notes of well wishes, chocolates, sweets and plushies.
I wasnt so hyped up about the game myself - i hardly even knew my mortal, but one night i went to his room and left a sachet of Chocolate Mudcake latte with a note saying to save it for one of those last minute assignments. My angel was inactive until about the 4th day, when surprise, surprise, i saw a poem pinned on my room door about Angels.

And i thought that would be the end of me hearing from him. But then the next night there was yet another poem, printed out, about Dreams, and holding on to them, AND a bar of Cadbury milk chocolate! Hmmm... this Angel is a pretty good one, i thought. And thoughts of who it could possibly be flew through my mind, must be an angmoh, hahaha ^^

Then the next rainy, stormy night, a poem about the Rain appeared. And i just missed him as he ran down my block staircase. Darn it, i thought. I was so close to finding out who it was!

The last night of the game rolled along, and i met Deb as i was coming back from Currie from Yuqin's surprise. We went to her room and talked, and she ended up persuading me to stay and help her to do something for her mortal, who she hadnt done anything for at all -_-
Yes, being the good cousin i am, i stayed, and ended up making something for my mortal too. Then we went walking around college in the cold, pasting coloured notes on our respective mortal's walls. At 3 in the morning!

Needless to say, i went to bed too late to be able to wake up for class the next morning. No matter though. Anything is more exciting than lectures, although i cant afford to do that often.

warm fuzzies around a second chocolate bar. Is he trying to fatten me up?

P.S. My angel turned out to be TJ!

Bonjour

... is just about the only french word i can say and spell out correctly. and french was the theme for last night's international formal dinner (IFD). Year after year our dining hall is filled with Hawaiian hula girls, Indian candlelight and Chinese cheongsams, and last night was no different from that it was filled with all things french. From a chopstick Eiffel tower to the Moulin Rouge windmill to the Arc de Triomphe - i bid Choops a job well done.

ooh la la!

I couldn't help being late for Mass - since the change of having formal dinners from saturdays to weekdays means i only have half an hour to run/jog/cycle back, shower to rid myself of the smell of dental masks, gloves and probably some splatter of frasoco-caries water, dry my hair and get myself made-up. there's only so much you can ask for from a girl. And late as i was, i sauntered down to the chapel (after feeling a little like a third wheel in Kris' room), only to find in the JCR two girls making last-minute masks. I chose to hang around and wait for the church-goers to pass by so i could drift along with the crowd. After all, I was already 40 minutes late. But when they said they wanted to go back to their room to get some masking tape (excuse the pun) i thought i should head down to the chapel. The music that drifted out in the night air told me that Holy Communion hadnt even started -.- So in i went and joined the choir, later than i had hoped.

Pre-drinks of champagne got me a little high, though i only had one drink before. I think it was the mood of having the week over and done, and the thought of exams looming was pushed out of my mind for the evening. How else could i have enjoyed the night?

The performances were entertaining - some of which made us get up to dance and make a train that travelled the periphery of the room, much to the annoyance of Brother Rob. There were loooong asian-ang moh Yam Sengs (YAAAAAAAAAAA *breathes* AAAAAAAAAAAA *breathes* AAAAAAAAAAA *breathes* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM *breathes* SENG!) -- apparently yet another annoyance factor for by the third time, Pauline was going around asking everyone to stop, although for some, telling one to stop would spur them on even more, and when the fourth yam seng was evidently in the midst of starting, the DJs hit the play button (purposefully or not, i do not know). Most of the dining hall flocked to the stage and the dancefloor, and i don't know which was worse for him -- the dancing or the yam sengs!

In retrospect, yam sengs are an asian tradition - what is a 'Celebration of all the Nations' (another BRob idea) without various cultures coming together?

And amidst the camera flashes, the dancing and the laughing, something got me thinking. But that is another story to tell.

"oh well, we won't have OPDENT tomorrow!"

That was Scott's reply when the nurse couldn't find the open gas tap at the end of our afternoon lab. Hahaha. It made me laugh after a not-so-bad afternoon doing a prep to make a gold inlay. I had a frustrating first half an hour when i couldnt even get my rubber dam on. OpDent makes us stress out so much. Right now we are hoping we can finish all our preps for the semester in the allocated time. It looks tight, but i'm thinking positive. WE WILL MANAGE :)

It seems that i am blogging about uni again. Oh, the geekiness. I even dreamt about special trays the day i handed mine in.

International Formal Dinner is on Friday, and choir is performing. I dont want to stand up there and sing in front of everyone. I wont have anything to do with my hands! I havent done this in ages! I wont be able to hide in the back row - that's where the guys will be. Would i dare sneak a peek around the dining hall while pretending to pay attention to Ericius' conducting? And while i will be one of the tallest girls, sticking out like a sore thumb (my high heels wont help), and i'll have to smile and look the world straight in the eye. Well, maybe not the world, just a little over a hundred people. Great.

I hope i dont trip. CHOI!

Happy birthday, sister :)