Tough week

Wow, I finally made it pass the week. It was one hell of a tough week. I had 2 major exams aside from 2 heavy subjects during this week(the 2 heavy subjects are being held everyweek). Apart from that, I had an assignment that I had to pass up on the past Monday. Hence my hectic week began from last Sunday.
Before the hectic week started, during last week, while one of my female housemate was in charge of cooking dinner for us that week she screamed due to a discovery of a caterpillar in the vegetable. As a result of fun seeing her so afraid I decided to keep the caterpillar as a pet and named it as Eric.
For that few days, I woke up and have a look at him, but alas, before little Eric had a chance to turn into a beautiful butterfly, he was called back to the heavens and I was left alone to squeeze my way through the tough week.
As a celebration of the end of the tiring week we had, my other female housemate who was cooking this week decided to prepare a dish of cereal prawns and yesterday, after all the troublesome hell gates have been passed through, we found ourselves sitting before a table with nice smelling and mouthwatering dish of prawns for dinner.
During the week, after hearing one of my classmate's boyfriend made kimchi for her, I kept wanting to try it out. Finally, yesterday after helping out my housemate at preparing dinner, I set out to conquer the national dish of Korea called Kimchi.
I have posted a picture of the Kimchi in the process of making. I will tell you guys how it taste on the next blog. Wish me luck in making the kimchi taste good.

Life is short

OMG ! This week is a very packed and tiring week. Since Monday, I have been busy studying, going to classes, attending lectures and others. But during this busy period, I suddenly received a shocking news from my friend in Malaysia.
A friend from my secondary school who was one batch younger than me but the same age as I am, who was an outstanding student in both extracurricular activities and studies passes away. This news would have been a little bit more easier to accept if the cause of death was due to some disease but the actual reason he passed away was due to an accident, traffic accident.
To make matter worse, this was a hit and run incident and it didn't occur in Malaysia but in the States where he had only been there for a month to further his studies. Here are some links on the news about him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw0JjYj5Lf0 & http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=118069301585371&id=611450937
Bryan Chiel, I really hope that you have gone to a better place. May you rest in peace.
Another thing that happened this week that I found amazing was that on Thursday, the school had a fire drill. It happened at around 3 pm. We were due to have our weekly Russian Language classes but as we were tired from having classes since 9 in the morning and having a major control in one of the heaviest subject the next day, we decided to ask teacher's permission to cancel the class.
She then told us to juz come for the class as it will be canceled due to a fire drill.
Around 3 pm, we were sitting in the classroom all ready (we took of our lab coats and were wearing our jackets) to go at a moments notice when the alarm rings. When it did happened we all walked down the stairs out of the building. The funny thing was that the university actually switched off the lights and made announcement as though what would it be like if there was a real fire.
As we walked out through the main entrance we saw 2 or 3 fire trucks standing by. This made us laugh as we thought it was only the university fire drill and none of the fire department was involved.
But man, we were awefully wrong. Minutes later, while waiting for the bus, we saw some people letting off artificial smokes through somewhat that seems like a fire extinguisher and seconds later, truck after truck of fire engine passed by with the alarm and signal on. It was almost 10 trucks all together. This was a full fletched fire drill we then realized.
While walking home, I was partially glad that we stayed for the class as we could witness this funny moment.

3rd year 2nd semester

I have been back in Russia and continuing my studies for 3 weeks since my long and happy 2010 summer holidays. Time flies when we are enjoying ourselves and now it is time to get back into the real world and start bearing the responsibilities that is on our shoulders.
Since the begining of the new semester, I had an additional 3 subjects in my syllabus and timetables. These are operative surgery, radiology, and hygiene. Out of these 3 subjects, the operative surgery is one of the toughest subject I have ever met in my life. This is due to the amount of materials that each and every student is supposed to prepare before going for the practical classes.
I believe that I have mentioned in earlier blogs that this semester is the toughest semester in the whole course of my medical studies as it is the bridge between our theoratichal studies in the university and our clinical years in the hospitals. Hence the amount of final examinations that will be held during the end of the semester for evaluation of our knowledge is quite an amount (5 to be exact) and these subject are no small matter.
Each of these subjects have a mountain of information that all students need to memorize and know before heading into the examination hall.
Thus, all I can say is I can't wait for this semester to end and start my practical years of studies.
Today is a Sunday, and as those whom are close know, it is the day whereby me and my housemates are to cook for themselves. This week I decided to cook something that I have miss having for a long time - cheese steamed rice. This is a dish that my mother used to prepare for me and my sister for breakfast when we were still studying in our secondary school. It was always my maid or father who would prepare breakfast for us, though when this dish is to be prepared for breakfast, my mum will wake up early in the morning( around 5am) to prepare this delicious breakfast for us.
Till now, I still can't forget the taste of it as I take a spoonful of rice covered in cheese. The dish maybe simple to make but at the end of the day, I think it is the heart of the chef preparing the dish that gives that extraordinary taste.
Attached to this post is the picture of my attempt of whipping up my own version of this dish. It was not bad, though there is still a long way before it can taste half as good as the ones that were cooked by my mother in the wee hours of the morning.
P/s : the other photos are a sample of what our main canteen provides us for lunch.

Sorrow in the air

It is already 26th of August today and my depature date is set on 30th morning, which happens to way before dawn. With this in mind, it causes me to think back of the days I have had during this summer holidays.
My return to Malaysia this year has a been a very different one from the previous few. One of the most evident change was I was a lot bussier than those time I had during the previous summer holidays. One of the reason is because I had a few outings with my parents which is something I have not done in my previous visits back to my home country.
The other thing is this year I had a few more friends to visit this year, and I am happy that I was able to meet up with some of my very old friends which I haven't seen for a long long time. Though, of course it was fun meeting new people as well.
With this, I would say that my time spent during summer was one that was well filled with joy and laughter. Though like all joyfull times, it still has to come to an end, and at the end of a dream we will still need to wake up and get ourselves back into reality.
Tonight, the moon seems to be sharing my sorrow and shines a bright red color instead of its usually bright yellowish white color.
All I would like to say is THANK YOU mum and dad who allowed me to have such a nice holidays and to all my friends and family who made this trip back to my native home land a better one!

How I spend the day I was born

Like the previous year, I was fortunate enought to be able to spend my birthday with my parents and secondary friends in Malaysia. This year I had quiet an extraordinary birthday.
On August 10th, as I am still a teenager and would not sleep till past 12 midnight, I spend the last few minutes of the day surfing the net and playing around Facebook. By that time, some of the birthday wishes had already started to flow into my Facebook account wall. Realizing that I was relatively tired, I decided to reply those few birthday messages that I had before going to bed.
The next morning, I woke up at 5.30am since I promised my father that I would accompany him for a morning cycle around our area. After the cycle, we returned to the house and my father knowing me said: go back up and have a nap.
I did go upstairs to my room but what I didn't do was to have a nap, I spend the next few hours reading a storybook and later my mum came into my room and told me it was time for breakfast.
Having eaten my breakfast, I returned to my room to continue with the book and eventually felt asleep after my physiological hypoglycemia kicked in. My mother then woke me up to change and get ready to have lunch with my grandmother.
After half an hour drive all the way down to Shah Alam to pick my grandmother up, we had lunch with my aunt,a friend of both my mother and my aunt and last but not least my grandmother. We had fishhead noodles which was a little different from the norm but I would not want to dwell on that.
Then, my mother who remembered that having a massage by a masseur is one of my wishes, she decided to bring me to a reflexology center and there was where I enjoyed one and a half hour of full body massage for the first time of my life.
Upon returning home after that, since my pre-discussed dinner to meet up with a friend of mine who just reached KL from east Malaysia to visit some friends was postponed, I had nothing to do that night. My parents decided to bring me out for dinner and since I requested to have seafood for dinner, my parents brought me to a restaurant near to Kuala Selangor.
After enjoying a fullfilling dinner, we decided that it was time to head home as my parents are used to having to sleep early. And with that, my birthday has come to an end.


These few days, I realized that my holidays are nearing the end on a very fast pace.
Knowing this, my heart seems to have acquire a heavy burden that I have to leave those whom I love and cherish only to return the next year with the webcam being the only way we can see each other. I am really going to miss all of my friends and my family.
Coming back this time, I had a fairly different holiday as I had a very busy schedule which consist of going down to Singapore and up to Kapas Island, meeting up with more friends this year, and I was especially happy to be able to have an outing with my best friend where we spent almost 2 hours just talking. That talk really relieved me of a lot of matters.
I really hope that friendships can really last like those I see some of my friend have or those that we see in the movies.

Trip to Pulau Kapas

Continuing from the birthday dinner in the hotel, we returned back home at around 10.30pm and we decided instead of sleeping for 2-3 hours and then waking up to drive down to Terrenganu to the jeti, why not just drive all the way there earlier and we can have a slow drive.
So, upon reaching home, we packed up the remaining items and loaded everything into the car before leaving for the jeti. I was going to drive first and my father to sleep and rest so he could take over when I was tired. That was the plan.
I drove all the way till pass Kuantan and reached to a spot at around 3.30am, which I told my father I would want to swap places with him and take the co driver seat and have a nap. My father being in a natural alpha male of the pack throughout my drive to Terrenganu didn't sleep much as he was afraid of how I might fare in my driving technique as it was midnight and it was very dark in the highways.
In the end, he didn't sleep much and toke over when I asked him to. Next, all I remembered was some chatter between my mum and father while I was falling asleep and the next thing I knew was we have reached a small town to stop for a break. It was around 4 plus early in the morning and we snaped some photos before leaving for the jeti. We reached the jeti around 6 plus but decided to go to a nearby town for breakfast.
We got back to the jeti and set sailed on a boat to Kapas Island at around 11am. Upon arrival, we checked into the resort which was relatively empty as it was not a holiday period and neither was it a weekend (we reach on Sunday afternoon).
After settling down in our room, we went out to the reception area to have our lunched then lazed around the beach till 3 for our first snorkeling session.
It rained heavily that night and we slept like babies in our room after being exhausted from the drive from our house and the snorkelling session.
Next day, after having breakfast, I was to attend my discovery scuba diving session in which I was exposed to the basic techniques of scuba diving and had a chance to dive down to a depth of 10-12m.
The experience was quite nice except for the corals were pretty much dead which made the underwater scenery a little dull and boring while the irration that my ear gave me due to the pressure difference left me feeling relief when I resurfaced and climbed back on the boat.
That afternoon, we had our second snorkeling session and before dinner we had a walked around the beach till the furthest point.
Next morning, after breakfast we strolled the beach again before retreating to the room to get ready for check out.
Upon reaching back on the mainland, we went to the nearby town to have our second breakfast and to do some shopping for groceries as this place was famous for its seafood.
We reached back home around 7 plus on the 3rd of August. I had a really nice time in the beach and thanks to my parents, my dream of visiting the beach this time when I am back in Malaysia came true !

Unexpected Birthday Bash

On July 31st 2010 which was a Saturday, my parents invited some relatives to have dinner with me and my family in a restaurant in the ex-Subang Sheraton Hotel which has now acquired a new name of which I do not remember.
Anyway, the story goes like this. I was told that my father had a voucher that enabled us to invite quite a number of guest to the hotel for a dinner and he had to use it soon as the expiring date was closing in. After much discussion of whom should we invite(since both sides of my parents have quite a large family) we finally settled on a date and number of people to invite.
I was around when some of the relatives called to ask my mum what was the occasion of the dinner. She said casually as a reunion for me and them since we haven't meet up for about a year. At that point of time, I believed what she said and since she even denied that it was for my birthday which was still about 10 days away, I totally discarded the idea that the dinner was in fact a birthday surprise for me.
At that night, upon reaching the hotel, I went down to the restaurant and waited for others to turn up. I was also surprised that my father's partner was also having dinner together with her own relatives. I was glad to see some faces which I have not glanced upon for a long long time.
During the dinner, my father being who he always is - a gracious host, went around chatting with all the guest to ensure they were enjoying themselves and talking to the managers in charge whom he had known from earlier meetings.
He introduced me to the manager in charge for the restaurant-cafe which we were dining in and told me she was the one who arranged dinner for us. I thanked her with no knowledge of what she was going to do.
After eating quite a bit, I came to a conclusion that my parents were indeed throwing me a surprise birthday bash and me being me, walked around the reception counter to see if there were any cakes with my name on it.
This was because last year I had a birthday celebration in another hotel restaurant and the only difference was that last year I knew it was a birthday dinner. When I saw a cake on one of the kitchen counter, I was shocked and walked over to see if it was mine. When I saw that it belonged to some other family who were eating their dinner here, I felt my mind at ease and thought that maybe this is not a surprise birthday dinner but just an ordinary dinner.
Though, I was wrong. In the middle of my chat with my younger cousins, the whole serving crew of the restaurant made their way to me with a cake and was singing the brithday song aloud.
Man, was I not embarrassed. The most important factor of me being embarresed was because most of the people in the dinner were my elders and only a few were younger than me and they were all singing the brithday song to me. I think I went red when they were singing the song.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun meeting up with my relatives and friends and the dinner was not too bad either. All I want to say is Thanks to my parents for organizing such a wonderful birthday surprise for me !!

Back to School to Visit friends and teacher

On one fine Tuesday afternoon, I asked one of my friedns to accompany me back to my secondary school to visit our friends from Choir to see how they are doing and some of the teachers.
Upon arrival, I couldn't contact the teacher who normally brings me into the school in order to avoid needing to fill up forms and hence I waited in my(father's) car in order to wait for him to return my calls. And it was 1 in the afternoon with the sun way up the sky, heating me and the car up to a temperature I couldn't stand even with the air-cond on (maybe it is because the car was old and it was stationary)
After sometime we went in and the teacher which I was still in contact with brought me out for a drink somewhere nearby.
While we were drinking, I meet my choir master and the teacher in charge and said hello to them. They told me something about not going into the music room until they have reached but I didn't understand them at that time.
After enjoying the refreshing drink with my teacher, we went back to the school and I went to see my friends in the music room.
After going into the room, I realized they were starting to warm up their voices and I found a new and unfamiliar face in the midst of students(she was the new teacher in charge) She came forward and asked me who am I and why was I here. After explaining briefly I walked away when she looked like she had nothing else to say.
Not long after that, while I was resting on the chair and talking to the remaining friends in the choir that I still knew, someone came forward and told me the teacher asked me to kindly leave the room.
I obeyed and went downstairs and looked for the male team who were having their run around the school. Then when the instructor came I went up to the room with her and sat in a corner in order not to disturb them.
Minutes later, one of the vice principal came bursting in madly screaming "Can the person who isn't a school student please come out!!"
Not knowing what was happening I cooly went out only to find myself in the middle of being scolded by the vice principles since the new teacher in charge was so fussy and made a complaint since I stayed in the room despite her asking me to go out at the 2nd time after I went in(which she didn't realise)
During the scold, I ignored them but felt sorry for the friends which I caused trouble, 3 of the highest ranking student in charge of the choir came out to back me up and even the instructor called the ex-teacher in charge to come to see what was happening and she ended up helping me which I also felt so sorry for causing her trouble as well.
Later I found out that this new teacher are finding a lot of trouble with ex-students coming back to school to visit our choir mates which is an old tradition of ours.
Oh well, that's life.

3 days in Singapore

I haven't been posting blogs since I came back to Malaysia. For one, this is because I am lazy to write and have much more activities than I have back in Russia. The other reason is because I dread the internet connection speed back here in Malaysia.
I came back on 16th of July and on the 18th I went down to Singapore on a coach.
The ride was pretty much fine and we arrived there quite on time except for the slight delay we meet in the custom department. Upon our arrival, my uncle which is now a Singaporean citizen picked me and my mother from the bus station to his house.
On the next day, me and my mum went shopping on Orchard Road, Ion plaza and several other shopping malls. I would say I prefer the Singaporean railway over Malaysian's as they are interconnected and can reach almost every part of their town.
On the 3rd day, my uncle bought me and my mum each a ticket to the Universal Studios in Singapore to enjoy ourselves there(as a reward of my good results which I think was very generous of him) We spent the whole day over there and had a lot of fun although the two major rides were still under maintainance and are not available for the public yet.
Next day me and my mum spend our time shopping again as our main objective coming down to Singapore was to shop while they were having their GSS (Grand Singapore Sale).
Next morning my uncle sent us to the bus station and we went back to Malaysia with our bags full of goodies from Singapore (all the photos can be found in my mother's album in her Facebook account)

Celebration of completion of finals and a new room

Yes ! I finally finished my long agony period of having my exams while most of my friends are partying away in Malaysia and enjoying the nice foods.
As officially at 9.45am Russian Time, I was free from my exams as that was the time I handed in my answer sheet. Not to be proud or what, I was the first to hand in the answers, as we had till 11.05am to complete the exam.
After having a chat with my friends I realized that I was really very lucky to have got questions that were relatively easy in my POV. All in all, I would say that I did very well in the exams and I am praying for the best and hope I would get an excellent mark for the exam( the results will be out only tomorrow)
After the exam I went out with my housemate for a celebration lunch. We went to a Japanese Restaurant and I ordered a set of sushi to celebrate the ending of the exams.
Upon returning to my house and my room and decided to redecorate my room.
Now I am resting my mind, soul and body in the newly redecorated room while enjoying the time.
Oh, I prepared fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner in conjunction of the ending of the exams and since I forgot my camera this morning so I didn't take any picture of the sushi, but here are some pics of my "new" room and the dinner.

Asam and a paintball turned "pain"ball

The past Saturday, my fellow housemate Tabitha asked if I would like to join her for dinner and being me I said "Of course, why not?". So in the end we had asam noodles for dinner. The preparation was fairly easy(so it seems to me), maybe it was also due to the fact that we were using a packaged paste from Malaysia and not making it from scratch. But still, I am still amazed at how Tabitha always manage to make cooking look so simple(by that I mean not a lot of preparation is needed) and still come out with a scrumptious meal.
On Sunday, I went for my third round of paintball game with my friends at the site of which I had my 2nd experience of the game. It was fairly fun like the previous, though this time I was shot a few times and the pressure of the gun was increased to slightly above 3 atmospheric pressure.
Hence I have all the bruises on my body(enjoy watching them). And like the saying goes, no pain no gain. With the pain that I felt, I also gained by strengthening my friendship with those I played with and also got to know more people.
Anyway, exams are on the 8th which is next Thursday and I still haven't started studying despite a certain someone who keeps bugging me to start studying. Oh, just for the knowledge I have a total number of 128 question to memorize for the exam. So, all I can say to myself is, "Nate, happy memorizing!"
I think I will not be posting anymore updates till the end of my exam. I can't wait to reach back to my native country and my home!!!

Riverside Picnic

As most of us know, its Fifa WorldCup Season now. Everyone is talking about the games that occured the day before or maybe even a few minutes ago. Even for someone who isn't much of a football fan was influenced by my housemate's enthusiasm and found myself cheering on the teams while watching it.
As my semester is going to end soon, classes are starting to get more and more relax as teachers are thinking of how they want to spend their holidays sunbathing on the beach(somehow, Russians love to get sun burnt during summer and especially getting it done at the sea side). Hence, we as students are also slacking off as well while what we actually need to do is to get ready for the final exams that are just round the corner.
Not long ago, me and my friends when walking down to a riverside that is near our apartment which is quite a popular spot among us students for picnic and barbeque. After such a visit, we planed to have a picnic done as one of our groupmate's parents are in the town for their eldest daughter(my friend's eldest sister) graduation which took place yesterday.
So, today we went down there for a picnic. Everything was quite nice, the weather was more towards a cool side as the sun was partially covered by the hovering clouds above and there weren't many locals fishing or playing near the river as we saw the other day.
In short, it was quite a change to have our dinner out in the open near mother nature. Although I enjoyed feeding my stomach to a scrumptious meal(we had quite a number of Malaysian dishes accompanied with some local drinks known as khvac), I didn't quite enjoyed the other part of feeding, which was feeding the wild and blood deprived female mosquitoes my blood(did you know that most or maybe all the mosquitoes that sucks blood are female as the male only take plant sap and nectar as their source of nutrient?)
I forgot to add the fact that my friend and her boyfriend who now has a dog brought the dog along(a chow chow) and I had fun playing with it. I miss my dog very much !!!

Paintball 2

Today is a holiday in Russia, I do not know what occasion it is but i am grateful to have an extra rest day despite the fact that classes on Saturday are quite relaxing. In conjunction with the holiday, me and my friends decided to go for a second round of paintball game. This time we plan to be more organized and invite people that we know very well and not invite too many friends as the last(or first time) we ended up playing with some Africans whom are friends of the church people which do not really listen to instructions. (I do not know if i posted an earlier blog on my 1st paintball experience but if I didn't, all I can say is "Oh well")
So this time we invited people that we are familiar. And the end result was, we had an awfully great time, enjoying the game and ending up bathing in our sweat. This was due to the fact that we were playing under that strain of the hot sun which made the temperature to be about 30 degree Celcius.
Anyway, to be short, I teamed up with some of the best shooters in the group of friends that we went with and since we changed to a new place which were highly recommended by our mates who have been there(the location in which we were playing were bigger and hence nicer to play in, not to mention the equipments provided were in better condition and hence the shooting was made easier), I manage to be quite a good sniper(someone who stay put in one place and starts shooting others from a further range)
I do not know what happened today, but it seems to me I was in favor by the Gods and hence was quite lucky(maybe it is also due to the fact that I was camping and sniping from afar) I was shot quite a few times by the opponents fire, but none of the bullets that hit me burst and more importantly none of them hurt(OK, not all, only 1 of them hurt, I will tell about this later). Thus, I really consider myself very very lucky.
We had 18 people tagging along and we splitted into 3 groups as there were only 6 guns/markers for each group. Each team played 2 matches of capture the flag(a game mode in which the objective is to reach to a spot and capture the opponents flag) where me and my team mates emerged as the winners and I also participated in to rounds of death match ( a game mode in which the objective is to eliminate all the members of the opponent team, the team which has all their members eliminated will lose the match).
On the last game, I was ambushed by a friend and got hit by a bullet from a distance of about 10 meters when the gun is loaded wit a pressure of almost 3( I think it indicates 3 atmospheric pressure)which cause me a momentary pain. Though, I am really grateful that I didn't get any long lasting bullet marks which some of my friends ended up having.
Anyway, I am very tired now. Till next time. Tata ^^

Dinner

It has been quite some time since I last did a post on some of the foods I make over here. So I decided to cook something nice that reminds me of Malaysian food. Out of the abundant choice of food in Malaysia, I choose to cook something that is very popular among all Malaysian, most often found in Indian restaurant. This dish originates from India if I have my information right(sorry if I am not, I was lazy to double check it on the net)
The dish I prepared for my Saturday dinner was - Tandoori Chicken.
I decided to cook the dish along with my fellow housemate and together we prepared quite a feast.
Since we didn't have an oven in the house, I had to pan fry the chicken and that, my friends was such a trouble. Though, I would say, when it was time to eat, all of the trouble was worth it.
Of cause, Tandoori chicken itself won't be an extravagant meal, so me and my housemate plan on an all out Malaysian meal. (mostly Indian food) In the end, we prepared Nasi Briyani, papadam(a kind of fried cracker made by the indians, if u still have no idea what that is, just go google it), Acar(pickled vege), fruit salad and a refreshing drink known as lemonade.
Though it took hours to prepare and I had to wait for my housemate to return before having dinner late at night(since she was busy) at the end of the day, all the fatigue and frustration from cooking was swept away while enjoying the meal.

HOT !!!

With most of the major exams and test settled for the moment, I finally have a peace of mind and can enjoy my free time at home browsing the net and watching series online. Though, one big factor is kind of bugging me at the moment.
After staying in Russia for a few years, me and my friends concluded that one can't judge Russia's weather according to the appearance of the sky during the morning. For example, yesterday morning, it was so bright and hot, not a cloud could be seen in the sky, for most, it would seem as though there would not rain. But, unfortunately around 4pm, the sky suddenly turn dark and it rained for quite sometime(in Russia, it seldoms rain more than 15minutes.)
What is bugging me the most at the moment is the heat of the weather, since it was spring not long ago the temperature was around 10 to 20 degrees Celcius. But currently it has go up to around 25 till 32 degrees. I am actually wondering if I can't handle the temperature of 32, how am I going to stand the heat in Malaysia when I go back which is around 35 ?
The most important factor to me is that I have to wear long pants to classes in the university no matter what the temperature is while all the girls are able to wear slippers and short skirt and pants for class.
Didn't the girls ask for the same treatment as the guys does? So I would like to ask, why are guys not allowed to wear short pants to classes when it is so hot outside that an egg would fry if left on the road?

Lucky

The awful week which I had last week is now over. I manage to get through all the exams safely, and I had a surprise on the end of that tiring week.
First of all, I am very glad that I somehow manage to survive all the test that were held on that week. On the second day of the week, in which my consecutive exam days starts, I had the toughest test and also an additional competition in which the winners will be exempted from the final exams (the subject is Russian Language).
Since most of us were more worried about the tough test being held on that day, we didn't bother to study or revise for the Russian competition.
So, in the end all of us in my group who were competing ended up going there without much preparation. The competition was held in two parts. The first was a task for all the competitors to write an essay on our future profession in Russian Language(in our case , Doctors) and the second part was that each of us were given a theme and we are to discuss about the topic with a partner.
As for how I think I did in the written part, all I can say I was writing about anything I could possibly think of at that moment and for the oral part, I would say I made a big fool out of myself.
I went home that day with a relieved and happier mood as the toughest test had ended and didn't give much thought about winning the competition.
On Thursday, I heard from my friend that I had emerged as the 3rd place in the competition and my groupmates whom I thought would win was no where to be found in the list of winners. I therefore didn't really believe my friend and waited for the next day, for the conformation from our teacher.
All I can say I was lucky and would like to thank whoever is up there above the skies that gave me this surprise.

Busy Busy

Sorry for not updating my blog for a very long time. The last few weeks or more accurately the past month has been a hectic one. After the intervarsity games ended, the classes resume as usual and everything went back to its normal rhythm.
Since classes have been going on for quite some time, a control test was needed to check our knowledge and how well have we been studying and hence I was busy with those studies.
The next week will be a very long and tiring week for me as I will be having 4 major tests in a row, from Tuesday till Friday. And to make matter worse the test on Tuesday is one of the toughest and more important subject of my semester- pathological anatomy, while on Friday, I will be having my major for the most important subject in my basic for my clinical life-Propadeutics of internal medicine. Hence I am really having a headache now while writing this on how should I prepare for these exams as I am more of a last minute person.
Also, as I think I have wrote in previous entries that I have lost my ATM card, I finally got my replacement card shipped over. And it reached me after I canceled my 1st replacement card which my parents send over via regular registered air mail which have not reached me till this day.
All I want to say to my parents is thank you for sending me over the card and I am sorry that I am in such a spending fiesta cause I was trying to spend less when I didn't have my card and now am so happy to be able to use money more carefree( I know that I do not come exactly from a very very rich family and hence I would not spend so lavishly.)
Till the completions of these exams, I think I would not be updating my blog. By the way, I can't wait to go back to Malaysia and spend my time with my parents whom I love and friends whom I have not seen in ages.

Hoodies

I have always been wanting to wear and buy a jacket than has a hood with it (hoodie). Everytime I see my friends wearing it, I will always look at it very enviously. But since these hoodies which I see in my native country is very expensive and are normally things that I would never wear back in my homeland cause of the hot weather, hence I never buy any of these.
Ever since I came here to Russia which is a 4 seasoned country, I have always wanted to buy it, though price is always something that I would consider first.
Today, when eating in the mall while waiting for the time to pass for the next class, me and my friends went to one of the shops at the lower levels that is well known for its cheapness (New Yorkers) and had a look at the sales that they were having at the moment.
Then, I saw hoodies on sales. Then I went drooling all over the hoodies that were on sale. Eventually I gave into the temptation and bought the cheapest hoodie for an amount of rub 699.
What that was most absurd was, I lost my ATM card a few weeks ago and have not received my replacement card. Currently I am living off borrowed money from my friend that was kind enough to allow me to borrow some money till I get my card.
I only borrowed 1000rub yesterday night and today I have used almost all of it. I feel so bad to borrow more money from her again.
Another thing I have to say is sorry mum and dad for spending money on stuff that is not really necessary. Really sorry
But ... I really like and will treasure this new jacket of mine!

Post Games

It has been quite some time since I last posted a new blog and that was because I was busy with studies before and had the intervarsity games after my exams. As of now, the games has passed, the fun time is over. It is high time I find back my rhythm to get back into the mood and idea of study.
As for the results of the games, my university- Kursk State Medical University as the host, having an advantage of home ground won the overall champion. As for the sports I was playing, the volleyball, we emerged as the 1st place and bagged the gold medal after competing with 4 other universities.
I personally had a lot of fun during the 3 days during which the intervarsity games were held. Mixing around with students and friends from other places and universities. Being able to play against other volleyball teams. All in all, I really enjoyed the duration of those 3 spectacular days.
I will be uploading only a few picture which I think looks better here and if those of you who wants to see more can just log into Facebook and find pictures of me there.
Since the games are over now and all the hardwork we have been doing in order to bag the victory has now been taken off our shoulders, most of my groupmates are currently either sick or on the verge of getting sick. I sincerely hope and wish all those out there who are sick that they will get well soon and recover from their sick state.
Oh yeah, the university is now selling curry puffs for rub 13 for each and I love them. Will try to take picture of one and upload it the next time. Thanks to the Malaysian Ambassador who manage to ask the university cafeteria to sell it and to those who taught the cafeteria members how to prepare this wonderful dish ^^

Pregames

Today is the day before the games. The intervarsity games that is held once in a year and it so happens that this year's games is being held in my town. I had to go for classes today and I had some major exams today and I just heard this morning that we are going to have some light training during the evening in front of the hostel.
I hope everything will turn out alright, despite that I feel underprepared and that the comittee hasn't really being preparing for the event (i am guessing this as I still do not feel any pre games atmosphere or maybe it is because that I am not paying much attention to what is happening around me)
Anyway, I am looking forward to these 3 days where I can give my full attention on playing my sports and forget about studies just like those times I had when I was competing in the national competitions. How I miss those days.
Though, at the end of this week and the competition is not something I will want to look forward to as we are having quite a lot of studying to do and the material that we need to prepare is like A LOT.
So, I will just cross my fingers and hope that everything will go smoothly and hopefully we will emerge as the champion both in my event (volleyball) and the grand champion.

Feelings and thoughts

Have you ever watch a movie and see the main characters not being able to be together? Have you ever felt the heartache? The feeling of pity that somehow they just missed one another by one single step?
Sometimes, when somethings are missed while not paying attention to it, no matter how hard you try to find and remake the same situation. It will never be the same, as there are no two objects in the world that are the same. The water flowing at the same part of the river may look alike, but they are never found to be the same, like all the snow flakes that falls gently down, they, are too, never ever the same
Pay attention to everything around us as sometimes when we do not pay attention, someone or something interesting might be happening and if we miss that special moment, it can never ever be captured again.

Exams

The weather is finally turning warmer. I can't wait till I can go out on the street without wearing all these thick jackets and boots. Since the semester has started for quite some time. The major controls are just around the corner.(actually I just had one today and will be having one tomorrow)
Anyway, I was very careless about a week ago and I ended up losing my ATM card. So now I am rendered with a very small amount of cash while I am waiting for my new card to arrive. Although I can always borrow some money from my friends for the time being, I still hope that I can make it without doing so. Hence I am carefully budgeting everything I buy, every move I make.
Today, we had our Microbiology major control. It is our second semester studying this subject and had been under the current teacher since the last semester. Our teacher like us very much and has always called us her "best group". Funny eh?
Anyway, she came into class today and ask us for a favor from us which is for us to help us type out the variants of controls for normal classes as she mainly uses Russian normally so she can't write in english that well.
In the end, we ended up negotiating and we didn't have a written test which is normally done after the computer test. So, we were able to go home after we finished the computer test and did a little translation for the test questions.
Gotta go eat now, update soon

Propa classes

Today i just had my propadeutics classes. It was really really fun. Even though I didn't really study much for the classes and was very afraid of the class due to being under prepared, I had a nice time in the class.
First of all, while I was studying for the practicals that took place today, I went to youtube to look for clips regarding the general inspection(last weeks theme which we are supposed to repeat for the class). It actually feels nice to use the internet not only for entertainment purposes.
Then during the class it was quite fun. At first, upon reaching there teacher asked us to sit down and brought a patient in and ask us to observe her asking the patients. Ask us to listen to how she does the general inspection and interview of the patient. I found it very exciting as it was very challanging due to the fact that they were conversing in Russian language and we had to try our best to understand what they were saying. At this moment, I was very happy to have such a good Russian Teacher that gave us a lot of training in the clinical terms which made me understand most of the conversation.
Next she examined the patient physically and allowed us to listen to the patient's heart sound though I couldn't really make out much from it.
Next, I was the patient of the day and teacher started explaining the day's materials and show us the techniques for the examination on me. Since it was still the winter/spring duration most of my classmates and the teacher's hand were cold and while they were palpating and percussing(in short their fingers and palms were on my skin) I shivered.
All in all I find it quite a nice experience. I am currently looking forward to the next few classes. I am beginning to like my studies more now.

Pharmacology Classes

Finally I get to come back earlier(at 3pm), after having such a heavy and tiring week, I couldn't be happier to finally get some rest before studying. Classes on the 3rd year is really tough, materials that we need to study for each classes are also in large amounts.
Pharmacology is one of the more important subjects in my 3rd year of studies as it teaches us the actions of drugs on our body and what each kind of drug helps to cure the diseases.
Though, everything turn south when the teacher we got for our practical classes were the ex-Rector's daughter(he retired only this year). Not to be rude or anything but I really think that she isn't fit to be teaching and to make matter worse she is our lecturer as well.
Let me give some examples on how she is like.
Last week while having lecture, we had a definition for the word "addiction", but instead, in the slide it was written as "addition". when one of us asked her is it addiction or addition, she said it was addition and look back into slide and read the definition out. She didn't even know what she was reading as if she knew it would have been obvious as the definition given was about addiction and not addition.
Furthermore, on the same lecture, for the last slide she was giving another definition. Let me show you what was written on the slide. The definition for drug dependence is "due to repeated administration, certain drugs may make the individual both"
This is what that was written on the lecture slide and what she said. She didn't even realize that the definition was awkward and incomplete. After referring to senior notes, I found out that the definition was incomplete and was supposed to be "due to repeated administration, certain drugs may make the individual both physiologically and psychologically dependent on them."
Furthermore, on classes, we are supposed to start class at 8am but she said we could come at 8.30am (no complaints here) but she only comes in at around 9am and for example today, after she came in she asked us to do the independent work according to the methodicals, left and came back 30min later only to say "ok, now break".
Then she came back in at 10.05am and gave us a written exam and after the exam we were dismissed!
How am I supposed to learn stuff when she gives lectures of this standard and conduct classes like this ? Self-study is needed I guess.

Medical Check up

Sorry for not posting anything for such a long time. The main reason is because I have been very busy. As I said in previous blogs, the 3rd year is one of the most important year in a medical student's life as it is here, where we learn all the basics for our clinical life later on.
Life have never been more hectic than the last few days. Classes in random hospitals out of town, lectures in the university, heavy subjects everyday, long duration of classes, all of these added up, they really make life in my 3rd year a living hell.
Actually it is not too bad. I am starting to like the stuff i am studying as we are begining to learn more about the pathological conditions and medical procedures.
Since we were going to be in contact with patients more often, the university decided to ask us to go for a check up in order to examine our health condition.
Let me tell you now about the shocking and traumatic experience.
First, we were told to collect our stool samples for examination. At the begining, I was laughing at my friends who had collected their samples before me as they were disgusted about it. I wanted to take a picture of the samples of me and my housemates but little did I know that after I collected mine, I was so disgusted by the thought of it that I almost vomit when I was holding my sample(which was in a container).
Next, for the examination itself, we had to give our blood sample, get checked in our ear, nose and mouth. Then we headed to a general therapist who asked some general questions about our health and measured our blood pressure. I was so shocked when she told me my Bp was 140/70 !!! Later, when I asked my friend to measure mine, she told me that my Bp is indeed high. I was so shocked by this news as I do not eat very salty food(except if you count taking a lot of sauce from dishes) and I am quite normal in weight and I do exercises weekly. Hence, now I am trying to eat more healthy food and try to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I hope I would get my Bp back to normal.
Now about the climax of the examination, we had to do both rectal swabs and penile swabs ! All of us were so traumatized at this news. After the examination, all the guys were complaining about the pain that each of us were feeling. I was even walking with my legs wide open in order to decrease the pain(my friends were laughing at me for that). Talk about pain in the ass? Try pain in the urethra.

Experiment and Regrets

It has been more than a week since the university resumed it's classes. Though, my mood to study still hasn't improved, I have been scraping through all the classes and every time when I see the results I tell myself "I need to gather up my emotions and mood and stop finding reasons to not study!". I hope this will be the last time I will be doing this. I am sorry for making you guys sad or worried upon hearing this. I promise to concentrate on my studies and do better in the future. I really do.
So, today I had my practical classes in Pathological Physiology. Today's topic was on disease, dying and reanimation. For the experiment of the class, we got a rat and did an experimental asphyxia on it. Let me give a little bit more details on what we did.
First we, narcotized the rat and saw the stages of narcotization. Then when the rat was asleep we cut open the skin on the neck to expose it's trachea and did a section on the trachea. Then, we inserted a glass tube into the section. Then we closed the tube with our fingers blocking the air from going in and out from the tube and it's lungs. Hence, the rat was in hypoxia (shortage of oxidation) until it was in clinical death. After it's last breath we immediately did the reanimation techniques on the rat (artificial respiration and heart massage). Eventually the rat came back to life. Though we repeated the experiment again and prolonged the time between the rat's last breath and starting of reanimation technique.
The picture above is after the rat was revived after the 1st experiment.

Lecturers and Teachers

Yesterday, I had my first lecture in General Surgery. The lecture was given by the teacher, Dr. Mikheal. The lecture he gave was very interesting, informative and entertaining. This was the first time I had such an lecture.
Out of all the lectures that I have been through while studying in my current university, never have I seen such a cool lecturer. He came in and said, its up to you to come to the lecture, I won't be checking the attendance. Then he went on and said about the organization of the department and how the lecture will be conducted. He said, there will be no need to write down most of the notes as they can be found on the university's website. For further information, just look for it in the Google Book search. For videos on how to do the procedures, just type the procedure name on youtube and you'll be able to find a lot of variants.
I know this might seem normal to people from other universities, but over here, there isn't any teacher nor lecturer that does this. They always wants us to copy the notes from the lecture. The way he gives the lectures are like those I see in the movies. This is the first time I felt like I was studying in the universities that I have always seen in the movies.
Today, I had my first practical class in Immunology which is in one of the Hospitals. Our teacher was the lecturer which we just had lecture in the university before the classes. I do not remember her name (I think it is Tatiana). Classes were supposed to start at 12 noon but she said to start at 12.30 and when we reached there, after she came in and give us the general information of how classes are conducted and stuff like that, she said we could be free. We went like "What ???" as it was only like 5 or 10 minutes since she came in. That was the shortest class I ever had. Though I have no complaints.

Emo post

Sorry for posting such an emo post, but I really had to find an outlet and so here I am. I have been feeling a little ill since the last few days. Mainly because of a very bad sore throat. I tried to drink lots of water but the condition doesn't seem to be getting better.
I woke up very early this morning(as I slept relatively early the night before) and felt very very terrible. It felt like I didn't want to do anything for the whole day but just lie in bed. Though after some more rest, and when I woke up for breakfast I felt a little better upon hearing some news that made me feel more alived.
Though when I reached the university and the rest of the day (even now) I had the song "Bleeding Love" stuck in my head. Though its not the whole song, the exact verse that keep playing in my head was " But I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you, they try to pull me away, but they don't know the truth, my heart's crippled by the vein that I keep on closing, you cut me open and I, keep bleeding ....." till the end of the chorus. I have no idea why I felt better singing this song nor do I know why I am singing this song(maybe I do know?).
On the way back, I saw an old couple walking slowly enjoying the views hand in hands. That made me remember things. Made me miss my mother, my father, my sister, my dog, my cat. I miss all of you.

New semester

Today was the first day of the semester, the beginning of my 3rd year 1st semester. This semester is the time when we start learning all the clinical stuff. Today, because according to our timetable we were supposed to be having our lecture in the old building. Though, the department has changed its location to the new building and hence we were late for lecture.
When I first saw the new lecture hall in the building, I was astonished as this was the 1st lecture hall in the whole university that looks like those in the movies. I wasn't able to snap any picture of the lecture hall as we were in a rush trying to write the lecture notes.
Speaking of lecture, while listening and writing down the lecture notes, I was very interested as it was now starting to be all the clinical stuff. I really think my choice of studying medical was right. I am really beginning to enjoy the new subjects.

Laughter and Nurses

Today, I was chatting to a friend of mine after coming back from practicals in the hospital.(lately, the teacher in charge has been more and more strict with us hence we're unable to go off early). It's been quite a while since I could sit back and chat so freely with someone. To be able to lie back and chat freely without any acting, that is really nice. The last time I was able to do that was at least a few years back. I am really happy to finally find someone that I am able to talk to.
Not only was it a relief to finally take of the mask we wear everyday but while criticising each other playfully I laughed so much that my stomach ached. Though, it wasn't one very long laugh, it was a combination of a range of laughters. I felt so energized and refreshed after chatting.
Back to practicals, as we thought today would be the last day of work for the nurse that we have been working with in the department, I brought my camera to snap some photo with her.
She was very patient with us, willing to help us, let us try out the medical procedures, slowly trusting our skills in each of the procedures and teaching us stuff that we do not know or understand. She was really very nice. I would really like to thank her for her kindness and patience.

Stuff i did during the internetless period

As I was saying in earlier post, I was rendered without internet for more than a week after I changed my internet provider. So, this post is a summary of the things I did while waiting for my internet provider to fix my cable.
There was a day, I do not clearly remember when I was so bored but didn't want to disturb my housemate Tab which has been allowing me to use her internet. So I decided to go out and buy myself a puzzle to do it to kill sometime. At first, when I was browsing through the limited choice of puzzles in the departmental store, I saw a puzzle that i liked very much. It was a picture of horses running in the wild. As I was born in the year of horse, I think that is where I got my affinity to pictures of horses. Though, it was a puzzle consisting of 3000 pieces, and considering that I have not done any puzzle before, I did not take the risk of not finishing the puzzle. Next, I found another puzzle with a horse in it, this time it consist of 1500 pieces. I was still not very convinced that I will be able to finish it. Finally I settled with a puzzle of a picture of dogs which had 360 pieces.
It took me 2 whole days to complete the puzzle and I was very happy with the satisfaction i got when completing the puzzle.
As I said in earlier post, I was situated in the Urology Department for my practicals and might be transferred after sometime and I was right. After 12 days working in that department, our teacher in charge changed everyone's location of department and I was sent to the Gastro-endocrinology department.
So before I left the department, I decided to take picture with the nurses that helped us through the time while I was in the department. Thankyou!
In the new department, this department consist of patients that are mostly healthy in the sense that they can walk normally, most of the patients here are diabetic. So most of the time, they will be having a lot of intravenous drips/infusion and insulin injections.

Chinese New Year Eve

After so much frustration and disappointment, I finally got back my internet connection. I was so happy that I was skipping around the house when the repairman finally said the connection was fixed and was able to be used.
As it was Chinese New Year Eve, me and my housemates decided to have dinner together and planned to make it somewhat different from a normal decided. After much discussion, we agreed on having steamboat for dinner.
Thus, as planed after classes, we all went separate ways to get all the ingredients. For our soup base, we used chicken soup with some Chinese Herbs and for the main ingredients we had prawns, home-made meatballs,, chicken meat, pork, chinese cabbage, mushroom, squid.
We had quite a lo of fun eating the steamboat and were all very full after sometime. Though there was still quite a lot of food left. So we decided to play a game and the loser will be punished to eat more food. At first the food were just the soup and meat. But as the game went on, we started to add more queer stuff into the "prize" for the one that lost.
After everyone was too disgusted to continue the game, we had dessert, ice-cream cake. Man, it was so nice.