Heavy Hearted

It has been almost two whole months since I last posted an update. All these while, I was back in my home country - Malaysia to have a rest and also to visit my sister as well as attend her graduation ceremony. Upon coming back this year, I have learnt many a things and also start to see things in a different perspective. I was always a very childish guy to begin with, but with the years of staying alone overseas, I had no choice but to toughen up a little. Each and every small thing contributed to my transformation. Now that I have turned 21, I am beginning to see the world in a different angle, to try to stand in other's shoes and think. I find that doing so, I can understand better some of their actions. But as we grow older and start accepting resposibilities, we also start to have more to worry about. Growing up, learning how to socialize, adapting to the norms of the society, that is part and parcel of life. As human beings living in the 21st century it is what we need to do. Time to lighten up the mood a bit. Somethings about my holidays. This year, I had the chance to attend my sister's graduation in New South Wales University in Sydney and also a detour to New Zealand for a holiday with my family. The place was like BEAUtiful ... It is soooo awesome, the scenery and landscapes were breath taking. On my 21st birthday, I had a very memorable and unforgetable time. This was not due to the party i had with my friends(which I didn't actually have) nor the presents I recieved (although the ones i received from my parents were totally awesome). It was because of what I did on that auspicious day. It was the day in which I jumped off the Kawarau Bridge - the spot where Bungy Jumping first started. Yes, I did a Bungy jump on my 21st birthday. I was always a acrophobic (someone who is scared of heigts) and a barophobic ( someone who is afraid of the gravity pull/G-force). Though after doing the jump, it wasn't as scary as I thought. Maybe I would challenge the higher one next time, but that will be a story for another time. Time to go. Next time folks

Back In Malaysia

It has been a year since I last returned to my home country- Malaysia. After the long days of studies, exams and a painfully long journey from Kursk to Moscow, waiting to check in, transiting in Dubai and the journey hours in the plane, I finally found myself on a familiar ground, listening to that all to known sound in KLIA. I knew I was home.
Man, I was glad to be home, to be around those that I love so dearly. To at last be able to see them face to face and be able to interact with them face to face. Seeing the smiles on their faces, let me knows that they miss me.
A few days after I returned to my home, my parents brought me to the handphone shop to get me my long wanted new handphone - The Samsung Galaxy S2. It was my first ever touch screen phone and it was not cheap at all.
I would like to extend my highest gratitude to my parents for buying me such an expensive phone despite being only a family with a moderate income.
Next up I have the Australia-New Zealand trip with my family (sister included which I have not seen in 3 years) Can't wait for it either.

Finals and Home

With summer's arrival, so has the holidays come. But as usual, there is always a trial before the great reward, a hurdle to pass before reaching the destination. Yes, it is no other than the dreaded finals. This semester I have 2 final exams, first being the operative surgery exam which is one of the tougher examinations and next is a stupid subject known as hygiene in which one has to calculate the light content, extend of contamination (air, land, noise etc).
Since I had my winter practicals, classes started a bit later leading to a extended semester and shortened summer holidays. Though I am grateful for that as our dear Malaysian government and Medical association decided to listen to our cries to have our practicals done in Malaysia and not in Russia. It was a good decision but they have to ruin our lives by doing it last minute and saying it is effective immediately. I have no idea how those who have to do their practices going to manage their pre-planned schedule for the holidays.
With only less than a week away from my first exam, I am still very unprepared for it since not only have I not finish studying it, I am no longer in the mood to study. The internet is full of holiday season movies and advertistment, friends all posting about their holidays. Making my effort to concentrate on studies even tougher.
I can't wait to reach back to Malaysia, to see those that I love and cherish dearly, those faces that I have not seen for a long time. Time in Malaysia during this holiday will be cut short as I have to fly to Australia and New Zealand for a holiday trip/graduation ceremony of my sister's. Though, I think the length of time being spend together is not the most important factor, as long you spend them wisely and treasure the time together, even the shortest moment can give u a lifetime worth's of memory!

Buying New Clothes

It has been quite sometime since I written something. Classes lately have been a bit too laid back, or maybe I am the one that have been laying back a wee bit too much. As the weather starts to turn from spring season to that of a tropical weather, the heat that comes with it has caused me to cuddle up in my bed with the fan switched on to keep me cool.
As summer closes in, the holidays that appear during summer also indicates the end of a semester- a time that had pass so fast since all I have done this semester was to play and enjoy myself and times flies when you are enjoying yourself.
With the holidays around the corner that brings you to that paradise you want to reach, the exams can be said to be found just before the corner is a place you have to pass in order to get to the destination. Hopefully, this obstacle will prove to be some easy task for me with some study.
Today, I am very very happy as I had a green light from my mother to buy a trench coat and a T-shirt that I had my eye on. After class, I headed down to the shopping mall to get them.
After trying them on again to see if I really think it suits me and whether or not I really want it. Even after seeing myself in the mirror and liking the outcome, I still had was reluctant to go ahead to the counter and pay up as the trench coat was no small amount to pay for.
After much hesitance, I braved myself to go the counter and paid up. I was surprised as I didn't remember the prices correctly and thought that it was more expensive. Hence when the receipt came, I was happy that it was not as expensive as I thought.
Sorry mum and dad for the extra expenses and THANK YOU very much !!!

Giving Birth

Today, I had my first experience at a glimpse of what it looks like when a new life comes in to this world. I have been having my obstetrics cycle for a week, but only today we had a chance to go into the birth ward.
It was as usual, a boring and a day full of chatter while waiting for teacher to come into the classroom/dinning room (we were having our class in the patient's dining area). All of a sudden a nurse came into our classroom and told us to go to the maternity ward.
Though, her instructions were very unclear and she spoke too fast that we were lost at where she wanted to direct us to. When we finally got to the ward, the baby had already came out from the mother's womb and our teacher was checking the placenta and clearing up.
The scene we saw was pretty messy, blood oozing out from the mother's vagina after being teared from the birth process. Upon this sight, the girls from our group shuddered and said they would opt for using the Cesarean section during giving birth.
For me, I felt lucky that I was born a male and would never have to go through this process. It also made me feel very thankful to my mum, for bearing me in her body for 9 months and going through a painful process to bring me into this world. A further thanks to my dad who also had to bear through all my mothers tantrum she might have thrown due to all the hormone imbalance that I caused while I was still in her womb. I could never repay what you guys have done for me, from bringing me into this world and bringing me up to who and what I am today. All I can do is to study hard and be a successful person.
On the way back from class today, I stopped by the market to buy some groceries as it was my turn to cook for the house this week. I found the new bread stall that had been under construction now opened and decided to buy a sandwich that looked not too bad in the picture.
The person in charge looked quite new to her job as she still had to look at the menu to see what to put into the sandwich and how much it cost when I paid for it. I was quite happy at what I got. This was because finally, my little town -Kursk is finally starting to produce more decent burger and sandwich stalls that can be found in other cities in Russia.
Ps : I only managed to take a picture of the sandwich and for the birth giving process, I couldn't take any picture hence sorry for the lack of any picture on that part.

New Injury,Classes and Dumplings

It has been a few weeks since I last updated, although I have been having a laid back time due to the relaxing classes and schedule. Last Saturday, while playing volleyball(not training, just having some fun time with my teammates) I reinjured my left leg which makes my record of 3 leg injuries in 3 consecutive months.(first I injured my left ankle on a basketball training on April, then my right ankle last month during volleyball games and now my left ankle again).
I haven't had any injury during my volleyball training for the past 3 years of playing it and all of the sudden I start to get injuries so frequently, I am really wondering what has gone wrong. Here are some postulations, my current sport shoes are a bit too loose and for aesthetic purpose I skipped down the last row of my shoe lace and tied it one row below so that the "lip" of the shoes will protrude more.
For prophylaxis of further injury, I will be buying basketball shoes and ankle guard. I will also do some ankle strengthening exercises.
This week I am having obstetrics and gynecology cylce. Upon reaching the class we were asked to go down to the registration counter and ask for the key to the changing room and change into our surgical gowns.
The place we had to go to change was underground and the stairs down was pretty scary with the lights on the stairs flickering non stop and steep staircases. To add to the matter, the changing room was in fact a room with bars to lock our stuff in, giving it a jail cell look. The place was also dark and very chilly giving all of us a sort of feeling that the place was what the Chinese call "dirty".
Today, I came home early as teacher had a conference that she had to attend to. So I decided to try once more making the "man tau" and dumplings with the red bean paste that I took so much effort and went through hell to make.
This time, I was rewarded as both the dumpling and the man tau seemed nice to me.

3 new items

Spring is finally here and with the weather turning warmer, the people around are starting to remove their jacket and change into their spring and summer closet wear. As the change of weather starts, it is also time for a change of lifestyle.
I have been lazing around the house and been slacking from my usual home work out after my leg injury a few weeks back. Now, with my leg back to 90% of its former condition, I have decided to make it a habit to have a jog near my house everyday, as often as possible so as to keep myself fit and to do some workout as recommended by the cardiologist I went to see last year.
This week, I've bought a few new things to add to my room and accessories. Among them are 3 more expensive stuff being a microphone (since my old one has gone haywire and can not detect any sound sometimes due to a loose connection between the wire and the microphone.), a slipper (I've been wanting to buy 1 for a very long time) and lastly a flower( to add some spring feeling to the room and to add more oxygen content in the room)
Firstly, I bought the flower in the market near the school for 40rubles and a pot for 50rubles if I still remembered correctly. I choose this particular one after looking at all the available flower at the stalls. One of the reason I chose it was due to its color. The resemblance of blue and purple made me get it. The flower also have a very strong smell to come with it.
Then I bought the slippers from a shop in a mall. After much thought, I bought the one that is the cheapest and still looks not to bad (since I am stingy and know that I should not spend so much to prevent giving my parents too much of a burden to my parents financially). I was a bit sad that I had to pay an amount of 550 rubles. But as I approached the counter and paid for my purchase, I was told that my card has an amount of 160 rubles of discount thus making me pay only an amount of 390 for the slippers which made me feel a tiny wee bit better.
Lastly due to the constant nagging by all my friends and parents while cam chatting with them that they could not hear me well and now that my microphone has gone completely haywire, I decided to get the cheapest microphone I could get my hands on. I almost bought a more expensive microphone due to its cool looks but with my friend there to remind me that all I needed was the basic type. I settled with buying the cheapest one that cost me only 299 rubles.

Coming to my senses

I have been quite lazy these days as after the Intervarsity games, we all feel fatigue and lethargic. To add to matters are that the cycle I am having now has a really hot teacher which has a model kind of body figure and looks tat could make people faint with a smile(ok, maybe I am exagerating a bit). She is my dermatology teacher, and what less can one expect from a dermatologist? Her facial skin is like so delicate and nice. We could not really see any pores or any facial defect, acne or spots even when we see her face up close (we get to see her quite close up since the classroom is very small)
After we came back, we were invited by a sports complex manager to join in a volleyball competition and after some thought, we thought we might want to give it a try. Since I was still partially out of shape to play 100%, they asked the two indian players which are in a whole different level from us(somewhat equivalent or better than Alex Lye) to play with us as a team since we were lacking from a setter.
I was absent on the first day of competition as I had lecture and thought that I would not be needed. Yesterday, which was the second day of the match, I tagged along upon the request of my friends to see how the indian setter played so as to learn stuff from them.
It was quite an eye opener playing against the Russian youth school teams here. I somehow was pulled on court to play as the indian setter was tired or sick (not sure there) and had to set for the Indian player which was our king card/star player of the competition.
During the game, i could see how bad my setting is, seeing the ball flying here and there, causing the indian player (Surya) to run around just to spike the ball that i send flying to him.
My friends even jokingly said it was the first time seeing Surya panting in a game and seeing him so tired and this was all due to my "excellent" setting skills. I hope I will get to be better and do a better job so as to bag the gold for our male volleyball team in the intervarsity games next year.

Back In Kursk

Finally, the yearly intervarsity games has ended. It has been quite a journey, 700km away from our home ground, our university gave it our best in an effort to get the overall champion cup once more, but we fell short of our goal with a few near calls.
As for our volleyball team, as this year, the guy who played in the national level when he was younger(Alex Lye) came to compete, after a grueling semifinal match with the Russian State Medical University's team which is getting better and better by the year, we manage to secure a spot in the finals with Alex's team.
Our female volleyball team also did as well as our male team and advanced to the finals without much resistance.
The final matches for both the male and female volleyball team was held on Sunday while on Saturday night, there was a concert that was being held which is a tradition of the intervarsity games. Having seen what the concert looks like in the previous few times, I decided to go out with my friends to have dinner ourselves in the town.
With the help of a friend of mine, we ended up in a restaurant near the RSMU hostel in which we ate korean food. Despite of the long journey from our hostel we were staying for the time being to the restaurant, we enjoyed our time during dinner with much laughter and enjoyment of the delicious food which can't be found in our native town.
During the finals, due to the fact that the organizing committee did not want to pay extra, we had to bear through the gruesome decision that the finals of both male and female teams will be held at the same time rendering the female team without a coach (because he is the captain of our male team).
The male team lost the 1st two matches again Alex's team before regaining the 3rd. Though after a close call, we the lost to Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy (Alex's university) and was left with a silver medal.
The girls played very well despite the absence of their coach, after we lost, we rushed over to aid the female team who were still in battle with the RSMU's female team which were playing the 4th match in which we won the 1st two set and lost the 3rd. With the cheer and support from our male team, they took down the set and bagged the gold.
I felt very guilty while seeing the guys playing the finals knowing that the results would have very likely be different if i were not down and out from the games due to a last minute injury.
By the way, since we had to check out on Sunday morning before the games started, we had to bath in the sports complex which only had a bathroom without cubicles and only a common bath area. Most of our volleyball male team were so embarresed to bath naked in front of each other and said this was the first and hopefully the last time something like this would happen since as asians, we are not really used to bathing with a crowd.

Sad !!

Today, I was quite happy that I was able to finish my exams early and allowed myself to have time to study for the final practical skills test for my current cycle class (operative surgery class) tomorrow.
Since I came back early, I had time to laze around before going out again for my volleyball practice. After a short rest at home, I jogged to the university for my training.
Upon arrival at the sports hall, I saw the captain if we were playing against the Indian students as practice matches today, and he said yes. I was pretty excited because we had not been playing with other teams for a long long time.
Though, I was a bit disappointed after knowing that it wasn't the whole team that came and only 3 of their players came to play with us.
I told myself to be careful and not to injure myself but at the middle of the game, I landed on one of the player's foot and heard a terrible crack sound. I immediately groaned and sat on the floor. The captain came rushing to me with a disappointed look knowing that most probably i will be out of the game.
I paid for a taxi fare back home as I was unable to walk and only to call the ambulance to bring me to the hospital for an X-ray scan due to the fact that my leg was really painful even without movements and the swelling is a bit weird.
Then I was given a cast around my legs and told to not walk for 3-4 weeks which means I would not be able to play in Moscow Intervarsity Games that will be held on next Friday,Saturday and Sunday.
Then I had to pay for another taxi fare to get back home from the hospital though I was relieved when I heard that there was no need to stay in the hospital and there were no serious problems with my ankle and foot.
I'm really sad that I won't be able to play on court with Alex Lye who is the star player in the volleyball teams which was something I wanted to do since 3 years ago.(1st year I was benching, last year he did not come for the competition, this year I will be benching again). I hope even though I won't be able to play on court, I would at least be able to walk around without clutches and my cast since I want to look at my best since there are students from other universities that I could meet.

The return of Medical Check up and my first operation

Today is the first time me and my groupmates were given a chance to have a go at working in an operation. After doing practices on corpse materials, our operative surgery teacher gave us a chance to do a real operation on a rabbit.
The operation we were about to do was an abdominal surgery which is a side to side anastomosis of the large intestine (resecting a part of the large intestine and reattaching the remainding intestine back with each other)
We were divided into 2 groups, one group is assigned to cut open the rabbit for accessing to the intestines and its closure after the operation, while the 2nd group was responsible for doing the intestinal operation.
After giving anaesthetics to the rabbit, we prepared it for the operation by removal of the hair. Though, the rabbit seemed to be a bit resistant to the anaesthesia and was still moving around especially after we started to cut the rabbit's abdomen open which in turn cause a lot of commotion in the operation teather as it was our first time doing such an operation and were all nervous.
I was in charge of suturing the posterior wall of the intestine (sewing up one part of the intestine together) while others were assigned different jobs. Another situation arised when we were putting back the intestines into the abdominal cavity after we finished the operation on the intestine.
The narcosis the rabbit had was wearing off and when we tried to put the intestines back into the abdomen, the rabbit cried out of pain. Its cry was such a pitiful cry and will always ring in my ears. Luckily, no more problems turn up after that small incident and we managed to finish the operation without too much of an error. We took more than 4 hours for the operation and finally understood how tiring a surgeon's work is.
I hope that the rabbit survives from our operation and am very sorry for causing any pain to it during the operation. We are all also thankful to it for being our first ever hands on experience of an operation.
Tomorrow, me and my groupmates will be having our anual medical check up during which, we will be poked and violated all over, with the worse being that we will have a cotton bud shoved up our arse and urinary tract to get a sample of our tissues there. That is what I am not looking forward to. Hope that I will be exempted from the excruciating pain.

April's Fool

It's Friday, and the weekend is coming and with it being April Fool's day I left home feeling very happy and excited for unknown reasons. By the way, yesterday during my operative surgery class, we had hands on experience creating an side to side anastomosis of the intestines but due to inadequate time, we were going to finish it today.
We started the class by crapping some jokes with our teacher whom was quite stern with us during the 1st semester but is now very friendly with us. After that, we started out discussion and then we continued with out practical skills training (creating a side to side intesinal anastomosis)
After learning our lessons from yesterday (although we wore glooves while working with the God knows how long that intestine was soaked in formaline intestine, our hands still stink from the contact with the intestines), today, we tried to limit our contact with the intestine and made full use of the surgical equipments.
After completely finishing the practical skills we asked teacher to check how my group did our anastomosis( we were divided into 2 groups and worked with one intestine for each group) by injecting water into the part of intestine which we created an anastomosis and check for water leakage( the leakage of water indicates that we did not do our so called operation correctly) since we might have an exam of the same kind of Monday if we are not doing our 1st hands on experience on a LIVE ANIMAL (rabbit).
The result was a small part of the intestine which my group worked on had some leakage of water and we were kinda disappointed with it. Seeing our faces, our teacher said that we did a relatively good job as it was our first time doing it and hence she usually does not check the results in the student's first trial and agreed to check ours only after we had asked her to do so.
We were then dismissed after we had finish our "operation", packed up and head home for a quick lunch before heading off for volleyball training.
While training our practical skills and doing suturings and incisions today, I felt that I was enjoying what I was doing. I guess, a surgeon is really what I want to become in the future. Hopefully, my dreams will come true!!
Oh yeah, I will also be attaching a photo of me before and after my hair cut that I got on the day before with the help of my friend.

Tiring Day

This morning, I woke up with a shock when I opened my eyes after hearing the alarm on my phone ringing and taking a glance on my watch. I was astonished to see the that I was one hour late from my usual waking time. The time in Russia had its daylight saving turned off on Sunday(27.03.2011) hence we moved ahead by one hour. My laptop detected the change and switched the time automatically and I manually turn the time on my watch ahead by an hour. Though, I forgot about my handphone's time which did not change the time automaticaly, which lead to my late waking.
Being late, I only washed my face and brush my teeth before rushing out to head for my morning lecture. I didn't have a chance to even grab anything for my breakfast which is something I have not done in ages.
After lecture, we had a 2 hour gap till the next class and I decided to go groceries shopping(because I was responsible for cooking dinner this week) and return home for lunch.
Since the lecturer let us off late(she had quite a lot of materials to lecture on), I had to rush through my groceries shopping, rush home, quickly cook my lunch, ate it while studying for the class later.
After classes ended, I was in a dilemma of what to do since I wanted to go vote for our next student body president but I had some groceries that I still need to buy and still need to cook and from what I heard, the voting will only start around 6pm after the debate.
At last, I decided to pass my vote ticket to a friend to help me put it into the box while I head to the market to finish my groceries shopping and return back to cook dinner first.
What I cooked for dinner today was Nasi Lemak in which I cooked another portion of sambal belacan. This time, I remembered to take a photo, so here is the photo of the end product.

Spring Cleaning

With my Operative Surgery cycle going on for 2.5 weeks, it means I will be doing a lot of studies during this period. Also with my sister's computer down, it doesn't make sense for me to keep moving my laptop on a use basis(when I want to watch movie and relax, I put it on my bedside table, and if I want to study,I'll have to move it to my study table)
Hence I decided to do some spring cleaning and at the same time give my room a new look. I decided to do it on Saturday(26.03.2011) Class finished around 2pm that day and I headed to the nearby supermarket to buy some groceries for my dinner. After buying the stuff I headed home to cook my dinner as I would be coming back late after my volleyball training.
As I was trying out to cook some sambal belacan from dried chili and no recipe, I took quite sometime. At first, I planed to cook some sambal belacan as sauce, rendang chicken and a dish of vegetable. Though, after all the hassle of cooking the belacan, I decided to just dump in the chicken and cook them together. The result was relatively nice. (I forgot to take some pictures, so no photos to upload on what the end result look like)
I finished my cooking around 4pm and started to clear up my room and move the furniture around. Since I had to go out around 6(training was at 6.30pm), I didn't have much time and only finish placing everything but not clearing up all the rubbish and cleaning equipment.
Later, I finished clearing up my room upon returning from training before taking my bath and eating dinner. I slept around 12am with everything in a new place.
By the way, it has now changed back to a 4 hour difference between my time in Russia and the Malaysia time. According to my friend, the Russia's current president decided to make it permanent and not to change the time even during winter period.

Operative Surgery Cycle

Operative Surgery cycle, one of the more tiring and tough cycle and subject during the 4th year of studies has just started on Wednesday. Me and my groupmates were lucky to have got the teacher that teaches a lot but the downside (or not) is that she is also a very strict teacher and makes us take test after every lesson rendering us to slave away on our books every night.
I forgot to mention that this cycle last 2.5 weeks and this means for the next 2 weeks I'll have to study a huge pile of notes every single night. To add on to this load, the Moscow Intervarsity Malaysian Games are closing in quickly and all sports captain are having extra last minute trainings which occurs even during weekday nights.
Hence, here I am now, awake at 4.30am since I was too tired to study after a practice yesterday night. With all the cycles and training going on, I have barely anytime to breathe and rest let alone watching movies and series.
I really can't wait for the cycle to end and head to Moscow for the games and some relaxation.
Also, on this blog I would like to send my sympathy to the people of Japan, Myanmar and Thailand as they just went through some devastating natural disasters. I hope that they will recover from it soon.
Back in Russia, the weather has been seemingly odd as it is already the end of March which is the 1st month of spring but the temperature and weather still seems to be more of an end winter type.
With weather changing drastically during the days, (it can be shiny in the morning and all of the sudden during the noon it starts to snow) it is not a wonder why so many are sick. Get well soon all my friends.

08.03.2011

Woke up at 7.30 am today since I know I should be too tired to study after the 6 hours of training I was going to face later today. After heating up my breakfast, I chat with my mum for a while before video calling her for a while. I felt so bad for being so short tempered on my mum (I got all worked up after she kept saying that she couldn’t hear me since I wasn’t speaking very loud into the microphone due to the fact that it was a holiday and most of my housemates were still asleep) Sorry mum!
After finish eating breakfast, instead of studying my materials for the next class, I ended up surfing on facebook and watching clips till it was time to go out for my training. Thus I remained very unprepared for my class next day and once again, did not fulfill my goal.
1st up was basketball training. Today, there were relatively less people. I guess it was because it was still early and most of those senior players who are not joining the intervarsity games were lazy to go out .
Around 1 hour into the training game, one of the university’s star player got himself injured(sprained his ankle) after landing on top of my foot. His injury was pretty bad because as soon as we took of his shoe, we could see the foot had already swell up. I felt pretty bad for injuring their star player as the basketball team were lacking of player due to many of the players are playing a few other sports.
Towards the end of the training, I ended up spraining my ankle after landing on some junior’s foot. Though this time, mine was not as bad as mine did not swell up. I sort of had my feet under running cold water for around 2 minutes and then sat on the bench.
Next up was female volleyball team training and the guys will be doing some basic training at the side. As the captain of the male team already showed his disapprovement of me doing basketball as well because I am the only setter and he doesn’t want me to injure myself in the training or the games itself, I bared my teeth and forced myself to walk normally and act like I am usual. I managed to get a lot of rest due to the fact that it was the female team training and not the male team.
During the male training, I had to act normal while trying to prevent myself from further injuring myself. Hence I ended up not running too much and trying not to put my foot at stress at positions that hurts the most.
After the training ended. I finally let down my guard and started to limp. During my walk back home from the bus stop, the pain in my leg started to intensify and I had to ask my housemate to aid me in walking back home.
I hope that this sprain will heal before the next training and I would be in top shape during the games. I will also ask the teacher of my current cycle (physiotherapy) on methods to aid my sprained ankle to heal faster. Pray that my wishes come true!

06.03.2011

This morning(Sunday) we had classes due the fact that the administration of the university wanting to have 2 consequtive days of holiday( on Tuesday it was a holiday- Women’s day). Hence, all Monday’s class were move forward to Sunday.
I had to wake up at 7.30am for a lecture in the university before going all the way pass the center to the other end of the town to a hospital for a class. Since it was the first class, we did not prepare anything and hoped that since it was Sunday, the teacher would not ask us any question nor let us stay in class for long. Our prayers were heard and we were dismissed after a mere 30minutes of class.
Reached home only to go out around 1 hour later for basketball training. The university basketball team had just started their closed training but I somehow managed to be able to get in although I didn’t play well. Felt so lousy playing with all those skilled players though it did make me want to improve myself badly as I really like this game.
After basketball, I had my weekly volleyball physical training which made my total time of sports for the day to 4 hours. Now here’s a catch:
I have been having a 1.5hours volleyball(vb) training on Friday, 2 hours vb training on Saturday and 2hours of basketball followed by 2 hours physical vb training on Saturday. Then I had 2 hours of vb training on Monday and another 2 hours of basketball training followed by 4 hours vb training( first 2 hours were female training while guys just do some basics at the side and 2 hours of male team training).
This should be one of my most tiring week I’ve had since I came to Russia on 2007.

04.03.2011

Today I woke up at 4.30am and laid on the bed till 4.45am before getting out of the bed reluctantly to study for my class. I had to do this not because of an exam but because I did not do my studies for the daily classes the night before.
Halfway through studying, a friend of mine from UK called me and I ended chatting with him, my sister(who was in Shanghai) while trying to study. Although this made me divide my attention between studying and chatting, I did enjoy it immensely.
After finishing my class at around 12 noon, I had no idea what I was supposed to do as to go back home which was so far from the current hospital (a 45min ride on a mini van) and I still had a lecture at 3 which was also quite a distant from where I lived(a 30 min ride on a mini van as well). Hence, me and my friends decided to go to Mc Donalds to chill till the time was up for our lecture.
At first, I made up my mind to only buy the Chicken burger which was one of the cheapest, but upon arrival, the new roll that they had on the menu(curry roll) was so mouth watering that I bought it as well.
Later only did we realize we actually had more than enough time to go back and rest for a bit before heading out for our lecture. This was the first thing that made me feel that I had a “bad” day. Even after eating, we still had time to head home and unload some of our stuff that were not needed for lecture, we still didn’t go back as it was more of a hassle(though I did really want to go back since I wanted to collect and hang out my laundry)
It then came to the time when our lecture was to start, we were ordered around the hospital as they could not decide which room to use. After finally settling down, the lecture started and from that moment onwards, my anger grew.
Not only was the teacher giving the lecture by only reading the slides( which I personally think is a waste of time as if that is all what the teacher was going to do, she could have just gve us the slides and let us read it by ourselves.), there were numerous spelling errors on the slides that she did not notice, she never stop to wait for us to finish writing notes, and worse, she would just jump some slides saying that we have already discuss it earlier. That just made me even more frustrated.
We were supposed to finish lecture at 4.30pm but were only let off around 4.45pm and by the time we finish clearing up the class room and walked to the bus stop it was 5.00pm. By the time I reached home it was nearing 6.00pm. That just screwed up my schedule for the day as I wanted to cook “Bak Kut Teh” for dinner and it needs some time to be fully done.
Thank god that I somehow managed to whip up the dishes at around 7.20pm and I am proud to say that it was one hell of a dinner.

05.02.2011

Woke up early in the morning feeling a little feverish, though I had to pack up and go down to leave the beautiful town and capital of Italy - Rome. We left Rome around 7.00am and reached back to Rimini town at 11.30am to drop down some of the people down who were not going to San Marino and at the same time pick up some other tourist( the tourist agencies really maximize their resources).
It was the first time I was able to see Rimini town in broad daylight since all these while we left the town at dawn and only return after the sun has set. The place and beach were really beautiful, I could see now why they say this place was packed and overcrowded with tourist during the summer time.
We reached San Marino a little after 12 during noon. The view was magnificent. We were given leisure time till 4.00pm which felt like a whole lot of time at first. I bought quite a number of items here as the price was relatively cheaper here. I even had a cup of Gelato ice-cream as I felt better. Man, did I regret eating it because after I had that ice-cream, I felt my temperature rising immediately.
On the way back, we stopped at what they called a factory outlet which was actually consist of branded goods such as Armani. Me and my friends being students all just walked out of it after 10 minutes and waited for the rest of the group as it was way too expensive to buy anything.
We reached back Rimini town at 6.00 pm and headed back to the restaurant near the city center we had a few days back. After dinner, I tagged along with the rest who wanted to have their last cup of Gelato. I could only watch them eat it as I was feeling very feverish and did not want to risk falling even more ill.

04.02.2011

Today, I woke up at 7.00am feeling aches all over my poor body. Descended down to the lobby for breakfast. I realized after we had ate our hearts content during our breakfast yesterday, we were more civilized today and ate less. Though, in the midst of enjoying our breakfast, the waitress came to us and told us that they found packets of nutella spread boxes lying around in our room which we took away from the cafeteria and kindly reminded us that all foods are prohibited from being taken away.We assumed that this was only their assumption as none of us were that idiotic to leave our stuff lying around.
1st stop today was Colleseum. Upon reaching the destination, the gang were so fascinated with the vending machine that allows us to hand make our penny souvenirs that we spent 30 minutes there making all those pennies( I only stood there and watch in amusement). Then, we broke up into 2 groups and started our journey. Since we decided to use busses and metro for our city sight seeing today which enable us to visit locations situated further from the city center, we took our time walking around and sight seeing Collesuem.
After checking out the entrance fee of Colleseum, majority of us voted not to go in as we weren’t that interested in the “rubbles” that could be found there. So, what we did was snap a few shots of the out rim of the Colleseum and headed to the next spot.
By 3pm, 2 person from our group were too tired to continue and decided to head back to the hotel for a brisk rest before meeting up for dinner. Meanwhile, the rest of us toured the remaining locations. I was happy as I got to revisit my favourite spot- Trevi fountain. Only this time, we did it while the sun was still up. The place was packed with tourist and wasn’t as breath taking as the view at night in my point of view.
Around 6.45pm,we went to the rondevu spot only to receive a msg from the other group stating that they would not be able to make it. We then decided to have dinner somewhere around the hotel area and I would say it was a good choice as we ate in a place similar to our “economic rice” stall back in my motherland. The food were comparatively cheap and very tasty.
Before going back to the hotel to rest, we went to a nearby mall and looked around for a bit. Both me and Han had our eyes on the same jacket but after the gals commented that it didn’t look nice on me, I gave it up and Han bought it. I was a little disappointed as I still have not buy any jackets which was something that I had in mind even before the trip started.
I felt a bit feverish after retreating back into my room in the hotel but took a hot shower anyway. After taking a pill and dressing myself with thicker clothes I went to sleep. I even placed a wet towel on my forehead since I felt really bad.