First Snowfall
For a glorious fifteen minutes today, I was 5 years old again. How should I describe it? Unadulterated wonder? Pure joy? Heartfelt bliss? Words are insufficient to describe the heights to which our human hearts can soar - everything is a lie when we speak of emotions, for the words themselves do no justice to what we truly feel. For the first time in my life, I saw snowfall. I was about to leave for my lectures when I drew my curtains aside and saw snowflakes in their gentle descent from the heavens. Needless to say, I threw on my triple layers of clothing, winter jacket, socks and shoes and hurried out of my room as quickly as I could - and out into the falling snow.
For the first time in a long while, my heart was unfettered by the chains of daily life as I stood there watching the snowflakes fall. I could have stood there, just looking up, until I either froze to death or the snowing stopped. However, I didn't want to be late for my lectures either, so I reluctantly shouldered my bag and went off to my lectures. I thought the snowfall would have stopped after my lectures, but my lectures finished early since there was a problem with the Powerpoint file - and it was snowing even more heavily outside! Walked back with my "Leader", Rexanna, after the lectures and we stopped at the Botanical Gardens along the way. It was a sight indeed - a thin layer of snow was on the grass and the autumn hue of the leaves on the trees made for a very pretty landscape!
Wanting to capture the moment, I took pictures using my shitty phone camera and regretted not bringing my camera along. The pictures came out like what you'd expect out of a 4096 colour phone - distinguishable, but incredibly grainy. However, once I reached Halifax Hall, I promptly whipped out my camera and took a few pictures of the surroundings. My parents used to joke that I was sort of a "jinx" to snowfall - it never snows whenever we go for holidays! For instance, one of our main reasons for visiting Korea a few years back was to "see snow". However, despite the winter being the coldest in 35 years (-7 degrees in daytime), it still didn't snow! Everyone in Korea was puzzled at this anomaly - but I thought I knew the reason why! Anyway, this disproves the "jinx" theory...haha!
Here are some pictures taken from Wei Jin's room's window - his room has a much better view than mine, believe me!
P.S. - Many thanks to Jit Sen for wishing me a happy birthday, even though strictly speaking, over here it still isn't my birthday yet! Haha! Thanks, man!
The Seven Thingamajigs
This probably has all the makings of an epic tale - just when I thought that I had lost all my blogging impetus, a
deus ex machina worthy of the machinations of Tinseltown came to my salvation. This tale began like any other B grade movie flick. I was sitting on my chair, facing my laptop, wondering
what on Earth can I blog about today? when someone pounded on my door. The latch was lifted by trembling hands, the door gently eased aside, my heart racing at the thought of what nefarious creatures with plans for my demise lurked outside my door. Oh. It's just Wei Jin. Time for dinner. I promptly went back to my laptop to put it on "standby" mode as I always do when I go down for mealtimes. Before the screen shutdown, I caught a glimpse of a webpage that I was surfing - Yih Seong's blog. Aha! Now I know what to blog about!
I got tagged by Yih Seong a week or so ago - then Chye Hing tagged me as well. At that time, I was absolutely oblivious to whatever the term "tagged" meant. My only understanding of it at that time was that it had something to do with barcodes and price tags. However, after visiting a couple of blogs, it became apparent that if you were "tagged" by a fellow blogger then it became your task to write about the stuff that the person who tagged you wrote. It seems as though "tagging" is a way to coerce someone into writing what someone else wants him to - whatever happened to the freedom and autonomy of individuals? This, my dear readers, is electronic subjugation at it's worst. Well, I'm just kidding. I'm not exactly complaining, for it's entirely one's own decision whether to respond to the "tag" and it kind of makes for interesting reading! Hahaha! Anyway, it seems fun, so here goes:
7 Things You Plan To Do Before You Die1. Make my parents proud of the fact that I'm their son.
2. Become a successful doctor.
3. Find "the one".
4. Get married, have kids and grandchildren, live to old age.
5. Live a happy and contented life.
6. Discover what it means to "have lived" - and live.
7. Unconditionally help as many people as possible.
7 Things I Could Do1. Study more.
2. Become a more sociable person.
3. Learn to control my temper.
4. Play the piano more often.
5. Brush up my skills in tennis, squash and badminton.
6. Reach at least 4th Dan in taekwondo.
7. Mix with my relatives more often.
7 Celebrity Crushes1. Myself (haha!)
2. Myself
3. Myself
4. Myself
5. Myself
6. Myself
7. You get the idea...
7 Often Repeated Words1. Hmmm....
2. Really?
3. Yo!
4. Damn
5. Uhhh
6. *yawn*
7. Huh?
7 Traits I Look For In The Opposite Sex1. A sense of humour.
2. Intelligence.
3. Patience.
4. Loyalty.
5. Witty.
6. Fun.
7. Pleasant looks (c'mon, admit this, guys).
My 7 Tags Go To1. Lip Beng a.k.a. Fish
2. Irwin
3. Lisa
4. Eric
5. Tze Chow
6. Jeremy
7. Anyone else who wants this...
Updates
I can't believe that it's already a week since I last blogged - so much for my grandiose plans to write "an entry each day"! Well, this entry will just be a general update on the events that happened in the past week, since there weren't really any outstanding events that I can really blog about.
What's new, you ask. For starters, the eight weeks of Introduction to Medicine and Medical Sciences (IMMS) module is now over and the current module now is the Cardiovascular (CVR) module - medical school now begins proper! Somehow, I've been looking forward to this. The IMMS module was either mind-numbingly boring or incomprehensibly difficult, and as a result of that, I was either dozing off in lectures or staring at the slides with my mouth agape and a huge question mark hovering somewhere over my head. Some parts of IMMS were undeniably interesting, but others could have been given in bat squeaks for all they were worth.
So far, CVR seems rather interesting. It's a fact that I have not dozed off in any lecture since it's begun, testament to my earlier statement. Anatomy Practicals are still more or less the most fun thing I get to do every week. My scapel is now my best friend, and I'm already getting to know the bone forceps and bone saw better. However, my table's demonstrator doesn't seem very inclined to point us in the right direction whenever my group members (myself included) flounder in the intricacies of the human body, which happens ever so often - he'll throw us a few cryptic directions, prod some stuff and wander off. We then end up asking "What's this? Should we cut it?" every few seconds and prodding stuff continually without actually getting anywhere. It is worth noting that my group's general consensus on the anatomical bits and bobs of the human body is -
if it's unknown, slice it out and we'll find out what it is, or not. Thankfully, another demonstrator will usually come to our salvation and show us what to cut and what to look out for, and everything gets done in the space of 10 minutes.
I had my first "claypot chicken rice" in Sheffield last Friday as well. Granted, it was cooked in a rice cooker, but we'll call it claypot chicken rice anyway since it was brown, contained chicken and had a crust of carbonized rice all around it. Had it in Nessa's flat's kitchen - she organized another potluck dinner party. Like before, I didn't contribute anything besides the alcohol, which I shared with Suresh - we drank the bulk of it, as usual. The food was pretty good - there was chicken curry, claypot chicken rice (albeit one cooked in a rice cooker, but hey, I'm not complaining), chips, carbonized pizza (an unfortunate accident) as well as stir-fried vegetables. After nearly everyone left and those who were remaining were talking about some stuff or the other, I sat down at the couch and dozed off. I woke up just in time to find the kitchen cleared up and when it was nearly time to leave - talk about strategic timing!
Went to the International Food Evening last Saturday as well. I went there with Ema and one of her friends. It was basically a foodfair concept with stalls set up by the societies of various countries. It was a pretty interesting experience, being able to sample different cuisine from different countries. I managed to sample some reindeer wraps, Scandidavian cinnamon buns, some Hong Kongese dessert,
sushi (which was mediocre), Korean
gimbap and
kimchijeon, some wierd Indonesian dessert and some Malaysian
kuih (for the sake of supporting MASSOC)
. The performances weren't half bad too - managed to see the City Mayor and the Mayoress attempt the
salsa! Hahaha! However, this event was pretty harsh on my wallet - I reckon I left the place 10 pounds lighter than before I went in. But it was all in all a memorable night!
Well, I guess this will do for now - I'll try to update again as soon as possible!
SSC - Scourge Of Phase 1A-ians!
My SSC is the culmination of an effort spanning eight weeks since it was assigned to us hapless Phase 1A-ians in what seemed like an eternity ago - tonnes of research, writing, referencing, reading and editing. Well, actually, it isn't. My SSC is actually the culmination of four weeks of planning, two weeks of procrastinating and slightly over a week of writing liberally interspersed with swearing, writer's block, hair-pulling, spacing out and nail-peeling. Is it any wonder why I love my SSC so? So many emotions were mixed in a metaphorical cauldron brewing a literary masterpiece that will blow the brain matter out of the examiner marking it - either the aforesaid examiner will get his mind blown due to the thought-provokingness of it or the very crappiness of it all - either way, I pity the examiner. I have a nagging suspicion that it is very more likely to be the latter option, though.
Many of you, no doubt, will be wondering
what on tarnation is a SSC? Unless, of course, you happen to be a medical student at the University of Sheffield's School of Medicine. For the uninformed, I shall attempt to elucidate some of the mysteries of the unfathomable plan that is The Great SSC Project (The History of Medicine part, anyway). This programme aims to allow us to develop and nurture out interest in specific fields in medicine by allowing us to choose our own topic from a list of around two hundred titles related to the history of medicine, do research about it, write a 1500-2000 word essay and reference it in the Vancouver Referencing System - sounds pretty fun and easy, right? That's what I thought at first, and I even thought that it would be interesting since I like reading about history! I am ashamed at my naivete. I was young and impressionable. Now I know better. A lot better. SSCs can be explained in a pathological pathway - it's akin to a chronic progressive disease.
The disease SSC has a relatively inoccous starting phase in an individual - symptoms which may appear not too serious are first exhibited in the affected individual. Those include irrational enthusiasm for the library, excitement upon looking at centuries-old books and affinity for medico-jargon. Referencing Syndrome sets in after two weeks or so; and usually happens when searching for sources becomes mind-numbingly boring. It happens after the affected individual discovers that it is virtually impossible to search for journals in the library since there are hundreds of volumes there, and finding a relevant article in a relevant journal would be serendipity unequalled for all Existance. Symptoms include spending long hours at the libraries, locking up oneself in rooms for hours on end, declining invitations to parties and red eyes from staring at the computer monitor for too long.
After that, Abnormal Writing Failure usually occurs. The University is very adamant about plagiarism, or rather, its prevention. We have to be extra-careful not to write out the points in the same fashion as we read them in our articles as we have to submit a copy of our version to an online service that compares your essay with those of your coursemates and
every single damned article published in medical journals or books! I can safely assert that nearly everybody's sentence-restructuring skills saw an exponential increase. Usual bouts of procrastination (
I'll do it tomorrow...or maybe the day after....or the day after the day after), writer's block (
argh dammit I can't bloody think of anything to write!) and the usual distractions (
whee going out drinking/clubbing/partying tonight!) are seen in the unfortunate person
. If the person survives these bouts, he/she then progresses to Referencingitis.
Referencingitis is characterized by the fact that the people unfortunate enough to have it are usually seen desperately rummaging in the detritus of their bags for a few pieces of paper stapled together that is titled "Referencing Skills Workbook For Medical Undergraduates". Other symptoms include spending hours reading the lecture notes about referencing, hair-pulling (usually happens after the individual discovers that the lecture notes on referencing are useless) and an unusual affinity for Dr Burton, the Phase 1A coordinator. Unlike the above two progressions for SSC, Referencingitis can be easily cured by a quick visit to Minerva, the Medical School's web portal, where the great mysteries of referencing are explained in detail in Dr Burton's SSC FAQ and the Handbook. This phase is usually short, and the individual rapidly progresses to the next in the space of a few days.
Editing Hyperproductivity Disorder is a phase where the individual realizes that he/she has written too much and needs to slash out a bazillion words in order to fit his/her essay below the given word limit, 1500-2000 words, which is pathetically miniscule! Signs observed include the entire deletion of paragraphs, the distaste of the slightest amount of digression, loud and linguistically crude vocalizations, hair-tearing and the occasional bashing of computer displays. There is no direct curative care for this, all caregivers are advised to be as far away as possible from individuals exhibiting these signs as they may be belligerent and irrational - posing undue risk to the medical caregiver. For further information on Risk, please read the delightfully interesting lectures of Medicine and Society - Risk Assessment. Warning - May Induce Stupor and Drowsiness.
Fortunately, SSC usually blows over in the space of eight weeks. This may be due to the fact that in the seventh week of the SSC or so, the brain finally registers that something is wrong and secretes Last-Minute-Panic Stimulating Hormone (LMP-SH) which generates a sudden flurry of activity in the individual leading to supression of the neural blockages contributing to Abnormal Writing Blockage and sudden clearing of the Referencing pathways. The SSC is then removed from the body by selective amnesia and everything, or nearly everything learnt about it is lost forever. The sudden disappearance of SSC in the body leads to general euphoria in the individual, usually leading to secondary characteristics such as alcohol-consumption, whistling, singing happy songs and grinning stupidly.
Despite all the medical advances nowadays, there seems to be no vaccine that is effective to prevent SSCs from manifesting themselves on medical students. Furthermore, there seems to be no cure for SSC once an individual has contracted it - the only way to rid oneself of it is to let the SSC run its course. The most effective care seems to be correct treatment and management of symptoms, which may sound a little depressing - but it's Life. Get used to it.
Disclaimer -
this entry has no basis of medical knowledge whatsoever and the author is using it as an outlet to relieve post-SSC trauma. No responsibility will be assumed by the author over any actions taken based on what is written in this entry. THIS IS NOT FACT. Duh.
The Autumn Rain
I walked back from the last of my lectures for today in the wind and the rain - I couldn't possibly have done something stupider than that. I should have known better. It's cold here, even more so when the wind blows. It's even colder when it rains. But the cold is elevated to a whole new dimension when it simultaneously rains and blows. Since my umbrella was thrashed by the friendly hurricane-speed winds at the Royal Hallamshire, my umbrella-bereft situation left me with more or less no other option than to stick both my hands in my pockets and to walk in the blustery wetness that personifies typical British weather. Having been here for more than a month, I thought that I was more or less used to the weather. How horribly wrong I was.
By the time I reached the warmth and shelter of my Hall, I thought my ears had already froze to the point that they were nothing more than frosty cartiliganeous pieces. I couldn't feel them at all, and for a few heart-pounding femtoseconds I thought they had decided to abandon me somewhere along Clarkehouse Road. A quick pat to the sides of my head reassured me that the aforesaid bits were exactly where they should be, greatly alleviating my worries in the process. After the quick pat to the sides of my head, I noticed that my fingers were numb - to the point that I had no sensation in my fingertips. I looked down at my hands and - voila - my hands were deathly white. Damn the wind-chill factor. I'm no great shakes at the mathematics of the weather, but I'm pretty sure it has thingamajigs and stuff like numbers and symbols and equations. And the drop in air temperature should be something like "the speed of the wind to the power of the number of raindrops per square metre per second". Oh, wait. The temperature would be in the negative thousands, then. Whatever.
Anyway, I promptly headed to the showers after dumping my bag in my room. I forgot a cardinal rule - hot water plus cold extremities equals A Thousand Years Of Pain. At least the burning sensation meant that my extremities were still more or less functional. After the shower, desperate for a few more kilojoules of heat, I tried hugging my room's heater. Normally the heaters are nominally switched on, but for some reason or the other, it was switched on at maximum heat today. I immediately jerked back my whole right arm after trying to "hug" the heater - I could have sworn I heard a sizzle. Now there's a large red patch on my arm. Lesson learnt - always,
always check the temperature of the heater before attempting to hug it. What a day. I suffered from two extremes in the space of an hour. Extreme cold and extreme heat. And dinner's fish and chips. Again. Sigh.
P.S. - Posts will be much slower as I try to get up to speed on my SSC!
