Ramblings About My Life..

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!

posted by yong chen @ 8:05 PM