Ramblings About My Life..

Chinese New Year In Sheffield!

I've never been so honoured in my life. To have a complete, total stranger, talking about her life to me - even though she knows it will not bring her any improvements in terms of health since I am just merely a first year medical student and therefore I can't prescribe anything to alleviate her symptoms or even just to further elucidate her condition to her. To have a stranger call me a friend, even though I've just met her three times for around two hours each time. To know that someone places so much trust in me that she doesn't even need to remind me that what was said between those four walls should remain between me, my partner and her. To have someone so explicitly define the reason for my ambition so far, and to remind me of what I have to be, hopefully, in 5 years' time. And to make me remember that each and every patient is not merely a series of numbers, nor a statistic, or even just another file in an anonymous cabinet, but an individual...a human being.

On another note, I also just had my SSC Critical Analysis presentation just last Friday. All us Phase 1A-ians were given several drug advertisements to choose from and were tasked with choosing one advertisement each to analyze in terms of the drug pharmacology, truthfulness of the claims and compliance with advertising guidelines just before the Christmas holidays. However, due to me finding a last-minute motherlode of information on my drug, my working paper was completed just a week before the deadline and my presentation was printed on acetates (many thanks to Wei Jin for lending me his printer!) two days before the presentation date. My presentation wasn't too bad - I felt I spoke a bit too fast because I was a little nervous, but I covered every point and managed to answer all the questions the tutor posed to me with confidence. All in all, my presentation was much better than what I was expecting it to be! Hahaha! What a relief!

It seems that up until this point, my entry has no relevance whatsoever with the title I've given it! Haha! Back to the fun part - my Chinese New Year in Sheffield, in pictures!


Me (in my very first samfu) and Wei Jin, posing for our first Chinese New Year picture in my room! Pardon the very messy room - the winter jacket was left there to air and the formal shirt and tie was left there after my CAS visits were done. The stripey shirt just behind us was left there to dry as I had just washed my laundry - the dryer they provide downstairs is a waste of 40p since it merely makes your laundry moist instead of dry!


Our "reunion dinner" was delayed due to some people having their exams at that time. So, immediately after their examinations, we had our reunion dinner at "No. 1 Chinese Buffet", an all-you-can-eat-for-5.85-pounds buffet restaurant! The food was excellent (for Chinese food in Sheffield, anyway) and it was the first time I actually felt stuffed to the max on Chinese food in Sheffield! On a totally unrelated note, I had my first ice-cream in Sheffield here as well!


Kawaii desu ne? Yi Yong suddenly was infected by the kawaii disease and was terribly infatuated with the kawaii poses and took to posing for pictures with them. Unfortunately, Wei Jin was also infected by the disease, evident in this picture of us taken while dining at No. 1 Chinese Buffet. It may seem inoccous in this picture, but I was plagued with Yi Yong's supposedly kawaii antics for the better part of the dinner. Ugh.


Due to our superb planning skills, we managed to roll our "reunion dinner" and the celebration for Su Ann's birthday party into one night. Here is a group picture of everyone who was present that night.


Chinese New Year spirit to the max! The only three guys who wore samfu in keeping with the Chinese New Year mood - from left, Kin, myself and Mark. The two of them had brightly coloured samfu's whereas mine was of a more somber colour (no idea if it's plum red, dark maroon or brownish red...). Anyway, I discovered after that night that I rather liked wearing a samfu - I even wore it to Gatecrasher for the Chinese New Year party after that! Dancing in samfu - interesting experience! Hahaha!


From left - Noemi, Yi Yong, Su Ann (the birthday girl), Rex and Li Ching. They hogged a small corner of the kitchen where Su Ann's birthday party and demanded Level Five security clearance to even enter their territory - so I wisely kept a good distance away and used high-powered spy cameras to clandestinely document their activities.


These dudes were much more relaxed about people entering their territory, so I hung around with them much longer. Clockwise, from left - Tommy, Mark, Hariz, Jun Xue, James and Kin. Another reason why I hung around there for much longer was because the window was there and it was the only source of fresh air to the kitchen - those guys were pretty smart to hog that place! Hahaha!

That's all for this entry, I guess. I have many other photographs of what we did during Chinese New Year, but I think it's rather unnecessary to put all of those up when a few will suffice. I'll try to get hold of the Gatecrasher photos (no promises) and see if I can upload them.

P.S. - Intensive Clinical Experience is up next, wish me luck!

posted by yong chen @ 1:12 AM