Saturday, September 27, 2008

Malaysian Studies project

Earlier on this week (from Monday-Wednesday) my batch organized a food fair cum exhibition which served 2 purposes:-

a) for our Malaysian studies assessment ( I still don't understand why a future doctor has to learn about the history of Malaysia :p )
b) to raise some money for our convocation magazine

Earlier in the year- our Malaysian studiees teacher (who tells us stories in class) asked us what type of assessment do we want for the subject. She gave us a few choices of assessment:

i) the traditional paper format
ii) presentation format
iii) carry out a project

Option (i) was definitely out for me, I hate sitting for exams. The teacher also discouraged us from choosing that option, as according to her, as medical students, we already have tons of facts to memorize. She didn't want to burden us and overload our brain cells any further.

She encouraged us to choose option (iii) instead, as she believes that university life should not be all work and no play. At the end of the day, she said, it is these extra stuff we do that we would remember for life, and not studies. You get to mix around and interact with students from other races, quarrel a bit and learn from it, and basically just have fun...she said. I agreed with her then.

When the time for the project drew nearer, we all suddenly realized it was not such an easy task after all. Tons of preparations had to be done- in all departments..... Academics, food, music, decoration, publicity.... I initially put my name down under the food department, but then was told that department had too many people, and decoration department had too few people. So I ended up in the decoration department.

I learnt to make lanterns from angpows, tried to learn to make ketupats...:p

The Saturday before the big day, we returned to uni to set up all the decorations. Many people helped me to set up the flaglines and ceiling decorations....I was so grateful for the help!

On the 3 days of the project- we were all being kept busy.... stalls selling many delicious food were set up, and there were performances- martial arts, dancing and singing. I helped Ed to sell curry mee too on the first day.

Although the entire project- right from the planning to execution required lots of time, energy and effort, at the end of the day, we know that it was all worth it. To see people from other batches ( and also batchmates) crowding around the stalls to buy the food, and gathered at the atrium to watch the performances, there was this sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

I'm not sure how much money exactly was raised, but I know it was a significant amount.

Besides getting our marks for the assessment, and raising money for the convo mag, we took with us life long lessons. Learning leadership skills, learning to take charge (like my housemate Rachel who had to choreograph the Chinese dance). And most importantly, we learnt to bond with people from other races, backgrounds and religions.















Monday, September 22, 2008

Victory!!

V is for Victory!!

Ahh....the sweet taste of victory.

Finally, all the hard work and training (we trained almost everyday, at least a few hours perday), paid off!!

Yes, I'm proud of us, Stallions. We put our all into the routine, and we won the gold medal for cheerleading!! I have a gold medal in my collection for the very firs time in my whole life :p

I remember the hours we all sacrified to practice our dance routine and stunts, when we should've been busy studying like the others. I remember how our routine was so messy and disorganized at first. The injury count, especially on the eve of the actual competition. (people were getting anxious by then). The last minute changes to the routine, the last minute cut of certain parts of the routine.


That day itself, people from all batches, and even those not from IMU itself were wishing me good luck. Suddenly I felt important, like I was representing my batch for a huge and significant event. :p

When it was almost our turn to perform, my heart was pumping wildly. I don't know why I suddenly felt so nervous, even though I wasn't even involved in stunts.

We had a false start, due to a technical glitch, and had to restart. Well, everything went on smoothly, the dance went on well....without any errors. (Except for the fact that I didn't open the 'Stallions' banner properly at the end.

After the performance was over, everyone applauded, our batch cheered the loudest. We knew then that we had done it. 'Great job, well done' people told me (and the other cheerleaders). People were saying that they were awed and amazed by the entire performance.


It was then that I knew that it was all worth it in the end. :)

Thanks to Shao Wen for choreographing the entire dance routine- and for bearing with us all this while. And thanks to all the cheerleaders (especially flyers , and spotters and bases) for making this a success. And thanks to everyone from our batch (and other batches as well) for cheering and supporting us!!







Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Birthday wishes...

How fast times flies. Especially when you're busy.

For the 25 years that I've been in the world....how much have I accomplished? Well.... a degree in Neuroscience, scholarship by MARA.....not bad, I suppose?
But I can't help thinking that there are people my age who have accomplished much more than I have. Most people my age have already starting working for quite a while, they have already gone out to face the real world. As for me? Still stuck in my comfortable little cacoon. :p
Oh well, I shouldn't complain. Anyways, the student years are the best years of your life, they say. I just get impatient once in a while, and feel like I'm stuck in this student phase of my life like forever. But like one friend said, I should enjoy and cherish every moment and every phase of my life.

My birthday this year was simple and lowkey, but filled with warmth, love and blessings. My mum and uncle David were in KL for the day before flying off to Paris. So we had lunch at McD's (my request:p ) At night, 8 of us (me, my housemates, Chong Bing, Wen Chong, Sandy and Edwina) went to a restaurant opposite of the Store. Oh...and the night before, my housemates did our birthday tradition of holding a midnight surprise....

I received quite a number of gifts this year.....a brand new digital camera (from mum), an external disc drive (from uncle David), a photo frame (from Tze Wei), a dairy (Tze Chien), a box of chocolates (from Pam), a necklace (from Lynn Xuan), a box set of Pastor Kong's sermon series (from friends) and a daily devotional book (from cellgroup). I love all the gifts! :)
Plus the numerous birthday greetings I received in person, via cards, via text message and online via Facebook. Yes, I do feel blessed :) And encouraging messages are the best gifts ever, they really make your day :p So thanks so much, everyone!!

My birthday wish is that God would (continue to) use me to be the salt and light and inspiration to everyone around me, and to be able to serve Him in more ways.

p.s. Our Izzi broadband suscription has expired, so I'm typing this entry using the library computers. Luckily they have much more computers in uni now compared to before. Also, I wanted to upload more birthday photos onto Facebook, but couldn't because no connection at home.

p.p.s Two more days- to Cheerleading! Go Stallions!!



Friday, September 12, 2008

Busy life....

More than a week of the MSK (musculoskeletal) system has passed, and I barely have time to breathe. Ok, ok, I'm exaggerating. What I mean is that I barely have any 'me' time anymore. I've to start to learn how to reorganize and repriotize my time.

Everyday, there is something going on. I just feel busy every single day :p Be it cheerleading practice, an afternoon in Seremban, planning for the Malaysian studies project, doing PBL, catching up with lecture notes, or simply catching up with others...

Cheerleading practice is getting on fine now....I am personally quite pleased with the progress we made. If before this week, our entire dance routine was in a mess, but on Monday, Delia (who replaced Shao Wen as our 'eyes' for that day) made us dance in small groups. And we really went through each step one by one. That was when our dance became more synchronized, and everyone including me became more confident of their dance steps.
So now, we've got the basic flow going, all we need is some fine tuning and we are ready!
I really hope that we can win this.....

I'm under the decoration department for the Malaysian studies project. Have to get some material for the 'ketupat' and gather 'angpows' and some other decorations to be set up for the 3 days that the exhibition is on. (22-24th September). This big project is basically for our Malaysian studies assessment. It involves a lot of work and planning (and money), but personally I still prefer this better than having to sit for an exam. :p Oh...and the funds raised will contribute to our convocation magazine fund.

Yesterday, a big group of us went all the way to Seremban to clerk patients. The patient my group got was really great. He had psoriatic arthritis, which is arthritis plus psoriasis. He must have encountered medical students countless times in his life- because the moment we entered the room, he was telling us to look at his hands, and then telling us his entire medical history in chronological order.
We also got to meet many seniors who are now doing their phase 2 in Seremban. (Was overjoyed to see David and Sue Wen especially). I had so many questions to ask them ,so little time. But from what I gather, phase 2 is very different from phase 1. The doctors/lecturers there expect you to know everything. And they expect you to learn everything by yourself. Independent self-learning. Yup. They have to clerk patients in the morning, lectures in the afternoon.... And if you are doing the Surgery rotation, you would be on call at night....and still have to wake up early in the morning.
That would be my life in less than 6 months time......since I'm going to Seremban....
Scary right?

Oh....I finally got to serve in my City Harvest cell group (even if it's just leading games).
Honestly, having all the IMU students in one cell group is a good idea afterall. :)

Monday, September 8, 2008

Tired....

Only 1 week into semester 5 and I'm already tired :(

I really hope that I can cope with this.

I know i can. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me :)

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

*faints*

Ok, it's almost 10:30 pm and I've just reached home.

And I left my place at 8 am in the morning.

Welcome to semester 5, Ailing.

Here's my timetable for today. I don't want to bore you with my daily timetable, but just wanted to give you a glimpse into what this semester is like...

8 am-10:15am :- 2 lectures- include one confusing one on MSK development

10:15 am :- queue up to collect selective results

10:30am :- PBL 1- brand new PBL groupmates (my cousin is also in my PBL group, hah :) )
Not brand new faci though, I had CKK before in sem 2.

11:30 am:- down to canteen for early lunch. Loiter around chatting until 12:30pm.

12:30pm :- up to library to do some PBL research

2pm-3:30pm:- CSU session- examination of the shoulder

4pm:- meet with groupmates for GP posting presentation. I was selected to present later, argh! And I had some finishing touches to do for GP posting portfolio

5-6pm:- GP posting debriefing session, presentation and hand up portfolios

6:30 pm - 10pm: cheerleading practice


OMG, *faints*

If this is my schedule everyday, I would die.

We are going to have cheerleading practice almost everyday from now onwards.....until the competition day...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Singapore

Time to blog about my trip to Singapore...

Went there for a few days, from Wednesday 27th August til Friday 29th August, with mum and Uncle David.

We had some important bank matters to sort out, so the first day there was in the bank

The second day, we walked down Orchard Road, window shopping. We didn't really buy anything, because the stuff there was so costly! No discounts, and try converting the items from Singapore dollars to Malaysian Ringgit- you know what I mean.

We stayed in a hotel in Geylang. For those of you who know what the district Geylang is famous for, I wouldn't elaborate any further. I wasn't the one who did the hotel booking after all :p

Let's just say that I had the very rare opportunity to see with my own eyes a whole different world altogether... as we go down for our night strolls, we could see the entire district come into life (yes, it's the most popular night spot), the people, the houses, we pass by those. Nothing happened of course, but it was an interesting experience altogether.

Anyways, some photos from the Singapore trip....


p.s. Apologies in advance to any Singaporean who might be reading my blog, of course this doesn't depict the Singapore we all know and love