aches and pains

tis been a week of fourth year now... physically, my stomach creaks and groans from my awful diet (think cookies and cream ice cream for breakfast, cadbury mini easter eggs for dinner.. a coffee or some juice in between... you get the picture), my head hurts from the lack of sleep, my legs hurt from the continuous standing/walking around for ward rounds. at this rate, imma get fugly varicose veins by the end of the month. mentally, i'm exhausted by the sheer amount of information and concentration required for the on-the-spot questions during ward rounds and clinics... and especially to stay awake during lectures. saw one of the ED specialists sleeping while sitting upright during one of the clinical conferences today tho, so that made me feel a lot better somehow heh. i aint the only sleepyhead around!

and then there's the assignments, the patient interviews, the history taking, examinations, the prescribing task, the psych component, long case preparation and of course, the exams... all of that hanging over my head like a stubborn grey cloud.

and then there's this thing called a social life of some sorts.. i've lost the little i had of it to begin with anyway and there's no time to find it anymore. let sleeping dogs lie seem to be the motto this year in more ways than one...

like my current situation of enrolling in both 3rd and 4th year. the faculty has been telling everyone else in the same boat as me that this arrangement wasn't possible. naturally, i become the poster girl as A put it, for everyone else to use as ammo to complain to the faculty with. fun fun.

in a way, im lucky enough to get a "responsible" clinician to take us around with a really helpful intern to boot. others have plenty of spare time to wander around the hospital and do some studying or history taking because their clinician's away or something. at least we get a little discussion at the end of a very tiring day after ward rounds to either summarize/discuss the patients we've seen or to learn about a particular disease/topic that's common in the hospital setting that may very well turn up on our exams.

*stares at the screen*

'cuse the brain-deadness. i've used up my week's quota.. i can't handle too many more synapsing. thank goodness for the weekend. hi kumar & clark! *groans*

i'm so friggin pooped!

wow.... this is fourth year. wow.

we all show up at JHH at 8.30am with this sinking feeling i liken to that feeling you get right before you plunge down on a roller coaster... what a way to start the year.

we sit thru about an hour's worth of introductory talks whilst wondering "and where is this Timetable they keep talking about?" rrriiiggghhtt... it's on blackboard. under 4th year. of course. makes perfect, logical sense. EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT THEY FORGOT TO GIVE US ACCESS TO THE FOURTH YEAR COURSES AND THE WHOLE YEAR WAS STILL ENROLLED AS THIRD YEARS.

what a way to start the year.

so they fixed up the slight booboo. aaaah... no wonder you guys didn't know where to go, they mused.

there was nothing on until the 12pm lecture so we went to have a coffee. who should come visit us but the dean of medicine... who also happened to be the head respiratory physician, so it was his job to come tell us how there will be changes to our timetabling and he thinks we should meet with one of our tutors at the outpatient clinics now to discuss it. well! there goes the plan to top up my parking swipe card during the break.

so S and i trudge along to OPD to meet Dr S (who, to his credit, had a marvelous italian accent and was as nice as nice can be!) we hash out the awful stack of papers filled with different headings, times and room numbers that was supposed to pass for our timetable and was told to meet him at the wards at 2am for ward rounds. ok, fair enough... he was nice enough to give us an hour for lunch too.

2pm rolls around after our psych intro lecture.. we go on ward rounds, meet a lotta patients.
3pm rolls around. ooo, we should be done soon.
4pm rolls around. ooo, we should be done soon.
4.30pm rolls around. ooo, we should be done soon. im gonna get varicose veins.
4.45pm rolls around. ooo, we should be done soon. i'm going to faint from hunger.
5pm rolls around. ooo, we should be done soon. he's taking us on our own.. without the interns.
5.05pm rolls around. omg another patient?! and then the orientation he promised?! help me.. anyone.. pleaseee...

and finally, we said goodbye 20 mins later... don't get me wrong, the session was great. but we were also very exhausted. probably not as exhausted as poor Dr S (who didnt seem to have left himself any time for lunch today) but exhausted nontheless.

8.30am tomorrow, here we come! *groans*

hmphness

found this pic flicking thru my baby photo albums in taiwan... i would've been around 18 months or so but man, 20+ years later, i can still relate to my mood back then. it pretty much captures how things have been the last few months of 2004.

things are getting back to normal and i can't believe school starts in less than 2 weeks! GEEZ, where'd the days go? *pouts*

on a diff note, here's a recap of my taiwan trip ~

spent the first week with my cousins and went on all these outings. interesting would be apt.. went to a date farm to go "date picking" but what did we do instead? go there and eat the already-picked fresh dates from the buckets. aiyaiyai! the "grown-ups" missed the whole point!! grr.

^ buckets of dates being loaded up on the truck (top). «dates bumping along a conveyer belt on their way to be sorted by weight (left).

we also went lotus flower hunting, saw a fire-water natural phenomenon where a pocket of natural gas busted up thru the ground right at the edge of a small pond...cool eh? twas like sittin in front of a furnace!

also went to a zoo, a cultural village and ate lotsa scrumptious food, both healthy and junk. a group of cousins left the last day of 2004 and the other group of cousins left the first day of 2005. a few days of recuperation later, i was off to taipei to see what the hospitals there were like.

the psych ward at McKay's Hospital was surprisingly pretty similar to acute care wards here.. or those that i've seen. the physical ward layout and inner workings were different but the doctor-patient interplay was exactly the same and i was picking up on counselling skills from last year! too bad i couldn't really take a psych history fluently in chinese or have good enough grammar to attempt a counselling session. throughout the whole thing, i kept thinking... argh! if this was only in english, i'd be happily gabbing away by now! or .. nono, don't ask that question! eesh! you should've asked it like this... *sigh* the ER at Wanfang Hospital was amazing! a lot better than the ERs i've seen here in terms of structural organization. learnt quite a bit off the 2 geges (older bros) who saw me grow up while we were all in cali eons ago. both just became specialists recently :)

learnt a bit of qi gong that week in taipei, went to jio hua san to "tsao-san"...which is um.. well you take 3 steps and kowtow, get up, take another 3 steps and kowtow and you keep doing this until you get to where you wanna go instead of just walking there as one would normally would. it's an act of penance or something along those likes.. sorta a pilgrimage thing i guess that nobody does anymore 'cept for the heck of it sometimes lol. also managed to meet L and her E and walked around Shilin Night Market. ran into a melbournian there and he was such a gabberbox! he was very friendly but it got to the the point where we were ready to tape his mouth shut if there was tape on hand... also managed a bit of shopping, gawked and gaped at the Taipei 101. i see-sawed between calling it pretty some nites and saying that it looked like a buncha chinese takeaway boxes stuck on top of each other other nites. mostly days cuz it looks fuglier in the daytime without the help of the multicolored time light choreography at certain floors. i ate my fill of handmade egg rolls, the sweet kind, and dou-hua! and introed L and E to ba-wan... i have no clue how to translate it in english, let alone come up with a description for it. you just gotta eat it to find out for urself how yummy it is *slurp* too bad im vego or else that would've been one of the first things i usually scarf when i arrive :D

spent less than a week packing up and doing some last minute stocking up of things to take back with me to aussieland after taipei. brought over a whole duffle bag full of vego food that customs was nice enough to let thru without even opening my bag! the lady was more impressed with my handwriting apparently. she kept saying HOLY! .... HOLY! and i thought she was shocked at the vegetarian food (soybean, mushroom). no animal/meat fats or oils. i had scribbled on the card thing i had to hand her... so i told her it was just vegetarian food to clarify it and she was like nono, HOLY! that handwriting is so damn small and neat... HOLY! thank you. umm.. would you like to look in the bag? i asked. wha..no dear, you're fine. you can go. O.O whoa.. talk about ez! not that i'm complaining tho lol :)

...

this is gonna be another one of those "where do i ｓｔａｒｔ？so much has happened, so long a time has passed since i last blogged" entries. i'm sitting here in the vip lounge of eva airways at the kaohsiung airport waiting for my 8.25pm flight up to taipei so that i can hop aboard my 10pm-ish flight to sydney.

sitting here means that 3 weeks in taiwan have whizzed by. sitting here means that i'm about to embark on umm.. well i'm not only gonna be taking on 2005 but also a new academic year soon. an academic year that'll bring me some challenges that i don't wanna think about just yet.

ooh yeah, before i forget ~ blogger.com's in chinese on this computer! thank goodness i've blogged before or else i would've been so lost and not known how to do anything on their website lol! [note to self:　ｌｅａｒｎ　ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ　ｏｎｅ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅｓｅ　ｄａｙｓ　］　'cuse the weird font．．．ｉ　ｄｏｎ’ｔ　ｋｎｏｗ　ｈｏｗ　ｔｏ　ｃｈａｎｇｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｉｎｐｕｔ　ｉｎｔｏ　ｎｏｒｍａｌ　ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ．　ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｉ　ｃａｎ　ｔｅｃｈｎｉｃａｌｌｙ　ｔｙｐｅ　ｉｎ　ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ　ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ．．．ｂｌｅａｈ！

not quite d.day

Let me set the scene...

semester 1 and semester 2 subjects are interchangable ~ this past semester, i've been doing MEDI3011 (chronic diseases) and MEDI3012 (subspecialties). the faculty went to revamp the course for next year so now, the 2 subjects i've just done are being changed. now they have MEDI3015 (professional practice) and MEDI3016 (clinical sciences - the meshing of the 2 subjects i just did this semester).

now here's the quandry..
i failed MEDI3011 but passed MEDI3012. means i gotta redo the one i failed... but!! MEDI3011 doesn't exist next year anymore. it's been replaced with the new subject MEDI3016. means i gotta enrol in that new subject. that's all well so far.. until u get to exam. because they've fused the 2 subjects into 1 for next year, it means that the exams will also be a fusion and so i need to sit for that new exam. means that i have to friggin resit for an exam when i've already passed the subject just because the faculty screwed up this year and changed the course back to the old one for next year. now tell me, how is that fair...

was gonna write more but im too tired.. mentally, physically and what the heck, throw in spiritually too. in short, i've decided to enrol next semester in one of the 4th year subjects i was originally gonna do anyway with this 3rd year subject i need to redo. it makes things less hard to accept but it doesnt change the fact that i'll still be one semester behind. it also doesn't change the fact that i'll be at a different graduation ceremony from my circle of gal pals. that is gonna be a bitch, as N put it. also means that the pressure's on to pass because over here, we don't have the 3 -strikes-you're-out rule. they're stingy. it's 2 strikes and you're out. right now, i've used up one strike even tho i've technically passed 3/4 of the friggin 3rd year for cryin out loud. grr.

monday the thirteenth

a whirlwind of a past 2 weeks or so...

• mei & her cousin came and went ~ gallavanted to the hunter valley and nelson bay, went horse riding thru the bush and sand dunes (that was amazing.. it always is even tho it's usually the same trail. funny how real bad memories are automatically blocked out. like the hordes of flies. think: black bumpy blanket.. )

random nature shots @ the ocean baths and the obelisk

• finally devoured The Da Vinci Code ~ was a good read, well written and obviously thoroughly researched but it didn't live up to the hype. or maybe the experience was slightly tarnished because of the hype... *shrug* personally, i think that people nowadays aren't exposed to the good books we were exposed to, growing up in the good ole 80s. harry potter's a huge scream nowadays.. yes, it's well written but what's the big deal. judy blume was just as good. roald dahl was in the league above. the chronicles of narnia were just as captivating. and who could forget those choose-your-own-adventure books? witch of blackbird pond. a wrinkle in time. nancy drew and the hardy boys. JRR Tolkein's hobbit series BEFORE the movies came out. (why is it that people seem to like jumping bandwagons? Mrs Squire was reading us a chapter a day at lunch from The Hobbit in friggin fourth grade, yet it wasn't a huge deal back then. it was just a great adventure story until nearly a decade later when the LOTR movies came out and suddenly, everyone had to have a copy of any work of Tolkein be it in vcd, dvd, hard cover or deluxe edition forms) even interstellar pig could easily outshine the kiddie books today. i could rant on and on about the various volumes that deserved the limelight more than the books ranked as "bestsellers" in this day and age but i can't be stuffed.. will just sit back, shake my head and sigh at the poor deprieved youth of this decade.
• moved rooms ~ upgraded, as someone so nicely put it. scattered remnants still remain scattered in my new room. the room still reeks of "just moved!" ... either that or "just burgled!"
• packed for taiwan ~ almost there. still doing the annual x'mas/return-home-with-presents-for-everyone thing. it's a pain to do shopping of any sort nowadays. it's chaos everywhere. road rage everywhere. people push, shove and glare more. people suddenly lose tempers and values alike in the middle of traffic jams or when they glimpse an empty parking spot despite 2 other cars signalling for it. a 60 year old man got pummeled to death yesterday afternoon in sydney due to road rage. talk about the holiday spirit, geez. this one seems evil.
• results out at 2pm ~ got only 4 hours of sleep despite trying to sleep. queasy knots in stomach. feel like puking. thought i'd faint in the shower. can't concentrate on anything. don't feel like doing anything. i even forgot to wish T and A good luck for their exams today! [note to self] gotta remember to do that for their next one. shows how well i think i'll do eh? *sigh*
  

friggin' telemarketers!!

and to think that i was complainin of nothing to blog about just a few hours ago!

she calls up, does the usual routine about asking if it's ok that the call is monitored yada yada yada and then plunges into her sales pitch of what's the best plan for me. so i listened at first and went that's nice, but no thank you. i'll stick to my current plan.

and then she got argumentative!

she was like, what's wrong with this current plan? im like umm.. nothing, i'm happy with my old plan and i dont want to change. so she starts her sales pitch of "that's what i'm telling you! there's nothing different about this new plan except you get 60 free sms and better rates" but frankly, at this point, i was ready to hang up on her and not change plans for the hell of it. so i listen to her sales pitch again. she must've repeated the thing 3 times before i relented and said thank you, i'll think about it.

what is there to think about? you mean you don't want to change plans now? she demands.

MY GAWD LADY! i froze out of sheer stupefication that she was still harping on the subject. trust me when i say that it took a hella lot of self control from screaming at her over the phone. i wanted to hang up on her but that felt too rude and i kept reminding myself that she's only doing her job.. she's only doing her job...

when i finally managed to wind down the convo, she had the gall to ask me if i wanted her to call me back next week after i thought it over. i was like.. for the last time lady, i already told you that I WILL THINK ABOUT IT AND GO TO A VODAFONE DEALER IF I DECIDE TO CHANGE PLANS. i think that if you were in the room with me at that point, you would've seen me twitching from the frustration.

13 minutes 53 seconds of my life wasted.

tis been a while since i last was here ~ apologies all around to the dedicated people (who prolly amount to less than 5) who do come back here, be it out of interest or boredom! a crazy 2 weeks or more have passed.. everything seems such a cinch on hindsight ~ how frustrating!

should've done study groups all year
should've read kumar & clarke
should've read up on geriatric medicine
shouldn't have done all these past papers, what a waste of time!
should've started on my notes earlier
should've moved out in our winter break
shouldn't have gone shopping @ ebay
should've spent more time with friends
shouldn't have spent all that time with friends
should've known the answer to that mcq
should've known it was ankylosing spondylosis! ARGHH

*sigh*

ah well, it's come and gone. nothing more i can do but wait to check results on blackboard on dec 13. *cross fingers and hugs a forest* in the meantime, i've been getting a taste of what it's like to bum. odd feeling really... i kinda scared myself a few days ago when i was just sittin here and saw the remote control on my desk. had a mental blank and took me literally a few seconds to figure out what it was and if you were here, you would've seen the lightbulb light up over my head with a *kaching!* as i realized that there was a big black box suspended from the wall in my room and that tvs still exist.

glad im gonna be busy again soon.. had a taste of it on saturday at T's 21st. twas a blast and was nice to be able to have some people skills albeit the alcohol.. or mebbe because of the alcohol

moving to a new dorm room. upgrading, as CK called it M's gonna be arriving soon with her cousin and that'll be a whole week of fun and catchup to look forward to *wheeee* and then i gotta pack for a pre-flight trip to syd with A before zooming off to taiwan. hopefully i can sneak in a trip to sg during the short 3 week stint so i can finaaaalllly see most of the class back there!

ooo getting excited already! and then there's x'mas. oh no, it's not about anything religious ~ god forbid! it's about the after-x'mas sales and the 75% discounts nowadays. it's about giving a better present than last year. it's about getting a better present than last year. it's about the latest goss as all the nosy parkers of the clan gather together to discuss your future and/or husband. have i mentioned that i like the modern x'mas?

where did they buy their liscence from?

so true A, so true... this would be the 2nd.. or 3rd moron today displaying their driving prowess. lucky me. i caught them all during my total time or 2 hrs on the road all day. idiot boy with his souped up mitsubishi mirage sped around weaving in and outta traffic. idiot man in his white camry decides to slowly drift towards the sidewalk doing about 40kph. oh and yesterday, this idiot car turns into my lane from a side street from the right as both me and the car behind me were happily zoomin down a knoll... ok.. so i tap my brakes. what does idiot car do?! GRIND TO A FRIGGING STANDSTILL. here's the catch.. idiot car flicks on the left indicator and just sits there waiting for 2 more cars to pass on the left lane so that it can get in there too. bloody nice of you to hold up the entire right lane mister!

anyway, back to the main story...
idiot woman shouldn't get a whole entry to herself but i'll indulge her.. and myself. what the hell is with this driving?!



wasn't like she had a huge gap to squeeeeze her oh-so-small falcon in between the car ahead of me and me. there was a split second when time slowed down and i was staring into her eyes as she sat dumbfounded behind her steering wheel as i shot daggers at her with my eyes. lady, if u wanted insurance, go claim it off someone else. geez.