fallalalala and we're left with 1 more month
7:04 pm
it's amazing how time flies. It's been a month already. I guess in this time of latency, it's easy to forget that you're a medical student. I think I've forgotten almost everything I've crammed for EOS 5. It's quite sad to note that I forgot what ankylosing spondylitis was. My father nearly had a MI when i told him I couldn't remember.
Crap.
Time to open the books.
Anyway, I found out that in Leeds, 3rd year students are still going through some basic sciences (reproduction and embryology... sucks) then we will be doing some work in the hospital. At the end of our 3rd year, we'll have the written exam and OSCEs (oh.... such joy!). They have something called spot qws based on biomed topics included in the exams. They say this is the killer part of the entire exam. I'm guessing it's something like our OSPE where we are pressed for time and have to think and answer correctly. Then only in the 4th year we'll be thrown into the hospital for clinical rotations. 5th year will be just shadowing a junior dr.
I'm slightly relieved that we don't get thrown into the hospital setting straightway, but as my mom put it, it's also a waste of time and money if we're studying topics covered in IMU already. But can't really do anything now :(
I can't but wonder what would have happen if I chose a different uni as my top 3 choices. If IMU didn't ask us to change our PMS preference the 2nd time, I would have ended up in a completely different continent. Lol, it's probably happening in a different dimension somewhere out there.
Haiz.
Crap.
Time to open the books.
Anyway, I found out that in Leeds, 3rd year students are still going through some basic sciences (reproduction and embryology... sucks) then we will be doing some work in the hospital. At the end of our 3rd year, we'll have the written exam and OSCEs (oh.... such joy!). They have something called spot qws based on biomed topics included in the exams. They say this is the killer part of the entire exam. I'm guessing it's something like our OSPE where we are pressed for time and have to think and answer correctly. Then only in the 4th year we'll be thrown into the hospital for clinical rotations. 5th year will be just shadowing a junior dr.
I'm slightly relieved that we don't get thrown into the hospital setting straightway, but as my mom put it, it's also a waste of time and money if we're studying topics covered in IMU already. But can't really do anything now :(
I can't but wonder what would have happen if I chose a different uni as my top 3 choices. If IMU didn't ask us to change our PMS preference the 2nd time, I would have ended up in a completely different continent. Lol, it's probably happening in a different dimension somewhere out there.
Haiz.
i should update
6:07 am
so many things to write about but just no inspiration to sit down and blog properly.
it's mostly nostalgic stuff, things that keeps me awake, the things that i'm doing right now, the things i want to do, etc.
holiday progress: stagnant. when you're down on money, everything becomes stagnant.
leeds progress: stagnant. i need that dumb number!!!
packing: stagnant. i'll pack in aug. lol. classic procrastinator.
it's mostly nostalgic stuff, things that keeps me awake, the things that i'm doing right now, the things i want to do, etc.
holiday progress: stagnant. when you're down on money, everything becomes stagnant.
leeds progress: stagnant. i need that dumb number!!!
packing: stagnant. i'll pack in aug. lol. classic procrastinator.
my first 10km. :D
8:03 pm
*pictures were taken by hui xian not me. i didn't want to risk my g11 getting lost here.
The day begun before the crack of dawn- at 4.30am. cause we needed to get to the bus station at 5am for the shuttle bus (where they con our money. they requested we buy a rapidpass at rm15 so we can board the shuttle bus. but wth... they didn't even ask to see our pass. any tom, dick and harry can just hop on the bus that day)
When we arrived at Dataran Merdeka, the full marathon runners were already flagged off at 5am (crazy shit?!). After checking in our bags, we wandered around and camwhored here and there. There were a lot of people doing light exercises (looking like super pro runners with their personal timer, water belts, dressed head to toe in nike/addidas/etc etc) while we were making dumb poses. still exercise i guess.
Blocking people's way
ARGHHHHH!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M AWAKE AT 5AM!!!!
Flagging off the 21 km runners
Camwhoring before our own flag off at 7am.
The massive crowd. Can't believe so many people like to murder their legs.
Run run run
More running. lol at the guy who is taking pics too.
COMPLETED! Clocked in at 1 hr 26 minutes. My official timing is 1 hr 24 minutes cause we were at the back of the group and we took 2 minutes after the timer started to cross the starting line.
Shiny medals for the both of us :D
Btw... the baggage service totally sucks. Queued up for 30 minutes in the flaming hot sun then they suddenly announced that we must rearrange ourselves according to our baggage number. Mayhem ensued and i just potong jalan (like so many other ppl) and got my bag within 15 minutes.
Since we are totally aunties, we thought we must use our rapidpass until we puas hati (rapidpass is valid for any public transport service for 1 day). so we went to petaling street to eat beef noodles (super yum! but omg... i think i forgot where was it already) then took the lrt to klcc to surprise a friend of mine [who wasn't there anyway. :( ]
but we did go and wash up and change then headed to sg wang... to go to toilet bowl restaurant. lol. seriously. hui xian forgot the name of the restaurant so she asked the reception where is the toilet bowl restaurant. the guy, without blinking or giving us the look of "wth?", told us to go up 1 floor and head to the right end of the shopping mall to get to toilet bowl restaurant. ahahahahahahahaha
I found out I was a boy here
Hui Xian found out she likes to pee in socks and pants.
Ok... so we have 2 girls, waking up at 4.30am, running/walking/jogging non stop for close to 2 hrs, then lining up in the hot sun for another hour then we went han kai in petaling street -> klcc -> sg wang.
But now... i was friggin tired. we made our way to kelana jaya station and took a bus back home. And then crashed for 4 hrs. But that gila WONG HUI XIAN... she bathed and msged me if i wanted to head to pyramid. lol. i didn't see the msg obviously... but she did go there anyway. crazy girl.
then the next day at 8pm i started my journey to redang. ahahahahhahahaa. amazingly... my legs were only sore for the next day. when i arrived in redang... it seems like the soreness magically disappeared. awesome :D
but it returned again after my redang trip la. thanks to my horrible swimming technique... i probably tore up some muscle fibres. haahahahaha
redang part 2
4:56 am
sunrise.............. beautiful? lol... i think morgan said my camera made the sunrise look better than real life. ahahahhahahahaha. love u baby g11 :D
we didn't do much other then camwhoring and playing around the jetty after that.
a famous place where some hong kong movie starring sammi cheng was shot. the original building was actually torn down but laguna built a replica of it. it's now an overpriced souvenir shop (didn't hv time to visit tho)
finally it was time for our 2nd snorkelling trip at the marine park @ pulau pinang. this time we actually rented an underwater camera and we brought some bread to feed the fishies.
luring out the eel with a piece of dead fish
the moray eel is at the bottom of the pic. i didn't click the shutter fast enough as it really happened in a blink of an eye.
After that i really cannot swim anymore thanks to my useless swimming technique (kicking only. my hands were useless for some reason) so i just drifted around finding for the others. finally i found them and we went ahead and saw a sunken ship
haha. hms repulse or prince of wales?
not sure about the exact location, but another friend said that sting rays can be found just a little off to the right more, slightly beyond the buoy. darn it... her guide showed her that.
as for the 3rd and final snorkelling trip, i didn't bring my camera so no pics to show. But it was another deep sea snorkelling. too bad the currents were quite strong and it kept bringing me to the shallow corals. 30 minutes before the time ended, i really couldn't swim anymore and was just drifting along. my motion sickness kicked in (thanks to all the swaying motion) and i felt really really sleepy and had a headache. ughh...
morgan, parisha and ange thought i died or something (lol. but seriously, thanks for the concern :D)
the guides decided to bring us back early anyway because the currents were getting a little too strong. so we were back at shore by 4.30pm. With time to kill... we tried our hand at volleyball
well... it didn't really worked out well as:
1) volleyball needs a lot of upper strength. seriously. it's not as easy as it seems. and we had 4 girls and only 2 guys. the guys could play... the girls.... meh
2) all of us were beginners. we spent more time picking up the ball then actually hitting it
3) parisha was scared of the ball. ahahahhahahahahaha
but i guess it was all worth it as we got one of the most memorable scenes EVER: morgan hitting himself in the head with the ball (it hit pretty hard....) and his ray-bans falling off. then him crumbling down to all fours to let all a dramatic hail of "arghhhhhhhhhh. MY RAY BANSSS"
after that it was off to laguna (to our awesome discovery of a swimming pool in an island)
i failed at swimming even there :( only can swim backwards. so sad la
we did the whole set of playing card symbol: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. ahahahhaha. this is supposed to be spades. lol
we didn't really do much at night other than walk to the other end of the beach. soon, everyone was too tired to go on playing cards (morgan kept winning this time. lol... i think that killed the fun)
the next morning was pretty much a blur. we woke up, ate breakfast and returned the keys + snorkel equipment. then we looked around the souvenir stores. before we know it, we had to rush to the boat for us leave already. ;(
gbye dear redang.
but that wasn't the end of the story. ahhaha. we stopped by a keropok stall on the way to the bus station. cheap btw. i didn't know that and my mom scolded me for not buying more (rm5 for a medium sized packet of uncooked keropok, rm8 for a big packet. they sell the ikan parang variety too [lighter color] for rm9. in subang, i saw 1 packet goes for rm18, double the price)
goat at keropok stall. really smelly though. the other goat kept wanting to get out from the kandang when i approach. or either it wanted to eat my camera strap.
who thinks it's funny that it says "tidak gatal" hahahahaha. ange said it probably means no allergic reaction. but it didn't really say "takkan mati". some ppl hv anaphylaxis reaction towards prawns XD
Soon, we arrived at the bus station again and like ants to sugar... all the city folk made a beeline to mcds nearby. the bus station is very dodgy though. me and parisha were transferring the baggage to the bus (since the others had to go to the toilet and 7-11) and straightaway there was this guy who were following and staring at us. lucky morgan was jaga-ing the rest of the bag and we called him to follow us. hahaha.
before we left for redang also there was this creepy beggar who suddenly stood really close to ange to ask for money. super creepy.
then it was just another 7 hr journey to KL. me and parisha woke up every 30 mins while the others slept peacefully. sad la. we arrived back at hentian putra at 8.30pm. then we all parted ways while ee wei, ange and sam followed me to the subang station.
last shot of the day
i was exhausted when i arrived back. but the trip was very fun and rewarding. the marine life there is gorgeous and it's really possible to snorkel without knowing how to swimming (obviously with guides and friends watching over. i don't think i'll dare snorkel out alone). really a rewarding trip after our horrible EOS 5.
Redang. the real post. lol. part 1
7:04 am
ok, here goes:
Supposed to write about the marathon first but I've to wait for pictures from my dear friend hui xian who is in.... dunno where. MIA.
anyway, we finally went to redang! Gosh.... I've been wanting to head to redang since 3 years ago. Plan but tak jadi each time. Finally.... the long wait is over. It all started from a status update of mine in FB. hahahahaha. after that it progressed to a discussion over lunch in Sri Emas, IMU.
After much research (while everyone was busy studying anatomy of the arm, i was studying the geography of redang, where all the resorts are located. ahahahhaa), deposit paid and bus tickets bought and ALL OF US PASSING OUR EOS 5, we're off to kuala terengganu at 10pm on the 28th of June.
Before that, me, sam, ee wei and angeline took the ktm to the putra station from subang. Sam surprised all by coming early and ee wei surprised all by coming late (hahaa. she had to alter her sister's pants before coming, hence the lateness) We very very nearly missed the train (lol. i was walking in front when i saw a malay lady in a blue baju kurung started running. turned back- lo and behold... the train was coming towards the platform already. so i'm like "omgggg.. the train is here!!" and ran like a mad woman. i still remember angeline saying she can't run. hahahahaha. but we made it anyway. thank you to the train conductor for holding the train back for us)
In the bus ride, sam surprised us with how ready he was- he brought insect repellent and plenty of snacks. morgan... didn't really surprise us with his hair therapy. he didn't bring towel, shampoo and soap.
the journey was 7 hours long. not many of us slept for more than 3 hours though. Curiously, there was another bunch of chinese people in the bus heading to redang too (the whole bus was full)
At 5am the next morning, we arrived at MBKT bus station
After a bit of confusion with where to meet our driver, we settled down at the Pelangi Resort office just across the street. There, we met a French tourist who was wondering if they could follow our group to redang too. We didn't see her after that so I guess the resort was fully booked then.
We had to wait 2 hours because another giant group of chinese people were late. i think this group has 17 people in total. When they arrived, we hopped on the Pelangi bus to Merang jetty. Everyone fell asleep during this bus ride (only morgan and sam were competing not to fall asleep. and dumb morgan managed to snap a picture of me and ee wei sleeping instead (gahhhhhhhhh).)
The jetty was really small. It was more of a wooden platform and a shed to cover us from the sun. too bad for us, we had to wait for the 2nd boat (since all the kiasu kl folks jumped on the first one already). We really should have looked around the souvenir stalls there as their pricing is really cheap!
Just beside our shed was the laguna's platform. theirs had fans!!! but i guess you get what you pay for.
Boat ride was extremely fun. redang was only 30 mins away from the jetty. we were on a speedboat so it kind of felt like a mild roller coaster. our butts would fly up each time the boat crash through a wave. I'm proud my camera managed to take clear shots eventhough the ride was so bumpy.
Redang.... was instantly breathtaking. The sand was super soft and white, and the waters so blue... i think i mentioned "i love the sea color" to parisha a million times.
I had to settle some stuff at the reception area (omg... i conversed in my broken mandarin. hahahahahaha) and then we had to attend some briefing (in mandarin again. i'm proud i was able to translate some stuff to parisha (who was appropriately mad at them for talking in mandarin when their english is perfectly fine))
Then we got our snorkel gear, dumped our stuff in our room, got changed, and ran to the sea :D
Snorkelling was a bit difficult for me. Had to get used to the very salty seawater (you are bound to swallow some of that icky stuff no matter how good a swimmer you are). I nearly chocked a few times cause when sea water enters your nose or throat, it really irritates the mucosa. blehhh
the trick is to always remember to breath with your mouth and forget about breathing through the nose. lol.... and it may seem like common sense, but i always put my head in too deep.... causing water to go through the tube and into my mouth... bluek.
We just had lunch and played some cards to pass time before our first snorkelling trip.
I really didn't know our first trip out was to deep sea. Horribly terrified when i saw the boat stopping in the middle of the sea and then the guide told us to snorkel here. Me, parisha and angeline had panic written all over our faces. Ee wei and the 2 other crazy dudes just jumped off the boat. Noooo... they didn't use the staircase like normal people would... they JUMPED.
Me, angeline and parisha took the normal people's way- the stairs. even then, it was quite terrifying for me cause when i stepped off... i think i sort of jumped off it expecting to land on something. instead... i was submerged in water and some water went into my nose. lucky the lifejacket brought me right up to the surface otherwise i would've just panicked and drowned. lol.
gosh... the corals at this place was the best. THE BEST. out of the 3 snorkel areas, this was the best place as it was the deepest too . too bad for us, we didn't rent any camera :(
Saw a lot of different corals and fishes. Ee wei was luckier as a guide noticed her and showed her a starfish he picked up. then proceeded to show her the nemo fish, sea cucumbers, etc
my other friends told me that guides have a preference towards girls... hahahaha. they were much more lucky as they saw stingrays and baby sharks i think.
after snorkelling, i was super hungry and tired. maybe it was due to my incorrect swimming technique (i only could flap my legs... wat the heck. my brain couldn't coordinate my hands and legs) or maybe it was the marathon.
Then we had afternoon tea
and then a camwhore session :D
We ended the day with dinner and a walk towards laguna's side of the beach. Actually the stretch of beach in front of us was better than theirs- the other beach had quite a bit of dead coral bits... so quite painful to walk barefooted there. Ours was really silky smooth...
we played heartattack later and laughed like crazy people. Morgan was the source of our entertainment. His reaction time is so slow.... he got hit most of the time. My luck also was quite bad... hardly could "heartattack" first :(
finally slept at 11pm (early by kl standards. hahahahhaa) and woke up at 5.30am the next day to catch the first glimpse of the sun....
Supposed to write about the marathon first but I've to wait for pictures from my dear friend hui xian who is in.... dunno where. MIA.
anyway, we finally went to redang! Gosh.... I've been wanting to head to redang since 3 years ago. Plan but tak jadi each time. Finally.... the long wait is over. It all started from a status update of mine in FB. hahahahaha. after that it progressed to a discussion over lunch in Sri Emas, IMU.
After much research (while everyone was busy studying anatomy of the arm, i was studying the geography of redang, where all the resorts are located. ahahahhaa), deposit paid and bus tickets bought and ALL OF US PASSING OUR EOS 5, we're off to kuala terengganu at 10pm on the 28th of June.
Before that, me, sam, ee wei and angeline took the ktm to the putra station from subang. Sam surprised all by coming early and ee wei surprised all by coming late (hahaa. she had to alter her sister's pants before coming, hence the lateness) We very very nearly missed the train (lol. i was walking in front when i saw a malay lady in a blue baju kurung started running. turned back- lo and behold... the train was coming towards the platform already. so i'm like "omgggg.. the train is here!!" and ran like a mad woman. i still remember angeline saying she can't run. hahahahaha. but we made it anyway. thank you to the train conductor for holding the train back for us)
In the bus ride, sam surprised us with how ready he was- he brought insect repellent and plenty of snacks. morgan... didn't really surprise us with his hair therapy. he didn't bring towel, shampoo and soap.
the journey was 7 hours long. not many of us slept for more than 3 hours though. Curiously, there was another bunch of chinese people in the bus heading to redang too (the whole bus was full)
At 5am the next morning, we arrived at MBKT bus station
After a bit of confusion with where to meet our driver, we settled down at the Pelangi Resort office just across the street. There, we met a French tourist who was wondering if they could follow our group to redang too. We didn't see her after that so I guess the resort was fully booked then.
We had to wait 2 hours because another giant group of chinese people were late. i think this group has 17 people in total. When they arrived, we hopped on the Pelangi bus to Merang jetty. Everyone fell asleep during this bus ride (only morgan and sam were competing not to fall asleep. and dumb morgan managed to snap a picture of me and ee wei sleeping instead (gahhhhhhhhh).)
The jetty was really small. It was more of a wooden platform and a shed to cover us from the sun. too bad for us, we had to wait for the 2nd boat (since all the kiasu kl folks jumped on the first one already). We really should have looked around the souvenir stalls there as their pricing is really cheap!
Just beside our shed was the laguna's platform. theirs had fans!!! but i guess you get what you pay for.
Boat ride was extremely fun. redang was only 30 mins away from the jetty. we were on a speedboat so it kind of felt like a mild roller coaster. our butts would fly up each time the boat crash through a wave. I'm proud my camera managed to take clear shots eventhough the ride was so bumpy.
Redang.... was instantly breathtaking. The sand was super soft and white, and the waters so blue... i think i mentioned "i love the sea color" to parisha a million times.
I had to settle some stuff at the reception area (omg... i conversed in my broken mandarin. hahahahahaha) and then we had to attend some briefing (in mandarin again. i'm proud i was able to translate some stuff to parisha (who was appropriately mad at them for talking in mandarin when their english is perfectly fine))
Then we got our snorkel gear, dumped our stuff in our room, got changed, and ran to the sea :D
Snorkelling was a bit difficult for me. Had to get used to the very salty seawater (you are bound to swallow some of that icky stuff no matter how good a swimmer you are). I nearly chocked a few times cause when sea water enters your nose or throat, it really irritates the mucosa. blehhh
the trick is to always remember to breath with your mouth and forget about breathing through the nose. lol.... and it may seem like common sense, but i always put my head in too deep.... causing water to go through the tube and into my mouth... bluek.
We just had lunch and played some cards to pass time before our first snorkelling trip.
I really didn't know our first trip out was to deep sea. Horribly terrified when i saw the boat stopping in the middle of the sea and then the guide told us to snorkel here. Me, parisha and angeline had panic written all over our faces. Ee wei and the 2 other crazy dudes just jumped off the boat. Noooo... they didn't use the staircase like normal people would... they JUMPED.
Me, angeline and parisha took the normal people's way- the stairs. even then, it was quite terrifying for me cause when i stepped off... i think i sort of jumped off it expecting to land on something. instead... i was submerged in water and some water went into my nose. lucky the lifejacket brought me right up to the surface otherwise i would've just panicked and drowned. lol.
gosh... the corals at this place was the best. THE BEST. out of the 3 snorkel areas, this was the best place as it was the deepest too . too bad for us, we didn't rent any camera :(
Saw a lot of different corals and fishes. Ee wei was luckier as a guide noticed her and showed her a starfish he picked up. then proceeded to show her the nemo fish, sea cucumbers, etc
my other friends told me that guides have a preference towards girls... hahahaha. they were much more lucky as they saw stingrays and baby sharks i think.
after snorkelling, i was super hungry and tired. maybe it was due to my incorrect swimming technique (i only could flap my legs... wat the heck. my brain couldn't coordinate my hands and legs) or maybe it was the marathon.
Then we had afternoon tea
and then a camwhore session :D
We ended the day with dinner and a walk towards laguna's side of the beach. Actually the stretch of beach in front of us was better than theirs- the other beach had quite a bit of dead coral bits... so quite painful to walk barefooted there. Ours was really silky smooth...
we played heartattack later and laughed like crazy people. Morgan was the source of our entertainment. His reaction time is so slow.... he got hit most of the time. My luck also was quite bad... hardly could "heartattack" first :(
finally slept at 11pm (early by kl standards. hahahahhaa) and woke up at 5.30am the next day to catch the first glimpse of the sun....
