IMU: Phase I Convocation 2010

So the convocation for the completion of Phase I Medicine at IMU was today, the 21st of August, 2010. I’m officially done and have my spanky, shiny official completion certificate! :) Congratulations to all my beloved batchmates of ME1/08. This is our mid-point. And a huge congrats to Prof Chia & Emi for their high achiever awards & dean’s list achievement! :)

What my 2 & 1/2 years in IMU has come to.

Yes, I am a little bummed that I didn’t end up on the dean’s list but after seeing my marks on my official transcript I understand why. Oh well! I know I’ve put in my best, and mum, dad & God are perfectly happy with that. I should be too.

Oh, IMU! Gonna miss it all.

Ok, so the IMU MBBS isn’t the program I’m doing since I’m twinning to a partner medical school, but it’s a nice picture of me in official grad regalia for the day. I likes my black Charles & Keith platform ballerina pumps. And my pretty white + gold nails which I did especially for today (which you can’t see)! This was taken after the procession, for, as you can see, I’ve already gotten my (empty) scroll. Opted for a cheongsam because I like how the mandarin collar peeks out, and it’s nicer than any of the formal dress shirts or skirts I have. The bouquet (WHICH HAS LILIES & A PRETTY SUNFLOWERRRR) was from mummy and daddy :) We originally didn’t plan on getting me a bouquet because this isn’t the proper grad, but they still did! <3 Love you both. 

Castles & Kilts

University of Edinburgh, here I come! :) Oh all the castles, galleries, museums, cafes, jazz bars, theatres, and streets I shall visit, along with drooling over the sexy accent.

Finally got my CAS information, will be submitting my visa application this Friday! Scary. 3 weeks left before I leave–please pray for a smooth visa application & approval. Aaaand that my accommodation application will go through as well.

I know I never really made a proper announcement about this, but yeah… For the readers who don’t know, I spent the last 2 & a half years completing phase 1 of my medical degree in IMU (International Medical University). I’ll be transferring to the University of Edinburgh for my clinical years, housemanship, and probably specialist training (if that works out in the future).

For now, the official date of my departure is 5th September, 2010 (Sunday). I’ll be there for 3-5 years, 7 being the maximum. Phew!

Post-EOS5 Leisure

:) The well-deserved (if I do say so myself) break is finally here. 

I’ve done nothing but laze around since last Thursday.

I must really really really thank first and foremostly God, my mum & dad, Twink, DANIEL WANG!!!! :))) and everybody else who helped, prayed, hugged, encouraged, loved, fed, etc etc throughout the entire studying period from pre-summative to pre-EOS. My brain sangat the tired now, so I can’t namedrop as liberally as I used to. You know who you are, all of you. Very much loved, okay? :)

During that time, I was some crazy emotional wreck that assumed a human form and amoebaed into the library every day, feeding on nothing but mummy’s immense food packs and coffeecoffeecoffee while attempting to swallow and digest all the knowledge dropped into my lap since Semester 3.

I’d say the EOS went really, really well. Seriously, all glory to God for the miracles He works! OSCE Day 1 was a bit of a mess for me, but I think day 2 really pulled everything up.

Those daily Bible readings? Yeah, they really, really spoke life into this wilting soul. Here’s a verse that picked me up during one of the downtimes:

“For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty saviour. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” — Zephaniah 3:17

Also.

I’M GOING TO EDINBURGH for my clinical years!!! :)))) End of August. ANGUS, HERE I COMEEEEEEEEEE

…it’s CRAZY that I’m actually done with IMU. Three years have whizzed by just like that.

Breaking the Dawn

Something I don’t usually do, because I sleep through it anyway. HA. (or I end up staying up through it before falling into bed)

Just decided to title the post this way because it sounds cool–not to mention that I’m also currently addicted to the Karmatronic remix of Michelle Williams’ song We Break the Dawn. Found it while going through my old songs to re-populate my playlist. Really like how it was put together.

So the MSK & NS summative was on Thursday, two days ago. Gotta say I was pretty demoralized and unsure of things until the feedback session began–it re-painted a smile on my face after that though. :) Hee. All glory goes to God!! I mean, what are the odds of your friends discussing topics in the library in the hour before the exam THAT ACTUALLY COME OUT AS EXAM QUESTIONS?? Hello!? Something smells, and it wasn’t coincidence. :))))) THANK YOU! And many many thanks to my mum for keeping me alive (by feeding, hugging & praying), and my dad for handling my pre-exam breakdown and praying for me, the stressed undergrad med student.

JONBEAR YOU DON’T COUNT FOR TELLING ME TO NOT GO FOR SUMMATIVE JUST TO MAKE MY FINAL GRADE MORE EPIC! HAHAHAHA. Bodoh. :p Love you lah. Thanks for the hugs when I was emo in the library.

Besides that, little mundane things that have got me through the first studying period were (sorry for the shitty photos, my phone is being repaired so these pix are taken with my China “AIphone”):

Akubear & Melody! :) And many more studying friends in the library (i.e. the Chastity club).

 

Library cafe food. Also, my mummy has been packing TONS of food everyday for me & friends to snack on. Thanks, mummy! <3

Bad Ass Coffee & MAJOR sales at The Face Shop. :) Yay for weekend studying perks!

De-stressing by painting & decorating my nails (and taking advantage of OSCE being two weeks away).

 

Bad Ass coffee pin. How sweet is that? The staff gave me one because they see my face so often, camping at their outlet with my truckload of books & notes. Thanks you guys. :) So sweet!

Right, so one more hurdle left before I can retire from being a phase 1 student: the EOS 5. D: Horrors! June 7th – 10th I shall be trudging through this dark shadow that hangs over the lives of IMU MBBS students in phase 1. A consolidation of all the information we’ve ever been fed (or so industriously endeavoured to self-learn) for the past 2 and a half years. 

K LET’S HIT THE BOOKS. :) Refresh and go!

Oversaturation

So tired, and feeling completely out of it.

Studying drugs always does this to me.

ROAR!! :( So many side effects! Why!?

But God certainly sends His angels and messengers in times of need. Thanks for the prayer, dear, and also for the hug. <3

Thursday is coming in fast. Relentlessly.
Time doesn't wait at all.

BRING IT ON LAH. :( Can't wait to get this over with, ugh. But so scared at the same time.

Though I’ve never seen Him

Missed lecture(s) again, darn. And I was looking forward to the General Anaesthetics lecture, especially because I prepared by studying the Local Anaesthetics lecture… :/ Wanted to compare and contrast stuff (sorry, I’m nerdy like that).

Anyway, just thought I’d share again something I came across in today’s reading. This morning I was a bit down and was doing some thinking–something along the lines of completely placing things into His hands and letting go (sorry for being vague, but not a topic I’ll share publicly). Been doing a lot of that, but rather inconsistently. Questioned myself and my motives a lot.

Is it truly letting go if I behave as such and dream about things, allowing my imagination to travel down that road of “what-ifs” and “if-onlys”? Not really, no. It’s okay to dream, but I still have to bring it all back to His feet. If not, I’ll just be fooling myself and giving myself false motivation to pursue certain things. Rushing ahead of time. Like trying to drive without a licence or proper experience–you get into accidents.

Why am I “torturing” myself this way?

“You love Him even though you have never seen Him. Though you do not see Him now, you trust Him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.”
– 1 Peter 1 : 8, NLT

Couldn’t have been expressed better, in my opinion.
It all comes down to the Bigger Reason. :)
The key is patience and quietness, waiting in the Lord.

But on a lighter note, MAY 15th is HUG YOUR CAT DAY. :)))

Meow. :3 Come find me on Saturday, plzkthx.

Productivity

It’s all very subjective. But I think I did a lot this weekend, in terms of catching up with studying and friends. :)

More than I’ve done in a while.

Was at my usual haunt for the weekend–Bad Ass Coffee (hereafter BAC). Had my usual–feels good to be able to go there and have the friendly baristas remember my order. Thanks for making my weekend awesome!

Surprise, surprise! Joel came to hang out / study with on Saturday. It’s been MONTHS since I saw this face–and lookit his so-fresh-so-clean face, thanks to new face anti-zit cream thing! Retin-A, I think he said. Updated each other on life, stuff, romance (or the lack thereof), IMUBJ vs. clinical school, and such. Miss you lah, friend. We need to jam together again. Sometime. Rock it out on stage, headbangin’. Good times!!

No more photos, but on Sunday it was Jonbear. :) Bumped into him after the service and we spontaneously decided to go for lunch at Ninja Joe’s! as well as study at BAC again. Heh. Was practically driving to Tropicana City when he called to ask where I was lunching. Go only lah! Haven’t caught him around IMU much anyway, what with being holed up in the library every weekday, all day. I miss being with the Bear family. :( Joooo beeaarrrr.

Happy Mother’s Day, mummeh. :)) Much love. Today. Everyday. All the days of my life.

When Jonbear left to go for dinner with Jobear, Akubear came to join me for our usual Sunday study sessions! By that time I was already getting saturated with studying. Finally (sorta) caught up with my CNS and MSK lectures–only have pharmaco left, ugh. Am still behind with the rest of Semester 4 and Semester 3, though. At this rate I’m only going to do patho lectures for Sem 3 (and select physiology lectures). Let’s not even talk about PBL topics.

It was all very relaxing, despite the amount of studying and stress questions Jonbear popped out while he was studying. Smack you lah, haha. :) All those trick questions.

Getting back to reading the Bible every day before I start studying has really helped. Definitely creates a certain aura of focus and concentration, as well as peace for any difficulties in memorizing / understanding. Nothing left but to just trust Him. No way I can humanly finish studying and remembering everything that’s been covered for the past 5 semesters. 

Coffee helps, too. :) Remember how? Methylxanthines antagonize the alpha-2 adrenoceptors in the brain, creating wakefulness (last page of Prof YPN’s neurotransmitter notes, in case you can’t remember).

Rate of blogging is inversely proportionate to time spent on Facebook.

(Time spent on Facebook is currently = 0)

Doom dates to keep in mind: 20th May – ICA5, 7th-10th June – EOS5.

Right, let’s do this.

I’m such a nerd.

——————————————

Till the suns and planets disappear
I could stay in your arms all year
Even if it means infinity through
If being productive is being with you
Then baby, I don’t want to waste another day. 

The dumb things we do while chugging through med school.

Bad Ass Coffee @ Tropicana City Mall. :) My new study haunt on weekends. That’s my hand & Meiyan’s hand. We had a lovely sushi dinner before settling down to study.

Don’t know how good the food is, but the coffee is great. Strong. Kicking. Kicks my brain into study mode. All hail Kona coffee! Makes all the lattes and whatnots I’ve had before seem like puny little milk-filled drinks. My favourite is their eye-opener + a raspberry flavoring shot.

Studies are… studies. Still extremely nervous about not being able to finish in time, but there’s an underlying peace that transcends everything now, not to mention pick-me-ups from friends and family.

Love food from aunty!

Found this while clearing out my mobile…

Random picture of the moment: Meet my PBL-mate, Navin. Chindian. Funny guy. Happily attached (sorry, ladies). Troublemaker. Matchmaker. Always scolds me for speeding home, hahaha.

Acting cute (and being caught in the act): Navin.

How did he get into this situation? I walk into PBL with this red headband, he sees it and immediately comments he’d wear it if I can attach it to his head. :)) Apparently boys aren’t too bright when it comes to the mechanics of female hair accessories, heh.

Despite the stress & culminating pressure, Acoustic night was a blast. Thanks for continuing the legacy, Tits! Here’s the least retarded pic of our performance–meet Brian. Brian played guitar for me. He’s really shy, but really good. His friends kept heckling him to sing all night, hahahahaha. Ladies, he is also single. Sensitive. Romantic. And he wants 11 kids. If you want an introduction, let me or Alison know; we are training him to be the ultimate boyfriend.

We did three numbers: Aretha Franklin’s I Say A Little Prayer For You (but a Double Take-inspired version), Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon, and Brooke Fraser’s Waste Another Day. Quite easily the most fun I’ve had (and will have) in a while. Thanks for the great night and responses, everyone!

Then when it comes to practicing clinical skills, the boys always find creative ways to improve the learning process and make it as realistic as possible:

Didi giving the female breast model new life.

When you don’t have real female patients to practice on, you put the synthetic breasts onto flat-chested males and begin palpation. Don’t forget to apply a high-pitched voice and appropriate squeals when you think the examiner is pressing too hard, or doing the wrong things.

:) OH IMU. How I will miss all of this very, very soon.

12 days of class left. :( medt108!

Coffee Addiction

Can’t study without it; can’t sleep with it.

And when I get less sleep, can’t study until I have it.

And when I have it, I get even less sleep.

Then I have some more.

Rinse and repeat.

Something gives…

I’m trapped! D: Eeks!

Off to get more coffeecoffeecoffee before returning to calcium homeostasis (ugh).

Not entirely certain, but what the hey!

It was really an onslaught of encouragements today, wound up by a fun jamming slash practice session for Friday’s Acoustic Night @ the Dance room (and some of the smoothest wine I’ve EVER tasted, mmm). It’s at 7 p.m., y’all. :) Do drop by and lend your support, or just hang out and enjoy some good, honest music.

Err, covered not very many notes at all, got owned in PBL by Dr. NKM (as usual), was sleepy as hell, and drugged out by my meds. Found a new sleeping spot. Sorry to those who encountered me in that sorry state.

I wish I can survive with 4 hours of sleep every day. That would give me so. much. time.

Mood seems to have passed. Thanks, everyone. :)

Distraction or Inspiration? Or rather, the breakdown.

(This is a long post, and probably highly irrelevant. But if you still want to look inside my mind, by all means you may continue, and read it.)

Sometimes, I feel like this tree. This is one of those times.

It’s terrible to get distracted now, in Semester 5, with the EOS 5 creeping up–just over a month away. Ask anyone from ME1/08 and they’ll agree to that.

IMU Ball 2010 : Audacieux @ Royale Chulan

Previously, I blogged about the IMU Ball ’08 (Sensationale Symphony) & the IMU Ball ’09 (Clair de Lune).

This time around, it’s my ball, the IMU Ball 2010 : AUDACIEUX / dare to be, held at the Taming Sari Ballroom, Royale Chulan, Kuala Lumpur. :))) Carries a lot of significance and great memories. Of time spent in this little, converted shopping-mall-of-a-place for two and a half years, mugging medical books.

Click for more. :)

Quickie

The IMU Ball is this Saturday, the 10th of April! EXCITED yet apprehensive about so so so so many preparations that are underway. A lot of design work is happening SO last minute, but such is life. The budget is cutting so so so very close…

Joash, Ben & I won the IMU’s Got Talent competition this year as Cadenza, a three-piece outfit. <3 Thank you to all our supporters. All glory to God! We now have a RM400 travel voucher which we have no idea what to do with. And a plastic trophy.

I haven't been studying OR attending lectures. -_- I smell doom.

Got through the prelims voting for Ball King & Queen, but am fairly undecided about how enthusiastic I am to win. Rrrawr. Does it matter or is it all vanity?

Many questions have crossed my mind. Don't know if it's purely because of PMS, busyness, or truly an inner drying-up. Haven't been spending time with God, or reading my Bible. Just been idling along.

I keep saying I'll update later… and yes, I actually mean it. "Later" is very subjective.

Crashing Down

Life hasn’t come crashing down around me just yet, but it definitely seems like it.

My hours and minutes are back to back, not stopping even a second for me to catch a breath before the next wave comes along.

This is one of those rare moments of s p a c e. Much-needed space to write, to repeat my “I’m busy and I’m sorry” blogposts, and to shamelessly advertise for votes if you’d like to see me as a prom queen nominee.

Being on the OC for the IMU ball 2010 is fun, yet hectic. My studies have taken a backseat, and it’s not the desired arrangement–trust me.

Time isn’t poetic anymore; it slaps you in the face with a ticker counting down the seconds to your 5th semester final exams.

Sleep just isn’t the same either. It’s the “get-as-much-as-you-can” scramble now, in contrast with last semester’s “don’t-feel-like-sleeping-yet” humdrum. I’m becoming increasingly protective over my personal time, and more reluctant to spend time just being with people.

Yet, in the midst of all this, I’ll still find the sanity to remind myself that I’m NOT alone. That there’s someone and something bigger than all this personal chaos; a higher purpose to fulfil with all the insignificant things I’m doing.

By His grace, love, and mercy… I am able to do all this (and more). I really don’t know why I always want to write blogposts like this one, but perhaps, they serve as a public reminder & method of accountability that I should complain less and seek His peace instead. I keep forgetting to pray and read my Bible. My heart is restless until I get back to doing it.

I want to say I’m sorry to every one of my friends and family whom I’ve been neglecting because of the amount of things on my plate, and all my personal vanities.

——————————–

This week’ll be my last time on the worship team until July (maybe) because of exams and all). Almost cried at practice today thinking about that, but stopped myself because it’s nonsense to make myself sad when the reality is still so far away.

Timely Reminders

God doesn’t give me more than I can handle.

Even if He does, it’s to stretch my capability and increase my faith in Him.

He’s there every step of the way, always.

Then why am I continuing to live in fear?

I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME!!! :)

YES YES YES!!! SEM 5 + IMU BALL + CONVO MAG + ATONE + JOC + EVERYTHING ELSE…

HERE I COME WITH MY GOD!!!!!! <3 <3

Thanks, Ming, Kevin, and Adele for being God’s messengers to me.