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Author
The author is a paranoid, deranged and cynical misanthrope who records snippets of her life so that she will remember them when she grows old and withered. The identities of any names or initials on this blog are based on the assumptions of the reader unless otherwise specified, and the author claims no responsibility for them.
Reality
The author somehow got into medical school. Yes, you of the general public, shudder and fear the wrath of an inept doctor.
Loves
Reading, Maisy (my dog), tea, writing (albeit badly), piano, music, junk food.
Hates
Almost everything else besides the things mentioned above.
Friends
Bao Cheng' Bernice' Chien Young' Chun Hing' Claire' Faustina' Felicia' Ferly' Gloria' Irene' Irene & Jiaying' Jac' Jiamin' Jiasin' Jiaying' Lutheng' Karene' Marissa' Melesa' Mingyi' My fictionpress' Pamelia' Pei Rong' Qiu Ting' Rachel' Satires Site' Stasia' Sylvia' The Clique' Vinette' Wenjia' Xin Rong' Xue Ying' Yanne & I' Yanne & Jamie' Zeena' 203'
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Chat area
It's hard to believe that 2012 has gone by in such a flash. I guess being busy does make time pass faster; it also makes one's lifespan shorter.
This year has been very different. It's probably been one of the busiest and hardest years of med school, and possibly even of my life. Having to juggle about 10 different things at once honestly takes a lot out of a person.
In typical end-of-year awards fashion, here are the awards I'd give for days of the year:
Happiest day of the year: It took me a while to think of one, which is rather depressing. There's been quite little for me to be truly happy about today. I guess the day that stands out would be the last day of exams/4th year. Relief can sometimes camouflage itself as happiness.
Saddest day: Again, a hard one... I suppose as the misanthrope I am, I was rather sad that the world didn't end on 21st Dec :P. Jokes aside, I think it would have to be the day results were released. Thanks to stupid research. I mean, if I weren't that affected by it, it wouldn't have hurt that much hey?
Angriest day: This one had too much competition, again thanks to research. I think I'll settle with the day that EB asked to be 1st author. I could not believe how unappreciative she could be.
Most-relieved day: Just had to put this one in, this being the day results were released. It was an overwhelming sense of relief, since I was rather dubious about whether I'd passed or not.
Overall, it's been a year of ups and downs (mainly downs), especially for research. ANZBA and SHMRC were great experiences, and I'm grateful for having gone for them, even though SHMRC scared the shit out of me. Going overseas for the first time in a long time was also fun.
Might follow this post up with one on my New Year's resolutions! On another note, I bought a new laptop yesterday, and successfully added 4GB of RAM to the already-existing 4GB in the laptop. Yes, by myself. Hooray for my inner nerd! :D
8:02 PM
Friday, December 21, 2012
It's been a week since I returned from my 2 week holiday in China, and I finally feel revived. At least enough to start blogging again.
China was... Interesting and a good learning experience. It definitely wasn't the most enjoyable of trips (tbh, I think Tasmania was more fun. Other than the times I felt like either dying or killing my peers), but it taught me a lot. I've been sheltered for too long living here in Australia, the land of the lucky people.
Here's a list of stuff I really couldn't stand in China though:
1. CIGARETTE SMOKE. God, I felt like the pseudostratified ciliated respiratory epithelium of my respiratory system was shrivelling up and dying every day I was in China. Cig smoke was everywhere (and even that's an understatement). The tour bus smelt of smoke, the hotel rooms (which were supposedly 5-star but didn't even provide wifi in the rooms) smelt of smoke, the restaurants smelt of smoke... The memories of the assault on my olfactory and respiratory systems honestly cause me to involuntarily shudder. This is reason enough to bar me from ever stepping into China again. As one of my white American tourmates (see point 2 for the reason I distinguished him as being white) pointed out, we don't really have to fear the Chinese taking over the world since they'd die of lung cancer in the next 20 years (and yes, this is a direct quote from him. He was incredibly pissed off with them. See point 4).
2. The rudeness of the people. I admit that I am generalising with this statement, and that I had indeed encountered some very nice locals while there. However, I'm not just including the locals in this statement; the attitudes of some of my tourmates was just obnoxious. Let me explain; the tour was mainly for Chinese/Asians living in Caucasian countries (eg: Aus, USA, Canada, France). Except that most of these people who signed up are rich cheapskates. The tour cost about $49USD/AUD per person for the entire thing (including accommodation in '5-star' hotels and food but excluding admission fees/tickets for tourist spots), although our family paid double of that (and 4 times of that for the Beijing tour) since we had to go through another tour agency and thus had to pay extra. As such, quite a few of my tourmates thought they were fricking rich and were incredibly arrogant, selfish and downright horrid. They'd push their way into queues, lifts, the tour bus, even going as far as to shove you outta the way (yes, there were a few fktards who were actually that uncouth). They bitched and whined about just about EVERYTHING. I felt like slapping them all.
3. Spitting on the streets. As my mum said, we spent more time looking at the floor while walking than appreciating the scenery. 'Nuff said.
4. The reason why this tour was so cheap was because the government/some local stores had subsidised the cost for the tour attendees. This was done in the hopes of inviting asians living overseas to return to the motherland to experience the many changes that China had undergone (that's the propoganda that was offered to us). As we all know, there are other not-so-noble reasons such as boosting of the economy. However, in that regard, I (and a few of my tourmates) feel that China has not changed. It still sees money as the highest priority, ahead of things such as basic decency and humanity. The worst experience for me out of the entire trip (yes, even worse than when I was puking my guts out thanks to motion sickness due to the long bus rides reeking of cig smoke and being jerked around in Beijing traffic) was being brought to the traditional Chinese medicine institute. Being a medical student and experiencing healthcare firsthand, I honestly do not endorse the 'healthcare' those 'physicians' were offering. Hear me out before you mumble something about me being judgmental and unaccepting of other cultures/practices.
I don't think it's ethical to say things like 'you have a few years left to live and you will have a stroke unless you buy this medication which costs RMB$10000' (woman who was told this is about 50yo). Or telling a 16 year old girl that she's going to lose her memory in a few years, and that she has a heart and liver problems. All done by just looking at the person without even conducting any physical examinations (let alone other investigations). My dad was told that he had cataracts. Except that he had just undergone surgery last year to remove them. My brother burst out laughing when the 'physician' told my dad that (I was not present thanks to said vomiting).
It's nothing more than capitalizing on human fears of mortality and illness, which is unethical and frankly sickening. Some of my tourmates got so overwhelmed and frightened that they started crying. Others spent more than RMB$10000 on medication that they later regretted buying since they knew they were never gonna use it. That white American tourmate's wife (both are in their 70s) was crying while she related her ordeal to my mum and I en route to the airport. Honestly, it's just mean to ruin someone's holiday and inflict such psychological trauma just to make a few quick bucks. Thinking about this just makes my blood boil.
5. The food. It was as surprising to me as it probably will be to you guys. Or maybe not; Yanne had warned me that I probably wouldn't like the food as it was very oily and salty. And oily and salty it was; I could feel atherosclerotic plaques accumulating in my arteries just by looking at the food. Ok fine, that's an exaggeration. But I definitely did not enjoy the food, although that could partly be attributed to the cheap tour that we joined.
6. The tour activities. Most of it was just spending shitloads of time in expensive shopping places like jade and pearl shops (neither of which my family wanted to go to). Or in gardens/places that could have been seen in half an hour but we were given 3 hours to wander in (as mentioned in my fb pictures). On the other hand, when they finally gave us time to walk around the local shops, we were given a measly HALF AN HOUR. My mum and I looked at a candy shop, bought some roasted chestnuts and that was it. It wasn't till I fell sick and got time off the tour that we actually got some time to do some local shopping.
7. I fell sick :(. On the plus side, I got to experience going to a local Chinese hospital as the tour needed an MC for me to not attend for those days I was sick (because they want us to go spend money at the sponsors' shops and thus impose a penalty of $99AUD per day missed). It was very interesting. The ED was just like a gp clinic (except with much less privacy. The next patient hovers impatiently over your shoulder, and there's another doctor just 2 feet away. No curtains or beds, just a hard chair) and the doctors are hostile even in appearance. They wear face masks and imposing white coats, and start yabbering away even before you're seated. My doctor was really impatient with me too, thanks to my poor Mandarin skills. He had to repeat himself a few times since I couldn't understand some of the terms. He then said that he'd have to send me for a CT head if I wanted a thorough checkup. Honestly, a CT head for motion sickness?! I think I'd have failed my 4th year OSCE for saying that. Other than that, I was pretty impressed with his thoroughness; he asked all the questions necessary for one of our detailed case reports albeit very impatiently. And the consultation only cost RMB$4 (AUD$0.60/SGD$0.80).
But here are the things that I liked:
1. The AUD/RMB exchange rate. Which was AUD$1/RMB$6.50 XD. Which made just about everything incredibly cheap. Although it still wasn't as cheap as I imagined it would be. Maybe because we were dragged to the touristy areas.
2. Cheap shopping! I would have gone crazy buying shitloads of stuffed toys if my mum hadn't restrained me.
3. Yummy snacks! I love the roasted chestnuts, random snacks from the supermarket (which were
4. Some of the tourmates that I met. I've kept in touch and exchanged contacts with some of the nice ones I met on the Jiangnan/Shanghai tour. The Beijing tourmates were just... Unpleasant. Granted, I only participated for 2 days of the Beijing tour thanks to being sick. But the feedback from my bro/dad and my personal opinions seem to be pretty similar.
All in all, it was a pretty good trip. At least I'm now re-considering going to China for my 5th year elective (I was heavily considering it because the faculty offers a scholarship for it, and I thought my Mandarin skills would be good enough to survive there. I now know that both reasons are inadequate for me to make a firm decision). I'd love to go to Japan but I don't speak Japanese, and it's really expensive there. I'm now considering USA (met this gastroenterologist who works at John Hopkins. She worked on the myc protein!! Even I, with my measly medical knowledge, have heard of it), Taiwan and... Singapore. The latter just for the convenience and the lesser burden on my wallet, although I'm not sure if my sanity will tolerate it.
In other news, my brother got a GIRLFRIEND. They've just been going out for about 2 weeks though -.-. Ok, a month now but he spent 2 weeks away so those don't count. She's coming over for Christmas so that should be interesting ;). She's a physio which evokes bad memories of DE *shudders*.
Anyway, if I don't blog for the next few days, Merry Christmas everyone (who still reads this blog)! :) Hope you all have a blessed and safe Christmas!
5:14 PM