To all who are living overseas

Hey you, starring at this screen from somewhere far away from home, give yourself a good pat on your back and go treat yourself something awesome because you are GREAT!!!!

You had the courage to 

- leave home

- stay somewhere far away from family, relatives and close friends

- adapt to the new environment and culture

- familiarize yourself with the local accent/ slangs

- find a new home in a new place

- make new friends

- join in the locals who already formed cliques after years of studying together (especially for PMS and PDS friends who joined as 3rd or 4th year students)

- accustom to the new teaching styles

- overcome the urge for mamak or food from home

- make yourself heard

and finally, be extra proud of yourself if you managed to go for presentations, participate or win competitions, perform on stages etc

Kudos indeed!!!

=)

*pat pat*

English spoken by Malaysian

I have to admit that my English is not the best and I can never compare myself to my fellow colleagues here BUT what happened moments ago just did it. I can no longer suffer in silence. I have to rant...RANT!!

Malaysians start off school with kindergarten (some have the privilege to go to nursery/ Montessori prior to kindergarten) where everyone learns ABC, to read and to write in Malay and English. If you were to go to a Chinese kindergarten, you learn Mandarin as well; if you attend a Tamil kindergarden, similarly, you learn Tamil on top of the two basic languages. After that, you grow up (sometimes not applicable to everyone) and attend Primary school. Depends on which school (government or private), you still learn Malay, English +/- Chinese/ Tamil. You go through the same thing in secondary school and when you attend university/ college, depends on whether you attend a local university where Malay would be widely used or private university/ college, English would be the main language in lectures.

What I am trying to say here is- ENGLISH IS TAUGHT IN EVERY LEVEL OF SCHOOLING.

The story from the previous post continues.

My friend wants me to find her a shipping company and help her send the parcel back to her.

Fine.

But why must I search one for you when you have internet and computers/ ipad/ laptops (she just got a brand new Macbook few days ago =.=) which you can use to search as well. I don't really mind looking up for her but what happens if the one I choose is not of her liking or something goes wrong in the middle of the shipping process and she blames me. No way man. I had enough of crap.

So I asked her instead to choose one and I'll do the rest from here. I'll call up for you, I'll arrange the pick up from my house for you and I'll do everything that I can to get rid of the parcel back to you. OK. maybe I'm being too harsh here but I am really annoyed.

Anyway, after much discussion, she finally decided to use the same delivery company because it's the cheapest. So be it. Gave them my contact and liaise with them. Then I needed to print this document which had instructions on it.





I just wanted to confirm the 2nd part of the instruction.
So do I paste the folded label on the parcel or just put it in a clear plastic bag then hand it to the driver as well or what? Why can't they write
'Fold one of each (what's wrong with using the word both) printed label at the dotted line and place ( it or both?) in a UPS Shipping Pouch. If you do not have a pouch (provide it then!), affix (paste/ stick) the folded label using clear plastic shipping tape (what the hell is a shipping tape?) over the entire label (is it difficult to add in words like 'onto the parcel'?). Hand one printed label to the driver (so if I put both in the pouch since you didn't mention anything about it, do I hand the pouch to the driver too? Oh wait, does that mean I need to affix the pouch on the parcel? What is going on here?!!!).'

So I emailed and texted the person who called me to arrange this delivery to confirm what is written on the instruction sheet and this Malay lady copied the number 2 instruction on her reply. I repeated the question again this time with simple terms:
'Do I stick one of the printed label on the parcel?'
Her reply was:' Print all the document I gave and stick on the box'
So do I stick both the documents on the box?

Fine, i'm just being picky and difficult now so I didn't bother replying and just did what I thought was correct.

ARGH.... why are people who can't speak and comprehend English working in the customer service?? What if an English speaking customer uses their service?
Oh the shame!!

Rantings...

I'm just so sick of being used and not being appreciated.
I'm pissed.

You are leaving tomorrow so you asked me in the morning if I wanna meet up later tonight. I replied 'sure, what time and where' but nothing back from you even till late evening so I asked again. I even called twice to ask but you didn't pick up. Then I texted you asking if its still on, only then you FINALLY replied with 'hmmmmm... I'm meeting xxx at 9pm later. You wanna join?'

What the....You don't want to meet up in the first place, then don't suggest it.
Making me annoyed. It's not like I NEED to meet up with you anyway. Oh, and then another text followed with a favour from me- to leave stuff at my place so I can help her pass it on to the juniors.
Really?? Is that how you ask for a favour?

Later another friend from M'sia (this person's housemate) whatsapp-ed me and started pouring her troubles to me. It was about her parcel that was supposed to be picked up yesterday but the delivery people didn't turn up and her housemate is leaving tomorrow. She wants me to get the parcel and leave it at my place. She also suggested asking a friend of ours or a senior (both have a car) to get the parcel to pass it to me. Oh did I forget to mention that the parcel was 40kg?

I suggested that she could wait till tomorrow then only pass it to me if they still didn't turn up. They might come tomorrow. And since the housemate is leaving to the airport with her family on a taxi, they can get the parcel to me before heading to the airport with the same taxi. Troubling others just because they have a car is not the right way to go.

Noooooo... In the end still troubled the people with car with reasons like 'later the delivery people don't turn up (I repeated- use the taxi and drop the parcel at my place before heading to the airport) and its 40kg, very heavy (she (the housemate) is not alone, she has a family with her which are not disabled).

I find a few things irritating.
1- Why leave things last minute when you left ages ago.
2- Why must you trouble other people when you can sort it out yourself. You're paying for the taxi anyway so ask the taxi driver to drive it to my place so you don't need to purposely trouble other people.
3- Why didn't your housemate call the delivery company when they were late (oh wait, she was so busy till she can't reply me)

Oh whatever. The stupid parcel is in my house now anyway. No point complaining right?

I guess it's obvious that I rather appreciate my local friends here than some stupid fellow countrymen that only use me whenever they feel like it.

Awkwardness

2 scenarios happened in the same morning

1- In the middle of bathing with shampoo on my hair when the delivery guy that I was expecting phoned to tell me that he is outside.
Whats should I do?
Run out naked with towel wrapped around me?
Wear clothes over wet body with shampoo on the head?
Let him wait?

2- Someone on FB messaged me to get my friend's phone number because this person wants my friend to be involved in a project. But the person didn't ask if I am interested too. (Well, I am to be honest but felt awkward to ask if I can get involved)

Ya, awkwardness to the max...

found this in the internet, so true lol

A New Chapter

You can now officially become Bugs Bunny and say 'What's up, doc?' =P

Yup, yours sincerely has finished studying for the same degree for 4.5 years (5 if you include the 10 months break before coming to UK).

How do I feel now?
Honestly, scared, nervous, happy, glad, excited nothing.
I guess reality hasn't sunk in yet. I think it will hit me hard when I start working end of July =|
I just hope that I won't kill anyone!!

But anyway, I would like to thank
my parents for their financial and mental support,
my friends for putting up with me and my rants,
my teachers for being so patient and always being so encouraging,
my colleagues/ seniors who have been so nice and so willing to impart their knowledge with me,
and everyone else who one way or another helped me in reaching this stage.

Thank you so so much!!!

I recently put up this picture on Facebook

and boy did I get so many likes and comments.
I am really good in keeping the newspaper articles a secret ain't I?
It was published 8 months ago =P

My HELP (A Levels) lecturer congratulated me and wanted to read the articles so I forwarded them to him and the next thing I know, HELP uni wanted to highlight my success in their newsletter.
Talk about beginner's luck! (My housemate said HELP wants to milk my fame to the last drop LOL) 
Hmm, now to choose a nice close up picture of me to send to them.

I was looking back at my latest post and I didn't mention anything about the competition. I guess I didn't want to really boast about it but since the cat is out of the bag, let me share what happened.

I saw this competition in a website while I was in my psychiatry block (and psych block is really chill and has nothing much to do) so I decided to join and have fun. The regional heat (the competition before finals) involved the whole UK and 20 finalists from 19 regional heats will get together at Edinburgh for the finals. After seeing and repeating what was demonstrated, I learned how to tie surgical knots, excise sebaceous cysts, suture and stack sugar cubes with the laparoscopic equipment. While the judges were deliberating for the winner, I was ready to go. I was all packed and was putting on my huge jacket ready to leave when my number was called.

I was shocked to the core and when I walked out to receive the envelop (letter for the finals), my small beady aka chinese/ sepet eyes were wide and huge. One of the judges asked me not to look so shocked and should be more confident of myself.
How could I?! Other participants who were way better and has more experience in surgical skills (I believe they had surgical skills lessons back in year 1 or 2) did not win while I, a total noob, a newbie, a novice who knows nuts just got the result that she beat them all to emerge as the regional heat winner and will represent the North part of Scotland for finals.

I was in disbelief for days until I realised I can't go on being an amateur and represent this part of Scotland in the finals. So I started to watch youtube videos on surgical skills and managed to get some guidance from one of the retired surgeon who is still teaching and recently just retired (again). He was so good in making me believe in myself. All the praises and encouragement was priceless and boy did it boost my confidence level.

Anyway, as expected, I did not win in the finals but I got to use even cooler surgical equipments and got to do surgeries that only a year 6 and above surgical trainee got to do. Boy was I glad that I won the regional heat and was given this rare chance =)
* Another thing to share- I scored the highest in the laparoscopic station woohoo!! *

Now, as a graduate and a soon-to-be-working person, I am expecting a few same questions that will be bombarded to me.
From my relatives:
   So got boyfriend already ah? When are you getting married o?

From my colleagues:
   What's your plan? Which specialty are you going to apply? Where?

From my friends:
   Eh, why my __ like this ah? Got problem is it?
   I am not feeling too well, what should I do...
   Eh, you earn a lot more right? You treat.

I just need to prepare the standard answers and be patient when answering them =)


Hmmm, if only I know when will I ever get to go home...