Thursday, January 29, 2009

One Week of Orientation

Standing on a bridge over Avon River

Just finish my first week of orientation in Christchurch. This orientation, of course is not the same one as IMU's junior orientation. Instead, this orientation basically covers several subjects that we didn't learn in imu, such as Maori Health, ethics, critical appraisal and etc. Well, we did learn some of them back in kl, but not in dept. But here, they pay lots of emphasis on these subjects, no choice, have to study then.

Lunch was provided most of the time, mainly sandwiches and small pizza. I wish they will serve mixed rice or something like that, haha!

Tomorrow i have no class, yeah, long weekend for me!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My Bed

This is the coziest place that i could think of in the whole Christchurch. Yes, my bed. It's considered as double-bed size, with double pillows (bought from Warehouse) and double duvets (bought from Farmers). Speaking of duvet, i got it with 99 bucks, buy 1 free 1, with wool as material. Senior said we must get at least two duvets for winter. Well since Farmers are having sale (they also do, according to seniors...), without much hesitation, i brought back 2 duvets with one price, hopefully it's a good deal.

Though it's summer now, the weather can be quite cold in the midnight. With the blanket that i brought from home, sadly isn't sufficient to keep me warm. Besides i have bad tolerance towards cold weather, and sleep is like one of the most element in my life, so setting up a good condition for my bed is inevitable.

Today the weather has gone crazy. No bright sunshine, only strong, freezing wind. Just feel like wrapping myself on the bed now. Plus i don't have heater in my room, guess what is my main source of heat? My poor little laptop... Yup, it's weird, all i need to do is just putting both of my palms below the laptop, because all the hot air is being fanned out there. Pathetic, isn't it? But i find it very funny, haha!

Monday, January 26, 2009

新年初一

Lecture notes of CNY, hope it brings good luck, haha!

First of all, i wanna wish all of you Happy Chinese New Year. I wonder how nice it would be if i were back at home now. In Christchurch, it's like nothing happen on this festive day, can't blame anyway, most of the residents here are Caucasian, and the asians here are mostly constituted by japanese and korean. I finally experience of being minority in a society....

Anyway, today has been a great day. I went to school (after 6 months of holidays...), attended a brief introduction/lecture on New Zealand and its health care system. Had a tour around my school, led by our seniors, Henry and Andrew. Well, all of these took half of the day and now i'm finally back at my flat and resting. Tomorrow will have another two lectures, ethics and Maori Health. Sigh, tomorrow gonna be a challenging day!

Missing all my friends and family back at home....

新年快乐,万事如意

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Chinese New Year 2009


Ah Beh and me have no family to celebrate CNY this time, so we take out ang pao and pretend that we are in CNY mood, haha!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

My 22nd Birthday

Dark Chocolate from James, Lovely Card from Swarna, Touching Letter & Ang Pao from Mummy, Interesting Novel The Zahir from Aaron and Kajen

And a big THANK YOU to all my friends who sent their wishes to me, it really meant a lot to me. Though no fancy party or massive present, i enjoyed my birthday in Christchurch. Walking around the city, sight-seeing, getting things done, haha!

By the way, i'm truly glad that james purposely came down from Auckland to celebrate my birthday as well as helping me out to settle in. Seriously will owe you a lifetime....

Getting older as year passes by, so as the resposibilities and obligations burdened on my shoulder. No more naivety, no more fooling around, time to be a GROWN-UP! can wait till i graduate ah?

Friday, January 23, 2009

First Day in Christchurch

10 hours of flight from KL to Auckland wasn’t as bad as I imagined. I watched one movie, ate 2 meals, slept for around 1 hour, the rest of the time I used it to chat with swarna, no wonder time passed so fast.

The weather in Auckland was nice, shinny sun accompanied with cool breeze. The airport was quite busy, filled with crowd in every corner, especially at the arrival hall. Greeted by james, and the Auckland people kept on bombarding him with questions because he had been here since 2 days ago. After that, me, james and chong yu waited at the domestic terminal for the next 3 hours for our flight to Christchurch.

It only took an hour plus to reach Christchurch, surprisingly. Christchurch weather was abit extreme, the temperature was generally lower than Auckland. Picked up by Mr. Anthony and 2 seniors, Andrew and Henry, with a signboard written with ‘IMU Students’ on their hand. We had a short trip of sight-seeing around Christchurch. It’s a very small city, compared to Auckland, but the place is very serene and quiet. I saw my school and attached hospital. Then finally, we came to my flat. My flat consists of 6 rooms, 2 showers and toilet, one living room, one kitchen and one laundry room. The flat is pretty old, but still looks safe enough to stay in. After ventured around the house for less than hour, the seniors brought us out for a walk and for dinner.

Really glad that Andrew and Henry stayed back to explain lots of stuff for us, without them, I’m sure I would be very blur by now. Thank you so much!

Monday, January 19, 2009

A New Chapter

Can't believe my holiday is officially over, and i will be starting my clinical phase soon. 6 months ago, i was planning my vacations while the UK and Seremban people burying their heads in the books. Now, i feel that i had detached from medicine for a long time, and it's time to catch it up no matter what.

For the first time, i am leaving my homeland to pursue my dream on a foreign land. Oblivious, is the best word to describe my present feeling. I don't dare to imagine, because i know reality and imagination always parted with a gap. Challenging? Exciting? Plateau? Just hope i have the courage to handle all of them.

Later, i will be taking bus to the airport. A lot of people asked: "why don't your parents send you off in the airport?" Then my typical answer would be: "oh, coz it's expensive mah, purposely drive down and up, and have to pay petrol and toll fee, not worthy!" To be frank, i just don't have the heart to see my mum weeps....

Opening my new chapter of life, by celebrating my birthday and Chinese New Year in New Zealand, what a great introduction, haha!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Photoshop Exercise- Caryn & Octopie (comic-style)

This picture was taken in my room at Vista C, Bukit Jalil

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Final Packing

Do you know how much time i took to do my final packing to NZ? Half an hour, muahaha.... Can't believe i have such ability to do speed packing.

Previously my mum had helped to pack all those formal and winter clothes into one luggage. And all i needed to do was just put in all my casual clothes and miscellaneous stuff into my backpack. Well, maybe it just showed that i have so little casual clothes...sigh...and my mum still refused to buy me new clothes....Chinese New Year without new clothes, sigh.....

Anyway, hopefully i had put in all those necessities. This is the most annoying feeling i get most of the time when i'm ready to go somewhere else. Always feel paranoid in the last minute, worry that i might miss out this, miss out that. Plus my mum will gives me the stern warning look, as if telling me: "Don't you dare to leave anything behind and ask me to send it over immediately!" Scared....

Oh ya, i just found out that the room that i'm going to stay in doesn't provide pillow. And the worst part is, i will be arriving there at 8pm, guess most of the shops will be closed by then. Sigh...don't know how am i going to survive the first night in NZ?

Everything will be alright eventually, right? Haha...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Photoshop exercise - G13 Reunion


This picture was taken in one of the reunions in Yuen Yuen, Subang. There is one reunion coming up in this Thursday, for further information, please contact Ailing.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Agnostic in Temple

Few days ago, my mum asked me to follow her to the temple before i go overseas. Of course my first reaction was a big no-no. I told her that i'm an agnostic and it would be so weird i show my 'devotion' in the temple. We argued for awhile then finally my mum said, "Can you just do it for me? I just want a peace of mind...."

Ok loh...

Finally today, me and my parents went to the temples, oh ya, there were 2 temples that i needed to go. The first temple is in the middle of a housing area, very quiet and clean. Standing in front of the magnificent golden Buddha statue, i seriously hoped there was something magical would happened. I put both of my palm together and prayed, tried my very best to get rid of the agnostic part of me momentarily. I swore this wasn't an act of mockery, and i do respect all the religions in the world, but it's my belief which tells me otherwise.

Then we went to the second temple, where my dad always works as volunteer. This temple is located near a small rocky hill. Serene and calming. There is one newly renovated hall, filled with shining statues and a big chandelier hanging in the center. This temple is very well maintained (thanks to my dad and other volunteers, haha) and nicely decorated. We didn't do much in that temple, but i took a few pictures within the temple compound.


There is a stone statue at the top, and it took a lot of effort from the volunteers to put it up

Orchid flower that bought from Cameron Highland

Very cute small statue near the koi pond

Ipoh Hillcity, i will miss ya! (behind the temple, pamelo plantation)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Jungle's Tale


Long long time ago, before the invasion of human civilization, there was a beautiful story in the jungle that nobody knew. A story of a monkey and a crow....

In the middle of the jungle, there was a fruitful, enormous tree where the monkey and the crow stayed. They were best friends since the day they could hardly remember. They worked together, shared everything with each other and played together. They were so closed till one day, the monkey suggested to become bloodbrother. The crow was very pleased, and they declared themselves as bloodbrothers on the top of the big tree instantly.

One day, they decided to build a tree house so that they could spend more time together. At the same time, they would plucked the fruits from the tree and stored in the tree house so that both of them could eat together in the night. In order to prevent unnecessary quarrel, both of them made an agreement saying that each of them owned half of the tree house property and the amount of fruits that they plucked. From that moment onwards, everything went perfectly fine.

As days went by, the monkey and the crow grew old and passed away. Both of them had 3 children and everyone was mourning at the tree house since the day they died. After the funeral, the crows decided to move out from the tree house because they preferred to hunt for worms and rotten meat, not fruits anymore. The monkeys had no choice but to wish their cousins best of luck as they flew away. The monkeys continued staying at the tree house and plucked the fruits for survival.

Few days later, the two younger monkeys also decided to leave the tree house. They felt the world outside the tree house, the other part of the forest, had more promising future. What’s left behind in the tree house, was just the eldest monkey, alone.

Then the winter came. The eldest monkey was glad that he had harbored enough fruits to sustain him for the rest of winter. While he was warming himself inside the tree house in one night, suddenly somebody knocked on the house door. Oh, the crow cousins came to visit, what a pleasant surprise! The monkey quickly invited them in and served them the fruits that he plucked in the autumn.

As the night became real dark, the crows decided to make their way out. Before they stepped out of the door, they suddenly requested for half of the fruits that the monkey collected. Oh, that really caught the monkey off-guard and didn’t know how to react. The crows said according to the agreement that their fathers made, the crows had the right to own half of the fruits in the tree house. They even said they were lenient enough to let the monkey lived inside the tree house as they also owned half of the tree house. Partially stunned monkey just let them took away half of the fruits that he had been collected with tears and sweats.

Since that day, the crow cousins’ visit became more frequent. Of course, the visit wouldn’t be complete without snatching away half of the fruits that the eldest monkey harbored. The monkey didn’t dare to fight back because he respected the agreement that the previous generation had made, and he didn’t want to lose his cousins. And the most important thing was, he wanted to preserve the wonderful heritage of the monkey and the crow had built based on their friendship.

Things never changed until one day, the eldest monkey put up his gut and gathered the crows at the tree house. The monkey said, “since you all have no intention of staying here and plucking fruits, let’s demolish the tree house and take whatever that belongs to us”. The crows remained silent for a minute, and said, “give us 1 minute”.

The crows retreated to outside of the tree house and discussed. The middle crow said, “we cannot agree with the monkey, because we can’t have free fruits every month once the tree house is gone”. Then the eldest crow asked, “but we already enjoying ourselves with rotten meat since we left, maybe we can just leave the monkey alone...”. The middle crow squeaked before the eldest completed his sentence, “hey brother, it’s free, the monkey worked and we can lay back and collect the benefit, isn’t nice? I really glad daddy made that damn agreement, hehehehe.....” Finally , the other two crows nodded their head and went into the tree house again.

The middle crow shed his crocodile tears and said, “hey monkey cousin, this is the house where everything began, both our father and our childhood, it’s so wonderful and we really don’t have the heart to crush it into pieces”. The monkey tried to tell them it’s unfair if they kept on ripping off his hard-labored fruits but the crows just ignored.

In the end, the monkey still working hard, but not for his own but also for his evil, selfish, ignoble, mean, so-called cousins.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Good Google


The picture above is showing a house that i will be staying in for the next 3 years. Thanks to Google Map, i have been spending countless time to see the street view around Christchurch recently. It's quite awesome, right? To see a foreign land in 3D view while i just sit in front of my computer in malaysia.

Well, i guess i already 'partially' familiarize with the new place, so the next thing i need to worry is adaptation. I will survive...

Wish me luck then!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

2009

New year, new beginning?

I'm not sure if everyone is starting a new life, but i'm sure everyone is fulled with dreams and goals at this very moment.

Let's just wish all of us BEST OF LUCK in 2009!

Year End Post

Goodbye 2008, welcome 2009

Didn't realize a year is getting over soon. Few minutes later, the world will be cheering for the countdown, wishing everyone a happy new year. I don't want a happy new year, i want a happy 'whole' year, is that very greedy?

2008 has been a memorable year, there were times allocated for happiness and sadness, excitement and boredom, celebration and disappointment.... No matter what, it has nothing to do with 2009. Let's anticipate a brand new beginning, a brand new life!

Every end of the year, we are bound to look back and hopefully not sighing;
But every beginning of the year, we are bound to charged with full confident and hopes.

So, i wish all of you, HAPPY 2009!