景山公园！

Hello beautiful world! Yet another lazy Saturday morning~ I'm just sitting at the dining table after having my delicious Nutella for breakfast and watched a new episode of Vampire Diaries! This show gets me all hyper and pumped up everytime I watch it haha. All the good-looking people! The rest of the household isn't awake yet - we had a movie marathon last night and I konked out halfway through the first movie HAHA. But hey, I had a really tiring day in the wards! Finally it's time to move on to a new department after two weeks of intensive work in the gynae wards. I learnt how to properly do admin work and even got to scrub in for 2 operations! Amazing yet extremely scary experience. Now it's starting to get really cold in Beijing- it's getting hard to cycle around without feeling uncomfortably cold. Still loving the low temps though! I'll definitely miss it when I return to sunny Singapore.
...On a sidenote, I'm finding it more and more difficult to express my thoughts in english. I think being in an all-chinese environment has definitely impacted my ability to converse and write in english. I even write my letters to be sent back home in Chinese! Cos I rather enjoy admiring my pretty handwriting HAHA. Okayokay I should probably blog more then eh? And watch more American/English shows.
We're still having dance lessons for our class, and now that it's turning darker earlier we've moved to an empty space inside a building where there are lights. But that also means we can't share our dance practices with the patients who frequently sit out at the garden during their free time :( I hope we can keep the dance sessions going! It's always nice to have gatherings with classmates now that it's so difficult to see them regularly. I sure miss those days of having lessons together in the classroom all day long. Tiring yes, less freedom yes, but there's a sense of belonging and unity when we're all together. During intern it's more of you being alone with a huge gang of china students. Sure we can communicate, but it's difficult to click cos of cultural differences. Yesterday my senior was sharing a joke which I completely couldn't get hahaha. K I shall go finish up my binglis. There's been a lot of love around me lately, just wanna say, I miss my boy so much ♥

Saturday :)

Lazy lazy Saturday morning~ just finished my bread with a thick layer of nutella goodness and now I'm just sitting at the dining table refusing to budge. Haha. We've started internship in the hospital for about a month now! Feel like a total noob sitting behind the teacher and their assistants who are always busy handling the patients. The system here is nothing like what we have in Singapore. The doors are often left open, patients pop in and out with all sorts of questions - where to pay this, how to eat that, plead with the doctor to allow them to register when they come too late..and at the same time the doctor has to attend to the current patient and come up with a TCM prescription that has to be tailored specifically to every patient's needs.. it amazes me how the doctor manages to handle everything with such efficiency while maintaining a very calm composure. I think TCM physicians in Singapore have a much more relaxed environment.Probably cos we don't have to worry abt ordering all the lab tests and prescribing western medicine. There's just so much for me to learn!

I've also started my plan of exercising everyday in order to lose some weight before winter comes and my body begins to store fat like mad. Already summer is coming to an end. All the stories I've heard abt Beijing's crazy hot summer turned out to be untrue. It can be scorching hot during some afternoons, but just stay indoors for a few hours lor. Temperature during the night is generally low. I think, I might actually like the four seasons here in Beijing more than the weather back in Singapore heh! Now Sharyl and I are gonna start a weekly dance session for our class, first session this Friday! Can't wait to dance with friends again :)

Ahh brilliant blue skies in Beijing today. Rare occurrence! Brightened my mood in an instant when I pulled apart the curtains this morning. Its gonna be a good day today~

Some reflections

杂菜饭！haha that's the title of our dance :)

These few days I've had some encounters that got me thinking. We were practising our dance for the graduation night somewhere near the garden in the hospital, where many patients come and relax in the evening. Many of them were watching us, and we were happy to provide entertainment and lighten their mood. We were just sitting around watching ourselves dance on video, when an old man came and squatted right in front of me. I paused the video promptly of course - he had this really wide smile on his face and he started talking about he has been watching us, and that this was the fourth time. He wanted to know what brought this group of young people together, who obviously aren't dancing as well as professionals, yet we keep trying over and over to improve ourselves. He said he could feel our hopes, our dreams, and how we yearn to achieve the best. Then he launched into a really long talk about how it makes him feel energized as well and how precious it is that we have very pure intentions - simply to dance and better ourselves. He sounded like he lost his dreams, hopes, even himself, as the years past. I was just thinking, this is really the period of time where everything isn't complicated. We study, we dance, and simply try to do our best for everything. We're still very much sheltered from the harsh realities of life. The more I think about it, the more I feel that I'm a very lucky person. I grew up healthy and happy, with the best parents that anyone could ever dream of having, and everything in life has been so smooth-sailing. Sure there have been obstacles along the way that I thought were gonna crush me, but looking back, they simply served as a stepping stone to make me a better person. I hope that when I grow up and start working, having my own family and all, I won't lose myself, my hopes and dreams in the process. I hope I'll remember the single burning desire that set me on this path and never look back - that is to make people healthy again. The best gift anyone can get.

This sem we have been spending more time in the wards too. Today we saw a patient who got cirrhosis due to too much drinking. Our teacher asked why he didn't stop drinking since he was diagnosed some years ago, and he said he needed to drink if not he can't get his job done. Looking back, he wishes he didn't get his job done. Another patient with cirrhosis and many other health problems said he didn't take care of himself when he was young. I see a lot of regret in their eyes. I learnt that our body is actually very durable, it is built to withstand a lot of hardships that we might subject it to, be it viruses or external injuries. But at the same time, life can be so fragile. There's only so much the body can take before it gives way. Health is really the most important asset that anyone can have - don't take it for granted!

Back in beijing~

The first day i returned to beijing i was greeted by a very hazy airport and chilly weather that made me miss Singapore's bright and sunny skies immediately. I'm usually very excited about flying to another country, but this time is just sian. I didn't want to leave home haii. People in China were still celebrating CNY, and were setting off fireworks everywhere. I bet that's why the air is so bad during the CNY period. It was still interesting to watch though, since we only get to see fireworks once a year during NDP. The variety of fireworks were really impressive! We were like, no need wait for NDP liao. Hahaha. 元宵 was the last day for legal setting off of fireworks, so throughout the night i could hear them going off everywhere. Uncle bought us a box of firework each so even though we were very much afraid we set them off so they don't someday blow up our house. It was an amazing experience hearing and seeing fireworks so close! It was more like fireballs shooting straight up and making scary exploding sounds. On 元宵 night minru and sharyl made 汤圆 and cookies and we watched the newest journey to the west movie while fireworks flashed across the night sky. It was awesome :) 

We also went strawberry picking with a bunch of classmates. Exactly how to get there wasn't clear, so when we reached the bus stop i called the owner and the owner gave directions that seemed to go a great distance but seeing that he didn't discourage us from going probably meant it was a walkable distance. I was wrong. It turned out to be a 3-hour hike along very deserted roads and finally the owner called me asking why we were taking so long. Then i realised he thought we were driving! I told him we were walking, and he made a funny sound in disbelief. ZOMG. Had I known it wasn't walking distance I would have taken the bus in the opposite direction back home. He was really nice though, once he knew we were walking he drove and picked us up in batches so we all got there safely. Once I got there I immediately forgot how tired I was. The  place was filled with strawberry aroma and they were all fresh and red and! The owner gave us a discount! He said its because we were students but I think he was also impressed by the amount of time we spent walking to his farm. Hahaha. I picked one and popped it straight into my mouth, and omg I've never tasted such sweet and soft strawberries my entire life. I was hooked immediately and proceeded to pick two full boxes of strawberries and left the farm 100 yuan poorer and with a happy tummy. It turns out that there was a bus right outside the entrance to the farm and it was but a few mrt stations down from where we live -.- Now we know. 

School just started and I can already see it's gonna be a tough sem ahead. But now that I've gotten used to living and studying in beijing, things should be easier than before. Will blog if anything interesting happens!

Sunny Singapore

I am back in Singapore! Singapura~Oh Singapura~~ The short semester spent in Beijing has let me appreciate being in Singapore more. I really like feeling the sun on my skin! And being able to sweat. In China we basically spend the whole time wrapped up in thick bulky clothes and still feeling cold :( I missed all my favourite food too..these few days I felt awesome eating chicken rice, pig organ soup, nando's...omg now that I think of food im feeling hungry alr. It just feels very good coming back home and having absolutely no school work to do. All I do is have fun all day :D Yupp our household had an outing and we wore our jc uniforms out. Very nostalgic. How time flies! Looking forward to creating more awesome memories so we all can look back on what we've done and be happy abt it. Memories are too important.

Gonna go swim with yixin tmr and try to shake off all the winter fats. Everyone i've met says I've gotten fatter :( Exercise ftw!

Floating trash bag

It's those times during exam period where suddenly everything seems more interesting than the books. I even remembered that I havent been blogging for a long time! Haha. Can't believe the semester in China is coming to an end and I'll be back in Singapore in less than 2 weeks! It's a pretty scary thought. Because before I can go back to my HOME SWEET HOME i have to finish 3 papers and FIFTY medical reports. All within these two weeks. But wow really, how fast can time pass! Seems just like yesterday I completed my FYP.

...a random trash bag was floating outside my window. I stay on the 18th floor.

I think I'm addicted to nutella. I never knew it was sooooo delicious before I came to China and started eating it. Now everytime I think of breakfast I think of the way the chocolate spread melts in my mouth. OKAY im salivating this is bad. Imma return to my books, first hurdle tmr!

Burn midnight oil FTW!

Just updated this blogging app and realised I haven't been blogging in a long long time. Time just flies past in Beijing, especially now that it's winter and the sun sets so early :/ just had my first ever exam in Beijing, and it didn't go too well. Really takes time to adapt to the teaching style and life here in general. And heh, winter isn't as enjoyable as I thought it would be in warm sunny Singapore. It's really troublesome to bundle up like a rice dumpling only to take it all off in the warm classroom. And its really wet and cold when it rains and snows, almost impossible to go out! We missed our favorite aerobics class cos of that :( k I just wanted to share how hard I'm mugging now (but I'm still blogging anyway -.-) and I hope I can stay awake till late! Mug ahhhh.