Nathaniel

Cologne 2nd & 3rd day

2013-01-21T09:01:00.005-08:00

On the third day in Cologne, it was a Sunday, which is supposedly a rest day, in Malaysian context means a day to shopping malls to have a walk around. Whereas in Cologne, we found out that over here on Sunday, it is a general rest day, the shops are all closed and and most restaurants are also closed. In the end, we had to repeatedly go back to the hostel since it was a bit to quiet in the streets. out of boredom we proposed of going to a gay and lesbian club so it wouldn’t be that awkward. We took a late snack and retested back for a brief rest before going pot again for dinner and to the pub. Alas, plansdoes not always go accordingly. We ended up touring around for the night view.

On the last day in Cologne 21.01.13, as we were done with touring the attractions, we just strolled leisurely down the streets doing some shopping along the way. I ended up buying a pair of shoes, “sorry mum and dad!!!” Later in the evening we visited a last attraction - st. Ursula church which has a room filled with bones. We then went to a Asian shop before going to the restaurant to fill our bellies before the train ride.

Cologne 1st day

2013-01-18T22:43:00.002-08:00

It had been a long awaited journey and trip, it all started like any other holiday ….
We left our house at 4.30am, I felt heavy hearted. This was because I could not attend the graduation of my closest group of friends here in Russia later that day, and I wasn’t able to see them one last time before they each fly back to their respective states in Malaysia.
The journey started with us leaving for Moscow but due to harsh weather conditions,we barely manage to get to the airport in time, and we were in an airport that we have not been to before. Upon arrival, we had to go through some security checks which gave us trouble and later whole going through customs we were with detained for a moment. Reasons? Unknown. Anyway after we reached here we checked into the hostel before grabbing our dinners in a restaurant nearby recommended by the receptionist. The beers served was very smooth and I could say it was one of the best beers I’ve ever tried. Dinner ended with us taking photo with the waiter serving us and a fellow guy in the dinner which was dressed up as a jester as a carnival was being held soon enough. What shocked us most was the guy in jester clothing stopped us for a moment before presenting Tabitha with a medal and the those in the house giving a round of applause. We find ourselves dumb struck but nevertheless happy.

Eventful week

2012-10-09T09:14:00.004-07:00

A lot of things have happened during the last few days. First I received a surprise message from my long lost best friend which went over to China in order to pursue his dream. Chatting with him made me remember the times we had together and how important he was to me during my high school period - that young and innocent me which used to think and hope that a friendship can last forever.

Another thing that happened this week was that my mother had a fall from the bicycle due to a black out. Fortunately, after being thoroughly examined, she was said to have suffered from the loss of consciousness due to exhaustion and thankfully that all she had was a fractured elbow. She has went through an operation and everything should be fine. It was told that she could be released from the hospital tomorrow if everything goes well.

I would like to thank those who have prayed for my mother and helped her through the ordeal. With blessings, I can only keep my fingers crossed and pray that she doesn't go through anything like this anymore.

Another thing that happened was that yesterday, me and my fellow volleyball teammates had a friendly match with our University's Russian teammates. It was like sort of a competition and we were playing our second game (the first game was held last Friday).

Due to the fact that we just came back from Malaysia and had not been training properly, I did not really expect too much from the competition but just to gain some experience and at the same time expose some of the juniors to the game play.

Though yesterday, while playing against the University's first squad, I felt a sudden high stress due to a very lousy performance on the second match. During the first match, we were sort of leading and had a good chance of winning but lost at the end. During the second match, I could not make out what came over me. I was making a lot of amateur mistakes and could not focus on what I had to do. In the end we lost the match.

After that I felt really bad and down due to the fact that I was the main reason for the downfall of our team. I became quiet and went off home a little while later. All the time keeping silence and not talking to anyone.

I seriously have to change this habit of mine.

Lighting up lanterns

2012-09-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks has passed by since I flew back from my home country back to Russia in order to continue with my studies. With the passing of time, my will of studying hard and changing over a new leaf has also been dying down. Though, because I'm in the education committee for the Malaysian Student Associations, the responsibilities there has kind of forced me into doing a bit of studying. And with more time, I think the momentum will grow and the small bud will grow into a large tree.

Other than being lazy on my studies, the rest during summer has also deterred me from going to the gym for my workout sessions. In compensation, the badminton outings with my friends in Malaysia has made me regain my interest in badminton once again and with that my weekends has been filled up with sport activities for an astounding 4-6 hours on these days.

As you may have known if you follow my Facebook, in conjunction of my town's 980th Birthday, they had a lantern lighting up festival(放孔明灯）. It was the first time I had ever been able to see this up close and also got a chance to actually light one up and make a wish.

The event was planned to start at 9pm and hence we had a couple of friends come over to my house for dinner. From there on, we went to the event together. As we had quite a heavy dinner, we decided to have a walk there instead of taking public transport.

While walking there, one of our friend who went ahead to help us get the lantern called us and said that the people were already starting to light them up and asked us to quicken our footsteps. We were still about 5 minutes walk away from the point of gathering when she called.

All of a sudden, from the far side, we could see small colorful lights starting to float up the sky, lighting up the dark night skyline. The sight was just amazing to look at. With that, we hasten and willed ourselves to reach the area as quick as possible.

Though we only realize the amount of people that had gather when we began to approach the gathering point, the place was so crowded with people that I ended up my two friends that I was walking with.

When we finally meet up with our other friends, most of the by standers had already light up their lantern and there were only a few people left that were trying to light theirs up.

In order to gather up some other friends of ours, one of my friend started to wave with the lanterns on her hands, that attracted a whole herd of locals to us asking how much is the lantern for and where can they buy it.

At last, when everyone was gathered we tore out the lanterns from its plastic and prepared ourselves to let them loose.

Seeing them fly up the sky and crossing our fingers in hope that it will float up steadily and that hopefully our respective wishes will come true!!

Lengthy post

2012-09-14T03:48:00.001-07:00

It has been quite sometime since I have uploaded a new post, with holidays and practicals taking most of my time, I could not find any spare time to take a rest and write down about the recent happenings.

Now that I am back in Russia to continue with my studies, I have more time to waste and spare so I can finally fall back and recall the sweet memories I had of this summer break.

This summer, I had to do practicals back in my home country - Malaysia. I was attached to a military hospital and I had loads of fun there. From going to lectures and learning from the doctors, and mixing around with nurses and other trainees, I really found myself enjoying my future job and my posting there.

After my posting, I had more time to go about and meet up with all those friend of mine which I have not seen in a year. Because of my hectic schedule of meeting up with all those long lost friends I spend very little time with my family, and for this I feel very very bad and also regret for not spending more time with them.

This year I also had my very first time have friends sending me off in the airport. I was so shocked and happy when my friends told me they would be sending me off. What made it even more shocking was that these friends are mostly from a group that I only meet not a month ago. I am really happy to have found this group of close friends and deeply hope that our friendship will last.

A small post on what I have been doing in Russia. Only yesterday, after a lecture I went to in the University, on the way back home, me and Tabitha found a women lying on the ground unconscious. We were a bit worried about her safety so we called the ambulance and waited patiently for it to come. What shocked me was how the team responded when they saw here. All they did was check her blood pressure and gave her some ammonia so they she would wake up. When she took a sniff of it, she only turned her head away and not wake up. They then carried her into the ambulance and sent home. From what I have seen, they do not plan on giving her any treatment. They even wanted her to go home by herself at the beginning. I guess this is because the Russian have seen way too many drunkards for their own good that they have become numb to it.

One hell of a scare

2012-07-26T04:14:00.003-07:00

As you know, I have been doing my practicals or what the locals call elective posting in the hospital lately. While I was there, I did a full blood test. What I did not prepare myself was when the results came back with me being detected to have Hepatitis B antigen.

A short note on what is Hepatitis B - It is a virus that attacks your liver causing slow degradation to the organ and lastly liver failure which can be fatal. It is transmittable via blood products, sexual intercourse and hence can affect one's sexual life and also career for someone who works as a doctor or nurse (which I am). Hepatitis B antigen detected means that there is a high chance that the virus has invaded into your body. Whether it has started attacking your liver or is remaining as a carrier is not certain.

Hence, when I received the results I was really afraid. Anyway, upon returning home yesterday, I told my mum which as expected freaked out (but worse than how I thought she would) and rushed me to the nearest lab to get my blood retested. That night, I think all 3 of us(me, my dad and mum) did not have a good nights rest due to the shocking news.

The next day, I was still anxious to get the results and was afraid of what the outcome might be. Never in my life have I be so afraid of getting a single lab results. I now understand what those people who were told some serious illness such as HIV or Cancer feel like.

I came back earlier today because my ride had something coming up and had to leave before the time was up. I called my mum and asked her if she has taken the report (it was supposed to be out at 12noon and I called her at 1pm). She said "the report is out but your dad didn't want me to go get the test results by myself, he asked me to wait for you." I told my mum I would go get it myself and if they require the receipt I will ask her to come then.

Throughout the walk to the lab to get my results, my heart rate spiked and my adrenaline was pumping vigorously in order to anticipate the shock I might have to face upon receiving the results.

When I finally got there and the results given to me, a wave of relief washed over me upon seeing the words "NOT DETECTED". I couldn't thank God or whoever is up there more for it.

OT

2012-07-10T02:50:00.000-07:00

It has been more than a week since I started my elective posting in HATTM. For me, being here was very fun(though of course there were dull moments). I was first sent to the A&E department where I got to handle a lot of different cases and experience the way Malaysian health providers cope with them.

Further down the week, I was sent to the department of my choice -O&G. Here I was tagging with a doctor and learned the ways of basic clinical handling of outpatients. Also here, I attended a seminar that was given by a drug company which was promoting their drug to the hospital and only yesterday, another company which sent one of their staff over to promote their scar healing drug(for cesarean section scar wound healing) was being pushed away by the doctor as she had a busy morning and had not taken her lunch despite it turning to 3pm soon. I then told her about my burn wound and scar and then got some samples to apply on my wound. Hopefully, it will all turn out good.

Today, I was able to go into the Operating Theater and there I saw a few operations one of which was a C-section. And later on, I managed to witness a natural delivery.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time in the hospital learning stuff. Hopefully, with the passing of time, I would make a good doctor in the near future.

First Practical in Malaysia

2012-07-02T03:52:00.000-07:00

With the return to my home country - Malaysia, the summer holidays have officially begun. Even though it is called my summer holidays, I still have to do an attachment with the hospital of my choice in order to brush up my skills to prepare myself for the up coming job upon graduation.

The hospital I choose to work at was Tuanku Mizan Hospital, which is a newly opened hospital that is located some 1 hour ride away from my house and to top that, it is a military hospital. This means that the hospital is used mainly for the purpose of checking the health of militant personnel and also to give treatment to them and their family.

The LRT ride from my house to the one nearest to the hospital took an estimation of 45minutes while the walk from the station to the hospital is another 10-15minutes of walk.

Arriving the hospital, I had to pass the guard house(where I had to leave my IC in order to get a pass to go into the hospital) before reporting to the commanding officer. It was quite a scare for me as I have never been anywhere which has any relationship with the military forces, hence the way things work around the hospital was pretty scary (the constant attention and salutation to one another and their seriousness).

After going through the admission department, I went to the A&E department (accident and emergency) instead one of the 2 departments I requested for (O&G and also Therapy).

Over here, I found 3 other interns - one which studies in Moscow, another from Edinburgh, and the last which is a foreigner that studies in Texas, US. After some basic introduction, I went along tagging after the doctors and getting an idea of their work.

At the beginning, the flow of patients were pretty slow, but slowly, as the doctor were busy with other stuff, the amount of patient grew and I got to see a few different cases, ranging from basic flu to heart failure. It was a pretty amazing experience.

We were allowed to go home at around 1pm but since I found the cases so interesting, I told myself I wanted to stay for this case and after that another one. Just like that, time flew by and when I knew it, my watch showed me the time with its hour hand pointing at the figure "4".

I then headed home after a tiring but fruitful day. Hopefully the next few weeks will continue to be this exciting.

I'm coming home

2012-06-24T00:08:00.004-07:00

With graduation of some of my seniors earlier this week, and the summer holidays arrival, my drive to study has been quite low. But thanks to my exemption from the first examination, I had extra time to prepare for the only final that I will be taking. I just hope that everything will go smoothly and I will soon find myself on the plane with its final destination being - Malaysia.

The thought of being able to go back brings excitement to the core of my body. Thoughts of seeing family members which I have not meet for a long time, close friends that I miss dearly, have made me look forward to the trip back.

But, (ah, yes. The infamous but that always appear) the thought of having to do practicals in a hospital where I have no friends around is pretty scary. I'm afraid because I might be deemed stupid and ignorant for not knowing my materials (which I think is quite true) and also afraid that I'll be wasting my time there since there might not be anyone willing to teach me or allow me to tag them. Furthermore, after hearing that there are quite a small number of patients due to the hospital's policy, I am really afraid that my time there will be boring. At the same time, I'm also quite excited as this will be my first chance to really act as a doctor (the last time I practiced, I didn't do much back in 3rd year I acted as a nurse assistant, and on the 4th I went to follow the ambulance). I'm looking forward to be able to do some manipulations and be able to witness some surgical procedures.

I'm writing this entry as the time ticks away with less than 24hours away to my final paper and around 4 days away from my arrival back in my beloved home country (love my family members there and food only, the rest - not that much).

Wish me luck guys !! Hopefully the next time I'm posting, it will be either from the airport or from Malaysia!

Summer

2012-06-13T02:18:00.002-07:00

Summer holidays are round the corner, most youngsters are trying their best to get back in shape to attract one another for a short lived fun. The sky is filled with the heat of the sun. These are what we know about the summer weather.

But these few weeks, instead of having the forementioned weather, I have been stuck with the gloomy rainy weather of autumn. The floors being filled with puddles of water, the sky crowding with dark ominous cloud.

This gloomy weather has made me much of a laze. I’ve been spending my last few weeks on my bed doing nothing except sleeping and eating. I haven’t been to the gym for a week or so, and the condition has worsened till that I’m lazy to even cook and eat a proper meal.

Now, all I have in mind is to get over with my exams as fast as possible and get home to where my parents are so I can have the comfort of my family

Buying new shoes

2012-05-29T13:45:00.001-07:00

It has been quite sometime since I wanted to try on a new type of shoes. It is not something I am used to wearing. It is something in between the formal shoes and a casual wear. Today since I was free, I invited some friends over for dinner and while going out to buy groceries with Tabitha, we decided to take a detour to the mall upstairs and have a walk around. We went into a discount store for shoes. There, everything shoes and handbag was priced at Rub 699.

It was here that I found the shoe that I have always wanted to try. After some persuasion from Tabitha, I bought the shoe. With that I'm Rub 699 poorer, how sad. Hope that my parents wont mind. I took a photo of the shoes close up and in the photo of myself, you will be able to see the shoes. Do comment on how it looks on me.

The other photos are of a new fountain that was constructed recently over here in Kursk. As the night darkens, the fountain will light up with neon lights and it will have a show according to the beats of the music being played through the speakers found there. All in all it was quite a spectacular sight to behold.

Just another post

2012-05-25T08:08:00.002-07:00

It has been quite sometime since I last updated my blog. Quite a few things happened. I had an exam, will be having another one on the coming Monday, got a survey to give out and to report. Sounds quite hectic ? Thankfully, I'm having Russian cycle and from what our teacher said, seems like next week we are able to have the whole week off as we have already done the hours which the university requires.
As you know, I have returned back to the gym and I took a photo of myself in the gym after my session today. The photo was edited so it will seem better than it actually is and also due to the fact that my muscles were all bulged up from the workout session, the definition and "wow"ness of the picture is giving me more credit than I should really have on a usual day.

Gym, thoughts and movies

2012-05-14T09:15:00.001-07:00

It has been quite sometime since i last went to the gym, somewhat around a month or so. My burn wound has been healing slowly and although it still causes me discomfort often, I try my best to go through my daily routine with as much normality as possible.

I'm really feeling bad for my parents as I have been using quite a large sum of money to pay for my medications that I need to help my recovery and ensure that I do not face any complications. Hopefully, I'll be able to get well very very soon and that when I am well, the scar from this encounter will be a small one, or better still - non existence.

With the summer coming by, I have already hear some of my friends having and enjoying their holidays while some are busy preparing for their finals before heading off to the long holiday they have ahead of them. The news of my couple friends going away to different countries with their partners for a sweet retreat and enjoying one another's company makes me feel lonely, rendering me to think - when will I have a chance to enjoy the company of my partner in a place where all I have to care is the both of us, a place where only two of us are at. Guess its the spring fever and the pubertal hormones playing tricks on my mind.

I am writing this post after watching a movie clip online which was narrating the final few years of 3 cancer patients in the pediatric departments, the struggle they go through, and what they have to tell the world. I strongly recommend this clip to those who are having hardships. The title of the movie/documentary is "Lovelife紀錄片". All you have to do is copy the few words I mentioned just moments before and search for it in youtube. This movie is very touching and for those who have an hour to spare, Pleas do watch it.

BBQ outing turned bad

2012-05-07T07:54:00.003-07:00

Today was the day me and my group mates decided to have our first BBQ outing. Despite the fact that it rained yesterday and that the weather forecast that later today will be raining, we ignored everything and went on with our plan.(The event was also joined with the university’s badminton team)

We were supposed to gather at my house at 3pm but being the usual Malaysian. Most of the people were late. At last, at around 4pm, most of the people arrived and we headed down to the riverside to get things started. The sky was dark, with a pending doom sign, though our cheerful spirits was not any dampened by the gloomy clouds.

While we were walking down the slope to the riverside, raindrops started to fall from the sky. We however, insisted on continuing with our BBQ session.

Slowly the rain started to fall with bigger water droplets and it was getting harder to barbecue our stuff. We opted to move the stove from an open air site near the river to a spot further in which was shaded by the trees.

To avoid getting wet from the rain, we spread open a plastic cloth which we wanted to use as our mat on the ground overhead. In a matter of minutes, the rain drops turned icy cold and before we knew it, it was raining hailstones. The hailstones were pretty big and we could even see the hailstones on the ground. The stones were as big as a cherry!

With hailstones falling from the sky mixed with the fury rain, the place started to flood with water and we decide to bail on our barbecue plans. While packing up, we saw a huge flow of water slowing creeping down the slope with what we thought was a certain speed and strength.

We managed to get out of the place in one piece just as the site was flooded by both sides with fast streams of water. The climb out of the riverside through the slope was not an easy one as the slope has turned muddy and slippery.

Thinking we had the worst behind us upon arriving the hill top, we found a car stuck and on the verge of falling down the slope. The Russians pleaded for our help but we were a little afraid as it was very dangerous and we ourselves could be pushed back falling down the slope with the car on our tail if things went wrong.

Nevertheless, we helped them as the car was blocking our way out. After another 10-15minutes of hiking through a water filled road, we managed to get back to the safety of my apartment and get some rest.

It was a very eventful day and surely something to look back and have a smile plastered on my face, to think of the days I had.

Future

2012-05-03T20:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday night, upon reading a post of a friend of mine in Facebook regarding a movie by Datuk Michelle Yeoh and after watching its' trailer, I decided to download the movie and watch it.

I was first impressed by my newly upgraded internet speed (it was recently upgraded to 20Mbps) and during my download in torrent, the speed went up to 2.3Mbps at some point of time, the fastest I have ever seen on my computer.

When I watched the trailer of the movie, I was somehow reminded of a story that someone told me recently, who I do not remember. The story that was narrated to me by that certain person turned out to be the exact same plot as the one I watched.

The movie was certainly very touching and heart breaking. I do wish that what is happening in Burma will never happen anywhere else in the world more so my home country- Malaysia. I also sincerely pray that the oppression the Burmese people are facing will come to an end soon.

Recent nights, I find myself unable to sleep well, despite going to bed only around 12 midnight, I still startled awake with no reason at least 3-4 times throughout the whole duration of my sleep and eventually decided to wake up even before my alarm rang.

I manage to dream in that short span of continuous sleep I had. From what I remembered, in it, I witnessed one of my seniors here also with a burn wound and I asked her how long has she have it. She said that it has been one year since the event. The remaining scar was pretty bad as what I saw in my dreams for her burn scar was only a little better than what is currently on my leg. I really pray and hope that my leg will heal fast and swiftly and that I will no have scars that are hideous nor big.

Consequences

2012-05-02T12:33:00.002-07:00

It has been 3 days since I injured myself. The burn wound has been healing but the effect is kind of slow. I had fever the last two days which came on and off usually in the afternoon and at night. But today, I felt all better. Hopefully, with the time passing my wounds will heal swiftly.

Only today, I remembered the policy our new Rector had implied on the university, which was that sick leaves are no longer allowed as a reason to not retake the class. It is possible to not attend the class but we would still have to resit the class when we feel better. Hence I will go back to class on Friday (since lucky for me there is no class tomorrow.).

Updates

2012-04-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

What my leg looks like today

Hospital Visit

2012-04-29T13:18:00.001-07:00

After sometime, the pain was becoming overbearing and I decided to call the ambulance to get some 1st aid help and pain killers. It took them around 20 minutes after the call to reach me. While waiting for them, the pain killers I took seem to took its effect only to disappear a few minutes after.

Because of the long wait and feeling uncomfortable being only draped in my towel, I decided to wear my pants and go to the toilet. When the paramedic finally came, I was in a bit of a rush to take of my pants and change into my towel that I burst the blister I had.

The paramedic team ask if I minded to go to the hospital for a more detailed checkup and I resisted at first as I didn't want to stay overnight in the hospital. With the persuasion of my friends, I gave in. The paramedic gave me a jab to alleviate the pain and gave me a temporary gauze bandage before giving me a ride to the hospital.

After reaching the hospital, I was first brought to the emergency department. I had to take off my trousers in front of the doctor exposing myself in full glory for the doctor to see. Though, I did not have the awkward feeling I usually have if that action was necessary.

I was transferred to the burn center of the hospital where ointment was applied on me by a nurse (I had to once more take off my pants in front of female nurses).

I'm now back home feeling much better as the pain isn't disturbing me and with the sick leave paper, I'm exempted from classes tomorrow. Hopefully I'll heal fast and will be able to be back to normal soon.

BURNED

2012-04-29T09:55:00.001-07:00

The day started out quite well, eating a nice breakfast, and went for basketball games. Although I was late because I wasn't informed on the change of time. I still enjoyed myself.

I had too much time to kill before I needed to go for volleyball games. So I headed to supermarket to cool myself with an ice-cream snack. Games today went pretty smoothly and I kind of enjoyed myself in whole today.

Things turned for the worst after i returned home. I was halfway through baking my first cheesecake (photos of which I will upload later when its done), and getting my dinner ready. I had a pot of chicken soup being heated to prevent it from spoiling. I was trying to transfer the amount I needed to a smaller pot to cook the vegetables in it when the pot slipped and poured its contents to me. I was wearing a thick pants at the moment and it soaked up all the soup which made the pants really hot. Lucky me, I had my knowledge on emergency medicine revised this week and knew how to act. I had to take off my pants to remove heat source but seems like I had to take off my undies as it was also soaked.

I then ran to the bathroom to run ice cold water on the burn sport as taught by our teachers so that the burn surface and severity might be decreased. This also helped by numbing my pain senses.

After running water on the site for about 5 min. I felt well enough and went back to my room to dress myself (yes, I ran from the kitchen to the bathroom naked, lucky for me my house was empty, or so I thought) and to have a look at how badly i hurt myself. The first picture was taken at that moment. I then went back to the kitchen to clean up the mess. But soon found the pain unbearable and went back to the bathroom to run it under water again. I then went back to the kitchen to finish clearing up my stuff before taking my shower (if you remembered, I just came back from sports when all these happened)

The next photo was taken after my bath. Suddenly I heard one of my friends room door open. I thought I was alone at home but seems like I was wrong. I shouted for her help and asked her if I needed to call an ambulance. We decided against it.

Here I am now, still in pain while writing this entry. My fingers were also burned and that was one of the less sever sites as no blister formed. But I can't even type for a minute before I have to press my fingers on a cold pack i prepared for myself to ease the pain.

Hope that I'll get well soon.

Dinner

2012-04-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Chicken Rice Dinner !!

Korean food and Medical checkup

2012-04-25T09:57:00.002-07:00

How should I describe my day if I was limited to a word or two? I have no idea. Lucky me, I have a blog and here, I can freely write and describe my day in whatever length I deem fit. So my day started off pretty badly. I woke up as early as the day before (around 6am) but I wasn't able to go out for my morning jog as I had to report to the medical center at 8am to get myself checked. What made the start of my day awful was that I had to collect my feces and to those who have done it, they know how disgusting that can leave you feeling. I do not want to gross anyone out by describing how and what I had to do to get my feces sample into a container.

After breakfast and some entertainment online while eating, I felt slightly better. But the moment was not long lived. Upon reaching the med center, the series of check up begun. Most of it was pretty standard and non memory scaring. Though the check up which I hate the most and made me feel violated without fail is the probe we had to go through which consist of having your urethra poked to get samples and your anal region sticked with scotch tape and also invaded with some tools. These always left everyone feeling highly violated. I'll spare you guys from the details of the horrible experience but for those who really are interested, you are more than welcomed to ask me about it . I had to go through the usual therapist check up and as I suspected my blood pressure was increased though the level she told me was slightly alarming (150/80). The only positive outcome from this was I was given a 24hours Holter monitor procedure where by a device will be placed on me to record my ECG for a whole day. I am really looking forward to this test and hopefully it will give me an idea what is wrong with me(though I pray that it is nothing serious).

After the test, we still had to take a ride to another center to get an X-ray of our chest done. The only good (or for some other people bad) result from this check up was that our class for the day was cancelled.

Since we were around the place where the restaurant that served Korean food was, we decided to visit it as none of us has ever been there. After asking around and blindly trusting our instincts we got to the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant is a Korean that has been living in Russia his whole life. He was very kind and lead us to a private room/house where we won't be disturbed by Russians. Over here, we found ourselves in a room equipped with a full karaoke set and a personal bar (which we didn't use). It was sort of the private rooms in those Chinese restaurants back in our country.

The owner was a little too friendly and talkative. He was talking all the time before our food came and after we were done eating. He also sang one of the songs in his karaoke set (old Korean song -though what came out of his mouth definitely didn't sound Korean to me).

After having a satisfying meal (I still craved for more food as the portion was pretty small though at the end I felt alright with the amount I ate), we went our separate ways home. I took a small break before heading out to gym for my workout. On the way home, I went to collect my hard disc. Thankfully, all my data was preserved and all that was wrong was that the casing broke down. So what I needed to do was to get a new casing to get my hard disc back online. For that, I had to pay an amount of Rub800 (around Rm 80) for the casing and the diagnostic fee. I was relieved that I didn't have to pay a sky high price to get my data back.

With everything that needs fixing done, hopefully I can now study and live peacefully till I reach back home - Malaysia.

Reanimation Cycle

2012-04-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Today was a fairly eventful day. With some crazy ideas in my mind, I woke up at 6am this morning and went for a jog on the streets before heading to my classes. I had this thought of jogging early in the morning sometime back but decided to only act on it when the sun is partially up at that hour and not a total pitch black. The results of jogging was pretty rewarding, I felt refreshed and energized at the beginning of the day. Though, at class while we were drawing near its closure, tiredness swept over my body and I found myself going in and out of dreamland several times.

This week I am having Reanimation cycle. This is a cycle where we learn how to give emergency aid to patients who are in critical conditions. The classes were once again held in the university which allowed us to have a bit more time to sleep in before heading out. And to our surprises, the classroom was loaded with all kinds of dummies for us to practice our life saving skills.

I was overjoyed to be able to finally try doing a CPR on a dummy and thanks to our new dummies which were sort of electronically equipped, we were told whether or not the actions we were doing were correct.

After class, I went back home to have a bite or two since I was feeling hungry before heading to the gym. This is the 1st time I am returning to the gym since I stopped training on the week of the Intervarsity Games (it has been a little over 2 weeks). Upon returning to the gym, I found myself being unable to pump the metals and work the machines on a level I used to before this. I got tired really easily. Hopefully I'll be able to get back in shape as soon as possible.

After working out, I went to the computer guy to try to get my hard disc fixed and to get the new USB sound card which after looking around was still the cheapest (Rub 950). I guess Kursk doesn't have as many cheap and lousy products as KL has. I am yet to know how much the repair of my hard disc will cost as he said to come back tomorrow for a diagnostic result. Hopefully I won't burn a pocket to get it fixed.

My housemate called me while I was on the way home and asked me to get some stuff from the pharmacy for the medical checkup tomorrow (boxes for collecting feces). I had a hunch that the pharmacy near my house will not have what I was looking for but I ignored my feelings. Alas, I had to travel out again so I could get the stuff and by that I took another 5-10 min stroll. (Guess I am doing a lot of cardio workout today).

I took a catnap after returning home and bathing but for unknown reasons I didn't really sleep well. I then decided to start setting up the USB soundcard i got while having my dinner. I was surprised that I had to install the soundcard as the previous few I had only needed to be connected to the laptop and everything was up for running. Guess that's what you get for paying more ? A better quality.

Hectic Saturday

2012-04-21T23:59:00.002-07:00

Alas the weekend is here but to my dismay i had loads of work to do. First of all, yesterday my USB sound card jack spoilt and I had to go get a new one. Also my external hard disc has been sitting idly on the side of my table which means its needs repair to retrieve my pictures of me since I came to Russia. Because of that I left earlier for class in order to take a trip to the computer guy. Though since its a weekend, the computer guy wasn’t there and the USB jack was so expensive (around Rm100). During class, I was supposed to present my project which was on Tuberculosis, and weirdly I forgot to place in to my pendrive. Hence I had to present the topic without the documents. Thankfully the teacher didn’t give me any trouble. After class, I had to rush home to cook for the party I was having later. Now I’m having a breather while in cell group. Hopefully I will have a good time in the party later.

Router !!

2012-04-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to do some router searching after class. Because the device is being shared between me and my friend. Hence I had to consult her opinion. But lucky for us. We manage to come into an agreement pretty quick and got a router after comparing prices in a few shops. While doing some market survey, we bumped across one of the rarer stalls in Kursk that sells punkish and anime stuff. And it was here I got the bracelet in the photo above. Guess the price? It was only for an amount of roughly Rm 8. Can't believe right ? The price for these back in Malaysia is around 4-5 times of what I paid for over here.

After getting the router, we walked down further to a stall to get some lunch and on the way back to the bus stop, we decided to take a stroll back home instead of a quick ride with the public transports, as we had quite a heavy lunch and thought it would be a good idea to do some exercise.

I am very happy to say that I manage to fix up the router without too much trouble and that everything is now back to normal. Can't be more grateful.

Games

2012-04-18T07:45:00.001-07:00

Here is the link to some clips of me and my teammates playing during the 2012 Nizhny Intervarsity Games. Enjoy ! By the way, try guessing which one I am ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqdNMNYkqqQ&feature=youtu.be