old flames die hard

Today I had the first of my five humanities elective sessions. The med school has so graciously given us the opportunity to take a bit of time out of our schedule to do some sort of humanities course for five weeks. Sixteen stress-free, of-interest courses were offered ranging from medical aid, international relations/politics, religion/suffering, history, English and so forth. I chose 'The Historical Novel' and had my first session today -- man, did I enjoy myself! I haven't had that much fun and stimulation since... I can't even remember. How utterly depressing. We discussed the definition and characteristics of historical novels and also touched on The Enlightenment, French Revolution, etc. It just made me so... happy. :) That's what learning should be -- stimulation. No conclusions, just stimulating discussion.

A pathology tutorial is like going to the gym to lift weights -- uneventful, same-old, same-old, but you know you should and you know you need to. And even though you struggle and it hurts at the time/the morning after, you know that in the end you're better off and you'll improve. You're working toward that improvement.

My humanities session today was like going for a run in the morning along the lake for the first time in a long, long time -- no direction, no purpose, no final destination or goal. Just running, breathing, taking it all in and feeling completely refreshed afterwards like nothing else.


History is the sheepish, adorable boy -- my first love -- that I dumped four years ago for the older, mature guy... and now, running into him again all this time later (in the fear of sounding like a total romantic) makes my heart ache still... it makes me realise just how much I gave up...

Professor's Theory of Original Thought

I was having an interesting conversation with a friend of mine today about the idea of original thought. He was positing that it's almost impossible to have a truly original thought and I took it a step further by saying it was impossible, period. He responded with, how about Einstein's Theory of Relativity? To which I replied, he spent his entire life dwelling upon quantum physics and the like, reading, discussing, etc., and his Theory of Relatively must have been the zenith of a lifetime of thoughts, most of which began as not his own (or something along those lines). [My argument centered around the fact that everything we think was 'picked up' or, to various degrees, shaped by the people and experiences we've had in our life. He should have counter-argued with the fact that it all depends on your definition of "original thought," which is what I would have done... man, I must be annoying sometimes.] At this point we both kinda started losing interest in the conversation, and we parted ways with him concluding he could probably come up with an original thought if he really tried.


Later on that day, via text:

Me: How's the original thought coming along?

Professor [<-- what I like to call him when he's wearing his reading glasses]: I figure there's no way of definitively proving to yourself a thought is original so you may as well just claim them all. I invented jam sandwiches, for instance.


Now that was pretty original.

Joe, Me... and Jessica Simpson

I had such a good birthday today and I'm not sure why exactly but it did feel extra "special." I think it's because it's the first one I've celebrated where I got to share it with a friend -- a good friend who was born on the exact same day and year as me. Not many people get to experience that, but man, it's pret-ty cool.

I understand now and agree with people who say that the friends you make in college are the friends you have for life. I think it's very true and I realised today I'm blessed with some pretty awesome people in my life.

It's weird -- not just the thought of being twenty, but actually seeing how... how much has changed... how much I've changed. When did I become a college student? A med student?? This twenty year old??? At heart I still feel like that fourteen year old girl in Seattle, doing extra credit for Honours English and going to the mall with her friends. (Yes, an unexpected combination, I know; I just wrote the first things I could remember!) And now, in what seems like nothing but a blink of the eye, I feel like as if I'm officially entering the next phase of my life where it's not about 'growing up' anymore but... becoming a doctor... finding my "guy"... entering the work force... becoming an "adult."

I know I keep saying this, but it's amazing how much can change in just five years. It's scary to think where I'll be in the next five to come. Hopefully finishing up my House Surgeon years and deciding which university to go to for my Masters in Public Policy... hahaha... yeah. Georgetown here I come!!

me and Genghis Khan are like *this*

It's amazing just how much you can NOT get done in two hours given the circumstances. I had a four hour gap between lectures today and so had been planning on doing a substantial chunk of studying but I guess it all turned sour -- a group study room + a very talkative person. Need I say more? I literally felt light-headed afterwards, trying to focus on what I was doing while trying to drown out the conversation around me but failing miserably at both. *sigh* It's amazing just how much you CAN get done in two hours given the circumstances too. (Thank goodness for the two hours study I got done later on, or else my day would have been a total waste!)


Did you know that all/most descendents of Mongolians are born with a blue birthmark on the bum?? It usually fades, but how amazing is it that we all get it? I knew I had a blue birthmark on my bum for a while growing up, but I found out today I'm not the only one! My whole family, my Korean friends, and all of us descended from the Mongols. Crazy...

a crime against humanity (or at least, us med students)

First week back for second semester and I have an 8am start every morning. Dear Faculty of Medicine -- that's just cruel! Oh well, what can you do? Hi ho, off to work I go...

p/s - it's freezing!

Mr Yummy

Romance advice number 1000-something-or-other from my dear ol' mummy while watching the movie 'Catch and Release':

"Anna, always be careful with guys whose hair looks like that.

Be very, very careful."

one-eye blindness (no, it's not the title of a song/poem/90s rock band)

It's been a pretty full-on week and surprisingly enough I got a lot done which I'm very happy about, my biggest achievement being that I am now a proud owner of a New Zealand driver's licence! It's only a learners, I grant you, but you have no idea how much agony I've been through these past five years, always having it at the back of my mind as something I should do but just utterly dreaded doing. I don't know why I have to learn to drive -- in the grand scheme of life, learning to drive would be at the bottom of my 'to-do' list if I had a choice. I would rather move to a large city (ie. NY, Boston, London) where they had an extensive public transport system (making it impractical to have a car) just so I could avoid this whole fiasco. But I've finally done it. I have to admit there were times when I thought this day would never come. I passed my theory test but funnily enough, I failed my eye test!


Looking down into the microscope-like eye testing machine:

AA worker: Can you please read for me line 6 of column 3?
Me: Huh?
AA worker: You see the rows and columns?
Me: Yeah...
AA worker: What letters do you see in line 6 of column 3?
Me: You mean column 2?
AA worker: No, column 3.
Me: But there are only two columns...
AA worker: Do you not see the third column at the right? Yeah, you're going to have to get a certificate from an optometrist before we can issue your license.

Me (thinking): What the --!?! What just happened?

So I wasn't expecting that. But it turned out okay. I've known for a while that my right eye is basically blind and my left is almost perfect -- together I see fine, but I had to get it certified first. I'm considering getting contact lenses for just my right eye. Apparently it's more common than you'd think!

Looking back at my 'to-do' list from the beginning of the week: Learner's licence? Check. Starter for 10? Transformers? Check, check. [I absolutely loved Transformers!! You'd think a movie with talking robots would just be stupid, but man, I just had this giant grin on my face throughout the whole movie. It was great! Reminded me a little of Armageddon (Michael Bay??).] 1984? Check. Well, not finished, but major progress.


"As he watched the eyeless face with the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy. It was not the man's brain that was speaking; it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense: it was a noise uttered in consciousness, like the quacking of a duck." - From '1984' (George Orwell)

All in all, a good week! :) Now I'm gonna enjoy my last weekend (even though I'm working tomorrow morning) before I have to head back to med school.