DAY 936-948

Mar 26 - Apr 7

1) And yet in another blink of an eye (for me, at least - I've lost all concept of time) another two weeks have flashed by. Our medicine rotation is finally over (for Group B), and the upcoming public health rotation promises to be more "relaxed". I am delighted to have survived both surgery and medicine rotations, and to have public health as the last rotation before our end-of-semester exams in May.

2) As it is, I cannot believe that four months have passed by so fast! I still remember coming to Penang in January, and moving in to Sri York with my housemate, and saying goodbye to my family once again :'( Heck, it was just yesterday that I touched down in KLIA, after spending my last days in rainy Dublin. Everything seems to have whizzed by so fast - a little too fast if I'm honest. I sometimes like to take a breather and to think back about all the adventures and memories that I've made - it's so easy to forget in the midst of everyday life!

3) Back to reality then. The other day, as part of our portfolio review for medicine (consisting of 10 case write-ups and some other stuff), we had to print out the feedback of those write-ups. Uproar ensued as the library printers (and if I'm honest, all printers in the college) stopped functioning in accordance to Murphy's Law - whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. It was at the last opportune moment that the librarian managed to fix the printer, and I was first in line to print the remaining feedback (for those wondering, I couldn't print it out any earlier as I needed to get the feedback from the examiners first). What a RELIEF!

4) The medicine portfolio was a cinch compared to the surgery one. Just 10 case write-ups, as opposed to 23 cases, and we could type it out as well! The only downside is there was no added time after our medicine end-of-rotation assessment (EORA) to compete the portfolio (in surgery we had around 5 or 6 days to finish our surgical portfolio after EORA). For public health, continuous assessment (similar to EORA) is via a 10% report regarding a health-related topic (mine is entitled "Effect of Monsoons on Health in Nepal"). At the end of the semester, we have our end-of-semester exams, consisting of an MCQ (multiple-choice questions) paper for Medicine, and an MCQ paper and OSPA (Objective Structured Practical Assessment) paper for Public Health. There is, thankfully, no MCQ paper for surgery, yet. (Please don't get any ideas)

5) For public health, we are split up to three groups - one for each District Health Office (DHO) location, namely Seberang Perai, Barat Daya, and Timur Laut. I've been assigned (without much choice actually) to Seberang Perai - the furthest location. The upside is my entire Seberang Jaya Hospital "crew" (namely Ray, Mahitha, and Ruth) have been posted here too, which is great! We only travel to the DHO thrice a week; the other two days are spent in the lecture theatre at RUMC.

6) That is basically our rotations in a nutshell, hopefully it provided some insight/ was at least mildly entertaining to read haha. Thanks very much for tuning in, and have a nice week ahead. Cheers!

On the road back home (just the first left and voila - Sri York!)

Spotted this during MPU (General Studies) Presentation (our "Ethnic Relations" module is in 

Malay Language)

Close-up of the white text from above - showcasing the diversity of our language (or serving to confuse just about everyone else)

So the other day Denise introduced me to this cafe called Harvest Times Cafe - a 10 minute drive away from accommodation...

Their soup of the day - creamy mushroom soup with bread basket

Garlic butter chicken kiev - served on a bed of mashed potatoes and salad

Grilled tilapia in basic white sauce

Our set menu came with dessert - cake and ice cream! :)

So another one of Denise's recommendations - chicken shawarma @ Gurney Paragon!

Thumbs up and all smiles XD

Gula melaka (brown sugar) ice cream - as you can see I am a desserts kinda guy XD

Finally got round to trying this - a huge bowl of tom yam (sour and spicy) seafood noodles

- at Sri York Cafeteria! 

Absolutely wonderful and spicy too haha