Chan Weng Kit's Blogspot: Beast from the East

Thursday, 15 March 2018

DAY 557-561

Mar 12 - 16

1) Another week has passed. Literally two weeks after our mid-semesters, we have our OSCEs, after which we have another CR exam (two weeks following). As a result, there's barely time for a breather, as we struggle to keep up with the lectures. At least the weather's looking a lot better now -warm and sunny, and longer daylight.

2) But one can only hope that this is not a foreshadowing of the calm before the storm. After all, Met Ireland reports the return of the "Beast from the East" later this week, with three warnings already issued for heavy rains and gale force winds, and an alert for flooding in parts. While we have been largely affected thus far, only time will tell if the impact will be as large as it was with the previous encounter with the storm.

3) On Monday night, I participated in the RCSI Model United Nations, a collaboration between the RCSI MUN Society with UNICEF Society - to organise a keynote speech/ MUN conference. The title was "Syria - Paving the Road to Peace. Our guest speaker, Dr. Bismar, is an orthopaedic surgeon who travels to Syria and other conflict zones on medical missions. He gave his keynote speech detailing his experiences while in Syria, after which it was time for us - the delegates - to draft out a resolution ("solution") to the crisis.

4) As the delegate of USA, the onus was on me to draft a resolution to be debated upon. Other delegates formed their own alliances as well, and proceeded to draft out their resolutions. All in all, it was an exciting and informative session, as I really broadened my understanding of the crisis plaguing the Middle East. Innocent lives were being lost in a proxy war that has been going on for years, yet the coverage has been startlingly lacking, and *dare I say it* we've become desensitized to such depictions of violence and brutality in these regions.

5) Ultimately, the event was a huge success, and we were given our certificates of participation. I took the night bus back to Beaumont, reaching at around 11pm - Beaumont is far ): Anyway, that was the gist of my week (the rest was just studying, eating, not getting enough sleep etc), so thanks very much for dropping by. Have a great weekend ahead, cheers!

Delegates of the world

Delegate of the United States of America

Dr. Bismar - orthopaedic surgeon and guest speaker of the conference :)

Night by the Liffey

Group photo again ^^

Saturday, 10 March 2018

DAY 543-556

Feb 26 - Mar 11

It has indeed been far too long since my last blog post, and I can only offer my apologies. Various circumstances have forced my delaying of updates, chief of which was our mid-term exams, which concluded today. Our mid-terms were supposed to be last Monday, but due to Storm Emma (nicknamed the Beast from the East) it had to be postponed.

So onto a brief recap of what has transpired since my last update. First and foremost was the “Beast from the East”, so termed due to the strong icy winds from Siberia, Russia. A five-day weather advisory was issued by Met Ireland, culminating in a Red Warning for snow and a brief period of blizzard in Ireland - as temperatures plummeted to an all-time low of around -7 degrees Celsius in certain regions. This was certainly one of the lowest temperatures we've endured in a long while, compounded by the really quite terrible wind chill factor.

Stores were closed for several days, public transport ground to a halt as road conditions became unfavourable due to the thick buildup of snow, and Beaumont Hospital opened its doors to the homeless, and kept everyone warm and fed. Not all was gloomy though, as netizens took the opportunity to build snowmen and igloos. RCSI itself was closed, but that didn’t stop me from using the library at Beaumont to study.

A week later and temperatures are back to normal. Apparently there’s another storm brewing – the Pest from the West. Oh how I love these creative names. Anyway, on to the next bit – Research Day. Originally meant to be after our exams, we instead had to take time off to attend this compulsory day. As usual, I was involved with a research poster, while some of my friends did an oral presentation. In the end, the winner of the undergraduate category was Melissa! Congratz to her, and great job everyone who participated as always :)

The days leading up to my exams were particularly odd. On some days, I could really focus and get stuff done, while on others, I just didn’t feel any motivation to study. It didn’t help that recently I’ve been getting headaches after waking up (which isn’t good because I can’t then sleep to recover), but so far it’s been more of a nuisance rather than anything too major. Hopefully it’s just a build up of stress and I’ll be back to my usual self soon.

Today was our mid-terms. We had two consecutive papers – Foundation in Microbiology, followed by Foundation in Pathology. I wished I did more studying, but what’s over is over, and I have another exam (our OSCE’s) in a fortnight. So there’s that to distract my mind over. Anyway, as I was making my way back to Eden Quay to catch the bus back home (after my usual post-exam buffet), I found the bus services had been disrupted due to what was billed the “Protest March”. Basically, netizens in support of the ProLife movement were gathered from all over to protest the repeal of the 8^th Amendment, which equates the right to life of a pregnant woman with that of an embryo or foetus. In doing so it criminalises abortion in all cases except where to continue a pregnancy would result in death. Chants of “2,4,6,8 – we will not discriminate!” filled the streets as people holding banners and placards paraded through the streets along the Liffey.

Thankfully, the weather has gotten significantly warmer, which I hope will continue as I look forward to running the Greater Manchester Marathon in April, in aid of the Children’s Adventure Fun Trust in UK. That has been an outline of my activities for the week or so, along with some beautiful pics of the events in chronological order. Thank you very much for visiting my blog, and hope to see you soon, in the next one. Cheers!

P.S. Really quite a lot of pictures these past two weeks, so take your time to scroll down if you're keen. Enjoy :))