DAY 399/400/401

Oct 4, 5 & 6

1) Three more days have passed, and three more days' worth of activities to talk about. First and foremost, my conquest at Boojum has finally ended, culminating with my triumphant victory in the form of an official Boojum T-shirt! The envy of many a student, this special tee is only available after collecting 40 stamps on their loyalty card. That, or you could just buy it, although where's the fun in that? And as with many things in life, once a chapter ends, another one begins... So begins my next journey to get yet another one, so that I have one for mum and dad should they come visit next summer.

2) Another trip to Dicey's this Wednesday. At this point, even the two servers know each one of us. Melvin, Melissa, and Kuhan decided against going to Dicey's; they went to Burritos and Blues to try out their luck instead (flip a coin, win a burrito challenge). Also, special shoutout to Uzair Malik and Talal, who actually approached me to be in my blog. Lots of appreciation for that, guys!

3) Arguably the most important event was today's one - the Bake Sale co-organised by UNICEF and RCSI Caribbean Society (CAS). All proceeds would go to charity, in aid of the victims of Hurricane Irma - a Category 5 hurricane that caused widespread damage and destruction particularly in parts of the northeastern Caribbean and the Florida Keys. While the Bake Sale was on the whole day, I went over to man the stands around noon. It was very touching to see many so many students contributing to a good cause, and many of them gave extra/ would not accept the change that we returned to them.

4) Tomorrow is another exciting adventure for me - as I'll be joining the Class Trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We managed to get a bargain of a deal, as our ticket cost only €25 - compared to the usual €40-50 deal. Looking forward to a lovely trip, with lots of pics to follow. That has been my blog update, and thank you for tuning in. Have a great weekend, and see you in the next one. Cheers!

RCSI CAS-UNICEF Bake Sale - to raise money in aid of Hurricane Irma victims

The definition of hard work and sacrifice XD

Even the server was all smiles for me ^^

The spoils of victory :)

RCSI friends :D

The most candid photo you'll ever see

Bake sale in the New Academic Building

The cookies were simply amazing!

My contribution to the cause - €5 for a fantastic marshmallow leaden cream cupcake, and Rocky Road dessert

Posing for SnapChat advertising

(I realise I'm not model material, but hey - free promo no? XD)

DAY 204

Mar 24

1) Today has been an awesome day! For most of us PMCSA members, there was only one thing in our minds; International Night 2017! So much so that we skipped the first part of anatomy lessons today in order to practice one last time at the venue itself - the Olympia Theatre. Still, we made sure to go for the Anatomy practicals after that, as Card Signing is next week XD

2) We came back in the afternoon to do another run through and to size up the competition haha. It's friendly competition anyway, from CIMSA (the Canadian Society), PIBS (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) and many others. It was really fun seeing everyone bring a part of their culture and identity on stage.

3) Fast forward to the evening, and it was the moment of truth. The event started at around 7.30pm, with none other than our performance! Everyone went out there, and gave it our absolute best! It was over in less than 15 minutes. All that hard work and effort, condensed into that 15 minutes of fame. Then came the surprise... the other teams were taking extremely long to finish; on average they took around half an hour to almost 45 minutes! This allowed them the opportunity to showcase a lot more songs.

4) After about an hour and a half, we finally reached a brief intermission. Then it was time for the next half, performances from the Irish Society, MESA (Middle East Student's Association) and CAS (Caribbean-African Society). Every single performance was of the highest calibre, and simply astonishing considering we are all medical students with tonnes of assignments and exams to worry about. Anyway, after the last performance, the judges were given some time to decide on the winners.

5) Finally, the results were out. And we came in third place! I won't lie, it was a bittersweet victory for us as most of us thought our performance was worthy of the top two. But I suppose that's just how things are. It's still a great achievement though. Second place went to CAS and the overall champions were PIBS! Truly a night to remember, and personally I was extremely satisfied with our team's performance. I really felt we gave it our best and we can only get better from this. That's the end of my day today, and thanks for reading. Have a great day, cheers!

Olympia Theatre

Our final brief by Ms Tanya

Empty seats, soon to be filled in the evening

From l-r: Kuhan, Khee Heng, Zi Yan, me

Pre-performance selfie ^^

The Canadian Students Society (CIMSA) in action!

The traditional hula dance

The eventual winners - PIBS!

The final performance of the night and second place winners - the Caribbean-African Society (CAS)!