DAY 378/379/380

Sept 13, 14 & 15

1) As Fresher's Week draws to a close, there were still two more events on my agenda - the RCSI Debate Society Inaugural Event, as well as the RCSI Cancer Society's Pink Party, at DTwo Club. But before that, I had a meeting with our Personal Tutor this morning. We usually meet up with our mentor twice a semester to discuss on any problems or issues we may have. For our first meeting this semester, Dr Natasha Rafter had a special surprise for us - a box of Rolling Donuts! It's fast becoming a tradition for us students - if it ain't pizza, it's probably doughnuts... Anyway, we talked about our summer experience, as well as our expectations for the following year.

2) This evening, I went for the Debate Society's Inaugural Event - 'The Devil's Advocate'. We were divided into "for" and "against" groups, and given various motions to debate on. It was really informal, to allow for debaters of various experiences to have a go. Some of the more interesting topics included a) tea: before milk or after?; b) RCSI is the best medical school in the world; c) live to eat, or eat to live?; d) pets should be allowed in class; and e) pineapple on pizzas should be banned. It was really challenging coming up with points in a mere 30 seconds, but we tried our best, and enjoyed a nice round of pizzas afterward.

3) Later tonight, it was time for Pink Party! Held at DTwo Club, this event takes place annually to raise money for charity - specifically for Breast Cancer Research. We arrived early to set up our props (mostly balloons), and to secure our spot to party. Loud music blared from the speakers above us, and there was a nice stage for people keen to strut their dancing skills. I spent some time taking photographs using Jeffrey's beautiful DSLR camera, and not long after people started trickling in. Soon the entire place was packed, while the line just grow longer and longer. I didn't want to arrive home too late, so I said goodbye to everybody and left. That brings to an end yet another memorable day for me, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks very much for visiting, and have a great weekend ahead. Cheers!

Awesome night out, and for a good cause too ^^

My friends and Dr. Natasha Rafter (centre),

ft the Rolling Donuts

Rolling Donutssss

With old and new members of the Debate Society!

With Suzanne and Claire :D

On the Dance Floor

Breast Cancer Ireland

With Jeffrey and Claire ^^

DTwo as the night progressed :D

Pink Party Tickets to Dtwo

DAY 376/377

Sept 11 & 12

1) I find myself in a constant state of decision making. It feels as though I am an amateur juggler - constantly balancing between study and friends. Today was no exception. I had three lectures to cover by tomorrow, and I hadn't finished a single one. Yet I'm also aware that there are so many awesome events for Fresher's Week, and so many opportunities to socialise and make new friends; especially the first years. So after deep contemplation, I made up my mind that friends were more important, and went for the Drama Soc Game Night.

2) Held at the third floor of the new academic building, there was no shortage of short skits and fun games. From Anirudh "Rudy" Gautam and Maya's short skit on "Crowd-Funding", to Rudy's martial art skills in tandem with Maya's rendition of "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" - everyone had a really good time. Next, we were divided into different groups, and played Mafia - a party game consisting of an informed minority - the mafia, and an uninformed majority, the innocents. At the start of the game, each player is secretly assigned a role. The game has two alternating phases: night, during which the mafia may covertly "murder" an innocent, and day, in which surviving players debate the identities of the mafia and vote to eliminate a suspect. Play continues until all of the mafia have been eliminated or until the mafia outnumbers the innocents. That's basically the gist of it. And guess what - the civilians a.k.a. me won! Who woulda thunk XD

3) Yet another game we played was the "Winking Game", where one person (the police) stood in the centre of a human circle, and another person was the "winker". Whoever the winker blinked at had to sit down, and as more and more people sat down, the police had to figure out the identity of the "winker". It was hilarious watching some of the antics of our friends, and we were many rounds into the game, when pizza arrived. The games could wait - pizzas are priority, pizza is life :D So we crowded over the boxes upon boxes of pizzas, stuffing ourselves silly with piping hot food. Coming to Ireland has taught me many things, none more so than that the bond of friendship is worth its weight in gold. Or a slice of pizza XD

4) After a long, long day at the library, I packed my things and took the LUAS back home. I specifically brought my winter jacket today after yesterday night's merciless winds turned me to a human popsicle. Yet today was so much warmer, and very little winds too as I walked back the long route home. Anyway, that has been my day(s) in a nutshell, and I hope you enjoyed reading about them. Until next time, take care and good night. Cheers!

Group pic (huge turnout, huge success guys!)

PC: Drama Soc 2017 :^)

"The future's so bright I gotta wear shades" - Dayo ^^

Pizza party at the third floor

 The best group eva :)

And this is why I think it's him...

(Hope the pizza makes up for it XD)

Deciding who to lynch as the mafia is harder than medical school itself XD

Drama Soc Game Night :D

DAY 240

Apr 29

1) Today has been another long day for me in the library. After having my breakfast, I came to the library. Gradually, the weather is getting warmer. Let's hope it stays that way haha. Anyway, I've been focusing on two modules - REGUB and FUN2.

2) The difficulty lies in preparing for both; I have only five days to finish both REGUB and FUN2 modules. That doesn't seem too difficult until you realise that there are 23 FUN2 lectures and 40 REGUB lectures. Not an easy task, but I hope to cover at least most of them before the exams...

3) In the evening, I went over to Dunnes for some grocery shopping. I am planning to cook again tonight, so I will probably come home a little earlier. I can't wait for summer to come along, and at least I won't have to wait too long. That's all for my blog today, and thanks for reading. Have a nice day, cheers!

Nearing the end of the tunnel, both literally and figuratively

My last pasta meal

DAY 232

Apr 21

1) Today has been a fruitful day for me. As usual, I went to the library after breakfast, to revise for my OSCE and history taking exams. At around a quarter past eleven, I made my way to RCSI for an anatomy revision. There were only four surgeon prosectors, so lots of students were crowded over each prosector. Still, it was a very informative session, just ahead of our anatomy practicals exactly one week from now.

2) In the afternoon, Hong and I walked over to South Street Restaurant on George St, where there was an appreciation lunch organised by PMCSA for all the volunteers and participants who helped out with their various activities. We were all treated to a 2-course meal, which was really generous of them indeed. After our fabulous meal, I returned to the library with Melvin and Melissa.

3) Spent the afternoon sleeping, before going to Dunnes to buy a loaf of bread and some biscuits. The rest of the evening was just more studying and revising. After supper, I decided to call it a day and packed my stuff to go home. That has been my day, and thanks for reading. Have a good day, cheers!

Thanks PMCSA for the wonderful treat :)

South Street Restaurant

Minestrone soup for starters...

Lasagna as the main course

It was a full house of us RCSI students today :D

DAY 231

Apr 20

1) Today has seen the resolution to many issues that have plaguing my mind. Firstly, the issue regarding my accommodation. The first host family had sadly rejected my booking application, explaining that they did not have the room vacant for the duration of my stay. So I was forced to find another one on the hostingpower website. I found another one that was a bit further, but still rather convenient for me.

2) I was searching for alternative solutions in case I got a negative response. Fortunately, this afternoon I received confirmation that they would be delighted to have me staying with them. What a sigh of relief, and a valuable lesson for me not to delay looking for accommodation ever again.

3) Another stroke of luck for me was not having to book transportation from Munich to Nuremberg for a second time, and risk losing a hard earned €50.00. My friends and I are going for a trip during the summer, and I was booking the Flixbus to Nuremberg and back. After booking, they said a confirmation email had been sent to me, and I was required to access it to confirm my booking. But when I checked my email, it was nowhere to be found!

4) So I wrote an email to them a couple of days ago, explaining the situation. And the automated reply asked me to be patient as they had received many emails of this kind, and they needed time to reply to all of them. I was seriously agitated over this, because I thought I had just squandered away my parent's hard earned cash. Although my dad told me not to worry and that it wasn't a large amount, I still felt really bad. And today, I received the confirmation of my booking, plus the voucher to print out as proof that I had already booked the tickets!

5) Besides all this, it has been a productive day for me. At around 10.00am, my friends and I went to Millin basement, where our senior Addy was kind enough to take time off to help us out with our history taking. We went through history taking for all three systems, and while I can't speak for the others, I definitely learnt a lot! It's indeed a privilege to have such good support and rapport with our seniors. Coming back, I managed to go through the Gastrointestinal and Cardiorespiratory Examinations, which form our OSCE examinable material. All in all, a day well spent indeed. That's all for today, and thanks for reading. Have a nice day, cheers!

Throwback to when Jason decided to cartoonise us all

(ahead of the MMII Time Bomb Event ^^)

My lunch dad

DAY 230

Apr 19

1) Today has been a long day in the library. As exams approach ever so closer, I'm afraid there is not much activity going on for me, other than me trying to study whatever I can. Thus, I envision my blogs getting shorter for the exam period.

2) As for my day today, it was well spent in the library. I came over to the library before 9.00am, and I've stayed there since. Of course, I'm not studying all the time, rather, doing all that needs to be done there. Things I've noticed so far - the library's getting more crowded. There are now more waste disposal bins lying around. I think they learned their lesson from the Easter Day clean up haha.

3) In the evening, I went over to Dunnes to get more groceries for the week. I was up all night cooking yesterday, which is why I was feeling quite sleepy in the afternoon. At least I have meals for the rest of the week. The last thing I want to do is worry about what to have during exam periods. In just four days, our first exams will commence, which will mark the beginning of a long, long race to the finish (our exams end May 13th). At the very least, we end our semester earlier compared to our friends at UCD.

4) But they start their exams a lot later than us too. So I guess it evens out a little bit. I frequently wonder how I'd find life in UCD? Especially the syllabus and the projects involved. Anyway, that's all for my blog today. I've to get cracking with my studies haha. Thanks very much for reading, and have a great day. Cheers!

Mercer Library - my first home in Dublin

The product of my late night cooking yesterday

My dinner - chicken fillet roll  ^^

DAY 227

Apr 16

1) Happy Easter everybody! Most of the shops and shopping complexes in Dublin were closed today, and I forgot about that when I went to do my grocery shopping. And what better way to spend a holiday than by studying, right? Thankfully, the library was still operating, with usual opening and closing hours.

2) Today I'll share with you my experience with scammers. So I am in the process of booking an apartment for when my lease ends this summer. Most students use daft.ie for this purpose, and I used it too. One particular ad caught my attention, a €520/mth apartment for rent, in Dublin 2! Now the saying goes, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. But in this case, it wasn't absurdly cheap; just really cheap and good location.

3) So I messaged the owner, and I didn't get a reply for two days. Contrary to what you may think, I actually thought it was NOT a scam because they didn't reply instantly - usually scammers would reply you straight away since they want the money ASAP. But this was different, or so I thought. Fast forward till today, and I received an email apologising for the late reply, plus they shared some of their personal details with me.

4) At this point, I already had my reservations. Firstly, the original ad had been removed from daft.ie. Secondly, some sections of the email had perfect English while others were mediocre, with the ending asking me "not to let them down". Thirdly, they were asking me for my particulars, including a photo if I had one! All in the name of issuing a receipt and drafting out a lease, apparently. More like trying to identify me so you can target my friends too, I say.

5) Now all the warning bells were ringing. I continued digging deeper. I searched the name of the fool who claimed to be working as a doctor at a hospital. At first, I was a bit stumbled when the name and hospital matched, but it didn't take long to figure out they could just use the identity of someone else. Then I took paragraphs of the contents of the email and searched on the web. Turns out the content was from an Airbnb website, which explains where the perfect English came from.

6) So that was that. I never replied to the email, and that's the end of the matter. The moral of the story: if it's too good to be true, it usually is. And always double and triple check. Never give your personal details to anyone. EVER.

7) And to the scammer if you somehow managed to track my blog: People like you are the reason parents who send their children overseas to study have nightmares. You prey on gullible students, who have little to no experience dealing with situations like this; you are a cancer to society, and you take away whatever little hope we have left for humanity. All I know is retribution awaits, and it will come, especially when you least expect it. I won't wish it upon you, for that is sinful, but if and when it comes, you shan't have my sympathy.

8) That's the end of my little experience. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time it has happened. A couple of weeks earlier, my friend had a similar experience, and he was fortunate to identify the scammer before any sort of deal could be made. So to all future students coming to Dublin to study, I implore you to be careful, and be weary of such advertisements online. Take care, and have a great holiday, cheers! (EXCEPT MR./MRS./MS. SCAMMER ^^)

Flowers calm me down when I'm upset ^^

*Someone* decided they'd just make off with my leg XD

(10/10 for effort, RIP grammar)

DAY 225

Apr 14

1) Today has been a nice, long day in the library. I forgot to buy bread yesterday, so I opened up my one remaining packet of "Maggi Mee" or instant noodles, for breakfast. It tasted great after such a long time not having it. Afterwards, it was off to the library, where I've remained since.

2) The morning and afternoon was all about the Fundamentals of Biomedicine (FUN2) module. There aren't many lectures on this module, but boy oh boy some of the lecture slides number to the hundreds! It's really very densely packed, and a lot of memorising to be done... Fortunately, a quick afternoon nap helped me to refocus.

3) In the evening, I took some time off to go to Dunnes, to get that loaf of bread. Returned to the Mercer Cafe for dinner. After that, it was one last round of study, before I decided to call it a day. Had a light supper before packing my stuff and returning home. Here's counting down nine days till our first exam, the OSCEs. That would be my day today, and thanks for reading about it. Have a great day, cheers!

Easter is fast approaching (Dunnes Stores)

Maggi mee for breakfast ^^

DAY 224

Apr 13

1) Today has been a rather boring day for me in the library. For the most part of the day, I was trying my best to focus on my studies. Sometimes, my mind would just wander off and refuse to absorb anything, so I knew I needed a break. Then, I would just listen to the Headspace app which I got free access to, after signing up as a volunteer for the programme. It basically teaches the mind to relax, and each session lasts only about 10 minutes.

2) The one exciting thing I managed to do today was to set up a page for raising money for charity. I recently signed up for the SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon, which takes place somewhere in October this year. Along with that, I chose to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society. They sent me an info pack, with information on how to set up a website, and how to ask for donations. I think it's a very worthy cause, as all the proceeds would help fund cancer research.

3) If anyone is willing to donate, I'll attach the link to the website, and just click on the Green button that says "Give Now". The sum you donate is inconsequential; what matters most is the thought that goes behind it. Anyway, back to the day's activities. In the evening, my friends and I met up at the Mercer Cafe, where we booked the accommodation for our summer trip. Hopefully things go smoothly, and we'll have a very enjoyable and well-deserved vacation.

4) The rest of the night was, as you may already have guessed, spent on studying. I'm careful to know my own limits - and I'm only pushing as far as I can. As long as I don't have to repeat any module, I'll be satisfied. Anyway, that's my whole day summed up. Thanks for reading as always, and have a great day. Cheers!

P.S. Here's the link: https://sse-airtricity-dublin-marathon-2017.everydayhero.com/ie/irish-cancer-society-fundraiser

Back to the bones then XD

Lunch

DAY 223

Apr 12

1) Today has been another long day at the library. There's really not many days left until our first exam, which is our OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination). So we are rotated through three stations, one of which is a History Taking Station, another is a Cardio/Resp/GI exam station, and the last is a rest station - in random order. All in all it shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes, but what effort required for it!

2) As you can imagine, my entire day has been spent at the library. Sometimes it's hard to find motivation to study when you don't even know where to start, because there's just so much to cover. So I just picked anatomy and studied that for the afternoon.

3) In the evening, I went over to the National Surgical Training Centre for our last Surgical Laporoscopy Session. It was the same five tasks, from simple transferring of pegs to the more difficult extracorporeal and intracorporeal suturing simulation tasks. Thankfully, I managed to complete all five tasks without too much of a hassle. I've done these same tasks so many times that it has become a bit like muscle memory to me - just like when I play the piano.

4) Returned to the library after saying goodbye to Mr. Harrington, the Surgical Research Fellow, for what is our last session before the holidays. They will use the data recorded (time taken, number of pegs transferred etc.) to plot a chart over time to see whether our skills improve/decline/show no change over time. That should be pretty interesting to see. I suspect mine to be all over the place, as there were some really good days and some pretty bad ones as well for me.

5) The rest of the evening is just trying to focus on my studies and not get distracted by other activities (believe me, when you are sick of studying, anything becomes interesting haha). That's the life of a medical student: we study hard, then party hard. And I can't wait for the latter. And on that note, I'll end my blog update here. Thanks for reading as always, and have a nice day. Cheers!

The trees are starting to bloom and gosh do they look beautiful

Disclaimer: those are jelly beans, not meds

My lunch, at the Mercer Cafe

Day 220

Apr 9

1) Today has been another day for me in the library. I was up cooking all night, so I arrived later than usual at the library. As usual, it was time for some study, so I revised anatomy.

2) Anatomy has taken up most of my studying time, seeing as our second exam for the finals is Anatomy Practicals, just after our OSCEs. And that's what I've been covering for most of the day. In the evening, I did go out to Dunnes (again haha) to get some more groceries for the week. Came back to have my dinner, before it was back to square one.

3) The rest of the night was just a bit more studying, and me enjoying a light supper. There's no lessons tomorrow, which means I will not have to wake up early tomorrow. Although I probably will anyway. That would be the end to one of my less exciting days, but then again, it's nearing our exams and there's really not much left to do. That rounds up my day today, and thanks for reading as always. Have a great day, cheers!

The flowers are really starting to bloom and look pretty <3 <3 <3

That was the end result of my cooking yesterday ^^

DAY 216

Apr 5

1) Today has been a typical day for me in the library. Having struck the Histology Quiz off the list, I'm now left with the submission of two individual assignments, after which it will be the finals that I'm preparing for. I drafted out a simple schedule to follow for the next month or so, which (fingers crossed) will allow me to finish revision by the time exams come about.

2) I spent the better part of the morning working on one of the individual assignments (ICP1). We still have two more patient contact sessions - one at the next Healthcare Symposia, and the other at the Expert Patient Session tomorrow. After that, we'll have all the material to finish our ICP portfolio. Over the course of the afternoon, it was back to revising the usual cycle of GIHEP, FUN2, REGUB, and some anatomy.

3) Tomorrow represents a bit of a crisis for me. I agreed to volunteer for the REACH RCSI Sports Day 2017, but at the same time that means I'll have to forgo both Anatomy Practicals and possibly, the Expert Patient Session. It was a TOUGH choice, but finally I decided that I'd skip lessons tomorrow. Anyway, I'll worry about that another time. I still have all these lessons to sift through, and not a lot of time at all. Our first final exam starts barely three weeks from now, so it's best to start ASAP. That's been my day today, and thanks as always for reading. Have a great day, cheers!

Throwback to a coin

(Vote RSU - yep, just trying to throw in some subtle hints here ^^)