Silent Night

Christmas.
We celebrated it our own way here in Manipal. Our very own way. First off, We cooked. Yes you heard right.We cooked, in our little hostel rooms, with our Littler rice cookers, we cooked. Kathy, Linda, Me and Nevi. All in my room. We made Spaghetti and Mac n Cheese, enough to feed about 20 people. Then The guys got chicken from Chef Inn( the BBQ'ed it for us) and we all went to KMC Greens and had our very own christmas eve dinner. We said grace, we ate, we talked , we laughed. This has to be one of the most memorable christmas's ever. Not only for me.

At home, it is the first christmas(in many years) that my grandparents and parents and aunts n uncles are celebrating with NONE of us kids around. :)
It is the first time that me Vic and Sub are all away from home for Christmas.

In Manipal, it was great to see all of us, just coming together in the spirit of Christmas. Some of you know bout the problems ive been having here, the problems showed up to. Im so sorry, I let it affect me for a while. But i got over it. I swear i did. I understand now that its not my loss. Its theirs.
Christmas has always held a very very special place in my heart. It brings back memories of scrapping off Icing and Marzipan from grandma's christmas cake, Of Nasi Minya and Turkey for lunch, Of rendang, and Fried chicken, of Opening presents with Pam n Mandy, the two boys, Viack and Sub, Cassie n Heather, of being together all of us in Grandma's house, eating talking laughing.. Of us watching Home Alone 1 n 2, of love and happiness..

So being away from home this christmas, means alot to me. But here in Manipal, my friends and i managed to capture taht essence of christmas. It is a time of giving and forgiving, a time of sharing and caring, a time of love and a time of joy. I think I spent christmas in a meaningufl way this year. I hope the next one will be too

Blessed Christmas to all!!!
that is all

Rain

Its been a TRYING weekend.. im THIS close to blowing my top at people. Im going nuts. Life sucks..

Im getting impatient. Im getting angry. I dont want to be. I cant help. it. Its not that i dont wanna help, its that i have to get my priorities straight. And for me being here, that means studying first. I know I wont be able to cope if I dont read tonihgt. so im sorry. I really really am.

A picture play

Brush!!

All got new toothbrushes n colgate!! :DA picture play

Huluran Kasih Outreach project.. teaching kids to brush teeth.. such cute kids!!

Hungry.. waiting for food.....

Udupi's equivalent of Gurnye.. Sai Ram textiles...

Girls day out in UDUPI... at Saai Parivars... good good lunch!

Helena( Aka Rempit's) birthday... From the left: Sepet, Kathy, Me , Syahmi, Joe( Danial) and Rempit


Rashidi( AKA Dato) Me n Hafiez

Rempits Birthday at Guzzlers inn..

All the girls... MMMC Annual Nite... :D

Some of the people of my batch during the annual nite

Of Masalah and Masala

I opened Volume 3 of BD Chaurasia with good intentions to read and store what little i could about the larynx,pharynx and soft palate... Unfortunately when I opened the book, the little interest in the subject(head and neck) vanished. Hence the Masalah!

So as I sat there, in the chair, at the table, in my room, I pondered, what to do. Physio seems equally unappealing, biochem even more so! So what to do... I got up and walked around.. ending up in my little kitchenette and boiled some water and made a cup of masala tea..

Funnily enough with a cup of steaming masala tea in my hands, the red book seemed a little more appealing. As i took a sip of tea and sat in the chair,I unconsciously reached for the pen lying next to the abandoned test pad next to the book. I put the cup donw on the table and started reading and writing.

So I have come to a conclusion. Masala tea is good for studying. Especially when VK is your table teacher, and just opening the book induces extreme stress and anxiety. Anxiety at being ridiculed in front of the whole table whether or not your answer is right. Stress ebcause what VK says and what Chaurasia says is sometimes diffrent.. which accounts for all the little post it notes in my notes which go VK=..............................so that when VK asks us.. we give him his answer. But for the real exam, we use chaurasia.... confusing stuff...

Problems which are all solved by the staeming cup of masala tea:D

that is all

Its been a HECTIC, TIRING, week. I just finished my first block exams. Yep your heard rite. Ive been in Manipal for 10 week, and in that short period of time, the entire upper and lower limb has been covered. And I have been examined on it. It was TOUGH.

In all my life, i have never been ayaw from home during an exam, never had to wake up and make my own breakfast before going for the exam, or my own lunch for tht matter. In this aspect, I missed home during this exam. Imagine.. before the biochem paper, I had no time to eat on account of having opened my biochme notes only the night before, due to the amount of anatomy i had to prepare for which left me with hardly enough time to prepare adequately for Biochem and for physio.

So on the day of the biochem paper i was SWAMPED. Swamped with pathways(which thanks to Dr UK was already memorised:D), enzymes, and god knows what else to memorise! end hence ended up eating Parle G for lunch :P( google parle g if u wanna know what it is ppl)

Other then the exams, this week has been pretty uneventful, and in manipal... unevenful is a norm la.. nothing much happens around here, which leads to the biggest gossip-mongers-being born in manipal. WHic in my opinion is kinda sad cos u see theres nothing much to gossip about excet who is going out wiht who.. or who got on who's bike.. or who did what etc.

( LOL I JUST REALISED ETC COULD ALSO MEAN ELECTRON TRANSPORT CHAIN>)

So really the only entertainment is other peoples lives. Which is just plain sad.

So we thought tht thisweekend, we'd go to mangalore( a city about 2 hours away), to watch a movie n eat pizza( i know our exsitance is sad). But then Mumbai got bombed and we all got calls from our parents telling us to find bomb shelters and go barricade ourselves in them with tins of jacobs cream crackers and cream of chicken soup and stay there till it was safe to come out (:P).
But seriously, people called, random people and said pls stay safe.. dont die in india. So for the record people i dont intend to die in india k?!we like good kids stayed within the vicinity of manipal n udupi, two villages, with nothing to do.

So Kathy,Linda n I decided to take matters into our own hands. WE WENT SHOPPING. It was like a regular girls day out!! We went cloth shopping( this is india ppl. It equivalent to a day spent at gurney!), and spent a whole lot of $$$ resulting in the fact that were doomed to eating UR Choice Mess everyday( RS 4o per meal)Looks like no more chicken tikka biryani for me!

But it was fun. Seriously. We bargained... Linda expericenced the whole Walk out of the shop cos the price is too high n then get called back to buy the bag scenario( She became a woman). We all bought Henna which in india is equivalent to a tattoo!! LOL

A nice relaxing day after a week of streess :D

That is All!

Im an Addict

Thats right. You read the title correctly. I admit. Openly, freely, without shame. I am an addict.
Now the questions come.. addicted to what?
It is the single most satisfying substance,without which, I become a GROUCH.
It is MENTOS. Now, the history of my mentos addiction dates back to the month of January, 2007.
Room 300, KDU college Penang.
As I sat listening to lectures on Bio, Chem,etc, i found them to be most sleep inducing! There was but ONE soution. MENTOS.
Noor L N Shobi were appalled at the amount of mentos i used to consume daily, which led me to praise the lord that the two of them did not see me today! Over the entire weekend, I did not have even a single one of those incredible chewy dragees!This morning we had an anat test. So it wasnt surprising that i felt stressed. What was surpriseing was that after the test was over, I felt worse! I normally feel great after a test!

This continued till 3.35 pm in the afternoon, when i made the pilgrimage to Sonia and bought two tubes of mentos. And finished them on the way to histo. I felt like me again!
:D
So u see ppl. I NEED the MENTOS. Its essential!!!!

Ps Noor L. ur clones here. Her Name is Puteri Helena(rempit) and she dissapproves of my mentos habbits. I wont go in to the details buts lets just say im worse then before :D

that is all

Confusion.

After the lecture the other day on respecting the cadaver, Many thoughts have run throigh my mind on the subject.
I am amazed at myself. I am amazed that I, who will shed tears for the dead dog on the side of the road, feel nothing towards the dead man that lies naked, stripped of all dignity, on the table before me. I am scared to be honest. Scared that I have lost the ability tp feel. I sit almost everyday for 2 hours a day in a hall surrounded by the dead. Their bodies in grotesque condition. How I am i able to stomach it? More importantly WHY am I able to stomach it.

I honestly felt nothing for the dead man, until yesterday. Yesterday i saw them slicing a man or woman in half. They sawed the person in to two. Splitting open the skull, cutting right through the body.

I know its their job. I know that they perhaps have no other way to make a living. But i cannot, for the life of me accept what they did. I understand that it is all in the name of science. But I also now understand why science without control on it is madness.

Think. If it was you. If it was your body that they were SAWING in half. Separating you. You dont know what will happen to the other half of your body. Will it be burnt? will it be burried? or will it simple be cut up further for more specimens? or worse, will it be simply abandoned down the rubbish chute?

What if it was your body i was dissecting? Your muscles i was tugging, your nerves i was tracing.
For the first time, it hit me. What if it was me?
Would i want to be treated this way? would i want to lie dead, cold, exposed to the world?
Would i want to be put in a freezer every day and be dragged out and dropped on a colod steel table every morning?
Did he, the man who we now dissect want to be treated this way? Or did he have no say what so ever in the matter? Did he make the desicion to be ont he table in forn of me by himself? or was that desicions made for him when he could have no say in the matter.

And how can I, a person who has always prided herself in having principles and sticking to them not feel anything for the person??

I know that I learn from him, and for that, from the bottom of my heart, form a place where words cannot express my gratitude, i thank you sir.

Sometimes i wonder, will our lecturers donate their bodies to medical science? Knwoing the way that cadavers are treated. With so little dignity, Will they give themselves for our future generations to learn?

These questions now plague my mind. I hate myself for not being able to do anything about it.

That is NOT all.