My. Blog. Is. Dead.
:(

I saw the founder's day pictures. All my friends look so joyful I feel envious... Like holding up Class of 2010 certificates. At the back of my mind the image of me going up on stage to collect my graduation cert replays. In a formal JC jacket haha. But as to which JC my imagination always blurs. Yeah I know I'll be getting my MYP grad cert from ISB but that'll feel just different. I mean, MGS is the place where i feel most rooted to and nothing can change that. ISB's secondary and so will other schools I attend in the future be.

And yup I haven't been doing anything much over the hols. My dad told me last night that he doesn't care anymore if I drop French and German in school to take Spanish ab initio. Idk I'm supposed to be happy when he said that? But somehow I feel like it's a wasted opportunity for my french. Gahhhh. Currently checking out language schools in Basel for my French and German cos it is highly likely I would take them outside and not for IB. Just that the high cost of language courses drives me mad. For half a level (half of B1 for eg) it can cost around CHF 1000 or S$1500. crazyyyyy. :/ those days in singapore when I thought foreign language classes were expensive HAHA. -.- should've taken those opportunities when I was younger maybe. Like in pri sch. But actually I never knew how well I could pick up (European) languages and how much I enjoy learning them, much to my surprise. My parents think I'm a bit silly to want to learn so many different languages when I'm bad at perfecting them. Hmph don't care as long as they sponsor me. Pay back later. Much later. :P

I read about Insead MBA school in Fontainbleu near Paris. Sounds pretty interresting for a graduate degree. :) just a thought. If I don't get to the US.

I think I'm quite set after much contemplation. I'll go to the US, complete undergraduate college with hopefully all the courses required for medicine, get an undergrad degree in something (doesn't need to be science-based). Then I'll see if I still want to pursue med in graduate school. Don't think I'll do law or engineering cos my Eng and Maths ain't that great anyway.. And for grad school maybe I should try for a dual degree. Yay.

First thing though, is to get through the SAT. Urgh it's not supposed to be hard but I'm finding it hard, especially for the critical reading section. Like i can get a third of the questions wrong. Annoying. Still can't figure out why. ><

Okayyy. I'll be watching Harry potter with my sis and her special person on Friday. :D

The Enchanting Twilight

Labels: Founder's day

Eeewwwwww it has been raining so often this week that it totally doesn't feel like summer anymore! And one tree outside my house has turned orange-red, meaning it's ready for autumn. Life hasn't been that interesting ever since I returned from Singapore sighhhh. Wtching the tour de France at the moment. 2nd last stage; Andy Schleck the guy from Luxembourg seems to be doing pretty well and if he keeps up he'll beat Alberto Contador and win. So much for brotherly assistance from Frank Schleck...

Just came back from a one-hour volleyball practice with my sis. I think we improved, especially our overhead serves.hopefully next season i'll be good enough for varsity, although I think it's highly impossible since there're few spots. ahhh well.

I've been trying hard to improve my French although nothing much seems to be happening. I went to the bookstore and took a sneak peak at my to-be literature book for 2012 and I was so shocked because it's terribly difficult. Like seriously I don't think I can survive for french A. :'( but i guess I have to try and really feel for myself that I truly suck then maybe I'll convince my dad that I should do another language. Must learn the passé simple tense first. ><

I just realized that there isn't a women's tour de France? Heh.

Last night I went through several old birthday letters from my friends and sis. Sweet. Here no one does anything so special for your birthday, only if you throw a party. Just commenting btw.

The Enchanting Twilight

Just to add. My heart thumps so fast it isn't even funny anymore when I can't understand what people are saying to me. Well the whole hospital functions in German and the personnel speak in Swiss-German, even worse because it's a dialect and I only learn high German. And when they try to speak high German to me, they have a strong Swiss accent which sometimes makes it hard for me to understand.

But I think I've been doing reasonably okay so far because I only clarify certain really important information they tell me, if not I don't really carre to ask them to repeat every single thing. Then when I answer, either i speak too unconfidently or my accent is too strange that sometimes they don't understand me too! hahaha.

Fine I clarified with my team of nurses that I've only learnt German for 2 years therefore my German isn't that great. And what do they say? Oh your German is really really good since you've only learnt it since 2 years ago and since you're in the English school in Basel. Don't know if that is just encouragement or the truth... But well I'm getting used to it. I found one nurse who is from the French side of Switzerland - so she can speak French with me THANK GOODNESS. Haha. Seems like only the doctors are proficient enough in English to converse... :s

Nvm I hope my understanding of spoken German and Swiss-German will improve by the end of the week! ;) oh and work starts at 7am omg and ends at 4pm. Like be in the office by 7am. Even earlier than MGS!! :/ Takes me around half an hour to get to the hospital, another 5 to 10 mins to go to the lockers and change argh. Means waking up at 5.50am... :S

The Enchanting Twilight

Labels: German

For this week I am doing a one-week internship in the Bruderholzspital to find out if I'm actually really interested in medicine. So i've started 2 days and there are 3 more days to go! Basically it's fun yet boring at the same time. I follow a nurse and his team around one department in the hospital, observe what they do, try to do some simple chores.

I was posted to the private department, meaning the patients are in either a single or double room. (normally it would be 4 in a room.) And I follow my main nurse and watch him doing routine checks like blood sugar level, blood pressure, medicine etc. Since the whole level is full of old patients, they can't move and thus they are pretty much helpless, so it's up to the nurses to help wash them and all. I watch of course haha. Don't think they want strange little teenagers to be so hands-on yet. I mean it isn't the cleanest job I know, but I must say I'm pretty impressed by the systematic and organized style of working here in this hospital.

And then there are (assistant) doctors shuffling in and out of the department I'm in, checking the nurses' notes on the patients. Doctors do so much less than the nurses, seriously. And doctors look way cooler and smarter because they get to dress up in their own clothes and wear a lab coat over, whereas nurses must all be in a nurse uniform, which is really baggy and feels like pyjamas. And I look terribly weird in a nurse uniform - I prefer my MG uniform so much more! :P

Well I have to admire the nurses' patience with the old people. Really. There was one old lady who pressed the bell for ages just because she couldn't find the tissue box. (She thought the box of gloves was the tissue box, then realized that the rubber gloves could not absorb liquids...) so yeah since she pressed the bell for so long, the whole team of nurses came running to her room thinking it was an emergency, then finding out this was such a small matter but still had to comfort her and say that oh your tissue box is on your left. -.-

But sometimes when no patient calls for assistance, then there isn't much for the nurses to do, other than check and write notes which I don't do. Like Tuesday was way quieter than Monday.

There are other teenagers doing this one-week internship too, but I found out their goal is to be a nurse and thus they're doing this one week course for real experience. Whereas I'm like doing this just to "try out". And those teenagers are all younger than me, like 14 or 15, and I found out from them that the 3-year nursing diploma course starts when they're 16...? So it was kind of awkward telling the others and my nurse that I'm gearing up for medicine. They all went "wahhhh!" :/

I spoke to the assistant doctor and told him I want to study medicine. He wasn't very encouraging, despite his good looks. :p He just sat back and said, oh you have a lot to learn... -.- great??

Sigh I still can't decide. But I definitely know I don't want to be a nurse. Every day I wait for lunchtime and I wait for my knock-off time. Just to get out of my nurse uniform. Maybe being a doctor will be different. Seems like they do more interesting things other than cleaning patients up and giving them their medicine. I like talking to the patients, old or young doesn't really matter to me. I actually wish I could follow a doctor and not a nurse, but I know the doctors in this public hospital are also interning, which means they are following more superior doctors. Bleh.

Maybe I should go to the US for university since i'm this undecided. US colleges don't need you to decide on a specific course so soon, which is the plus point for me. But on the other hand, knowing that so many of my Singaporean friends are planning to go to the UK for uni, it's like running away from them. I'm already Halfway across the world from them, and when they nearly catch up with me, I fly away again.

Maybe it's just time to make new friends.
And to choose a goal.

The Enchanting Twilight

PS: Damn I seriously have problems trying to let go. I miss my friends in Singapore so much it's terrible because I'm starting to have the same feeling like when I first moved here. :'(

Labels: Hospital internship

At Changi Ariport now, departing in half an hour or so. :'( Oh well this trip had been pretty packed and fruitful I guess. 1 week full of activity and good food with awesome people. :) I shall record my wonderful experience of JC-hopping haha.

Day 1: touch down, HC, NJ, Lot 1, Ion (in the meantime visited Somerset 313 but didn't really shop)

Day 2: China Square, ACSI, Clementi Mall, MGS, HC, ACJC, CityLink Mall, fly offffff (now).

I basically visited all 3 new shopping malls omg. I'm even more successful than my shopaholic mum. Haha! :P And yup, I even had time to visit MGS, which was really good. Literally I could sense the familiar smell of MGS. How weird, but how nice. And yes, the JCs are all so big and majestic especially HC where I got a bit lost in and had some funny experiences.

Couldn't get to see everyone, but certainly I saw way more people than I had expected. ;) Now I realise the convenience of having an EZ-link card to get around Singapore. Felt like a foreigner in my homeland where I messed up at MRT stations and on the bus when I didn't have enough COINS. ><

Had some pretty good chats with gossip haha. :)

Thank you Evangeline for the really pretty drawings. You should become a fashion designer omg. I do wish the clothes you drew were real so I could wear them and be pretty haha. :P

MGS was a pretty humourous experience - I dialled on the staff extension phone to call some teacher - any teacher who would still be around after school ended half an hour ago. So Mrs Mag Sim picked up the phone and droned, "WHAT NOW..." I replied, "Hi Mrs Sim I'm Monica. I left 2 years ago during my sec 3 year and you wrote me a recommendation letter." *Silence* "OH YAAAA. What is your name again?" (I really felt like laughing omg. Her voice itself is funny.) Then yeah she came out of the staffroom and we chatted for quite some time. :O In the meantime I saw Mrs Lim, or maybe Aunty Florence as I used to call her since she's Min's mum, plus Miss Lau, whom I heard would be getting married soon. :D How sweet.

So I realised I shop pretty well by myself haha. Got some nice new clothes which actually look fashionable unlike Basel's already stale style (to me). Plus some books. ;) AND MY LUCKY PEN! (8 of it although they might not last...) So I better do well for the IB and not mess up like I did for the MYP. :D

OOOH! I forgot to talk about my cousin's wedding in Malaysia! :) It was pretty spectacular throughout. Caught up with my cousins plus distant cousins and grandmother and aunt. ;) Haircut plus nail makeover and cheap yummy food in coffee shops haha. :)

Oh well just want to thank all of you my wonderful friends for making my stay in Singapore this memorable and this FUNNN. Don't know when I'll be back again, don't know if I'd see you again in the near future as we spread out all over the world, but... until then! :')

Okay I'm boarding. Bye and take care!

The Enchanting Twilight

Labels: Singapore and Malaysia