One plus of living with people is to unabashedly stalk their eating habits around the kitchen table. However, it works both ways. My top 3 eating habits as picked out by my co-wagga-dorm-habitants:
1) Eating my cereal in my mug. I justify this with the "I'm a busy person" argument whereby if I am running late then I can take advantage of the cup-form cereal and glug the whole thing down.
2) Eating bananas with a spoon. This is a childhood phenomenon where in answer to my stubborn refusals to eat my bananas my dad invented a 'fun' way of eating them i.e. to scrape the sides with a spoon thus converting it to a 'banana jam' and eating it like so. Have kept this habit to adulthood.
3) Eating ice cream on a plate. I proved this was achievable but limited to eating my ice cream fast (thus preventing it to excessively melt and drip).
I will now end this post by sharing what I had for dinner today. I bet you'd never guess as it is quite an ecclectic composition consisting of (drum roll) mie goreng (! I staved away from it for 2 weeks!); smoked salmon cream cheese sandwich; cereal (in a mug of course); and chocolate paddle pop ice cream. Happiness is when you can have cereal at any time of the day (or night).
From Sydney with Love
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
First Day
The drive up. In true Indonesian fashion, an initial departure time planned for 6am became 8:30am (Indonesians are notoriously known for their tardiness; however I have to confess that I am or hope that I'm one of the few exceptions to this).
Highlights of the drive:
1) roadkills: numbered 5 (2 fresh roos, 2 dried up ones and 1 unknown which I thought resembled a spotted mini cat but then again I was zooming past on >110km/hr...)
2) driving at nice* speeds on the hume highway (just one long long stretch of road, I wish my car went vooom voom voooooooom even more!!)
3) noticing the progressive increase in outside temperature (as shown on my odometer) as we made our way more and more inland - 24.5 degrees Sydney, 28 degress Yass, 34 degrees Gundagai and finally 37.5-38 degrees Wagga. Great!
The town itself from first impressions:
1) HOT. refer to point 3 above.
2) Either super friendly people or super weird/bizarre. Driving past we got waves (but probably more because we were a family of Asians and its a sight to behold here...) and smiles from the policeman! Weird because you see groups of teenage boys in emo/goth wear strolling down the streets. Weird and (?) nice when 2 dreadlocked guys with a table full of beer bottles + chips, offered to share it with us as we walked past. Ok maybe that was just weird.
3) Asians are an anomaly here. refer to previous point. On this note, TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Avoid Asian food in country towns. To gather a sense of familiarity we opted for Asian for dinner. It was hands down the worst asian I have ever eaten in my life. If a Caucasian Wagga-anian opened an Asian joint, I'd put my money that it would taste the same, even better.
4) Comfortable but quiet. Everything you need is here. Tandy, Coles, Woolies, Myer, Witchery (I was pleasantly surprised by this - some form of fashion exists here!), GJs, all the fast food joints and so on. However it's quiet. You can hear yourself whispering on the main st on a Saturday night.
Place I'm staying at (Nurses/medstudent quarters) seems as though its still stuck in the 1950s. Lino/?vinyl floors and old style washing machines are around. However, am happy with the room space + wardrobe space (yes!). I am also surprised at myself, that I'm mildly enjoying the experience so far. But maybe this is because homesickness has not kicked in yet.
* up to the reader's interpretation. Though I certainly hope I got away unscathed from any fines or penalties...
Highlights of the drive:
1) roadkills: numbered 5 (2 fresh roos, 2 dried up ones and 1 unknown which I thought resembled a spotted mini cat but then again I was zooming past on >110km/hr...)
2) driving at nice* speeds on the hume highway (just one long long stretch of road, I wish my car went vooom voom voooooooom even more!!)
3) noticing the progressive increase in outside temperature (as shown on my odometer) as we made our way more and more inland - 24.5 degrees Sydney, 28 degress Yass, 34 degrees Gundagai and finally 37.5-38 degrees Wagga. Great!
The town itself from first impressions:
1) HOT. refer to point 3 above.
2) Either super friendly people or super weird/bizarre. Driving past we got waves (but probably more because we were a family of Asians and its a sight to behold here...) and smiles from the policeman! Weird because you see groups of teenage boys in emo/goth wear strolling down the streets. Weird and (?) nice when 2 dreadlocked guys with a table full of beer bottles + chips, offered to share it with us as we walked past. Ok maybe that was just weird.
3) Asians are an anomaly here. refer to previous point. On this note, TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Avoid Asian food in country towns. To gather a sense of familiarity we opted for Asian for dinner. It was hands down the worst asian I have ever eaten in my life. If a Caucasian Wagga-anian opened an Asian joint, I'd put my money that it would taste the same, even better.
4) Comfortable but quiet. Everything you need is here. Tandy, Coles, Woolies, Myer, Witchery (I was pleasantly surprised by this - some form of fashion exists here!), GJs, all the fast food joints and so on. However it's quiet. You can hear yourself whispering on the main st on a Saturday night.
Place I'm staying at (Nurses/medstudent quarters) seems as though its still stuck in the 1950s. Lino/?vinyl floors and old style washing machines are around. However, am happy with the room space + wardrobe space (yes!). I am also surprised at myself, that I'm mildly enjoying the experience so far. But maybe this is because homesickness has not kicked in yet.
* up to the reader's interpretation. Though I certainly hope I got away unscathed from any fines or penalties...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
[relunctantly] Going Wagga
"Dear Student
You have been allocated to Wagga Wagga for Phase 3.
- Med Admin Phase3"
!@#$%^?????!!!! [blank blank chirp chirp blank !@#$%^!]
And so with this one-liner of an email my worst case scenario was realised - that I, a local student, had the unbelievable misfortune to be picked out of the hat and sent rural for the next 1-1.5years of my life. You see, government policy is for at least 25% of HECS/Commonwealth supported med places to spend an average of 1.5 years out country. To help achieve this quota, each year UNSW med offers 50 rural entry scheme pathways for students who understand they will spend either 1-1.5years rural. If the quota is not met then however many local students would be randomly selected to rought it out. Every other HECS/local student is subjected to spending min 4weeks rural.
Now the only way to get out of such an extended shaftment to timbuktoo is if you 1)have dependents; 2)have a psychiatric illness; and/or 3)are an elite sportsman or musician (yes that's right - even if you can't afford to go, you'll still be shipped off and must figure how to fend for yourself).
Because I have failed to 1)get knocked up (or find the right guy with kids); 2)develop suicidal intentions thus far in my 4 years of med; and 3)persevere with piano (I quit after 6 months in year 2) ...I have resigned myself to my woeful predicament.
Living at home in the same place for the last 17 years with primary school friends still also living in the same houses and everything at home being taken care by a lovely asian mother, this next phase forcibly expels me from the comfort zone I've been in all my life. My coping mentality was (and has always been): ok so this is sh*t but i'm not going to die (...hopefully - KANGAROOS please dont hit my car); there are people in the 3rd world dying of starvation and everything else but I still have a roof above my head, great friends&family and the privilege of learning med - I can't complain.
And indeed, all is not bad. Looking on the upside, I am looking forward to 1)the supposed excellent medical teaching where doctors will go out of their way and make time to even do 1:1 bedside tutes...2) the friendly country people (which makes for nice patients that wont give you massive dirties when you screw up on your first cannulation etc) and 3)living out of home for the first time (although wagga is not the first place you'd think of moving out to). (You may note that I like it when things come in magic threes).
Of course I will miss the buzz of going to places in Sydney, the dining, the shopping, the people but will look forward to the new scenery, new pace and style of life and new people I will meet along the way. Further, leaving Sydney for awhile has given me the push to do Sydney things I never got round to doing (e.g. Carols in Domain; NYE firework stakeout to be accomplished at a later stage...) and meet up with people I have not managed to catch up with in the last 4 years. For this I am already thankful.
So with less than 24 hours to go before departure, bye for now, next post will be from wogz ;)
You have been allocated to Wagga Wagga for Phase 3.
- Med Admin Phase3"
!@#$%^?????!!!! [blank blank chirp chirp blank !@#$%^!]
And so with this one-liner of an email my worst case scenario was realised - that I, a local student, had the unbelievable misfortune to be picked out of the hat and sent rural for the next 1-1.5years of my life. You see, government policy is for at least 25% of HECS/Commonwealth supported med places to spend an average of 1.5 years out country. To help achieve this quota, each year UNSW med offers 50 rural entry scheme pathways for students who understand they will spend either 1-1.5years rural. If the quota is not met then however many local students would be randomly selected to rought it out. Every other HECS/local student is subjected to spending min 4weeks rural.
Now the only way to get out of such an extended shaftment to timbuktoo is if you 1)have dependents; 2)have a psychiatric illness; and/or 3)are an elite sportsman or musician (yes that's right - even if you can't afford to go, you'll still be shipped off and must figure how to fend for yourself).
Because I have failed to 1)get knocked up (or find the right guy with kids); 2)develop suicidal intentions thus far in my 4 years of med; and 3)persevere with piano (I quit after 6 months in year 2) ...I have resigned myself to my woeful predicament.
Living at home in the same place for the last 17 years with primary school friends still also living in the same houses and everything at home being taken care by a lovely asian mother, this next phase forcibly expels me from the comfort zone I've been in all my life. My coping mentality was (and has always been): ok so this is sh*t but i'm not going to die (...hopefully - KANGAROOS please dont hit my car); there are people in the 3rd world dying of starvation and everything else but I still have a roof above my head, great friends&family and the privilege of learning med - I can't complain.
And indeed, all is not bad. Looking on the upside, I am looking forward to 1)the supposed excellent medical teaching where doctors will go out of their way and make time to even do 1:1 bedside tutes...2) the friendly country people (which makes for nice patients that wont give you massive dirties when you screw up on your first cannulation etc) and 3)living out of home for the first time (although wagga is not the first place you'd think of moving out to). (You may note that I like it when things come in magic threes).
Of course I will miss the buzz of going to places in Sydney, the dining, the shopping, the people but will look forward to the new scenery, new pace and style of life and new people I will meet along the way. Further, leaving Sydney for awhile has given me the push to do Sydney things I never got round to doing (e.g. Carols in Domain; NYE firework stakeout to be accomplished at a later stage...) and meet up with people I have not managed to catch up with in the last 4 years. For this I am already thankful.
So with less than 24 hours to go before departure, bye for now, next post will be from wogz ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)