2nd service

Okay so now I am no longer in inpatient psychiatry anymore. I miss that place. Sobs sobs.

Methodist hospital is okay. Awesome food. but its too far. Too much walking to reach there.I don't like walking from subway to hospital and back.

*back in princess corner, feeling loved by my room air* (noone wants to go out man, its too hot).

Thermometer of its kind.

Been so so tired these days. Hardly find any time to study after coming back from the hospital. I usually just end up taking a nap which screws my body clock further because then I can't fall asleep at night, and don't get enough sleep again the next morning. And the cycle continues. Really need to start cramping in more study time there.


God bless whoever invented "weekends". I now truly experience the meaning of Work Blues on Mondays, and I find myself becoming more energetic when the weekend draws nearer. People on my hospital floor always play a "who's weekend is the most interesting" game and I always lose because I always say I'm gonna sleep in. Haha. Sleeping in is the most blissful feeling!


Okay let me show you guys something.


One very special item that caught my attention and made me WOWed at the Glass Museum I was talking about in the last post. 

3 points to whoever guessed what this is.

.

.

.

It's a thermometer. Crazy cool huh? Thermometer that uses physics. You see, each glass cylinder has multiple glass bulbs containing a liquid of a different density. When the temperature drop, some of the liquid loses density and hence the bulb carrying the temperature's number rises. Here, take a closer look.

See? Each bulb carries a little number tag at the bottom. Now mind you all the temperature is in Fahrenheit. (gosh imagine if its 70 degree Celsius out there).

I think its super genius and super cool for something like this to be invented. No?

Niagara Falls (Day 2)

Let me show you 3 pictures.

Awesome isn't it.


The first picture is how the bottom of Niagara Falls really look like. Water gushing through rocks and all.


The 2nd picture is how the water flow looks like in slow shutter speed. Mind you these pictures are taken by my Sminky S90 (see how awesome small camera's are), and not Zven's DSLR. So please do not misunderstand the power of a semipro. Now the water look all fluffy and cotton candy-ish yea?


The 3rd picture is a replica of the 2nd picture + photoshop. Looks like a painting ain't it?


That ladies and gentlemen is a snippet of my Niagara falls trip.


So one day 2 early early early early early early morning (ungodly hours man! Ungodly), we were up and very sleep indeed due to lack of sleep the night before. Zven's uncle was happy and cheerful and exclaimed : "no need to sleep wan lar" and brought us to eat a lovely Malaysian breakfast. Mind you, its MALAYSIAN breakfast.


Yes, there is charkuaytiao, curry mee, chee cheong fun, nasi lemak even.

YUMMMMMM. (no where near the tastiness of Penang's Curry mee, but much better than a lot of KL stalls).

Made us all very very happy indeed, and not at all regretful about our lack of sleep.

And then we embarked on the impossible 8 hours of bus ride heading north west. 

I have my M&Ms from NY to keep me company. (small girl grin)

We pass by a lot of urban areas, and some kampongs. See the kampong houses are all very nice wan, not like in Msia.

And we had multiple meals on the bus. Haha. Yeaman. Multiple!!! Okay. So one of the stops before reaching Niagara was Corning Glass Museum. It's a place where they manufacture glass, and made it into a museum to attract tourist.

See all the glass balls. Each of these cost a few thousand USD because of the intensive workmanship put into it.

When we FINALLY reached Niagara Falls after the painful 8 hour ride, our 1st stop was "Cave of The Winds".


It's a built stairway down to the bottom of the falls, allowing tourist to gain a view of Niagara Falls right at the foot of it. And the view there is super awesome.


All of us were encourage to put on poncho's because there is a possibility of getting soaked and drenched.

All of us looked so funny in poncho's. We look like Digi-mans. "I will follow yeouuuuuuuuuuu"

Zven trying to be IronMan (claiming his camera lens is his chest light)

Kim looks like a turtle. 

Queen have big sexy butt.

Seagulls were a plentiful there. Flying everywhere. And when I say plentiful, I really mean plentiful. It's as though every cubic feet in the sky is covered by at least 3 seagulls. (They should be called waterfall gulls, not seagulls). They were swooping up and down trying to catch fish, or simply sitting around hanging out on branches. 

So from now on it will be a PICTURE DIARRHEA because words cannot describe the beauty of the place. so Imma gonna show you pictures. But still,  these pictures can't tell much. You've gotta be there to see the majestic place.

Me and the Falls.

Little streams beneath the falls. 

Independance day fireworks show.

Falls at Night.

One last super magical picture. 

Alright then. Tata. 

Malaysians

A group picture containing all of us in NYC-Time's Square. 

That'll keep you busy till the next post is up.

Pic credits to Kim Loon and his camera and his remote control. 

2nd day.

The official third year has started and all of us Malaysian are officially incorporated into the American systems. Boy have I been missing out a lot from the medical world. Knowledge is as rusty as a thirty year old nail, whereas the other year threes are all fresh out of their USMLE step 1 self. 


And boy have I been in year 3 forever. Since Jan 2009 I am already introducing myself as a third year medical student in IMU and now, I am still a third year medical student. Been stuck at the position for a year and half, now going to be stuck for another year. Which officially means my third year medical student status is going to be ongoing for 2 and a half year's straight!!! (If I'm in UK or Aussie, I'm already a 4th year medical student, cos it takes 5 years to graduate from medical school there whereas only 4 years in the US).


My first rotation is in Psychiatry. And at first, I was all nervous, and anxious, and scared too (duh-crazy ppl!). But after going through the system for a day, I actually think psychiatric patients are like little kids. They have art classes, cooking classes, and you talk to them like you're talking to little kids, assuring them that the voice in their head is not going to kill them etc etc. 


The only pleasure I find after a long whole day, is the thought of lying in my Princess corner taking a short snooze or eating chips. Even the thought of studying in the Princess corner seems nice. Maybe it's still fresh and new. 


Okay now I crave for Ben and Jerry's Dublin ice-cream. Damn regret not buying that day.


Gtg. Take care.

Me in my Princess Corner. (fluffly fluffly bubble gummy pink!)

The Big Apple (Day 1)

I really love New York City. Love it ten times more than Philadelphia. I think its because I am a major city girl. If New York City were to be KL of Malaysia, Philadelphia would be like Penang. Still a city, but neither here not there, not big enough, not bright enough, not busy enough.


Here's a list of why I like New York more :
1. Everywhere is filled with humans. Busy and buzzling.
2. When its dark and late at night, the entire city is lighted up.
3. Shops are open till 10pm!! Just like in KL!!
4. There is a bigger mix of people from all over the world.
5. It has a lot of famous broadway plays.
6. Its not so quiet at night.


Okay. I think I'm going to move to New York for residency. Haha.


So the moment we landed at the big city, we wanted to rush off to see the Statue of Liberty. But my-oh-my, the queue was worst than a queue outside LV on sale. Hence, we decided to come ever EARLIER the next time. Haha. So trip to Liberty island postponed to Sunday instead.


Instead, we headed off to Rockefeller Center. And there was a huge Lego project going on there. They are building a huge big apple!

Children get to contribute to this projects by creating small blocks using small Lego pieces, and then the adults with the big machines will then gather the blocks and create a BIG APPLE.

(see the small apple beside the big apple?)

I once asked why New York City is called the Big Apple. And someone told me it's a land of opportunities, very like a big apple for small worms. Haha. Means humans are portrayed as wriggly worms?

They even build the entire New York City using Lego. Look!!!

Amazing!! 

I think the main reason is because the weekend we picked to visit New York was the Independence day weekend, therefore a lot of activities are going on about liberty, America, freedom, and building big amazing structures such as the NYC with Lego.

So armed with Google Map on my Blackberry, we walked our way to NY Times Square. On our way, we passed by a Nintendo shop with huge DS XL's hanging on their windows. 

I am supposed to look like I am playing the giant nintendo. 

So walk walk walk walk and we reached NY Times Square. Its TIME SQUARE BABEY!!!!

I'm a big big girl in a big big world standing in a big big city.

When in NYC, do it the Blair Waldorf way. So I put on my hairband, wore a dress, pocketed my new sunnies and slip on my Aldo sandals. And carry my new Coach bag. But one thing I fail in NYC, I wore flats. You've gotta be crazy if you are a tourist and still be wearing sky high heels. But never mind because of that no one gets to see my feet in the pictures nguahahaha.

<3

There is a new discovery channel show going on and it's called King Tut. Hence all the Tut posters in the background. I was once told by a cute little girl (named Chloe) that the hip hop move tutting's name came from King Tut himself because in ancient Egypt paintings everyone is tutting. 

As we were still quite lost at that moment, we decided to head towards the visitor's centre to get a subway brochure and a map. The visitor's centre was so pretty. There were pink lights everywhere. And inside was the countdown ball.

This ball always gets suspended on New Year's eve and as the hour approaches New Year, people will chant the countdown to the count down moments and when the clock strikes twelve, the ball drops down. And wishing confetti will be released. 

Why wishing confetti? Because people write their wishes on the confetti.

The board full of confetti with people's wishes on it. 

Smacked right in the middle of Times Square was two lovely candy shops. Hershey's and M&Ms. I think there is an ongoing theory that when you're no longer living with your parents and is forced to grow up and be independent and all, a part of you regress into a child-like behavior. For LayQueen, she bought a star shaped night light to put her to sleep, for the boys, they bough magic cards to play. As for me, I resort to candy. Colourful ones especially. 

We entered the M&M shop and I was greeted by my own happiness. Colourful candy! I'm in heaven!!

That's me regressing alright. I also want an M&M dispenser now. Sob sob. I stood there and contemplated on buying the colourful candies for a whole half an hour. They were not cheap alright, 12.99usd a pound. But I still bought half a pound to munch on. I later popped by a pharmacy and bought 4 packets home (which only cost me 6.99 per pound). That's gonna be my study food for the month. Haha. 

M&M necklaces.

They were selling all sorts of M&M merchandise. Queen bought herself nice earrings. I personally prefer candy in my mouth. Haha.

And when we all got tired of walking in the busy buzzing city, there was this huge forest getaway for people to relax. Central park! Don't everyone love NYC already?

The park is crazy huge. And impossible to finish walking because of its size. If you were to look at a map, the park easily takes up 10 times 5 grid spaces (assuming 10 buildings fit one grid). Crazy huge leh. Which makes it so nice. You can never get bored of Central Park because you can always choose to visit a different spot everytime you're there. There is even a children's zoo inside, in which we spotted a polar bear while walking pass from the outside. 

The weather was a bit chilly that day, which explains my scarf. But it was actually quite a nice weather to walk around. At least no one was sweating. Tired as we were walking the whole day, we sat down to munch on our goodies. Queen bought New York cheese cake and I was planning to munch on my M&Ms. 

Oops, there you go, my Aldo sandals (got it cheap from AC), which is so un-new-yorkie.

And before you know it, we were all lying on the grass trying to have a mini picnic.

Tired as we was, I took a nap and so did Ven. zzZZzzZZzzZZzz.

More pictures of Central Park :

Right next to central park was a very HUGE Apple store. So so so so HUGE! And this time, it was Kim Loon's paradise. 

Before you know it, it was time for dinner liao. And Ven's uncle wanted to treat us to nice Korean Fine Dining food. Wasai the food was so good and so expensive. You know ler typical chinese mentality we counted the estimate of the entire meal, I think all of us wash plates for 2 months also not enough to cover man. With American pay also not enough. 

There was so much food we were all home with belly's resembling a 5 months pregnant lady. 

Since the restaurant was just next to the Empire State Building, we decided to head up to catch the night view. Wee!!

The view is so so so so pretty. SO PRETTY!!!! Even my Sminky S90 took lovely pictures of the view!!

Okay that's day one for you. =)