May as well.

Had a couple of "first"s in the past month, and both were pretty awesome experience.

This is very corny, but Wicked was WICKED. I was officially addicted to their songs for about a week till the people around me got sick of the songs and vow not to watch the show even before they saw how awesome the play was. 

Picture taking was not allowed during the play. I had pretty sweet orchestra seats that were decently priced thank to the siblings Sarah and Sophia for helping me purchase them in advance.

In the same weekend in NYC, Zhi Ven's dreams came true as well. 

This game was caught during the pre-Jeremy-Lin era, sorry to disappoint. But it was an experience. The Knicks fans take their games seriously. Full house in the stadium, and cheers and boo's everywhere.

Us pretending to be Knicks fans.

It was indeed a game very worthwhile to watch. Both teams kept tying at the end of each quarter and the game went into extra time twice (much to our delights). It was a close fight, and adrenaline of the fans were pumping, and much to my dismay, everyone was standing up by the end of the game (and Caucasians are tall blocking half my view).

The past, the present, the future.

What a whirlwind of a week this week has been!

Just last Sunday morning I was in London having brunch and walking around in Harrods with 2 old high school friends, reminiscing the good old days of the past, bringing back childhood jokes, silly moments and old sayings. Owh how time flies and how some things never change.

Monday came all too soon and I was already in New York stuck in an overnight hotel because my flight arrived too late Sunday night for any shuttle to send me to Philadelphia. By noon, I was sitting in front of my computer in my room in Philly frantically refreshing my email while forcing my parents over Skype to stay up till 1am in the morning to accompany me through the eventual email that arrived in my inbox containing information pertaining to the fate of my future. How silly I felt jumping up and down screaming "I matched I matched" making a weird ritual dance when the good news arrived. It simply means that all those tiring years of slaving through med school had paid off. All those money spent interviewing, all the anxiety brewing throughout the interview process was made worth it. I was going to be a surgeon. I have a job, and a training spot. But that leaves the most nerve wrecking question afterwards, where?

I have interviewed at places I cannot imagine myself being at. Small towns with farms, dangerous cities with gun shots on a weekly basis, hospitals that are so tiny and small you only have one friend. Worse question of all was, how far am I going to be from my bf?

But then Friday came and the answer to all my question was lying in the hands of my dear dean who was a great advocate for us Malaysian IMu trained students. The ceremony was horrible. They incubated over 200 nerve wrecking, anxious, almost mentally insane students in one hall, and made us wait through speeches and photographing for an hour! And then the golden hour came when I was finally handed the letter which contained the fate and sanity of the next 5-7 years of my life.

It was there, sitting in my hands. Do I want to open it? Yes. Will I be able to face the results? Probably not. So many questions were running through my head. What is I match to a small program? What if I am 10 hours away from my bf? What if I match to a small ulu kampung town? What if I feel lonely and miserable at where I am training?

I felt my hands slowly tearing open the envelope. As I was doing that, I can sense my brain praying for my top 2 choices. Halfway through the envelope, I prayed for my top 5 instead. When I was almost done, I told myself as long as it is not the bottom 5 I will be happy. But alas, all my prayers were answered! God was kind. God listened. He was there! Everything that I was so worried about fell into place. I am the luckiest girl on earth!

I matched not only to my no 2 choice, it was a much greater blessing! I was only 40 mins away from my bf's program, and even have a fellow friend from my school to accompany me through intern year! Although not a big city, it still was a vibrant town! With my lousy credentials, I was amazed I could get such an amazing program to accept me! I am truly blessed! My future is secured!

And 32 hours later, as I am typing his, I am headed home to my family to celebrate this victory of mine. Every success story comes with a price to pay. All those years of hard work finally paid off. From the uncertainty of stepping into the US medical training system, to spending loads of money applying for training spots. It will be a rough 5-7 years ahead for me, but hopefully the future me can be like today, gleaming with joy when I finally become a certified surgeon.

Matched!

I am overwhelmed with happiness. I matched! And not only that, I matched to a good program, and not only that, I matched to a good program near to my bf's program.

Life could not have treated me any better. I guess I am going to be a surgeon!

Hooray!!!

My trip so far!

Been away for almost close to 12 days now. I have to say I am definitely starting to feel the fatigue of always being on the go now. But this experience of seeing the world is simply amazing, and all the learning I gained about different culture and history is one I will not trade anything for.

I've been trying to take pictures using my iPad once in a while so that my family can not only be informed about my whereabouts and my safety, but also allow my friends to see things I saw and share those amazing moments. iPad pictures are the most convenient way of posting pictures into Facebook, although I have to say the quality pales in comparison to my actual camera. But nonetheless, the nicer pictures will appear once I land in USA again.

I am currently in Berlin, my last stop in Europe before I head to London to catch up with old friends. Beautiful and a HUGE city! I am liking Germany more than France, simply because the people are so much nicer, and Germany has a much darker story to tell in terms of history, which is much more refreshing than stories of flamboyant kings, or womanizer princes.

Some pictures from my iPad in which I have already posted on Facebook.

#1 The famous Neuschwanstein castle that Walt disney's logo is modeled after! Also had a long history of king ludwig 2 behind it. It was simply amazing and beautiful. Definitely worth the 4 hour train ride to and fro just to glimpse at this castle. Made me wish I was born a flamboyant king as well.

#2 A very "Yeng" looking Mercedes in one of the showrooms. We did not intend to visit any car showrooms but this yellow beauty was screaming at us (more so at my bf) when we walked by it.

#3 Yummy cakes at Cafe Konig (supposedly an over 200 years old cafe) in BadenBaden, the city at edge of the black forest. And also the birth place ( or so websites claim ) of the black forest cake. So this is how the original black forest cake taste like. With a hint of alcohol and lovely burst of maraschino cherries. Lovely. It's heaven and earth difference from the black forest cakes I grew up eating.

#4 Macaroons from day 1 in Paris. Oh yea I waste no time looking for my favorite expensive desserts.

#5 Dinner with oignon soup ( onion soup ) in Paris and some pasta.

#6 The amazing city hall in the heart of Munich. I decided that my favorite architecture design are those from the gothic era. Simply amazingly beautiful.

#7 The Eiffel tower. As I am not a fan of overrated tourist attractions, with crazy long queues and overly excited china/Japanese tourists, I was simply obliged to make a trip to this metal structure. But I have to say, the architecture is ingenious.

#8 Meat, sausages and ham in Munich, Germany. Made our meals simply delicious for many dinners.

Our biggest hurdle in this travel trip is establishing a good and free-of-charge wifi connection, because it is not only essential for communication with our families, my bf also has a bunch of work, in which he clearly ignored my request to leave work behind for this trip, to finish, and I needed the Internet to figure the location of our hotels, train stations, how to take a German train (which by the way is the easiest thing to do, because German train system is simply efficient and amazing!). One thing I need to thank for is that Starbucks offers free wifi to everyone, so many a times we both stand awkwardly outside Starbucks trying to steal a little wifi connection. And of course, gave them a whole lot of business too.

Tell you much more when I'm back. Till then!