Hello Singapore

It is day two in Singapore – I was far too tired to blog yesterday after getting little sleep on the flight over. The flight was delayed almost two hours – Asher and I were not quite sure why, but it appeared that all flights leaving Perth were delayed for the same reason.

We had a farewell party – cheers to the boys taking the time to send us off :)

We were greeted in Singapore by some old friends – Luwei (whom I didn’t recognise at first glance), Jack, Serene and Sherie. I was bracing myself for the humidity to smack me in the face like a misguided high-five as I walked through the doors to exit Changi Airport, but I think my mental preparation allowed it to not offend me as much as it did previously.

We hit the ground running and went straight to the Salvation Army … and then the running subsided a bit as we all (the Singaporeans included) caught-up on some sleep. After our quick recovery nap, we were ready to shake-up the anti-gum island.

	We ate some foreign fruit Apparently this thing is called a pear. It has the texture of a Beur Bosc pear, but has the shape of an overgrown apple. It was so big I couldn’t eat it all in one sitting. (Interestingly they sell their fruit per piece rather than per kilo here).
	We ate what the locals eat We decided to embrace the culture as best as we could by eating some of the local cuisine for dinner. Asher had a laksa whilst I had a fish ball soup. I was later informed by Ian that fish ball soup is usually eaten for breakfast. Fail.
	We visited Cold Storage not once but three times All in one day. Once for breakfast cereal and some fruit. Second for a bigger box of breakfast cereal and some UHT milk (as it is significantly cheaper than fresh milk) and then thirdly for some pens and plastic plates. We are almost on a first name basis with the checkout chick.

Tomorrow we leave for Philippines. We’re pumped and ready to go :)

Ignite.

Dear Australia

I will miss you. But I’ll only be gone for two weeks. In fact maybe I won’t miss your scorching heat. But I will definitely miss your lack of sweat-inducing humidity of which I will experience plenty in Singapore.

I will miss some of your food – a staple diet of three vegies and meat will be lacking from my diet. I have a gut feeling it will be replaced with mouth-burning, bowel-cleansing food (i.e. curries). I’ve been told that once the taste buds are burnt, the food is somewhat bearable. I’m a sceptic, but we’ll test the theory nonetheless.

I will miss my family – Sunday reminded me of how much fun I have around my friends. But soon enough we will be united once again.

Goodbye my sunny state. Take care of Jonni while I’m gone.

Heaps of love,
Jason.

Eight More Sleeps

These are the people I will be joining for the missions trip to Philippines! They are mostly strangers, but I will soon come to know them very well over the next two weeks. By the sounds of it we will be doing it much more rough than the Thailand trip – no fancy hotel with our own bathroom and balcony – this time we will be sleeping on the floor - I will have an ‘authentic’ missions experience this year :)

It’s only eight sleeps until I leave – I have so much to prepare before then! But most of all, I really need to prepare physically (routine exercise – which has become less routine towards the end of my exams), emotionally and most importantly spiritually. I’ve been preparing myself over the last few weeks – but I know I haven’t been pushing myself as hard as I potentially could.

Oh did I mention exams are over? When the words “Please stop writing – this exam is now over” resounded throughout the exam venue on Friday, a sensation of relief flooded my body. My study has paid off. It was all over. This is the hardest I have ever worked at uni, and Ps. Dave Reardon’s words continually echoed through my head:

“We’ve started it well – let’s finish it well”

And I reckon I did. On the 9th of December I’ll found out exactly how well.

Exhale.

Apostrophe Me

If you know me well, you would have come to grips of how pedantic I get when it comes to grammar and punctuation. Things I notice people mix up all the time are: there they’re their and the use of apostrophes. There is at long last a website dedicated to educating the general public on how to use an apostrophe. I particularly like their last rule:

Touché.

Two down

And one to go.

I don’t understand the point of sitting an exam for my Medical Science Practice 332 unit – we are basically required to just memorise information – literally. It’s a cram fest. Thankfully I memorised the right stuff (mostly).

And what better way to start an exam than with a free can of Red Bull? Courtesy of those Red Bull girls who just happen to show up with free energy-filled goodness at just the right time. (Although a can of Red Bull probably isn’t the best thing to have right before an exam due to its diuretic effect)

NB: Personal grooming is non-existent during exam period.

Almost.

At the end of the day

Day one of exams study is coming to an end. What did I achieve?

• I ate two chocolate bars
• Had two cups of coffee
• Watched an episode of Scrubs and 30 Rock
• Made a QR Code and stuck it on my door:

BUT I did manage to take detailed notes on six Micro lectures – that puts me about halfway through the lecture notes. It was actually quite cruisy because a lot of the information I had already learnt in preparation for the practical exams last week.

Tomorrow I start Haematology study which may be a bit of a drag.

I remembered to tell my parents tonight about the Thalassemia screen I had done. Even though I have a tiny deletion – 3.7 kb – my mum did freak out a bit – obviously because she has no idea what it is. For those of you playing at home, that tiny deletion of the alpha globin chain only means I have an alpha Thalassemia trait. It has absolutely no clinical effect on me – just possibly on my offspring (which is rare) - although at times I do wish I could attribute my unfit nature to the fact that my MCV is low. I theorise that the slightly smaller Red Blood Cells carry less Oxygen and thus I pant and flail and complain when I do moderate-intensity exercise.

On the topic of exercise, yesterday I moved beyond my comfort zone of jogging laps down the deserted street near my house in favour of going onto populated streets - with cars driving down them, people walking their dogs and even other people jogging as well. You see – I have a bit of a complex when it comes to exercise. I wasn’t the greatest athlete at school and people paid me out quite a bit, and so doing something physical in a public environment is a bit daunting. Even going to SportsFest was challenging for me – hence not going in previous years.

I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone – I refuse to let intimidation overcome me.

What are you overcoming?

It starts … right after this

According to the two-week study plan I devised yesterday, my first block of study for exams begins at 8pm. I’m feeling a bit eager – so I’m going to start a tad early.

Cue MGMT – Electric Feel. Busting out the dance moves in front of my whiteboard. It’s study time.

Nishie: This will be the face of our new sitcom: The Laboratory. The posing is perfect:

Sanity.

Twelve days

We started the night running from jetty to jetty, trying to find our ferry. We’d been given directions from Tam to go towards the Wheel – well that’s what Priya heard. The directions were in fact the opposite – we were meant to go away from the Wheel. After some frantic running around and fear of missing the ferry, we finally discover the ferry we are meant to board. Phew.

(Even Ashkan wasn’t late. And of course Phil was punctual. Our bad).

It’s almost over. Four years has flown by. In just twelve days I will finish my last exam – ever! This is the last push. Like a marathon runner reaching the last straight – the goal is in sight but the body is aching.

Stick to the status quo? No thanks.