Behind the scene..

I guess most of you who are following my blog will always wonder what is this medical student doing in Manchester, squandering parents' money, eating out most of the time and not studying!

I got most of those comments all the time.

All we did was play play and more play. It's as though i'm wasting my time here and not fulfilling the real purpose of me being here, right?! Now let me tell you, you guys have taken it all WRONG! Let me tell you wat's happening behind the scene, and make ur own judgement.....This was wat we went through for the past 7 weeks, every Thursday...Just after my alarm clock strikes at 5.30am, it's time to wake up and shower and get dress, ready for our GP day in Glossop. An adventurous journey indeed.in the meantime, we have to prepare our LUNCH, that is egg sandwich! So had to spare some time to fry egg! Just because we want to save some money. Buying a sandwich for 2+ pounds is so not worth it! After converting it to ringgit, we came to conclusion that packing our own lunch is so much cheaper eventho we had to sacrifice our sleeping time..

both of us learned our lesson. Start a day off with good breakfast! Or else, our tummies will make noise! Pathetic us have to eat in my room because my kitchen is always conquered by the BEES early morning. Dont ask me why..we have no idea either. Last few days, while we were eating in my kitchen, a swarm of them came in and surrounded us...scary kao~ So yea..have to move to eat in my room instead:(

it's about 645am now...the sky is still dark and we both already start our day:( Walking on the quiet street is no good. sometimes, u will see drunkards sleeping at the street:P

we had to start off early because taking public transport to Glossop was a pain and took quite some time..BUS..our very first mean of transport of the day...thank God the buses come quite regularly eventho it's early dawn...

then we have to walk a good 10 mins to the train station....bear in mind, with the UK weather, it's freezing cold in the morning, and if unlucky, it will rain suddenly and we will be soaked! Sooo, dun ever envy us being able to stay in this chilly place. It's not as coolie as u think it is. When the wind pierce into your bone, u will start shivering and get sick the second day. Appreciate Malaysia's weather coz the heat u have will help you burn some calories and allows u to eat more! Whereas here, the cold will increase your appetite and store the fat!! And subsequently, the KGs will go up day by day...scary~

Queuing up to buy our train tickets which cost us....6.40pounds return, which is equivalent to RM 38?!?!? wah...with that money we can travel to Penang up and down looooo!! and rmb, this is just for Train and ONE day!

hopped into the train at 7.13am....

and the next thing you see us doing is......SLEEEEP! ZZzzzzZZzzzz....we have to treasure each and every second we have...if not, we will be 'fishing' in the consultation room later which is embarrassing

45mins in the train...next up change to taxi this time. Another 4pound each way...SIAL! it's 10 pounds plus dy we spent! for A DAY!

and after the marathon journey, we arrive at Simmondley Medical Centre..which they called it as 'the surgery' :) brrrr.....it's always cold there..i wonder why?!?!??!

once we get ourselves settled, we will make ourselves a cup of hot tea to warm ourselves up and eat a piece of biscuits that we bring along...i believed after all that we went through, the breakfast we had at 6am was all burnt! so we need some energy to concentrate at work!

Dr Bhatt, our kaipak(ayah angkat) He is such a nice old man...very knowledgeable..though he is quite old+retired, he is still very enthu in teaching us and knows his stuff super well.(he can quoote from books!!!) Usually, we will sit in his room while he consults his patients. Though he was very stern with us on our 1st visit, never even showed a smile! but subsequently as week goes by, we got to know him better and he is actually a very friendly man. PLUS, his wife is from Malaysia, guess that's y he 'sayang' us more:)

then lunch time!!! (our favourite time of the day)

so this is our usual lunch for weekdays. Egg sandwich(sometimes we will have ham instead:)+a yogurt+a cup of tea. And all these cost less than a pound!

That's how we save some money so that we could have a better meal during the weekend.

after lunch, Dr Bhatt will keep us in the kitchen and 'advise' us to study. On and off, he will sneak in the kitchen and check on us whether we are doing our work or not. He also logs us into BMJ Learning and asks us to complete some QnA modules which are relevant to our Peads posting. He even make sure we pass those modules as he requires us to print out the certificate from the website to prove our scores! Hah..and when we got 100% correct, he would give us a 'pat' on our shoulder..saying 'well done'! We were treated like his daughters and we know he wants the best for us, ensuring that we've learned something from that day.
we will leave the surgery at 5pm and the 'public transport' cycle shall repeat. By the time we reach home, it will be 7pm and the sky is already dark...We're dog tired after all this but do we have a choice?

and Pat, our chef from the hall will pack dinner for us.....salmon+loads of vege!

so this is a usual Thursday. It's no fun at all i must emphasise.

1st, it's time consuming; 2nd, it's draining us!

this is not the end...we had to wake up at 6am the second morning to return to Bury(Fairfield Hospital) because we're based there instead of the city. So in another word, we will come back to Manchester on Wednesday evening, and go to our GP on Thursday(bcoz to get to Glossop it's nearer to go from Manchester), and return to Bury on Friday...:'(

and come back Mcr on Weekends, so that we could have a break. So all those fun time i had(in my previous posts) were all over the weekends. That's the only short time we had to chill abit, to eat some proper food and rejuvenate ourselves before another cycle of busy weekdays.

so please dun perceive us as the 'only know how to play' ppl. WE ARE NOT! we are those 'kiasu' students because we know our parents spent so much $$ to send us here. We are always reminded that the sacrifice our parents had to make to grant us this golden opportunity to study abroad and we really appreciate it. There is no 'play' in our dictionary! The purpose of us being here is to get our medical degree and we know that full well! But in the meantime, we want to enjoy this whole process as well.

But i must say, it's not an easy time studying here. Being away from family is a pain. When we come home, we face the 4 walls and homesick-ness KILLS. We hv no car to drive to any destination we want, and the only mean of transport is by bus/train/taxi which cost a bomb! So we resolved by walking. We have no cheap mamaks for supper and it's never safe to go out at night because of the drunkards roaming in the town! And we will think twice/trice before we buy any food because we know how much it will cost after converting to RM and it's a pain! We cant just go into any restaurant we want for dinner because we know it's not worth the money spent, so we cook ourselves! And finally, we have to do our own groceries shopping every week, comparing prices from all supermarkets to get the best deal, and have to carry those heavy stuff in a sardine packed bus!

the simple dinner we prepared ourselves..now comparing to wat u have back home..! we dun complain..coz WE ENJOY THE MEAL!

So STOP saying our lives here in UK is way much better..you have no idea how much we have gone through..the tears, the pain,the cold, the suffering and the uncertainties. It's never easy.

but one thing i'm sure

WE BECAME TOUGHER!

So why we always appear as the 'happy little sunshine'?

it's because we have a mighty God and we know He is watching over us no matter where we go.

Every morning, when we both have our breakfast, we will pray together.

Asking God for strength, asking God for opportunities, asking God for joy in our hearts and always always give thanks in all circumstances.
We have come to a conclusion that no matter where we are, what we're going through, there is a purpose behind it.

He put us there for a reason!

Be it good or bad, we give thanks and rejoice in it.

that's why we always appear happy because there is a living God in us!

'Hello' from Glossop:)
SUPERwomen we are!
we seized every opportunities which knock on the doors of ours! That's the way to survive in this dog eat dog world isn't it?

and we're really thankful because our God is so real.

Since our obs n gyn posting has started, He has blessed us so much.

In this first week(started last Wed) we got to take history from a woman with ectopic pregnancy, followed her to surgery to remove it(just within one afternoon). And today itself was fulfilling! A cesarean section was performed in the morning and got attached to a great gynaecologist who guided us in so many clinical skills patiently!

prayer moves the hand of God indeed:)

we're always surprised by how God works during our day and by night time, we both will smile:)
He is teaching us new things everyday.

and we look forward for that*_*

*each new day is welcomed without expectation, but only with anticipation*

In a nutshell, we are all children of God and no matter where He has placed us to complete our degree..be thankful. At the end of the day, we're all doctors who want to save lives and make a difference, right?






wasSup Doc:
Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
[1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]

:)so smile(: