Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: stevie wonder 'i believe'
nearing the end of 3rd wk of ophthalm.
met some interesting ppl - doctors and patients alike.
one day last week or the week before, i met this guy (patient) who really struck me and i think i half fell in love with him for a while there.
so silly of me, but i've been doing that for quite some time - falling madly in love with near-strangers for no particular reason but that i'm a little bit bored.

entertaining the idea of indulging myself by buying an ipod mini. 400bucks; shall think abt it.

been thinking a lot about life - dreams - future blahblah type of things over the last few weeks. i'd been putting it off for so long, just the thinking part even. but with more time in my hands as i get rejected from clinics (rather happily) i sat watching ducks on water at the domain and thought about these things. and now i have (somehow) convinced myself that i should and will change. that i shall start being a bit more industrious. productive. fruitful. live with real dreams and real aspirations. sort of.
at the moment it all seems to be a plausible thing to do.

who knows what it will do to me when i get back to sydney i certainly dont. hopefully things will still be stable.

what a man.
Mood:  quizzical
what a day.

i met the most interesting person today.
well, i'd seen him a couple of days ago while roaming about the acute clinic, when he was standing in a room of his own.
he stood out like no-one else; ridiculously tall, blonde, blue-eyed, fair - i would've guessed scandinavian from a mile away.
and when he spoke i thought i heard the slightest of that european accent.
but you know, i couldve imagined it all of course.

because i actually met him today, learnt his name etc.
he was dr m's registrar, named h (read definitely NOT scandinavian)
its a very unattractive name i must admit, but in every other way he intrigues me.
whether it was the physique or the fact that he actually cared about teaching me how to use the slit lamp properly or his rather odd conversational manner, i left the hospital with my head full of this man.

but perhaps most important thing is that he was wearing a ring on his left fourth digit. oh blimey as the brits would say.

well i know there isnt anything for me or anybody else to do except perhaps fantasise endlessly or forget all about it.

Mood:  a-ok
man it's been a while.
it took me ages to actually remember my own log-in & password.
2months or so have passed.
cant quite believe how quickly this 4-month hiatus from med school is going...
on monday i will start my 2nd elective term in ak hospital, doing ophthalmology of all things.
i hope it'll be educational but not hard-core, and i'm really hoping that the staff will be nice.

went on a tiritiri-matangi island cruise today,
with family (minus bro) and family friends (also composed of pa, ma & gal). it was a beautiful sunny day (we've been having some exceptionally good weather in auckland the past few days/wks) and now my shoulders are slightly burnt pink. the island itself is an open bird sanctuary that has a small number of interesting species flying around with few predators to kill them off. having never been interested particularly in birds of any kind, it was an odd place to be, but it ended up being very much worth the 30 bucks. by the end of the guided walk thru the bushes i sorta got to distinguish between a couple of different species & their sounds. what never fails to impress me about kiwis is that they love their nature - the fact that there were volunteers who guided us tourists and visitors to help us get to know their wildlife a little better is just another small example.

tomorrow my friends from japan are coming!
it is highly exciting but of course, slightly nerve-wrecking at the same time - largely due to my now poor japanese and my ignorance of the auckland city (and hence my inadequacies as a guide and a local). but still, it should be a good day. hopefully.

sick and tired... but not ready for change
Mood:  hug me
hug me coz i'm sick...

it's 3days til d-day,...
caz says she's leaving for india tomorrow.
how exciting!
and yet somewhat scary.

i am completely NOT ready for korea; mentally, physically, emotionally... (every one of my bio-psycho-social domains) sometimes, when something is that anxiety-provoking, i tend to push it to the back of my head so that i will only have to deal with it when i come face to face with it. and this is one of those times.

why should it be so anxiety-provoking?
it's the people
it's the culture
it's the hospital
it's the temperature
it's everything and anything related to being at a new place.

sure, i was born there and spent the first 11yrs of my life there but hey, everything's new now.
hopefully, if my attention span allows it, i will report on the life in korea on a near-daily basis (it's still uncertain what kind of internet access i'll be getting so all remains to be seen)...

and in the meantime, i do hope this URTI resolves itself sooner or later, preferably pre-korea.

Mood:  a-ok
this is my 2nd attempt at blogging.
i have no idea how long i will keep this one going, but i certainly hope it'll last longer than my last one did.