Ideal Heaven

I am thinking of my ideal heaven so very often these past few days. It could be because I am staring studying for more than my usual 2 hours. My ideal heaven is beautiful. It is unique and is not decorated with jewels. Couldn't be bothered with polished rocks glittering away. My ideal heaven has trees where Lays chips are leaves. The river beds flow with chocolate syrup. Grab the edible flowers along the way and they come with delectable flavors of different jams and if you are lucky peanut butter too. :D The trend in my heaven is to be plump, obese. If you belong to size zero category, you will be frowned upon. Green bushes will be replaced with 'plants' that produce biscuits with a whole variety of tastes. Since, education is outta the question and one is encouraged to be fat, sleep is not forgotten. One can just sleep on the meadow which by the way will feel like comfy silk cushions. There ain't no alarms, food is by your side and caffeine is the new health drink. You probably understand now, why my heaven is so distracting. It is obviously better than my texts! Talk about 'building castles in the air', I have an entire heaven under construction in the air!

Cruella De' Vil Conquered it all!

Cruelle doesn't belong here!

Cruella De Vil lost her title. Another took over. My new Anatomy Professor is a devil in disguise. She is scary. When I say a Professor is scary. I really mean it. She is the new Cruella De Vil. She is teaching us till the end of the semester. Another 5 lessons of 2 odd hours each. I highly doubt my ability to survive right under her nose.

Since I can remember I have never sat in the front of a classroom. Largely cos of my height, also co I will be hidden when I am dozing off or simply just zoning out. BUT TODAY, she made me sit right in front of her. I politely sated, someone already sat there. That bugger as usual was late so no one was occupying the seat at that point. Well, I was not letting it off easily. I suggested sitting,  a row behind the front row.

"NO!" Cruella 's voice boomed in that mini Anatomy lab.

A dead body would have jerked.

"Damn! This sucks!" - Now that would me.

So there I was sitting right in front of the Professor. She suddenly stuck out a model of a cerebellum and approached one of the students and asked him to name the parts.

The clever one replied nonchalantly "I was not here for the last lesson".

The Prof this time, "Well, since you care to miss it I assume you could study on your own."

"F***"- That would be me again on that victim's behalf.

She is screwing us big time. Before I could even turn away from the scene, the cerebellum took form before my eyes.

"So, you tell me".

Crap! I was not there the previous lesson too. I can't use that same reason can I?

"Errr...I am not too sure." What 'not sure'? I had no idea what the freakin' names were!! "I am sorry", I whispered.

I couldn't hear my own voice. Now, that hardly happens.

"Nothing? Do you know when your exams are?", that was Cruella of course.

Of course I know when my exams are. 2 weeks. I don't want you telling me that!

Obviously, I didn't say that out loud. All I really wanted to do was, sit on her. Why sit you may ask. Imagine a Sumo wrestler sitting on you, do you really think you would be able to defend yourself or at least try to escape? No. Cos there ain't no way out when sandwiched under a Sumo Wrestler. However, at this point, there was no way out for me.

I ain't no Sumo Big Butt and she was Cruella!

MERRY CHRISTMAS PEOPLE!!!

A pair of red socks

Fudan Medicine - International Students' Organisation organised a Christmas Party for the International Students. It was the first of its kind in the campus, so there was a huge hype and professors were invited for the opening. To my utter horror, the "international" party was hosted in Chinese! There I was wondering out aloud "Isn't this an international students' party? Why are they speaking in Chinese?". To that came the reply, "You are in China". I should have known.

I was rather impressed with the foreign students and their proficiency in a foreign tongue. And of course, when the introduction of the newly arrived undergraduates came on, I was both an embarassment to the Chinese Language and myself. There were several events lined up. I'm just gonna just touch on what I thought were the "highlights" of the entire event.

They had the musical chair. The students were running in circles and suddenly there was a loud "BOOM!" sound followed by a smell similar to that of burning plastic. The massive speakers busted. LOL..ok maybe it was not funny..but seriously it was hilarious at that point.

There were a couple of Indian/ Nepalese dances, I am not too sure which nationality the dance was suppose to represent. The attire resembled that of Indian saris, but the music that was playing - I had no idea what the lyrics meant :s

Finally, Santa arrived. We went to get our gifts. Where did Santa got all his gifts? Well, every student had to bring a gift and it was all put together in a huge bag. Later, Santa redistributes them. Yes, I can hear you go "What if you get the same thing you bought?". Chances of that happening is kinda low. Though, if you spent a good amount of cash getting a fancy gift and Santa handed you a stapler and eraser; I'm sorry my friend. You probably appeared in his Naughty List. You have one bad investment right there.

Guess what my gift was. You were right. Or maybe your brain responds slower than I assumed and you didn't quite guess :P Either way, Santa gave me A pair of red socks. Thats right. A pair of red socks.  Compared to the gift, I bought, it probably was a monetary loss on my part. But, you know what the best thing about the gift was: I wanted a pair of socks. (Maybe not red in color. )It was getting colder by the way, and I was reminding myself to get socks later in the day. And I got a pair for free. :D

There we were, getting all excited over gifts and getting ready to leave for home. The whole lot of students who were present were getting their photos taken. They invited our class over to join in. We agreed.

What is a celebration without mischief? Since, Santa has already given me my gift; I decided to return to the naughty list :D My friend and myself armed ourselves with the Spray cans. She had the fake snow with a really bad chemical smell and I grabbed this can that read "Flower Spray". We were kinda tall so we took the back row, the cameraman went 'Say Cheese' my can went "PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTT!!". Out came a whole rush of massive yellow stuff accompanied with Shouts of "Ohmigod", "What the hell" and some other words in languages I couldn't decipher. These supposed "flowery" stuff were bigger than the fake snow. The screams got louder. This is actually fun I thought. I got excited; which lead to another round of "PSSSSSSSSSST": It was raining yellow. Santa was yellow from top to toe and people began dispersing from the original pose meant for the photograph.

Suddenly it hit me (kinda late I know): I don't even know these guys. What if they were pissed with the yellow avalanche? Well if they laughed about it thats fine. But I can't be sure right. Next thing I knew, I dashed for the door and so no one knew who caused it to rain yellow. ;) Oh yeah, before I forget, they party was fun. ;)

PS: I had my Red Christmas Socks on while writing this.

Heaven on Earth

We celebrated Sam's birthday at this Tai Kang Lu Area. The area had a small town look with a tinge of Hogwarts feel. It had lotsa restaurants and a whole lot of other eateries that cater desserts alone. Besides restaurants, there were interesting crafts shops and there was this particular store where they sold notebooks.

Not your regular notebooks, but crsip brown paper bound together with old faded leather skin for covers. It was love at first sight. They had the feel of books printed eons ago. Truth was, I  found my love.

And then down the street, they had a Teddy Bear store. It had all the massive Teddy bears. Wanted to just reach out and hug them. The price tags of course stopped my arms in mid air. If that was not enough, I found this photograph exhibition. The female photographer had a keen eye for detail. They prices were kinda high. But, man..the pictures were amazing. They were simple scenes and people all over China. Nothing fancy, but poignant. It was in black and while as well!! Excited? Yes, I was. I wanted to buy a couple on my way back. They closed early. Disappointed? Very! :(

With a heavy heart I walked, and something caught my eye and of course lifted my spirits. "Chocolate Factory", the sign read. This lady by the name of Anita makes wonderful tasting chocolates by hand. A whole variety of chocolates were before me, and I could just feel the presence of heaven in Shanghai. Trust me, one hardly feels the presence of heaven in China.!The chocolates were sold individually. They range from 10RMB to 38RMB a piece. Not that expensive actually. So we bought a truffle and an almond milk chocolate. The taste? IT WAS REALLY GOOD!!! I would have tried the whole range there for dinner but we had several other places to go and risk our taste buds. Sighs. I left the Chocolate factory reluctantly. Besides business, Anita holds chocolate making classes as well.

Now, that is one class I would readily attend. Set an alarm and get up on time even.

Miss. Brainy

I HELD A BRAIN!

I HELD A BRAIN!

I HELD A BRAIN!

I HELD A BRAIN!

I HELD A BRAIN!

Yesterday, during Anatomy class I had the chance to hold the cute, pretty thing in my hands :D :D

*Starts singing: What a feeling....*

IT WAS REALLY COOL. It looked better than I thought. I had this image of a soft gross, spongy like thingy. It was better than that. Can you imagine that small living thing I held in my hands actually holds the key to why humans respond the way they do? Amazing innit?

With that, I leave you with this number from Hollywood Amor -  Flashdance

PS: Due to technical difficulties, Shades of Life will be taking time off from the blog. Rest assured, I am keeping up with the picture taking just the uploading that is gonna be on pause for now. Sorry guys :(

Ice-cream Zindabad!

This was the banner outside the newly opened Haagan-Dazs in Delhi, India. The India based outlet is run by an Indian man.

However, it is only opened to International Travellers!

Let's say you have an international passport but you look very much like a local Indian, you ought to show your passport...

ALL FOR A CUP OF ICE CREAM!

Customer: Hi, can I have a chocoloate...
HD: Sorry ma'am, gotta stop you right there. Passport please?
Customer: Huh..
HD: V(We) cannot serve you ma'am. No Passport. No Ice cream.

Note: After a mini uproar by the locals, the franchise in charge was later asked about this and he denied. 

Shades of Life: 6:35pm, Shanghai

This photograph was taken some time back. It features the sunset and part of my neighbourhood in the evening. Besides the extra tall buildings on the right, the far back and the one I stay in; the rest are rather short in height. The shorter buildings have no elevators and were built ten to twenty years ago. The highest floor is the 6th floor. Many of the older buildings have shop houses below and living areas on the higher floors. The taller ones are rather recent. They house both families and offices on the first few floors. I wasn't aware of this until recently. One evening, I was waiting for the elevators in my PJs and a whole lot of formally dressed individuals barged out the doors o.O This shot was taken during Autumn. In the winter, we hardly get to see the sun. :( I like the way all the buildings are cluttered instead of a uniform pattern or height. This is very different from the way Singapore's infrastructures are constructed. And this shade marks the first contribution from my mobile's camera.

Shades of Life: Begins From Home

Mona and meself actually took several photos today, but am only gonna post one up as per the rule :)  The location in the above photograph is part of the University I study at. It is winter here so the trees are shedding their hair leaves. The bigger medical campus is divided into two mini campuses and in one of the them you have the ultra mini park. One of the many things that makes my world 'go round' is how nature responds to the varying seasons. Leaves changing colors and in this case even bare trees are worth my glance. I have no idea why part of the tree bark is painted in white. I will find out and let you know. The buildings behind the park are where the classes are held. You can actually see some of the students walking out from behind the park, somewhere near the right of the photograph.

As for the first person who made it to Shades of Life is my flatmate, Jan. She is the first person I crash into on my way to the bathroom in my groggy state in the morning. Sometimes she makes my world go round, other times she can drive me nuts. I have another flatmate but that will be a different shade.;) Jan is from Malaysia and is extremely studious. Despite living with her for over 4 months, she has yet to influence me with her study habits. I'm a tough nut to crack for all the right reasons. She cooks really well and she loves trying new things. When you are really lazy to light the stove, there is always Jan :D She loves Mickey Mouse, yes that same one that Walt Disney created years ago. Jan loves the mouse to the point of obsession. From stationary to accessories, they all have Mickey Mouse on them. I am not sure if she will pin a Mickey Mouse badge on her white coat. Though  I will not be surprised if she does. She is way too unhealthy for her age. She stocks the cabinet with oats, soybean milk, papaya, banana, etc. Right next to it, I stock my Lays, chocolates, Nutella, biscuits, candies, and everything healthy you can think of. :D Sometimes I wonder if she really is normal. Oh well, can't expect the whole world to lead the healthy lifestyle I lead, can I? Despite all the these, she makes a great flat mate.

PS: I might have to return Mona to her owner soon. Guess I will have to make do with my Mobile Phone. Sighs.

While my (borrowed) Camera Gently Shoots...

Juile & Julia the movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams was one very well pictured film. In the movie, Amy Adams (Julie) decided to stick to a deadline and try cooking 526 recipes from Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" Cookbook within a time frame of 365 days. This movie by the way was based on the true story or rather the blog written by Julie Powell title "The Julie/Julia Project". I was pretty inspired by thewhole film. No! Not to whip up french dishes but instead to get myself involved with something. Something I like, or perhaps something I already do now but just need to be consistent at it. Anything but Something. I left it there and forgot about it.

After brunch earlier today, I was Blog-Trotting and I came across this: One Picture a Day

For the period of a week, a month, or even a year take one picture a day of the people and things that make life ‘go round’ for you. Take a snapshot of the people who help you every day....Use that camera phone to look for beauty in the natural world....Take a photo of things that help make your life work.... - by Americanising Desi on her Blog. 

The above was just an excerpt of her post, click on the link and visit her site, you wouldn't be disappointed. :)

Back to my tale: The thought that was sleeping at the back of my mind sprung back to life. Yes, the post by Desi did it all. Besides, my daily rants of medical school and other worldly issues, a daily photo journal of what I am greeted to every day will be up on this space of mine. :)

Since my Fujifilm Camera died a premature death, I am gonna use a borrowed Point and Shoot Sony Cybershot. Nothing fancy, unless a SLR drops from the sky into my lap; all photographs will be from the hand-held digicam and taken my me. Yes, me. I ain't no professional but it should still be viewable. Each shot will be of course accompanied with a bit of information about it.

Title of Project: Shades of Life  

(Across the Universe by The Beatles was playing so yeah..:D and of course it made sense to the whole idea as well :p)

Things/People involved: Mona - the Sony Cybershot, Myself, People We meet and Things We see

To be a little ambitious on this challenge I have told meself to have this photo journal going till I graduate; which is an extremely long while. Given my ultra short attention span, I haven't exactly continued anything till the very end. This is gonna be exciting. Hopefully you are not disappointed either.

The First Shade of my Life will be up Tomorrow, 14 December 2009.

Wish me Luck!

Dude, Where's my Coffee?!

I had an exam earlier in the day.
I have an extremely long day tomorrow.
I have a couple of lab reports due the day after tomorrow.
I have a presentation next week.
I have a review paper to write by next week.
I have my Finals in 3 weeks.
I have a  laptop which is dying.
I have a system that's running low on caffeine.
I have been diagnosed with exhaustion.

Weeeeeeeeee...............

I have an exam tomorrow. I ought to be buried in my texts. But no, I took a nap which evolved into a looong sleep. I got up showered, and junked. Stared at the text for a good 10 seconds and decided to take a break. And now, when I am sub-consciously determined to commit everything before me into my forsaken short term memory (which by the way is my long term memory as well.), I am way too excited to concentrate.

Cos..I BOUGHT MY TICKETS TO FLY BACK!! FINALLY! AFTER A YEAR!

Exams, Exams, Go away

Come again another day

Usha wants to leave today... 

Photo: The shot was taken when we were playing a friendly match and I scored hence I jumped up high expressing the sheer joy :D And now, I'm feeling the exact same way: I'm flying home soon...*GRINS*

Surgeon: Naughty or Nice?

I discovered the flowchart on the right from one of the Medscape - Medical Student blogs. From what the chart suggests, and given the student that I am, I would best fit into Emergency Medicine. However, what I REALLY wanna do is Surgery. With reference to the chart, it requires me to be excellent at two things to be able to get into Surgery:

1) Hardworking 2) Mean

Mean? I gotta be mean to make my way through to Surgery. That is ridiculous. Surgeons are not mean. Wait, are they? (And I am reminded of Christina Yang from Grey's Anatomy now. "Scalpel Monster". Sighs.) 

What's harder than being Mean? HARDWORKING! We all can be mean if we want to. *evil smile* Then again, let me establish the fact that I am pretty nice to begin with so..anyways, both the intense effort to study and to be mean is laborious. Will these take a toll on me? I do not know. I really don't.

I should start considering Emergency Medicine.

Perhaps this whole specialty thing is a little too early for me to go nuts about but man, the batch of students I study with in class are competitive. Yeah, I hear you going "aren't all medical students competitive". Well, not exactly, you are on the blog of one who is pretty much slacking her way through med school and still surviving. Still surviving... 

Blackjack - It's beatable

Bringing down the House by Ben Mezrich was loosely based on the real life story of Jeff Ma, an MIT graduate who used his exceptional skills in math and superb memory to counting cards at Vegas. From a committed geek to both studies and a girlfriend he soon began introducing himself under multiple aliases, travelling in limousines, dining at posh restaurants and soon enough earning thousands of dollars in just a single weekend.

How did the change of events occur? Kevin Lewis, the main character in the book was recruited into the MIT blackjack club which flew to Vegas during the weekends to count cards. What started as a hobby soon got his utmost attention. The best bit about this whole book is the explanation of card counting, the description of Vegas and the varying personalities that visit the gambling paradise. Descriptions were kept simple and were definitely vivid.

I was impressed by the system the MIT team used to count cards and not get caught. They had a team 5 to 10 people who took turns in playing the roles of Spotters, Gorillas and Big Players. The Spotters were the ones who bet minimums at blackjack tables and later signal the Big Players to come over and join in. These Big Players are informed of the current count and they continue from then on betting with larger amounts. All these transfer of information from one to another was done discreetly. The Gorillas however, are to act like spoilt rich kids roaming in the casinos blowing up their parents’ cash. They do not perform any counting but rather just bet according to what the spotters signal them to. The role of the Gorillas is usually for the newcomer.

The methods used were simple, it involved simple math, the signals they used to get each other’s attention many not have been entirely under the covers but come on, they fooled the casino’s security system from 1995 till 1998! And that is pure awesomeness if you ask me!

I initially watched the movie 21 which was an adaptation of this book. However, the movie did not closely follow the book but still managed to recreate the ambience and Jeff Ma’s characters to a great deal. One can choose to either read the book first or watch the movie first. My recommendation would be to read the book first, since they explain the way Blackjack is played and how the MIT team played it scoring thousands at a single hand. That would help one when seeing Jim Sturgess in 21 performing mental counts while playing Blackjack and the training he goes through before he hits Vegas.

Card Counting as described by the movie and the book proves interesting and risky. There are still a number of card counters who are lurking around casinos. They are winning legally so casinos cannot charge them, however, can still ban them from visiting the casinos again. Casinos gotta get used to being good losers I suppose :p.

I have been heavily influenced by the whole card counting idea, I’ve actually resorted to purchasing a deck of poker cards for thy self and trying to master the basics. :D

Macau…Here I come.

Riddle? No. Reality? Yes.

What is Crappy, Old, Chinese, and loves money?

My Landlady. (More like my Land-Devil)

World Aids Day 2009

Today is World Aids Day. The Day is initiated to raise awareness about the epidemic which is still far from being totally eradicated. I was online the whole day reading about the many articles and the many changes the UNAIDS and many other organisations have undertaken to ensure respective countries and the involved governments take the required measures to bring about changes. And one of my favourite blogger Emm in her blog, A Passion to Understand, wrote an article regarding today's Aids Commemoration day. Please do read. One will learn a lot, least I did. :) :)

This year's theme is Universal Access and Human Rights. Universal Access is to ensure that treatment and preventive measures are universally available. Human Rights was chosen in compliance with the many laws that certain nations withhold in limiting human rights or female rights in particular. And also the many limitations that are posed upon a HIV positive individual hence reducing their opportunity to excel.

Let's do our part, even if its a bare minimum to change the way the society views AIDs and to eliminate the stigma that goes with it.

Go Red for AIDS Today.