~ li TinG's aLoN3 ~

When SHE says goodbye

2011-09-17T23:44:00.000+07:00

Iwoke up with a so-so feeling. As usual, after preparing myself, I head out tocampus for work, wondering what patient I’ll face on the day. On the way, theaunty sitting in front of me in that public transport cried after receiving acall. I started thinking at that very moment, “what kind of news can bringsorrows like that? Death?” then I told myself not to have such negativethinking in the morning. I was walking to my faculty from the 2^ndgate of my university which was right opposite the newly built teachinghospital when I received an ‘unknown’ call. It was 8.10AM Medan time on the 10^thof September 2011. Reading the word ‘unknown’, I thought it was a call fromeither my Indian friends (they love hiding their numbers) or my patients. No, Igot my guess wrongly.

Thatwas my mother’s voice on the phone. It was a call from family. It was a calltelling me my grandma has left and gone to a better world. My mind suddenlywent blank. It was nothing in my mind. I couldn’t think. I sat alone outsidethe department, away from my co-ass mates with my watery eyes. One of them whocame late, saw me there and asked “Li Ting, why are you looking so sad today?Cheer up!” I replied “my grandma passed away this morning.” I don’t know howelse to answer the question asked. I went meeting the head of department totalk to him about this to get permission for being absent a few days in theclinic. He was very nice. I bought ticket to fly home that night itself.

Mygrandmother was diagnosed lung cancer stage 4 about 2 months back. We didn’tknow she was sick until one day she complained chest pain. We thought it mightbe something wrong with her heart. We sent her to the hospital for further checkup and the doctor got an X-ray of her thorax. Only then, we knew it wassomething wrong with her lung. It continued with bronchoscopy and CT scan.There were a few other tests done, which in the end a neurologist called up myfamily members to have an appointment to meet up on the 8^th ofAugust. Anyway, the neurologist in charge didn’t show up. In fact, a youngdoctor came to talk to my family. She told nothing much, just the fact that,it’s lung cancer, stage 4, metastasis to the brain thus operation can’t bedone, so do chemotherapy. Only medications like analgesic and anti-inflammationwill be given to reduce pain and swell. That’s all.

Mybrother tried to ask more since the others in the family can’t speak fluentEnglish, but the doctor said she is just a doctor from the pulmo department. Somy brother opened up the file and read the report himself to try to understandmore. It was written short and précised “brain has mets. Opportunity of lifefor more than 3 months is very low. Family has been informed and theyaccepted.” I guess that’s the informed consent? I’m not so sure. I’m sadknowing about this news, about the bad prognosis.

I feltbad because I didn’t get to meet her ever since she’s sick. I stayed up on thenight I was home for the funeral. I talked to my aunties and grandfather. Theytold me a lot about what had happened these few months. I cried the moment I sawmy grandfather’s sorrow face. He told me “don’t worry. She went away well. Shewas glad that all her children and grandchildren cared so much for her. All shewished was this family to stay happy.”

once upon a time...

2011-08-12T21:22:00.000+07:00

It’s time to pay my tuition fee for new semester. It’s my 9^th semester already can you believe it? I just checked my pictures in my laptop and found some old photos, memorable ones. I don’t think we can take photos like this anymore now. Most of us are separated. We don't live together already. We don't go to campus together already. We are not doing many things together now already.

First semester, we went to campus together by van provided by our agents. Of course, we already paid the transportation fee even before we came here for studies.

This was taken after exam.
Examination attire: black & white

I remembered how much everyone complaint about this university, including myself. The boys got to bald themselves for orientation week. Some guys escaped by saying ‘I’m a Punjabee I can’t cut my hair’.

One of the pillars in my university.

Biochemical Laboratorium

We attended practicals in lab together. Those were the time where we all lived under the same roof, in a hostel. It was fun! FUN is like, we really enjoyed ourselves. We were so young and energized that time. We played crazily like small kids when we gathered. I remembered how we celebrated each and everyone’s birthday. Whenever somebody’s birthday is near, we will start keeping eggs till it stinks. Some others would go look for CHEAP birthday cake and bought extra cream to add on top of the cake.

Mixture of margarine and cream on a CHEAP cake.
Of course, we prepared another birthday cake for him.

Splashes of water on him from upstairs.
Note that we kept dirty water with cockroaches in the bin right next to him.

Some guys would prepare dirty water with dead cockroaches in it. Won’t you escape these tricks? Not to forget the flours! We threw flours too! We won’t stop running and hunting until the security guard scolded us. There was once the guard got so angry he locked the water supply to our rooms so that we couldn't wash ourselves =.=! but our men are smart! They would secretly go unlock it! XD

Second semester of studies, we, Malaysian Chinese in Medan decided to organize a dinner. We worked together, we looked for sponsors together, we sold tickets together, we practiced for performances together, we prepared gifts and souvenirs together! We divided jobs well.

Our break dance coach.

Modern dance choreographed by Lorna Ting.

I’m not good in dancing but I joined them. I attended 3 dinners that semester and I was the master of ceremony for 2 of the dinners.

2 of the MCs in the dinner organized by Malaysian Chinese Cultural Club

sang with my senior, Terecia (just graduated as a dentist) in the dinner organized by Dental Student Committee

Third semester, we all shifted out. We rented house since the hostel was meant for the first years. I lived with all the dentistry Malaysian Chinese students. They are helpful. We study and do things together. Juniors are here. We ‘bullied’ them. I remembered how one of the guy juniors was asked to dance. It’s easy to recognize who are the juniors, who are the seniors. Spot for the botaks they’re the juniors!

We have no other family here in Medan. We celebrated Mid Autumn Festival together. We had games. We chose the most popular seniors of the year.

Johnathan Lin and Li Ting

We chose a colour as our theme and everyone must wear that colour. Those who didn’t will end up like this.

Forth semester, we organized a bigger Chinese New Year Auspicious Dinner! We had around 600 guests. We had improved from the previous dinner. This time, we invited magicians. We rented a grand piano.

Piano duet by Li Ting and Zheng Kang.

Masters of Ceremony of the night.

It was the first time I present myself to campus activity. It was Sports Day in the Faculty of Dentistry. I only went for the bazaar on the closing ceremony =P

Penutupan Porseni
Li Ting's classmates (2007 class)

There was once a photographer came and asked me and a few friends for a photo. I thought he was one of the crews working on my university’s website. Few months later, I got to know that he was actually hired by an agency, to promote this university in Malaysia.

P.S. I didn't come under this agency =.=!
This photo is up in the newspaper lately =P

Fifth semester, we went to Air Terjun 2 Warna together. It took us 3 hours to the waterfall and another 3 hours to get out from the place. Exhausting but it’s all worth!

I was shivering when we captured this.

It seems to us like the Malaysian Chinese in this town has got nothing else better to do. This semester we organized a gathering for ourselves and we named this gathering “Just For Fun (JFF) Awards Dinner”. Guess what award I got? Best Dressed! We chose these according to votes.

I was asked to help the dental supplier from Beijing as a translator in the 4^th Regional Dental Meeting and Exhibition in Medan.

Alex (dental supplier from Beijing), Albert, Li Ting, Zheng Kang

Sixth semester, it was hectic yet happening! I didn’t go home for Chinese New Year because I only have a day for holiday. I never dare to skip classes because I had a lot of practical that semester. This Chinese New Year is the second CNY I visited the temple at 12AM sharp! Perhaps I was a little too greedy. My 2^nd wish didn’t come true. Perhaps it is all FATE? We will always meet the wrong one before we get to find the right one.


Wrote my wish down on a paper provided by the temple and hung it on the tree. Not all my wishes came true but most importantly, my 1st and 3rd wish came true ^.<

we gambled!

My friends and me went to Tuk-tuk. It was my 3^rd time to Lake Toba. It was way more FUN than the previous time maybe because we wandered around and explored the island together. This was the first time I rode on a motorcycle for 1.5 hours just for a hot spring! And guess what, we stayed at the hot spring for less than 15 minutes!

outside the hot spring

boys at the hot spring

I joined the seniors for odd job at a place named Bukit Lawang. I learned a lot here. 2 days 1 trip here was quite exhausting. The bus broke down so we waited till night for them to repair the bus to fetch us back to Medan.

Seventh semester, it started with Junior Clerkship where we went for duty at a hospital for a week. It is the semester I did my thesis. I rushed my work every day. I was lucky getting a very nice and helpful lecturer to guide me. Mid Autumn Festival this year had blue colour as its theme instead of pink and red for the previous years. Blue LOOKED GOOD too!

I attended another odd job, in an Islamic school. This was different from the previous odd job because we only deal with kids here. It’s more to pediatric dentistry.

I'm as tall as the kids =P

Due to the registration for my graduation as a scholar, I stayed in Medan in December instead of going home. I helped my junior to take care of his hamsters but one of them died. I felt so guilty. I buried it outside my house.

Eighth semester was a challenging one. This was my first time celebrating my birthday in Medan. My Malaysian friends here gave me surprised ‘knock on the door’ at 12AM sharp. I opened the door and saw this cake with candle lit on it with balloons all around BUT with nobody! Then they suddenly just ‘hello-ed’ me =.=! My family came for my convocation. I was very happy that day. My hard work was paid. I managed to get my academic years shorten by 6 months!

Then I entered clinical life. It’s like working life. Difference is that, we spend instead of earning here. I couldn’t believe I’m now in my 4^th department already and I have only 3 departments LEFT! I celebrated Chinese New Year here again where I went for 2 reunion dinner. I think I’m closer with my juniors comparing with my batchmates. They’re like my family here. Never look down on these boys. They all professional chef!

reunion dinner with my batchmates

reunion dinner with my Medan family.

Medan flood on the April fool where I thought my friends were fooling me. I went out and was stuck out there for 12 hours.

entrance of my faculty

Juniors asked me to join a Buddhism event. I joined for the first time and loved it very much. Not the event, I only loved the last part where we lit up lantern with our wishes on it.

I had my 4^th trip to Lake Toba! This time is a little different. It was a sudden plan. It was an adventure. Life of a co-assistant is full of excitement and stress. It all depends to how we respond to what is happening around us.

What will happen in this ninth semester? There were a few things I’m expecting. My friends and I had discussed about the coming orientation for new students. Every year around this time, the seniors will be so excited, thinking of ways to ‘bully’ the juniors. I’ll start extracting teeth next week. Hopefully everything goes well.

North Sumatra University Hospital

2011-06-29T10:55:00.000+07:00

Finally, something we should be proud of about my university. A teaching hospital is built. It was said to start operating early next year. Guess what! The North Sumatra University Hospital is the biggest teaching hospital in Indonesia. It’s looking good from the outside and I loved the color they chose for the hospital! No one had entered and take a look in the hospital yet except for the workers since it’s still under construction. They had been telling us about building this hospital since I was here in my first semester. Now I’m in my 8^th semester already. Sadly, I won’t have the chance to use it. Juniors are lucky but pity them at the same time. Their tuition fee had been raised to quite a big number due to this teaching hospital.

What does a GIRL want from her LOVED ONES in a relationship?

2011-06-11T23:52:00.000+07:00

What does a girl want from her loved ones in a relationship? I’ve read back the post I scribbled months ago about 10 DON’Ts when you’re breaking up. So it reminds me of this, scribbling something about relationship about what exactly a girl wants from a relationship. Guys, girls are not complicated creature like you imagined. We’re just as complicated as you =) So, what does a girl want from her loved ones in a relationship?

1. Love

2. Care

3. Faith

4. Communication

5. Understanding

6. Toleration

7. Maturity

8. Responsibility

9. Loyalty

10. Time

4th visit. ENJOYED!

2011-06-10T01:01:00.001+07:00

This is my 4^th time traveling to Lake Toba. Yes I love this place. I always go to this place for a short trip and this time it’s as short as 2 days 1 night. This sudden plan is FUN. It’s an ADVENTURE! I received call nearly midnight asking me to go for this trip, saying we’ll explore ourselves this time, we’ll take the public transport and ask around about the way. Wow~ before we’re there it already sounded so FUN! So there we are the 4 of us, packed and gathered at 7am. We took the public transport like the one we always take to campus. We were chatting on the way. None of us know the way to the bus station but we worry not. We enjoyed the ride. The mini bus driver was nice. He told us when we were there at the bus station. It is different here at Amplas. In Malaysia, we would need to get a ticket before we get into a bus. Here, we just climb into the bus and get our seat. Remember not to leave your seat as others would take yours later.

the ferry we took

They will then collect the bus fare on the way and all the way going to Parapat, there were passengers going up and down the bus. By the middle of the way, the bus is so full, the passengers got to stand in the lane in the bus and yet the bus driver is driving so fast. 4 hours journey is long for me, I brought my cute headphones with me. Arrived to Parapat, we took ferry to Samosir Island. It was so hot that day. 4 of us walked around looking for hotel rooms to rent. Of course, we looked for affordable ones. We asked and walked around and finally decided to spend a night at Samosir Cottage. It’s a good place. Great scenery, better than the one I stayed in my 3^rd trip to Lake Toba.

Let's go Samosir Island

Fish farm in drizzling rain

making his Chapter 24's wishes

They said girls took longer time for shower so the guys went renting motorcycles while we were getting ready. After shower, we had our first meal of the day. We’re hungry dead! The portion there was big. We’re lucky we have guys around. They helped with our food. It was raining. We went around taking photos. Coincidently it was one of my friends’ birthday and we gave him a little surprised simple celebration. I guess it wasn’t that surprised for him though. We couldn’t find a cake in any of the bakery there so we ended up buying breads, those we love from Samuel’s. Birthday bread looked good too!

my first holiday since I entered clinical year

A simple and relaxing trip is good for us who are in our clinical now. Take a day or two to free ourselves from our stressful life with friends is awesome! That’s how we should pamper ourselves.

Tsunami after massive Japan quake made me worry

2011-03-11T18:54:00.007+07:00

I just heard about the news that Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast, triggering a 4-metre tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicentre today at 0546 GMT. I thought of the Kato family once I see Alex’s post in facebook. I’m worried. I’m down. I’ve lost contact with them recently. We used to email our recent photos to each other. Sometimes I would post them a CD or cards. I didn’t know why I couldn’t email them now already. Hotmail had been giving me delivery failed notifications since the day of my graduation here. I thought of sending them pictures of me graduating. I looked around in my room here in Medan for their number. I remembered I called them from Indonesia before and had a short conversation with them about my studies here. *slaps of regret* I should have keep all these important numbers properly. It wasn’t saved in my phone and I really didn’t know why. I hope they are fine over there. I bless them with all my heart!

This feeling now was exactly like the time I felt on the 26^th December 2004. Remember the Tsunami that year which hit the Pacific region including Sumatra, Indonesia? I was in Japan that time and there were news which says Tsunami hits Malaysia around Penang too. That morning, okasan (it means ‘mother’ in Japanese) woke me up quickly to tell me about it because she wasn’t sure which part of Malaysia am I from and I quickly called home to ask about my family’s condition. Now, on the 11^th March 2011, I’m in North Sumatra, Indonesia having the same feeling for them in Japan.

My ‘family’ is in Nagoya. All I can do now is just to pray for them.

I remember I promised them I would visit them once I complete my high school. Too bad, the year I completed my high school was a very busy year for me. I attended National Service, took a fast-track course of Foundation in Science and continued by entering the university for my first year. Then I told them I might come when I graduate from this university. I miss them. I miss the triplets. Let’s just hope my ‘family’ and friends there are safe and sound. Pray for them. God bless!

Hello, I'm NEW in dentistry

2011-03-05T14:59:00.010+07:00

I never had holiday since I entered my co-assistant life. Being a co-assistant is not as easy as many people think. Now I finally understand how dangerous it is being a dentist. This coming week will be my 6^th week in clinical. I already got eye infection, infection at my lacrimal gland. A week after I had my first infection, I got another one at the same eye. It was so painful. It hurts even when I blinked! Not only that, it itches. I went to the ophthalmologist, she only gave me anti-microbial to ease the itch.

This is how I dress up ever since I got my eye infections. There was once where the patient asked why I must put on that big mask. Face shield mask is to protect my entire face especially when I'm doing scaling for the patients.

The first week of my clinical life was all about applications and tests. They gave us a pretest, just because they wanted us to study at home. What are our scores in the pretest? It doesn’t matter because they will only count our post-test results. Then we started looking for patients for the 2^nd week. Oh, the question is why do we LOOK FOR patients? LOL. Of course, there are patients who came to clinic but why do I still go look for patients? Well, I guess the answer is because I want to get my minimum requirements done on time so that I can graduate on time. We have 32 co-assistants in the current department I’m working at and we only have 10 dental units. Working hours on Monday till Thursday will be 9AM – 2PM; Friday 9AM – 12PM; Saturday 9AM – 1PM. We have to be there at least an hour earlier to sterilize and prepare all the things we need of the day. Last patient only can come in 2 hours before the clinic close. We all must ‘fight’ for the units to use, otherwise we won’t get our minimum requirements done.

Apart from the dental unit problems, we also have problems with patients. There are some treatments where patients have to come for a few visits. In case of patient who didn’t come for the required visit, then our lecturer will cancel our case and we will need to find a new case and treat the new patient again. There is a case we need to handle, which is to call back the old patients who come more than 3 months earlier to come back for checkup. So there, needless to say, we used loads of credit on phone calls for sure. I think I really look like one of those insurance agents, calling people nonstop to tell them to come back for checkup. Some answered us politely, giving us reasons why they couldn’t come back. Some would scold. Some changed numbers. I called one, who had passed away. I got no idea what I should say other than the word sorry to the family. I seriously never thought co-assistants have to do all this phone-calling jobs. Sighs.

We are all already stressed out of the problems we’re facing and there, the biggest problem of all, I shall say is our lecturers. We have to know which lecturer favors what kind of students. There is a lecturer who prefers us to use English rather than Indonesian language, for example. We have to discuss with lecturers about how we are going to treat the patients. They want us to do things fast and yet they always delay us for the discussion what treatment should be done. How ridiculous. There was once where I went meeting this one lecturer, he looked so sleepy, he told me to wait a while. Right after he said so, he slept on his table. WHAT! I’m stunned. I was so speechless. That case of mine had been pending for 2 weeks. Even the patient called to ask me for her next schedule. Sighs.

Perhaps it is all the university’s fault. Everything looks just so disorganized. Getting into clinical life is all about learning and practice all by ourselves. I heard the next batch of new co-assistants will be entering clinical in the April. I wish them luck joining us in this new life. Well I really hope hospitals in Malaysia won’t have problems like this when I’m back later.

Well, there are also fun in clinical life. I had new friends here.

We went supporting our faculty's soccer team previously in their match with another faculty, I forgot which.

That was the first time I'm watching live in Medan. I still don't understand the game though. We just went there and supported with one of the lecturers.

Sarjana Kedokteran Gigi 22/01/2011

2011-02-25T22:06:00.012+07:00

I graduated! I mean I got my bachelor already ^^ I still have approximately 2 years to go for my clinical years in Medan. My convocation was on the 22^nd January.

I went home immediately on the night after my convocation. It was a tiring day for me and my family. My family came to Medan on the 21^st morning and arrived to my house while I was in the useless rehearsal at the Auditorium USU. They threatened us to attend and said they won’t give us our certificate for those who didn’t attend the rehearsal. I had my friend sent me to the salon for hairdo and make-up. I took the package where my family will have the photo-shooting in the studio later after my convocation.

The studio told us to be there by 5am. My friend told me she’ll be here by 4.30am, so mummy and I woke up at 3.45am for shower already. Then we waited for more than an hour because my friend couldn’t wake up early =.= So we rushed a little in the studio together. The make-up artist there was professional I say? She only used few minutes and *poof* make up done!

Hairdo and make up were done on time but we still arrived there late because I forgot the big black coat of mine =.= How forgetful. I felt so sorry because we’ll need to take a big round to reach the studio again.

As usual, programs held in Medan are not punctual. It started late and it took ages to end. It was boring inside especially while waiting for the 405 medical students to get up to the stage just to shake hands. I see many parents slept. My brother, who was sitting upstairs, told me some even slept with snores. I asked papa ‘what if I fall on the stage?’ papa giggled =.=

When everything’s ended, we had photo session outdoor with friends and family.

I didn’t take many photos though since I need to rush back to PLATINUM again. I’ll be sharing the photos when I got them later ^^ Sorry for the late post. Had written this a week after the convocation actually, but I hadn’t got much time for blog lately.

wedding reception invitation card

2011-01-17T16:31:00.003+07:00

I received my first invitation to a wedding dinner. In the past, I always attend wedding dinner with family. So, the invitation card will be addressed to my dad’s name AND FAMILY. That’s how they always wrote it. This time it is different. It is one of my BFF in Medan’s brother’s wedding. So she gave me this invitation card with my name written on it. I see 2 differences between invitation cards used by Chinese in Malaysia and Chinese in Medan. What are they?

First, the colour of the card. In Malaysia, I always see invitation cards in RED or PINK with gold writings on it. Red brings luck and mean prosperity to Chinese. The one I received from my friend here is different. The card is in light yellow with a cover outside the card in dark cocoa colour. I’ve never seen Chinese wedding invitation card using dark colour like this. The card they’re using here is the thick, something like hard cover. I guess it must cost a lot just to print these invitation cards.

Second, the small sign by the end of the page. I’m a Chinese who didn’t really know to read Chinese because I studied in an English school since young. I’m still learning to read Chinese now. So I was reading the card that night with a friend next to me teaching me the words. Guess what, they translated all the addresses from Indonesian language to Chinese language. That must be hard because reading it was hard. Then I see these signs down there. I’ve never seen signs like this in the card we received in Malaysia.

They told me, the first round sign meant RED PACKET, the second round sign meant NO FLOWERS, and the last round sign meant NO GIFTS. As conclusion, it meant “we DO NOT accept flowers and gifts, we ONLY ACCEPT RED PACKETS.” WOW~ I’ve never gave red packet to anyone. Dr. William and his wife must be feeling honored LOL.

I’ve asked around my Malaysian Chinese friends. At my place, those who haven’t married will be giving gifts as to congratulate the newlywed. Only married couples will be giving red packets to the newlywed couple. At some other places in Malaysia, they will always give red packet no matter the invited guests are married or not. Perhaps this is what people say ‘different place having different culture’?

Ethan's belated birthday celebration

2011-01-05T01:27:00.010+07:00

Ethan was given birth on the same day as me =) He wasn’t here in Medan on the 2^nd day of January so we had a little celebration for his belated birthday just few hours ago. His girlfriend went dinner with him first while Roxanne, Kam Hoong, and I went to the mall looking for a mouse as a birthday gift. Of course, not those mouse that can breathe! I didn’t know what to give him best. Roxanne told me his mouse is spoilt so I thought of getting him a mouse for game. I guess he would love it since See Theng told me once that he loves DOTA. Too bad, the one I looked around in the mall just now was way too much than my budget and we ran out of time so in the end I just get him a simple USB extension =.+!

3 of us went to Clover to get him a birthday cake. We chose Chocolate Pudding cake and it was yummy-licious!

We called for taxi and again they ignored us sighs. I already called to reserve a room in K2 Karaoke. Ethan and his girlfriend were already there an hour ago. We arrived there late so leaving us no room. We changed plan. Preparation for Plan B was done on the 2^nd floor of the Karaoke centre. The workers there helped out. They were nice! Thanks to them we didn’t used too much time. I prepared the cake with candle. Roxanne was busy choosing hats and masks.

Kam Hoong used all energy he had to fill the balloons with air. Balloons again! These balloons looked way better than mine the other day but anyway, I still love them =)

Everything's prepared. Time to move to the room!

Once everything’s ready, we went into the room. Both of them in the room were scared. They thought we were robbers LOL what a joke! Seriously, they looked a little frightened but we never thought they would think us as robbers =.=! Perhaps it is because Kam Hoong’s wearing black and with mask.

Does this look like a robber? He went in like this, with a hat, a mask, and blowing that I don't know what we call it.

Robber 2.

Robber 3.

Then, the next thing was as usual, sang song, made belated wish, blew off candle, and time to open up presents.

After that, were all about song singing until about an hour later. We got home by taxi together. Roxanne was caring as usual to remind me about locking my doors and all.

We all said we would put the photo of ourselves with mask as our profile picture and both the belated birthday boy and girl had a little different one.

Ethan lil' ting

Staying home alone for about 10 days wasn’t that bad after all. I actually enjoyed staying myself here, alone. I wasn’t lonely. Feeling lonely is not about you being alone. Feeling lonely is because no one cares but there are a lot of them who cares for me here and I really do appreciate these people. See Theng had been accompanying me all the while. She had dinner with me every day. She came back from the hospital to have dinner together. I’m not sure if she did it on purpose. At least she cared =) Roxanne, on the other hand, would make sure I really lock myself in the house before she heads home herself. These big sisters of mine are GREAT sisters. I would like to say thank you again for taking good care of me here sisters!

22nd birthday

2011-01-03T00:17:00.012+07:00

It was my 22^nd birthday yesterday. I thought staying here in Medan myself would be lonely. I thought I would go through my birthday myself for the first time. To my surprise, on the very first day of this year, 2011, my girlfriends had posted and shared a video they made. I was touched. I was happy. I was speechless even though the short video was nothing much. I would celebrate my birthday with these girls every year and this year is the first year without them and they managed to make me feel they’re here next to me this birthday with the cake in front of me at my screen. I love you girls!

My brother rang me at 12am sharp (Malaysia time) saying nobody else could call me that time because my brother somehow must be more important than others =) cute little brother I have. We were chatting for so long I guess his credit dried. I hope his girlfriend won’t be mad at him ^^ A while later when I was talking to my brother on the phone, I heard some sound outside. Honestly, I guessed it would be my friends since I received one of the wrongly sent messages saying they’ll make a surprise celebration for me but somehow, staying alone in this house, hearing people knocking the door outside that late, I’m a little scared too.

I tried looking out from the window but it was so dark I can’t see a thing. So I opened the wooden door and there I saw this cake with a candle lit on it and balloons around it! Oh balloons~

I didn’t know when I started fancy them! Then I realized there were a few others outside the gate because only 2 boys jumped in to arrange the cake and all. There we did the usual thing, sang song, made wish, blew candle, cut cake, ate cake and oh ya, Roxanne bought us some fried chicken from Texas.

Chun and Loong both made drink for us. Wei Sheng was busy taking photos =)

Bong asked why we didn't take photo of him preparing stuff so he pretended this and we took it =X

Then See Theng and Bong argued over the plan of surprise party they wanted to do. It’s so funny to see See Theng would argue with others all the time.

See Theng told me what she planned. The one we celebrated last night was Bong’s plan. See Theng and Roxanne gave me a hat as my birthday present. See Theng said I was hinting her to buy me the hat. I seriously wasn’t hinting you, See Theng! I think the hat I loved was very expensive and not worth it. There’s this hat I saw once in the mall when I went shopping with Bell.

I tried on it and Bell assured me I look good with it, of course because it matches the clothes I wore that day when I went out with her. I told See Theng about it when I went shopping with her, getting present for Ethan. She lied to me saying she needs to work the next day. She actually went and gets the hat for me!

Thank you very much See Theng and Roxanne.

Grandma’s call woke me up. I can’t believe she really remembers every of her grandchild’s birthday! I called her back since the line wasn’t that good and talked for quite a while, telling her about my coming convocation =) I had another session of drama marathon towards evening. See Theng and Roxanne came back from hospital to have dinner with me. The restaurant named The Paddock is still new.

I thought they should be providing us better service. To our disappointments, their service sucks, their food are tasteless, and they’re expensive!

This cup of carrot juice on the left costs Rp. 15.000 (around Rm5.50) and iced tea on the right costs Rp. 8.000 (around RM2.90) OMG! Just a glass of iced tea!

I hope there won’t be any spot check in the hospital right now or else I wonder what will happen to these two girls, running out of the hospital without permission to have dinner.

Besides, there were many who wished me online, also via sms. Some even called me and sang birthday song for me. I appreciate all these good friends I have. I love you all buddies! Thanks for the present, thank you for the preparations, thank you for the arrangements, thank you for the celebration, thank you for the surprises, and thanks a lot for the wonderful wishes!

Tua Pui, I'm so sorry

2010-12-31T17:20:00.007+07:00

Tua pui passed away this morning. A friend of mine asked for my help to babysit his hamsters while he is back to Malaysia for holiday. Since I’ll be alone here settling the registration matters, so I nodded saying yes, I would love to! The 3 hamsters are cute. 2 of them are aggressive I didn’t dare to really play with them. Before he left Medan, he taught me the way to clean the hamsters and taught me how to feed them. Without these hamsters as company these few days, I would be bored to death. I showered for them like the way he taught me. They are all hyperactive hamsters. It feels like they never rest.

Tua pui, the white hamster was so naughty yesterday playing with the water from its water bottle making himself all wet and all the shear woods down there sticks on him. So I cleaned and dried him. He was still running around happily and stupidly as usual. He loves to run a big round, stand and then drop on its back. That’s the cutest part and the people who see that would say ‘you stupid!’ but he brought us joy. This morning when I’m awake, I disturbed all 3 hamsters as usual but realized tua pui didn’t respond much. I thought he was just plain lazy, I even said to him ‘get up you lazy bum’ as if he understands English >.<>

I started to worry. I don’t have my friend’s latest number in Malaysia. I contacted kiddo but he wasn’t replying. I reckoned See Theng might know more since tua pui’s papa is See Theng’s hamster. She told me she’ll bring some antibiotics here after her work. Maybe he is sick, she said. She also told me ‘prognosis not good already. Usually when a hamster is weak like that, few days later they’ll pass away but don’t worry so much. I’ll bring antibiotics later.’ I kept wondering what will happen to tua pui when I was doing my registration in campus. I gave Zkang calls to tell him about it. I felt so sorry I didn’t take good care of his hamsters.

I quickly rush home once I’m done with the registration which was about 5 hours later. I was shocked to see ants are all over him already. He passed away. I don’t know what is wrong with him. I rang Zkang immediately. He must be regretting handing his hamsters to me. I’m not sure if I made any mistake while taking care of him. I wondered why he passed away that sudden. I texted See Theng and told her about it. We both buried him together.

Tua pui, may you rest in peace T.T

photo used for registration

2010-12-27T22:13:00.004+07:00

I’m currently busy with all the registration. I just realized, to graduate is not an easy thing to do. We have to get much documentation done. First, get the grade for my thesis and I’m here proudly telling everyone I got an A yay! Most people will get A for their thesis so I don’t think getting A is a big deal LOL. Just that I’m feeling happy so here I am to share =) Then I have to photocopy all my results and also receipts of my tuition fee payments. Not to forget to get ‘surat bebas pustaka’ from the libraries, both from the library in my faculty, also the big library belongs to my university. That is to declare we had returned all the books we borrowed during our academic years.

Then we have to fill in some forms and biodata. They will need our photo in passport size. I’m not sure if it is just for the forms or they will use the photos on our certificate. I wonder why they didn’t want to use the coloured photos. They wanted us to hand in black and white photo. I used to like black and white photo but definitely not this one. It looks like those photos people use for the dead. I shared the photo in MSN with my friend and she laughed nonstop at how I look and said it looks like the body's not mine. She said it looks like I'm putting my head on the body-like board like many tourism place will have. OMG! Are they really going to use the black and white photo? o.O

Manifestasi Gambaran Radiografis Goldenhar Syndrome pada Rongga Mulut

2010-12-27T04:05:00.003+07:00

What is Goldenhar syndrome? Goldenhar syndrome is a rare congenital disease with ocular, auricular, and spine anomalies. Incidents had been reported that happened between 1 : 5600 to 1 : 26000 live birth, usually dominant in males and on the right side of the patient. The etiology of Goldenhar syndrome is still unknown.

Clinical manifestations like facial asymmetry, microtia, unilateral coloboma, microphthalmia, epibulbar dermoid, lipodermoid, micrognathia, cleft palate, and cleft lip can be found in new borns. Medical experts and stomatologist can also find images of decline in mandibular ramus height, loss of teeth, cleft palate, cleft lip, supernumerary teeth, and tooth hypoplasia via radiograph.

There are a few treatments that can be done according to the age of the patient. There are essentially two approaches: either an early operation (during growth), or a late treatment (after the active growth period). The prognosis for individuals with Goldenhar syndrome is very good in cases without systemic association. These individuals typically have a normal life span and normal intelligence.

*tadaa* that’s the abstract of my thesis =) Yes, I finally completed and passed my thesis presentation *claps for myself* I’ve printed this and will be distributing these books to the department and library of my university in few hours time. Looking for reference to get this thesis done wasn’t really easy for me since it is a rare disease so at most reference, they are mostly predictions. While looking for references, I found this blog, written by a patient with Goldenhar syndrome. She writes about her life since young with this syndrome. It must be hard for her but she is tough, she made it. Her post tells me to be tough and be optimistic in facing problems in the future. We’re all lucky unlike these patients. So, do appreciate what we have and what is given to us =)

Letter to Santa

2010-12-14T02:36:00.001+07:00

Dear Santa,

My friend, Joe, had told me to write a letter to you at least a week before Christmas. You would need a week time to get my Christmas present delivered it seems. Well, I really hope you would do that for me. This year will be the first year celebrating Christmas myself. This year will be the real lonely Christmas for me. I’m not going home due to study matters and so will be staying here in this cold town all by myself, far away from family. I wish for a safe stay alone in this town till my Malaysian friends are back here for their new semester. My family will be having holiday in Singapore this Christmas. How I wished I could join them. Too bad, I got to stay here to settle some matter.

There were too many things that happened this year which taught me a great lesson of life. Even though some are very harsh to me, but I appreciate the way they showed me what life means, what I would face in this cruel world. I turned 21 early this year where I celebrated my birthday with my family and my close family friends. My close friends celebrated with me a night earlier since they need to head back to their universities for classes. It’s the 2^nd year I’m celebrating Chinese New Year with friends in Medan. This year was a little different. I had reunion dinner with Kelvin’s family. I must say Drg. Suwito and Drg. Betty Laut are really nice people. They gave me feelings like I’m celebrating CNY with my family back in Malaysia. They helped me a lot here in Medan. Valentine’s Day fell on the same day as the first day of Chinese New Year. I celebrated my first Valentine’s Day. I couldn’t stop laughing when looking back at the videos recorded on the night my housemates and I had vodka together. Those faces of drunk housemates of mine are funny.

I had a short wonderful holiday later with my friends. I won’t forget my longest ride on a motorcycle in my life just to find the hot spring. It is fun riding on bikes with friends around the place, though tiring, but I enjoyed. I shifted to new house, living with new housemates early April. I followed my Indonesian course mates to Bukit Lawang for some odd jobs. I gained a lot and it was fun with Umaiyal, Navissha, and Banu in the room with a bathroom where we actually can see through and we made fun of each other LOL. I had my semester break later where I visited my brother who is currently studying in Malacca. Trip with family are the best. Of course, I went out with my besties, also attended a small gathering as secondary schoolmates reunion. Most of them looked so different now. 4 years really can change a person.

I attended Junior Clearkship. Students from the faculty of dentistry would need to get themselves present in the hospital for a week on duty. I learned and see a lot of new things. I broke up with my boyfriend by the end of August. I went home during Hari Raya. I’m glad to know there are so many people who actually care and love me. They support me. I told myself not to let these people down. I shall show them I can still lead my life and it will be better than before. Let bygones be bygones. Roger taught me that. I always bear these 4 words in mind. I’m lucky having Drg. Amrin as my lecturer who guides me in getting my thesis to be done well. He is a very helpful, kind and supportive lecturer. Since I’m a little free with my thesis, I helped Desi with her research.

We had a small BBQ birthday party for kiddo (Liang Jie). Too bad it rained that night so we ended up keeping everything back into the house but we had fun in the war of water and flour. Then it is time for Mid-Autumn Festival. I didn’t meet any juniors in campus during orientation week and this Mid-Autumn Festival gathering was the gathering I finally got to know 2 of my juniors, Jun Yang and Jack Loo. Next event of the year was CK’s birthday. We went karaoke and then celebrated in the juniors’ hostel. We almost cooked him up by throwing all sorts of spices on him. I remembered how I sneezed while recording video because of the pepper. I joined the Indians for their Deepavali dinner together in a hotel and found an amazing, breath taking night view. I love Medan the moment I was on the top floor of that building. I attended another odd job organized by Dental Student Committee. I started up my online business with Desi. I never thought this dream can really come true. It is finally the time for final examinations. Tomorrow will be my first day of exam.

This year is a total different year for me with loads of happenings. I’m glad to know more about my friends, about how true they are, how fake they are. I’m glad to know how supportive my friends and family can be. With all these happenings around, I believe I’ve learned and grow up. Christmas is around the corner, Fransisca told me she wants a Canon DSLR as her Christmas present. So, Mr. Santa, after my long summary of what had happened this year, I would say I wanted a machine to help me keep all these precious memories in case I would forget them one day. I didn’t want to forget how each and every one of the people around me gave me the lesson of life. I would like to thank Joe for giving me this idea to write to Santa and thanks a million in advance to Mr. Santa for your attention.

Warmest regards,

Pan Li Ting

Is RELIGION a barrier in relationship?

2010-12-08T20:26:00.001+07:00

In a month time, I’ve heard about 3 couples breaking up and the reason is “Our religion’s different.” They promised not to hurt each other, not to force each other to convert into others’ religion, and will respect each other. I guess, like I said in my previous post, when he/she asked for break up, promise is nothing now.

We shall all respect others’ religion, not forcing them to convert their religion. That’s what I think we should do. I don’t understand why some people would promise now saying they would respect but convinced their loved ones to convert their religion in the end. I see many married couples with different religion. They can live together happily but why can’t some others do so too? Don’t you think it is useless for a person who said “Nothing can be done now, let’s break up.” So, now I see breaking up is really as easy as ABC. *sighs* what do you readers think about this? Is religion really a barrier in relationship?

- de Tinkerbell - | fashion cache is OPENING today

2010-12-06T17:27:00.002+07:00

My online store is opening today. My partner’s mother checked my birth date to get a good day for my store opening. She knows how to read these it seems, and said even though I have a partner but since I’m older than my partner by months, so the reading shall follow mine. She also told me that it is best to start my business this morning from 7AM to 9AM. I woke up early this morning to check out my store online and then rushed to my lecturer’s dental clinic for some thesis team discussion and presentation preparation. I have a bad news and also good news to be shared. Bad news first? I prefer keeping good stuff at the end =)

Some of my supportive friends had added my store’s account in Facebook earlier when they knew I’m doing this. They even suggest my store to their friends. These made it easier for me to start adding people/consumers into my account. Too bad, due to this convenience, I guess I added too many people in just 10 minutes. Facebook admin thought I was spamming by adding unknowns into my account. I must declare. Those people I’ve added as friends this morning are all my university-mates. I do know them. So Facebook made me log into my account again and gave me this notification telling me they’ll block me from adding friends and sending message for 2 days. WTH?! That’s sad right? How can Facebook do this to me. My first Pre-Order session will end in a week time. If they forbid me from adding friends, how can I continue with my business T.T I wonder if Facebook is doing the same thing to other sellers online.

Well, don’t mind about that. I still can get friends to add me up as friends =) Be optimistic. When I’m done with all these mess Facebook is giving me, I received a message, checked my inbox and *taddaaaa* I got my FIRST ORDER! Can you believe it? I just got my store operating for less than an hour and I got an order of 5 items of my product already! This is a good sign isn’t it? I must THANK Joanne for supporting me! – de Tinkerbell – decided to give 5% off if you’re buying above 5 items. Consider this as Christmas SALE and also our OPENING promotion =) So girls, be quick to place your orders from us, - de Tinkerbell – Lil’ ting is waiting for your message XD

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the supportive friends around me, also far from Malaysia. Believe it or not, before I started operating this store, these Malaysian buddies already added me up as friends and clicked the LIKE button at my page. I’m so proud of you people! I miss you all back there really *hugs*

- de Tinkerbell - | fashion cache

2010-12-04T09:39:00.003+07:00

I believe I’m one of the luckiest girls in this world. Many of friends of my age had experienced working. Me? NO! I never worked before unless you say helping out in my parents’ shop once in a while when I’m having semester break is work. Even in my parents’ shop, I don’t help them like my brother did. All I did there was collecting money from customers and give them the change. So where do I get my pocket money if I don’t work at this age?

I’m already 21 and I’m still getting pocket money from my parents like a little girl. Now that I’m not staying with my parents in Malaysia, they’ll transfer money to my account from time to time. Frankly speaking, I felt ashamed asking money from parents. Most of my friends had experienced working. I wanted to get a part time job too but I don’t have time for that. My semester break is always short so nobody would want to hire me. I had told my parents about my plan having an online shop, perhaps like those selling clothes and accessories. You can see a lot of those in Facebook nowadays. My parents are not highly educated. They don’t know computers. You talk to them about internet, they only know MSN because they used that to have video conversation with me =)

After a few months of planning and contacting, and *tadaaa* here I am to announce that – de Tinkerbell – will be opening this Monday (6^th December 2010). I’m excited! I’m worried at the same time. Yes, that’s the name of my online boutique. I have a friend as my partner. I thought having online business is easy BUT right now, I won’t say so. Preparation before I started this took a lot of my time. I’m starting to worry if I can cope up with my studies when I’m doing this. I know once I start with this small business, I can’t stop.

My partner and I had designed a logo for my online boutique together. So whenever you see this logo, you’ll know it belongs to us kay?

LOL. Friends, do support me with this new job of mine =) By just a few clicks, check out about - de Tinkerbell - and let's us be friends in Facebook to support me, also not to forget to LIKE our page in Facebook okay? Love you darlings !!

2 upcoming IMPORTANT days for me

2010-11-27T18:24:00.002+07:00

I went to campus today and waited 2 hours just to meet the Head of Department of Dental Radiology. I skipped Physiology class because I was told the Head of Department will be free at 11AM and yes, my class starts at the same time. So, I skipped it and I regretted since I did nothing but sat on the bench obediently observing the patients coming in and going out from the clinics in that one hour which I was supposed to be concentrating in the class. She was supposed to be free at 11AM because Cathrine’s team discussion will start at 10 but she was wearing the wrong attire there. We’re supposed to wear a black skirt with white shirt for a girl but she wore jeans so she was told to go home for a change. That delayed her team discussion. After her team discussion, the lecturers in the department had a short meeting.

The Head of Department looked as if she wasn’t in a mood. I was so scared to talk to her, just like the first time I talked to my lecturer. She asked why I am meeting her. I explained saying I wanted to ask for the date for my team discussion, also my thesis presentation (as my thesis examination). My thesis was corrected. Yes, the lecturer who went honeymoon is back! She’s nice and kind. She helped me a lot in correcting my bad Indonesian grammar. I’ll take the opportunity here to thank her again here, thank you, Drg. Lydia. Drg. Trelia (the Head of Department) then told me to ask the other lecturers in the department if they’re free on the 9^th and 17^th. Too bad, Drg. Lydia is not around on the 17^th. She’ll be going to her husband’s place. So now, the date for my team discussion will be on the 9^th of December and thesis presentation on the 24^th of Demember.

I’m glad I finally get the date already. I don’t feel happy at the same time. I miss home. My friends and I already planned a potluck dinner together in my house when I’m home. We’ll be calling many friends to join the potluck but now it is canceled. Not only that, my 22d birthday party is canceled too. I wonder when will be the next time we all shall gather again. I think this is the first year I am not celebrating my birthday with my best friends. They’ll be there by my side when I blew off the candles every year. I miss their cheers and laughter T.T

BAKSIS PERDANA 2010

2010-11-22T22:28:00.006+07:00

I joined another odd job/community service last 14^th November. It is organized by our Dental Student Committee. There were all together 47 dental students who joined the event and a dentist from the Pediatric Dentistry who also followed us to guide us. Among the 47 dental students, 16 of them were co-assistant while the rest of them haven’t got their bachelor. I’m one of the juniors who were present there to learn more about dentistry. I shall say the event organizer didn’t arranged things well because not all 47 students were informed to attend the briefing before the event. I was one of them who didn’t know what will happen until the night before the event. I only received an SMS at around 11.20PM telling me “Gather in faculty before 7.30AM tomorrow morning. Bring your lab coat or co-ass coat if you have one. Bring along the basic equipment you need for a dental check-up.”

So the next morning I went there on time and as usual, these people don’t understand punctuality. Perhaps those irresponsible lecturers had taught them this bad habit. In fact, all my 16 seniors were there already. We waited for those late-comers until 8.30AM. We’ve made calls to wake them up. We took a van to the venue of giving free treatment together. It wasn’t very far from our faculty. We were then divided into groups. Jihan and I were in charged for group 7. It is an Islamic school, not sure if it is an all boys’ school since I only see boy patients.

when we arrived to Al-Fityan School

from left: Li Ting, Joanne, Salman, Liyana

discussing with friend

First, we gave education and taught the kids to brush their teeth correctly. Well, they’re not really kids already. Most of them are teenage. We gave them disclosing solution before letting them brush their teeth. I brought my mirror and let them check their teeth after brushing.

They're using the method we taught them XD

After that, we checked their teeth. Those who needed treatment were brought into the hall where the co-assistants and the dentist were waiting. Others who don’t need treatment went having games. Yes, we prepared games for them too but I didn’t know much about the game sessions because I was helping in the hall at most time. I remember I learned to use the scaler machine the last time I followed the Indonesian seniors to Bukit Lawang. This time, still the same, I didn’t get the chance to experience tooth extraction because the seniors need these patients as their minimum requirements. So in the end, I’ve been taught by Eddy the way to do manual scaling. It is tiring especially when their calculi were so hard. Special case in this trip? Hmm.. I see polyp but the dentist didn’t let us to take any action because we didn’t have the right equipment that time. It is another fun day and I experienced a lot. I better learn to communicate with kids from now on. I really think I couldn’t communicate with them. Do I look fierce or scary? They all look so shy. They just smiled but not uttering any words when I asked them questions.

Quick lesson from Brother Eddy

I wish to have another baksos/baksis or whatever they call it the odd job here =) Really gained a lot from every trip I joined.

spoilt cream caramel flan

2010-11-12T23:19:00.008+07:00

I always wanted to prepare myself some dessert for stress relieving though I have not much stress these days. I’ve been enjoying my life a lot lately. I thought of making cream caramel flan since Josephine had done pudding previously. Yesterday was a great day as no one was using the kitchen. One of my housemates was dreaming on her bed, the rest of my housemates went out, so there left me and Josephine again who were free enough to make a mess in the kitchen XD We read the instructions on how to make a flan and there we went boiling sugars with a tablespoon of water until it caramelized. It took quite long and we boiled it longer. I thought the chocolate colour looked good =.= it went blackout again while we were boiling. This is Medan. But we continued with our cooking in the kitchen with an emergency light and torchlight.

Then, I poured the caramelized sugar into the mould. Josephine helped me of course. While pouring it into the mould, we finally understood why we shouldn’t stir while boiling the sugar because it would harden and stick together if we do that. Josephine was smart enough thinking of ways to clean the pot of unused caramel. Next, it’s time to mix the sachet of vanilla flavor powder into the fresh milk. Boil 250ml of fresh milk and then mix the sachet of powder into it. After that, mix the mixture with 750ml of fresh milk. Boil for 1 minute and then pour them into the mould above the caramelized sugar. Let it cool and keep in fridge. Serve later when it’s cold =) There, we’ve done our ‘messing up the kitchen’ last night. Of course, we cleaned the mess after that. Electricity was still off.

I had class till 12pm today, ate bak kut teh with a friend. It’s Friday and it is the day I shall clean my house. It’s arranged that way in my house. One person a day. Josephine checked out the fridge when I’m done with my cleaning. I guessed she wanted to get herself a little relaxed? She is busy with her thesis. Only then, we found out OUR CREAM CARAMEL FLANS ARE SPOILT! *cries* I’m not sure who in the house had rearranged everything in the fridge and placed my flans on top of each other, causing the sugar to drip all over. OMG! Why can’t they find ways to place them nicely? Josephine and I then rearranged everything in the fridge again so that our flans our nicely placed. A big huge sigh. They look so ugly now. Oh by the way, it tasted good! The only thing to complain, caramelized sugar was boiled too long =.= will be paying more attention on the timing the next time I do it XD

Look at how DIRTY my flans are now. Oh btw, how do we rotate photos here? I've got the photo rotated before I upload this but it still look like this T.T

10 DON'Ts

2010-11-10T20:21:00.001+07:00

Remember not to do this when you break up

1. Don’t ask why he/she breaks you up because he/she can simply give you a reason.

2. Don’t ask if he/she still love you because it doesn’t matter already.

3. Don’t ask if he/she loved you before because it is past.

4. Don’t ask if he/she still remember his/her promises to you because promise is nothing now.

5. Don’t beg for him/her to come back to you because he/ she already decided to leave you.

6. Don’t hate him/her because hatred makes you suffer more.

7. Don’t throw guesses if he/she is loyal because it is not important anymore.

8. Don’t cry for him/her because he/she doesn’t worth it.

9. Don’t talk bad about him/her because if they’re that bad, why were you with him/her?

10. Don’t forget him/her for he/she had taught you a great lesson of life.

8th November of the year

2010-11-08T00:10:00.009+07:00

8^th November used to be a very important day for me and my best friend because this is the day we celebrate our boyfriends’ birthday. Oh, I meant our ex =) My best friend just nudged me in MSN asking if I miss him now. I’m not sure. I wasn’t aware of the date until I checked around my Facebook last night and see my ex’s birthday is coming. Yes, I thought of him today and I heard about him these 2 days. Last night there were people asking me if I still have feelings for him. I’m not sure. Some told me they saw him with a girl. I don’t feel good at first. I felt cheated. Anyway, it is none of my business already. Whether he has a new girlfriend now or not, it is none of my business. In fact, I told those people who told me about the news, “Please congratulate him for me.” Hearing this, the people who told me about it said “We just saw him with a girl. Perhaps they’re just friends.” Well, I believe I’m always slow in receiving news or gossips. If I got to know about this yesterday, I’m sure many of them already knew what is going on with him. Hmm, so what say you? Do you think I already let go of what had happened or not?

I went out with a friend today and she asked me if I miss him and if I prepared any present for him. I thought for a while thinking if I should get him something. Then, I think I shouldn’t prepare anything already. Since we’re not contacting already, I think it’s kind of awkward asking him out to pass him a gift? I still remember how much time I used to prepare for his present last year. It had all past and it is all memory. Even though we didn’t end up with a good ending but some of these memories are still kept good in me =) I’ll share it here what I prepared for him a year ago.

This is the overall gift that I've prepared.

A necktie and a cufflink.

I didn't know what to get him. Initially, I thought of getting him a real nice necktie but I don't know Medan well. I don't know where to get a nice one. All those I found was the big ones, like those you can see most businessmen are wearing. I didn't want those. I think those look old for him. I wanted a thinner one which would be a good choice for a teenager though he is no longer teenage that time. Too bad, I only managed to find the size I wanted in black colour. A plain black tie didn't look good enough I think, so I got him a pair of cufflink while wandering in the shopping mall hunting for special gift.

I couldn't think of anything else. I just think these that I've prepared wasn't special at all. I just learned to bend wires that time so I thought of making him a key chain. I think something hand-made would be special. So I did this.K means Kelvin and L means Li Ting. Star-shaped because I just fancy it I didn't know why. It looked normal to me. Before I started preparing all these, I was looking for papers which can glow in the dark. I wanted to make him a bottle of glow-in-the-dark stars. That would be awesome but I couldn't find those papers. So when I'm done with this star=shaped key chian, I sprayed a layer of glow-in-the-dark paint on it so that it would glow at night =) I regretted after spraying because it didn't turn out as good looking as I imagined.

Lastly, I put this big Happy Birthday card (refer to the first photo, I couldn't upload anymore photos T.T) on top of the box which I tied with a ribbon around the box later. Due to the time limit, I couldn't help but to give him what I've did for him. Honestly, I'm not satisfied with what I did for him. I told myself, "It's okay. Make a better gift next year for darling." But there's no more next year.

I don't know how much he liked this present. He just told me he didn't like me writing Happy Birthday in Chinese on a black paper. He can be conservative at times. He thinks black isn't a good sign. I remembered I promised him that I won't give him anything in black anymore. A year past. Today is his birthday. I wish him Happy Birthday and may all his wishes come true.

Deepavali 2010 in Medan

2010-11-05T15:08:00.001+07:00

It is a day where Hindu family gathers and celebrates together. I remembered there was once where I was invited by an old friend of mine to her house for Deepavali. We had this Indian curry which was awesome. We played music and danced. Oh I missed the drink her dad prepared for us! Facebook is currently the hottest social network around and I see many of my Indian friends this year posted at their status whining how they missed the day gathering with their family. Perhaps it is because of the thesis and assignments or maybe they’re busy with their never ending classes, they couldn’t go home like they used to do.

I don’t have plan for Deepavali this year. There is this friend who asked me to join them for buffet tonight though but I’m still not sure if I’m joining because I’m not so close with the Indian friends and I couldn’t get to find a partner for myself =( It was said the buffet is under promotion. Its buy one gets one free. So I shall find one partner for myself but I still couldn’t get one. I guess tonight I’ll be home, continue with my Hong Kong series. I actually planned to shop this noon but too bad the girl who promised to go out with me wasn’t replying me or answering me. I’m not sure what is happening. I just felt that she’s isolating herself? Or perhaps I did something wrong, she didn’t want to talk to me? >.< Anyway, Happy Deepavali everyone! Without family around, friends can be your family =) enjoy your fullest with them! Have a great one tonight after class XD oh yea, for those who went home, I want murukku!!

proposal done, what's next?

2010-11-01T20:25:00.015+07:00

Like one of my seniors once told me, “writing literature review as our thesis is BULLSHIT”. I strongly agree! I’m assigned to do literature review for my thesis. I personally think doing research is much more fun. At least you know what you’re doing, unlike me now, reading and getting loads of references blindly and write a review and summarized them. I’m not trying to show those who are doing research how free I am in this department with my thesis. I’m very grateful in getting the Department of Dental Radiology because in this department, they would want us to do only literature reviews without doing research and that would make us done with our thesis very fast and so, getting our bachelor fast before we continue with our clinical year.

I heard from seniors that we need to get a good partner in our clinical year. Don’t get the lazy ones. So that the hardworking ones can help us do things fast and graduate fast. Well, I believe everyone wants to graduate fast, didn’t want to stay longer in this place. So here I am, hoping my close friends who are currently busy with their proposals and researches to get their research done soon. Still remember the girl named Desi in my previous blogs? She is one of them who is doing research in the Department of Prosthodontics and yes, I was there to help her with her research =) She had her proposal done and what is happening next? Below are few photos on the day we’re working on it. She was doing this experiment to test the strength of the heat curing polymerized acrylic with glass fibers in it.

This is the machine used to test transverse strength

Photo of how the operator use the machine. He'll press some buttons and then all we need to do is to wait by the side till the acrylic broke while focusing at the numbers showing at the machine. From there, we will see how many Newtons it would need to break the acrylic.

This is the machine used to test impact strength.

Operator will place the acrylic on top. Slightly pressed the black button on top like what he did in the photo. Jot down the readings once the acrylic broke apart.

I helped checking on the broken acrylics and jotting down the data =)

Desi is analyzing data.

She was so stressed on the first day of experiment because the data collected on the first day wasn't like what she read form the journals she got.

Fortunately, everything turned out right on the second day! She is done collecting data and now she only got to do her discussion and then make a conclusion of her research. Good luck in your coming seminar, Desi !!

feast now, diet later

2010-10-25T20:20:00.022+07:00

Examinations? OVER! Assignments? DONE! Thesis? Waiting for lecturer’s call! What else do I have to do here? It has been long since I last gathered with my seniors. These 2 young ladies are quite close to me here in Medan. They’re like my sisters, giving me advice from time to time. They’re currently in their clinical years and will soon be a doctor =) Last Saturday, Roxanne called me out for spa together but too bad that place was full. Perhaps I’ll blog about it next time XD so we went for hair treatment together. People in Medan called it “creambath”. We had dinner together after that in a Chinese restaurant named Tea Garden, located at Jl. Multatuli. This is the 4th time I had my dinner there with friends. The food is good and the price is reasonable! The most important is, we all were happy there =)

When these people looked at the menu, they were telling “This is what we call MENU”. I LOLed listened to this. I remembered how Keith scratched his head and told us how stressed he was in choosing what food to eat because there were so many choices and it all looked yummy!

The menu

Many choices in it ^^

We ordered like we didn’t eat for days. Not only the Chinese dishes, we also ordered some side orders. We took these before our main dishes~

Leng Hong Kien

This is famous in Medan. You can see everywhere selling dim sum, selling this. The best Leng Hong Kien in Medan is said to be at the dim sum/steamboat restaurant at Jl. Barbura named Ah Yong Sangwo =)

Portuguese tart

One of my favorite! I don't know where else I can get this in Medan =(

Iced Jelly

Roxanne and her boyfriend ordered this. If I'm not wrong, it was mixture of some fruits, mainly mangoes and jelly in ice. Sweet!

Albert and Josephine ordered this shark's fin soup

They really know how to enjoy ~~

Yam Basket with Prawns and Chickens

See Theng chose this dish =) One of the famous dish served in Tea Garden I guess? I see many of the tables there had this dish on them.

Sambal Asparagus

Roxanne chose this dish =) We all longed for asparagus. It feels like we don't see many vegetables around the place nearby USU LOL.

Sze Chuan Style Beancurd

Li Ting chose this because everything else was so dry.

Fried Chicken with Prawn Sauce

Roxanne made the decision in ordering this since many didn't like what Joanne suggested but it was just plain fried chicken. It didn't have any sauce on it or tasted any like prawn >.<

Young Sam Chicken Soup

I had this herbal soup myself. You know me, I really couldn't take dry food. So, I guess this herbal soup suits me best!

Chinese Tea

We all had this pot of tea exactly like those uncles/grandpas drinking tea while talking to their old friends like they didn't meet for ages. We shared. We gossiped. We teased. We laughed. It felt great to gather together.

This is the end of the menu ^^

There were many other dishes that I didn't take photo. We were all busy eating, enjoying the dinner together. I should have video recorded down how Roxanne looked at the food when the waitresses served them. She was drooling! Check out the receipt below. It was so long~~

It all costs us Rp. 322.850. I'm not sure if we got discount since we used Kam Hoong's credit card. That's what we do all the time when we eat together with Kam Hoong XD See Theng asked for membership card from the waitress there but too bad the owner of the restaurant only will provide membership card to their regular customers.

Again, Roxanne and her boyfriend talked about their old time story. This time, it was a little more interesting. We discussed and video recorded it. I was telling Roxanne, I’ll keep this video safe until their wedding day. There were few lines which were so funny I never thought she would say it out, i.e “we girls gotta act generous, pretend like we didn’t care and he seriously did it like we didn’t care!” LOL. See this is the voice of a girl deep from her heart and she is brave enough to say it in front of her friends and boyfriend, in the video!

from left: Joanne, Ethan, See Theng, Kam Hoong, Roxanne, Li Ting, Josephine, Albert