Sarjana Kedokteran Gigi 22/01/2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 =)