Monday, November 30, 2009

43 Years

Today, we celebrate 43 years of independence here in Barbados. 43 years away from colonialism. Happy Independence to you, Barbados.

I watched the Independence parade last night for the first time in my life...and only because a friend asked me to. In the end I never spotted her *sigh*. So, for those who know me, it's not much of a surprise that I don't like Barbados very much. It's small, it's boring, there's absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to go and all I can ever tell people is that it's a great place to vacation. Because it is. I just don't like it very much. And the parade did not help my opinion of the island.

I love my friend. And she's awesome and all but...that parade was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen...it was more of a ceremony than a parade. The "music" was just sound as far as I'm concerned. It felt incredibly empty and dull. These military organisations were ridiculous...I've never seen any such organisation march with so little life. Such flacid bodies and arm swingers! Only a select few really looked like they were marching but as for the rest...awful. But seriously, why so lifeless? Our Independence should be something to celebrate, no? So why not be more lively in playing that music? Why not take a more lively step in that march?

Another friend of mine was up with me watching the ever-awful-torture-to-watch parade and so the night was made just that much more enjoyable as we sat and chatted about how awful things were, imagining a number of things and just plain old making fun of people. Bad as that sounds, it was the only entertainment of the parade. People yapping while they marched! One girl looked at the other girl and then started grinning...mid-march. A couple of people stumbled. Only one or two sets of people were in sync...never saw anything so out of sync in my life.

A most shameful parade in my opinion. Absolutely.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Oh Little Kernel

Oh little Kernel, won't you please leave me today?

Sunday afternoon I was enjoying a nice bowl of popcorn at home. Then a small piece of a popcorn kernel gets stuck in my right tonsil. It's been stuck there for awhile.

In fact, today marks Day Four.

I've already been to the doctor to get it removed because it was really irritating my tongue. I ended up paying $70 for nothing because, obviously, it's still there. Such a waste. They didn't have the nozzle to spray the lidocaine in the back of my throat so that they could conduct a procedure. The bottle and all the other equipment were there, but the nozzle for the bottle, in all of the building, was missing. Plus, they didn't have a new bottle of lidocaine that would have come with the nozzle. Just my luck.

Four days later, I've decided to just live with it and keep hoping for it to dislodge soon. It's been bothering me less than initially. So I'm hoping for the best.

Oh little kernel, please disappear soon.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wuthering Heights

I was staring at one of my bookshelves last night while waiting for my Dell to be responsive and I kept eyeing this one particular book: Wuthering Heights.

It's a book that I got from my Aunt years and years ago and it belonged to one of my cousins so it's fairly old. It's been sitting there on the shelf in its wonderfully nice cover for so many years. I attempted reading it awhile ago but it never did quite work out. I can't recall how much of it i managed to conquer but I'm pretty sure it wasn't much at all. I was probably about 11 or 12 and I really just couldn't handle the language! I believe I gave it another go around 14 but still it was too much...and so after the second attempt, it was placed on the shelf and has been settled there ever since.

So I picked up this age-old book to find the cover looking as nice as ever whilst the pages brown away on the inside. Yup. So old they've gone past yellow and started turning brown. Looks a little like parchment. I flipped the pages. I read two chapters. I needed a dictionary.
I don't know if you can really tell but it's not white as it should be...and the edges are the prettiest of browns

Haha it's quite sad really. I can take on the language now but the vocabulary is still as foreign to me as ever. In all of 2 chapters, I looked up about 5 words but no matter. I still found it enjoyable. Exams are coming up though, so I'll pick up from where I left off during the vacation...after I return from my trip.

There are many books for me to read over the vacation! And so little time to do it in. I guess we'll see how much I can accomplish in the new year. =]

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Just another month to go...

Christmas is slowly inching its way across and I can't wait for it to arrive! I've never been the most festive of persons when the Season comes around but it certainly sends a fun vibe around the island. I haven't heard any Christmas songs come over the radio quite yet but that time's almost here! Independence day just needs to pass by first. =]

Marshmallow peeps!

I saw these little fellows in the Supermarket the other day and I couldn't resist...I had to buy a pack! I haven't had those little marshmallow peeps in such a long time...maybe a few years ago...and it was for Easter. Yum yum yum!

I've got my examination timetable and it looks like the semester ends on the 18th for me! Just in time for my departure to New York on the 19th! In exactly 4 weeks, I should be on a flight to JFK international. Oh yea! Which also means that in 4 weeks, I'll be getting my new cellphone! I can't wait to play around with it =D New toys for Christmas? =P

Hong Kong's waiting for me on the 21st and I just can't wait for that time to come. It's been three years and I miss it there so much! If I actually lived in Hong Kong, I'm relatively sure that I'll never be at risk for putting on fat because I'll be so active. I really like travelling around there because public transportation is seemingly more convenient than private...who needs a car there anyway? Just the super rich folks really...because there are more buses and taxis than private cars on the road. =]

Anywho, I'll stop the babbling...exams begin on the 3rd of December...2 weeks time so I gotta get cracking on that work!

Are you looking forward to the holidays too?

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Logos Experience

Logos Hope - "bringing knowledge, help and hope"

At the moment, the Logos Hope sits in the port in Bridgetown Barbados until Monday night. Everyone knows it as the "book boat". It's more or less one of the biggest, if the not the biggest, floating book fairs in the world!

A lot of people just visit the ship for the books. Arrive, search, buy, leave. Some others get a chance to talk to and be friendly with crew members. My friends and I befriended one of the staff and we were offered to have a tour of the ship.

Books galore. Seriously.

The Logos Hope, part of Operation Mobilization (OM), is an international Christian organisation aiming to spread knowledge, help and hope to people around the world. All the crew and staff on board are Christians and volunteers looking to help others. With over 47 different nationalities and over 300 people working on board, all crew and staff - from Captain to cook - are Christians and volunteers. Persons work on a contract - from 2 weeks to 2 years - and are exposed to different cultures and identities all over the world.

The Logos Hope has a sister ship, Doulos, which mainly visits the countries on the other side of the world - Asia, Australia, etc -. Currently, it's harboured in Singapore. And it's an apparently very old ship...sailing from the days of Titanic. =o

I'd like to participate in the experience, sometime later in life, for a couple of months. It's inspiring to see how these individuals interact with each other and with the locals of the countries they visit.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Medical Specialties?

There are so many medical specialties out there to study!

Today, our pathology lecturer was talking about a medical specialty aptitude test which determines the particular field of medicine you should enter into according to your personality. So my friend went to look it up and sent me the link for the aptitude test on the University of Virginia's website.
http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/TestStructure.cfm

My results came out as:
  1. Pediatrics (used to be interested in it until I decided on Holistic medicine)
  2. Dermatology (I never liked this)
  3. Med oncology (sorta interesting...)
  4. Gastroenterology
  5. Ophthalmology (sorta interesting too...I've got bad eyesight anyway)
  6. General internal medicine
  7. Urology (ew. No thank you)
  8. Occupational medicine (not interesting at all)
  9. Radiation oncology
  10. Aerospace medicine (sounds interesting. Might not be but it's got a cool ring to it)
Not bad really. Since I'm interested in natural/holistic medicine, I'll be going into that. It's certainly one thing that I'm passionate and super happy about. =]