Make A Switch

Yup.

More people in my class have been coming to the realisation that I'm in ownership of an ever-sacred Mac. Yup. Admiration. My not-so-little 17" Macbook Pro has gotten quite a bit of attention from some people in class and I even got some future PC to Mac converts. =]. Oh yeah.

There's this one guy in class who loves watching Mac ads yet stands to represent PC. So he's PC and I'm Mac. I've got 2 definite converts and one would be if she knew me before she got her Dell. So she's a future prospect as well.

It's a Mac. Come to the bright side.

Communication Barrier

Making my first attempt at breaking the language barrier between Mandarin and English. Although, this does little for the communication barrier that exists between most of my family and myself. After all, my family speaks Cantonese. Thankfully, 2 members speak Mandarin since one of them is from China and the other is married to her. ^_^ So, even though learning Mandarin does little, a little can go a long way. =]

My Mom and I are planning to travel to visit family in Hong Kong and China this Christmas (YAY! I can't wait for the time to come already!) so, as I should've done ages ago, I'm learning Chinese (Mandarin). And Rosetta Stone is my learning companion.

I started coming down to the end of summer and I haven't really gotten particularly far. I just finished lesson 2 and I'm ready to start lesson 3. I haven't really gone through anything in over 2 weeks so most of the information was temporarily forgotten. I completed lesson 2 this evening and most of the stuff came right back to me =D

I'm also learning Japanese and started lesson 4 but I haven't been back at it in a couple of weeks either. Mandarin is taking current priority since China is in a few months. After all, Japanese is merely a hobby language because I love watching anime and it would be nice to not be totally dependent on subtitles.

Rosetta has been fairly fun all the way so far. It's actually quite wonderful. Sometimes I'd like to see worded translations of some terms but I figure out the images after a few examples...guess that's really just one way to learn. Either way, it's been pretty fun and I'm hoping it will continue to be. If your thinking about using Rosetta Stone, go ahead...I know it's costly but I think you can get a good set out of it (once you keep at it).

Sheer Natural

So my Mom decided a little while ago that she'd give the Sheer Cover Mineral Makeup a try and ordered the little 30 day starter kit which came with everything you see in the photo.

I'm not a makeup person, and I've just about never put makeup on by myself before. I decided that I'd try out Sheer Cover on the night of the first year matriculation ceremony a couple of weeks ago but I had to put it on all by myself since my Mom wouldn't have been home. It was actually quite simple. The kit was a simple little thing: moisturiser, cleanser, duo concealer, mineral foundation, mascara, brushes, and a new handy little piece consisting of lip gloss, highlighter and cream eyeliner. I don't use mascara though so that remained untouched and there's a special brush that works perfectly with the cream eyeliner that didn't come in the kit, so that remained untouched as well. It was all easy to do and was as nice as it looked on the commercials!

I gave it another try recently. This time I wore it for a full day. And I got exposed to the sun which meant that I was exposed to extreme heat resulting in some sweat. Sweat...which did absolutely nothing to the makeup. In fact, no one knew I was wearing anything on my face since it looks so natural as opposed to having foundation caked onto your face. It's as light as people say it is...quite easy to forget I'm wearing makeup of any kind on my face.

I don't like makeup. But Sheer Cover could really change my mind about that. If only we had access to the rest of their makeup line...it looks so awesome.

Priority: Impression?

If I didn't know any better, I'd think that my faculty at UWI is doing anything they can to make the first years more comfortable so that they'll give a good impression. Now, while I'm quite happy that they took some of our complaints and improved on some things for the first years, I'm not at all appreciating how we've been placed at the bottom of the To-Do list for everything that they do.

Where are the books that we second years need? The university bookstore has only ordered 10 of the each of the 3 texts that we've been recommended, whereas the first years have ALL of theirs. Not to mention, only first year books have been placed on the shelves, leaving second year books in the store room at the back. Gee. I feel so utterly special.

After about 3 months of school not being in session, they were able to get the first year timetable to them at a quite timely manner: before the start of the semester. We, on the other hand, got ours the weekend before the new semester and found out on the first day of classes that it still hasn't been finalised. Ridiculous.

All lab manuals have been prepared before the start of the semester...for first and second years. Wonderful! So why did the first years receive their timetable, lab manuals and whatever else in a rather lovely little folder while we were merely handed three little booklets and emailed our yet-to-be-finalised timetable?

I can understand that the faculty wants to make sure the first years are fine but I see no need for being pushed away. While I'm sure we aren't, I feel very much like a last thought. Some of us are just trying to help out the first years in getting settled, opting to be their med brothers and sisters since we are aware of how the faculty and its lecturers operate. Yet we're being shoved away. They no longer want us to be their med siblings, for what reason I cannot understand and want to hand them over to the 4th and 5th years! I've never spoken to my 4th (now 5th) year med sister since the day I met her. She doesn't even remember me...walked right past me on the road once. And we're right next door to the first years, so who better to help them?

So it's the end of the first week of the new semester and I'm against what the faculty is doing already. It's all so very very frustrating.

Playing Tag With Time

Whether you do or don't realise it, at some point in time, everyone starts playing a game of tag with time. Somehow, procrastination becomes a new friend for many and, with it, comes baggage: excuses.

Time is a precious commodity that, once lost, cannot be regained.

The majority of teenagers and young adults choose to remain awake until the wee hours of the morning. Why? A common excuse: "I'm afraid I'll miss out on something important." However, whatever happens at night, is bound to be reported during the day...for those who were asleep. Does this mean that those spouting this excuse think that nothing happens during the day? And what could be worth putting your body's circadian rhythm out of tune? One can't possibly think that it does any good for the body's health, or am I wrong?

I'd say that excuse is pretty lousy, but then, all excuses are. Why wait until the last minute to do important stuff? Procrastinating until the night before a deadline to get around to "studying" for an exam or to rush to start and complete a project/assignment in a single night? Some people say that this works for them, but I'm fairly sure it's not something that can work for everything.

I was once a crammer. It worked incredibly well for me. Studying? That wasn't something I could manage easily. Now, where cramming once got me a B or A, I'll barely get passes. Studying is a habit that I had to learn. If I play around for just a week, I'll only be giving myself a hard time catching up. Trying to reclaim time that was merely wasted. Of course, I don't overwork myself. It does me no good to run my brain till it shuts down.

Limitation is key to good time management. I just think that some people shouldn't push their luck and suffer the consequences of it. Straighten up your priorities, get rid of bad habits and set your mind to it. Don't say "It's not that easy". It's as hard as you want it to be. Limitations are good...but only in your lifestyle.

Don't limit your possibilities. After all, without our dreams, what would we be living for?

A Fun Day in the Sun

The University Student Guild usually holds a variety of events during the first week of the new academic year: Fresher's Week. Just different activities to acquaint new students to university life, introduce them to the different clubs and societies within the university and, for overseas students, an introduction to Barbados.

Get a feel for some "rock" climbing?

Today was a "Fun Day" hosted by the Guild. Three basic activities were around: mechanic bull, "rock" climbing (it's completely blown up) and a large blown up slide.

Take a ride on the mechanical bull!

Or maybe you'd like to please the child within?

It was a pretty fun afternoon. Chilling out with some friends and watching them go at it (on the bull in particular).

Publicity

It's a light first couple of weeks for the new semester and my class has graduated from Year 1 guinea pigs to Year 2 guinea pigs. The new first years sure have things easy but I'm glad they'll have less trouble (not that they won't have any at all, because they're bound to run into those) than we did.

We're still the class to experiment with though. And we will be until we move onto our clinical years from 4th year (since that's nothing new in Barbados...only the pre-clinical programme is new). The first year curriculum has changed so much that it almost sounds like something totally different! If things get better, I'm fine with it though. =]

Awhile ago, I had a good friend tell me that I should try to get my poems out there...like...into the public. Initially, I laughed it off but then I started considering it but I never knew how to go about it. He suggested that I enter my poems in NIFCA but I was never confident enough to go about it. The National Independence Festival for Creative Arts (NIFCA) is a sort of competition that showcases the artistic talents of Barbadians of all ages in literary arts to photography to dance. Sometime later he suggested a poetry bar (or something like that) located in town...but I certainly don't have the courage for that either (not to mention, I don't like town). So after those suggestions, as much as I would've liked to get my poems out, I never did.

Just last month, I found out that my friend's sister is working for the Nation (one of our local newspapers) and that she's the editor of a youth magazine that the Nation is starting up. She wanted to know if any of her brother's friends write. I showed her my blog and a couple of my poems and she decided to take them in. I got a call earlier and found out that the magazine came out today and my poem (or poems?) is in it! I'm quite ecstatic xD

I'll be getting my copy of the magazine tomorrow so I'll get to show it off =D Can't wait to see it!

Buh Bye Summer!

Tomorrow starts the new academic year. Now I'm a second year med student...one year down, 4 to go! Today is the final day of my final full summer holiday of my life. From now summers shall be reduced till there's none left. Prior to our 3rd year, we're blessed with a month to vacation wisely! In fact, my Mom and I are hoping to visit France! But we'll see how well that'll work out.

About half of the first year class is made up of Trinidadians! I wonder why so many of them came here...I'll ask them about it sometime, I guess. The class supposedly has 63 people...much more than my little 39.

The start of classes signals 3 things that last until the next vacation, in this case Christmas:

1. the termination of MSN usage - goodbye chatting!
2. the beginning of the never ending cycle of study
3. a goodbye to boredom! I much prefer being busy anyway.