Day One in St. Petersburg

It was long since we planned to go somewhere together, however often failed. But this time was different, at least 5 of us went to St. Petersburg together leaving uncle, paliki and KK here.

It was a fine Thursday evening when we packed up the bags and headed to the train station. We could have reached there and stopped at McDonalds for a late lunch earlier if the 2 interracial couple didn’t come late! )))))
Anyways we still stopped at the McDonalds to get dinner for the long travel on the railway for 15 hours.

Staying overnight on train was no fun, confined, but it’s somehow comfortable to sleep. We chatted so much in the train and laughed until one lady came over to ask us to keep the noise down. Luckily Nantha brought cards as planned for some rounds of Blackjack and “Bluff”.

I’m no good and have no luck in cards. For the Bluff game (who knows what and how does it call), the one with most cards at the end of the game loses. The aim is to trick the opponents with the cards which are wrong. If one didn’t believe, he could flip over the cards to reveal whether the player was lying or not. If the player’s not lying, the one who flipped over the cards take them all. If the player’s lying, he should take all the cards.

So my aim was to bluff as many times as possible, and not flipping over. I still ended up losing many times. So what? I was trying to stay in the game!

After everyone was tired except Efenem, we all went to sleep leaving him alone sleeping with much disappointment.

So within some 15 hours of railway ride, we finally arrived. Met up with Denis who offered to be our tour guide for the trip.

Then he brought us “WALKING” from the railway station till our “I-wish-you-good-luck-to-find” hostel called “Fireplace”. So why did I wrote in inverted commas?

“WALKING” – We hate walking under the hot sun, and Denis’ 5 minutes of walk was actually our 15 minutes of walk.

“I-wish-you-good-luck-to-find” – Because there’s no sign about this hostel and the apartment has as many as 10 entrances.

“Fireplace” – I don’t know why, that’s why it’s in inverted commas.

After checking in the hostel, we went for a hungry brunch. Below was Efenem’s serving.

After that, Denis brought us for a boat trip. He said “Boat TRIPPING”, I thought it was “Boating trip”, then I asked Ieja and she said “just ‘GET A BOAT TRIP’ la!”

Anyway the boat trip was on Fontanka River. We passed through a few of the 15 bridges along the Fontanka River, then to another canal. By the way, in the whole St. Petersburg, there are 342 bridges known. Don’t believe me? Click on this link.

Boat TRIPPING was fun but cold as the boat moved along the canal, luckily I brought gloves and scarf like a bitch. And lucky for those who didn’t bring, there were blankets over the benches on the boat, so they could snug into the blankets.

The one in white was wacky but friendly enough to say hi, they’re hot!

Under the widest bridge, the Blue Bridge on Moyka river

Trying to reach the top of the lowest bridge amongst, but unfortunately my height was 😦

Funny enough to see such a name for a Cafe – it serves CUM? LOL it’s actually pronounced as “Sim-Sim” in Russian.

After an hour of TRIPPING, we headed towards the Kazan Cathedral. It’s so big that I had to stitch them up with 3 fragments. It’s peaceful inside like any other cathedrals. And I was trying to impress Efenem that I like the dome of the Cathedral because I was there for the second time. He wasn’t impressed and he claimed to prefer the one of Hagia Sofia better :(. I’m not gonna tell how does it look like inside, you gotta see it for yourself, teeeheee~

“Tell me fast, or I’ll shove this up into ur ass!”

“Oh right you bitch, bring it on!!”

Okay la, a spoiler for you guys. Inside was as dark as Nantha’s complexion, teehee~

After that we crossed over the main street in St. Petersburg, Nevskiy Prospekt, to the famous “Храм Спаса на Крови” (Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood).

It sounds spooky, but it was named after the Tsar Alexander II, who was mortally wounded (I called that assasination). Then the son, Tsar Alexander III built this as a memorial upon the death of his father. It resembles the St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow just that it’s smaller but I say much more beautiful.

My postcard kinda shot

Bear cub, Masha who’s only 4 months old but wildly tamed.

We’re all hyped up…..Weeeeeee~~~~~

My solo jump….Weeeeee~~~

The last one…..Weeee~~~

Hummers were infested in St. Petersburg, and the limos.

Lots of weddings going on.

Then we walked along the Griboedov Canal till the Hermitage and the Winter Palace. We didn’t go in because it was 5.30pm.

We went to the Neva River bank to shoot some pictures. So we shot some “modelling” pictures on the river bank. Me, Rose and Denis shot with my shades on.

These were pretty much what we saw during the first day in St. Petersburg. I didn’t find it boring seeing the same thing though it was my second time there, probably because I got no opportunity to see such things as the “Europeanized” part of Russia after my graduation.

St. Petersburg is the Europe of Russia, even Moscow wasn’t that impressive. The people were friendly. I just love this place.

Like what I’ve summed up :
Kaliningrad is the Russia in Europe,
while St. Petersburg is the Europe in Russia.

Efenem said : This is not Russia!

What more, St. Petersburg was labelled as the “Venice Of the North”.

You gotta see it to believe it!!!

☆ Highly recommended place to travel ☆

Rating : ★★★★★

Kochi~

Listen Up Group A!

Good news for group 531-A!!!!!

2 roubles of free photocopy service will be provided when Uncle Lim makes a deep sigh (haih…)

Be attentive and catch when he makes a deep sigh for 2 roubles of free photocopy!!!

Autumn dream…秋之梦

When the leaves turn from green to yellow,

our friendship remains the same.

当树叶从绿去黄，

我们的友谊依然不变。

When the leaves fall off from the yellow trees,

our friendship never shred.

当落叶纷飞凋谢，

我们的友谊永不分离。

When the leaves lay on the ground,

our friendship bud is blooming.

当落叶铺盖大地，

我们的友谊花蕊正绽放。

When the weather turns colder,

our friendship strengthens.

当气候变得更冻，

我们的友谊更稳固。

When the chirping birds are busy migrating,

our friendship has never evaporated.

当叽咋的候鸟忙往南迁移，

我们的友谊从不蒸发。

8 of us are just like a small family, clinging on to each other, and share our laughters together.

我们8人就像小小的家，互相依靠，分享搞笑的情结。

8 of us are one and nothing could come between us.

我们8人合为一。谁也阻挡不到我们之间的友情。

I love you, Group A!!

A组，我爱你！！

– Maizatul Farah binti Mahmood（马载猪 花垃 麻木）

– Faiz Najmi bin Mansur （罚一字 拿着米 慢输）

– Rose Ngui Miao Yee （螺丝 魏妙如）

– Mohd Fadzli bin Zahari （末 法治理 炸哈李）

– Tan Ka Keat （陈嘉杰）

– Lim Shou Zhi （林首志）

– Chia Kok King （谢国庆）

– Nanthakumar Nadarajah （难他姑妈 拿他拉着）

Kochi~

高知~

When the leaves turn from green to yellow,

our friendship remains the same.

当树叶从绿去黄，

我们的友谊依然不变。

When the leaves fall off from the yellow trees,

our friendship never shred.

当落叶纷飞凋谢，

我们的友谊永不分离。

When the leaves lay on the ground,

our friendship bud is blooming.

当落叶铺盖大地，

我们的友谊花蕊正绽放。

When the weather turns colder,

our friendship strengthens.

当气候变得更冻，

我们的友谊更稳固。

When the chirping birds are busy migrating,

our friendship has never evaporated.

当叽咋的候鸟忙往南迁移，

我们的友谊从不蒸发。

8 of us are just like a small family, clinging on to each other, and share our laughters together.

我们8人就像小小的家，互相依靠，分享搞笑的情结。

8 of us are one and nothing could come between us.

我们8人合为一。谁也阻挡不到我们之间的友情。

I love you, Group A!!

A组，我爱你！！

– Maizatul Farah binti Mahmood（马载猪 花垃 麻木）

– Faiz Najmi bin Mansur （罚一字 拿着米 慢输）

– Rose Ngui Miao Yee （螺丝 魏妙如）

– Mohd Fadzli bin Zahari （末 法治理 炸哈李）

– Tan Ka Keat （陈嘉杰）

– Lim Shou Zhi （林首志）

– Chia Kok King （谢国庆）

– Nanthakumar Nadarajah （难他姑妈 拿他拉着）

Kochi~

高知~

Salam Aidilfitri

I’d like to thank the PPIM for organizing the annual Raya Feast. The food, though wasn’t as delicious as last year’s (hehe but seriously), but it’s still tasty and the feast was quite enjoyable. This was one of the days that we get to gather together and take valueble memorable pictures with friends, seniors and juniors. And it’s also a day which amnesty is granted to all who sinned. Meaningful right?

“SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI. MAAF, ZAHIR & BATIN” (EID MUBARAK) to all my muslim friends.

As usual, the 3rd hostel was the venue of the event. All had to go to the 4th floor to get the scrumptious food, go down to the 3rd floor to eat, and the 2nd floor was made as a place for “sembang-sembang”.

Lots of flash lights bursted along the corridor. And the phrases “Ready, 1 2 3 cheese!”, “Eh eh, help me take a picture”, “Please go away, we wanna take pictures” etc could be heard from proximal to distal places.

Here are my pictures :

Dearie grouppie 531-A

Zhi, Me, Rose, Ieja

Lope, Me, Timmy

Joyoki, Jatdin, Efenem, Me, NikKok Khai, Me, SaSa, KaKeat (top), Shyuan (bottom)

Random photos.
Me and baby.

Hui Ming and I.

Me and Shyuan.

So many valuable pictures were taken.
And nothing is more valuable than taking a picture of our MSA President doing this

V

Classic but whacky!

PS. : Anyone cirit-birit after eating Ayam Masak Merah? hehe….

Kochi~

Overpriced pancakes

Remember the post where I introduced about Blinkom, the pancake place? View it here.
It used to be one place where every student likes to go for a pancake treat. But to my surprise, the price shot up extremely crazy after 5 months. When we went in there, we saw just a few people eating inside. 5 months back then, the place used to be full of people. It was so hard to look for a place to sit and we had to pre-book a place.
5 months later, the crowded place was so quiet and the pancakes sucked ass. One treat of pancakes used to be not more than 80 roubles. But now a piece of Snickers pie, a piece of pancake filled with bacon and tomatoes with sauce costing for 159 roubles.

Like Ka Keat always says “Nizhny likes to take away those we loved”. It is indeed really true. Took away my budget price and my favourite place for cheap eating out. *sob sob*

Here’s Kochi’s version

My first practical day started on 30th of October (this post is delayed because I had to grab pics from Zhi). We were a group of 3 – Me, Farah, Zhi.

Due to lack of transportation efficiency, we had to walk from the 5th corpus down the Pokrovka to the lecture, and then along Pokrovka again to go to 5th hospital.

Upon arrival to the 5th hospital, we were told to look for Professor Fadeev since Panova E.I. wasn’t responsible for the practicals (she didn’t know and wasn’t informed anything about the practicals). So we ran up level by level to look for Prof. Fadeev until the 5th floor, where a young doctor was waiting for us.

He brought us to the staffroom to put our bags and get changed.

The surprising thing was he asked us “What would you wanna do?”. I replied “Anything” because we didn’t know about the syllabus and plan for the practical. Then some noisy potentially aggresive horny nurses were asking for his help and he had to do the shit for 30 minutes. So we actually had enough time to have a photoshooting session.

Sitting for a long time

Waiting for the teacher

Ngehehehe

So after 30 minutes, the teacher brought us to see 2 patients. Both patients were admitted with heart disease. The first one even has a breast lump!

We ausculatated both patients and then asked them to proceed for echocardiography scan.

Echocardiogram is the ultrasound scanning of the heart, to see heart chambers, heart valves, heart wall thickness, blood ejection fraction etc. It’s like scanning a baby with ultrasound but there’s no baby inside. It’s simple as it seems, but not until you work it yourself.

First the teacher demonstrated the anomalies revealed in echo. Some explanations were given but too bad they’re all in russian. If they’re in english, that’d be best. I had to translate to Zhi because I’m better in russian, but I found it hard to understand some medical terms. The patients were really cooperative with us. So it’s beneficial to us coz we get to train how to perform an echocardiography.




Then we requested if we could do it on ourselves. The teacher allowed us to do it. So me and Zhi stripped off the shirts and started the scanning.

It was a brokeback mountain moment for 20 minutes but it’s really enjoyable, in a straight way. It’s really fun to see own’s heart beating normally. It’s exciting at the same time coz this was a lifetime experience.

And it all happened in this room……….

Kochi~

About 2 nasty teachers

So suey la getting this kinda teacher. She’s the whiniest Russian i’ve ever seen. Acting stern but bo liao one…..so fucking pissed!

She’s the 2nd teacher to let me think that im so suey siao. The 1st one was Elena Sergeevna’s replacement, conducting the Russian Language class while Elena Sergeevna’s having some business in St. Petersburg. I thought she’d be okay but she’s so fucking SKEMA! Want to force me to do things, does she…

Okay forget about her. Now this teacher who teaches my class Epidemiology for 8 days. She’s a puffy’ol blondie who not only speaks Russian, she reads from her fucking notes instead of teaching. I’ll go through one by one now :

1. She could not even speak or read English properly, and then she’d teach in Russian.

2. She thought that we could memorise all the fucking definitions about epidemiology. NB “MEMORISE” not understanding. One word goes wrong, she’d fucking put a bad mark in the list.

3. She’s the only Russian that, I met so far, possessed the largest lung capacity. She babbles and babbles and babbles and………we’re all rolling eyes.

4. She’s so darn lazy, not only she didn’t teach, she gave us papers to copy and she went out of the class for a long time. We could even go up the 3rd floor to get something to eat, chatter for a few minutes, go back down the class and continue copying the papers, chatter again for minutes, then she came back after all the sequels.

5. She reads while we shouldn’t read while answering the questions. She had to look up for the words that we’re supposed to memorise, while she didn’t memorise well herself!

But I find myself a little bit aggresive now. I fight back teachers’ words (only to those that I feel sucky, in this case, the 2 aforementioned teachers).

In the Russian class, there was once we didn’t prepare at all for the class which we should’ve prepared. So in the class, we told the teacher that we didn’t prepare. If we told Elena Sergeevna, she’d tell us to be prepared next week. But this replacement was so sarcastic. When we told her we didn’t prepare, she asked us “what is in your brain?” Wah lao, we’re so tired at that rate and she asked us to think our butt out to counter the questions. I was so bold(haha) that I answered her “There’s only air in our brains”. And she likes to use “molodets” sarcastically, so at one point she actually did something wrong and I sarcastically told her back this. On another day, she obviously has an issue with me. She wanted us to memorise a text that we wrote. She said I was reading, not re-telling. I told her “Oh it’s like this, I’ve got a bad memory, it’s been like this since a long time ago” But the fact was that Shouzhi was reading as well. Then she told me “Your text is good but you are reading, so your mark is 5 with minus” Duh~ like I gave a damn shit about that. And today, I didn’t go to her class. Rather sleep than attending her boring class.

In the class of epidemiology, the puffy’ol bitch asked me to answer her question which I wasn’t supposed to look at the notes. So I didn’t look at the notes and I remembered no shit about every word in the definitions. I answered her questions with my own words. The funniest thing was when she asked me about the host factors in susceptible populations. She asked me to give examples of “social traits”. So I gave her the examples ” marital status, diet, lifestyle, residency, travel”. She freakin’ penalised me without mentioning “migration” which she didn’t even mention in the previous class. Next funny thing was that she asked me something that she didn’t tell in class. I was really dissatisfied and told her that she didn’t say anything about it. Then she said “your mark is 3”. So I asked her back “Why did you give me a 3? Where did I do wrong?”. She replied “Ah it’s because you stuttered and I had to add the words for you”. Hello? I’m sorry but how would I know if you preferred “migration” over “travel”.

Teacher’s right?

I don’t fucking think so……..

Kochi~

Something funny

We were discussing about some childhood infections in class. While stating the clinical manifestations, “dull heart sounds” was mentioned. Our Uncle Lim did not get it at the first place. So I was just being funny and told him “DULL  as in D-H-A-L”.

Believe it or not, he wrote it in his notes.

I guess this matter would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Alert : A new SHIFT mutation of the virus family!!

After the attack of 431-A viridae since year 2005, a new subtype of the strain has been discovered recently and is thought to be quite potent. It resulted from a shift mutation from the viral family.

This new subtype is named T2K, morphologically looks like a needle with long appendages.  There’s no incubation period for the illness, and symptoms may include central nervous system disorder eg. irritability, anxiety, agitation. In severe cases, psychosis had been reported. No current vaccination has been found, because this new subtype is a genius.

Epidemiology : A cause of endemic.

Prevention : Wash your hands before eating ?