End Of Induction

Induction has come to an end. Tomorrow, we will be leaving Sintok for Ulu Kenas, Kuala Kangsar for a 5 days, 4 nights BTN camp.

How many of you have actually heard of Ulu Kenas?
This place is SO Ulu, that it is said that even Maxis doesn't have line there.
I think I can safely take a bet that there will be no internet there.

It's like being cut off from the world for 5 days.
No internet, no phone calls, no smses.
It's like life back in the 80s or 90s.
We didn't have a problem back then. Why is it such a big deal now? How spoilt have we become?

I am not going to crap for too long today. It's 3am now and I have to be up by 7am tomorrow.
I am following Mel to the BTN car in his car instead of the bus.
I am hoping that we will stop somewhere (preferably KFC) to buy lunch.

I am going to miss the internet.
I am going to miss receiving phonecalls and smses.
But, I will survive, 'cos I have no choice.
It's going to be a tiring 5 days, I think (from what I've heard).
Hopefully, I will be able to go online soon.
Till the next post....have fun people!

Amazing!

Here in EDC, we have lectures whole day long. And I mean, whole day long. There are 4 sessions : 0830-1030, 1100-1300, 1430-1630 and 2030-2230.
Lectures are BORING (I am sure that everyone will agree with me on that point). But then, some of the lecturers that we have are SO good, that even though we average about 5 hours of sleep a day, we do not feel sleepy during the lecture (I'm talking about lectures on the government policies and stuff like that). However, we also have lecturers who seem to be talking more to themselves than anyone else.

Anyway, yesterday, we had an OK-OK lecturer, who was boring at times and fun at others. He was a counselor and his topic was about leadership. At one point, he told 4 people from our group to come out front. Then, he took two sheets of mahjong paper and put it on top of one another (on the floor), put a full glass of water on top of it, and told the 4 guys to carry the paper without touching the glass in any way and moving it all the way to the other side of the hall and put it on a table.

Hearing the task ,the first thing I thought was that it is impossible. I thought that if the paper was first held tightly (at each corner) enough and then the glass is placed on top of it, then it might be possible to do it. But then, to carry the paper off the floor and not spill a drop? Impossible.

I was, however, proven wrong. Our 4 heroes, cheered on by everyone else, carried the mahjong paper and glass and without spilling a single drop (not even one) brought the whole 'complex' to the desired 'destination'.
AMAZING!!

Ipoh or Seremban Hospital

I got my posting letter today.

I have been posted to Ipoh Hospital - my 3rd choice.

At first I was kind of disappointed for not getting my 1st choice (Seremban Hospital), but after a few minutes, Ipoh Hospital didn't sound that bad after all. Many of my friends are there, I have an Aunty and Uncle there, it is not really THAT far away from Seremban, and I get to live by myself for the first time in my life!

On the other hand, I won't get to meet my family that often, I will have to clean up my room by myself, will have to do my own laundry and don't get to eat Mum's food as often as I like.

My parents said that I should try appealing for Seremban Hospital, so that is what I am going to do. I am going to appeal, and wait till next week Friday to know whether my appeal would be granted or not. I know many of my induction-mates here are also appealing for a change in posting.

Actually, right now, I don't mind either hospitals, so I will just leave it up to Fate (it's not like I can do anything about it anyway). I am not going to hope, I am not going to wish. I am just going to ignore it and see what happens.

The only not-so-nice thing about the posting is that I will have to start work on the 5th of December and my induction+BTN ends on the 4th. If I actually get Seremban Hospital, then it is not that big of a problem. But if I get Ipoh, I will have to decide whether to go back to Seremban and then travels back to Ipoh again or whether I should just go straight to Ipoh from Kuala Kangsar (where my BTN will be) and spend the night there before reporting for work the next morning. If I do the latter, then my parents would have to bring my stuff to Ipoh and I have no idea when I would get to go back to Seremban next. That is something I did not expect when I left my house last Saturday.

I don't want to think too much into it for now. I guess things will turn out the way they are meant to be. I'll just wait and see.
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As mentioned in my previous post, here are some photos of the place I am staying in for now - EDC, Sintok.

My room :


The hall where we had our introduction session.



I know, I know. It's not that many pictures, but honestly, there are not many pictures to take when listening to lectures. :P

Induction, Induction

Day 2 in EDC, Sintok.

I have made up my mind that EDC is indeed a hotel.
The proof :
1. They have room service
2. They provide the newspaper in the morning.
3. The room has a phone and has a kettle.
4. They have Astro (although the channels are limited).

Today was more of a get-to-know-each-other session. It is not easy to remember 89 other names in 1 day, but we more or less did it. OK, I don't remember everyone's name after they changed their clothes and seatings later in the afternoon, but here and there, I know a few names. For me, that is a BIG achievement because I ALWAYS have problems remembering names and faces.

Most of the future HOs (housemens) here studied either in Russia or Ukraine. There are just a handful who studied in PMC. Just imagine this..there are 90 of us in this induction, and there are induction courses going on in at least 3 other places in Malaysia right now. Which means, about 350 new HOs will be starting work next month. Most of my friends underwent induction last month, and some of them in August. Let's say they have induction for HOs only 6 times a year, that would still bring the number of new housemen per year to 2100!!!! 2100 new doctors each year? ( This number is NOT a true number. I do not know how many induction courses they have per year or how many people are there in one induction course or how many doctor's graduate each year). These assumed 2100 new HOs will be posted into about 30 hospitals all over Malaysia which comes to about 70 new HOs per GH (General Hospital) per year. Quite an OK number, don't you think (I do believe the actual number is bigger though)?

Anyway, we had a few LDK (latihan dalam kumpulan) sessions today. The first few were just to help us get to know one another's name. We played a couple of games too, one of which I found rather interesting..involving a few knotted strings which we (in groups of 10) have to attach to our fingers (each person gets one end of the strings). The objective of the game is to un-knot the string without removing the part that is attached to the finger (am I making sense here?). The game involves lots of moving and swapping places and I think is quite a nice game. (The lesson we are supposed to learn from the game is that 'all problems can be solved').

We have been divided into 8 groups (which will be our group for the rest of the induction course). Tonight, we are supposed to present our group - we have to come up with a name, a motto, group ethics, a logo and a song. I never like this kind of group works, but all the camps that I go to seem to have them. Why do we need a group song? ARGH!! Anyway, my group, we finished whatever task we were given fast and are now 'lepak-ing' in our rooms. I had a peep of what the other groups are doing - some of them were drawing borders and colouring flowers..our presentation seems to be kind of simple compared to theirs. But hey, art is NOT MY THING and I think what we have done is enough (plus I am a lazy girl).

There's approximately 12 more days of induction to go. We might be getting our posting letter tomorrow, telling us which hospital we will be posted to. I am nervous. I am very nervous. Why isn't it tomorrow yet?

*I have some photos to upload..will do it tomorrow!!

Hope In Sintok

I am now in Sintok, Kedah. I only knew the existence of such a place last week when I received my induction letter. It is waaaay north, near the border of Thailand. The place I am staying in is called the Excecutive Developement Centre (EDC) which somehow is connected to UUM (Universiti Utara Malaysia). It is NOT a hostel.

My day started early. I stayed in Subang yesterday (and also the day before) cos Mel said he was driving up to Kedah and I could follow him.

Everyone we asked said that the journey from Subang to Sintok would take about 7 hours. Since we only have to register at 2.30pm today, Mel decided that we would leave at 5.30am.

We left Subang at about 5.30am and made a small stop to get Milo and sweets. By about 6am, we officially started our journey. I am actually the kind of person who almost immediately falls asleep once the car starts moving. Today, however, I almost didn't sleep. I might have dozed off a couple of times, but that's all.

Mel and Fizal took turns driving while I just enjoyed the view (which was mostly just jungles and plantations).

It was about 10am. We were entering Kedah!! We were all confused. How could we have reached Kedah so fast? They were not even driving that fast. We were supposed to meet Natrah (who lives in Kedah) and go to Sintok together, but since we were too early, Natrah invited us to 'lepak' in her house and leave later.

We were in Natrah's house before 11am. We had (an extremely late) breakfast, and after a while, lunch and left her place at about 2pm. By about 3pm, we were in the EDC. It is in the middle of nowhere. I didn't see UUM anywhere..all I see are trees and more trees. But the rooms are nice (hope I will be able to post up pictures soon) and we get to choose our own roomates!!

Puspha arrived earlier and put my name down as her roomate. And to think that we thought that we would never be roomates again after Moscow. I am kind of relieved because I don't have to worry about getting used to a new roomate, or worrying about whether I irritate my roomate. Puspha is used to me and we don't mind when we irritate one another. :P

Since today is just our first day, we didn't have much activity. We had tea, then were given a break till dinner. After dinner, we had 'taklimat kursus' - just general rules and what to expect during the 2 weeks that we are here. And after, we came back to our rooms and are now thinking
what to do to pass time.

So far, the induction is going on fine. But then again, that may be because it hasn't even started yet. I am hoping that it won't be too bad; hoping that I would have some fun.

p/s There are 100 of us here of that, 12 of them from MMA. Can I actually get to know and remember the other 88 people? With my limited people skills, it will be a bit hard. Once again, I HOPE I can make some friends here.

Hope.