Interview in Liverpool
On Friday, I went to my second interview for med-school in Liverpool...and survived! The worst wasn't the interview itself, it was the fact that I had to get up at 3am that day to get to Liverpool! I went to sleep at like 8pm the previous night, and I was very tired, but never really fell completely asleep that night, which was so annoying! I had some dreams, but very short and always shifting, and would wake up to the slightest noise, which I normally never do! And JUST as I dreamt that I was about to reach for a candy jar and open the lid, the alarm rang!!!
I almost missed the bus going to Euston Station for my train, because I mis-read the clock (see, too little sleep doesn't get me very far, especially not if I never got through my candy jar dream!). Anyway, got to the station and waited for my train, while conversing with an Indian man. He gave two bottles of juices to bribe me of my phone number, which worked, hah. I accepted the bottles and gave him my number, but I accidently gave him the wrong number. It was an accident, not on purpose, because my brain had not started to function properly yet!! When we parted, he kissed my cheek three times, and on the third and second time, he freaking licked it as well, urgh, wasn't very pleasant!
I was planning on doing some last-minute reading on the train, but gave that up when I realised all I wanted to do was sleeeep. Slept almost all the way to Liverpool and got there at 8am. Liverpool was rainy!! I wonder if it is an interview curse put upon me, because last time I went to St Andrews, it was also rainy. I don't mean rainy as drizzle, which is the most normal wheather phenomena in the UK, but rainy as in actual showering, heavy rain that soaks you within seconds, which is a rarer scene in the UK. It's quite annoying because usually I have a copy of a map of the campus in my hand, which gets unreadable the moment I pull it out of my bag! And also because I want to walk around a little in the city and see what it's like, but it's a pain in the ass to walk around when your clothes, bags and socks get soaked, grr!
Liverpool was awared European Cultural City of 2008, so I had quite high expectations of it. Walking in the city centre, there were so many gallerys and theatres and stuff, and the architecture was very nice and grand, so it's definitely a pretty nice city. The university is located in the opposite direction of most of the cultural sights, so I didn't see much of the sights on my way to the university or at the university. The parts of Liverpool I was in reminded me a little bit of Nottingham, with quite old buildings, and many of them boarded up and quite creepy looking. The university is quite a well known university, with lots of investment in research, and the medical school is famous for its curriculum. Here're two photos of parts of the med-school:
The med-school is also called "red brick" school or something, because most of the buildings of the med-school were built with red bricks back in the 19-ishth century, and they've been kept that way. Parts of the school were an infirmary, and on the inside, the hospital beds have been removed and replaced with educational facilities, but otherwise the interior decorations and some things are still from the old days when the buildings functioned as a clinical site.
The sign reads: "The University of Liverpool, Faculty of Medicine". And yeah baby, check out those bikes! I will no doubt befriend the students/teachers who own them if I start in the school.
The interview went alright, I felt. Again, very hard to tell how I did compared to the other applicants. They asked the usual questions, like why medicine, and why Liverpool, and about their famous curriculum. They also asked about the health care systems and comparisons between Sweden, China and England. I answered most of the questions like I intended to and prepared for, and not much unexpected came up. I had two male interviewers and they were quite friendly. I noticed one of them had a multi-colored tie, and I kept on staring at it, because I thought it was a very nice tie! They also had a small table of biscuits and coffee in between them, which I also stared at unintentionally a little bit too often (hope they didn't detect the cookie monster in me!). I kept on hoping they'd offer me some before I left, but they didn't :( Before going, as the interview felt so short, like 5 minutes, I asked them "Are you sure I've had 20 minutes of interview?!" And they said "Hehe, yeah, look at the clock". And the man in the lovely tie commented "You did very well", so I take that as a good sign. But I am prepared for a rejection, won't get my hopes up too high.
Gotta go, but write more later. Laters!
I almost missed the bus going to Euston Station for my train, because I mis-read the clock (see, too little sleep doesn't get me very far, especially not if I never got through my candy jar dream!). Anyway, got to the station and waited for my train, while conversing with an Indian man. He gave two bottles of juices to bribe me of my phone number, which worked, hah. I accepted the bottles and gave him my number, but I accidently gave him the wrong number. It was an accident, not on purpose, because my brain had not started to function properly yet!! When we parted, he kissed my cheek three times, and on the third and second time, he freaking licked it as well, urgh, wasn't very pleasant!
I was planning on doing some last-minute reading on the train, but gave that up when I realised all I wanted to do was sleeeep. Slept almost all the way to Liverpool and got there at 8am. Liverpool was rainy!! I wonder if it is an interview curse put upon me, because last time I went to St Andrews, it was also rainy. I don't mean rainy as drizzle, which is the most normal wheather phenomena in the UK, but rainy as in actual showering, heavy rain that soaks you within seconds, which is a rarer scene in the UK. It's quite annoying because usually I have a copy of a map of the campus in my hand, which gets unreadable the moment I pull it out of my bag! And also because I want to walk around a little in the city and see what it's like, but it's a pain in the ass to walk around when your clothes, bags and socks get soaked, grr!
Liverpool was awared European Cultural City of 2008, so I had quite high expectations of it. Walking in the city centre, there were so many gallerys and theatres and stuff, and the architecture was very nice and grand, so it's definitely a pretty nice city. The university is located in the opposite direction of most of the cultural sights, so I didn't see much of the sights on my way to the university or at the university. The parts of Liverpool I was in reminded me a little bit of Nottingham, with quite old buildings, and many of them boarded up and quite creepy looking. The university is quite a well known university, with lots of investment in research, and the medical school is famous for its curriculum. Here're two photos of parts of the med-school:
The med-school is also called "red brick" school or something, because most of the buildings of the med-school were built with red bricks back in the 19-ishth century, and they've been kept that way. Parts of the school were an infirmary, and on the inside, the hospital beds have been removed and replaced with educational facilities, but otherwise the interior decorations and some things are still from the old days when the buildings functioned as a clinical site.
The sign reads: "The University of Liverpool, Faculty of Medicine". And yeah baby, check out those bikes! I will no doubt befriend the students/teachers who own them if I start in the school.
The interview went alright, I felt. Again, very hard to tell how I did compared to the other applicants. They asked the usual questions, like why medicine, and why Liverpool, and about their famous curriculum. They also asked about the health care systems and comparisons between Sweden, China and England. I answered most of the questions like I intended to and prepared for, and not much unexpected came up. I had two male interviewers and they were quite friendly. I noticed one of them had a multi-colored tie, and I kept on staring at it, because I thought it was a very nice tie! They also had a small table of biscuits and coffee in between them, which I also stared at unintentionally a little bit too often (hope they didn't detect the cookie monster in me!). I kept on hoping they'd offer me some before I left, but they didn't :( Before going, as the interview felt so short, like 5 minutes, I asked them "Are you sure I've had 20 minutes of interview?!" And they said "Hehe, yeah, look at the clock". And the man in the lovely tie commented "You did very well", so I take that as a good sign. But I am prepared for a rejection, won't get my hopes up too high.
Gotta go, but write more later. Laters!
So freaking tired 24/7
The past few weeks I've been tired all the time. Last week, I slept for hooours (well over the recommended 8 hours), got up in the morning at 8ish, and then fell asleep before noon, and the same evening went to sleep before 9pm completely exhausted even though the day was pretty chill. Sometimes headaches also creep up on me and make my head pound and squeeze my skull. This is really starting to negatively affect my life, because I can't be bothered to do much but sleep.
The most annoying thing is that I have no clue what the cause of this sudden tiredness is. There seems to be no explanation. I've never quite had it before, and I am healthy, so where does it come from?? The worst thing is that I can't even concentrate properly on my med-school interview preparation, which is taking place in less than a week, eeek!
I have discovered though that whenever I do feel completely tired and all I want is to go to bed, the most effective thing to do (although it is the last thing I want to do) is to do some physical activity. It helps to completely eliminate the tiredness, I don't know if I just forget about it or if it actually cures it for a while. Either way it works wonders, so at least I have done a little running and walking.
Oh yeah, the Phantom of the Opera was very good! The storyline was a bit Hollywood-ish, but the performance and singing was so impressive that it made the storyline appear less crappy. The main female character sang like an angel (but was completely sucky as an actress, so fake!).
On my birthday at the theatre! Bf said I looked sad on this photo, so he took another one:
Cheeeese!
This is how the stage looked like before the show (we were not allowed to take photos during or after or in between breaks):
After the show, we went home, and bf said he was going to make dinner for me. I felt completely exhausted after the show and pretty much fell asleep on the tube, so I was planning on taking a nap at home. I unlocked the door home, and through the crack I saw light and music in the flat. I totally froze and the first thing that came to my mind was that the phantom of the opera had broken into our flat! Bf told me to open the door wider. I didn't dare face the phantom, but he dragged it open and in the hallway Kamilla and Liu started to yell something, leaving me in complete shock! The fuck! I didn't know the bf had any intention of inviting them over for dinner that night, or that he even had contact with them. It was a great surprise and we spent the last hours of my birthday reminiscing about our high school days, the good old days (we concluded that we wouldn't want to go back to them, but we just miss certain parts of them). The best thing of the night was that I got another chocolate cake, hihi!
The most annoying thing is that I have no clue what the cause of this sudden tiredness is. There seems to be no explanation. I've never quite had it before, and I am healthy, so where does it come from?? The worst thing is that I can't even concentrate properly on my med-school interview preparation, which is taking place in less than a week, eeek!
I have discovered though that whenever I do feel completely tired and all I want is to go to bed, the most effective thing to do (although it is the last thing I want to do) is to do some physical activity. It helps to completely eliminate the tiredness, I don't know if I just forget about it or if it actually cures it for a while. Either way it works wonders, so at least I have done a little running and walking.
Oh yeah, the Phantom of the Opera was very good! The storyline was a bit Hollywood-ish, but the performance and singing was so impressive that it made the storyline appear less crappy. The main female character sang like an angel (but was completely sucky as an actress, so fake!).
On my birthday at the theatre! Bf said I looked sad on this photo, so he took another one:
Cheeeese!
This is how the stage looked like before the show (we were not allowed to take photos during or after or in between breaks):
After the show, we went home, and bf said he was going to make dinner for me. I felt completely exhausted after the show and pretty much fell asleep on the tube, so I was planning on taking a nap at home. I unlocked the door home, and through the crack I saw light and music in the flat. I totally froze and the first thing that came to my mind was that the phantom of the opera had broken into our flat! Bf told me to open the door wider. I didn't dare face the phantom, but he dragged it open and in the hallway Kamilla and Liu started to yell something, leaving me in complete shock! The fuck! I didn't know the bf had any intention of inviting them over for dinner that night, or that he even had contact with them. It was a great surprise and we spent the last hours of my birthday reminiscing about our high school days, the good old days (we concluded that we wouldn't want to go back to them, but we just miss certain parts of them). The best thing of the night was that I got another chocolate cake, hihi!
I'm not old!
Today's my birthday! I've received some birthday greetings, and everyone's saying "Happy Birthday! Now you're old!" Well, if you want me to have a happy birthday, then stop depressing me and reminding me that I'm old!!!
I've already had my cake breakfast, it was a seriously rich chocolate cake the bf made. I ate too much of it, and now I feel sick, hah. But it was seriously good, look:
According to Wikipedia, on the 16th of February:
-1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with Mongol Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
- 1859 – The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.
- 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
- 1899 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur Iceland's first football club is founded.
- 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
- 2050 - World renowned neuro/cardiothoracic/whatever speciality I choose surgeon and discoverer of a breakthrough surgery-technique Yiteng Xu was born. (That will be on Wikipedia in 40 years!!)
Thanks for all the birthday greetings, guys, I will have a great birthday! Going to a musical (Phantom of the Opera) later, woohoo!
I've already had my cake breakfast, it was a seriously rich chocolate cake the bf made. I ate too much of it, and now I feel sick, hah. But it was seriously good, look:
According to Wikipedia, on the 16th of February:
-1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with Mongol Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
- 1859 – The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.
- 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
- 1899 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur Iceland's first football club is founded.
- 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
- 2050 - World renowned neuro/cardiothoracic/whatever speciality I choose surgeon and discoverer of a breakthrough surgery-technique Yiteng Xu was born. (That will be on Wikipedia in 40 years!!)
Thanks for all the birthday greetings, guys, I will have a great birthday! Going to a musical (Phantom of the Opera) later, woohoo!
14th Feburary - 365 days
I've been with my boyfriend for a year now. We don't really have a rock solid date that we "officially" got together, but last year on the 14th of Feburary, we went out for the first time, so we're just going to use the 14th as the "official date".
It's hard to believe that it's been a year now. That's quite a while, isn't it? It's been quite a journey to get to where we are now. In the summer, between June and September, we were completely separated for 3 months, which almost killed our relationship. Well, not in the sense that we stopped liking each other, but more because the distance and time zones became very tiring and we also decided it was for our futures' best interests to end it. I just need to say I'm mighty glad that we got back together after that, as I can't imagine my life without him now.
I don't want to write any cheesy "I love him sooooo much" phrases and bore and disgust all of you. I think there is a song that sums up what I feel pretty damn well:
Tim Minchin
You Grew on Me
You grew on me like a tumour
And you spread through me like malignant melanoma
And now you're in my heart
I should've cut you out back at the start
Now I'm afraid there's no cure for me
No dose of emotional chemotherapy
Can halt my pathetic decline
I should've had you removed back when you were benign
I picked you up like a virus
Like meningococcal meningitis
Now I can't feel my legs
When you're around I can't get out of bed
I've left it too late to risk an operation
I know there's no hope for a clean amputation
The successful removal of you
Would probably kill me too
You grew on me like carcinoma
Crept up on me like untreated glaucoma
Now I find it hard to see
This untreated dose of you has blinded me
I should've consulted my local physician
I'm stuck now forever with this tunnel vision
My periphery is screwed
Wherever I look now, all I see is you
When we first met you seemed fickle and shallow
But my armour was no match for your poison arrow
You are wedged inside my chest
If I tried to take you out now I might bleed to death
I'm feeling short of breath
You grew on me like a tumour
And you spread through me like malignant melanoma
I guess I never knew
How fast a little mole can grow on you
It's hard to believe that it's been a year now. That's quite a while, isn't it? It's been quite a journey to get to where we are now. In the summer, between June and September, we were completely separated for 3 months, which almost killed our relationship. Well, not in the sense that we stopped liking each other, but more because the distance and time zones became very tiring and we also decided it was for our futures' best interests to end it. I just need to say I'm mighty glad that we got back together after that, as I can't imagine my life without him now.
I don't want to write any cheesy "I love him sooooo much" phrases and bore and disgust all of you. I think there is a song that sums up what I feel pretty damn well:
Tim Minchin
You Grew on Me
You grew on me like a tumour
And you spread through me like malignant melanoma
And now you're in my heart
I should've cut you out back at the start
Now I'm afraid there's no cure for me
No dose of emotional chemotherapy
Can halt my pathetic decline
I should've had you removed back when you were benign
I picked you up like a virus
Like meningococcal meningitis
Now I can't feel my legs
When you're around I can't get out of bed
I've left it too late to risk an operation
I know there's no hope for a clean amputation
The successful removal of you
Would probably kill me too
You grew on me like carcinoma
Crept up on me like untreated glaucoma
Now I find it hard to see
This untreated dose of you has blinded me
I should've consulted my local physician
I'm stuck now forever with this tunnel vision
My periphery is screwed
Wherever I look now, all I see is you
When we first met you seemed fickle and shallow
But my armour was no match for your poison arrow
You are wedged inside my chest
If I tried to take you out now I might bleed to death
I'm feeling short of breath
You grew on me like a tumour
And you spread through me like malignant melanoma
I guess I never knew
How fast a little mole can grow on you
Tiger Year 2010
On Saturdaty was Chinese New Year Eve! New Year's in China one of the best holidays and occasions of the year, because it's the day the entire family, not just mummy, daddy, kids, but also granny, grandad, uncles, aunts, cousins + lots of relatives you never knew you had, gather together to welcome the arrival of a new year and the arrival of spring. I haven't celebrated new year in China since my family moved to Sweden, but the importance of new year celebration is pretty much equivalent (if not, even more important) as Christmas is to the Westerners.
In Sweden, my family usually spends the morning making dumplings, which takes the entire morning, because they are so complicated, and watch a new year's show that the entire China watches to count down the hours till actual New Year's Day. Since China is 7ish hours in front of us, the show usually runs during our dumpling-creating and as well as dumpling consumption. In the afternoon we usually go to another Chinese family's house to keep on eating and celebrating. Because our extended families are not in Sweden, these friends replace them.
I'm wasn't home in Sweden for the celebration this year with my mum, dad and sister, so I celebrated it here in London with my boyfriend and in the evening with a bunch of his physics department friends. We consumed so much good food that it felt like I would never have to eat again! We had store-bought dumplings for lunch, although we didn't make them ourselves, because we were too lazy (they honestly take hooours to make!) and hotpot in the evening, and in between that about 10000 pieces of chocolate and stuff.
Yummy dumplings!
There are lots and lots of traditions and customs surrounding the New Year. For instance red decorations are always used, as red is the color of joy, luck and celebration. Traditional Chinese fireworks are more for the audio effect than for the visual, and are very loud and noisy. They are set off to scare away the bad spirits and bad luck. There are words that you should never say during the celebration, such as break/broken, die, kill etc., but also words like four, because it is homophonic, or has the same sound as the Chinese word for die. There are also certain culinary traditions, e.g. eating fish, which homophonially means you are not going to be lacking food the coming year.
I hope everyone will have a good 2010 Tiger year! Happy New Year!
In Sweden, my family usually spends the morning making dumplings, which takes the entire morning, because they are so complicated, and watch a new year's show that the entire China watches to count down the hours till actual New Year's Day. Since China is 7ish hours in front of us, the show usually runs during our dumpling-creating and as well as dumpling consumption. In the afternoon we usually go to another Chinese family's house to keep on eating and celebrating. Because our extended families are not in Sweden, these friends replace them.
I'm wasn't home in Sweden for the celebration this year with my mum, dad and sister, so I celebrated it here in London with my boyfriend and in the evening with a bunch of his physics department friends. We consumed so much good food that it felt like I would never have to eat again! We had store-bought dumplings for lunch, although we didn't make them ourselves, because we were too lazy (they honestly take hooours to make!) and hotpot in the evening, and in between that about 10000 pieces of chocolate and stuff.
Yummy dumplings!
There are lots and lots of traditions and customs surrounding the New Year. For instance red decorations are always used, as red is the color of joy, luck and celebration. Traditional Chinese fireworks are more for the audio effect than for the visual, and are very loud and noisy. They are set off to scare away the bad spirits and bad luck. There are words that you should never say during the celebration, such as break/broken, die, kill etc., but also words like four, because it is homophonic, or has the same sound as the Chinese word for die. There are also certain culinary traditions, e.g. eating fish, which homophonially means you are not going to be lacking food the coming year.
I hope everyone will have a good 2010 Tiger year! Happy New Year!
Adventures in St Andrews
Last Friday I went to my interview in St Andrews. St Andrews is a small city, well more like town, in Scotland, an hour away from Edinbugh. When I typed "St Andrews" in the destination text box, the search engine said "sorry, we cannot find a place called St Andrews" - that's how small the place is. I woke up at 4am that morning, snoozed for ten minutes, skipped breakfast, got dressed and ran down to the bus station. Took the 4.30am bus to King's Cross and arrived at King's Cross at 5am. Bought a well-needed coffee and waited an hour reading about a breakthrough kidney transplant in The Times. Finally got on the train, and spent the 6-hour journey reading about various medical things. There was such a clear difference between England and Scotland, as soon as we left the last factories and rubbish dump grounds and emerged into a beautiful landscape, I knew at once we had crossed the border. The train track in Scotland was built right along the shoreline, and the view of the sea was magnificent! There were some farm houses right by the sea, and I saw a lovely house 20m away from the sea with cows and pigs and stuff, which I've convinced my boyfriend to purchase when he gets rich!
I finally arrived at Leuchars train station, only to be greeted by a deserted train station and green meadows. There was 1 bus station, where the bus into St Andrews stopped. St Andrews is the such a beautiful place, with ancient style low buildings. They only have one main street where all the shops are, the remaining streets have shops are small cute private shops and cafes. The people there are also very small-townish, very friendly and open! When I was on the bus into town, the bus didn't annouce which station we were approaching like it does in London, and I needed to get off at South Street, but I had no effing idea which stop South Street was. So I asked the man sitting beside me, and we started talking, and I told him about my interview. At the station, he even got off to show me where I should walk to get to the university.
The middle-of-nowhere train station
Found the university and interview waiting room without getting lost, and gave the receptionist my name. I was just about to take a seat, but the atmosphere was so freaking tense, because all the interview-waiting applicants were acting as if they were facing the end of the world. I abandoned the room and found a cafe where I had a jacket potato and looked through some final stuff. Strangely, I wasn't all too nervous through all that time, which was a good thing. I'm getting good at blocking thoughts that I don't want to think about out of my mind, which meant I didn't freak out about the interview. I returned to the applicants'-awaiting-death-room and waited a few minutes, where a woman took 8 applicants, including me, into a small room where we read a newspaper article regarding a trial vaccine that helps people to quit smoking. After we read it, she lead us all into a big room where 8 different panels, 2 professionals in each panel, awaited one applicant. This is when I started to get properly nervous, although I didn't have much time to get too nervous before the interview started.
Small, cute town
South Street, where the Uni is located
Lovely outfit for a gentleman!
I answered most of the questions quite well I thought, except for one crucial question regarding the medicine course they offer at St Andrews. However, all the other applicants said they felt quite good about the interview too, so I don't know how well I actually did compared to the others. The interview was 20 minutes, but it felt like 5! I was in the middle of asking them a super smart question that I had from reading about that kidney transplant that morning when I got cut off because the time ran out! After the interview, they took us around the campus and we got to see the dissection room, which was sooo cool! There weren't any cadavers, but they had some samples of organs and stuff. I think if all the smokers saw a healthy lovely pink lung beside a smoker's yucky black-particle-stained lung, they would be so horrified that it would make them stop smoking.
After that I went back to the train station and awaited the train back to London. This is not the end of the story though, because at about 9pm, when there were about 3 hours of the train journey left, they train suddenly stopped at Newcastle. Then the driver announced that a person had been hit by a train and died on our railway track. Fucking hell. I have no clue whether it was our train, or another train that hit the person, because the driver said "a train", but sweet Jesus, poor person, such a pity. I did not expect anything like this to happen on my trip for an interview. Our train was stranded in Newcastle for more than 2 hours while the British police did all the investigations and removed the body. So eventually I arrived at 2am in London instead of the original 12am, got home at 3am, and got to bed by 4am. I was literally awake for 24 hours. Couldn't fall asleep though even though I was very tired, everything that happened that day, the train journey, the interview, the person that got hit by a train (which I hope was not ours) was just swimming around in my head. But at least I felt relieved to be home and to have the interview and trip behind me. When I arrived home, I also found something on the kitchen counter left by the Brownie God for me:
The Brownie God left me two(!) brownie pieces for my hard work ("To YiTeng, A giflt for thy bidding and hard work. Goodluck with the remaining interviews")!
Amen!
I finally arrived at Leuchars train station, only to be greeted by a deserted train station and green meadows. There was 1 bus station, where the bus into St Andrews stopped. St Andrews is the such a beautiful place, with ancient style low buildings. They only have one main street where all the shops are, the remaining streets have shops are small cute private shops and cafes. The people there are also very small-townish, very friendly and open! When I was on the bus into town, the bus didn't annouce which station we were approaching like it does in London, and I needed to get off at South Street, but I had no effing idea which stop South Street was. So I asked the man sitting beside me, and we started talking, and I told him about my interview. At the station, he even got off to show me where I should walk to get to the university.
The middle-of-nowhere train station
Found the university and interview waiting room without getting lost, and gave the receptionist my name. I was just about to take a seat, but the atmosphere was so freaking tense, because all the interview-waiting applicants were acting as if they were facing the end of the world. I abandoned the room and found a cafe where I had a jacket potato and looked through some final stuff. Strangely, I wasn't all too nervous through all that time, which was a good thing. I'm getting good at blocking thoughts that I don't want to think about out of my mind, which meant I didn't freak out about the interview. I returned to the applicants'-awaiting-death-room and waited a few minutes, where a woman took 8 applicants, including me, into a small room where we read a newspaper article regarding a trial vaccine that helps people to quit smoking. After we read it, she lead us all into a big room where 8 different panels, 2 professionals in each panel, awaited one applicant. This is when I started to get properly nervous, although I didn't have much time to get too nervous before the interview started.
Small, cute town
South Street, where the Uni is located
Lovely outfit for a gentleman!
I answered most of the questions quite well I thought, except for one crucial question regarding the medicine course they offer at St Andrews. However, all the other applicants said they felt quite good about the interview too, so I don't know how well I actually did compared to the others. The interview was 20 minutes, but it felt like 5! I was in the middle of asking them a super smart question that I had from reading about that kidney transplant that morning when I got cut off because the time ran out! After the interview, they took us around the campus and we got to see the dissection room, which was sooo cool! There weren't any cadavers, but they had some samples of organs and stuff. I think if all the smokers saw a healthy lovely pink lung beside a smoker's yucky black-particle-stained lung, they would be so horrified that it would make them stop smoking.
After that I went back to the train station and awaited the train back to London. This is not the end of the story though, because at about 9pm, when there were about 3 hours of the train journey left, they train suddenly stopped at Newcastle. Then the driver announced that a person had been hit by a train and died on our railway track. Fucking hell. I have no clue whether it was our train, or another train that hit the person, because the driver said "a train", but sweet Jesus, poor person, such a pity. I did not expect anything like this to happen on my trip for an interview. Our train was stranded in Newcastle for more than 2 hours while the British police did all the investigations and removed the body. So eventually I arrived at 2am in London instead of the original 12am, got home at 3am, and got to bed by 4am. I was literally awake for 24 hours. Couldn't fall asleep though even though I was very tired, everything that happened that day, the train journey, the interview, the person that got hit by a train (which I hope was not ours) was just swimming around in my head. But at least I felt relieved to be home and to have the interview and trip behind me. When I arrived home, I also found something on the kitchen counter left by the Brownie God for me:
The Brownie God left me two(!) brownie pieces for my hard work ("To YiTeng, A giflt for thy bidding and hard work. Goodluck with the remaining interviews")!
Amen!
Little Miss Busy
Been busy the last week with various things, especially attending the med-school interview I've been rambling about all over my blog and to friends. I'll write about it later today or tomorrow, but I just thought I'd let people know that I haven't been kidnapped by aliens from Neptune off the surface of earth. Febuary is such a busy month ('tis the month of my birthday, bf's birthday, Chinese New Year, 2 med-school interviews and Valentine's Day+a trip back to Sweden), probably won't have much time for the blog.
