Jesmine Kuan UNPAD Dentistry

It was my first time being away from Malaysia, away from family, away from friend and away from my bed and being independent in my studies and taking care of myself. It was a hard time saying goodbye in the airport but we all make it through after all the hugs and tears.

MY DADDY

MY MOMMY

MY YOUNGER BROTHER, JASON

MY FAMILY , BUT ELDER BROTHER, JEREMY IS MISSING. HE IS CURRENTLY STUDYING IN MELBOURNE

ELDER BROTHER, JEREMY.

(PICTURE TAKEN IN MELBOURNE )

YES THEY ARE HEAVY BUNCH OF PEOPLE

THE BOYFRIEND

FRIENDS WHO ARE ALWAYS THERE FOR ME

After landed in Indonesia, it felt like Malaysia. The weather, the people, the food, the shops, the houses and everything, it felt like Malaysia, but the feeling is not the same. Something was missing, it was family. I got through those feelings and told myself that I am here to study and to learn. Lucky for us, we came here with a bunch of friends. Once we arrive in our university, I was amaze with the size of it, it was huge and it is full of green. We went straight to our dorm once we arrive, but we all dentistry student was disappointed because we all thought that we were supposed to stay in bale with the medical student but we ended up in some dorm out of the campus.

After we had register, we gave our luggage to be taken to our dorm and we had to walk. It was one bad constructed road. Okay, lets imagine you walking in “ kampung” road with more rocks, that is how the road is. We arrive to our dorm and it didn’t look that bad but we all know bale was way much better. After getting all ready it was dark, we were new so the only place we know was bale’s café. It was 7 plus and it was normal dinner time for Malaysian, we reach the café and guess what? The food was all sold out. We were all starving for food, went over to the bale mart to get ourselves some mee in the cup. We sat outside the café eating our maggi, laughing and talking. It was cold at night, it felt like Malaysia when it is raining. Every night the weather is this cold, it was nice. After that we went back to the room and hang out.

After that, we do went Bandung shopping, we do went for a lot of university event.. sooner or later, we got use to the place and came to love it <3

ORIENTATION DAY

FIRST TIME IN BANDUNG

COOKING IN THE HOSTEL.. YUMMY

MERDEKA EVENT

Diary of a trip by Catherine Lee

Here’s this, life as a medical student has ups and downs, cries and laughter, happiness and sad moments. What motivates me to go through the tough time apart from the love and support from my family is the small happy events or trips that never fail to put a smile in my heart. My most memorable trip was the one to St. Petersburg, Russia. It was a same old same old day and exams had just ended. Out of nowhere, one of our course-mate T decided to organize a backpacking trip to St. Petersburg. We headed to the train station located at Metro Beloruskaya and immediately got ourselves each a tickets the cheapest one with bunk bed. Well you know for students, luxury travels aren’t exactly a way of life, and we needed the bunk beds as the train ride was estimated of 12 hours. Since it was our first time at that particular area of Moscow, we even took some time to walk around later after getting our train tickets. 

T wasn’t someone who likes planning ahead far, and so we just realized having our transportation settled, we have not yet booked a place to stay. Having informed T, he immediately hit www.hostelworld.com and we got ourselves a 9.80 euro/night B&B hostel as he’s the pro. Anyway, the trip consisted of 5 of us. Me, Terry, Gab, Joanna and Chien. With all the hustle settled and our document’s done, packing was a cinch since it was just a short trip. I was kind of excited because it was an unprecedented trip and so short noticed.

It was a night train ride, so at least we get to sleep in the train and arrive in the morning wasting no time. Everything was in lock, stock and barrel as 5 of us arrived at the platform and marched our way towards the train as the wind was gushing through the open air space. The conductor wasn’t so friendly to us and sought of gave us problems. Luckily there was a Samaritan/Russian who speaks English and decided to give us a helping hand. His name was Nikolai. Anyway, that’s settled and all of us hopped on the train and was ready for our crazy dreadful 12 hours train ride. After a few hours of sleep, we were awaken by an old lady selling snacks and beverages, and that’s when sleep ran away and all of us surprisingly were wide awake as the train was slightly flinging left and right rocking in a two beat tempo. Chit chatter and board game. Reading and heart to heart talks sums up everything. Before we knew it, the long 12 hours was gone and we’d arrived. T with his daredevil happy go lucky attitude decided to get acquainted with Nikolai, and wonderful and enough, he decided to be our tour guide throughout our who trip as despite being from Moscow, he travels to St. Petersburg every twice a month for work.

We headed towards our hostel with not much expectations. It was drizzling and the wind was howling. We found the place after a long walk and everyone was famished. Nikolai wasn’t with us at first as he had his own place figured out already. As we arrived, we were greeted by the landlady which was very peaceful looking, in a nice way. Settled down, we hurried ourselves to the metro station which Nikolai said he would meet us up and take us to lunch. We went to this cafe, sadly I couldn’t recall it’s name but it is very much similar to TEREMOK  in Moscow where it sells pancakes, waffles, salads etc. These shops are very common and typical in Russia. Pancakes are called Blinchik in Russian. Anyway, we gobbled down whatever was ordered was had some talks with coffee getting to know more about Nikolai. See, the nice thing about Russians which also amaze me is their patriotism. Generally every Russian that you speak to, will know this and that about the history of every part of their country, and for me being a “historian”, I was curious and exited to know more about St Petersburg.

Anyway, after a nice simple lunch, we headed to St. Isaac’s Square which nearby was located St. Isaac’s cathedral. There was also Kazansky Cathedral and Church on the Split Blood. What really caught my attention was the name of the last church mentioned. The Church of Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood derives its catchy title from the fact that it is buil on the spot where Alexander 2 was assassinated by a hand grenade in 18xx(can’t really remember which year). Inside the cathedral, you could even see the very cobbles where his blood was spattered! This church is one of the most conspicuous buildings in St. Petersburg as it was not designed in the baroque style of the day, but built in the classic Russian style of St. Basil in Moscow. After the revolution in 1917, it was closed for business and during WWII used as a veggie market – earning it the nickname at that time “Church of Our Saviour on the Potatoes.” True Story.


Next, we headed towards the Hermitage and managed to catch a sunset glimsp over the river Neva. There was a bridge across and there majestically stood 2 guardians which were Griffin. No idea why it was there though. Across the river from the Hermitage is another absolutely essential St. Petersburg attraction – St. Peter and St. Paul’s Fortress. I don’t want to continue talking about history but everything was amazing and breathtaking. Oh I nearly missed out a fun fact about the some history related facts. My name is Catherine as well so I have to mention this. On a warm August afternoon in 1782, a large crowd gathered along the Neva River’s south embankment. On a balcony above, Empress Catherine appeared and dedicated to St. Petersburg its newest monument: the Bronze Horseman, a soaring likeness of the city’s founder, Peter the Great, commanding a half-wild steed. Immortallised in the words of the great poet Pushkin “Behold the image sit and ride, upon his brazen horse astride.” Our day ended in MacDonalds. Short simple yet most informative in my opinion. Having return to the hostel, everyone went into Lala-land in no time. 

Restful Sleep! We headed downstairs to the common hall of the hostel and was greeted by the same reception lady but this time accompanied by other tourist as well, and of course since it is a B&B, breakfast is provided as well. We had Kasha(porridge), with bread, butter and salami(some meat stuffing) and also some weird looking but surprisingly delicious fried flour ball. We managed to exchange contact information with other tourist as well as sharing what we did in St Petersburg over the past few days. After washing up and dressed up ready for another exciting ahead we headed out for the metro. Today we are heading to Peterhof. It was a 2 hours bus ride with the 5 of us accompanied by Nikolai. 

Peter the Great’s favourite residence, Peterhof, is a vast complex of palaces and parkland designed to rival the splendor of Versailles. Vast tracts of landscaped gardens are interspersed with statues, water features, pavilions and sumptuous mansions – the most famous being Mon Plaisir, overlooking the gulf of Finland. Another note, Peterhof is best known for it’s 120 fountains, switched on from May to mid-October, some are which designed to soak the unsuspecting visitor, but sadly that’s not the time we went there. The pictures I include later will share the other stories and show a better description on how marvelous the place looks like. I have been to quite a number of places, but never impressed so much as I have been by seeing the splendure of Peterhof. I fervently hope to come again during the period where the fountains are on and get myself soaked! We even rented ourselves a bicycle each and cycled along the hilly terrain in Peterhof. It was one of the best experience I’ve had in so many trips. We took photos of every detail and even many jump-shot(the pictures where everyone jumps!).

After that we went to a nearby town to this small restaurant but opened in a hut. Voluptuous meals!!! We ordered the best dishes according to Nikolai which was the Armenian Cheese Rolls,  Pumpkin cutlet, “Ossetrina pod Syrom”(sturgeon baked with cheese), Basturma(marinated beef), Beef Khartcho with fresh tomatoes and for desert, we had Khalva(syrupy walnut dessert), Apple pie and Chocolate vodka. Smashing and delicious. Best meal I could remember in weeks. Anyway the day ended with our bus ride back and heading back to the hostel to nestle for the night. Big thank you to Nikolai and those interested can find him through my facebook under the name Nikolai Kotov. 

A quick summary on the remaining places we went to. Dom Knigi(house of books) St. Petersburg, some cathedrals and visited a few wonderful tourist spots. The reason not stating much is because of the name being in Russian and not so easily remembers, but all was good. Pictures were taken, fun moments were treasured. We went shopping for the typical souvenirs: fridge magnets, tumblers, postcards etc. Funnily our last meal of this trip was in a sushi restaurant – Evrasia. It’s a typical food chain like MCD and it’s everywhere in St. Petersburg in a way it’s scary. 

Time flies when you’re happy. Finally, it was time to go back. We bid the lady working at the B&B goodbye and thanked Nikolai as well. Heading to the train station, I could see the faces of my friend which were satisfied but also not too happy on the fact that we are heading back to Moscow and back to studying again. Well, I’d say everything is like an ECG, ups and downs. On the way back in the train ride, I was carefully writing my dairy and recording every single detail of this trip and at the same time looking forward towards my next trip to whichever part of the globe.  A picture paints a thousand words. 

 

My Uni Life in USU, Medan, Indonesia by Lee Muh Teck

Halo out there, I will roughly highlight my current uni’s life in USU, Medan, Indonesia.

As we know, life getting tougher as we go overseas for studying to archieve our own dreams and friends play a very important or major role in our daily life. Here is the photo of our campus, Rumah Sakit Sumatera Utara, the largest clinical hospital in Indonesia, cool right? No doubt! Hopefully we can learn or gain a lot from this beneficial.

Mainly, skills lab is a must for every students in USU. And we are having tutorials and lecture everyday. We enjoy our precious time during lab period, it is fun indeed! We learn a lot of new things in medical field.

Besides studies, social life also plays a role model in all students’s lifes. It’s clearly that ”semangat 1 Malaysia” can be seen among all the Malaysian students at here. We are celebrating Hari Raya, Deepavali and Christams together. The photo below is taken during celebration Hari Raya at Tiara Convention Centre, Medan. All of us wear Malay’s traditional clothes. And, this was my first time to try the outfit, kinda interesting! J

What is the most awaiting moment during the function? Yeap, you’re right, we can taste different kinds of food served by the restaurant. And during that day, we had tried out a lot of delicious traditional food.

Besides celebrating Hari Raya, we had a celebration during Deepavali and it’s called Deepavali night, involving most of the local students from Malaysia, mainly Indians, Malays and Chinese. Here are some of the photos of the day. As usual, all of us dressed up in Indian traditional clothes and it was a nice experience for all of us, showing some respects to other religions.

Not forgetting about our Chinese New Year, we all celebrating it like a big family too!

Besides that, Grand Annual Dinner will be held every year and it is the most exciting event of the year. Everyone wearing different styles of outfit and it is eye stunning!

Apart from that, our university will be having a charity work every year. We will help the poor free of charge, doing some charity works, raising funds for them.

What is the most awaiting moment for students? And the answer is holidays! During short holidays, normally we prefer to go to Brastagi for holidays as it is near to Medan, nice weather and cheaper. I enjoy taking photos, so, as usual, here are the samples of photos I’ve taken during my short journey. Hope you guys will like it! We visited strawberry farm, Mickey funland which is a theme park and some gardens.

Last but not least, in my opinion, for a student, one must be know how to balance their study life. ”Study hard, and play more harder”, and I hope everyone can archieve their dreams in the future. 

Life in Russia according to me by Paul Pravin (RSMU 1st year)

Well life here isn’t too bad but for a city boy like me who never had to take public transportation all his life and had a very happy go lucky life, things can get a little hard for one such as my self, but with perseverance and dedication all the trial and tribulations seem possible.Let me take you back to the time before I left for Moscow.

Allright initially I was suppose to leave on Sept 15^th but I still hadn’t got my invitation letter from RSMU, so I had to impatiently wait at home till I finally found out I was leaving on the 5^th of October. Hence after all the packing and last minute shopping I finally left on the 5^th.It was a long 17 hour flight to Moscow but I found my self thinking not so much about the flight but about what I would be facing in Moscow,for example,would I make enough friends,would I like the food,or even how I would find the country in general.

Well I finally reached Domodedovo airport, which is the main airport in Moscow to a very reasonable weather. If I recall it was about 10 degrees which is still well below Malaysia weather of 30 something degree.I found my self experiencing new things like for starters all the cars were left handed and the leaves were not green and they were wilting.We eventually got into our van and left for our hostels. As exhausted as I was from the flight I still made my self look outside at the buildings and cars which I found to be very interesting for some reason.The journey to the hostel took us about an hour plus but I finally arrived.The sight of the Hostel initially scared me and I was terrified to imagine how the rooms would be like but I eventually was greated by my cousin and she took me to my room.The room was fine, its was spacious and the toilets weren’t that bad as I had imagined but the only problem was the dust.

Well in the first few weeks I found my self travelling around Moscow and trying to get familiarized with the metro and bus systems here.I went to Kremlin and other historically places here in Moscow and in the process I found out what an expensive city this is. For example the price of  food in McDonalds here will be twice the amount we pay back in Malaysia. So can you imagine spending RM 30 for a double cheese burger,medium fries and a medium coke.Its crazy!!!!!!So I had to start scouting for cheap good food to eat and then I discovered ‘sharma’.It was cheap and relatively easy to get because it is possible to find a sharma shop anywhere. Besides the food here language is big barrier because I couldn’t communicate with the locals at all. My Russian was very very bad when I first came and I doubt I could even speak enough Russian to save my life but with the help of seniors I was fine. They were really helpful.

Well the first one month past very quickly. Before I knew it classes were starting.the streets we covered with snow and I found my self in the studying cycle ones again. My teachers were ‘ok'. Well when I mean ok I mean they speak good English and I understood them. Everything seemed fine now but the only remaining problem was the food. I found my self eating ‘sharma’,which I something like the kebab’s they sell back home. I ate it almost everyday I started to hate it after a while so I started going to the McDonalds nearby but for how long right. I started to crave Indian food and any Malaysian food for the matter and luckily I found something similar. The fourth year seniors here do offer catering services for about Rm 200 monthly which too me was a small price to pay for a good Malaysian inspired dish every night for dinner.

Well I’ve been here 3 months now.and things seems to be going smoothly.I’ve got used to the time and people but still getting used to the food..Looking forward to another 5 and a half years more here in beautiful RUSSIA. Hopefully its all up hill from now onwards.