茶碗蒸

Thank God... there's finally time for me to pause and take a long proper breath...

Ever since the announcement two weeks ago about the presentation for Pharmaceutical Practices, and the Pharmaceutical Calculations Test for PHCY254, there has been an endless array of things to worry about. But now with the presentation over and done with (finally), the results of the Calculations Test out, and the English Test finished, my heart feels slightly lighter (even if it's only temporary).

The presentation required alot of group meetings and discussion over who would be responsible for which section of the research. Fortunately, though, all of my group members are girls (very important ==+) and really awesome people who do have a sense of duty. So even though one of them kept delaying the meeting times on the day (well, she's Malaysian, what do you expect?? Gosh I'm racist hrhr), we all completed our share of the work reasonably smoothly. As for the presentation itself... well, of course we were all pretty stressed out before that (me in particular since I have the longest speech) but after practising in my room for an hour and a half before the workshop we managed to calm ourselves a little... which didn't last for very long since the surge of panic hit us with an even stronger impact after we stepped through the doors of Hunter Centre and saw the rest of Group C waiting around nervously by the door, murmuring over their cue cards and lips twitching with forced smiles... But we were lucky, once again, to have been drawn as the third group to do our presentation which meant we were able to get it over and done with this week XDD So yeah, we did it, though only after a very long wait since the Indian group before us had a painfully long 20-minute one and an extraordinarily long question session (nothing less from Indians hrhrhr). The other two members were fine from what I heard (雖然蘿賽朵的"調高尾音"非常之嚴重....聽得有點痛苦) but I was so nervous that I couldn't control the trembling of my hands - at one point I accidentally clicked the enter button twice cos it was shaking so much, and then I nearly dropped my cue cards ==||| Terrible. I thought I had gotten better after high school but I definitely should not underestimate what the lack of practice can do to you!! And I was most probably speaking too fast too - though I couldn't remember much of what I actually said afterwards since my mind went completely blank during the speech... But anyway - it's OVER!!! So I'm currently in no mood to work and that's probably why I'm typing this out (whoop procrastination rules).

As for the Calculation Test results which came out today... I passed!!! XDD Half of our class failed and I was fortunate enough to be in the other half... *huge sigh of relief* The lecturer all scared us shitless when she announced (with a knowing smile, mind you) the news yesterday... and then she would constantly remind us throughout the lecture about how "half of you should be able to do this calculation" and then chuckle to herself... argh. Anyhow, I am eternally thankful for my good fortune.

We also had an English Test yesterday which didn't count for anything but must be passed in order to pass the paper... more of a level check? And as expected, the listening section was my weakest - it wasn't so much the understanding, but more of the memory!! Does short-term memory run in our family or something?? I'm aboslutely terrible at taking in what I hear (ahhh maybe that's why I can't concentrate in lectures?? Maybe I should skip them altogether??....Hmmm). As for the writing and interpreting the graph - it was ok I suppose. Although I just copied the title as "the main idea of the graph" and then rambled on about the trend of the number of prescriptions dispensed and the price of each prescription... I hope it made sense though - would they empathize with us poor students who had to somehow conjure up an amazing inspiring piece of writing under exam conditions?? The grammar, spelling, and puncutation correction part in the middle section was actually pretty interesting from my point of view (no one seemed to agree with me though), I mean... knowing the "UK" has to be in capitals isn't that difficult right?? But then perhaps I shouldn't say this before the results come out... (sweat) A huge thanks to Mary Hill - if I passed this test most of the credit would definitely be due to her!

And then there was the absolutely hectic organic chem lab yesterday - in which no one was able to complete all the excercises given in the lab book within 3 hour period. So at the end everyone just ended up frantically copying down each other's answers. And the annoying demonstrators who proved to be no help AT ALL because they all gave us different answers and - when we were confused - laugh at us! What the hell?? And what right do they have to get annoyed at the end of the lab when it looked like they would not be out of there by 5? Perhaps they should have helped us out a little bit more then!? Hmph.

Ok, that's about my academic life (which is sadly taking up most of my whole life right now) summed up. Somehow I've gone into the habit of having a cup of coffee every morning this year too - otherwise it's literally impossible to stay awake in lectures T_T Now I only have to worry about the EOMT (End of Module Test) for organic chem on Friday and then it's the marvellous weekend again, when I can slowly savour the frozen cheesecakes I bought from the supermarket and treat myself to a few movies XD

Ooh and just a side note about the Health Sci's - it's hilarious seeing them stressing out over the tiny little 5% HUBS test this Saturday!! XDD And also the CELS one next week - oh classic. I'm finally getting my share of bullying hahaha ==+ Really want to do what Thomas did to us last year too - make them rush to St. David's to check their "results" (evil grin). Also a really funny thing which happened in a Health Sci lecture recently... apparently half-way through the lecture someone threw a live DUCK into the lecture theatre and it hit the wall, fell onto the ground all broken and in pain, and got taken out by the calm lecturer...XDD (Well maybe I shouldn't be laughing since it was quite unfortunate for the duck) But a DUCK?? Well well... the most interesting things do happen at Health Sci lectures. Like how two people fainted in two different streams of HUBS lectures on Black Friday last week too... (what are the chances of that!? ...a bit creepy I guess ==)

Uhh yup enough rambling from me - better go and do my laundry and enjoy the brief - extremely brief - period of de-stressing peace I have decided to put aside for myself.

P.S. Doesn't anyone think this new blog template is very New Zealand!? I mean the combination of "silver ferns" and "sheep" and "church" and "trees"... shocking, really. Although if you think everyone wears the country-girl outfit and carries around a basket to collect eggs then you'd probably be disappointed *coughcough*