This is a really long blog post. unfortunately you will have to bear with me once again.
Before I attempt to put in writing the necessary credit that the subject of this blog post carries, I will tell you all about the new room Blaine and I have moved into on Monday:
We started off our day attending the surgery weekly morning meeting, which covered new journal articles and research pertaining to tinnitis. This was educational as always, and the Chinese snacks in between make it all e more worth it, dare I say so.
Following this Blaine, Maggie and myself headed off to the Out Patient Department where patients are basically referred to the ENT surgeons in the clinic for consultations. I will not share any patient details, but I can say the following:
Nasopharyngeal (nose&throat) carcinoma is a very common cancer among the Chinese population. The ENT department is where these unfortunate people are sent to.
All I can say is that, as lost in translation as one can get in Hong Kong central asking how to get a taxi from A to B... The translation of confirming your lifelong fear of a diagnosis or the shock of being told that you have to undergo cancer treatment/surgery rips through the seams of language and is expressed in the one singular human language. Heartfelt emotions. The tower of Babel may have separated all languages of the world, but the time before the tower still holds strong: The everlasting, foundation of human beings as we are - emotions. I shall not dwell on this much longer, but it hurt me in how I understood the Cantonese monologue the doctor had with the patient, revealing their worst fears, even though I knew only a handful of words in the language. I wish with my whole heart that I could turn a blind eye and not understanding this language, but yet I do. Selfishly, i realise this is the reason why I want to be a doctor, to share with the patients and make their painful experience less so, and possibly reverse it entirely. I realised that whilst sitting there, in my chair observing, that my legs were quivering, wanting to already be an experienced doctor who can help with patient, palliate this patient and treat this patient (and not just be a young, fresh-blooded and still emotional medstudent hoping he can cause a dent this world yet).
This was the tale, I pray, of a future cancer survivor.
Both Blaine and myself are complete beginners at Foosball. I am not much of a boaster but: I completely annihilated him, destroyed him, I bested him at every angle. Ha ha. (I have the faint feeling that the table was tilted towards his goal and I merely helped the ball along)
Inspiration #2 Thai (in) Kong
The final medical year student at the hospital had just finished their surgery rotation and were really keen for dinner and a movie tonight. This sounds like a pretty straightforward deal, think you not? It was everything but ordinary. A keen eye would even venture into describing it as extraordinary.
We were treated to the most exquisite Thai cuisine I have had in 21 years at Cambo Thai Restaurant in Kowloon City.
The tables were filled to the brim with...coconutty, green curry, lotus leafy, spring rolley, barbequey, seafood stewey, spicy nutty mixture in lettucey, gorgeousey goodness. I seem to have raised even my own expectations. May the pictures play the objective role.
****
Inspiration #3.14
If that were not enough, we took a dirt cheap taxi to the Festival Walk cinema. What was the undisputed film on the agenda tonight? Life of Pi.
When I saw that Pi was released in the cinemas, I made it my mission to rectify the longstanding faint knowledge that I had to read Life of Pi before I die. In Hong Kong, I quickly downloaded it onto Kindle and read it in 3 days flat. I can confidently say that the book touched me dearly. The film surpassed even my already high expectations.
A few odd-ball observations:
- Our linings, duvet covers, pillow covers and blankets are not completely pink anymore. MAN POINTS.
- We are staying at the medical student residences on the ground floor (no more stairs to the 4th/8th floor jay) just 100m from our previous residence at the staff quarters.
- We have a bed lamp
- Our sink is no longer hidden in a cupboard, but purposefully placed next to our door.
- Our mattresses are now 1inch thick. MORE MAN POINTS.
- Alex pleading Blaine after midnight to play table tennis
- Alex pleading Blaine after midnight to play Foosball
Tuesday - Eating off of the streets
Maggy, Blaine and myself ventured into the centre of Mong Kok, the land of which we know houses the following- Mr Wong's emporium for unlimited delicious food and unlimited delicious beer
- Dozens of shops selling guns, military wear, grenades and other war-tools. Upon closer inspection it is only but an intricate toy shop for older people (not adult shops, that's different, kids)
- Sneaker street, where I am planning to buy myself an affordable pair of neon blue sneaky sneakers
- Ladies market (...ladies). Mentioned earlier as one of the most diverse markets Ive been to (morning-midnight)
- Food stalls, displaying great looking foods and selling it to you by smell alone.
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| Maggy and Blaine: Street side decisions are sometimes ones that a court of law would hesitate on |
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| Maggy ordering something ricey...with sesame seed juice or something and then liquid peanut butter. My knowledge on what we eat exceeds all expectations it seems. Delicious anyway. |
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| Blaine licking away at his pizzacone: Feeling like a kid with a treat again, albeit a cheesy one. |
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| Me enjoying the contents of this bag. Imagine...frogs lay spawn in a pond... Well this is what waffles do. |
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| Blaine: "Ma'am, may I have the tentically things there?" (my quotes may or may not be accurate) |
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| Blaine enjoying his tentacles. |
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| Dinner, Blaine wondering what on earth I ordered once again. |
Wednesday - inspiration day galore
Inspiration #1: hurt cannot be mistranslated. Do not read this one if you prefer a light topic. I became carried away, apologies. #2 and #3 are much more jolly
I may not share many medically relevant issues on this blog, but I have chosen to share this one because it bore great emotions to me today, both positive and negative.We started off our day attending the surgery weekly morning meeting, which covered new journal articles and research pertaining to tinnitis. This was educational as always, and the Chinese snacks in between make it all e more worth it, dare I say so.
Following this Blaine, Maggie and myself headed off to the Out Patient Department where patients are basically referred to the ENT surgeons in the clinic for consultations. I will not share any patient details, but I can say the following:
Nasopharyngeal (nose&throat) carcinoma is a very common cancer among the Chinese population. The ENT department is where these unfortunate people are sent to.
All I can say is that, as lost in translation as one can get in Hong Kong central asking how to get a taxi from A to B... The translation of confirming your lifelong fear of a diagnosis or the shock of being told that you have to undergo cancer treatment/surgery rips through the seams of language and is expressed in the one singular human language. Heartfelt emotions. The tower of Babel may have separated all languages of the world, but the time before the tower still holds strong: The everlasting, foundation of human beings as we are - emotions. I shall not dwell on this much longer, but it hurt me in how I understood the Cantonese monologue the doctor had with the patient, revealing their worst fears, even though I knew only a handful of words in the language. I wish with my whole heart that I could turn a blind eye and not understanding this language, but yet I do. Selfishly, i realise this is the reason why I want to be a doctor, to share with the patients and make their painful experience less so, and possibly reverse it entirely. I realised that whilst sitting there, in my chair observing, that my legs were quivering, wanting to already be an experienced doctor who can help with patient, palliate this patient and treat this patient (and not just be a young, fresh-blooded and still emotional medstudent hoping he can cause a dent this world yet).
This was the tale, I pray, of a future cancer survivor.
Intermission in the entertainment room
Blaine and I played a round of table tennis. Blaine is suprisingly good since I believe this is possibly the 3rd time in his life playing table tennis.ii believe the first was at my 21st birthday party.Both Blaine and myself are complete beginners at Foosball. I am not much of a boaster but: I completely annihilated him, destroyed him, I bested him at every angle. Ha ha. (I have the faint feeling that the table was tilted towards his goal and I merely helped the ball along)
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| Blaine and myself during Foosball |
The final medical year student at the hospital had just finished their surgery rotation and were really keen for dinner and a movie tonight. This sounds like a pretty straightforward deal, think you not? It was everything but ordinary. A keen eye would even venture into describing it as extraordinary.
We were treated to the most exquisite Thai cuisine I have had in 21 years at Cambo Thai Restaurant in Kowloon City.
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****
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| Our table at the restaurant. Please note the contents on our table were still rising sharply. See me hiding in the Back. Maggy on the right. Blaine chilling around a corner. |
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| Exhibit A: Seafood balls |
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| Exhibit B: Delicious spicy chicken something and something else |
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| Exhibit C: Lettuce with rice and other delicious things inside. The sauces around were delicious: Imagine something smelling of vinegar but tasting sweeter than syrup, mind boggling yes. |
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| Exhibit D through V: The table. Still filling up, sorry final pic was not taken. Fingers were too full of chopsticks. |
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| A house of Thai rice. Corn, coconut, flour, shrimp and other ingredients in it. Chloe (left) was very happy about it. |
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| Blaine happy holding the ricehouse. Maggy holding some BBQ, springrolls, balls and pork and bamboo things. Me holding a pineapple that I did not taste sadly. I may not look impressed but there was something hiding in my toof. I was indeed happy. |
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| Ah! The night was all a ploy to celebrate Evette's 25th birthday. The cakes here truly are delicious. Finest spongyness I have tasted in 21 years. Happy birthday. Note to self: In Hong Kong, shouting "Hip-hip" after singing Happy Birthday only leads to confused glances. |
If that were not enough, we took a dirt cheap taxi to the Festival Walk cinema. What was the undisputed film on the agenda tonight? Life of Pi.
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| Us, 3D'ing it up on epilepsy carpeting |
When I saw that Pi was released in the cinemas, I made it my mission to rectify the longstanding faint knowledge that I had to read Life of Pi before I die. In Hong Kong, I quickly downloaded it onto Kindle and read it in 3 days flat. I can confidently say that the book touched me dearly. The film surpassed even my already high expectations.
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| I know right, Merry Christmas to you too x |
A few odd-ball observations:
- The caramel popcorn and hot dogs looked delicious from behind haha
- This was my first 75$ film
- This was the highest definition screen I have ever seen. My eyes feel LD now.
- Coupled with this, the 3D cinematography of the film is fantastic, I literally swatted a flying fish from my face, forgetting I was watching a film.
- I cried an embarrassing amount of times. -1 MAN POINT.
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| Blaine, Alex and Alex Chinese Alex's playful nickname is Captain because everybody throws him with scholarSHIPS. ^_^ |
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