Rediscovering Eden
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the bright and morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours
Who Am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
and watch me rise again
Who Am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me
Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
I am Yours
dailies
Saturday, September 27, 2008
My Week in a Nutshell.
-10:51 PM
21st Sept
I went with the family to the outskirts of Beijing today. Zhipeng ge ge who just arrived last wk came along too. The family car was packed to the max-driver and da ge infront;da sao (with alicia on her lap) and dua pek (with andrea on his lap) in the middle part of the car; zhipeng ge ge, me and dua um at the back of the car. They picked me up around 820 am in the morn and went off to buy 大饼 for breakfast. Super yummy! It was a long drive out. The way BJ is designed is that it has 6 concentric circles with tian an men being the center and the 1st concentric circle. Today, we drove beyond the 6th circle. Kind of got lost halfway and had to ask for directions.
There were many corn fields along the roads of the outskirts. Its pity I couldnt get any photos. If i am not wrong, there are 3 types of corn here: the typical yellow sweet one we have in Spore, a colourless bland one and a third one which is a combination of the first two. We also saw some rams (or sheep??) along the road. As we drove up, mountains after mountains came into view. THe pinnacle of each mountain was covered with clouds..similar to the one I saw for the first time in Ba mei(世外桃源）during my mission trip to Yunnan 2years back. Finally, we reached 石花洞, a cave in a mountain which has a man-made trail through it.
Brought back memories of my mission trip 2 years back. Miss ba mei cause its so nice and tranquil and green, without significant traces of tourism back then. We had to take a sampan in. NOw, i'm not sure already. Tourism may have set in. But in any case, cos i've been to ba mei, normal tourism scenic places do not interest me that much already.
Strange English.
I learned form Andrea that this is stalacite because it grows from the celing downward as oppose to stalagmite that grows from the ground.
Dinner at Da Sao's place!! Curry!!! Yay!
After that, we had a picnic at some location along the road down the mountain. We had french loaf, tomatos, cha2 ye4 dan4 (fav!!!), sausages, biscuit, danish pastries, and corn!! so nice. Then it was the long drive back to da sao's place and we all fell asleep in the car. When we reached back, it was pouring but da sao brought zhipeng ge ge and i out to get our quilts. I got a 单人 quilt though I am sleeping on a 双人床. So it looks a bit weird..like korean style..mattress/mat. It took me a while to get use to this er..strange style..but now i i like it!
22nd Sept
I went back to the bank at 方庄 with my bank passbook to check the balance. I was so so so relieved when I saw that my money was still there. I was about to leave when I thought I would just kaypo and ask if there is a lost-and-found system in the bank. I gave them my card number and asked if anyone returned the card. The bank manager was nice enough to check it out for me. To my utmost suprise, my card was with the bank all along. THe atm machine had somehow 'eaten' my card. I was so thankful to God that he kept the card safe and more importantly, the money. :)
Today was the first day of our 见习lesson. My group was to do 物诊见习。Basically, we learned how to do general physical check-up for a patient (eg. temperature, BP, pulse, breathing), physical examination of the head and neck region (lymph nodes, thyroid, tonsils, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, gaut, skin, health status etc.). All of us took turns to be the patient and the doctor. When checking the lymph nodes, one of the areas to check are the arm-pits. ITs super ticklish I must say cause you have to apply a substantial amount of force and touch every area of the arm-pit. Imagine the amount of energy we took to control the laughter. The whole procedure is suppose to take only 10 minutes under exam conditions but all of us exceeded the timing..i took...20 mins.
Happy birthday Christie! Today was my sister's 17th birthday too!!! The family had a virtual celebration through Skype. My family was in front of the computer with my sister showing off her chocolate cake which has alcohol in it (and she is so proud of it..-.-). My dad sang happy birthday with his not-so-in-tune voice and he made me sing it over the computer too. -.-. and SM heard it...so paiseh. :P
23rd Sept.
Today's attachment was 检验实习。Btw, the system here is that we have lessons in the morning, have lunch and then come back for attachment. Anyway, today we had lecture first even during attachment time. It was on blood test in general...so the lecturer went on about the techniques we should use in the laboratory and yada yada. After that we just went to the lab and checked out the equipment. I realised tt the labs in the hospital are the cleanest area. No dust at all. Everything is in chinese..so imagine the PCR, ELISA, data entry stuff all in chinese. There is this machine that mixes the reagents for you in the amount you want. We all agreed that it was the smartest machine made cause it saves manpower. Hmm..Tll should have invented this for my PCR master mix and maybe a machine to make gel and run gel for me. Hmm. :P.
Funny gloves i bought from Carrefour cos i handwash clothes everyday. Its scotch-brite brand, the only home-brand i recognise. Super thick and protective.
24th Sept.
Today the class had the afternoon off!!! Yay! Class ended at 1030am? SM and I made our way to 红桥 which is actually a shopping centre meant for tourists. There were a lot of ang mohs there. We went to the building next to it which sold a lot of toys and stationary. The stationary there were all very very cute. We both got stuff. Then we went to the shopping centre and started our most exciting haggling experience since we came to BJ. I was suppose to buy a thumb-drive for WH. So, we randomly went to one shop and asked how much a Kingston 8GB thumbdrive would cost and the salesgirl (who can speak fluent english..they all can..cos its a place to earn money from tourists)said very cheap, just 300RMB. *faints* I immediately said '不买了' and began to walk away. She called me back and passed me a calculator and asked me to key in the amount i was willing to pay. I pressed 6o RMB and she gave me some stunned look and asked me to raise the price. I raised a bit and walked off after she didnt want to give it to me at that price. I approached another shop but from the corner of my eye,i could see her waving for me to come back. This same whole experience was repeated at the 4 shops we went. After doing enough 'market research', I bought a Sandisk Cruz for 70 RMB...slashed from 500RMB. But i was thinking..hmm..could have gotten it for 50-60RMB? haha.
After that, we went to the second level which had the imitations of branded bags, shoes and clothes. I bought a pair of converse shoes for 60RMB, slashed down from 480RMB and 2 Ralph Lauren polo tees for 60 RMB, slashed down from 520 RMB. THere seem to be some kind of organisation controlling this market cause the pair of shoes i wanted...the lowest all the shops were willing to give was 60 RMB although their starting price varied. They were all so sure that every shop would not sell me lower than 60RMB. As for the polo tees...the owner had given me 2 female shirts at first when I wanted one male one female. At first they were not willing to give it to me but i think i sounded a bit fierce and they allowed me to exchange. While trying to get them to exchange, the owner of the shop opposite came to chat. He kept asking about our nationality and of course we just said ‘猜猜看' just to drag time. He ran through all the counties of SEA including Spore but I just said 'no' to everything. Before I left, I just replied in chinese that we are from Fujian, leaving them all stunned. This is bcause SM and I had agreed to speak totally in English to make them believe that we are foreigners who dont understand what they are talking about when actually we do. THis tatic is very useful and can be used to your advantage.haha.
The Converse Shoes.
After that I went shopping with Da sao while SM went home. We went to Decathlon to get some warm clothings for me cause the temperature had dropped to 12-14 degrees due to the rain and all i had was summer long sleeves. Thank God i have not fallen ill although my throat is getting dry. I got a ski jacket cum windbreaker, turtle neck long sleeves and long thick socks.After that, she brought me to 世贸天阶。 The only shop i like was Zara which was too expensive for a student. Imagine everything in the shop having 3 digits and a scarf costing 285 RMB. Imagine the coats but they are really nice and thick. Didnt buy anything although I almost did. Good thing I didnt, cause after reflecting...i think..the money can be put into better use.
世贸天阶. It has a very big LCD screen that shows pretty displays like the one above. It will look even more spectacular at night!
The chauffeur drove me back and as i was walking towards my block, the wind was so strong and i was so cold, my teeth were chattering and my hands were full with stuff that i bought, i dropped my textbook onto the ground. eeks. But man, its really cold.
Went to open the letterbox anyway despite the cold and found something that made my day. :)
25th Sept.
Today was ECG internship. Before that I was attached to the ultrasound doc. Due to the milk probem in China, many parents brought them kids to the hospital to scan the kidneys for stones. THere were so many kids and most were wailing because they think that hospital=injection! The doc had to apply some gel to allow proper contact between the machine and the body. I also saw the ultrasound of a fetus. You can see the small heart bobbing on the ultrasound screen. So exciting! But there was one fetus which was attached to the lower part of the uterus, resulting in the possiblity of a miscarriage.
26th Sept
I lost my water bottle!! Haiz. I was searching for quilt cover and bed sheets and somehow, i lost my fav bottle! Somebody had tried to steal it before but i grabbed it back in time but now..haiz.ITs either in 方庄 or Carrefour. But who am i to blame but myself? I was deep in thought about something and i forgot about my surroundings. Last time in singapore like that, now again. Haiz. So upset. First is the bank, now this. When will i not be so muddle-headed and absent-minded?
Lunch today was fun! I helped YY and frens to move their stuff to their new apt and also to check out the electric keyboard at their place. Finally got to touch the keys again. I went with Tiff in a 'thingy' to get McD coz i wanted the toy that came with the happy meal. I had gotten one toy yesterday but i wanted another one too! :P
The thingy.
The cute toys from THE DOG series. A golden retriever and a er er big black nose dog. There are 15 in total...contemplated getting all 15 but erm..better dont. Happy meals here range form 14.50 to 17.00 and the dog comes free. The dog if you buy alone is 10.00 RMB. My meal today had an extra nugget set which i din realise until i was at YY's hse already. yippee!
27th Sept.
Today is saturday, but we have classes still. JL went with me today to carrefour in search of the water bottle but to no avail. :( We bought stuff and then went to 集天小吃 for lunch. It was really nice of her to help me get over my loss of the bottle. Now i have another prob...where to get a water bottle to put hot water? I need hot water in this freezing weather.
Today we learned how to do 胸部检查. The guys, David and CC had to sacrifice of course. But it was bit ke lian for them cos the weather is really cold. The girls just practiced on the guys. It was quite funny cos at one point, we had to place our hands on the lower area of the ribcage but we were not sure exactly where and so some of the classmates put their palms at the waist of the guys, as if hugging them. After that, we used our stethoscope to listen to the abnormal heartbeats of a dummy.
