Another week...

What a long week it has been. Waking up early to prepare to go to university, preparing sandwich lunches (cuz it’s so much cheaper than eating at the café there) and walking to take the bus…man it just reminds me of primary school days.

Furthermore some days we have to go back to the city for classes and presentations, and there might be something else at the hospital on that same evening. So as you can see, there’s a lotta traveling going around and it is tiring.

This week was extra hectic as we moved into the more ‘permanent’ accommodation and that itself was an extremely tiring day. Obviously we had to move all our luggage which weighed tonnes, then we went to IKEA, which is located near the airport (i.e. we had to board a bus to the city and another to IKEA) because we needed pillows, bedsheets, blankets and their respective covers. All that and we still haven’t unpacked yet. Fortunately for me, I have little luggage (comparatively that is, since my luggage was the lightest of all the 5 of us) so I managed to unpack almost everything that night.

Thankfully we finally moved into a new permanent place. One of the 1^st things I got was a humidifier. Asked Sam where I could find one and he replied that it will be very hard as it isn’t usually stocked here…I was thinking “what the heck?! This place is so bone-dry and they don’t use humidifiers?!”

Upon looking around I found the exact opposite of what I was looking for – a dehumidifier, and again I questioned the logic of wanting to make a dry place drier. Anyway, after asking around I discovered that some chemists stock it so I went to look and got one. That night was the best night I had since coming here. Honestly it’s no fun at all to wake up to so dry that it’s painful/uncomfortable to move your limbs and to open your eyes and blink simply because your skin has become so dry. Am currently using way more moisturizer than I used to back home but I suppose even that has its limits.

Oh yeah, there’s this café on the grounds of the hospital called Lizzie’s, and it has one of the best chocolate coated doughnuts I’ve ever tasted! Plus it’s huge, the miniscule doughnuts back home are nowhere in comparison.

The staff café on the 2^nd floor of the hospital on the other hand has a baby grand piano!! Mega stress relief for me on the day that I played it. Granted it has been close to a month since I last played the piano so that was wonderful.

Note to self : try to stop sleeping on buses. That unfortunately is a lot easier said than done as all this while I have been doing that – sleeping on buses and trains – so much so that is has become almost 2^nd nature to me. Reasons for wanting to stay awake? So I can read my book(s) on the bus. Also yesterday while I was dozing, the bus came to an abrupt stop and WHAM!!! My head hit the back of the seat in front.

Leng Hui went “Oh my God!” Are you ok?”

Jebbrine says she saw what happened too.

Fortunately for me it didn’t hurt in the least. And I have had some ‘training’ in this area (Eve and KKB…anyone in that car remember that incident?)

Today was fantastically HOT!!!! Not only that, the wind which I expected to cool us off was hot too. Oh man, and today is the day we normally do our shopping. It really doesn’t help that we bought all the meat and veggies, a pot, a couple of bowls, 3 large leeks (which really look like they can be used as a weapon) and the bus intervals are longer than that of weekdays. So there we were, roasting in the shade, feet melting when this group came over and I just couldn’t believe my eyes. This guy was wearing long track bottoms, an oversized shirt and a snow cap! And it was a friggin’ hot day! It’s a wonder he doesn’t get heatstroke.