The Shy Medic

The tweet read: “don’t let anyone motivate you otherwise. Medical school is hard”! I couldn’t agree more. Except that I wished I had seen the tweet 6 years ago, maybe I would already be working as a journalist or lawyer or any of the three things I wanted to become when I was 14.   Unlike the familiar stories you’ll hear in medical school, medicine wasn’t a childhood dream for me. It was not even a choice until the last minute. Heads up: This is a four-page MS Word document. It's a mid attempt to condense my six-year medical school experience into understandable words. So grab a seat and some food, and let's get this party started! Myth #1: You have to love Science to be a doctor   I can confidently tell you that my best subject all through my six years as a high schooler was the English language. I still believe it is. I like Literature as well. I love words and how writers weave them, and I found these miles more interesting than Punnett's square in my Biology textbook. W

What began as an uncertain thought ended with hopes of extending my two-month stay in Poland had I not had other commitments. As might be expected, one of the foremost motivating factors for applying for another Erasmus program is the positive experience I had in Szeged two years ago. I loved every bit of it and even  documented my experience .  Choosing Poland as my Erasmus destination- like many of the life-changing decisions I’ve made- wasn’t my first option for this year’s Erasmus program. Hi, Ms Rona! But I don’t get to complain. Neither was choosing Poznań, too. Just like the rest of the world was plunged into scepticism by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world of Erasmus was fraught with uncertainty- from deferred applications to cancelled agreements- the program was bound to go through its own shaky times. However, as the world is gradually learning to live with the virus- following sacrifices made by healthcare professionals and frontline workers- we, as students, learned to take c

This article has been lying in my drafts since December. I remembered it a few days ago when I had one of my insomnia episodes. *** We are almost two months into the year 2021, and even though we're all trying to pretend the previous year didn't happen by giving it all sorts of camouflages- cue panasonic, panoramic, pantomiming among the myriad of hilarious labels I came across on the internet- 2020 did happen. And it changed the universe. From my study table, whilst I wait for my next (online) class, this was my 2020... January-  Exams and all that. If I saved a penny for every time I whined about having exams in January since the past few years, I would be close to being a millionaire. Dragging my wet boots through the snow when the sky had barely cleared to write an exam will never, ever be my favourite memory of January. Once, I had something that kept me going- my flight back home. This year was another one that made me complain less because I was going

The thought of writing came to my head one week to this day as I took a shower. Birthday celebrations have never been my cup of tea while growing up. In fact, there are no pictures of a first or second birthday party in the family photo album. I used to fear the camera flash until I was 3, my mom said. Twice in primary school, I remember my mom bringing a birthday cake and dress to school, unknowing to me. I would leave home to school like a normal day and hoped no one, either at home or in school, remembered what day it was. I played this game until I was 8. Inside a shopping bag were my best denim skirt and white blouse that I always reserved for "special" occasions (of which my birthday was not included by the way). The cake was baked in a rush, you could tell. The second time, I was 10. There had been a function at home over the weekend. So, it was a perfect time for anyone to forget that it was my birthday. I went to school on Monday,

You're probably thinking of K-pop now. Am I right? I get this three out of four times whenever I tell someone I watch Korean dramas (K-dramas for short). The remaining one time is getting slammed for watching because of the "fine" boys. No, K-dramas is not all about flower boys in tight-fitting, well-tailored suit pants and donning a properly gelled hair. Anyways,... This list is by far inexhaustible, and I'm 100% sure that I'll be omitting a gazillion of shows that should have made the list. Either ways, pardon my memory and make do with these few ones that come to mind at the time of writing. Ladies and Gents, shall we? Let me begin with the light-hearted RomComs : 1. Strong Woman Bong Soon : This is not your average popcorn drama. You shall be overdosed on cuteness and might need to be admitted into the "aegyo" (Korean slang for cuteness) ward. Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Shik make for an absolute perfect match in this cuteness-overload

THE ARRIVAL It was a near-horrible first day in Budapest. The elevators didn't work. I met nice people, but my 18kg-bag didn't seem to help.  The transit from Ferihegy railway station to Szeged was a hot and damp 2-hour journey. It took about 5 minutes to finally cramp myself between three other adults in one of the claustrophobic coaches. I landed my sweaty body on a seat that had housed more than a thousand sweaty skins as mine. It felt good to finally sit. So I'm now in Szeged, and first things first, it felt like no one lived in the city. It had an eerie vibe. The tram stop just by the station had only three senior citizens waiting apart from the passengers that had just arrived. Maybe something was not right; but I read on about seven different blogs that Szeged was the last stop, so I couldn't have been in the wrong place. I convinced myself to be calm. After one stop, I saw the light. It was simple. Beautiful. Simply beautiful. I love the medie