The first post on what really took place in Moscow, my 2nd home for the past 9 months I was there to complete my 1st year, officially in med school.
Well, as the name states, life there is nothing but madness. From the early mornings to another early morning, my days are mostly spent on my study table, with my dear friends-the thick books; except weekends where my friends and I will take some to let our hair off for a day or so.
School days
[ 1st Semester : Monday - Friday ]
[ 2nd Semester : Monday - Saturday ]
We were actually laughing and teasing the people who had Saturday classes when we first started off because I've got 2 roomies who had to wake up early in the morning for their classes while the 3 of us were still in our dreams! And, it ended up, we've got a 6-day timetable in the next semester! (guess we shouldn't teased them eh?) BUT, in the 2nd semester, THEY too had Saturday classes!! :D
After doing some math, we found out that we were way better than them! We had approximately 16 Saturdays off!
The best part was during the Saturdays when I've got Histology classes, my teacher is a real mom! She lets us off early whenever we finished all the tasks of the day, which includes looking at slides, drawing the cells, and the computerized MCQ. That particular teacher actually told us to go have fun after class, reminding us off and on that we should never walk alone wherever we go, and she told the guys in my class to protect the girls wherever we go. HAHA.
Talking about the computerized MCQ, it's scary. The concept is something like the Undang test we had back then, but it's way worse. There's no such thing called 'undo' and you can change your selected answer. So, it's either choose wisely or die! It's 12 questions per week, (it's a weekly thingy, no escape) and you can only have ONE mistake to get the full mark of 5.
The 'favorite' day of all 1st years is none other than THURSDAY. Just go around asking and you will hear a lot of different types of sadness and worries. Thursday is the day where we will play with organs in the Anatomy department. Sounds fun, right? But it's not at all fun when it's added with surprise tests by your teachers. The controls are once in a fortnight, and the amount of terms I gotta get into my teenie weenie brain is like Mt. Everest. And once in a blue moon, my nice teacher will start asking you some situational tasks where, again, your brain needs to be squished and juiced. During every control, there's a lot of drama! Some will be so scared till they mixed up everything. Usually the hostel will be filled with noise and chatterings and the 'mama' had to shoo us to bed, but on Wednesday nights, she won't need to do this, as everyone will be in their rooms, hugging their atlas and textbooks; finding out all ways to get every single term and their locations into their heads. The kitchen will be empty on Wednesday evenings. And on Thursday mornings all students will be seen walking like zombies. In the bus, in the metro, we will all be reading! That's the story of our favorite day of the week.
Next, there are a few teachers who has the ability to tease a person and act as though it was just a normal thing.
For instance, my Latin sir. He's the clown of the class. He's also a language genius, he knows a lot of languages, except mandarin. hehe. It was the second class of the semester and he expected all of us to memorize the Latin alphabets, and when we got to class, he started taking out the usual namelist and called the 1st person to tell him all the alphabets.
"A, B, C...urm.. D....................urm"
"Why are u thinking? Are u going to be a doctor or a philosopher? Stop thinking and just give me the flow of alphabets..No philosopher in my class ok"
The next victim was me. And, thank God, it went fine. I wasn't a philosopher. :P
Then, it was this fine day in winter, when it was very cold, and the window was slightly opened. He saw us being uncomfy and asked the guy who sat near the window to close it. And this guy is the 'best student' of the whole class as he only attended 2/7 classes that time.
Sir saw the guy having a hard time closing the window, and he said,
"Use brain, don't use strength..."
And we all laughed, but the sir remained cool as a cucumber. He was indeed a very nice and kind sir.
One lecturer, when a few students were late for his lecture.
"The lecture began 20minutes ago. Which part of the world are you from? China? London? US? Which clock are u following?
When another few came in..
"I told you all to come for lecture at 12 noon, not 12 midnight.."
"What mode of transport did you take to reach this lecture hall? The metro? WOW, I didn't know Moscow metro was that slow..."
Oh ya, and there's another Chemistry sir, who is really good and he smiles everytime he sees you. And once before our small weekly test,
"Well, are there any other questions before I distribute the variants?"
My classmate answered, "Urm, sir, what's the answer to the 1st question?"
Being sporting, the teacher, standing in front with his smile, looked at the question and then, "It's A"
We were all shocked, thinking he just gave us an answer to make us happy, but after my friend, who got the variant that the teacher saw, the answer was indeed an A.
***
No worries, I'm not a pure nerd there. I do hang out with friends after a massive exam week, either we'll go grocery shopping, chat at a cafe, or just crash into thguys' room opposite for a game of Counter Strike that will last till 12am! (although we don't really know how to play, we'll just play, taking the opponents as the lecturers we dislike most. haha)
OR, we'll get really crazy and cook up a really good meal, or go get a barbecue set just for the fun of barbecuing in the park, cookie party, picnic and all the way to making chocolate fondue.
p/s: I don't know what happened that this wasn't up until I checked it. haha. enjoy!
