Under pressure

Life has been… okay. Semester 2 is sort of starting to pan out the same way semester 1 has. I’m slowly drowning in the pile of lecture notes, feeling more stupid each time I turn up to lectures and oh, there’s still that assignment I have yet to start planning for. So yes, life is as it always have been. Plus or minus a few small changes.

The first change this semester is that us med students are now permanently located in the medical building. So not only are we socially isolated because we have a structured course but we’re now physically isolated too. At least last semester, we were in the Copland Theatre and occassionally, adventurous enough to venture over to the Asia Centre on the other side of the campus. Now, we are always in the Sunderland Theatre. The only good thing I can say about this arrangement is that Sunderland Theatre has the best tables (yes, we actually have proper desks instead of arm rests). Other than that, it’s okay.

My parents have flown down from Glasgow to look after/control me. We moved to a bigger house last Friday (the night of the Olympics) so there was a lot of packing, panicking, unpacking and more panicking. Of course, the first thing we unpacked was the big heavy TV so that we could watch the opening ceremony, which was awesome by the way. It was by far the best opening ceremony I’ve ever seen and I love the way they lit the torch. It’s currently equal first with the Sydney torch (which unfortunately got marks deducted due to the 10 minutes technical delay).

Studies have been interesting to say the least. This semester, we’re focusing on Nutrition, Digestion and Metabolism, which means we’ve all become extremely aware of how much junk we’re shoving down our own throats. After reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, I lost all appetite for ground beef and just beef in general (though I mistakenly chowed down a sausage sizzle a couple of weeks ago – minor error in judgment). Normally, for tutorials, we would bring chips, cookies and everybody would be happy. Now, the staple is fruits and often, the chip packets are left untouched. Tomorrow, we’re doing a Glucose Tolerance Test to see whether our body are handling everything okay. Of course, there is the hours of fasting to look forward to (nothing to eat from 10am to 4pm) not to mention taking our own blood samples. Should be interesting, that is, unless you found out you had diabetes.

While on the topic of food, has anybody else noticed the prices at Union House has gone up? I didn’t notice it at first but then I saw all these little signs apologizing for the increase “due to economic conditions out of our control” or “new management”. While some people may point out that all the asian shops haven’t increased in price, but have you seen the servings they’ve been handing out these days? They’re just giving us less for the same price. So haha, we’re getting ripped off either way.

Also, I don’t think I’m the only person who has noticed the ridiculous line outside Sagon Noodles every day. It sure is popular these days. I blame that solely on the weather. It’s so cold these days. I’m having trouble getting up in the mornings at 6am. Even though I’m getting decent hours of sleep, it feels as though the second after I lie down, I have to get up again. It makes day such as today, where I have an 8am lecture and then nothing for the rest of the day, seem frustratingly pointless. Especially since now that I’ve moved to the east, every morning being squeezed into a carriage like sardines in a tin can is not pleasant.

Anyway, back on the topic of Olympics, I have to say I am absolutely disgusted over the opening song fiasco. So what if Lin Miaoke was cuter than Yang Peiying, this type of thing just should not happen. We are pretty much saying to the future generation, all you need to do to be successful is to be pretty. Doesn’t matter if you can’t sing, as long as you’re pretty, you get to be on the cover of that CD or perform the song. Doesn’t matter if you can’t do maths or science, you’re pretty so we’ll give you a degree anyway. Doesn’t matter if you can’t actually do surgery, we just need you there to be pretty. Okay, maybe I’m going over the top, but you get my point. And the worst thing is, I don’t get how, in a country with over 1 billion people, they couldn’t find a little girl who is both cute and can sing. It’s not about the time restraints or the pressure of having to project the perfect image, they just didn’t look hard enough. So save your excuses.

Now that I’ve got myself all worked up, I think I’ll wander off and do some studying.

Cheers,

Yuan�