Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Words that can't be said

Some people must be eager to hear me tell the story of my viva. Well I don't know there really isn't much to tell, but I can try to illuminate some rather interesting points.

Firstly, a very very big thank you to all the wonderful friends who have sent me messages of encouragement and luck the past two days: Wee Ming, Hope, George, David, Liying, Raymond, Jiabin, ZF, Aishu. Words have no way of expressing how much gratitude I feel towards all of you for helping to boost my confidence when I felt I was going to go in and make a fool of myself.

Well, anyway I still think I made a fool of myself. For all that I said the experience would be a good one, it was totally nerve-wracking waiting for 7 people to go before you, and observing how some people took such a long time but others emerged not too long after entering, and then to spend a meagre amount of time in the room and not know what that means. I was totally perplexed by Prof Seah's questions because she phrased them rather weirdly, then corrected me when I tried to answer the question I thought she was trying to ask, and her rephrased questions made me even more confused, to the point that Prof Taylor had to interrupt to make things clear to me from time to time. I felt really retarded, like all my wits had left me the moment I stepped into the room, because I forgot Haemophilus influenzae as a cause of childhood meningitis. I suck.

All right, the complaining is over, and honestly I fear the very worst (people will kill me for saying this, because the very worst is probably still an A-). And I'm quite pissed that for all the studying I tried to do for the past few days, hardly a morsel of it was asked in the viva. Pooh.

Post-trauma activities with George were a wonderful distraction from the disaster of the morning, and he introduced me to some wonderful food at some good-and-affordable restaurants along Orchard Road, namely Cream Bistro and Marmalade Pantry. The desserts at Marmalade Pantry are divine, I must say. And the environs are so classy it makes the dining experience a delightful one. Oh and after dessert at Marmalade Pantry we went into the DKNY store in Palais Renaissance and promptly both went gaga over a gorgeous shirt that is beyond description (you might be wondering if you're at the wrong blog; you're not) and if it makes me go gaga it is really something, I think. George ended up buying the shirt eventually because it was so nice. Nice doesn't even scratch the surface as an adjective.

The rest of the day was spent walking through various boutiques in Orchard Road and getting stunned by unbelievably exorbitant prices. We met some people from Medicine too, and so I spent some time describing my woeful travails to the people who asked. Right now my legs are so sore I feel like I've just run a few kilometres and I have no idea why. It must have been the leather shoes I was wearing.

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that I'm hopeless at chronicling (in fact I said that Hope is better than me). And I just noticed the unintended pun in that sentence. Yeah anyway the above paragraphs show how bad I am at chronicling, because I make very uninteresting lists of things done and places visited and people seen.

Argh I really can't write. Shall end here for now.

Avaris / 4/13/2005 08:56:00 PM

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