first week of internship

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It’s Sunday and my first week of placement at cardiology department Adam Malik Hospital Medan has just ended. I’m so glad that I got no on-call today and that I can simply wake up close to noon and just staying home, surfing the internet and eat all day long.

The internship was really tiring, exciting, sad, and boring at the same time haha.

Tiring that I have to wake up so early and be at the hospital before 7 o’clock everyday. And there are on-calls, be it the evening shift or night shift till next morning and be in the hospital for so long hour!

And I’m always hungry cause m not sure when to eat and the fact that I cannot leave the department for too long. Plus the food at the hospital is not really nice haha. And quite expensive for me.

And it is exciting because I have learned a lot of things. It is really easier to learn it hands-on and to see how it’s being applied right away. And all the doctors are really helpful. And the chance to come close to patients is really a good thing and I love it.

And it’s really sad sometimes to see all the sufferings. Sometimes I think I'm quite depressed but I’ll learn to handle it. And I’m so happy if some is okay and leaving the ward to go home.

At certain time, it is kind of boring to stand at the hallway at the ward to wait for visits by the specialist to the ward. Normally I’ll be reading something but I’m just too tired.

And the best thing to do at home is to sleep! But all those faces of patients admitted to the hospital keep staying in my mind and I’ll always be praying that they will be okay soon.

about my late tok yah and pek.

I have been planning to write about my tok yah (grandfather) for a long time. But every time I want to start writing,  I just don’t know how to begin.

May be I should begin by saying that my tok yah was a very special person to me. Not just him but his wife, my grandmother who I called pek. They were the closest person to me other than my parents and my siblings. We lived together since I was small. We lived in the same house for many years... until they’re gone few years ago.

Actually it wasn’t really a same house that we’re living in.. but it was attached to each other. Just like how we’re attached and bonded to each other too.

I remember all those days when they were still around. When my Pek was always busy pulling out the grass that grew around our house during the day and in the evening I could hear her voice reciting the Quran everyday.. and at night, me and my sister would have our Quran lesson from her. It was she the one who made me able to read quran and to finish reading it for the first time.



While my tok yah.. he couldn’t walk really well since he had an accident. But he was the strongest person I knew. And he ate a lot. LOL. He worked really hard during his younger age, so I’ve been told. He had a hearing problem. And at night I could clearly hear the TV he watched from afar because the volume turned so high. And every evening he would sit in the rattan chair in front of the house, and he would tell me the endless story of his during his young age. From all those wars, mecca trip, football matches to kenduri during those times.. And I could still clearly hear his voice until now.. when he called my name and say: “Uda.. tengah masak apa tu.. burger ker..”  haha then we eat together. And his favourite food was fried rice. And just plain fried rice, no veggie or meat or chicken. Just plain rice. And his favourite drink was teh tarik.. or teh tarik kedai to be specific.. don’t try to make him teh tarik at home because it tastes different he said haha

And I could still vividly remember those times he always asked me questions asking when will I finished my studies. And when I gave him an answer he would say that he didn’t think he would live that long to see it himself. I always reacted saying it was wrong to say it.. it could be me the one who gone first. We never knew.. he didn’t say anything but I remember his look kinda said that he didn’t think so.

Now that they’re gone, I always missing them much. Sometimes I had these dreams where I got to see them. And talk and cried. They were the first person closest to me to be gone. And sometimes I keep asking question like where are they now?

But death is something that I really must get used to as a doctor. Some friends of mine who already started their clinical told me that it’s a normal scene in hospital to see people leaving this world everyday.

Pek and Tok Yah.. I really hope to see you one day!! And we can catch up with each other. Surely you guys have so many stories to tell. Like always.

wisuda (convocation)

Last month, two big things happened in my life. We medical students at Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) took the doctor’s Hippocrates oath and also graduated as young doctors. We received the sarjana kedokteran equal to medical degree. Unlike Malaysia, here we have two graduations. The first one as we just received will enable us to be ‘young’ doctors and to do our clinical course in local hospitals. This hands-on training is really an important part of our study. Later at the end of this course then we will be graduated again as a real doctor.


me, left and my housemate fauzan.

I’m so scared.. I think I’m not ready yet... There are still lots of thing I don’t know. Since I still got some times before actually start the internship, I will study and do revisions as much as I can. I don’t want to look like an idiot in front of other doctors and patients. And I want to be as helpful as possible to help the patients. And I really hope I can start studying as soon as possible! And stop being lazy much. Haha Work hard uda!!


my friends and i, jumping at the back hahah


took a photo at the flower decorated board congratulating Malaysian students.

adorable ubu

Now Ubu is sleeping. So there are no better time to write something in here. If not, she would never let me do this without disturbance and hassle, caused by her.

Ubu is the name of my recently adopted kitten. We (Syaf and I) found her shivering by the road side one night and didn’t have the heart to leave her alone. So we picked her up and brought her home. And she is part of our family since then. now, it has been almost a month already. 

She is very very naughty. She loves to help me push some unnecessary buttons on my keyboard and something I don't understand happened to my computer. When I was reading some articles on the internet she turned my computer into a sleep mode. When I was watching a movie she would bring up some player’s menu and control on the screen and I didn’t know how to remove it until I have been working on it for quite some time. When I was sleeping she would woke me up early by biting my fingers or licking my ears, annoyed, I put her outside haha. If I’m reading a book she’d come and sit on it and make that innocent look like she did nothing wrong.

And now there she is.. sleeping on my blanket. She looks so peace and super cute. Ahh adorable!!

moved to a new house.

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I am at our new house by the time I’m writing this post. We moved here, at Tanjung Sari, Medan for almost a month already. I kind of like this house very much. It’s a two-story house with 4 rooms, enough for each of us to get one each. Quite far from the Medan city centre but very close to ring road, an area booming with economic activities where new restaurants and marts are mushrooming. and it's also the cheapest house we've ever rented so far!

The first time when we arrived here (in Indonesia), we stayed in rented rooms or called kost by the locals. But staying there was not really easy since we have to respect the owner’s regulations (e.g. no noise allowed), difficult to cook and do social activities (haha), and also had to be home before certain time.

Then later we moved to a house very close to our faculty. It was quite expensive but we didn’t mind considering the location and money was not really a big issue then. =p

A year later, we decided to move again to a cheaper house and we did. It was more like a shop house, four stories and further away compare to the previous house. But wasn’t too far since I was still able to cycle to the campus everyday. but the area was really dusty. I mean REALLY dusty. We couldn’t cope with it and decided to move again after staying there for almost a year. Oh, and another thing, the water bill for two months was Rp2000000 equal to RM800! C-R-A-Z-Y

So here we are… at a new house. The place is really calm, and clean too. Lots of shop nearby, accessible with a better road quality (compare to other area), easier to go to Adam Malik Hospital and very close to mcD =p

Hopefully this house will be just fine… (will not gonna stay home much anyway once the internship started)

But so far…. Lots of mosquitoes!!

being alone again, but that's alright.

-->It’s semester break. All my closest friends are already went back home right now, to their hometown in Malaysia. Except me. I stay here. I do not go back because… I don’t think I have enough money to spend on the flight ticket and to pay for the expensive immigration thingy. Plus the holiday is not that long. Only for two weeks. So I decided not to go back.

Afiq was the last one to go back to Malaysia. I started to be alone after he went back last week. All my other friends have already gone back earlier. Me and Afiq we always have certain issue which sometimes put us in a… not-so-cool situation. We used to be very close before those ‘issues’ came up. I’m not going to babble about this in here. But I’m glad now since things since have been worked out a bit now. Or, maybe I’m just happy because with him, it’s always easier to go simply anywhere compare with people who always have reasons to not to-do or not to-go. We went the beach one day before he gone back. I love beach. And the view. And the breeze. Everything.

Now, here I am. Alone in my house. Like the previous times when I was alone during the holiday, the early part was the hardest. But as times goes… I’ll get used to it. And later enjoyed it. Enjoyed being alone and that I can spend all the time just by myself and for my self.

Somehow, this is the first time that I am completely alone as there are no more cats around. They were such great companion and friends. I remember.



But it is okay. Now, unlike those times, I have my computer with me. It is not that quiet anymore. And I can watch some movies to keep me sane. Or write some nonsense like I do now without having to go to the internet café.