Why was i able to go to London in the first place...???

well...one fine day in 2006 (when im still in year 2) some lecturer called me and told me that i was selected to go for overseas attachment. My first reaction was "Why me??!?"

i remembered that the first person i called was toh hsien yew....he was damn sad that i would have to leave him for a month but was happy for me at the same time that i could have this kind of exposure... Well..it is realli a rare chance....to be selected out of 800 students..should i go for it or should i leave it?

next i msg tang and jes....the 2 sweeties were damn supportive of me going....and they even told me not to worry about money issue..they said that if $ was an issue...they will help me with it no matter wad....was damn touched okiesss??!!? where on earth could i have such good friends??!?? Thanks loves!

then i called my womanss...and yea..they were so shocked and too, advised me to go...

Well...i went home and consulted my mum...she really wanted me to go but she was v worried and sad at the same time...eventually...she told me to make my own decision....

I thought it through, and i decide to leave it to fate.hahaz..i told my fren hoyin (she is supposed to go for overseas attachment too) that if i pass the interview....i'll go...she agreed and we both submitted the form.

We drew lots and the moment i opened the paper...it says "London"

And there is only 2 places for UK..which is me and yu qing...another girl that is supposed to go with me. I really found her very .... coz the first question she asked me was..."wads ur GPA like??" and she began to tell me that she likes museum, plays alot.and want to visit them when she is in london. -.- (my jaw almost dropped then...)

Few months later, i went for the interview..it was a group interview...by the manager of health sciences, principle of NYP and also manager of nursing. in the group of 4 being interviewed...i was the only 1 below 21 -.- well...interview went well...and of course, the trip to london was 50% confirmed.

All the paper work, preparation kept me busy till 2007 august, while i was having my exams....there was really alot of preparation to do...and i fell sick on the first paper of the semester. It was HS 3033. I didnt complete the paper (im still left with 2 SAQ which was 20marks) and due to a misunderstanding, i left the examination hall. well that wasnt the issue.but...that really caused alot of problems for me. well...but eventually overcame everything and 31/8/07 soon arrived after the 3 day LSCN course in school (it was another physical and mental torture after the semestral exams)

The flight was at 12am...so in the morning, i did some last min packing and settle the admin stuffs and i went out with mum. (toh hsien yew was working at IT-show then)

we went for a nice lunch and shop around till 4pm when i go back home to do the final packing. I thought to myself then...times really files...i really couldn believe that im actually already setting off! well 9pm, mum and i took a cab to the airport..

i met my dears...who came to send me off....Car, suyi, mau, winnie ye~ lovely ppls...

Later on, jes came, together with her came tang....my lovely mates...i was damn surprised coz i didnt know that tang would be coming...again..we took photos and chatted....

I began to worry if toh hsien yew is able to come before i check in...finally he did...and tog with boonkeong...

haha....life is really full of coincidences. i actually met my pri school fren (my best fren in pri 2, back in clementi town pri) through suyi's friend... Wierd!!!

Finally it was 11pm and i had to check in...i bid everyone goodbye and hugged every1...my mum was the last...and the saddest...she cried and that really made me feel....soo sad! but i told myself to hold those tears and move on...

i realised i forgot to tell xunci that i was leaving...but i only came to realised that when i was on the plane.

finally i took the plane...that had a stopover at columbia and then we stopover at Dubai...then we took the plane to UK... our lecturer's friend, Ms chan was waiting for us at the Gatwick airport...we arrived at 2pm london time, so me and yuqing, together with ms chan took a train then transited to a tube and headed to our hostel. It was a Borough tube station.

First time in a foreign country all by myself...no mum, no family...just yuqing and i....we settled the reception at the hostel... and we lugged our luggage up the 4 story high stairs....It was a torture! when we finally arrived in our room (room9), i just feel like flying back to singapore rightaway.!! it was a 4 beded room(with 2 double deck bed) with just about 1metreX1metre space to walk about. I went to the shower room, there werent even lock to talk about. It was just curtains and a shower hose and thats it (it just like those shower room that u use in swimming pools), lucky enough there was warm water to bathe.

After spending 2 hours packing our luggage, we decided to head down to a super big supermarket near our place, but still require us to take a bus. We bought some groceries..Everything was simply expensive to us as converted to singapore dollars. (for e.g a bag of spinach was about $4) We went back to the hostel and we went into the common kitchen to cook our food. When we entered the kitchen, every1 was looking at us, it was just like it was the first time they seen asians. We carried on cooking our maggie mee and we ate our dinner. when we went back to our room, i was simply shocked beyond words when i saw a half naked men lying on the opposite bed, sleeping...-culture shock.

The next morning i woke up and went down for the provided breakfast. Soon when we came back, we chatted with the half naked guy last night. He was actually a nice guy and we've come to realise that it was actually perfectly normal for caucassian guys to sleep just in their underwear. i was just aint use to it.

slowly we interacted with our 2 roomates and things started to be alittle better. Then on monday we had to report to the hospital.so sunday we went to reki the route to the hospital. we realised that the hospital was jus a 20min walk away from our hostel. (abt 2Km lorr) so we decided to walk to work everday. Oh ya...when we were reki-ing, that stupid yuqing go and help a wheelchair bounded old man. Im ok with her helping him to cross the road...but do u noe where she help him to??back to his house??and i jus followed behind...feeling damn worried (he might be some1 bad lehz!!!!) his house is like another 1 Km away from where we were...so scary lorrr!!!!!!omg....

Mon-first day to hosp...we met the lecturer that was in charge of us at the university at 10am and walked to the hosp afterwards. Den we walk around the ward (we werent even in our uniform-they told us not to change de.) and they allowed us to go home at 3pm..we didnt even do anything...hahaz~jus walked around. So we started work officially on tue. first week we both were togther and i didnt wait for YQ lar..she ar...damn slow every morning 1... -.- so i go to wrok every morning without her.hahaz~ i'll reach the ward at about 7.15 and she will just nice reach at 7.30 (anyway we work from 7.30am to 8pm, 3 shift per week and the other days is off)

hosp that i worked in

So the following week is work work and work....free time i would either go oxford street to shop or i will go around with yuqing~

we change room very frequently. The tue that we start work..we changed from room 9 to room 5 6am in the morning..it was a 8beded room. And at night when i was about to fall asleep, yuqing sudd came up and tell me that we are in the wrong room @#!$#%#$%...so we moved to room 6 instead. I stayed in room6 till week 3 and we changed to room5 on thu for 1 night and to room 1 (12 beded) on fri and to room 9 on sat. well...we stayed in room 9 again..the onli 4 beded room.

1 thing i want to mention...damn irritated. When i was in room9, it was week4 tue. When i went back after work, i went into room9, i realised yuqing and my belongings were all GONE! it was actually moved to room 7 (11 beded) without our permission because the reception told us that some1 booked room9 beforehand and they forgot abt it...! @#$# not my problem also lehz...!!! and they threw all our things on the floor of room 7..!!! irritating. but well..it was all over...and me and yuqing suspect that they had bedbug in room7. coz we were both bitten..on top of my "sores" that is due to dryness. (i had this sores on my hands and legs and neck because it was toooo dry and it was damn itchy). we moved back to room 9 on the next morning. and well well... on our last few days...which was a fri, we moved to room 8 (6beded) and finally no more moving of rooms.!!! we stayed there till mon when we had to check out.

i cook rice sometimes (my mum forced me to bring a packet of 1kg rice to london), sometimes i eat bread, whenever im in hosp...i will eat bread and cereals and some other things...sandwiches etc etc. whenever i go out with yuqing, we will visit the local bars to try the food. we tried fish and chip, pies, nachos, pizza, chicken etc etc. Before coming back, i think was week 4 sat, i met hongsheng, with his girlfriend and his fren. we went to a rib duno-wad resturant and i had ribs and we all shared a super big sized banana split.

well...of coz i did alot of shopping....my fav shop was Dorothy Perkins.hahaz~i bought dresses, tops and even clothes as gift there. haha...well of coz i went into the other shops as well...hmm...i bought alot of england clothes and YSL clothes for Toh hsien yew...hahaz...and i super super super love the marks and spencer there..!!! its damn big can....unlike oursss...haha...i like esp the grocery section (the size of carrefour's grocery section)...and they had soooo much pre-prepared meal packets...sooo much variety of salads and soo much variety of everything॥hahaz।~ (im just like an auntie)

Shopping area..haha

Harrods...~

Hahaz...this is the garden museum that i paid £2.50 to go in~~~hahaz...nothing much but alot of greeny things

Thats the entrance

me and yu qing

This is greenwich park...hahaz...nice scenery....i went with 1 of my roommate...his name is Henrick...a guy from Denmark...hahaz...

Police..hahaz

Chinatown. Perhaps thats the only place where you can hear ppl speaking mandrine everywhere

Legendary London bridge...

the view from london bridge

Borough market-it isnt a wet market..hahaz

River Thames- the hosp that im attached to is just by the river.

Buckimham palace-the place where the queeen stays

Hyde park.

TOWER brigde.hahaz

Trafalgar Square

Tube (MRT of london)

meee~~