Saturday, December 12, 2009

Update: ASEAN Students Career Fair

If interested let me know, or register directly at http://aynjapan.com/careerfair2011/ :)

Exclusively only for South-east Asian students in Japan;
Companies joining ASEAN Students Career Fair (hosted by AYNJ 20th Feb next year!):
大和証券SMBC Daiwa Securities SMBC|旭化成 Asahi Kasei|古河電気工業 Furukawa Electric|ローソン Lawson|ヤマハYamaha|日立化成工業 Hitachi Chemicals|富士古河E&C Fuji Furukawa Engineering & Construction|ブラザー工業 Brother Industries|丸紅 Marubeni Corp|クラレ Kuraray|..and more companies expected to come!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

2nd Dec:To Do List

Yes!!! Next event is at 4pm, which means I have umm 5hours free time!!
Oh so precious!!! XD

To do list (within 5hrs) :
1) read up 8 (hopefully short) articles on history-taking
2) watch a video on physical examinations
3) read 2 articles on differential diagnoses
4) take a walk
5) skip lunch cuz took a really big breakfast
..and if got time,
6) read up for tomorrow's surgery
7) start preparing for 2 presentation (one for AYNJ Cafe!)
etc etc

But first, hmm.. i need to go the ladies' room, hehehe :p
I've got a benkyoukai from 5-9pm too; it's gonna be a looong day.

Monday, November 30, 2009

東南アジア留学生就職フェア in 2011!

A career fair for South-east Asian students in Japan, don't miss it!


http://aynjapan.com/careerfair2011/
【東南アジア ・ 留学生 ・ 就職】
Good luck people! Hee :D

Monday, November 16, 2009

日本の医師免許で海外で働けるか?

[A self-note for myself]
Is it possible for me to work back home after graduation??
  • the Japanese medical license is only recognized in UK, France and Singapore. Even so, there's a limit to number of those who can practice (5 - 15 ppl)
  • or I can work 5 years or so here, then apply for vacancy at the MOH, as a foreign doctor, that is..
  • there's no mention of an international medical licensing examination that's recognized back home

Planning to ask around when I go back for holidays in September next year. Working in Japan is not bad at all; in fact I hope to do training here. Just thinking of ways how to contribute to the medical system back home, hmm..

Playing on my youtube now

I just looooove her hair in this video!
So feminine yet needing minimum maintenance (or so it seems) :D

Saturday, October 17, 2009

For those feeling helpless and lost.

I've had my moments too: feeling frustrated and helpless, not being able to see anything beyond tomorrow.. Time and patience, prayers and lots of unrelated-cheerful conversations with parents and friends made them bearable. People do say we need to face up to our problems, but I think we don't have to rush.. It's not about trying not to think about them, it's about not dwelling on them. Whoever said I need to feel sad and depressed all the time?? I'll deal with them when the time comes, in the meanwhile I'll hold my head up, smile and just do my best :)

A nice song, like the lyrics..
Mariah Carey's Through the Rain



When you get caught in the rain
With nowhere to run
When you're distraught and in pain without anyone
When you keep crying out to be saved

But nobody comes and you feel so far away
That you just can't find your way home
You can get there alone
It's okay, what you say is

I can make it through the rain, I can stand up once again on my own
And I know that I`m strong enough to mend
And every time I feel afraid I hold tighter to my faith
And I live one more day and I make it through the rain

And if you keep falling down, don't you dare give in
You will arise safe and sound, so keep pressing on steadfastly
And you'll find what you need to prevail
What you say is

I can make it through the rain, I can stand up once again on my own
And I know that I'm strong enough to mend
And every time I feel afraid I hold tighter to my faith
And I live one more day and I make it through the rain

And when the rain blows, as shadows grow close
Don't be afraid, there's nothing you can't face
And should they tell you, you'll never pull through
Don't hesitate, stay tall and say

I can make it through the rain, I can stand up once again on my own
And I know that I'm strong enough to mend
And every time I feel afraid I hold tighter to my faith
And I live one more day and I make it through the rain

I can make it through the rain
As stand up once again
And I live one more day
And I can make it through the rain
Yes, you can
You're gonna make it through the rain


**************
Don't let your problems pull you down yeah?
Take care and put faith in God.

Raya celebrations d Jepun

Ah, yes, Syawal is almost over.. Even though I couldn't go home for Raya this year (again) the festivities can still be felt, thanks to the embassy and fellow Bruneians in Japan :D Thank you everyone!!


Raya at the Bruneian embassy, Shinagawa



At Halen's apartment, Tokyo

The embassy gave us free food in the form of buffet catering from Rasa restaurant in Ginza. As for the 2nd raya gathering at Halen's apartment we made our own foods, and brought along cakes sent from home. It was fun, got to meet new and long-time-no-see people :)

Where will my Raya be next year? ehehe :D

Japan: Towards free education and a more practical teacher training

Only one month since the elections in Japan, and already many influential proposals brought up..
Among those particularly of (my) interest:
1. free-of-charge high school education in Japan by April 2010
2. extending practical teacher training from current 2-4 weeks to 1 year

Was surprised to know that up till now to-be teachers only had one month of practical training; that's really short! Making school fees FOC all of a sudden is, well, great news, but one has to wonder how the government's going to pay the schools, or whether they're going to implement that proposal after all. Let's wait and see..



> Schools for foreigners, technical colleges included in DPJ's free high school lesson plan - Mainichi Japan, Oct 14, 2009
> Teacher training to be extended to 6 years under DPJ plans - Mainichi Japan, Oct15, 2009

Friday, October 2, 2009

Why do some people fight?

*BTW, it's Mahatma Gandhi's birthday today :) I'm not actually clear on what kind of person he is (I know he did a controvesial yet peaceful demonstration back in India); I'll have to read up about that :)
Indeed, mutual understanding is a difficult thing. Just imagine how the world can be a much better, more peaceful place without all the misunderstandings.

-From Brunei Times
ONCE there were two boys who were great friends and determined to remain that way forever. When they grew up and got married, they built their houses facing one another. There was a small path that formed a border between their farms.

One day, a trickster from the village decided to play a trick on them. He dressed himself in a two-colour coat that was divided down the middle. So, one side of the coat was red, and the other side was blue. The trickster wore this coat and walked along the narrow path between the houses of the two friends. They were each working opposite each other in their fields. The trickster made enough noise as he passed them to make sure that each of them would look up and see him passing.

At the end of the day, one friend said to the other,
"Wasn't that a beautiful red coat that man was wearing today?"

"No", the other replied. "It was a blue coat."
They started arguing heatedly and eventually began to beat each other.

Just then, the trickster returned and faced the two men, who were punching and kicking each other and shouting, "Our friendship is OVER!" The trickster showed them his coat. He laughed at their silly fight. The two friends stopped fighting and screamed at the trickster saying, "We have lived side by side like brothers all our lives. Now you have started a war between us."

"Don't blame me for the battle," replied the trickster.
"I did not make you fight. Both of you are wrong, and both of you are right. Yes, what each one saw was true. You are fighting because you only looked at my coat from your own point of view."

I can imagine several international conflicts arising from such misunderstandings *sigh* Do I personally know someone who have had fights due to something similar? I hope not :)
Peace and understanding everyone :)

「空気人形」 - a movie

Oh come on..
Look past the maid uniform, and ignore the nuance behind the term "空気人形" will you? ;p

Seems like an interesting movie; of course there's the sad romantic plot, but I'm more interested on how they're going to portray a world with life-like dolls replacing people and the other characters in the story. Maybe something worthwhile for people who like 'people-observation' (like myself).


And yeah, Odagiri Jyo's in the movie too eheh :D

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Progress at Anesthesiology department ❤

One more day till the rotation's over; it's been a short one week :) I can't say I've enjoyed everything there though ..

Displeasures:
1. having to arrive at uni, change into operating room(OR) scrubs and be seated at the AN conference room by 8am
2. standing for hours during a surgery just watching (doing nothing)
3. seeing disgruntled people (luckily only one lady doctor i saw was)

Pleasures:
1. sometimes the tutor of the day actually lets me do "stuff" hehehe
2. i witnessed the delivery of a baby, my first ever!!! :D (caesaeran section)
3. kind tutor goes out of her way to drill me w questions (which was partly uncomfortable ahah) and make me understand what's going on

Sure, it was tiring and sleepy at times, but all in all I had a fulfilling week :) Nothing can replace the sense of joy felt when everything finally makes sense; it's like the world opened up a little more!

Bersyukur tah kitani semua..

Yahoo.com - Ketsana leaves more than 360 dead across SE Asia
Yahoo.com - Strong Indonesia quake kills hundreds, traps more

These past few days have seen several natural disasters hitting the southern hemisphere, especially in South East Asia. Typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, and the 7.8 Ricther scale earthquake in Sumatra Indonesia, both claiming hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of lives, causing widespread damage and panic within the affected areas.

Luckily for Brunei we're just barely out of range to feel anything, and the Malaysian peninsula protected us from direct influences from tsunamis. Typhoons have never put us in their path. Surely we've had cases of haze and rainstorms causing flashfloods, but face it, these are nothing compared to what damage these natural disasters wreak.

Brunei is very lucky (maybe too lucky?)
Let's not take our lifes for-granted.
Count your blessings, learn from the past, be prepared for anything.
Mudah-mudahan dijauhkan dari timpa bala, Amin..

P.S> remember this story? we're not that immune u know.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Ideas ideas, before I forget

I've thought of some simple ideas for further development of AYNJ:
(this is a self-note; i'll email the reps about this anyways)

1. advertising for recruitment of representatives
Honestly, we need more people who have time or/and really interested in organising AYNJ activities. Sometimes the current representatives are too busy with studies it's difficult to get them to meetings where we discuss plans for activities.
So what we can do is appeal to the general student population (not through student organisations) and if they are interested in actively participating in the meetings/organising then they can apply through their respective countries' student organisations.

Thing is, we've never reached out to the student population. Well maybe we have, as participants for the various yearly activities, but not when planning and organising events. We would need more people to do brain-storming together especially when we intend to organise something new (like the AYNJ Academic Forum coming up, soon?).

How to carry out: presentations and posters.
During AYNJ Festival or career fair, we can set aside 5 minutes for a simple presentation (PR) about AYNJ, and appeal to students the other part of AYNJ, as in the management, inter-student-org communication, brain-storming sessions. Then leave a note at the end: to those interested to represent their countries please contact ur student organisation :)
Posters can help; times when time is limited to do presentations, you can just stick a poster or 2 at venues (example AYNJ Sports). You can use the catch phrase "We Need You!" - okay maybe that's lame :p But yes, something is better than nothing.

2. Academic forum
The academic forum is a totally new event for AYNJ and is still in the works. I 'd recommend reps share it among their own organisations now and bring along whatever conclusions they've reached to the next meeting. It'll save time on decision making, and we can get an idea of response (level of interest) among students.

3. Students section on homepage
And let's add a student section to the homepage :) Since we are indeed a network of student organisations let's put up something that might be helpful for students: for example about health insurance, visa renewals, university applications, upcoming seminars by JASSO etc etc. Do I have to elaborate about how this can be good to the students and AYNJ?


You read through all this??
You must either already be in AYNJ or interested in it, come come!!
How do you transform ideas into action? Cooperation; that's why we need you :)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

マレー語@豆しば! 

I was surprised when they put `belajar` in the CM, and even more surprised to find out what word it sounds like in Japanese :p Ah, so ridiculous..

In the mid of Raya celebs??

photo and original article at Brunei Times

Brunei had a major blackout whilst still in Raya celebrations :p
On the other hand, imagine how much CO2 production we reduced!
The occasional celebrations by candlelight and pelita oil lamps is not that bad; we did that long before electricity came to Brunei right? :)

Monday, September 28, 2009

Oh, wisemen!

*** Imagine not needing to think/worry/ponder/lose hair over/get depressed about worldly issues, wouldn't that be great? Haha! :D ***

I'm sure everyone have had those days, when they're so troubled with an issue it's all they can think of night and day. I have my own issues too, but that I'll spare for another day. Wish there was someone I can talk to and get advice from. No, not from friends, because even though they're kind and caring enough to give me advice, face it, they're not convincing enough. You'd think, "Hey, but actually, they really don't know haha.." They're lacking that something... "credibility", that's the word!

Then who should we turn to for "credible" advice? Specialists? Scientists? Psychologists? Counsellers? I was reminded of old fables where villagers may turn to the village wiseman for advice; why not someone like him?? Or like Professor Dumbledore in Harry Porter. Or Gandalf the Grey from LOTR. Or the Oracle from Matrix. lol.

You know what I need?? An old man, with a great deep voice and kind eyes yet strict face, to tell me what to do. His words of wisdom would have to be concise, short, or maybe so short that the advice borders on turning into a puzzle. "Oh wiseman, please tell me what to do?" *eyes glistening with desperate tears* "Yes, thank you! Thank you so much oh wise one!!"

*Sigh* Alas, the genuine Wise Man is hard to find. Sure, you can find many wise-looking people sitting down outside Shinjuku station: fortune-teller and palm readers.. They've only met you on the spot yet they can tell you your source of troubles, when you're gonna get married etc etc, wow!! In the actual truth they don't read your fortune or lines on your palm, they read your 'aura' : as in how you look like (expressions, clothes, posture) and see how u answer their questions. Speculations here and there, programmed-responses (there has to be a manual for these), and an utterly convincing presentation that they'll make you believe they know everything about you, basically. Whether there are people who can actually see the future (especially yours of all people) only God knows ;)

What was I talking about again?? Oh yes, the genuine, ultimate 'Wise man'. Someone who knows everything about you and has all the wisdom in the world to give you the one correct, definitely fail-proof answer you need. But hold on.. who would know everything about ourselves? Parents, only what you tell them :) Friends, well a special few, but they've never lived with you your whole life :p And definitely not people you just met on the street right? Nope, no one, except ourselves..

After paragraphs of musing and typing, this is what I come to?? Conclusion: there is no such person as a genuine wise man. We can ask around for ideas, but all-in-all looks like we have to think and make decisions for ourselves. Argh.

*frustrated* End.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

麻酔科 Rotation: 28/09-02/10

Rotations restarts tomorrow after the week-long holiday ('Silver week'). I'm actually going back to work; after too long a holiday you might go crazy trying to find something to do. Okay, maybe not you, but I would.

Starting tomorrow: 麻酔科 (Anesthesiology) clinical rotation for one week.
For those not familiar, Anesthesiology is where patients get medication to put them in a painless sleep during a surgery, and where they can also get medication to cope with post-operative, or even surgery-unrelated pain (they have a 'Pain clinic' just for that). We did the theory (and memorizing) back in the 4th year already but... Humans do forget yeah? Eheh.. Revision revision revision :/

If I find time I'll put something abt what I re-learned through rotation.

To the both of you

Shy, funny and passionate,
kind yet selfish, conservative but receptive.
Critics yet imperfect, traditional but tolerant,
proud and humble.
Well-meaning critical thinkers with warm hearts,
making mistakes and clumsy at emotional expressions..
I've never said it out loud,
but I'm proud of the both of you.
I love you very much, my parents, I really do :)

- Raya Day 4, Facebook post

Dedicated to myself

"Hello world!" - wordpress.com

I'm setting this up as belated-birthday present for myself.
Here's your chance to make sense of that cloud of thoughts constantly hovering round you head Shalena. *pats self on back* :)