who's soonger??

Exams begin!

Wednesday, December 5.

Wish me luck... I've got an exam in a couple of hours!

One week left

Saturday, December 9.

Well, my first exam was health systems, one of the social science courses we have to take in our last year. It was a tough one, indeed! Three sections to it-- the section that I thought would be the easy section was the most frustrating and most difficult. We had seen NOTHING like it in class. The other sections were to be expected-- typical fluff essay and straightforward short answer questions.

That was Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were the other exam days for me. It was the same prof teaching 2 different courses. The format for both exams were the same-- 50 multiple guess questions. Let me say that it was quite the humbling experience. No matter how hard you studied the questions asked were all application questions. Very challenging but at least I didn't waste my time studying day and night for them. There were many grumblings after the Friday exam-- many did not have the Thursday test (they took another elective) so they had no idea what they were to expect!

After Friday morning's exam, I went out for lunch (dim sum) with my friend, Janet. It was good seeing her after such a long time, a lot has happened to both of us since we last spoke. It was good catching up with her. Afterwards, I went to see Unbreakable with my friend, Rashna. The walk there was pretty bad-- not only was it cold but it was snowing pretty hard. The movie overall was not bad-- it is in some ways quite similar to the sixth sense but it has its own unique character to stand on its own. I thought it was neat how things were uncovered-- I was in a watch-and-see mentality (as opposed to think mode) so the "surprise" ending was a bit of a surprise to me. (To those who want to compare-- the surprise factor of sixth sense is WAY MORE surprising.) In any instance, the performances by all were good. Samuel L. Jackson did a good job with his role. As with all M. Night Shamaylan films, the dialogue flows and he throws a whole lot of clues to fill you in. Of course, he wants you to see it again so that you can catch all the cues to the ending. Quite ingenious an approach. On the SoongScale, I have to give it a solid 7.5 out of 10.

For this weekend, I have to study therapeutics hardcore. I have an oral exam Monday morning, 9AM. So there is little time for me to get things all done... it's gonna cost me tonight and tomorrow night...

That's it for now-- the hardest exam is Monday then research and professional practice exams on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. I think the end of my studying energies will be spent by Monday. I'll be on cruise control after that. What to do? Six exams over the course of nine days? You do the math!

Back from T.O.

Saturday, December 16.

Let me tell you how great it feels to be done exams! Woo-Hoo! Six exams over nine days wasn't pretty but they were somewhat nicely spaced.

After handing in my professional practice exam 45 minutes before the final call, the feeling was surreal-- there was no way that I was done school, right? Well, that was true on one part but my time at U of T was over. It was a sad feeling but at the same time it was invigorating.

What I found hard to believe was that people brought alcohol to the exam. What were they thinking? They could get expelled for doing that. And worst yet: we were in a high school (actually at UTS)-- do you want to set such an example to minors? Some people weren't using their heads...

The first thing we did was go to the Madison-- our social rep decided to make reservations at a very nearby pub for people to sit, chat, have a drink if they wished or food. It was a good time-- people were pretty sloshed when it was time to go home. The night ended pretty early-- around 7:30. Others went on to another pub-- Einstein's. Others decided to go to a club-- Tonic. I decided to do both. (Yes, I am crazy.) Wanted to say good-bye to as many people as I could before I packed things away for Windsor.

It was a VERY LATE night for me. Close to 5AM. Why? I stayed out until 2, grabbed a bite to eat (thank you, KJY for all the great food you have served me these 4 years) and showered and then had to help my friend pack for home. Actually, she was going straight home to meet up with her family to go on vacation-- a cruise on the Caribbean to be exact! She couldn't take everything home so she moved a whole lotta stuff into my room (since I was vacating the place for the next 2 months). Guess who had to stay up to help pack and move the stuff?? It was ugly and I was getting very cranky moving stuff at 4AM. Worst yet: I was driving when my folks came! One good thing about not studying too much on Thursday-- I packed all my things. I was ready to go when my folks arrived.

I wasn't allowed to sleep in for my friend had needed help that morning to move the last of her stuff (things she needed that evening) into my room. It was a blessing in disguise-- I had to pack my computer and then finalize what books to bring home (I ended up moving all the books home to minimize my move back in April.)

I grabbed lunch quickly before my folks' 1:30 arrival. Moved all my things into the Volvo and then proceeded to go uptown to visit my aunt in North York. Not only were we to have a quick meal, we also had to pick up stuff that was left behind by my mom-- my aunt and my folks went to Spain & Portugal in October and there was too many souvenirs to bring back for my folks.

The drive back was trecherous-- rain & heavy fog. Luckily, we got back safe and sound. Let me tell you the active and passive safety features on the Volvo (lights, traction control, ABS) was very handy! I didn't come close to an accident but some of the roads by my house was messy and the brakes and traction control came in handy there. The lights were really good in the fog.

What have I been doing since? I've been fixing up my computer-- formatted it and installing the new Windows. I cannot believe how many headaches it was to start over again. It's taken me a majority of this evening to back up the information and start fresh. I was almost sweating bullets just now-- thought I had broken something or wiped all my data. It's in progress so I'll tell you the results when it's completed (very LATE tonight, I fear)

Monday, December 18.

It was a cold yet productive day. First, I got up rather late (was up until 2:40am last night) to get work done on my newly reformatted computer. However, that work ended up in vain for I had to reformat my computer this afternoon trying to figure out why a certain program wasn't working!

Anyway, my first thing to do was to get my hair cut. That ended up well. I was silly-- forgot to get $$$ from the bank. I went in empty-- but I did run across the street to get cash to pay for my hair cut. Vito, my barber told me that I should pay next time I come in but knowing my memory, I'd surely forget!

Next on the list was to go over to the bank and renew a term deposit. That was some boring stuff. Then I had to drive my mom downtown for a luncheon-- she didn't want to park the car downtown so she wanted to be dropped off.

After lunch, which I cooked up myself (actually, warmed up) I had to do some more errands. Went to Shoppers to check out my work schedule for tomorrow (1-9pm) and then went back to the back to open up a US acc't (long story with that) and finally, had to gas up the Accord. Went over to Mike's place to take him to the mall-- we both have Christmas presents to buy. I got my bro "the Usual Suspects" DVD. It was on sale and my bro and I made a pact not to spend so much on each other for X-mas.

It was getting late and traffic was hectic. Guess everyone is not accustomed to the bad weather we've been experiencing lately! The Accord isn't equipped with any of the safety features the Volvo possesses-- I was intentionally slipping and sliding all over. Fun but it could have been a bit dangerous.

This evening, we stayed in. My mom cooked all the food my aunt in North York bought for us. My mom cooked up the huge lobster that was packed in ice. Also other goodies to eat as well.

I spent much of the evening trying to figure out what's wrong with my computer. Like I said before, I had to reformat it AGAIN today. The reason: the program that allows me to take a music CD and make an exact duplicate-- it's not working now! It's driving me crazy WHY it's not working, either. Originally, I had upgraded to the new Windows. My first suspicion is that Windows and the music program are incompatible. I then proceeded to reinstall Windows98. Same problem. What's up?! It was working JUST FINE yesterday. Feeling very frustrated right now... ARGH!

Well, that's about it. Just watched the rest of the football game (monday night football) with my dad. It was a great game for the Bucs but a poorly strategized game by the Rams. Dick Vermiel would have planned much more efficiently. Either way, the Lions have their destiny in their hands-- win and they're in, lose and they're out!

First day of work...

Tuesday, December 19.

It was my first day of work today. I started at 1pm so I didn't have to get up early (unlike tomorrow!) Well, this morning I got up around 10 and then watched some TV with my dad. Like I said, I didn't do very much. Before work started, I did catch the 80's movie, Vision Quest. Madonna had a cameo appearance where she debuted her song, "Crazy for You" (for the trivia buff).

I was supposed to drive my mom bowling with her girlfriends for my dad went to lunch with his former colleagues at the Law Faculty. Remember, we have 2 cars in the house-- my dad took one and I needed one to get to work... you can do the math.

However, my bro came back home for lunch so he volunteered to take my mom to the bowling alley. (Since his office is half-way there.) That saved me from leaving for work really early. It allowed me to watch the ending of the movie.

Work today was quite the culture shock. You know when you're rusty when you can't remember how to look up stuff on the computer. I was left with doctor callback duty on my first 4 hour shift. Work will only get worse when the number of prescriptions increase. I'm sure 250 were filled on my shift. Don't want to guess how many were done in the morning. After my lunch break, I was left tending to the drive thru/filing/OTC roam/cash/counselling duties. That was no fun duty. It was snowy out so there weren't too many people in the store (I've seen crazier nights)

Got home around 9:30 (it takes no more than 5 minutes to drive home.) A friend in Ottawa left me a message so I called her back. She wanted to gripe about her experience with "the guy" from Brampton. Also was a little psyched out for her Ottawa residency interview-- it's important that she does well. She wants to train to be a clinical pharmacist. Don't think she's meant for a community setting.

This evening was filled with eating a fine dinner (roast beef my mom made) and watching a nice program on Dateline NBC. A very touching tale about a Vietnam GI who kept a picture found on his "first kill"-- he and his daughter-- kept it in his wallet for 22 years and the lengths he did to return that picture to that daughter.