Ich Liebe Freiburg

I like how it really has the feel of a student city.
I love to look at the full moon hanging over the Black Forest
I love how their dorm looks like even though I am not living in one.
I like the fact that people here don't only study medicine but also music, bird, trees, German language and whatsnot.
There's plenty of hike options and Paris is just 3 hours away while Zurich is 2 hours away.

I am fond of waking up to the view of Black Forest everyday.
The food are variables and the MENSA caters to even vegetarian. The MENSA of science faculty itself is a sight to behold on itself.
I love the concept of sustainable living and how everybody embraces it here.
I am typing this looking over at the windmills, half moon and lightning slices through the sky above the Black Forest.
My days here are numbered as as much as I am happy to go back for summer holidays in Malaysia, I am also sad of the fact that I am not staying here anymore.

I shall go and comb the old town, go up the Munster and look into the land up there in Schauinsland.
But please, no more finding of bombshell from the WW2.

Ramadhan in Freiburg

Today is a milestone in my celebration of 1st Ramadhan.
Instead of having sahur with family/friends, I had a bowl of bihun sup, while skyping with my mom.
Having to be doing something all day, I don't feel hungry or thirsty at all. Maybe it's partly due to the weather.

I am so happy when Aida asked to go to Tarawikh on Saturday evening. I mean, I am not tarawikh person but if I have friends, why not?
And most interesting of all, I was in the scrub inside operation room from before iftar until shortly before subuh. For the first time, I watched and is so lucky o have the chance to assist a heart thumping operation. Yes people, we rarely get tense moment like what they show on medical dramas.

And I excuse myself in the afternoon to go to the Oriental supermarket here. The air was festive, they stock on lotsa vegetables and poultry. If I am to visit around this time before, the fresh goods aint as abundant. Eventhough it's aint as seductive as Malaysian bazar Ramadhan, I had hard time to resit buying baklava.

Thank you Allah.

Authentic Tom Yum

On the way back from Basel, I uncovered the secret to the ever so delish, steaming tom yum.
Typically me, I discussed food with the Thai friend that I made in Freiburg.
And I asked her how to make a real tom yum because I can taste the difference between the real thing and the messily copied ones.
The first sentence, which also is the backbone to good tom yum is nothing that I want to hear. The base soup for tom yum

Gambar sekadar hiasan

People, the secret to authentic tom yum is to boil pork bone, preferably, for a day. It's like the most basic thing to make the yummy spicy and sour tom yum.
And all this while I think the safest is to order the seafood tom yum.

When I told my friend about our food restriction, her expression overdid mine. She knows what does it mean when I say I don't eat pork.
At least now, I can go to Thailand and have her to show me good and halal Thai food to eat.
And you also know where to and where not to order tom yum.

*pengsan*

Learning Points : Surgery

1. when scrubbing, put your hand away from your body and your head away from your upper limbs

2. in time interval between finish of scrubbing and gowning. always put both hands together, and you upper limbs away from body in x- and z- axis and both the hands must be at chest level. No higer or lower than that if you don't wish to be looked down on

3. after you tie your gown, put both hands together on your belly. This is the only time I think having a protruded belly is an advantage

4. as a student most of your job during operation (heart surgery at least) are suction and holding the heart/instrument. Let start with the latter. Be forewarned that this holding business is something that lasts more than 5 minutes and the point is to not get anything in the way. Unfortunately, the chance of  having the instrument slipping from your grip is quite high, so you must have the skill of shrinking oneself and professionally switch the source of grip.

5. Suction. I learnt almost the hard way about suction. Basically in heart surgery you'll have 2 suction tubes. Unlike the metal ones, the plastic one will be available from the start until the end. Use the METAL one if it's available. USE the metal one until it stops sucking or until they say they have administered protamine sulphate into the system. Use it even though they squirt saline into the operation field.

6. when your hands are free sometime or all the time, put it on the patient. or use them to guard the instrument. never ever put them higher than the upper border of your breast base.

and if you are not scrubbed in, the most suitable place is on the anesthesiologist side. Never ever protrude your head or hands beyond the sterile drape. You can clip it with your hand and bring it down a little but your body part has to be before the drape.

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the first place I visit when I was on the exchange.

Chris walked me on that Saturday morning to the train station. I had the best host didn't I?

We (IFMSA exchangees) went on the trip with ERASMUS students and few locals.

It is the first time I met Aida and Emina. Jaime, on the other hand has met both of them at dinner the same evening I went to Mugorsky concert.

"isn't it boring?" bahahaha. 

Such question at first meeting. At long last, I met someone identical.

Anyway we went to the dock because we were supposed to go on the boat tour but we have half an hour to spare so we hit the square and the shops.

Another ERASMUS student joined us 4.

A : What is your name?

ERASMUS : Nico

A : Nico.hahaha. In Montenogrean, nico means nobody.

Hahaha, poor boy. And to add insult to injury, we lost him later at the same place after the boat ride.

Liebe A with her 2euro icecream. behind is the laughterbox. =p

The boat ride is okay seeing that we had minimal time.

All I know is that I want to go to Colmar. I have never even heard of Strasbourg while it is the main city of Alsace. Since passing Geography for PMR, I have been geographically challenged (I had to consult map when I got to know that I will be living in Czech)

Famous landmark in Strasbourg

After the boat ride, we had about 3 hours (if I remember correctly) to comb the city on our own. Oh yes, with an A4 sized printed out map. 

The map is in black and white and leftme cringe for the quality. But it saw us through the city.

Typical picture taken on a tour boat

The girls discovered Asian clothes shop (cheap stuff, eye catcher. plus, on summer sale) just after we diverted out of the town square.

We intended to go to Little France but never arrived. But we arrived at the signpost, so that will do because we are running late for our meeting, and according to the map, it is at the other end of where we are.

Long way to the restaurant

We found our way into the restaurant where the other people has already finished their flamkuchen.

It is my first time meeting people studying other things than medicine, pharmacy and dentistry.

One of them is an economic student, and from Spain if I may add.

They called themselves poor but they are so optimistic about it saying sth like they will just make do with it.

Too bad I didnt have any Malaysian coin with me (I didnt even have it to save my ass because I needed to call home after landing in KLIA and missed the last flight home because my Czech line didnt work once upon a time ago)

look at those delicious bundt pan. alas, the weight put me off. =(

We were running late. and mind you we were with the Germans (wide stride, punctual people).

A step on the banana skin, some jostling from the Germans and many rushed steps later, we arrived to thankfully empty platform because the train was delayed.

It has been a good day and the girls still so energetic and planned to meet the ERASMUS later near midnight.

Though they went out that night, they never did meet. bahaha, and I had a good time in my room, looking at the stars hanging over Black Forest.

I like the medieval street with the signposts

Ich bin famulantin, und du?

Okay, du means you (informal) but I dont know what is the formal German for you.
My first week in the department, I know only a few names. It doesnt help that I dont remember names that well.

Until one day, when I was scrubbing, Dr Siepe call me by my full first name.
I almost chickened out because I have no idea what is his name at that time.

So, if you are going to be interning at a department 7am-5pm, 5 days a week for a month, go find the organisation chart of the department. it does help.hehehe

Packing Tips

It rains a lot in Germany during summer but Freiburg is special case, it's the sunniest city in Germany.
That is what I get from my reading.
Wrong!
I was greeted with thunderstorm on my second day there.

and the weekdays in the first 2 weeks were mostly gloomy.
I packed only for summer and nearly die of cold. twice
Once when we were hiking in black forest. thanks Allah Nerea lent me her top and thanks Iva for the umbrella.
The second one when I was walking with closed eyes in Stuttgart after an overnight assisting an emergency surgery. This one, thanks Allah, it's summer and all shops r on sales frenzy.

So pack summer clothes and please dump in also a windbreaker and a piece of warm cloth. u can thank me later
For the internship, I dont need my own labcoat, they gave me a pair of hideous uniform and I can change it how much I want.
If you hv orthostatic intolerance like me and you know u r getting yourself into surgery department, go ask the nurse for compression socks.
Just pack a basic toiletris for one r two day because in Freiburg, the drugstore is AWESOME. they got a range of choices in term of brands and sizes and prices.
Maybe bring a notebook and pen to scribble down what you want. I had a lot to pen down ~ my learning curve is surgery is vertical in July 2012.
It's nice if you can bring something for your host. after all, for me, Iva, Chris and Louisa have been a super great host and I have learnt a lot on how to treat guest from them.
Unless you are touching down on a Sunday, of which everything closes down except for a few restaurant, you don't have to worry about starving yourself.

Last but not least, bring your courage and willingness to meet new things and have fun.

Smacking My Head in SBB Train

I was en route back to Freiburg after a day tumbling around Luzern solo.

In the morning, I found myself at the foot of Mt Pilatus, determined to do a bit of hiking.
I realised that I at least need a map. I was honestly thinking it's like taking a stroll in Adrspach.
Here's the map I got for free from the counter in Kriens.

I skipped the gondola and hiked my way up, further than I intended to.

After a countless 'smell of the Switzerland' and drenched shirts, I broke my fast and took the gondola up.

Basically I did 1026m. Highest hike in my life.

The final gondola ride which goes up almost vertically scares the hell out of me. my thought was just, what have I bring myself into.

I made countless impromptu decisons but to question one, this is the first time.

It's all worth it when I am at the top.

I took the train down and the ferry back into town.

Basically my Golden Trip costed half than the original price. Yay!

I shall be honest here.

The trip taught me a lesson.a pricey one.

That tripping with at least a companion is always much more better than going solo.

My emotion and energy were spent well in this trip.

Last week I was figuring out lemon tree song happily with the girls in the train on our last trip together and suddenly I find myself dreading heading back to Freiburg alone.

 ♪♫♫♫ I wonder how, I wonder when ♫♫♫ ♪

It was the loneliest train ride in summer 2012 and with no one with me to laugh to nothing in particular, I dozed off almost instantly.

It felt like somnolence. I was in twilight zone. one moment I was reasoning that it's really dangerous for a young lady travelling alone to nap on a train. another moment, I was gone.

puck!

the really loud sound woke me up before the impact on my head.

after so many rotations on the atlas, my head finally hit the window. and it hit hard.

At that moment I just want to disappear into my seat.

I catched that the person opposite was gone and there's new face on the seat across mine.

anyway it's for the better. 

the railway has countless of skies fitted.

of various designs and rather antiques.

and I arrived safely into Freiburg.

Sanguine vs Choleric

I had the opportunity to work alongside a choleric. Found myself muted by the intensity of choleric.
Here's a scene

Sanguine : when is your last time going home
Choleric : 2 weeks ago
Sanguine : I'm so jealous. I can only go home once a year
Choleric (ok, this is what i understood, not necessarily what he said word by word) : be reasonable. my home is just next to this country and yours is continents away. end of discussion.

But all are pardonable when he shouted achtung at the corridor. I swear it sounds so cute. so clashing with the choleric personality.

Mein 10 € Kartoffel

We hadn't had much chances to see each other so Louisa who is my contact person suggested that we meet over gelato. But since it was Ramadhan we ended up in the restaurant at 9 pm.

I ordered kartoffel plate.
It costed 10 euro.
I found out that kartoffel plate is really mix of potatoes
Crinkle cut
Wedges
Chips
Croquets
All fried

The poor asian had too high expectations thinking that 10€ potato plate must be jacket potato or tuna potato.
But asian girl and german agree that mashed potato is unthinkable part on potato plate.
But now I get to tell you that i had the experience eating 10 € worth of potatoes in one sitting (yes, louisa is a german so she couldnt eat 5€ potatoes at quarter past 9 in the evening =p)

$$ Ka-ching $$

I had to fork out 8000kc or what they say some sort of fee. My friends from Montenegro just have to pay no less than 200 euro. or was it 100 euro.

Then there's
1. return ticket prg-basel-freiburg
2. transport card which is a whopping 50 euro per month. no discount because ISIC lost against German student card
3. travelling
4. food

BVMD gave me 50 euro a week, which is more than enough for groceries because it was summer and i don't even have the time to cook. Once I even cooked and didn't eat because I was too tired to eat ~I guess I was being too dedicated towards my exchange.

And BVMD put aside 50 euro for any travelling that we do. Because we had to pay for the National Service Programme in Freiburg itself, we asked them to cut it from this 50 euro. actually our fee shall have been cheaper because we already have our transport card but there's some miscalculation overthere =(. My friends were not over it. But I had to count my blessing
1. my Murgovsky concert ticket is paid by BVMD
2. We got a handphone each from BVMD and in mine is a 10 euro. and the cheapest reload you can get is 20 euro. and my friend didn't even have a cent in hers.
3. Louisa, Chris and Iva were so welcoming and were heaps of help.

Actually you can cut down a lot
1. bring your own food for lunch. i sometime skip lunch because i hate doing lunch alone so having sandwich and free coffe (albeit horrible) is more than enough
2. dinner. german dinner like pauper but I am not german. still, buy minute quantity of thing if you cook. I bought more than what I need and my place have a mini fridge so i had to throw a lot of food away =(
3. restaurant menu is expensive. lucky I ate only twice at restaurant
4. bring your own drink and food when travelling.

And my faculty offers mobility fund so I got 100 euro from that after my exchange.

Geography 101

Back in Freiburg, I am a Malaysian studying in Czech Republic and is on clinical exchange in Freiburg. When I Was with Bemtgen, he'd introduce me with those details in German. And then there's Miss Columbus et moi first meeting.

Miss Columbus: And Where are you from?
Me:l'm from Malaysia. We are not to Thailand Indonesia, and Singapore

Discusssed about how lucky we are to have a sunny day that 1st weekend.

Miss Columbus: Do you have snow in Malaysia?
Me: *frog croaking loudly*

Ps : I painstakingly drew a map of Malaysia with Borneo included. Alas, posting a blogpost from a phone is almost a miracle. In case u r wondering like Miss Columbus, just so u know. We are just above the equator line.
Pps : Miss Columbus is otherwise a gregarious soon to be a doctor whose company I enjoy very much during our stay in Freiburg