Tasty Exemption, Bittersweet Goodbyes and Cake

So today’s been kind of a long day for me. Just yesterday I took my first final which was in my third and last veterinary physiology course, which specializes in reproduction and endocrinology. It was a tricky 76-question true or false exam and both of my professors are known for being really unpredictable in this area. I stayed there in the classroom for almost 2 hours making sure I had put my best answers down.

I spent most of the morning being anxious about the results. I was going to wait until around 10am to head to college and see the results myself, but then I cracked and then just texted one of my professors and asked her what my standing was. About an hour I got a response that said, “Hey doc amie here. you passed 143. yehey”

And then I had the biggest smile on my face. :D

However, I found out later that some of my friends weren’t so lucky though. But of course I won’t go into that…

So, in a good mood and with it still being somewhat mid-morning, I decided to go down to Alabang in Manila to get a hair-cut (my hair was crazily long because I had not had the time to cut it these last few weeks) and also to pick up some needed supplies for my trip to Hong Kong. Once I got to the mall, I got some new clothes, got a new haircut and then also picked up some things for my iPod which I’ll be needing for my flight over.

While I was at Tony & Jackey’s, the Korean salon that I usually frequent for my cuts, I found out that my favorite senior hairstylist Lily was going to be leaving soon for Korea. Lily, is the sweetest Korean stylist I have ever had and she’s always made me feel at home whenever I went to see her, even with her broken English and funny mix of Tagalog and Korean. I’ve been going to her for over a year now and everytime she sees me she always has a big smile on her face and welcomes me with open arms. She’s also very good at what she does. I have rarely come out of there less than 100% satisfied. So it basically broke my heart that I would have to say goodbye to her for the last time. When I left I gave her a slightly bigger tip than I leave her usually, and she gracefully bowed and handed me a parting gift which is seen below.

Last night, after my final we celebrated my friend Pam’s 21st birthday. I keep forgetting how young the other students in my batch are… I remember when I turned 21. My two guy friends brought me to a bar at midnight and we shared my first legal drink. It was simple, subtle but utterly satisfying. This time around there wasn’t any alcohol, much because the drinking age here is 18 and all of my friends have already started drinking legally already, and it was nice. My friends came over, we had a BBQ and had some fun playing some games (e.g. Twister) and watched some TV shows, music videos (Korean of course… :P) and a movie. And of course there was cake. Very good, scrumptious chocolate cake. Yum!

A simple night out, but it was great. A good break to be had by all. :)

And now I’m home and just had dinner. I just got off the phone with my girlfriend. My girlfriend j, is about to hop on a jet plane at this very moment to head to Hong Kong. She’ll be heading there a week earlier than me to hang out with her family and stuff. As I mentioned before, I’ll be heading there this coming Tuesday morning, after I finish up my last round of finals.

So alright folks, I’m gonna just go read some more notes for my other finals and then maybe eat some ice cream and head to bed. I’ve got upcoming surgery, clinical rotations and veterinary medicine 1 finals to worry about so wish me luck with those!

Now I shall leave you with this very flattering picture of my friend Margaux on a Twister mat.

Good night ya’ll!

My 24th Surprise Birthday Bash

So another year has come and gone. As the cliche goes, I’m another year older and another year wiser. I look back on the past year and realize that my birthday is just another regular day. I didn’t ask for much and really didn’t want people to make it a big deal since it was just another day, but in the end everything turned out nicely. Let me explain.



Last Friday, was a pretty long day. I had a parasitology lab as well as my first surgery lab which was quite fun. I learned how to wrap surgical packs and organize my surgery tools! I was quite excited to bring my tool kit filled with things from Bambang (an area in Manila where there is a large contingency of medical supply stores). The trip to Bambang itself which we took the week before was hellish, mostly because we had to canvas all the stores we could, compare prices and then seek out those items. We also had to deal with about 13 other group mates in our batch who were doing the same thing, and with different lists of items people wanted we had a hard time sorting out things. But that’s over and done with and we started our first surgery lab last Friday. Although it was the first step in finally getting some training done for surgery, it was really fun. You’d think that wrapping items for surgery to put into sterilization isn’t fun, but when you’re as excited to get into an operating room gown as I am, then you’d understand.



Afterwards, I said good-bye to my friends, went home and then relaxed for a little. I started class that day at 9am and then came home around 6pm. I honestly was pooped, and just wanted some time to chill and reflect on the day of my birthday. But of course that didn’t happen.



My friend James crashed my place with a bag of marinated meat and told me to “Fire up the grill.” I asked him why, and he just told me to do it. He wouldn’t answer any of my questions and of course I knew he wanted to surprise me with a meal or something so I set up the grill on my balcony. After getting the charcoals started my friends Jae and Elma came in bringing in more food. Then I really started getting suspicious. They told me that they found the salad on the street and that they thought they’d stop by and share it. Yeah right, I thought.



Then just as I thought more friends started appearing. Some of my other friends, Faye, Belle, Cha, Riel and Pam showed up at my door. James started grilling outside on my balcony with Jae and the girls started helping to set up the rest of the food. They brought me a lot of yummy desserts including a black forest ice cream cake and a full brownie platter. After all the food was cooked and done, we watched “City Hunter” an old Jackie Chan film from 1993. Afterwards, they took me out for some drinks at a local cafe which had an awesome live guitarist. Riel and James ended up singing some duets with him and that ended my surprise birthday bash!

All in all I had a great time, so thanks to everyone who came out. I have to really say thanks to James for organizing the whole thing. I had a lot of fun!

I’ll be posting more about my week and my classes thus far in other posts. Right now I gotta take care of some other errands! Take care guys!