snorlax

"You know people are crazy about Pokemon Go right now" - Ameerul said.

"I know".

"So, you know Snorlax? Look exactly like you".

Me, "Really? How does it look like? Cute, cute rite? Hehe"

"Search yourself. Then you'll know".

*googling*

You know someone who never follow any cartoon wouldn't have any idea about these kind of thing. I'd never watched Pokemon. I know nothing about Sailormoon. And so on. Hahaha. #noob

The image of Snorlax appeared. Yeah, as expected. He looks kinda fat. Ameerul will always come out with hateful nicknames for me. I used to them already, don't worry hahaha. So yes, now I know it, Snorlax is chubby. And he looks lazy to my eyes.

So I responded, "Yeah, what's wrong with him?"

Ameerul, "So chubby right? Just like you. And he really likes to sleep. Exactly like you".

I. KNOW. IT.

The whole conversation was just to make fun of me. He thinks it's funny to see me mad. He likes it when I get annoyed by his jokes.

Oh, I really wish I was Snorlax. So that I can just crash him with my big body. Hahaha I'm sorry Snorlax, he wants to make fun of me, not you.

open house eid 2016

My first open house ever organized by my friends and myself. Usually in Malaysia, my mom will decide on everything. The meals especially. I am more like a kitchen helper. And I will just decorate the house and the hardest is to choose the table clothes to use hahaha.

This time was different. My friends and I made everything from scratch starting from buying the raw materials, to cooking to post-event house cleaning. Egypt is so hot and we basically walk to everywhere since we don't own any vehicle. Oh, if I could speak Arabic fluently, I would definitely just order them by phone and make them deliver the things to my house hahaha (just like we have Tesco online in Malaysia - my brother is one regular customer of it zzz).

We came out with several menu, with limited ingredients of course - but we did it! Like the previous years, we would packed our luggage with just food from Malaysia and for me, daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander)  and bunga kantan (torch ginger flower) are compulsory. Besides ginger and lemongrass. Because I really like asam pedas, so I often make it here.

We have a lot of daun kesum and bunga kantan supply this time, as well as daun kunyit. We made asam laksa as a main dish. Also, another main dish like rendang, lontong, instant ketupat palas, instant nasi impit and kuah kacang.

Phew. Hahaha.

Dessert: bubur jagung, green tea pudding, orange flavour cupcakes, chocolate cake.

Beverage: The best part. We had iced sirap rose, bandung, sarsi, green cocktail, lychee.

Phew again.

Hahaha of course the preparation wasn't that easy but we enjoyed making this. Gathered at the living room while peeling the onions whilst watching Malay movie, Isteri vs Tunang Raya and got mad at the stupid husband in the movie cause nobody ever like cowards zzz. At the same time preparing for beverages, making sure it wasn't too diabetic but still too sweet anyway haha.

We took turn to sleep cause yeah it was tiring. I slept for about 2 hours and got up at 7 am to bake the cupcakes. While of course, eating the rendang for breakfast hehe.

All set and ready. Let's make ourselves pretty, but danggg. BLACKOUT! I was about to iron my clothes. Ahh, so spoil.

We all became so bad mood, it was so hot. My neighbourhood  rarely affected by any blackout/short water supply or something but what a perfect timing, Zagazig government. You chose it that day wow hahaha.

Everybody managed to get dressed except me. I showered and just wearing a casual jeans and went to the campus to settle a few things regarding the studies (just to kill time) and came back home to see everything's came back to normal. Phew.

Catching the nemo for rendang 

Succeed.

Yes. We listed out the menus on the board, hung it in the living room where people eat. Actually I did it as a to-do-list memos at first. They were being funny when they said, "I'm eating number 4 now". "I'm at number 2 now, long way to go". "Where is number 6 on the table?". "Finished all 17 menus". "I'm eating according to the orders". "Is this buffet or we should order to you by the numbers?".

And we got more and more guest after Zuhr. We didn't invite a lot. Just coursemates and some close friends. My classmates stayed at our house till night to watch some movie and all. While I already knocked out at the corner of my bed. So tired hahaha.

But it's so fun. When it's just you and your friends, no curfew, no restrictions. Just us.

Definitely the valuable experience as a perantauan. I'm gonna shed tears to remember this one fine day. It's too sweet. Too diabetic.

500 crowns

"Come on Qistina, move on. People are playing Pokemon Go now", what my friends said.

Hahaha this happens to me, always. I am usually still in the same phase, hardly move on to another phase. I still play Piano Tiles. What? Lame? Nayyy, never.

I still got the same excitement as before whenever I score a new crown. Also, the same adrenaline rush every time I play in the endless tiles stage. Or whenever I manage to catch the wonder boxes. Ahh.. why bother telling, you guys don't play it anymore. 

But it's really crazy. When I need to move my fingers as fast as I can to tap on the tiles whilst I need my eyes to focus on the upcoming tiles from above, I can still enjoy the song though. One of my favourite song is Entertainer, but it's kinda fast. When I fail to tap on the next tiles, the track would just stop and ask if you still want to continue or not (not free! Need to trade 2 diamonds by the way. I always say no, my diamonds are precious).

Of course, it is addictive. No matter how many thousand time you lose, you would just start all over again. The lesson that this game teaches is, never give up. Hahaha.

The same feeling when I play Candy Crush before. I stopped playing it years ago, but I still played when people were already moved on to another games. I refuse to call it lame, but I insist this is a loyalty. *flips hair*

The funny thing is that whenever I hear any of these songs from other than in the game, they would remind me of this game. Like, "Oh this is Beethovan Number bla bla bla". When I eat at the restaurants and the songs are being played. When I watched some piano concussion in this one drama, it totally reminded me of one of these songs in the game. It's real. I learn something at least. Haha.

So now, I am already at Level 59 in Piano Tiles. Which is the maximum level already. But the new levels are coming soon, they are updating it. I own 403 crown now wohooo which what I am so proud about. Wohoo. 

I am aiming for 500 crowns now. 

Never give up. Hahaha.

summer hospital training

I really have much time now that I can blog frequently. Cause I'm still in Egypt doing my practical training at the hospital for 4 weeks. 4 weeks guys, so long. It gets longer when it's summer. 1 hour feels like forever.

Don't get me wrong. I like doing this. It's just that it's too long and too hot. Well, it isn't that long but I'd rather be in Malaysia right now preparing for a big day, but what am I doing here?! My heart is in Malaysia already.

Well, I survived the first week at O&G department. Gonna proceed to Peadiatrics next week. And next to Internal Medicine, lastly to Surgery department.

O&G should be fun. But it got so bored you know. Because we got to attend the lectures at the department's lecture room (which what we've already learnt daily at my faculty - listening to facts and so on). Then we moved to the outpatients/inpatients to learn about study cases.

Nightmare.

I don't like the smell of hospitals. Hahaha. Especially here in Egypt (sorry no offense). I can't really stand the smell. Especially when we went to the labour room the other day. Oh my god, I instantly covered my nose cause it smelled so hospital hahaha. Don't care if people ever judge me, or you'd rather seeing me throwing up.

I didn't make to be in the hospital. But I have to work there! Sigh. I remember the old times when I had my internship at the governmental hospital in Malaysia for the first time, I barely ate there. But then I got used to it and the environment. But now, it's a whole new story. It's Egypt by the way.

Ahhh. First week, done.

Gonna see poor-sick-cute babies next week at Peads ward.

Second week, I'm ready!

yellow me

Everyone knows I like yellow. Sometimes go for red too, if I'm suddenly feeling sexy hahaha anyway for the raya outfit the other day, this one uncle in my neighbourhood custom-made them for me so I could wear them for my raya. Yes, it's yellow.

Short sad story here. I ordered a few outfits in Malaysia with this Chinese aunt last year so that I could wear them this raya when I come back there, but little did I know I needed to spend the Eid here, ahhh bad bad planning ever. But still gotta have new outfits, so I made two here. The upside is that now I got a lot of traditional outfits hahaha.

But of course it's gonna be hard explaining to the Egyptian uncle about how you want your outfits to be. How do you expect him to understand kain kipas belakang or kain batik depan or the hardest kebaya nyonya hahaha. So I just made simple ones here and kept missing the raya outfits in Malaysia that I won't be able to wear (especially the emerald green one, I missed you).

I really like the fabric material for this one. Just a cotton but comfortable.

Mom said it looked beautiful, all moms are gonna say the same thing by the way hahaha.

Ameerul said I looked stunning. Okay. Maybe because it's an Eid and he just wanted to make me feel good.

But something strange happened. He kept saying the same thing all over again. I thought, okay maybe he should stop trying to make me feel better here. Hahaha. He insisted it's true that I looked so good the other day. He loved everything about me (and the outfit). The yellow colour suited me, it made me looked gorgeous and elevated my inner beauty bla bla bla hahaha, what he said.

Okay, okay. I got it now. That you loved to see me like that.

The next morning, I got a text message from him, "I still can't move on on how beautiful you were yesterday".

Okay, wow. Can he be like this everyday, please? *prays hard*

eid 2016

Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf Zahir & Batin!

My first eid in Egypt, ever! So many new things happened and I learned a lot from this. And it was so so fun actually.

The night of 1st Syawal, we all gathered at the Malaysian Hall for a free iftar (simply because it's free haha), and for Eid takbir. It reminded me of home, seriously. Cause that's what I usually listen to at the night of Syawal at home, so I had to play tough here. But it wasn't bad after all.

We didn't prepare much for the 1st Syawal. Except for the new outfit, that I once told you before about this one uncle who sews so well and I am his regular customer for the three consecutive years already. For the meal, nayy. Cause we got a lot of open house invitations which was so happy of me haha.

Earlier at the morning:

We slept quite late at 3 am cause Fajr got early now that we spent the night by preparing for our outfits and just enjoying raya songs. It was quite different this time that I wasn't really busy at the night of 1st Syawal, because usually in Malaysia, my mom and I would basically just sleeping in the kitchen hahaha kidding but sort of true. I need to make sure that everyone gets their outfits neat and arranged, I clean up the whole house, rearrange few stuffs in the house and I have to do so many more chores!

It gets different this year, I was one happy free kid. Hahaha.

Since Fajr was early, our Eid prayer started at 530 am. We got ready at 5am to rush for a prayer. All set up and happy. I managed to make a video call to my family in Malaysia to maaf zahir batin everyone and of course asking for duit raya hahaha. Quite disappointed when my duit raya was being postponed till next year.

Still got ones from dad and fiance by the way (happy kid I am).

Eid here was quite fun actually, when we had to do everything by ourselves, it's totally a new experience for me.

Syawal 1st to 6th were fulfilled by open house invitations. We held one on 5th Syawal. Gonna blog about that real soon.

Anyways, Eid Mubarak everybody. May Allah accepts our good deeds. I apologize to everyone if I ever hurt you intentionally/unintentionally. Let this Eid makes us a better person than before.

ramadan 2016

Done. Alhamdulillah.

Everything was so smooth. It's my first time ever to spend the whole Ramadan in Egypt and it wasn't all that bad. First three weeks of Ramadan were great. Despite of having final exams and all, I still managed to juggle them all. Forth week, I got all tired and exhausted. Maybe because I got all the exams done, I just wanted to relieve myself. I slept a lot. I have no appetite at all. Even after 16 hours of fasting and I was fine with having a glass of water for a break fast. #skeletoninthemaking

So, I'm on a multivitamin supplement therapy now to make everything balance back.

I told you guys before how amazing Ramadan here was. It turned to be extra amazing this year when we got a lot of free iftar invitation outside haha. Of course we loved it, even though it was all Egyptian foods (some that I couldn't really eat - plus I am not really a big eater) but the idea of having it free was just great hahaha.

We got a few iftar invitations from the campus, from our Dean, from our beloved Pharmacology lecturers, from Dr Afaf (Pharmacognosy lecturer who gives us free iftar every year without fail!).

And we had this one uncle living in the same neighborhood as us who cook for us EVERYDAY! So every evening before an iftar, he would gave us loads of foods with so many side dishes, fruits, juice and all. Crazyyy. We were so happy actually and we're just so excited to see what's coming on to us on the day. 

After a month of eating Egyptian cuisine, I am now totally look like an Egyptian already haha.

I know! I missed Malaysian foods so so so much. Sometimes we cook another Malaysian side dishes too, cause the stomach just kind of missed the chilli paste. Sigh. You really have no idea how much I missed those Malay foods. *cries* *reminds myself it's only a few months left*

Okay, done talking about food hahaha.

I told you before about my Ramadan goals. Alhamdulillah, I'm really happy to get all that fulfilled. I mean not 100%, I still feel like I'm lacking here and there. 

We managed to khatam the whole Quran and even made a small khatam Quran ceremony hehehe. I missed terawikh prayers too sometimes, but usually we all would prayed terawikh together at the living room. And sometimes just by myself. 

On the last day of Ramadan, I thought to myself about how happy I was to celebrate Ramadan this time and it was so meaningful. I learned a lot too! And my health just amazingly cooperate haha alhamdulillah.

My last Ramadan as a single lady, by the way. I'm happy I made it this way. May Allah bless us all. 

Eid post coming up!

are you a malay?

Somebody is being annoying.

We fought the other day and Ameerul insisted that I was the one who started everything. Noooo! In my defense, he should be responsible for this. He picked a fight with me first, by not giving me a proper attention and love.

I know! Hahaha.

I'm also embarrassed to share this with you guys.

He was too tired with his final year project and his little business (check Ameerul Ashraf Facebook), he has a lot on his plate, already. But I insisted on adding more. Why not? I am your only girl, right? So why can't I?

(That's how annoying I can be).

We fight a lot. But we both agree that we can't go even a single day not talking to each other. We talk, even when we fight haha. Sometimes me or him would come out with such random topics just to start the conversation/argument back.

Like one day when I was so mad but I still wanted to talk to him, I text him with one word, "Monkey".

He replied, "You orang utan".

And then the list goes on.

And the other day he suddenly came out with this.

See? He always thinks he's funny. I laughed, not because of the jokes but I was tickled by the way he tried to get back to me hahaha. Why baby why? #facepalm

semester 8 exam results

So fast, right? Exams results are always been announced real fast, like a week/two weeks after final exams finish. And now it's only 6 days ago that I just finished with my last paper, Phytotherapy. That my study desk is still stacked up with Phytotherapy notes haha. I haven't start to clean up all this semester's notes yet. Everybody at the campus must be so rushing for an Eid, right haha.

I was so busy just now rolling my sleeves up making biskut raya (honey cornflakes one is the tastiest, no kidding), then rushing for an iftar with the housemates. We made a joint iftar today with the other friends too, we made nasi tomato and suddenly our class WhatsApp's group beeped a message "The results are out, can check at the website".

My ayam sambal suddenly felt so hard to be swallowed.

"You guys check yours?"

"No, after iftar. Don't wanna spoil the appetite".

Hahaha.

So after iftar and maghrib prayer, I sat down on my bed holding the cellphone tightly, half nervous half curious. I keyed in my student number and password slowly, looking for a column labelled Natijah (Result).

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim..

Okay of course, I'm not gonna announce my results here hahaha, only a few people got to know.

Most importantly, I passed all the papers! Alhamdulillah, so thankful. I still maintain my CGPA above 3. But of course, still having a regret as always, like, "Oh, maybe I should do better next time" or "Awwh, this paper, a little more effort might make my grade look cooler on paper".

HAHAHA.

And a few marks like in Medicinal Chemistry which got me 84/100 (B+). I'm not quite satisfied, cause why I can't get 85! 85 is A-. Only 1 mark, guys. Only 1 mark to get an A. But you know, the old Qistina would go all bad mood and depressed. But the new me just be like, "It's fine. It's all rezeki. Let's be thankful".

And all the worries (which I wrote in the previous post) were just washed away!

But at this rate, I really need to work harder next year to make this 3 pointer looks promising.

I only have 2 semesters left.

Now, I don't really have anything more to wish, just maybe, be a little bit more hardworking next time, okay Qistina? Hahaha.

forth year

The end of my forth year! 

(Still have one year left).

When I sat for my last paper this semester, Phytotheraphy, I said to myself that I was gonna make it good. Let me ended this semester with a good one. Because the rest of 7 exams that I needed to take, they were all just fine, no too great but not too bad. I'm not sure if I did well or not, I just tawakkal and moved on. The worst feeling ever among all semesters.

I realized that this semester was the hardest among all since the first few weeks - already! Even before this, when I took General Immunology and Microbiology paper (the black sheep exam paper), it wasn't this hard.

Clinical year is no joke. 

I didn't really stressed out throughout my studies life here, except with this semester. I stared on the blank wall for a long time thinking what was I gonna do with the low carry mark for Clinical Biochemistry. I cried a little bit thinking about how hard Clinical Pharmacy final exam questions will be under Dr Amru supervision hahaha. Don't get me started on Drug Interactions. Well, I had a lot of useless thoughts! 

I was a little discouraged too this time. I wasn't as enthusiastic as before. Which I also pondered about what actually I was struggling in. I couldn't focus as before, which I made a conclusion that this may be the time when I was in the lowest level of all my study phases.

I convinced myself that nothing gets easier. Of course, I need to work harder. And I tried. 

Everything will be just okay, right? 

And on another note, I need to postpone my summer break in Malaysia this year, due to some hospital training in Egypt which I am not really happy about haha but we have no choice but to just carry on.

So, all the best? Hahaha thanks but no thanks!