This is Moscow... I was There...

First of all…Happy Chinese New Year to everyone…specially greeting from Russia…

Though this was considered quite a long time ago already, but finally this time I post something bout my journey to one of the main cities in Europe and capital city of Russia, Moscow during the semester breaks…

Firstly, I want to thank all the members of this trip, including Ivan, W.Fong, Wei Keong, plus Jeremy, Zuo Lin, Kar Wei and Aruna(seniors who came back from trip to Austria and Germany then meet us in Moscow)… Thanks a lot for inviting me to join this trip… Besides, thanks lots to Ivan’s friend in MMA, Zhi Yang and his course mates Xin Yun and Elisa ( both of them are JPA 1st year students too, from Penang also… the most amazing thing of them is not they get 700USD of monthly allowance, but was they just returned from England where they spent their winter break there…Gosh! I not even have time to go out of this Russia…) Thank you for being our tour guide in Moscow. Oh ya, thanks to Ah Fook too who let us to stay in his large room at Hostel Sportivnaya while we are there… Each of us just needs to pay 100roubles only per day (bout RM15) for this accommodation… Our hostel facilities standard really no way off their standard…

Well…What can I say bout Moscow is this city is fantastic! We went there by bus which took 16 hours to reach…and we went to those famous tourist sites in Moscow such as Red Square, Kremlin and Albat Street… The Albat Street is so nice to have a leisure walk where the street is very broad just for pedestrians and on each side of the street are shops selling different kinds of souveniors and clothes… However, Moscow winter was very cold and we were quite suffering throughout the day as we spent whole day traveling at outdoor in the first day of the trip…

Of course, we didn’t forget to go to hyper shopping complex and IKEA here as there is no such heaven in Volgograd… At that time is still the period of Winter Sales, a lot of things are in sales and we bought quite many stuff, especially from IKEA…We ate quite many times at McDonald too as we had been months never eat McD…Our main transport while in Moscow is the metro train and its system is very good… Furthermore, all the metro stations are built with a lot of special and beautiful crafting and decorations…

We returned to Volgograd by train which took around 20 hours... but it was quite fun traveling in train with group of friends... Before we return, we went to China Street in Moscow to have a great lunch at a chinese restaurant… sooo long time didn’t eat such delicious food already…and the price was very reasonable too…

By the way, I think Moscow study life style won’t really in my favour… too much time-consuming traveling! Some more those shopping complex are quite far away from the hostels and surely it is very inconvenient to buy and carry lots of stuff while need to traveling by metro and walking a lot…

So… I’m not studying in Moscow and Moscow had leave a great impression and memory in my mind forever…

Red Square

The historical Cathedral of St. Basil the Blassed

(situated at Red Square)

Here is the center point of Moscow (at Red Square)




Historical Museum (at Red Square)

This is where Lenin lives now lor...

Behind it is Kremlin...

(Kremlin is adminstration and parlimen building of Russia,
so the guilding is very strict and we can hardly go near it...)

Tower of Kremlin

The Star of Street - Jacky Chan, at Albat Street

Taken at a metro train station
(taking photo at metro station is actually prohibited,
this is the only picture that I took risk to take)


Entrance to IKEA Moscow!

Dishes that we ate at chinese restaurant

The end of the journey -

taken at Volgograd Train Station

2nd Sem is super… crazy…

Well… my 2nd sem here will soon enters its second week…This sem’s time table is really super crazily hectic…Basically, classes are from 8am to 6pm everyday, even Saturday’s class is until 4pm… Not forgotten, we need to travel from one place to another place for different classes everyday…

What to do except facing it with a strong heart? Perhaps this is a great preparation for future as we may need to work much more hours per day as doctor…

The end of first sem has allowed me to realize how’s the uni exam system going on here… It’s something hard to explain because you never know what will happen… Just wanna remind myself that no matter what happen here, it certainly isn’t very harmful, because my life still has a long far way to go, here will never be the end of everything…

By the meantime, I don’t want myself to give up enjoying my life here instead of just lifting the burden of studying… I begin to push myself to have more interaction with people here and try to join any interesting activities whenever possible…

Just went for a trip in the capital city of Russia, Moscow last week during holidays…and Moscow is absolutely marvelous… I will try posting a brief report and some pictures bout Moscow soon…

Chinese New Year is coming soon…but this will be the first ever time that I can't celebrate it in my hometown… No atmosphere of Chinese New Year at all here…

We will have public holidays on next Friday and Saturday (23 & 24 Feb) which is Men’s Day…and malaysian’s chinese students here will organize a party inviting all Malaysian students in Volgograd on 24 February ( Chu 7)… 1st year chinese students have been given the job to prepare ‘tang yuen’…We need to prepare for about 400 persons.... Must be a huge project…and I’m sure all of us will have lots of fun while making this dessert lo…

What’s Going On…

First of all, my very first semester here is very near to the end already… Next Wednesday is the final exam…We have only 1 final paper in first sem which is General Chemistry… but it’s a lot to read and memorize….

Next… in the evening of the day we finished exam, I will go to Moscow to have a trip with few coursemates and seniors… Though before reaching here, I had stayed in Moscow for 2 days, that time we didn’t even go anywhere except hotel, embassy and McD because our passports were held by the embassy…so…this time I wish to taste the real look of Moscow… Actually we have only 4 days semester break...and I don’t know whether it’s wise or not that I decide to join this 3 days trip… but I think that since this traveling opportunity comes to me, I should grab it…

That’s all for this time…should be final post in January…
Happy Holidays to those who are in holidays…and Good Luck to those who need to face exams…

2006 – Memories & Review

If I need to find a most suitable word to conclude my life journey in year 2006, I will say it was ‘DRAMATIC’…

For the most important part in 2006, I have given the chance to study in Russia, and it was a place that I never think of that I would come… When I made the wish for 2006 in the beginning of last year, I hope for the best life in Indonesia…but in the end, I got something I really never expect since I accepted JPA scholarship…

But all before the moment I knew that JPA would send me to study in Russia as solution of the problems, it was considered the darkest and most down part of my life in 2006… We suffered some unfortunate incidents in the placement of universities in Indonesia… Went through stupid and unreasonable entrance exams, unfair arrangement and the most frustrating one which was being offered to regular program which mean medicine in Indonesians language… That one-month time was really very hard and dishearten…

Others often say that there are always ups and downs in life…I truly experienced it in 2006… Now, when I review my 2006, what I can say is when I need miracle the most, the miracle happened… at least to me, take up medicine in English medium in Russia is much better than medicine in Indonesian medium in Indonesia…

So… now look back from the very beginning of 2006… First half of the year I continued my pre-med studies in KUTPM… Apart of the struggling and terrifically hectic course plan from college, my after-school life there was actually getting nicer and more interesting…I enjoyed lots of funs mingling with friends there, especially the last 3 months… We really had very much enjoyment treasuring KL, particularly all the shopping complexes there… As all of us agreed, we miss nothing after the end of pre-med in KUTPM except our valuable friendship… Those memories will always in my mind…

In mid June, the course finished…and the week after our last paper in final exams it was psychology course which was compulsory for JPA scholars…and that week I think was the climax of the life in college where we had very much free time to hang around in hostel and KL, and most importantly, during that time, World Cup Germany 2006 was in progress…

Frankly…since mid June to near the end of July (till I get the news that we would be sent to Russia), though I was in holidays, World Cup was getting hotter and hotter and I went to Langkawi for trip with few college’s friends, I actually never fully enjoy the holidays in relax mood… The worry of uncertainty of future keeps on wandering in my mind… and by the time my future was confirmed can be in a satisfying progress, I had to grab the little time to prepare for flying to such a far country…

At last phrase of 2006, I spent it in a Russia’s city called Volgograd…and this will be the city where I will be in for the next 6 years… This was a brand new experience in my life…Living in a 4-season country, learning a totally new language, get started another new friend’s relationships, adapting to life as medicine student and going through a lot of western-style things that are very different than in Malaysia… Life in Russia is still very new, I hope it will become better and better…

There are some wonderful and unforgettable special occasions in 2006 that I will remember for a very long time if not forever… My last year birthday was a memorable one…a lot of KUTPM friends organized a small party and celebrated with me… then on that weekend we had a trip to Ipoh and really enjoyed that trip… Besides that, countless outings with friends while studying in college were all leave nostalgia to me… watching movies, lepak-ing, eating, mamak-ing, crapping and many many more were all so fun… not forgotten also, our Chinese New Year large steamboat night in the hostel where almost all Chinese guys joined it and had a great fun dinner… and also, my farewell steamboat dinner with my high school’s friends before I fly which proved to be my last meeting with my friends in Penang in 2006…

Regretfully, I realized that my time to meet with Jit Sin’s friends who I used to so enjoy life with them is getting fewer and fewer since last year… Everyone has separated and headed to their own next destination of life…

I really tasted a variety of flavour of life in 2006… but its content has gone now…all it left are the fantastic memories from sweet flavour and valuable experiences from sour and bitter flavour, or even flavourless…

I appreciate every happiness that you all have shared and given to me over last year… Thanks God for ending my year 2006 in a satisfied way too…

2007 VSMU International Students' Games

Receiving prize from Dean of International Students

Let me kick off my blog in year 2007 with something inspiring…

Actually from 30 December 2006 to 7 January 2007 is our one-week new year holidays… Meanwhile, our university’s 2007 International Students’ Games was taking place and the Games just ended yesterday…

On 4 January (Thursday), table tennis competition was scheduled to begin … and I was involved in that game… After half day of hard-fought competition, I managed to emerge as runners-up in this competition… Lost to a Vietnamese fifth year senior in the decisive match… He is technically marvelous and I can’t really give him any strong challenge throughout the match… So, I have no any regret as it was a match that I should lose…

Anyway…I was indeed very satisfied with my result... Some more I already rarely have the regular training since these recent 2 years… In addition, my coursemate who is also good in table tennis, Ivan won 3rd place… So, as we are just first year juniors, this result is very promising…

At the final day of the Games, we attended the prize-giving ceremony… The prize is a photo album... Though university didn’t present medals which may have more memorable value to the winners, I still very appreciate this prize as this is my very first sports’ award in my university life in Volgograd…

This was a very enjoyable and fun Games… Students from various countries met together in different sports such as futsal, basketball, volleyball, netball, table-tennis, badminton, etc…

University Games was over… My next target, represent Malaysian’s students of VSMU and play well (hopefully Gold Medal) in 2007 Russia Universities Malaysians’ Games which Russian State Medical University, Moscow will take the turn to organize it around April this year …