Lucky Guy 13 Final

“Boon Phiaw Kho”

I doffed my square hat, walked into the glaring lights, collected my scroll, said a few thank yous, shook a couple of hands, and dissolved back into the dark anonymity.

It was often argued that the journey is more important than the destination.

I entered Uni with the well set destination being to graduate with a First Class Honours pharmacy degree.

Luckily I didn’t just focus on the final destination. Because all I have to saviour the success of reaching my destination was a paltry 30 seconds. Yes, that’s the time for me to walk across the dais, collecting my scroll in the process. It barely reflects the four years of hard work and dedication I put in.

In the end, it was the journey which I cherished most. It was in the journey where soft skills were learnt to complement hard facts. It was in the journey that acquaintances were made and friendships built. There are so many good friends that there is no fair way to anoint one as the best. Suffice to say, they all left footprints in my heart. It was also an eye-opening journey to all things unimaginable and previously unconceivable. It made me appreciate how diverse the world really is and how limited my knowledge were.

Something that I had never disclosed before is that I also entered Uni with three dreams. The first one was academic, ie graduate with First Class Honours. The second one was co-curricular. I wanted a life besides studying and also to make a difference to the life of other students, especially international students. I felt that after all the associations and activities I joined, I did achieve that. Being given the Community Achievement Award was icing on the cake. It was actually a nice feeling to have what I had done being recognised.

The third dream, I was ashamed to say, was to be popular. I know, it was a vain little dream, a castle in the air furnished by too many teenage dramas and movies, and a personal story by a friend. He said it offhanded it ages ago, but it somehow etched itself to my memory. During his birthday one year, the whole library full of students broke into a spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday. Gee, I thought, it must felt good to be popular.

I don’t think I managed to fulfil that dream of mine. The nearest I got was being stopped by five or six people in the library asking about assignments and how-do-you-dos. Did I try hard enough? I have no idea. It is sometimes hard to judge oneself. There were times I felt lonely in the Uni, lost in the sea of people. There were also times where I felt so lucky to have people around me, joking, having fun. However,  I was not too disappointed for not fulfilling it, as it was more of a bonus dream. Besides, there were enough things to make me feel grateful.

Yes, I had graduated, putting a full stop to my memorable journey in Parkville Campus, Monash University. Nevertheless, it was not a full stop to continue learning. It is just a milestone, with the time off now being a pause to reflect and recollect before embarking on a greater journey.

As a final note, thanks for indulging the narcissistic devil in me by reading these posts since I put the first one up more than half a year ago. I know I used a lot of Is and mes, Nevertheless, I hoped you are entertained.

Lucky Guy 12

Like Dumbledore looking into his pensive, i peered into mine, fixating on the not too distant past - my last semester in Uni.

The first image to appear on the silvery screen was me strolling into St Vincent’s Hospital one Monday morning, glad to escape from the falling rain and chilly wind outside. That was the start of my 3-weeks placement there. Overall, St V was a very relaxing and easy going placement where we students took long breaks and spent too much time chit-chatting and watching TVs. But can’t say I didn’t learn anything. In fact, I learnt a lot, but would have preferred a busier placement.

The second image was me looking at the blurry images of people dancing. It was the first time I wore contacts in an ‘official’ event and somehow one of them contrived to get lodged somewhere inside my eyelid. The event was the Pharmacy Ball – first time ever joining in the fun after spending four years in Uni. It was not a bad experience. Gave me a reason to buy an expensive vest! (not to mention paying the $100 ticket).

The third image that came forth was me gazing and touching an Olympic gold medal. One of Australia’s swimming star was in Uni giving a talk, and she passed her Olympic medal around. It was the second important medal I had ever touched, the other being the Nobel prize medal. Both occasions was quite inspirational.

The fourth image was me eating cheese cake in the tutorial room as a few of us exchanged notes and had a meeting on how to answer exams questions. It was the first time I took part in a group study and it was so much fun! A very memorable experience indeed. Should had done that way way way earlier. That sem I studied at Parkville library, Caulfield library, State library and Melb Uni Law library…

In the fifth image, I saw myself in my favourite jumper, sitting in the lecture theatre listening to Louis Roller’s talk in our very last lecture. I remembered trying my best to capture every sense and nuance of that last lecture experience. After listening to so many lectures, some interesting, some sleep inducing… Bugs Bunny suddenly jumped out and say “that’s all, folks!”.

The sixth image. I was drinking orange + vodka with chatting with a variety of people,  with a red fluorescent stick tied around my neck. To hell with it, I had said. This is the last semester. Last chance salon. So off I went to the Allied Health Cocktail Party even though had quite a tight study schedule. Too noisy and dark, but an interesting place to observe group behaviour and party animals.

The seventh image was me running the PISA Annual General Meeting. It was my last official involvement with the club, after putting so much efforts into it in my three years there. Presided over a tight presidential race, and was now still wondering did I set the fairest election rules. But anyway, we will see.

I was stuffing some sweet middle eastern dessert into my mouth in the eighth image. It tasted heavenly. The event? I was playing host to visiting students from the UAE. It was fascinating listening to their stories while showing them around Uni. Then there was me teaching Singaporean students how to eat meat pies, and wolfing down a hot dog in the lab (haha not many people did that) coz someone enquired the directions to there while I was on lunch break during Open Day.

The ninth image was me sitting in the campus’ admin office stuffing envelopes, thinking what sort of funny place Australia is, to be paid AUS$21 per hour doing such simple job. Wondered how much people doing the same job in Malaysia were paid. AUS$1/hour? I worked real hard that semester.

Oh, the final semester was just filled with too many fond memories. There were much more little snippets, like seeing people dressed up in the last day of Uni. Hearing someone play the piano for me. Walking around campus brandishing lanterns. Exploring my emotional intelligence. Juggling time tutoring students while preparing for my own exam. Taking part in my last global friendship event (it was self defence). Making lecture announcements.  How I wish I can relive them again…

P/s: This is the penultimate post of my Lucky Guy series. No prize of guessing that I will end at 13.

Lucky Guy 11

When I first started Lucky Guy, it was kind of fun and exciting writing about things that happened two to three years ago. I spent a lot of time rummaging through the crevasses and crevices in my brain for all those anecdotal events. Then digging up past lecture notes and photos and files and friends to supplement it. After that mulling about how I felt about it that time, and most importantly what significance does it play in my life later.

But now its time to write about the fourth year and  I found it extremely difficult, because it felt so recent. As a result, the series was punctuated by a long break.

Fourth year in fact gave me a feeling of being punctuated by too many placements. The placements were a hindrance. The first one started in week 5 of the first semester, just as I got into the groove of studying. It was three weeks long, then its back to Uni for one week of lectures. Then its another 3 weeks placements 1 week Uni cycle. There goes my first semester.

I started off fourth year being a mentor for O-week. I had always wanted to be one, and it proved to be quite a memorable experience. But it was kind of hard to make new students interested enough to stay for all the activities, going home to rest or going to the city to play seemed to be their favourite plans after the compulsory parts were over and done with. The best part of O-week is that it enabled me to get to know a lot of first year students. Since I was free, I was also involved in the PISA membership drive, doing up some posters which I hoped was impressive enough to lure unsuspecting students into our club.

The first four weeks were very hectic. We got a lot of lectures, especially on Clinical Pharmacy. In fact we got one single lecturer, Dr Jennifer Marriott for a total of 9 lectures in the first week. The other subjects were Pharmacology and Pharmaceutics. Besides that, I was doing a minimum of 7 hours of notes-taking per week. That means I attended 7 more lectures per week than other fourth years.

Overall, it was a very tough semester, with at least a project for each projects, including a debate. Doing those projects was quite time-consuming, and it was really a test on time management, as I also continued my involvement in PISA, Global Friendship Series and the Ambassador programme, because it had been enjoyable.  PISA was a bit unsteady at that time, after numerous elected committee members quitting en masse citing heavy study load. But in the first four weeks we managed to elect new committee members, did quite well in the membership drive and held a couple of activities like the welcome lunch and end-note workshop.

For the placements, I was placed in Austin for Hospital 1 and MyChemist Elizabeth Street for Community. Austin was impressive as the programme was well-structured. The preceptors and the other students doing placements there were nice. The community placement was only okay, but the ample lunch break gave me opportunity to discover the charms of various back lanes and walkways in the heart of the city.

Exam revision was tough that semester. It was the most stressful exam period ever, despite us having only 3 exams. It was not helped by the fact that I did poorly in all the projects. The main culprit being the need to study 53 Clinical Pharmacy lectures, with one lecture taking at least half and hour to read through and understand. Luckily I did enough, rolling off with a somewhat fortunate score of 81, 81, 82. For the first time ever, I got all HD for my exams in a semester, and it happened during my busiest semester. Damn, I should've immersed myself in activities throughout every semester...

Nevertheless, it was a great end to a great semester.

Lucky Guy 10

This will be the first time I wrote Lucky Guy in the comfort of my home in Kuching rather than in Melbourne. Can’t believe it had been a one and a half month hiatus since I wrote the last post on this subject.

This chapter was supposed to be on recollections of my third year second semester in the Parkville campus. And then I recalled that all the highlights had already been documented in past-posts. So instead of rewriting it, I just put the relevant links on the post and do a quick recap.

The most memorable part of that particular semester was my involvement in the organization of a charity concert. I never did this kind of thing before. When we first hatched the idea in the library, it sounded so exciting, but gradually, the idea grew into such a huge monster that it was scary. Our organizing naiveté was exposed time after time, but we did get through it in the end and came out with a wealth of experience.

I also commenced my first pharmacy placement during the semester. We were to complete four different 3-week placements as part of the course, and for the first one, I got to do it in a rural community pharmacy in Bairnsdale. It was my first exposure to real life pharmacy and I found the placement quite interesting. 

At the end of the year, I applied and was accepted into another Summer Vacation Project. This time I was attached to the Royal Melbourne Hospital doing a project examining the outcome of patients using high cost medications. The project lasted six weeks and I got to present it in front of personnel from the pharmacy department in the hospital as well as the pharmacy practice department in Uni, which was an unforgettable experience.

Academically, it was not too bad as we have only nine weeks worth of material to study instead of the usual 12. We also have only 5 subjects compared to 6 in the first semester.

I continued to be involved in the Global Friendship Series and the Student Ambassador Program, which taught me a lot of things and enable me to have fun in Uni while making friends outside my usual circle. I also commenced work as a Disability Liaison Unit notes-taker, spending two hours a week on the job.

Overall, it was a very eventful semester, and the need to juggle my time certainly made me feel more like a pharmacy student. Or else most probably I will be bored to death. Studying pharmacy by itself doesn’t really need 24 hours per week.

Lucky Guy 9

Third year at Monash University Parkville. Refreshed from a two months holiday back home, I was eager to start the year off with a bang.

Uni started off with the busiest and scariest semester - a total of six subjects to be conquered. The sheer amount of lecture material was never seen before and was indeed a quantum leap from the honeymoon period which was the first two years. It was also the first time we had the so called most important subject, Clinical Pharmacy, which deals with diagnostic sign and symptoms, treatment selection and monitoring of various maladies. I like the subject a lot as I found it most interesting and relevant to the things I'm studying now.

Other subjects in the semester include Pharmacy Practice, Microbiology, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry. Definitely not a stroll in the park.

I was elected to the post of Treasurer in PISA that year, and was pleased to hear that STEPS were well received by the new International students, even though a few complained that it was way too wordy. Activities in PISA started off with a little bit of hiccup as our welcome dinner coincide with the students' English proficiency test. Nevertheless, I remembered that our nasi lemak and teh tarik was well received.

Throughout the first semester, we continued to have sporadic activities. Some activities received good response, whereas some have so little people attending that it had to be cancelled. Nevertheless, all activities taught me valuable lessons on what were the priorities and likings of students in general. I really felt that joining the club improved my applied psychology and marketing skills.

Being part of PISA was also a great way to make friends. I was more confident by that time and can initiate small conversation with people. This confidence was also built up via my role as a Student Ambassador and Global Friendship Series (GFS).

That semester I also applied for the role as Student Ambassador, which offers selected students leadership training in return for services promoting the Uni. It was the most prestigious role in Uni and the group interview was very scary. All the other students answered the open questions so well and so quickly and I have no chance to talk until the interviewer had to ask me a question directly. I have no idea how I got in the program as only 15 students throughout the whole campus were selected.

The first few events I joined in my capacity as a Student Ambassador was awkward and uncomfortable as I don't know anyone in the team. Luckily I found my footing sooner than I thought and became firm friends with most of the other people in the team. There were a lot of useful training sessions like leadership training, public speaking, emotional intelligence, cultural awareness which added value to my University experience. We also had the chance to meet prominent members of the profession and have them sharing experiences with us.

That year Uni also introduced Global Friendship Series, an initiative to integrate students from all different year levels and walks of life. I joined the first activity and was immediately hooked to the novel concept. When they asked for volunteers to run the activities I immediately sign up. I was the first official volunteer. Galahad and Kush signed up later and we were the trio of brothers who put our heart and soul into trying to make it the best program in the campus.

I don't know was I was thinking that year, but I also applied and got accepted to be a Disability Liaison Unit (DLU) notes-taker. My job is to help people with a disability take down lecture notes during their lectures. Luckily the job only start in the second semester or I would have some problem coping.

Despite my average score that semester was the lowest amongst my four years, I felt that the shift of focus to integrate more co-curricular activities into my life is the right one. It was one of the most enjoyable time in my Uni life.

Lucky Guy 8

"For this research, you are going to find out and interview people suffering from chronic illness on their experience." A stern looking Dr. Jennifer Marriott told me when I met her to discuss about my Summer Vacation Scholarship.

"Gosh," I thought then "can I really interview people with my half past six English?" But then I reasoned, it was a good skills to acquire.

Getting the Summer Vacation Scholarship was another highlight of my second year. I was quite surprised because I was only a second year student and I got my first choice project. Most probably only a few students applied that year. It was lucky in a way as now most students are aware of it and hence the competition is stiffer.

During that time I spent 4 weeks in the Pharmacy Practice department. I was supposed to do a research on chronic illness but it only lasted for two weeks as the ethics paperwork fell through. So luckily or unluckily I never knew, I never got to interview people. Hence I hopped into another one, which is health promotion. I was allocated a desk and computer In the PhD room, and it was kind of a good experience feeling like a PhD student for the very first time. I also participated in the journal club where they discuss matters of interest concerning their research.

It was then too that I met Robin, who was the friendliest and most playful PhD student in VCP. It was fortunate that I met him because between us we came up with a plan to do a survival handbook for International students. Our collaboration gave birth to STEPS, a 32 pages handbook on things an International student should know concerning living around Parkville. I'm unabashedly proud about STEPS because it was the first time I initiated something and had it published and given to other people. Hopefully they find it useful.

That year was also the year VCP celebrated it's 125th Anniversary. I felt very fortunate to be part of the campus when they celebrated such a huge milestone. They were a lot of activities on campus to commemorate it but unfortunately I guess I was still too timid to put my hands up to join in. The only activity I joined is the first ever leadership night on campus, where we got the opportunity to have an Antarctica explorer sharing her experience with us. It was also then that I discovered that Uni function has lots of good food and free alcohol.

Second semester 2006 also marked the first time I hang out with other people other than the three girls. It started with Wei Siang inviting me to join them for badminton. From there on I met other people like Woon Pang, JP, Jim etc etc. I found out that they were all very friendly and approachable people, and wondered why I didn't take the initiative to talk to them earlier. It was funny that it was through badminton I met most other people that year. I got close to Galahad also through badminton, and also other PISA members as PISA held a badminton day that year.

I realised that it was hard to make friends in lecture theatre. The best way is either thorough prac groups or club activities. It was this realisation that from my third year onwards, I tried  my best to be heavily involved in Uni life. I tried very hard this year to motivate the first years to join clubs. Having a lot of friends really does make Uni life feel like Uni life. It was this realisation that made my Uni life so memorable.

Lucky Guy 7

 "One..two..three..four..five..six..seven..."

"Where's the rest? There were supposed to be 12 right?"

"I don't know... a few fell down"

Second year started off with a trip to Great Ocean Road with the first year International students to visit the 12 Apostles. I got to go as a PISA rep. 

I think the highlight of my second year is being PISA's Publications Officer. My job was to maintain the club's web site, churning out all the event posters and writing articles reporting the club's activities. It was a job I like a lot as journalism is something that I have interest in since secondary school.

It was the year when I found out that I loved to be in a position where I can contribute to the well being of fellow students. It was fun being involved. Participating in the great next PISA is the thing I constantly looked forward to that year.

I remembered it took me a while to get used to the people in PISA. I don't talk much in team meeting until much much later. Come to think of it, I was still extremely shy during second year.

The notable activities I took part in PISA is the Hip-hop dance class. It was the very first time I learn to dance and it thought me one thing - I'm helpless at dancing. Nevertheless it was fun. I also played in a soccer game with the med guys. It was memorable because as the goalie I let in 8 goals. I remembered the girls manning the score board was frantically hoping I didn't ship in another because the manual score board only had zero to eight.

On Uni, it started earlier due to the Commonwealth Games being held in Melbourne. As our campus was near the Games village, Uni was halted for 2 weeks for security reasons.

2nd year is more of a transition year. The year in the middle where nothing much happens.It was characterised by long practicals. I used to dread Thursdays and Fridays where we got 6 hours of prac in a day with only 30 mins break in between. Half of them are chemistry based and we spend a dreadful lot of time mixing things in test tubes, purifying our products and do a melting point test to make sure we did it correctly.

We had role plays in Pharmacy Practice. During the time, we got to be either pharmacist or patient in a mock pharmacy. We learnt how to ask the right questions and how to tackle awkward situations. It was the first time I got to experience counselling people and I found it really hard. The first case I ever got was about Morning After Pill. Heck, I don't even know what it was then!

to be continued...

Lucky Guy 6

When you start moving the rusty bearings in your brain, its like opening a tap and the water can't stop running. More and more long forgotten memories kept resurfacing in my mind in the last few days.

I came to realised that I had completely forgotten to write about a much hated but integral part of a student life: exams.

In our Uni, 80% is enough to get a High Distinction (HD). Sounds easy initially, so I vowed early on that I will get HDs in all the subjects I take in Uni. Unfortunately, like so many things it is easier said than done. In the first year, I fall short by one subject each semester. In the second year, it was short by 2 subjects per semester. In the third year... I can't bear to finish it. The interesting fact about exams result is that we receive it by SMS. So there's usually no time to prepare myself mentally reading the results.

The exams consume a whole lot of my life. Its like two whole month each year dedicated to study for them. It was so hard to condense 12 weeks of studies into 2 or 3 hour papers. Luckily most of the answers require rote memorisation, which is a skill I'm relatively good at. Many thanks to the Malaysian education system. but actually, the Australian system is not that much better. Memorisation is still the key to high scores. It was something I am a little disappointed about.

A lot of my friends assume that I got good results all the while since I am a JPA scholar, which is far from the truth. They will be amazed by how mediocre it really is. But anyway, I had slowly learnt that having good results doesn't mean anything much in the real world. There are so many other components for growth that is far more important.

There are really a lot of different people in Uni who can change your perception on things. I started to question my obsession to get high marks when I realised that they are some people who are just happy to get a credit. Getting high marks doesn't mean that I will be a better pharmacist; just that I'm better at taking exams.

One of my friends recently said  something which made me pondered a lot.  "You know Boon Phiaw, sometimes you do things that doesn't mean anything to you but meant a lot to the other person" How true. I was at the 'other person' end a few times during my first couple of years in Uni.

One such moment that stood out was in first year when a 3rd year student approached us and introduce himself to us. It was sometime in April during an informal meeting where a group of them wanted to introduce PISA to us. Up to then, no seniors had made the effort to speak to us. Even though he only asked us our names and where we are from, his action left a deep impression on me. For once, I felt that I'm not an insignificant freshie but someone who is worthy enough to converse with. I was made to feel important, like how it  was put by Dale Carnegie in his famed book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

I believe all the efforts I made nowadays to get to know juniors and assist them when the need arises stemmed from this encounter. I did it based on my own desire last time to have a senior  to mentor me, someone whom can be my role model. I am of the opinion that being a senior student, there's a responsibility to try and guide younger students so that they can reach their goals in life. I don't really know whether by doing this I made a difference or not, but at least I am doing something I believed in.

That, I think, is very important.

Lucky Guy 5

I can't seem to recall my first ever lecture in Uni. It was Elizabeth Yuriev's intro to Med Chem, at least that was what the timetable say. But I can't place her in front of the lecture theatre during the first lecture. All I remembered was that we were late, and when we reached the lecture theatre, it was full. I had to sit at the very last row. This was in stark contrast to this year, where the lecture theatre is never even half filled.

I liked Elizabeth because her lectures are easy to learn and very systematic, and she was rightly voted the best lecturer by the students that year. She taught us a total of 37 lectures in just one semester. As she taught two different subjects, a sentence she said which stuck in my mind is "now lets take off our med chem hat and put on our pharm chem hat." She said this when the lectures are one after the other. She also loved saying something about "turn off your mobile phone" and "no drinking in lectures".

The only intro lecture that I remembered is the one by Roger Nation, which is the Head of Pharmacy Practice. This is because his lecture material is about the same as the one Louis Roller gave in O-week. Roger really got overshadowed by Louis as he was not as charismatic. Nevertheless he is quite a good lecturer.Most of the lecturers are good, only a couple who-should-not-be-named should consider spending the rest of their live cocooned in the comfort of their lab.

I recalled that the thing which impressed me most in first year was the ability of lecturers to blurb out names of medicines in machine gun fire fashion. David Kong, the Malaysian born lecturer is a pro in this. In lectures about medication safety, he loved to let off a string of medicines with similar names, like Zyrtex vs Zantac, Losec vs Lopid, Zocor vs Zoloft, Indocid vs Inderal... I was often left in awe: "How in heaven does he do that? Will I be able to do that when I finished my degree?" Now after four years, I can safely say most of the names ring a bell. So I do learn something after all.

I missed only a few lectures during the entire year. It was a commendable achievement considering we had four 8.30am starts per week. We used to motivate each other by saying "Hey, a lecture costs RM100!"

The very first presentation I made in Uni was in Week 6. It was assessed and I presented a talk on health and exercise. That was the first of many presentations in Uni. I always elected to go last in presentations - that was my trademark. The presentation was memorable in that I managed to regurgitate the entire memorised speech out. Luckily Uni taught us well. I didn't do that now.

The thing I live to regret during my first year is not taking enough initiative to talk to people and befriend them. I was saying to the new International students in a speech at the beginning of this year that "During my first year in Uni, I was this sort of people whom in a party, you are likely to find standing alone in a corner, pretending to be invisible." It generated a few laughs but it was true. I just stick with a small group of people and only talk when spoken to. I was still too shy and introverted then I guess. It was funny now that I know more students in younger year levels compared to people in my own year.

I also didn't take part in any club activities. Even though I promised myself to be involved heavily in social activities before the start of Uni, there was this something keeping me from raising my hands up during clubs election time. To start off, there wasn't many clubs to join compared to now. Missing orientation played a big part too, as I was quite hazy what clubs were there on campus. I had no idea about MPSA, VPSA or other As those students were promoting at the front of lecture theatre. I was too busy marvelling at their ability to speak in front of nearly 200 students. That for me, was the epitome of self confidence, and I really did wish I can do it one day.

Luckily I did manage to force myself to join PISA's committee at the tail end of the year. PISA was the International students society on campus, and it was just established in April. Hui Bing was already on the committee, and she encouraged me to join. I still remembered that the meeting was at 5pm. I spent the whole afternoon tossing and turning in bed, weighing up my decision on whether to join the club or not. I reflected upon my Uni life, and really felt that up to that time, it was not what I envisioned, and I didn't try my best.

In the end, I decided to walk the 20 minutes to Uni for the meeting. Not many people turned up for the meeting, and I got elected to the post of Publications Officer for the next year. That moment was the whole turning point of my University life.

Footnote: Sorry Lucky Guy is always behind schedule. Life been busy. And thx to the cute girl who suggested that I can find out from my timetable what was the first lecture in Uni. Lecture notes were consulted for writing up part of the post.

Lucky Guy 4

"What's your name? Boon Phi..?"

"Boon er... say that again?"

"Er, sorry I don't think I can pronounce your name."

"Never mind. just call me Boon."

"Boon!"

"Boon! How are you?"

"Why don't you get an English name?"

So officially in this campus, my name is Boon. Unfortunately, Phiaw seems to be a little bit too difficult for their cultured Aussie tongue to pronounce.

Oh well, it was something unforeseeable. In hindsight, I should had figured out a good English name before I came to Melbourne like most of the Chinese students.   

First year was all about the 20 minutes walk to Uni. HB, KY, LZ and me, the 4 JPA kids all live in college square. 8.30a.m. lecture means leaving college square at 810a.m. If someone is late, it will be frantic telephone calling to say "fast, fast or we will be late!"

Back then we don't have lectopia, a fancy name for recorded lecture. If you missed the lecture, you missed everything. Come to think of it, that kind of "don't be late or you'll miss out" culture seems so far away now, even though they only have lectopia from last year. Nowadays, lecture theatres are only half full and there are some students who just disappeared from Uni.

First year lectures stood out for their dullness. I think my first-time-ever doze off is in Pharm Chem lecture about isotonicity. It was basically about chemical calculations and was as dry as sandpaper. Not every lecturer prepare lecture notes for us to print out - some like the bald headed Maths lecturer, prefers us to write everything down. So it was 3 hours of copying everything down neatly on pieces of foolscap paper every week.  Nowadays, students complain if the lecture notes are uploaded late. Time had really changed a lot within four years.

The most interesting lectures were the psychology series given by Louis Roller. For one thing he is a good lecturer, for another, I love psychology. Psychology stuffs also stick well in my brain, especially his favourite catch-phrase "perception is reality".  In fact, the one and only book I brought in first year is the psychology text book.

There was also a lot of pracs in first year. The first one was the most senseless I guess, as all we do was pipette and measure water again and again. But I remembered the Indian demonstrator saying my handwriting is the neatest guy handwriting she had ever seen. Funny how things like that tend to stick in my mind.

Other pracs that I remembered include the physiology prac where we had to carve out a mouse to study their anatomy. It was fun until I severed a blood vessel and the whole body cavity of the mouse was flooded. Another prac is where we had to extract caffeine crystals from tea leaves. That one I recalled because my partner didn't turned up and I had to do it individually - and I was the only one in the whole group that was able to grow the crystal. It was a proud moment.

It was fun reminiscing these moments. I guess I will keep the rest of the first year memories for my next post.

Lucky guy Chapter 3

Orientation - the last week of fun and sunshine before the nitty-gritty of the new University semester starts. O-week is the week where you are supposed to meet new friends, form new alliances and settle into your own cliques.

Any my, cliques there were. There were the Malaysian girls clique, white people clique, African clique, Hong Kong clique, nerds with long hair and glasses clique...

That what I'd observed while being an O-week Mentor this year. I guess much that we endeavour to meet people that are different, we tend to stick with people that are like us in the end. That's the reality.

This year, I decided to be an O-week Mentor because it was something I always wanted to do. There was some sort of wicked allure in bossing new kids around.

The most satisfying thing I did in O-week was facilitating the introduction of new students. I sort of go to one guy sitting by himself in one corner, talked to him, and then proceed to talk to another guy nearby, chatted with him, and them introducing those two guys together.

I remembered feeling very happy after doing that. It was like witnessing the birth of something new - like watching a butterfly coming out from its cocoon.  Upon reflection, this was exactly what I hoped my mentor did for me during O-week.

My mentor for O-week was a girl by the name of Benita Dalton. The only thing about her besides the name which I remember was that she is pale skinned, has a lot of freckles and ginger red hair. She should be a nice girl, but unfortunately, did not leave much of a strong impression.

I arrived on Melbourne on the night of the 23rd of February 2005, a hot and humid Wednesday, and went to University the day after with Freda, Kheng Ying and Hui Bing to catch the tail end of the Orientation week.

I am trying hard, but the overall picture about O-week that surfaced was blurry, with little vivid snatches here and there. No, there was no party. We missed it. Nom there was no clubs to join. We missed it too. Free lunch? Don't think there were some.

I remembered the first person I met was Esin, who was the International Students' Advisor.  Lined up to take photos for the ID card. Listened to introductory speeches by Louis Roller and Richard Prankerd. Touring around the campus, and Benita with her friends bringing us four to Lygon Street for lunch. Had a hamburger that cost $9.90 and a can of $2.20 Fanta. Having a croissant in Uni on Friday morning.

The person which left the strongest impression on me during that week was Louis Roller. If I was disappointed by the physical side of the campus, the first lecturer who spoke to us really captured my imagination. Tall and charming with a head of whitening hair and moustache, he had a touch of ancientness about him, not unlike Dumbledore in Harry Potter. He spoke with passion and fervour,he voice strong and warm. To me, he was the epitome of the classic professor, right from the pages of story books. This is how they should look like. I remembered that I couldn't wait for his lecture.

So that was the pathetic story of my Orientation week. Lucky I was there this year to savour what I had missed three years earlier. Better late than never!

Lucky guy Chapter 2

Being a student ambassador is something that I am relatively proud of. I viewed it as some sort of recognition from the faculty that I am good enough to be entrusted with the job to represent them.

Hence, come every and any open day, a number of us decked in our highlighter green shirt will enthusiastically greet you, with a great big smile pasted on our face - and proceed to sell you the faculty.

"This faculty is one of the best in the country. It is also the oldest, with 127 years of history"

"It is located right on the Parkville strip. Had you heard about the Parkville strip? It is the premier location in Australia for bio-medical research."

"It is very difficult to get into the Pharmacy. Even if you achieved an entry score of 95 and passed your UMAT, we still need to rank you and only get the top 250 students."

"Last year 99.4 percent of the graduating class managed to get a job within six months of graduating."

"You know, the drug to treat influenza was synthesized right here in this campus. We are also now working on a drug to treat malaria - with great success."

It was ironic.

Four years ago, I chose to do Pharmacy here without knowing anything about the background of the faculty at all. I came because of two main reasons: one, a lot of my friends will also be here in Melbourne; and two, Monash University is a very established and well known University.

That was it. Thinking back, it was funny how I made such a seemingly important and potential life-changing decision so easily. But then again, making decisions was never my strong suit. It still isn't.

I never knew the pharmacy campus was actually an independent entity until it merged with Monash in 1992. Or more interestingly, that the campus is so small. First day I saw Uni was kind of a shock. "What? only three buildings in the whole campus?"

It was smaller then my primary school! On a side note, it now consists of four buildings.

And more importantly, it deviated away from my concept of a University - the clock tower, circa 1900 castle-like buildings, flat lawns with lush leafy trees, and the need to run across brick steps to get from one lecture to another. In short, a place full of quaintness and rustic charm, seeped in tradition and history.

Here, we sat in the lecture theatre with the lecturers coming to us. The buildings are modern looking, square with glass-paned windows, and there were wild ferns growing rather then carpet grass.

If I knew this before hand, most probably I would chose University of Queensland instead.

Luckily, serendipity is something that I always have faith in.

Lucky guy

I was doing a campus tour in Uni the other day. It involved bringing a group of prospective students around the campus, showing them the various first class facilities and enthralling them with positive stories of Uni life.

On this particular beautiful and sunny day, I was hosting a group of students  from Ngee Ann Polytechnic Singapore. Wonderful and inquisitive people they were. One of their lecturers was in my small tour group of nine. We had just passed the cafeteria, where masses of students were having their lunch break.

"There seems to be a lot of girls in this campus. How's the males to females ratio here?" the lecturer asked.

"I think its around 30 to 70. Or maybe 35 to 65." I replied.

"It must be lucky being a guy here." she contemplated.

"Yeah I guess so," I replied after a pause. "I guess so."

"I am lucky to be a student here."

Lucky.

Perhaps that's the best word to describe my time here in this campus now known as Monash University Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science.

Not that because it is a predominantly female populated course, even though that's a plus sign.

I was lucky because I was given countless opportunities do develop my skills and network. I had the chance to sample nearly every facet of student life, accumulating a wealth of experience in the process.

I was given the chance to realise my potential.

I never really realised I was lucky until a couple of weeks back, when it dawned upon me that a lot of International students who came here to study didn't have the chance to enjoy the opportunities I had.

They came here, study diligently for the whole degree, and went home with a cert. That's it.

Not that I didn't work hard for those opportunities, but I must admit a big amount of luck was involved.

Damn, I wouldn't even be here if not for the huge amount of luck during SPM examinations. Chinese was always my Achilles Heel, and getting that elusive A1 was like a faraway dream until I was lucky enough to get an essay question similar to one that I had memorised.

That clinched the JPA scholarship and I had a plane ticket to study overseas, which was never a part of my dream.

In fact, I was seriously considering to study in a local Uni and be an English teacher. Being a pharmacist? The thought never crossed my mine in the first 18 years of my life.

After 18 months of studying matriculation in Peninsula Malaysia post SPM, I finally came to Melbourne on a hot and humid day in February 2005, on a wing and a prayer.

P/s: This is the first part of a continuous series on my Uni story.