Yep. Sunday night this time. Didn't get it wrong again. Well it's mainly because of the whole Public Health Screening today, quite a significant landmark in this short span of time. But more on that later.

But first! I went for the VCF meeting on Tuesday again, after missing the last one over the holidays (OG sleepover lol). I've got to say, the bible study/sharing within our connect group was just superb. Like, really. I've been to quite a few bible study sessions/meetings in my time, and honestly, they don't even compare to the level of depth and... Freshness of the word? Best word I can come up with at the moment. And that was just an introduction to the session we'll be covering over quite a long period of time, on the book of Hebrews. Never have I heard the Word discussed in such critical and deep context, which was pretty much lent the whole study such a powerful edge. Upon reflection, I don't think settings any larger than the CG would have allowed such discussion, due to too large a spread of audience for the level of discussion, which probably approaches or contests bible school level teaching. But honestly, that's the core of what keeps bringing me back to this extra activity taking up an extra night in my week. Looking forward to next week's already, I think it's been too long since I've been exposed to the next level in my understanding of my faith, and now the opportunity is here, I can't afford to let it up.

Since the meeting on Tuesday was late, and school ended pretty early, I ended up accompanying Michelle at the library (who also came for VCF), and also got some studying done. Yeah, you read that right. I spent an afternoon in the library studying. GG. Sounds unlike me? Well, you would be right. It IS unlike me. Normally, the only time you'd even see me studying in a library is 2-3 weeks before the end of year, final, omg-this-actually-counts exams. But yeah. I did manage to sort of get all the stuff from anatomy so far sorted out and put into place, which sort of felt good when I had finished with it. I hope to start integrating bits of studying into my routine, especially as the first continual assessments approach at the end of the month. Oh, i'm coping, just not very well (or as well as everyone else is). I have confidence I'll still pass if I leave my studying to the end, but it's just... I don't know. Perhaps the Singaporean mindset is getting to me.

Oh, went out for dinner with Nick on Thursday... His Project Based Learning tutorial thing ended late and he had to go somewhere for dinner. Hmm, was pretty good I guess. We went down to the row of hawkers next to Kent Ridge Terminal, apparently a must-try for all NUS students. Food wasn't too bad, but it wasn't much better than average though. We could have ordered the wrong things, but then again I've heard some pretty high praise for them. Was interesting talking to Nick I guess, just about stuff in general. It's not often I can actually talk to guys about "stuff in general", but Nick is one who does perhaps share the sentiment. Pretty interesting just hearing someone else's thoughts about this whole current situation of ours, 2 months into med school. Strangely, there's no one else I've actually had the chance to speak with about it, so it was a pretty enlightening chat; someone else's take on anything always is.

Anyway, today was the Public Health Screening which our whole OG volunteered for, together with most of the M1 cohort, as well as some M2s, M3s etc, with pyramid style involvement levels as is the case with most faculty involvement activities. M1's representation being the greatest, and following suit through the year levels. Our shift was the Sunday afternoon one, and definitely the longest, clocking upwards of 5 hours from 2pm all the way to 7pm closing time (on paper). In reality, being the last shift and all... But then they were kind, and our seniors let us M1s go off pretty punctually. While us M1s could have been justified in saying we were pretty shafted on roles in terms of the entire PHS generally, a fair few at least managed to try their hand at the Capillary Blood Glucose and Blood Pressure stations, the most practical of the bunch afforded to us. Myself? Stuck at the Health Slips station, ticking recommendations for patients based on their answers to the questionnaire. Much like a nurse's job in a clinic setting, in fact. "Eat more fruits/vegetables", "Exercise more"... Sort of made me think about my own health a bit... After ticking hundreds of "Exercise more" on patient's cards, among other things, I started wondering just how much of a hypocrite that makes me, and perhaps doctors overall. We tell people to eat properly, but we don't. Tell them to exercise more, but we don't. Tell them to sleep properly, but we don't. Sigh, the irony.

Well our station worked this way: there were pretty long periods of pretty much activity, but when the questionnaires came in, they came in waves. And that caused some level of crisis for the earlier group, in that when I first walked into my station, I walked into a bottleneck. Of course, to work right away... An hour later, we finally managed to shift the bottleneck down the line, to the poor consultants (M4s, M5s, and a handful of doctors) who had to see patients after us. While many other people from other stations got to move around with a degree of freedom, to try out/swap positions with various stations, we were pretty much stuck. The load just got too much sometimes for movements to be possible, and swapping someone in would be a significant impairment to the efficiency of the station. The health slip is actually a simple (or maybe not so) algorithm based on the patient's numerical/boolean responses to a series of questions. Based on the interpretation of that data, you then filled up the form. The most complex was a nested if-else condition (which really isn't as difficult as it sounds... I'll explain it sometime through a more viable medium if you like though =)). Still, it takes some time for one to be able to get through each patient with decent speed by wiring the algorithm through your head. There were initially three of us at the station, which eventually evolved into 5-6 due to the heavy but occasional traffic. Still, I managed to get away for an hour or so when two extras swapped in (Wei Ting was one of them! Finally, contact with an OG mate! (No OG mates at my station ><) He eventually stayed stuck at the station for the rest of the time too, guess why.). Did some ushering, handing out flyers and promoting the Health Screening. I found a good place to camp, knocked out my stack of flyers in about 40 minutes (thank you Flag Day skills! Getting people to pay money was so much harder than giving out flyers inviting people to FREE stuff), and took my time getting back to my station. Where I walked into another information traffic crisis, bordering on another bottleneck on our hands. Right back into it.

At the end of the day, I think the two of us initially at the station were the only ones who didn't manage to get our hands dirty (figuratively) at the CBG (bloooood!) and BP stations. Oh well, there's always next year. At least I know I did what had to be done, and was where I was needed most. We went for dinner to Mac's after (which made me realise how long it's been since I've been to MacDonald's...), and you could sort of feel the weariness dripping off everyone. Still, our OG's company is always enjoyable =P. It's pretty late, and the fatigue's getting to me. Sigh, my book is overdue, I'm starting to forget the songs I'm learning on guitar, the chess opening i'm building on is incomplete, my anatomy is everywhere, my biochemistry is nowhere, and my Priest is only level 46. Critical point: October's end. I think I'm in for a crash course in juggling.

Good night.

Study first, think later.