The First 4 months

4 months have passed since I started the University of Adelaide Bachelor of Dental Surgery Course. The following are a list of things that I have done:

1. Discovered that every tooth has it’s individual unique features
2. Started flossing on Thursday nights to have a clean mouth for Friday clinic sessions
3. Went surfing
4. Brought bottles of Coke and fruit juice to a dentistry potluck and saw that almost nobody touched the Coke
5. Fallen ill and became so homesick that I wrote a song on my ukulele
6. Hosted my own Kahoot for my cohort because the BDS Course doesn’t use Kahoots in lectures
7. Played football for the first time in a few years and had my entire body ache for the rest of the week
8. Cooked dinner for 40 people (never cooked so much chicken in my life)
9. Hung laundry in my room to save $4 from using the dryer
10. Met a group of friends from Singapore who live near me
    • Was disappointed by all the house music trash during the Fringe Festival
    • Cooked dinner with them almost every day
    • Learnt some sick dance moves on Just Dance
    • Got sucked into the world of Kpop
    • Went on a road trip together
    • Had some deep discussions about Black Mirror
    • Recently started playing cards with them

So far, the course has been more than manageable. Biology has helped immensely, I have spare time to cook extravagant meals with my incredible roommate who is an exchange student from North Carolina State University, and I can afford to re-watch the Harry Potter Series and Friends episodes over my meal times. Or maybe I can’t actually afford the time, but we shall see when results come out. 

Studying away from home really gives me a lot of motivation to work hard. Being apart from friends and family for such a long period of time, excelling in my studies seem to be the best way to make it all worth it.

I’m about to take my exams for the first time in university. These next 2 weeks of SWOTVAC (I think it means ‘School Without Official Teaching – VACation’) are just going to be spent in school (throwback to NLB Bugis days). Studying hard so that I can have a guilt-free winter break.

Can’t wait to go back to Singapore.

A picture of my gag reflex kicking in during an intra-oral soft tissue examination.

Beautiful.