BURP! Just back from dinner from Ximending...AGAIN! This time, all 6 of us went to 天外天麻辣火锅 (Ma La Hotpot) for a hot and chilly all-u-can-eat buffet for NTD$350 (S$16) to celebrate Mark's belated birthday. It wasn't as hot as we thought and most of us ate till our stomachs gave way. Not to mention the unlimited Meiji ice-cream and fruits delighted our evening.

Today's a lousy day and weather here sucked for the 1st time as it kept pouring and drizzling whole day long. Went for the morning meeting at 7.30am. It's always a tense environment as the HOD (who is nonetheless very knowledgable) always reviews the case presentations sternly and shoots multiple arrows aka questions in all directions from students all the way to senior consultants. He even recalled back 3 young consultants back from their morning sleep to the meeting and scolded them in front of everyone for being careless and not being punctual. But it's also very funny as an overseas student to see how the whole department always stammer in front of the boss. Nobody ever dares to speak up against him... How sad... If you have watched the Japanese and Taiwanese version of "The White Towers", this is exactly how it is like for General Surgery here. Y? Because the story is written after the General Surgery Department here!! Really!! Otherwise, morning has been ok because my tutorial and lunch lecture were cancelled.

My afternoon was spent with a lecture on how laparoscopic surgery works and the principles behind some basic laparoscopic surgeries. Pratical came after the lecture and it was fun to the max. I've never gotten the chance to play with laparoscopic instruments and I must say it is never as easy as it looks on the screen. The 2D pictures on the tv screen always gave a false impression on where the instruments were and we all could not grasp the targets all the time. It's really difficult and I really admire surgeons now who can finish their laparoscopic surgeries chop chop...

By the way, DPP presidential and vice-presidential candidates were giving a talk in the hospital's premises as we were playing around with laparoscopy. What a strange place to give a rally! I hate the DPP anyway... Ma Ying Jeou, u must win!!

Off to rest my stomach and watch some Taiwanese TV programmes... Haven had this childhood pleasure for such a long time!