As of this moment, I am watching a silent filming of the 2015's Jurassic World, waiting for my phone to charge to an adequate amount for my daily dose of Instagram feeds, and thinking of ways to start this blog, all while sitting in a lounge at the Malaysian international airport. I can never seem to remember the first time I came here with my family. I was five years old then. Do you ever remember things that you did or places that you went to when you were really young? I definitely don't. It;s just tiny fragments of memory that's burnt into my mind. Legitimately this is the only thing I can recall about my 2006 trip. The first morning in Kuala Lampur, we went to a South Indian restaurant to eat. It was an open air place, meaning it had it's fair share of bugs and strays. It was the way my sister screamed when a stray cat brushed against her leg, that logged that memory in my head. There is no recollection of the butterfly park, bird park, the Twin Towers, or any of the pagodas present throughout the city. Weird right, we always remember the little moments, never any of the major ones.
Anyways, the reason my dad and I came here was because I had a university interview. I know, why spend so much money on airfare and hotels for a twenty minute interview, huh? Let me enlighten thee. It's all because the UAE doesn't believe that its citizens should be able to talk to their friends and relatives in other parts of the world for free. That's right, Skype is banned. Well, only for the innocents. Others who use VPN get by scot-free. We weren't able to set up a good time to do the interview online, so my dad went," Why don't we go there physically instead?'' And so, on a lam and multiple business meetings made by my dad, we set off on a frivolous journey which lasted a whole two-and-a-half days. And I can finally say, with bitter-sweet remorse that, never has there ever been a more demanding two-and-a-half days. I probably got a combined total sleep time of 5 hours.
With my entire prospective future hanging in the balance, I can say that my interview was decent enough. We got there way ahead of time. I spent most of the time playing solitaire and tap dancing in anticipation. They called my name and I enter the room.
Two Indian women stare at the specimen in front of them, eyes darting from left to right,sizing it up. After they are done accounting for the wrinkles on my shirt and my untied shoelaces, they begin to speak. If there is one thing that I have learnt from my Hollywood and Bollywood gurus, it's that interview takers are demons in disguise. I no longer trust the entertainment industry. These ladies were nice.
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: First of all, I am awesome. Blah blah blah, (name), blah blah blah (family), blah blah blah (hobbies), blah blah I am awesome blah blah.
Q: So you like to read, tell me about the last book you read.
A: (Acting like I wasn't totally ready for that question, and didn't have the knowledge at the tip of my tongue), blah blah blah American Gods blah blah Neil Gaiman, blah blah (book summary) blah. (Then acting like I am embarrassed for not answering correctly, apologizing) blah blah.
Q: What did you do during your gap year?
A: blah blah hospital internship, E.R. shadowing, surgery observation blah blah, learning to box blah blah.
Q: Most important quality of the doctor?
A: (Using lots of words, dedication, commitment, conversational skills, patience, empathy)
Q: Do you think being a doctor is a one man job?
A: (Feeling sorry for the person who said yes) NO, blah blah teamwork with nurses and staff blah blah.
Q: Why choose IMU?
A: (Truthful) blah blah
Q: Are your parents fine with you staying in a foreign country for a long time?
A: (Standard don't-worry-about-it answer)
Q: Why do you want to become a doctor?
A: (Deep answer)
Q: Case study time (Rich business man finding an injured person on the way to an important meeting, respond)
A: (Answering appropriately) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Q: Can you think of another method?
A: (Indeed I can, nice lady) blah blah blah
Nice lady #1: Thanks a lot for your time, we'll let you know accordingly in a week's time. Do you have any questions for us?
A: (Well my bladder's bursting, so point me towards a restroom maybe?) Nothing as of this moment.
And I left. I think that went nicely, what say you? They rest of the one-and-a-half days was spent as follows:
- Eating delicious meals for low prices
- Filling up stomach with low-priced delicious food
- Feeling good about eating low-priced delicious food
- Gorging on amazingly inexpensive gourmet yogurts
- Sneezing an hour later due to amazingly inexpensive gourmet yogurts
- Feeling sick yet content about engulfing delicious food
- Literally inhaling inexpensive food item after inexpensive food item
Do you know how cheap all the food in Malaysia? Have I talked about how fudging delicious the food is??
- Boring myself to sleep on a business meeting with my dad
- Drinking tons and tons of local tea
And. that about does it for my journey. Now I am all set for my on-air movie-spree. The rest of these seven hours will be EPIC.
Will you remember this trip to KL?
ReplyDeleteI hope you do
Hope you will remember this trip to KL
ReplyDelete