So so so ...

I rock climbed !!No not on a rocky mountain but a less adventurous artificial thing they have to make people like me get a feel of it :D I didnt reach upto the top but I did something I had always wanted to do, drop back to the ground hanging by suspensions, lame I know, but thats the part I like best about rock climbing :D I would have made it to the top had I not started with a drained off energy level. But anyways, I did make it more than half way through :)

2nd July is the big day !! The day the exams start ( Yeah exam days are the only days I call big in my life, thats what medical college has turned me into ) So anyway its less then a month, and for some reason I'm still not in the study gear. Its probably because I've gotten bored of the entire exam phenomena ! I mean seriously just how many frickin exams am I supposed to take in this life time ? So I've figured, for this semester I'll just play like a pro soccer player playing in his own backyard and save my energy and all those super duper skills for the boards and all :)

Saturday

I have a lot to write about today but I think I'll just focus on one major thing. My activity this Saturday. I'm sure it was the best and the most rewarding Saturday in the history of Saturdays :)

Image courtesy - blog.ning.com

The floods have wrecked havoc in most parts of the country and it's time we took some social responsiblity. Many of my my friends are volunteering for the flood relief efforts, all in whatever capacity they can and so I thought I should play my part too. Mobashir, a friend had been volunteering for the Pakistan Medical Association and was involved in fund raising so the rest of us came up with a plan to help him out. We did a door to door fund raising campaign in the colony I live in. Maryam, Azka, Huzair, Hunain, Mobashir himself and I knocked almost 60 - 70 doors on Saturday morning and afternoon to collect Zakat and donations for the flood victims which shall be delivered to them in the form of medication and food items through the Pakistan Medical Association which has medical camps set up in the affected areas. We collected a staggering amount of around Rs 45 000 !!

And I really want to mention this guy whom we came across in the block next to mine. We knocked his door, and introduced ourselves to him ( Azka, Huzair and I, we did the campaigning in two teams) , he gave us and our cause a patient hearing and then when he handed me over the cash for donation , he refused to take the receipt for it by saying "Its all about trust" , smiled and then closed the door as I hurriedly thanked him. It really was inspiring to see that a total stranger was trusting me with his money just based on the few words of introduction I had given about myself and the cause !

Well, after a long tiring walk in the sunny afternoon all of us headed back to my home, offered our prayers, played board games, watched a movie and then did our Aftaar (breaking of fast at dusk)..

Not only was the aspect of doing something good very rewarding but we also had a lot of fun and it was a new experience all together. And the subsequent board game, movie, and aftaar session with my dear friends was the added hype and happiness :)

Zakat - The annual donation that affording muslims have to give as a religious obligation

PS - Keep visiting the blog cuz the next post shall be on Aftaar delights !! You dont wanna miss that :)

The Top 21 feelings !

There are the best feelings I've ever had. I'm sure  you can relate to many of these

1 - Being surrounded by unknown people, feeling awkward and then suddenly seeing a familiar face, a friends face, and immediately being filled with warmth and happiness !


2 - Eating the last bit of my favourite chocolate fudge cake and still wanting more, being sad that its finished and then remembering "hey I stored some in another container in the fridge !!"

3 - Playing in the rain with friends or having a pillow fight !

4 - Waking up in the middle of the night and realizing I still have more time to sleep.

5 - Standing against harsh challenges, all tired and alone, but turning around to see that I'm not alone, I have an entire team of friends and family to support me..

6 - Having a child hold my finger and tug me to do something as harmless as opening the door for him/her.

7- Getting involved in an arguement with someone and then having friends race to help me out and support me !

8 -  Having my Dad express his love by patting and and rubbing my head, especially when I'm about to fall asleep.

9 - Knowing that at times my mom trusts me more than I trust myself !

10 - Reading and understanding the Quran .

11- Talking to Allah in solitude and knowing that he's always there to protect me, feed me, and give me the courage to face life !


12 - Having hours to spend with nothing on my To-Do list..it means time for leisure, time for myself ! :)

13 - Sitting on a window or behind a glass wall oblivious to the world and watching people go about their chores and their businnesses. In other words - Observing life in movement while I stand still and invisible to the world...

14 - Having heart to heart conversations with my girlfriends !

15 - Having someone tell me - "Im there for you" ( Alhamdollilah I've a lot of friends who've not only said that but proved it)

16 - The immense satisfaction when I do something good for a stranger !

17 - Being hugged while crying

18 - Seeing something so magnificent that the only word I could possibly utter was "wo..."

19 - Having a lengthy heated debate with someone over something where the other party is adamant that he/she is right and I'm wrong and then seeing their stuck up nose turning downward and their lips turning inward when I show them the proof and prove them wrong !

20 - Winning a match ! Especially when you're on a team ! (As in - not solo, like tennis or badminton...

21 - Have a friend rudely tell me..."Hey ! You're not a friend, you're a sister !"


PS - Picture courtesy - Google Images

Its monsoon/vacations/internship time !

Thats us on the last day of college before vacations !

Since the time I opened my eyes to date, the month of  July has always been a vacation for me, but not this time ! Well, technically it is since we're off from college but I'm doing an internship at the Tabba Institute of Heart diseases, at about a 20 minutes drive from home so it isn't a vacation in the true sense. Gladly Shirin, Huzair and Hunain are interning too and so I can spend more time with them during the vacations. I'll be posting more details about the Cardiology experience after a few days.

As for now I'm relieved that I'm done with the rotation in the Opthalmology ward, eye isn't particularly my area of interest but I really liked the rotation experience because I seemed to know a lot about eye diseases without actually studying about them and was able to participate in the discussions in the ward and amaze myself with the stuff I'd come up with. I mean seriously, I picked up the book on Eye just a day before the ward test and yet I think I did well in it. I just got a little confused over the differential diagnosis of leukcoria (an abnormal white reflection from the eye) in the start but I was able to cover it swiftly with other stuff that supposedly impressed the examiner.

Other than that , life's good , its almost monsoon season so we have a thick cloud cover every now and then , it seems like it'd rain but it doesn't, we gave Huzair his birthday present in advance since we weren't sure we'd be able to meet up with him during the vactions, its an Mp3 player that we bought with a combined contribution from all his friends, he seemed to like it a lot :). I have a wedding to attend this Wednesday and I cant wait to wear the black dress I'm dying to put on, I just got it back from the tailor after getting it stitched today..And oh yeah ! How could I forget, we got our transcripts of the 5th semester and I scored a GPA 3.70, its lesser than my previous score but I'm happy and thankful to God that I passed ..So much for the random updates I'll be back with more...

SURPRISE !

Aniqa - Its April the 13th !

Maryam - Oh no, its the 13th of October !

Huzair - His Id says 13th April !

Uzma - But I'm sure its 13th October !

Najwa - His facebook profile says April ! Should be April !

Mubashir - Well atleast we know its the 13th ! What difference does the month make ?

here we were discussing an issue as serious as the NASA's space shuttle plan or CERN's million dollar investmnts when Mubashir shocked us with his humor indifference and ,we all turned to look incredulously towards him who gave a triumphant smile, knowing that he'd stolen the show , and it doesn't matter to him how he does it because spotlight is all he wants !

And incase I've successfully gotten my readers to guess what the conversation was all about, no it wasn't the NASA, CERN , UN, no not the gaping holes in the ozone and no , not even  global warming !,  it was the discussion regarding a friend , Hunain's, birthday !! ( hey ! come on ! Its serious too ya know ) .

Most of us (in the clinical group) have just been friends with him since the start of this year and hence the confusion was justified ! The fact that he'd trick and dodge us by saying 13th April at sometimes and 13th October at others for the past 5 months did n't help either ! But ofcourse master's at finding excuses to celebrate birthdays that we're , we finally found out that 13th April was  his real date of birth . Having found that out for sure we planned a surprise for him. The idea was to pretend we forgot his birthday, ( now thats what you get when you keep confusing people with your birth dates !)  No one was to wish him, not by text msgs, not by phone calls, no e - cards and absolutely no facebook wall write ups ! We usually wish each other at 12 midnight on our birthdays but we obviously avoided that as well. The next day in college , we  spent the entire morning making a customised card for him with tags by everyone he knew. Huzair's job was to keep him busy while we did all that and to go buy his present (the day before) that we'd all agreed to give him.

His present is worth mentioning too because it was a wallet from Jafferjee's with his name embossed on it. Jafferjee's is one of the best leather brands in Pakistan . Its a hot choice for everything leather, here's a link to their website jafferjees. (Do check it out, you'll love it, I guarantee).

On the left are the many birthday tags from his card.

So finally, after our ward duty , Uzma and Aniqa rushed to give his card some final touches, Azka and I made sure we escaped unnoticed by Hunain to get the cake ready while Huzair yet again took the responsibility to keep Hunain busy ...After all the arrangements were done, we texted Huzair to bring him , and then.... 'SURPRISE ' We had a Happy Hunain standing in front of the cake amazed that we hadn't really forgotten his birthday inspite of all the confusion !

PS - Mubashir isn't really that indifferent , making silly comments is just one of the many things he does to make us laugh ! No offence Mubashir :)

Just some of the pics of the sports week I couldn't upload in the previous sports week post due to my lousy browser speed !

My lap is filled again ! ( Dedicated to Fhm aapi)

Aah well another long gap between my posts ! It turned out that it wasn't my ISP which was responsible for the snails pace browsing speed , it was my laptop which wasn't as virus free as I thought I had made it..So when after making a gazillion calls at my ISPs call centre, badmouthing my ISP all around the city , I went upto the ISP office to get my money back and discontinue the package. I was told "please have your system checked" ( yeah right ! I was sure that was a marketing trick to make me reconsider getting the money back), but anyways I went to Uzma's house today to see how my laptop responded to her wi-fi and viola ! It DID NOT work !! I could feel my pride go down down the drain, but Uzma's ever techno- genius sister was called to my aid and the great computer guru looked at me and said * drums rolling *..... "Najwa you've got viruses in your systen amd your windows are all messed up !! " what followed was an indescriptable sinking feeling in my heart !!

But as always Uzma and her family were there for my rescue or rather my critically ill laptop's rescue. There were made certain amputations (removal of viruses), implants ( anti-virus downloads) and a CPR ( pc restarting) and eureka my dear little laptop was all healthy and alive in my lap with a perfect browsing speed :)...All cheers to Fhm aapi (aapi is urdu for elder sister, Uzma's in this case)

The week - reflected

Life has been pretty busy since the last time I posted and yet I could n't think of anything worth mentioning in my post . So I'm just gonna list down some of the things that happened through out this week and the last

1- We discovered a traditional Sindhi Jhula ( a cot like swing) at Rita's home this weekend. She has a Sindhi background and the jhula was a childhood present from someone in her family. The ones I've seen in pictures are usually more colourful but we did n't mind the appearance as long as we could sit inside and have our pics taken..And I'm sure the number of pics we took and stuff we did on the jhula convinced her family that we were no more than a bunch of jerks all excited over nothing !

2 - Uzma's sister passed her final Chartered Accountancy exam ! And its not just the passing that I consider an achievement for her, but the fact that she did it at a very young age ( early 20's for crying out loud ! ). People spend ages trying to pass the CA exam ( I've seen people trying to pass the exam at 30 ) and she's already a full fledged Chartered Accountant ! She sure is an inspiration for CA students out there !

3 - We had our ward exam last week to test what we had learned in our month long posting in ENT ( Ear, nose and throat ward ) It was a relief to hear the teacher comment that he liked my history taking skills, especially since all those I know had remarked that he was a difficult examiner to please !

4 - Shirin is presently suffering from 'GSS' ...Guilty shopper syndrome ! She spent her entire pocket money and a bit of her savings on stuff that she is regretting having purchased. And , that, I tell you, is not something unexpected from Shirin ! She goes wild about something first, cries and whines to go get it, and once she does , she is filled with remorse of blowing off her money on something that was n't really important in the first place ! ( Passionate she is ! )

5 - I got locked out of the class twice this week . And no it wasn't my fault. I mean seriously ! Our lecture hall for this years classes is on the second floor ! And since our college was architected in the time when the subcontinent was under British rule, those two floors are actually like 5 floors (high ceilings) and it takes ages to walk up the stairs. Imagine the pain when you walk up those looong, tiring stairs , out of breath and stamina, and find out that you've been late and hence locked out !!

6 - The rooster that my neighbor had adopted is no where to be seen ! I 'm guessing they gave it to someone or the poor fella just made his escape ! And the bunnies have turned from adorable to scary ! They aren't the frightened little creatures I thought they were. They stare at me with their huge eyes and dont even stir when I walk past them. I'm the one scurrying away and they are the one's sitting and ogling the scene I put up for them ! Evil bunnies

The bowling match and other 'Arena' moments

Arsala and I !

We were in class day before yesterday when Uzma whispered into my ear
" Have you started studying yet ? " turning to look at her with a bewildered expression ( its not usual to hear Uzma talk about studies) all I said was " No, but I think we should " , it seems she had her nerd pants on because she went on further to ask " So when do we start ?" amazed at her interest again, but consciouss of the fact that her concern was natural I tried to push the idea of studying to the latest date possible and suggested " Lets start from the 15th , as in after half the month passes we'll have a better idea of the course outline " Uzma instantly pulled out her cell phone to see the date and turned the screen towards me " Its 14th already Najwa !"..I must say I was just as shocked as her to realize that it was already 14th but more than the strange epiphanic feeling was the stinging sadness of starting studies again :) But anyways I did do a little reading today and found the subjects to be pretty interesting !

Enough talk about studies, lets move on to something thats more interesting ! Its hangouts and parties ! We had recently been planning to go watch 'Avatar' after classes ended but facing the challenge of having a full house at practically every theater for the entire upcoming week we changed the idea to go watch a movie to have a bowling match instead. So yesterday, after all the slow, dragging classes ended after what seemed a longer than routine day , we packed ourselves in four cars and headed to 'Arena'..I like arena for its location ( close to home ) , affordability and the fact that its got everything under one roof ( Mini golf, bowling, cafe, ice deck, the artificial rock climbing cliff, snooker pools , gym, arcade and even a paintball fighting war zone !) Farwa, a friend who studies at a college in the North western province was in town and we called her to be a part of the fun.

The bowling match was fun and I finished at second place ! I wont go into much details and let the pictures speak
Its s good thing I took the picture while I was still winning :)


Uzma played five consecutive games , winning all the rounds !!! She sure has stamina

Some of the scrumptious desserts we had at gelato affair after draining our energies at Arena


Love ya all !

I'm back !

Boy has it been a long hibernation for me..I've almost forgotten the time when I last posted.And to be honest I have no idea why I did n't have time.I mean there was nothing major I had been doing and yet it seemed time was flying.But ah ! now I remember ! I was too busy watching ' Hana Yori Dango' , the korean drama that Uzma had introduced me to.All the time that I was online was spent staring at my laptop's screen watching the once sensational drama that had been my addiction past week !

Other than ogling at my screen , I was also busy revising some parts of the Holy Quran that I know by heart. Dido's bruises (mentioned a few posts earlier ) are also getting better and she invited us to her home to treat us on getting better, we used the oppurtunity to throw a surprise birthday party for Uzma and Sidra as well.Then there was New Year's eve which was also the day when we had a blue moon and a lunar eclipse in Karachi ! ( What an end to 2009 !).

But with all that happiness and joy came a tragedy as well.It was the 28th of December when a bomb blast killed about 40 people in a religious procession. It was really heart breaking to see something of this magnitude happening in my very own city and afflicting its brutalities on innocent citizens.May Allah grant patience to the families of the deceased and bless those who passed away ! Ameen

A day out at Uzma's

Uzma's home is kinda like my second home, for I dont know any other house besides my own that I've been to as frequently or as much ! But amazingly I did n't get the opportunity to spend much time with Uzma at her home these entire vacations. So after a lot of delays and postponements I finally made the awaited visit today. And boy was it fun ! We spent the morning reading our group diary from high school ! A diary which all of us friends shared to put down our recollections of the fun moments we had back then and even and funny pictures, caricatures & descriptions of each other..It was hillarious to read all the stupid stuff we did back then ! But on the other hand it also made me realize how much we have changed in these two years. The things we considred doing 'cool' back then seemed kinda absurd & childish now..I mean that is natural and a part of growing up and moving through life but I never knew that I'd change so much in a brief matter of two years ! Wow University has been a life changing experience ( and I still have 3 more years to go ! I wonder what I'd be then !!)

Well after that we went to a nearby mall, did a little bit of shopping, a whole lot of window shopping, had lunch at the food court and then did something that I had n't done in a long time - play games for tickets ! After spending Rs 200 on the coins and earning just 23 tickets ! we decided to save the tickets for later and headed back home

She spent six coins to get a stuff toy , but could n't =)


Back at Uzma 's palce I watched a Korean drama that Uzma had watched a few months back. Now Uzma is a huge fan of everything Korean, movies, dramas, mangas you name it..An interest not common in Pakistanis. She had always encouraged me to watch it but I never thought I'd like it but now that I've watched an episode, I'm addicted to it.
.Yup , addicted !

Its winter and you have to get Well Soon Dido, we love you !

Its finally winter ! The city where I live, Karachi, is a coastal city with a maritime weather.Its usually warm and humid throughout the year so winter is a greatly anticipated weather, bringing relief to the sweating, sun tanned people. The weather is not as cold as the northern parts of Pakistan and the temperature rarely goes down below,I'd say 50 F. Its also very short lived , winter hardly lasts for two months. And in these two months , winter lovers like me make the most of it by drinking as much coffee, mochas and hot beverages possible, and of course its a time to bring in use the winter wardrobe which is hardly used in the rest of the year.And Oh yes ! how could have I forgotten the blankets and comforters ! these luxuries are usually tucked into the storage areas somewhere in the corners of the house throughout the summer ( One hardly needs a bed sheet to cover oneself during summer ! )
Rest is all well.Except that a friend, Dido ( fictious name) has suffered a first degree burn on her face ! Thank God its just a first degree burn and her eyes remained safe. She was holding a small can of gasoline near a BBQ and it somehow caught a flame and ignited !. Instead of letting go of the can she tried to blow the flames away and then somehow the fire got her face !. She was rushed to the hospital where the doctors gave her the first aid and discharged her..She just has to go to the hospital every six hours for the dressing now..We ( friends) went to her home with all our get well presents yesterday, it was hard to see her, my dear friend, with a burnt face but the doctors say she is healing well and will be better in about two weeks ..I'm hoping and praying she gets well soon and have definitely learnt a lesson ' Be careful near BBQs'

Reflections

We just got to know that our vacations have been extended for two more weeks ! So yeah I'm more than happy at the feeling of having a lot of time to spend on everything I've been craving to do.Currently I'm doing an elective in the neurology department at the Civil Hospital Karachi.A public sector hospital. All I have to do there is be with the doctors as they examine the patients and take their history.
Its all very basic at this stage as we're still in the very early stages of learning but the doctors there are very cooperative,they make sure they involve the students in every step of the diagnostic procedure.Its a great experience, I am learning a lot.Its a two weeks long elective and I'm thinking of applying at some other ward for the upcoming two weeks , its better than sitting at home doing nothing !.My best friend Uzma is doing her elective at the cardiac surgery department, she's very much into cardiology and I guess is enjoying the elective more than anyone in her department..I just hope she turns into a cardiac surgeon one day and proves her mettel ! All the best for that Uzma :)

Other than that Eid ul Azha is just around the corner (Saturday)..I'll be posting the details on it in my upcoming posts Inshallah ( God willing).Till then.. Chao !

Don't you dare steal my cabbage !!

It was supposed to be our human anatomy class.The teacher hadn't arrived yet so I borrowed Uzma's readers digest to read in the meantime.Just as I started reading, Uzma and Shirin, seated on either side of me turned to talk ,and here's there conversation

Shirin - Hey Uzma ! Your chicken is about to lay eggs isn't it ?

Uzma - Oh yes ! I'm just so excited !

Shirin - Good for you , my dog went lost, its just so sad !

I was wondering when Uzma got chickens and Shirin a dog but decided to go on reading trying to block their conversation out of my ears.

Uzma - Suits you well, you stole my cabbages last week , it was just about to harvest you know !

Shirin - Look who's talking ! You stole my carrots ! I spent hours trying to harvest them !

Uzma - Hahah well you didn't have a dog to guard your farm, did you ? What can you expect ?

Shirin - Oh, you just wait I'll steal your corn tonight and get a dog too.

Uzma - We'll see.But dont you dare steal my cabbage, they sell for higher !!!

No matter how hard I tried to block their sounds from my ear, it was difficult to do so with both of them talking on my either sides, and their weird conversation did n't help either. By now I had my mouth agape in bewilderment ! And was totally lost. Stealing veggies, harvesting farms, pets and what more they're selling it now !!!! I knew they dont own farms and no one in their family did either so what was the whole nonsense..

I just muttered - Lost

Shirin (turning to look at me ) - What ? You lost your dog too ?

Me - What ? No ! I dont have a dog you know that ! I've lost track of your conversation.Thats where I'm lost.What are you guys talking about.And by the way,Why are you guys stealing cabbages and carrots !

I said with a bamboozled look on my face. There was a pause and then they burst out laughing, it took a whole minute to get them stop laughing and start explaining.

Uzma and Shirin - We were talking about facebook's barnbuddy application you idiot ! Hhahahah.... and on they went

How was I supposed to know ???

Ramadan, Iftar parties and unexpected rains !

A glimpse of the rain from my window

Its after sunset here in Karachi and I just sat down to blog after breaking my fast.Its the month of Ramadan (Acc to Islamic calender) in which all the muslims fast from dawn to dusk and refrain from all kinds of food,drinks and sinful activities. With Ramadan comes not only a lot of worship but Iftar parties as well.People invite those who fast at their homes and they break the fast togethor.We just had an Iftar party at my friend Faryal's place who was more than excited to have us over since she's leaving to meet her parents in Saudi Arabia tommorrow and will be coming back after two long months !

Faryal and her delicious cutlets !

It was a good thing that we had the party in the weekend because just as the weekend ended all of a sudden the met department announced thunderous rains.It was most unexpected since its post-monsoon time in Karachi and it rarely rains in this season.Let alone rain so heavily that the entire sky went dark and it rained for like two days on an on and off basis.It was fun at the start (yes, fun,there is so much of sunshine in Karachi that people call cloudy weather pleasant and rainy days fun !!) but soon I grew tired because there was too much water on the roads, there were traffic jams and I had to miss two days of college. I was hoping the temperature would go down after the rain but it was so hot today that it seemed it had never rained, the only indication was the humidity !! I'm pretty sure the temperature was somewhere around 36 C.

The dark clouds (This pic was taken by my friend Maria)

Even this pic doesn't do justice to how dark it got at 12 noon ( Pic-Courtesy of Maria)

An update on life !

14th August - The national flag on my neighbours roof

Sadly my vacations have ended and I'm back to routine life.It was just so depressing to get back to the monotonous life after two months of vactions but gladly I'm getting used to it and the parties that my friends keep throwing every now and then are making life less boring. But a lot of interesting things happened last week. I ran into an old friend in college.She was my best friend in the 4th grade and infact was the first friend I had made in Pakistan after we moved.She had changed schools in the 5th grade and I had lost contact from her. But then just last week a girl walked upto me in the Girls Common Room and asked " Najwa, right ?", "Yeah" I said trying to shuffle through the many faces I know in my mind without any success, she went all smiley face and said "Its me Anum from school,remember" , imagine my surprise and ofcourse the embarrasment at not recognizing her ! We chit chatted for a short while and I came to know that she did her matriculation and thus was a year ahead of me in college ( I did my O levels which takes a year more than Matriculation).It was great meeting her but I realised that the 12 years that we were away from each other had changed a lot.We were both different individuals with different interests and different friends and perhaps the relationship between us could never be the same !.But I'm just glad we met after such a long time.We can atleast be friends if not best friends !.

Other than that ,there came 14th August which is the independence day of Pakitan and a national holiday.The preparation for the celebration begins from the 1st of August and patriotic TV shows are aired on Television.We had a week of celebration in college with a debate competition,poetry competition,painting competition etc..It was really fun.

Other than that this week was filled with birthday parties, 9 of my friends have their birthdays in August and so does my Dad ! I hope all those cakes dont give me digestive problems ! :)

There is so much I want to share but I guess I'll keep some stuff for next time..:)

Away from friends

Uzma and Faryal and their oh so teasing looks !

Its Summer and I'm away from home at my uncle's place in California, USA..Well obviously its good to be on a vacation and enjoy the relaxation and roaming around but its always sad to be away from the fun my friends keep having back home...They keep uploading pics of their activities and day outs and make me jealous :) But thanks to facebook we all keep connected.By the end of summer our mail threads are a good 50 pages long !!..I was wondering what friends did a 100 years back when the only way of communicating was mails which took months to arrive, distances must have felt so bad and depressing then !

Exams, friends and summer

My exams finally ended after we took the the OSPE (Objective structured practical examination ) this week. They went okay, but I really don't know what GPA to expect. With all my belief in Allah I have hopes that it will Inshallah (God willing) be 3 or above, but lets see (fingers crossed). Other then that the best part is that I have two whole weeks off ! It seems like such a huge blessing after all the hardwork for exams.



But the downside of vacations is being away from friends whom I could meet on a daily basis when college was on . We could n't plan any outing since the heat is simply unbearable ( a scorching 38 C !!!)and everyone prefers to stay indoors at this time of the year but nevertheless I'm hoping to meet my buddies for cofee tomorrow evening and I think we'll go shopping on Saturday (My friend has discovered this new shoe store which makes custom shoes as per your choice and colour for just Rs 200 ($2.50) !!!! so naturally I cant wait to check it out ). Other then that my cat has given birth to three most adorable kittens , I'm still thinking about what names I should give them.I'll upload their pics in my upcoming posts

In the line of friends

We at Dow Medical College are approaching the end of our third semester with flying speeds.The syllabus seems to be growing every second and our teachers seem to be in an illusion that there are 336 hours in a day instead of 24 (Thats the only conclusion I can reach after looking at the homework piling up). But besides all the work and studies its the time of the year when we get to decide and choose a clinical group for ourselves. A group of around 10 - 14 people who'll go for ward duties (in the hospital) togethor. Seems like an easy task ? Yup, it did to me too.But Only when my friends and I sat togethor to decide who the 14 people would be did the problems become visible.

We are a group of ten friends who agreed to say togethor but then each one of us or rather most of us had some other friends which the others friends werent friends with or even had problems with.Some wanted'A' to be in the group others wanted 'B'. When everything would seem to be decided there would arise another problem because 'D' would have a problem with 'E' being in the group and bingo ..confusion again.So it was all a chaos.Believe it or not, we had arguments, misunderstandings, tears, and even heated up conversations at 1 am !!!.

All I wanted was there to be a minimum number of people in the group i.e 10 so that while in the wards, teachers could give us better attention and co ordinating could be made easier but that meant splitting the group beacuse as a rule every group should have 25% boys. While all ten of us are girls......Problem again.But finally we decided to keep a max of 14 people in the group, compromise with our studies in the ward but still be togethor !!!! I hope it wont have any serious implications on our studies but the good thing is that I've got my pack of friends with me !!!!!