My 2018 summer break

In 2018, I had 3.5 weeks of summer break between 3 August 2018 which was the last day of Stage 4 of my MBBS course at NUMed and 28 August 2018 which was the first day of Stage 5 of MBBS. Many interesting events happened during the summer break. Here, I am going to write about those events.

Compared to the previous years, my summer break is so much shorter this year. Yet, this is supposed to be my last long break in the entire MBBS course.


3 August 2018 (Friday):

That was officially the last day of my Elective which I did at a private clinic in Subang Jaya. With that, Stage 4 of MBBS came to end. On that afternoon, I and my family had dim sum for lunch at Ben Ran Chinese Resturant in Vangohh Eminent Hotel. The atmosphere of the restaurant is really nice. This was the first time I went there.

4 August 2018 (Saturday):

I had dinner at McDonald's in Bangsar Baru with my family on that night. Much to my surprise, this McDonald's outlet had self-ordering kiosks. To place an order, we can just use the touchscreen at the kiosk and then pay using a credit or debit card. We can even specify any special requests we want. After ordering, we collect our orders from the staff at the counter.

When I was in UK a few months earlier, I had encountered such self-ordering kiosks at the McDonald's there and I really liked using them. However, I never seen one before in Malaysia. I was glad that the self-ordering kiosks are now being rolled out to McDonald's outlets in Malaysia as well.

5 August 2018 (Sunday):

On that day, I met up with one of my Taylor's College friend at Sunway Pyramid. We had lunch together at Go Noodle House. My friend suggested that we watch Ant-Man and the Wasp at TGV Cinemas after lunch. I had been wanting the watch this movie for quite some time so I definitely agreed.

Unfortunately, we later found out that Ant-Man and the Wasp wasn't available on that day. My friend then sent me home. On that night, I and my family had dinner at Restoran Waneeda Tomyam in Kota Damansara. It is a Thai restaurant and I really like the tomyam soup, pandan chicken and steamed fish there.

6 August 2018 (Monday):

I upgraded my iPad Air tablet to iOS 12 Public Beta on that day. Ever since I upgraded it to iOS 11 about one year ago, it had been rather laggy. Apple had stated that iOS 12 would bring performance improvements, particularly to older devices. As it turned out, my iPad Air did become a bit faster after upgrading to iOS 12. I was quite satisfied, considering that it was just a beta.

On that afternoon, I watched the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 online. It is a great movie. I had watched several Star Wars movies in the past few weeks, and this was the first non Star Wars movie I watched in a while. Interestingly, this movie has some similarities with Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. This movie also has 5 post-credits scenes, which is very unusual.

7 August 2018 (Tuesday):

On that day, I upgraded my Pixel 2 phone to Android Pie, which had just been officially released. I liked the new features in Android Pie, with the exception of the change to how multitasking works. In the previous years, before I got the Pixel 2, I never had the opportunity to upgrade to the latest Android version as soon as it was released.

Whenever Google develops a new Android version, they only deliver it directly to Nexus and Pixel devices. For all other Android devices, it has to go through the manufacturer, which will then decide whether or not and when to deliver the upgrade. Many devices never receive the latest Android version, and for those that do, it takes several months to receive it.

8 August 2018 (Wednesday):

I met up with a few of my Taylor's College friends at Sunway Pyramid on that day. We had lunch at KyoChon. It had been quite some time since I last saw them and I was happy to meet them again. After lunch, we walked around Sunway Pyramid. One of my friend was looking for a present for his father's birthday and we gave him some guidance.

I suggested to my friends that we watch Ant-Man and the Wasp at TGV Cinemas, but they weren't free later in the afternoon. Before they left, we had ice-cream together. After that, I wanted to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp myself. However, there was only one session for the movie on that day, and the session had started one hour ago, so I chose not to watch it. I then returned home by LRT.

9 August 2018 (Thursday):

On that day, my mother took me to Bank Islam in USJ Taipan to transfer money from my savings account to fixed deposit. I had always done so around this time of the year for the past few years. Unlike the previous years, I didn't have to wait too long for the process this time.

Around that time, I started writing a post on this blog about my experience throughout Stage 4 of MBBS. It was a very long post that would take several days to complete, as I wrote about everything in great detail. When writing the post, I felt as if I was reliving all my memories in Stage 4.

11 August 2018 (Saturday):

I met up with one of my Taylor's College friend in Kelana Jaya on that day. I travelled there by LRT. We had banana leaf rice for lunch at Kanna Curry House. After lunch, my friend wanted to watch a movie. However, he wasn't interested in Ant-Man and the Wasp, instead he preferred watching The Meg. Since The Meg sounded like an interesting movie, I agreed to watch it.

We went to Paradigm Mall and watched The Meg at GSC Cinemas. This movie turned out to be better than what I had expected and I enjoyed it a lot. After that, my friend sent me to the LRT station and I took the LRT back home.

12 August 2018 (Sunday):

The sky in Subang Jaya was clear on that night and I was able to see several planets in the sky. With my father's help, I was able to identify Venus and Mars and I took photos of them.

13 August 2018 (Monday):

There were 13 students who didn't pass the written examination for Stage 4 of MBBS in December 2017, so they had to resit it. Paper 1 of their resit examination was on that day, while Paper 2 would be on the next day. This examination was definitely very stressful for them because if they failed it, they would drop out of the MBBS course.

Many of them are my friends and I gave them words of encouragement before the examination started. I was very glad that I passed the examination in December 2017 and thus didn't have to take the resit examination. On that night, I finally finished writing the lengthy blog post about my experience throughout Stage 4 of MBBS.

14 August 2018 (Tuesday):

I really wanted to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp at that time. The movie was released quite some time ago and it wouldn't be long before the cinemas stopped showing it. As none of my friends wanted to watch it, I decided to watch it myself on that day. I had bought the movie ticket online in advance.

On that evening, I took the LRT to Sunway Pyramid myself. I had dinner at Pepper Lunch. It is a Japanese fast food restaurant and I really like the food there. After that, I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp at TGV Cinemas. Just as I had expected, it is a very good movie. The movie consists of 2 emotional stories running in parallel, and I absolutely love the ending.

16 August 2018 (Thursday):

In July 2018, I once had bak kut teh with one of my friend at Samy Bak Kut Teh in Klang and we liked it a lot. Samy Bak Kut Teh had just opened a new outlet in SS15, Subang Jaya which is much closer to my house and my mother was interested to try it.

On that afternoon, I and my mother took the LRT to SS15 and we had lunch at Samy Bak Kut Teh. The bak kut teh at this outlet tasted just as good as the one in Klang and my mother liked it too. Later on that day, the results of the resit examination was supposed to be released, but for some reason it was postponed to the next day.

17 August 2018 (Friday):

The results of the resit examination was released on that morning. With the exception of one student, all those who took the resit examination passed it. I congratulated my friends who passed the examination. The one who failed is my close friend. The failure meant that he wouldn't be able to continue the MBBS course at NUMed. I felt very sad for him.

On that night, I had dinner with my family at Fatty Crab in Petaling Jaya. I like the crab there very much.

18 August 2018 (Saturday):

I met up with a few of my Taylor's College friends on that day. I travelled to Kelana Jaya by LRT and one of my friend fetched me at the LRT station. Due to some personal issues, I was late by 30 minutes, but my friend waited for me. We then went to Super Kitchen Chilli Pan Mee for lunch. 2 other friends then came and joined us.

After lunch, my friends wanted to go to a cyber cafe to play an online game. I didn't know how to play that game at all, so I chose not to join them. My friend took me back to the LRT station and I returned home. On that night, I and my family had dinner at The Ship in Damansara. This time, I decided to try something new which was Turkey Ham. It is really tasty.

20 August 2018 (Monday):

On that night, I had dinner with my family at Chili's in Empire Shopping Gallery. I ordered Chicken Crispers which was what I used to order in the past, and I liked it very much. However, my family didn't order the right thing, and consequently they didn't enjoy the food.

22 August 2018 (Wednesday):

On that day, I and my family went to IPC Shopping Centre which is connected to The Curve. We had lunch at Paddington House of Pancakes. We then went to All IT Hypermarket, where I bought a new Lightning cable for my iPad Air. My old cable was worn out and charging the iPad was difficult. I also had an hair cut at Quick Cut.

After that, we went to IKEA which is part of IPC Shopping Centre. There, we walked through all sections and I bought a microwavable food container. Before leaving, I had the IKEA soft-serve ice-cream which had always been my favourite. The vanilla flavour had been replaced with soya, but the taste remained largely the same.

23 August 2018 (Thursday):

I and my mother went to AEON Big in Subang Jaya on that afternoon. We had lunch at KungFu Bake Rice which is a Thai restaurant. We ordered steamed fish and tomyam soup. Although I liked the pandan chicken there, I chose not to order it this time because I wasn't very hungry.

Later on that day, the student group list for the 1st semester of Stage 5 of MBBS was released, and I am placed in Group 2. Many of my friends, including most of my group mates in my Stage 4 group, are in this group as well. Therefore, I am really happy to be in Group 2.

On that night, I watched the movie Fast and Furious 8 online. This movie has great action, but its storyline is rather unrealistic. Overall, I like the movie.

24 August 2018 (Friday):

On that night, I and my family had dinner at Souled Out in Sri Hartamas. This restaurant has a great atmosphere and the food there is of high quality.

25 August 2018 (Saturday):

I met up with several of my Taylor's College friends on that day. First, we had lunch at myBurgerLab in Bandar Sunway. I hadn't seen one of them for a long time and we had a lot of things to talk about. After lunch, some of my friends suggested that we watch the movie Crazy Rich Asians.

However, the seats in the nearest cinema were fully booked, and I too wasn't very keen of watching it on that day. I and my friends then went for desserts at Fluffed Cafe & Dessert Bar in Taman Paramount. After that, one of my friend sent me home. I was very glad that I had the opportunity to meet up with all of them just before the end of the summer break.

26 August 2018 (Sunday):

On that morning, my parents drove me from Subang Jaya back to Johor Bahru. I hadn't been in Johor Bahru for the past 5 months. From April to May, I did my Student Selected Component 3 in UK, while from June to August, I did my Elective in Subang Jaya.

I and my parents had lunch at Restoran Hook Sang in Bukit Indah. After that, I went to NUMed to collect my accommodation keys. I then moved into EcoNest which is the new NUMed managed accommodation. For the past 4 years, the accommodation used to be at Horizon Residences. EcoNest is a nice place to live, but I still missed the times when I stayed in Horizon Residences.

After moving my belongings into EcoNest, my parents went to the airport and took a flight back to Subang Jaya. On that night, I had dinner at McDonald's in Bukit Indah. I was surprised to find out that Hot N' Crispy Chicken was still on the menu after so long, as it was supposed to be available for limited time only. I ordered it as I had tried it before and I really liked it.

27 August 2018 (Monday):

On that afternoon, I walked around the ground floor of EcoNest just to explore the place. I then had lunch at Bakeology & Beans House near EcoNest. I thought that it is a Western restaurant, but it turned out to be an Indian restaurant.

28 August 2018 (Tuesday):

That was the first day of Stage 5 of MBBS. On that morning, I went to NUMed and collected the Stage 5 student pack. There were induction lectures on that day as well as the following day. This marked the end of my summer break.


If you find this story interesting, you may want to read these too:
https://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2019/08/my-2019-summer-break.html
https://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-2017-summer-break.html