right after an awesome anatomy lecture today, i rushed over to the architecture building for a public lecture by Mr Chen Yonglin, the infamous chinese agent who has just "defected" and got a "protection visa" in australia. (something like political asylum)

as i stepped in, it seemed like an auction, or market. there were these couple of china men shouting at the speaker on stage...calling him things like "liar, traitor, betrayer of the motherland!" it was quite an emotionally charged atmosphere as i watched patriotic china people stand up and accuse him of spreading a pack of lies about china.

this guy used to work for the chinese consulate in sydney, after being in the foreign service for some time. he claims that his dad was killed by the communist party when he was just 3 years old, simply for writing a poster supporting the democracy movement.

strangely enough, he joined the party for almost 20 years and despite having risen through the ranks, he recently decided to "leave his motherland"

the speech by tim costello last night was so moving, engaging, and riveting. most of the IHers in the dining hall were so spell bound by this seasoned orator, speaking off the cuff, that there was almost a pin drop silence as he spoke. pretty rare occurence at IH.

i wanna be like that some day.

my table was pretty interesting and we had this pretty lively debate on topics ranging from america's influence on the world, terrorism, poverty...and bec measday insisted that john howard is a creep. pretty amusing.

after dinner, there was a photo frenzy and lots of IHers, high on cheap Queen of Adelaide wine, trotted down to Puggs for more booze. I didn't stay long there....only had a pint of carlton. the music was good though, pity i was not in the mood.

first clinical placement today. went to Austin hospital in heidelburg....it was so impressive! wasn't the dodgy, dirty hospital that i imagined it to be, but a modern, bright and architecturally decent building. the wards were pretty much the same as what you would find in singapore hospitals like gleneagles....

it just amazes me how the australian government supports the health care budget if they provide such high quality health care to people absolutely free.

was rather pissed off in the morning as my friend asked me to wait for her. being the good nice guy that i normally am, i waited for her and we ended up missing the train. problem was....the next train was cancelled due to some unforeseen circumstances...(apparently this happens very frequently on melbourne's transport system)so we ended up taking a cab all the way to austin and i wasted my daily pass and spent unnecessary money on cab fare.

i mean...if u're going to be going somewhere for the first time....please allow ample time to find the place, instead of attempting to arrive there on the dot.

singporeans / malaysians just need to improve on their punctuality. its time we put an end to "rubber band" timings.

It was a great night out last saturday...120 IHers jamming onto a tiny craft cruising down the lovely yarra river taking in the serene night scenery....