jan's blog 🌸

Assalamualaikum and hey yalls,

Or maybe specifically, hi to the juniors that would be coming to Manipal, India here! Well I'm making this post now because you guys would be coming here soon, and I was the same as you guys, had a LOT of questions.

So I'll be dividing this post to 2 parts, the first part (this part) will be roughly about the travel from Malaysia until Manipal, and the second part would be about things that I would recommend to bring, or not to bring. So let's get started.

Briefly explaining to give a rough picture, you'll be taking 2 flights, one from Malaysia to Bangalore (4 hours), and another flight from Bangalore to Mangalore (1 hour-if I'm not mistaken). Then, you'll be taking a bus from Mangalore airport to the college, MMMC, Manipal. Now, I'll be talking a bit more details on what's going to happen.

1. The farewell

So our flight was pretty early in the morning, which was around 7.30am, and we had to come around 5-6 ish in the morning. Checked in our bags, and had breakfast in the airport. Talking about luggages, from Malaysia, you would be taking a MAS flight, and be given a 30kg amount of check-in luggage, not including your hand carry and only 15kg of check-in luggage on the next flight, and the remaining luggage would be carried by a lorry from Bangalore airport. So there's two ways to do this :

First method, is what I did - I used my 30kg limit of luggage to 2 separate bags, 20kg and 10kg each. You can do this however you want, as long as the other one is below 15kg. Example, 15kg-15kg, 17kg-13kg. However you wish. Then I'll have my hand carried luggage, and a backpack for my laptop. So at the next airport, I'll check-in my 10kg luggage, put my 20kg luggage in the lorry, and still have the same hand-carried stuff with me.
Second method, is what my friends did - they used the 30kg limit of luggage with one big luggage. Fitting everything in there, a hand-carry luggage weighing 15kg, and a backpack for the laptop. So at the next airport, they just put the 30kg luggage in the lorry and checked in their hand-carried luggage for the next flight.

p/s : our luggage in the lorry arrived the next morning that we arrived.

So you can use whichever method you prefer, and if in any case your luggage exceeds the limit in the MAS flight, you'd have to pay for each kg. But sometimes, they'll let it pass if it's only 1-3kg extra (SOMETIMES, or maybee with a cute smile and a wink). But it'll be a bit difficult to arrange if you have extra check-in luggage in Bangalore airport as they won't compromise with you. So make sure it is cun-cun 15kg or less for your check-in luggage in Bangalore.

2. The 4-hour ride

So among all the students going, 2 leaders would be selected and they'll be in charge of the other students because they would be given more information about the journey and they would be the ones guiding other students. The leader would be selected during the orientation day in Melaka and given proper guide.

So after we shed tears giving the last goodbyes to our family, we would go to the boarding area and wait until we're called for the flight. I'm not sure how they arrange the seats, but you can actually switch among yourselves IF the other person wants to. It was a long flight, some just slept through everything but I couldn't, so I just watched some animes that I downloaded before hand and enjoyed that.

3.The first airport

So first, we'd arrive at the Bangalore airport and it was actually pretty big. We went through the immigration centers and took our luggages. Then, we would be directed to the person in charge of the lorry to load our luggage in the lorry. We'd do that, check-in our remaining luggage, and have a 4 hour+ time before our next flight.

Luckily, they'd given us a golden lounge access where there would be food and some comfy area to rest. If you didn't subscribe for internet roaming, you could access free wifi here and update to your families. For muslims, there would be a prayer room somewhere near the lounge so you can pray there at that time too. For girls, make sure you bring your telekung because they don't use it there.

4. The second flight

The second flight was a short ride honestly. However the second plane that we boarded, took more than 30 minutes of our times before take off, so we were just sitting there, chit chatting and complaining, for like more than half an hour. I slept on this second ride because I was so tired although it was just for a few minutes. Then we arrived at the second airport, took our luggages and took a bus to our college.

Here's the thing, the bus had no ac and we just depend on the air coming from the window, which wasn't that big of a problem. But! that time, there was a long heck of a traffic jam and the bus obviously wouldn't move during that, so we were literally melting. It was very hot, and luckily that time it was like late in the evening and not in the middle of the afternoon. The bus ride was supposed to only take 1 and a half hour but I think we took around 2 hour+.

The bus ride was also my first experience of how Indians drive. To be honest, the turbulence on the airplane was much better, because I hurt my back, our butts, because the roads were so bumpy and the drivers didn't care. Welcome to India.

5. The arrival

So, the bumpy ride done, and now you'll be arriving to MMMC, Manipal. On your arrival, we were asked to gather at 'the mess' which was the cafeteria of our college, and served with some water which I really needed. At this time, seniors gave us a brief speech for the activities and events that would happen in the next few days, and they also gave us some documents that we would need to fill later. Oh and during this time we were also given our room numbers so we could get the keys from the caretaker later. After the speech, there would usually be a guy that would be selling simcards so here's your chance to get your Indian number. If I'm not mistaken, it would cost you 1000rps and you would need a photo of you and a copy of your passport. The 1000rps would include a 3 month subscription of internet with 3gb limit a day. Which is pretty cheap for me. And finally, you get to eat again, and you can safely go to your rooms and rest for the night !

Well, I hope that explanation is clear and if you have any questions you can just contact me on my social media or other seniors that you know. We would be gladly there to help. AND to end this, let me just give a few last tips for you guys.

Keep track of your passports and plane tickets as it is very important during the journey
All the documents that your registration booklet asked you to bring, make sure that you have it all in one place and carry it with you for the first 2-3 weeks because you would need to fill in A LOT of forms during this period of time.
Just enjoy your time throughout the trip and it'll be a fun experience ! (I think)

Assalamualaikum and hi all !

Well since I've decided to post more frequently in my blog, I had to come up with different kinds of content to put in here. So I had an idea to just write about restaurants or places to eat that I tried and what are my reviews on them. I hope it would be an interesting topic to read about because it's definitely a fun one for me to do (because I get to eat). So let's get started!

Last Saturday which was on the 18th of January, we went to this place called Chef Plated to have a birthday celebration/surprise/party for one of my friends. I've never been there before and I was also very excited to try the food as it was kind of like an Italian style-ish restaurant. One of our friends have been there and said the food and place was nice, and some other friends went to the place to book a place for us that day. Apparently, the owner said that the place was usually full and it was a good idea of us to book ahead of time. He also advised us to preorder the food so they wouldn't take a long time to prepare the food. So we did, and I simply just ordered the most randomest order and hoped it would taste good. I'll be posting the restaurant menu here if any of you are interested.

So we went to the place, and surprised our birthday girl and enjoyed our foods. The food was really tasty and we really enjoyed our girls-bonding-time together. Now let's talk about the real stuff.

Food place : Chef Plated (click to be directed to the restaurant)
Transportation : Auto (40-50 rps)
Price : 200-300 rps / person
Food portion : Portion was not as big as an Indian restaurant normally serve but it was filling.
My rating : 3.5/5
Online Ordering : not available
Instagram : click here
Location : click here
Menu : click here

this is how the place looks like. so cute and relaxing-ish.

So, I ordered tea, Chef Plated Canneloni, and baked yogurt as a desert. I did not take pictures of the food, (because I was too hungry and forgot) but again, I really enjoyed it. The tea was so-so, not up to my liking because it tasted more of milk than the tea, but the canneloni was a surprise. I admit, I didn't really read the description of my order in the menu, but I did not expect it to be some spinach wrapped in some pasta flour thing. I was really shocked, and I was scared that I wouldn't like it because at that time I was indeed, very hungry and did not want to be dissapointed.

as I said, I was really hungry, so I did not take nay pictures of the meal. Only remembered to do so once I was full.

So, anyways, I had to just try it and I did not believe my taste buds. I could clearly see spinach filling inside my food but I didn't taste any leafy kind of taste at all! Even the gravy was nice and I really liked it. The only thing was that, I wasn't full enough of that so I took some of my friends food to satisfy my hunger. Not to forget about the baked yogurt as my desert. I LOVED it. It tasted soo good, and I thought everyone else that ordered it felt the same way too but they didn't. I was the only one loving the desert, but oh well, different people have different preferences!

And as to end this post, enjoy these pictures of medical students enjoying a short moment of their lives, celebrating birthdays, like they don't have tests the coming week ! (just kidding guys I know we all did well in the test)

Assalamualaikum and hey yalls.

I've been in India for 14 weeks and only now, I could spare a bit time to post something in this blog. I really want to but I didn't, but now I am. So let's just sum up everything that has been happening all these while shall we.

On 9th October 2019, which was my birthday, I flew to India to pursue my studies in Medicine. Now I'm officially a med-student and although it's been one hell of a rollercoaster just this past few months, I'm not regretting it. Ever since the day I came here, honestly, time flew by so fast and so many things was going on that even if you stop for a minute, you'll lose your day (okay I'm exaggerating but you know what I mean).

The first month I was here I couldn't actually believe that I was in India. Maybe because I was just too tired and trying to process everything that is happening, but, I think if you ask anyone who studied overseas, they might have the same answer. Well mayyyybee not everyone would say that, because different people have different opinions, but as for me, if you're talking about the study environment and all, it's really not much different. But if you're talking about the experience, wow, I learned a LOT.

I might not be in a position to compare other med schools but, I would dare say, the study system here is very systematic and very well arranged. Not to mention that they have no mercy on us because we barely have any holiday! But seriously though, I'm really impressed. The facilities, the lectures, the knowledge. One of the pros for studying medicine in India is that you can legit see, touch, hold, smell literal human bodies. Cadavers. We straight away started dissecting cadavers the first day of our class and it was so shocking.

I remember on the first day of class, I was so impressed when our lecturer opened up a body and straight up said 'This is pectoralis major muscle, and the nerve here is the lateral pectoral nerve' 'oh here is the median nerve, this nerve is axillary nerve, this is that this is meh bla bla' when he was just literally pointing to a bunch of things that looked like strings. How in the world could he name all those things so effortlessly. Little did I knew that we needed to know and memorize everything he said. But Alhamdulillah thankfully, I couldn't even believe that I myself am also able to identify every single part inside the limbs.

However, I did get sick for the first few weeks though. I had sore throat, and flu probably because the change of weather but yeah I managed to get through it. Thankfully my lovely mother had warned and reminded me a thousand times to pack medicine with me, which I did, and I am very much grateful I did. I don't want to write too much in this post because I have a few more ideas for the coming posts which will also be uploaded soooon!

I apologise that I'm just spitting things everywhere in this post, but I'll be posting some more after this InSyaAllah !

and as a form of apology, here are some pictures for you to enjoy !

this was when we had to leave for India, it was around 7 am in the morning

Got the middle seat and I couldn't sleep during the whole 4 hour flight

the first morning I had in India

small tip, when you're buying your books, make sure to bring a backpack with you.

we had seniors giving us a small tour around college and this is the huge library

and sometimes I just have the mood to just have a nice breakfast (I did not cook XD)

had some boogie waffles that costs around 120rps if I'm not mistaken

and sometimes when we miss Malaysian food, we just take a bit of effort to make some...

we also joined a volunteer program at the children's hospital and it was very fun. The only cons was that we couldn't really have a conversation of the language barrier. Yes they could speak English, but it's just basic English and I was so sad about that.

Well before I begin my post, I would like to make a shout out to my friend Maslina (@cicil_32), one of my childhood friends for suggesting this topic a few months back. Yes, I've been keeping everything in my records and finally I can post this one! Thank you!

This is a subjective question to answer. Healthy as in fitness or in general? Well I'll answer both. (I'll answer the cats part in some other post)

Let's start with my general health. I'm generally a healthy person, rarely got fever but for this past two years I've gone down in fever quite a few times. When I was in secondary school, I couldn't skip any meals or I'll start throwing up the next morning until the evening. Alhamdulillah, as I get older, my stomach is not that sensitive anymore. I also found out that I'm a carrier for Thalassemia, but the thing is I found out when I was around...19? My family never knew we had the gene, so after we found out that I had it, the whole family got their blood tested and turns out it was from my mother's side. The thing is, it is actually very important. If I have never found out that I was a carrier for thalassemia, I might get married to a guy who is also a carrier, and the risk for having a baby with thalassemia is very high.

So, I do suggest that, we should all get tested for this to avoid future complications. I haven't showed much symptoms because I'm just a carrier, and carriers don't generally show any symptoms, but in some cases, mild symptoms might appear. I got my blood tested because I was always having bad headaches and migraines very frequently, I couldn't even lift my head and often get blackouts, and it turns out I was a bit anemic due to deficiency of iron or what I learned now as 'iron deficiency anemia'. It's actually very interesting to learn about diseases that relates to myself.

As for my fitness health, I wouldn't say that I am 'fit' healthy. My weight or BMI might be considered normal but I have zero stamina, no muscle strength and I don't eat healthy (I'm trying though). So I'm actually trying to get into a fit and healthy lifestyle and I will definitely update whenever I get the knack of it.

So this is a little bit update about my current life now. I'm currently in India, pursuing medicine, and I'm very very sorry because it's been a long time since I last posted, and now it's almost the end of the year. I do like writing random stuff like this and it's kind of a stress relief so I am willing to do it more often now because boy, I really have a lot of stress to be relieved. The only thing is, my time management. I can't find the right time to do things because I am STILL trying to manage my time and sleep schedule. Lecturers here be saying we need to have at least 8 hours of sleep but that is just way too much of sleep. Sooo I'm still trying and will always be.

See you in my next post ! Assalamualaikum and byebye !

Assalamualaikum,
For today's post I'd be talking (or writing) about my view on love. How do I see love? What is love even?

If this question was asked on a 16 year-old me, I have no doubt that I would give the cheeziest answer possible. Love was never what I thought it would be, it's something more than just a bond, it's like a connection. Again, the 16 year-old me was desperate for love, and just to make it clear, I'm talking about the LOVE love. Not the family love but the romantic one. and yeah I was pretty desperate to love and be loved, feel things I could never feel before, and thinking back, haha what a fool you were. Now it really terrifies me.

Love made me see a person differently and completely change the way I look at the person. It made me had this sort of bond that made me so comfortable and so passionate. Love also made me vulnerable and show the weak part of me. The one thing that terrifies me the most. When a person sees that part of me, I became so overly attached that it kills me. It ruined me. I don't know whether it's the way I love a person that made me break, or was it just because I was unlucky and met the wrong person?

Those questions never leave my head. Yes, when you love, you are prepared to lose. I lost every time. I thought I am stronger now but yeah, life never stop giving you lessons.

So what is my opinion on love?

For me it's something you should not try recklessly. There are those in love for 10 years, marry and live happily ever after, and some met and fall in love at first sight and marry and live happy. But there are those who are tested by Allah to feel heartbreaks. Love when you are fully ready. When you don't have any other commitments. Don't give in to love just because your friend is in love. Love is a risk. 50/50. You date her or no. If yes, would you stay together or no. If yes again, would one of you cheat? Would you end up marrying? So many questions, uncertainties, too much risk yet people never consider any of these when they fall in love.

So for me, before you start investing your love on some other people, might as well start with self love. Love yourself, love God, love your religion, your families, invest yourself in those first because you can't love others when you don't even love yourself.

Ah. Love. I got better things to do.

Assalamualaikum,

Based on the title of this post you can already guess what I'll be talking about. Yeah. Social media. In my opinion, it's getting more disgusting day by day. Bitter people everywhere I just can't stand it.

These are the few ways, in my opinion on how the social media can be deadly toxic to me :

1. People posting their 'perfect' lives

It's given that people would post the memorable, exciting, happy moments on their lives on soc med. It makes me compare my life to them. Instagram model's posts made me insecure with my body image. It's just sad how sometimes people have a standard on how one should look and you just couldn't achieve that level. How successful other people can be at a young age where I'm still here, not able to give back to my family yet.

Really it's very hard to get those things out of my head. But, I always tell myself that,
' You have your own pace, you would have your time one day, you won't have it now, you'll have it one day, good things come to those who wait'

I remind myself everyday that every life in this world have their own stories. They'll have their sweet and better times and they definitely have their downfalls that you don't know. They paid price to get where they are now. A price that maybe I could never afford.

2. People's opinion on you

One of the things that you would never escape from this world is people's opinion on you. It won't have much of a direct effect on the minorities of the soc med like me. I don't even have that much of followers so it's safe to say that I'm safe. But I had a few cases where people talk behind me or should I say 'post bad stuff behind me' that's actually pretty sad and disgusting.

I can't imagine how the famous influencers could bear with all the hate. Probbably they just became accustomed to it.

3. Addiction

I admit that I, at times, could spend 2 hours straight, scrolling my phone, going through Instagram, twitter and mostly Youtube. It's an addiction. I try to limit myself but at times I fail, MISERABLY.

A way I learned to be more focused on doing something is through a few videos on Youtube, where they record themselves studying for 2 hours +, real time, or just a simple study music of 2 hours. It really helps me to get things done and I managed to stay away from my phone during that time thanks to this. You can watch it here or here

4. Race to gain Retweets, likes, comments, and ATTENTION

For me, social media need to be a place where people can share their post happily, and to keep memories, or art for themselves. I don't deny that some influencers make money of social media by promoting stuffs. I don't have anything against that, and I honestly think that's an amazing way to get money.

The problem is, people now could go to extreme extents to gain followers. They use racial topics, sensitive issues, and even speaking in the name of religion merely to gain attention. If what they do is for a good cause, or a right thing, it should be okay. BUT, there's so many people posting ridiculous stuff online that I just felt scared for what's to come for our younger generations.

Please, to anyone reading this, don't be that person.

5. Cyberbullying

This existed ever since the years of IM(Instant Messenger) and Yahoo Messenger, and has been worse ever since. This day, if you even do one small mistake, and people take out their phones and record you, you're done for. It could be a good thing or a bad thing. But for me, if it's just something you could settle among yourselves, there's no need to make it viral.

Even if you say the wrong thing on WhatsApp or any DMs, send it to the wrong person and they'll take a screenshot and make it viral for fame. People like this are so terribly disgusting.

People could die of depression just by something you say, please don't take it lightly. Do everything in moderation please. It's scary.

I hope me and anyone reading will not be among those who toxify the social media. It should be a happy place. Do what you want, anything you want, as long as it doesn't effect others.

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