HOME SWEET HOME

Hello readers,

I recently finished my second semester exams this July, and I've been relaxing at home for the past 45 days, as it is our summer holidays time, which is between July 1st to August 31st.

Well, where do the students of the university, that stay in Malina Mica, go for keeping themselves fit and healthy? To the university gym of course, right here in Malina Mica.

The University Gym (Front Entrance)

This is not just a gym, but a sort-of indoor activities building, which includes the gym, a basketball court, and a dance hall where dance classes such as ballet are taught, often to children, as far as my knowledge and observations (I will update if there's more to it).

There's also another building that has indoor sports such as basketball and badminton, which is shown below.

To use these facilities though, you need a paid membership, which may be economical, according to one's frequency of use, but to keep fit without paying anything, there's always jogging, and also this outdoor fitness park.

These equipments are free to use anytime of the day, as long as one doesn't damage it.
The people seen here are mostly adult women, and students who came for a leisurely stroll.

There's also an outdoor basketball court, which is also free to use (Picture not available).

In my next post I will be showing you around the places we quench our hunger and thirst :D.

As always,
If you'd like to contact me, you can email me, or message me on facebook. Please leave a feedback in the comment section if you have any, which will be very much appreciated by me. Please share my blog too if you can, which is also appreciated. Thanks for reading :)

Email : george.ak1997@gmail.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/george.alan2

BACK TO FLASH-BACK

Hey readers,

After my last post, its time we go back to the past.

The last time I spoke about the past, I concluded it after telling how my Anatomy and Histology classes were, so I'm gonna pick it up from there.

Most of the students from the university, including all Indians, are situated in an area called Malina Mica, which is filled with hostels owned by the university.

For the first year, all subjects are taught in buildings that are located in Strada Stefan Cel Mare (Which means Stefan The Great) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_III_of_Moldavia) , which is 15-30 minutes via microbus (a shorter bus which is sort of like a huge van). The microbus that takes us from Malina Mica to the university is nr.125, and the fare is 3 Moldovan Leu.

This is how the microbus looks like.

The only subject that's taught right here in Malina Mica is BioPhysics (1st Semester)/BioChemistry (2nd Semester).

This is the BioPhysics/BioChemistry department.

This is the front end of the Department.

This is the entrance to the building.

This is a sort of memorial of all the founders of this 75 year old university.

This is the entrance seen from the memorial.

So, about BioPhysics,

It was the shittiest subject ever. Seriously. I hated it absolutely to the core. I don't know what exactly I hate about this subject though. Maybe its my thought of this subject having no relevance to studying medicine, but though I sometimes think that, its not true, because ultimately it does actually have relevance to studying medicine, since it explains the principles behind the most commonly used medical equipment.

The lectures were the worst. When the lecture is on, you better not forget to charge your mobile phone before coming, better make sure you have good music or games, or better bring a movie that you really wanted to watch, because the lecture is seriously a big waste of time.

As long as you don't mess with the professor during the lecture, like talking loudly, playing games without muting, or irritating the professor ( I did that once with my own laser pointer, and he did NOT like it), you can do whatever you want and he won't bother.

I will talk about BioChemistry when I talk about my second semester.

So that's it for now readers, here ends my fourth post :)

If you'd like to contact me, you can email me, or message me on facebook. Please leave a feedback in the comment section if you have any, which will be very much appreciated by me. Please share my blog too if you can, which is also appreciated. Thanks for reading :)

Email : george.ak1997@gmail.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/george.alan2

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

Hey readers,

Well, as the title suggests, life is going pretty hard and fast right now.

Till now I’ve been blogging about the past, so this time I’m going to talk about what’s going on presently.

The past 2 weeks were filled with deadlines, exams, recovering absences in class and a LOT of work.

The second semester exams for all subjects starts on June 9^th, but in order to be permitted to write the semester exams, one should get attested by the teacher by having a minimum of 50% of marks in all the tests and should recover all absences that you had in the subject.

There are 5 types of tests that are done here.

Computer test – Each computer tests consists of 20 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), in which some have one correct answer but others have multiple correct answers, all of which must be marked.

Written test – This is the regular old-fashioned test, with subjective questions and answers.

Oral test – After a series of questions and answers with the professor, your performance is graded.

MCQ test – This is a question paper in which all are MCQs, single and multiple answer types, which have to be marked with a separate OMR sheet. 

Slide test -  This test is exclusive to Histology, in which you will be identify the slide shown in the microscope by the professor and also answer questions about it which are asked by the professor.

All tests’ final grade is upon 10.

In the second semester, Anatomy and Histology remain as subjects, and the new subjects are Genetics (Replacing Molecular Biology) and Behavioural Science (Replacing Philosophy).

For each semester, excluding the final semester-exams,

Anatomy has 3 computer tests and 3 oral tests, of which the computer tests are hard and confusing in general.

Histology has 3 computer tests and 3 slide tests, of which computer tests rely a lot on your memory skills, but the slide tests depend ENTIRELY on the mood of the professor.

Genetics has 3 computer tests and 2 written tests, and a Presentation, in which you should pick a gene from a given list of genes, and do a presentation about it, which will also be graded upon 10. But marks are also taken from your attendance in Genetics lectures, which will be 10 if you have no absences, 9 if you have one absence, 8 if you have 2 absences, and so on.

Behavioural Science has just 3 oral tests, in which your performance is graded 10% on your knowledge of the topic, and 90% on how well you can confuse the teacher with your extreme lingual skills, body language and your philosophical epiphanies and arguments at that moment.

My batch and I had a hard time the past 2 weeks running here and there, sitting up late till 5, and so on. The real bummer is that unless you have a medical reason with proof for missing a class, you gotta pay 10 euros for recovering each absence.

My batch consists of us 8 Malayalees, 6 North Indians, and 1 other Malayalee from a different consultancy group.

Here’s a few pictures of my batch. BATCH M1558.

See that handsome guy with the long hair? That's me :D

Well that's it for today readers. End of the third blog.

If you'd like to contact me, you can email me, or message me on facebook. Please leave a feedback in the comment section if you have any, which will be very much appreciated by me. Please share my blog too if you can, which is also appreciated :)

More will be coming soon :)

Email : george.ak1997@gmail.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/george.alan2

THE STORY CONTINUES

Hello readers,

I'm back with my second post, this time with more pictures :)

This is where I study Molecular Biology.

That's Rami Abdul Rahman (pink shirt), who's phone was used to take this picture. Cheers to Rami :D

This is also the main building of our university, where the dean's office is located and other administrations and accounting takes place.

The professor teaching us is in his 40s, who's English is surprisingly good for a Moldovan. At my first lecture, I tried hard to keep up with his speed, and my colleagues weren't even trying. We then met him after the class and that's when he realized that we 8 were new students, and so, from the second lecture onward he slowed down and since he was our teacher too, we caught up quick.

There's a canteen and another shop behind the building, next to a beautiful fountain. We usually eat from this canteen since food is cheaper than other places and also good enough for its price.

Nicolae Testemitanu (1927 - 1986)

The next place I'm about to show, is the building where I study Anatomy and Histology.

Our Anatomy professor for the first semester was a cannon-mouth, we had absolutely no idea when she would burst out with fast and furious romanian (my roommate, Sreerag,  was sadly a victim of her fury since he wasn't paying attention). Besides, she taught us extremely well, despite her busy schedule. Well, we did have her class a lot, since we had it 5 days a week to catch up with others.

Well dear readers, I conclude my second blog here.

If you'd like to contact me, you can email me, or message me on facebook. Please leave a feedback in the comment section if you have any, which will be very much appreciated by me. Please share my blog too if you can, which is also appreciated :)

I'll be back with more.

Email : george.ak1997@gmail.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/george.alan2

THE LATE BEGINNING

Hello readers.

My name is George Alan, and this is my first blog about life of a student studying GENERAL MEDICINE in a country named Moldova. I'm an Indian, from the state of Kerala, and I came here with high hopes of achieving my dreams of becoming a doctor, but ever since reaching here, life isn't how I expected it to be, in good and bad ways, so I decided to write this blog to share my experiences of how the life of a student is in this university. For those who haven't heard, Moldova is a post-russian country, sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania.

I am currently a first year student studying in a university called USMF - Universitatea de Stat de Medicină și Farmacie "Nicolae Testemițanu" (State University of Medicine and Pharmacy) (usmf.md) . If you are wondering what language this is, its Romanian, which is the predominant language here, but Russian is also a widely spoken language here.

So to start off, let me describe how the courses are in this university.

The General Medicine course lasts for 6 years, and the Dentistry course lasts for 5 years.

Though the main language here is Romanian, my course is in English.

There are 2 semesters each year, which means there are a total of 12 semesters, each of which are 5 months long, and after every 2 semesters there are 2 months of holidays, which are on July and August. The academic year always starts on the first week of September.

I have currently finished a very hard first semester, and currently trying to finish an even harder second semester. Well, the first semester was hard for me since I came 3 months late (Hence, the title) and we had to cram up a lot of stuff in 2 months to finish on time. Well, I came late because I got to know about this university around September. Thanks to a consultancy group called Phoenix Consultants (http://www.phoenixconsultanteurope.com), I got admission here in-spite of my late application.

I came in a group of 8 Indian-Keralite people. We are more commonly referred to as Malayalees, since our mother-tongue is Malayalam. 

There are 7 subjects for the first semester; Anatomy, Histology, Molecular Biology, Latin, Romanian, Biophysics, and Philosophy.

At first, we struggled a bit since we had a whole lot of things to learn, but since we had good professors to teach us in the beginning, and also because of our helpful and friendly seniors, we got through. Anatomy was a real pain, but we somehow coped with it. Histology was interesting at times, but it gets boring very quickly. Molecular Biology was the sole subject that had my full interest, but only I had that level of interest in it, unlike my colleagues, and Biophysics was commonly the most hated subjects of all indians in this university. Since we had so much to finish from these 4 subjects, the university decided to make us learn the other 3 subjects later on in the second semester.

Well, I hereby conclude my first blog, and if you'd like to contact me, you can email me, or message me on facebook. Please leave a feedback in the comment section if you have any, which will be very much appreciated by me. Please share my blog too if you can, which is also appreciated :)

I will be posting more soon, with more pictures.

Email: george.ak1997@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/george.alan2