I've almost forgotten that this blog exists. Almost.
Again, it's the last day of the year and I'm here thinking, errr what happened to me in 2017 ah? So again, I looked through my photos taken this year to recap what has happened this year!
January
Chinese New Year was in January this year, and for my paternal family, instead of celebrating it here in BP like we usually do, we celebrated in Muar. It was quite fun, we all stayed in a homestay and it was fun having everybody there doing things Chong-style, that is, just eating and eating and eating all day. We missed my cousins, the 3 J's, but other than them everybody was there, which was really nice!
For my mum's side of the family, as usual, we all went to JB for the reunion dinner. After that we all went into Singapore and we got to meet up with my uncle's family there. It was so nice seeing my baby niece and nephew!
Apparently stairs are good places to take group photos.
February
I didn't get to come home in February, but that doesn't mean I didn't go anywhere that month. A friend got married in KL, and so a bunch of us traveled down for it.
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| Representing KT heyyyy! Also, congrats #meldwin! |
March
I guess it was around this time that we started to realise that we were in our final year of medical school, and that in a few months we would no longer all be together in KT. We started to think about going places we had heard of but never felt touristy enough to visit before then.
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| Group 4 and our shades of blue shirts at "Pepsi Blue Lake" |
It was in this month that my group started our Family Medicine posting in Dungun. In our 3 weeks there, my Dungun-housemates and I took to going for mini-road trips/day trips on the weekends. The first weekend, we drove down to Kuantan.
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| Postings-outside-of-KT housemates! |
April
Our second weekend of our posting in Dungun, we decided to drive down to Kemaman, where a friend was having her Orthopaedics posting. So we kidnapped her for the day and visited the beach we never went to when we had our posting there the previous year haha
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| Hello (again), Kemaman! |
Living in the same house as Karen meant, of course, the two durian-lovers in us couldn't resist buying durians so we bought them two days in a row, and the second time turned into a spontaneous durian party, because durians always taste better if you have people fighting you for it eh?
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| Why? Just. Because durian. |
Within that week we were back in KT, to the land where we had wifi and therefore a decreased desire to see each others' faces hahaha. It was Niko's birthday the weekend we were back in KT, though, and heyyyyy the whole family - daddy mummy koko niko eeeeeveryone, all made it to KT to celebrate. (Truth: we were thinking of going up to KB where Niko is based to celebrate his birthday, but decided that my turtleland had more to offer haha #ganupride #yesimstartingtogetintothishashtagbusiness) It was soooo nice to finally have the whole fam together again after so long!
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| Reunited and it feels so good! |
May
I think May was when everyone really started to get a bit more sentimental. Our juniors organised a farewell dinner for the Year Fivers, and I have to say, they really did put a lot of effort and heart into it. Soooo many photos were taken that night, and so I'll just post the main group photo!
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| Batch 2012/2017 |
We also had our last day of proper classes in this month, and my amazingly crazy sporting group members decided that we would all pakat to wear blue, and somehow we ended up taking photos in the fake-grass-field that had found itself to be our photoshoot spot for the second year in a row.
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| I miss this bunch of people! |
June
My birthday this year (also my first baptism-birthday) was spent in KT, and although I was away from home, away from my family, I am blessed that I had friends and family-angkat who celebrated with me.
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| "Amanda holds the cake, everyone else grab something random and smile for the camera!" |
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| KTBC Food Lovers' Club. I'm not even kidding, that's really what we're called haha |
July
July. Soooo many things happened in July. Let's see, I took my finals, my very last exams of medical school. By the grace of God (and with all the prayers of everybody), I graduated from medical school! Medical school, 5 years, and God was with me every single step of the way. I would not, could not, have done it without Him.
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| So, so, so happy and relieved we all got through it together! |
It was official, we really would be leaving KT, we were done with uni. With that, things really started happening non-stop and there was barely any time to breathe. It was fine, though. We had all passed our exams and were running on the high of that so we just went on with everything, not wanting to miss out on anything before we all left KT.
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| BP friends who FINALLY came to visit before we left KT |
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| Makan after filming for our part of the lecturers' appreciation video |
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| My Ah Kues also came to visit |
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| In an unexpected turn of events, we ended up performing on the Appreciation Night, and Ruby and I suddenly found ourselves stuck with a bunch of 3 emo Penang boys XD |
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| The people I called my classmates for 5 years :') |
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| The people who gave me a place to call home in KT |
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| We tried doing the posey-posey nice-nice photo thing, realised we weren't a bunch of people who know how to pose well, and eventually sort of just went "aiya whatever lah" and ended up with a selfie instead |
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| As I said, we can't do the nice-photo thing. What we apparently can do well, though, is laugh like a bunch of crazy hyenas on camera. Who needs normal-looking photos? Definitely not us. Also, REDANG! It was a good little trip. Amazing island, even better company. |
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| Ex-CFers seriously having serious fun together in Tadom Hill Resort |
August
Convocation month!
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| Convo buddies! |
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| Quadruple celebrations in JB for mine and Joyce's graduation, as well as Faith and Jayne's birthdays |
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| My grandma, my boss! |
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| The Chongs happy after food |
And then and then and then, we finally made the family trip to Japan we have been dreaming of since we were young! Sadly, though, my camera chose this time to completely conk out on me so I'm going to have to get the photos from whoever took them, but all I can say is this. I wanna go back there to Japan someday, and preferably with my family again! It was such an awesome holiday!
September
Being unemployed and back home in BP definitely has its perks. I finally got to meet up with some ex-classmates, some of whom I hadn't seen in years.
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| More than half of the people in this photo were unemployed at that point of time. Unemployment for the win! |
Me and some of my uni friends also managed to go on a road trip, we spent 11 days in each others' hometowns, eating each others' favourite food, and doing our best to see each others' faces enough to get sick of each other. Some of the photos we took in some of the places we went:
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| First stop: Batu Pahat! |
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| Melaka! |
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| Ipoh! |
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| Penang |
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| Same baju day in Penang |
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| The last meal of the road trip, also in Penang |
Everything from here on out can be summed up with just "because unemployment". I managed to do things and go places I'd otherwise wouldn't be able to.
October
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| A weekend in KL with the girls for Anlynn's birthday weekend |
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| Distant Worlds concert (finally!) in Singapore (thanks koko!) |
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| Living it up on a cruise. I could really get used to that life. I can't imagine why anyone rich would ever travel any other way at all. Cruises are the way to go man! |
November
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| Aaron's birthday surprise in KL |
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| The Spain-Portugal trip I enjoyed way more than I ever expected to |
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| Meet-up with some other ex-classmates |
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| Helping out at SU's NSCFL Camp for the first time as a camp officer, and getting the opportunity to lead the dream group. These amazing people made the camp for me! #groupthesslonica |
December
And finally, we've reached the month of December. It was a month of celebration, starting with a close friend from secondary school getting married!
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| Congrats, Syak! I am so happy for you! |
And then, of course there was Christmas, which was great, but as usual, I was too busy eating to take many photos hehehe.
This year was good. Great, actually. I finished medical school, and had a full year surrounded by friends and family. No matter what changes I went through, God was constantly there for me, as always, leading and guiding me, and His love and faithfulness never ceases to amaze me. New year coming up? Unemployment (funemployment heyyy!) likely to end soon-ish (awwwww #sadface)? With God by my side, on my side, I know He will guide me through whatever life may throw my way.
Happy new year, everybody, I hope the new year brings you loads of love and joy, and most importantly, peace!
