I find it
really important that I reflect on happenings and try and learn from them. I
can’t stand just letting things happen to me, let life pass me by, go through
the motions and not make a learning moment out of everything. Hopefully you
readers get what I’m trying to say.
I’ve spent the good part of my first 6 months here learning Spanish. Now after a 3 week break I’ll be beginning my pre medical studies. Having just received my 21 textbooks for the 10 subjects to e studied, I was flipping through the chem textbook and I was like whoa! While the subject matter wasn’t foreign, looked like form 5 level stuff, reading one page took a good 10 minutes. The language barrier is very apparent! Clearly I’ve got a long way to go. Am thanking my lucky stars that at least the content is familiar to me. However, I’m optimistic that I’ll get the Spanish down well pat before I begin my first year of medical studies come September.
I’ve spent the good part of my first 6 months here learning Spanish. Now after a 3 week break I’ll be beginning my pre medical studies. Having just received my 21 textbooks for the 10 subjects to e studied, I was flipping through the chem textbook and I was like whoa! While the subject matter wasn’t foreign, looked like form 5 level stuff, reading one page took a good 10 minutes. The language barrier is very apparent! Clearly I’ve got a long way to go. Am thanking my lucky stars that at least the content is familiar to me. However, I’m optimistic that I’ll get the Spanish down well pat before I begin my first year of medical studies come September.
I know that
my parents worry that I’ll fall in love with a stranger, get pregnant, not study,
spend too much money, be a mediocre student, that I won’t be safe, that I can’t
take care of myself, that I don’t go to church and lots more that only parents
would worry about. I get where they’re
coming from. Hell, it’s Cuba! I’ve got to admit though, that it stings a little
that they think me incapable of comporting myself well. You guys didn’t raise a
fool!Arriving here last August,I was much more naïve, having just turned 18 and thinking I was an adult. Since then I’ve learnt so much. You learn a lot about human nature when you share a small room with 7 other people! I’ve become more confident in speaking to people, been introduced to new ways of thinking, new music, new cultures. Have met 3 awesome friends from Antigua and Barbuda and from Guyana. These 3 girls have become somewhat of my sisters here in Cuba.
I aim to
excel in my pre med studies. With one of the Malaysian students among the
top in our school, I know that our subjects being in Spanish can’t be looked
upon as an insurmountable obstacle, but instead should be looked upon as a
challenge. I reckon facebook time will be reduced even further. Some say pre
med is the time to relax and go out to have fun. Really?? I’m thinking that this is the time
to really familiarize yourself with learning in Spanish since at least you’re dealing
with familiar content. I see students
who still struggle with the language after 1 or 2 years of coming here. I’m not planning on being one of them.
Went to the annual book fair last week. Lots of good books but almost all in Spanish. Picked up an English novel for 15 pesos, which is about RM2. Aside from the long queues to enter the different areas where books were being sold, and the hot afternoon sun burning down on me, I had a pretty good time with my friend Kereene. A few days later when in Havana, a complete stranger comes up to us and says he says he saw us at the book fair, Either he’s lying or we really stand out as tourists:/
Went to the annual book fair last week. Lots of good books but almost all in Spanish. Picked up an English novel for 15 pesos, which is about RM2. Aside from the long queues to enter the different areas where books were being sold, and the hot afternoon sun burning down on me, I had a pretty good time with my friend Kereene. A few days later when in Havana, a complete stranger comes up to us and says he says he saw us at the book fair, Either he’s lying or we really stand out as tourists:/
