Arrividerci, Baby!

Wow...There's so much i wanna say, my head feels congested & i'm nauseated just trying to sort my thoughts out! But it's all good. Since finishing my Orthopaedics posting last Thursday and going home to Penang & back again, many things have happened (more like, a lot of normally-mundane things turned out to be awesome). I'm happy!!! See :) :) :)

give it a couple of days, it'll be gone once i'm back in my brain-dead medical school routine.

Just a concluding line for my ortho exam : i thought it was do-able; it would've been 'not bad' if i actually attended the first 4 weeks of class. I haven't submitted my case write-up though... Frankly it is not that i dont regret it; i just wanna keep the self-loathing quiet for now, ESPECIALLY because i am actually enjoying being alive instead of ruminating on how indecisive i am about being dead

now where was i? oh yea, PENANG. Seriously, i dont know why i dont go back more often. Its a whole different feeling, the minute i'm on the streets of Penang...regardless of taxi or mum's car, or my car. The scorching sun, the clear night skies, my quirky & moody little cats, the less-congested roads, my 'childhood' bed, the free-to-experiment kitchen...i tend to forget; it just hits every time i touch base. I'm wondering if i should work in Penang GH, right next to my 'ol high school SGGS. If i do then for one thing, at least my mum wouldn't be alone. The thing is, a part of me feels i should stay in UMMC...i've always had a strong sense of attachment to UM what goes beyond it being my alma matyr.

Anyway. in my flight back to KL, i happened to be sitting next to an Italian couple. Iattempted to make polite conversation but as it turns out, the husband doesnt speak English. At that moment, all i could think of was ''bon giorno", "ti amero", and "arrividerci", which loosely translates as 'hello', 'i love you', 'goodbye'....not exactly the words to say to a stranger u just met; unless of course you're in there for a one-night-stand, huhuhu. I spoke briefly with the wife, who told me they were in Penang for vacation...then they resumed their husband-wife conversation completely in Italian. I just sat there with my eyes closed, eavesdropping on a conversation to which i had no clue as wo what was going on....i was rather in awe coz i've never really heard conversations in italian before, aside from the brief opening scene in Angels & Demons.

So i spent the entire 45-minute flight lost in my own thoughts : i was ransacking my brain for all the Italian words i know. I came up with "aiuto", which means 'help'...i pressed on, then started singing my favourite Il Divo song, Ti Amero...."La notte schivole sormondo...que sia tormentera..." Heck, all i got from the song was 'one night', 'torment', 'lingering/continueing'.... In other words, not much prgress. Naturally, i proceed to what i can recall from the menu at Italian restaurants : tiramisu? quattro formage? de carni? spaghetti? lasagne? Even more useless for conversation...

I was beginning to get exahusted. I mean, if they were Spanish then i'd have better luck. I've always wanted to learn Spanish, and i did pick up a few phrases from my grandmother, and from songs & movies. See, TV does me a LOT of good. I havent had the opportunity to travel, but that is how i learn about the world & other cultures. of course, you'll need common sense to discern the 'hollywood fiction' factor from some of the stuff. plus, i love watching then discovery channel, natgeo, history channel, and sometimes discovery travel & the cooking channels. I guess what i'm trying to say is for some people out there who watch even more tv/series than i do and yet for some reason can still remain so close-minded and got no clue about other poeple's values, cultures, taboos, they have got to be the thickest numbskulls ever. Heads up peeps, this is what 'informal education' is all about.

and i digress yet again. now where was i...oh yeah, the italian food road block. fine. then i got an idea : i used to learn the piano, i was up to grade 5...we had to learn italian terms for music theory. Immediately i tried to recall : mezzo, moderato, allegro, adagio, lento, crescendo, allegretto, segno, maestoso, dolce, forte, presto, pianissimo, con brio, etc. Sure, it may not be enough for conversation but i was contented to at least know SOMETHING. By then we were about to land in KLIA. I was determined to at least say something in italian but i cant seem to work up the nerve for it...what if my understanding was flawed? what if my pronounciation is wrong, so wrong that they cant understand?

So we were getting our luggage, and the man said ;bon voyage. i said, wait first (the cabin doors were still closed). Just when the people ahead started walking out, both husband and wife said 'bye bye' to me...i turned to look at the husband (he was sitting next to me, afterall) and said, "arrividerci" and oh how their faces lit up! She said 'ah, brava!' and he smiled and repeated 'arrividervi'. I guess they were taken aback, coz they weren't expecting it. The were impressed, and i was pleased with myself. Walking toward the arrival hall, i was giggling to myself, and i was skipping with joy for actually finding the guts to say that one word. You see, earlier this year i studied Mandarin for a while and wasnt very good at it; and although i do know a few words & phrases here n there, i have yet to be able to muster the courage to speak with my chinese classmates/friends/patients...for the same reasons i mentioned earlier. I am too self-conscious for my own good, too egoistic to risk embarassment.

Then in the taxi, i had a chinese taxi driver whom i noticed had classical features/deformity of rheumatoid arthritis : boutonniere, swan-neck, z-shape, radial deviation of the wrist. I asked him about it, and he's had it for >20 years. Apparently it doesnt hurt when he drives. He gave me the same advice i've heard time n again : to master a language, u have to speak; it doesnt matter if they laugh at you.

So in summary; I had a great weekend. For now, arrividerci baby!