Packing up and leaving Med-Syd

The residence's moving out policy required us to vacate our rooms 24 hours after our last paper for the semester, with the primary reason that other fellow residents need to study for the remainder of their exams. Hence, with each following day, the number of students staying in the residence (and indeed our floor) dwindled. Not surprisingly, we were among the last to leave the residence, but fortunately enough, not the last. Thankfully, Sarah (Denmark) had her last paper on the same date with Allan's, and we were able to have a much needed company for our meals. Before we vacate our rooms the next day, we decided in the 'good old' fashion Singaporean way of celebrating the end of our exams by having a feast that evening at Xing's place. Profound thanks must be given to Kawei and his girl friend Vivian (a.k.a Vivi) for so diligently volunteering to buy all the food for the steam boat, and undertaking the ardous task of bringing all the necessary utensils required for the steam boat. Before heading off for my paper, we went around the residence to take some photos with friends we have made since we first arrived at Med-Syd.



With Jean and Sarah (she lives at Elgin Residence, just opposite Med-Syd), who dropped by to say goodbye. They were among the first international students whom we got to know in UWO.


Yassar is a first year health science student I got to know at the residence's gym when I was running the threadmill. An extremely studious and generous person, he gave me plenty of winter clothings when he learnt that this was my first trip to a temperate country. For that, I am deeply grateful and will treasure this friendship always.


With Dave, the maintenance staff of our residence, an extremely cheerful and friendly fellow.


Our favourite cafeteria staff (actually, she's Allan's favourite, we kept speculating whether Allan will be her prospective son-in- law), and no surprise, she's a chinese!

After we finished our final paper (World Cities) in record time (the paper was 3 hours, but I finished it in less than an hour), me and Jiahao rushed to Xing's place for the much anticipated steam boat dinner. I guess we could call it supper, since it was already 9pm when we started preparing the food. This time, we invited the Danes and Benjamin (a fellow resident on our floor) for the dinner.


The sumptous spread that was laid out at Xing's apartment, and like all steam boat dinner, the amount of food was too much for us to finish even though there were 10 of us.


The Danish guests we invited over for the dinner/supper, from left: Sarah, Marie and Minna.


Marie and Minna, they always had me roll on floor laughing with their comedic descriptions on any uneventful encounters they had with the Canadian or in school.


Sarah is our fellow resident at Med-Syd. We always had our meals together whenever possible, and stayed for lengthy talking cock sessions after that. The best part was always supper, nobody yearns to go back to their rooms after supper during the exams period, because we know that once we step back to our room, the mugging will begin. I'm gonna miss Sarah so much when we leave for our respective home country, she's such a good person to talk cock with.


The guy in red is Benjamin, a fellow resident staying on the same floor as me and Jiahao. It was glad to have his company for the 3 and a half months during my stay in Med-Syd as we often had basketball sessions together.


Kawei and Vivi, the golden couple that prepared all the steam boat for us. Vivi is a Canadian who migrated from Hong Kong, and for that, I'm deeply impressed by their long distance relationship.



Minna caught red-handed when she tried to pinch on the food!


And she got away with it by flashing us a smile almost too innocent for us to convict her!



And the feast begins, mutton, beef, dumplings, mushrooms, prawns and so much more. It was really a banquet that was worthy of a post examination celebration. Minna was quite amazed that we actually have to cook the lettuce we bought during the steam boat before we eat it. To the Danes, lettuce, the ubiquitous vegetable used in salad was eaten raw. Marie surprised everyone when she used her pair of chopsticks to perfection, as she revealed that she had been to several parts of Asia before.


Preparing the fruits for fondue. We had fondue for dessert after the steam boat, a luxurious way to end the feast.


Though paled in comparison to Nelly's fondue party, it was a treat to remember as the fondue brought the feast to an elegant end.



10 very well fed friends posing for the picture that will bring them fond memories of that night for many years to come.

After the feast, we went back to our respective residence to embark on the unglamorous task of packing up our luggages. It was a heart wrenching event, knowing that our stay in Canada is approaching an end. But still, what needs to be done has to be done, and we made ready the preparation for our road trip to Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec and New York.



Packing our luggages, notice how empty the room has become. Allison (Jiahao's peer guide) had generously agreed to let us deposit any unnecessary or excess luggages that we did not want to bring along with us during our road trip. She's an angel.


On my desk doing some last minute blogging. Notice the calender on the top left portion of my desk, it had brought me both joy and frustrations with the numerous markings on the dates fraud with quizzes, midterms, project and assignment deadlines.


In the final stages of packing, notice how depressingly bare my desk has become... This was the last picture that the 3 of us took in our room.

Nelly, Pauline and Emma surprised us by dropping by to join us for lunch before we moved out of our residence, it was so sweet of them. Already, I could feel a slight tingling sensation in my stomach and the increasing difficulty of fighting back the tears that were threatening to well up. Since when have I become so emotional?


Pauline and Emma, doing their pose while we wrote testimonials on their dairies.


Emma is my supposed and scandalous wife wedded during Nelly's fondue party. I will be missing her a lot when I return home.


Nelly and Emma, since when did Emma became the daughter of William Tell? Au revoir, mes chers amis...


All packed and ready to go at the bus stop that will bring us to Gray Hound's main station, the bus service that will ferry us during our road trip.


Coincidentally, Nicholas (French) ran into us when we were about to board the bus, he was on his way to take his exams.

With that, our much anticipated road trip has begun. Although I was looking forward to going on this road trip, I couldn't help but feel melancholic at the same time. Nevertheless, our adventure from this point onwards marks a new beginning, and that alone is a comforting thought enough.