Final Internship..Free at last!!

Finally, my school life is almost over...almost. Well, at least I'm done with my last internship and no more school or class or anything!!

With Aung & NaN

Actually, with this last internship, time went by sooooooo fast! I guess because there were so many friends there, so it's not as boring as the other ones I had. The other two internships that I had, they were both hospitals, but this one was different. I was lucky to finally have a chance to go there. It's called "Tong Hua Hung Osoth" (Osoth means drugs in Thai.)

With friends from Silpakorn University, except the guy on the left, Rangsit University

Why "lucky"? Because many pharmacy students who go to universities in Thailand wanna come here! This pharmacy is very popular in terms of internship. Despite the fact that there's lecture every evening on weekdays from P'Heng (the pharmacist/owner), you can get the real practical experience from patients who come to the pharmacy, get to meet new friends from other universities, and GREAT FOOD!!

Let's talk about food, one unique and famous thing about this place is the food. P'Heng's sister in law, P'Neung, is such a great cook! Since all the students here had to work in shifts, the ones who were on the shift that day would get to have dinner there. And the dinners were sooo deliciously fantastic and more than enough!!! You could actually request what you wanna eat, if she knew how to do it, she'd cook for you!

This is the example of one day's meal....

Yum Kai Dao (Spicy fried eggs salad)

Pla Neung See-ew (steamed fish with soy sauce)

Stir-Fried Mixed Veggies

Stir-Fried Mushrooms (Vegetarian dish for P'Heng)

So yeah, we did gain some kilos when we were there, heheh.. Life wasn't so good..no work out and too much food *grin*

Tar & Yu from Silpakorn University

Enough with food, the reason I like this internship so much is that I finally learned how to be a real pharmacist. Honestly, I'm not a good student, so without practical experience from the pharmacy, I wouldn't know how to dispense the drugs to patients appropriately. (Btw, healthcare system in Thailand is still different from the US, pharmacists do have to diagnose sometimes and decide which medicine to use..and many drugs here you still don't need doctor's prescription.)

Oh from Rangsit University & Yu from Silpakorn

So yeah, it's been the best internship I ever had, fun learning, fully eating, and knowledge gaining...
If you have any health problems..as long as it's not so severe like cancer or some complicated shit, I'm ready to help you now ;)
...Big thanks to..P'Heng....the funny teacher and the great mentor!

P'Heng and the Apprentice :P

Internship in Sukhothai: Part I

Internship in Sukhothai..a life style change.
Well, I made a mistake by choosing to come here for my second internship. At first, I thought Sukhothai is a nice city to stay (for 5 weeks at least!) since it has a tourist attraction, Sukhothai Historical Park aka the ancient city.

Sukhothai Historical Park aka The Ancient City

The glorious Sukhothai period 700 years ago, ruled by the king, Ramkamheang, the astonishing ruins, and also the “World Heritage” as it was announced in 1991. So yeah, that was the reason I chose Sukhothai, hoping I might have some fun, it’s gotta be somewhat a tourist town, I might be able to see some hot white boys and such.

...And I was wrong...

Welcome to Khirimat Hospital, welcome to the world of boredom.

We (Kate and I) totally forgot that the hospital we chose is just a community hospital in Amphur Khirimat, not the Sukhothai city. In fact, it is 22km away from it. Besides, the Sukhothai city itself has nothing either. Yes there were tourists..but the town is just quiet and boring as I mentioned in my previous blog entry.

The road sign from Khirimat town

The Khirimat hospital is a 30-bed hospital. Most of the patients here are farmers and villagers. The hospital is not even in Khirimat town, it’s a little further away with nothing around it but the road and the field. Life wouldn’t be too hard if there’s public transporation for me to go places. But guess what! The song-teaw that would go into town will just come whenever, u won’t know when it’s gonna come. Usually it takes 30mins to an hour to wait for one. And it stops running at 6pm…so if you don’t have a vehicle, you are trapped.

At least there is a bus stop..only that there’s hardly that comes..

There are houses for people who work in the hospital, which are free, you just have to pay for the electricity. But honestly, I’d rather pay the rent than to live here. Since there is no house that is unoccupied, we had to share with 2 hospital staffs…we got a room.

Well, it was a storage room before and it is still now becoz the stuffs are still in the room. There’s no bed, no air-con, no TV and no internet!! (I can only use the net in the pharmacy room which is fucking window 98 or borrow a bike and go to the only internet café in town.)

It was a big change for me and my friend. I can’t live without internet and she can’t live without TV. So here we are.You have no idea how depressed it is during my first week here. I just freshly got back from a trip in Penang, staying at hotels and such..and now I’m stuck in this upcountry bannok place. The first internship at BNH hospital I got to use my English, dispensing medicine to foreigner and now I have some problems understanding what the villagers say.

The only pharmacists who can stay and work here are either the one with no ambition or any goal in life. I can’t stand it. There is no way I can live my life like this. You work from 8.30am to 4.30pm. Maybe OT some day until 8.30pm or then play badminton. So yeah, u get up, work then play badminton with colleagues then go to bed. WTF?!!

Badminton, the only activity you can do

I have to admit I’m too selfish to sacrifice myself working here. But actually without these boring people, the poor villagers here would have no one to cure them, right? So yeah, u have to be either too nice or too dumb to wanna work here.

Well, guess I can’t complain that much, even the hospital director’s house is like this.

Actually, I’m not picky about the living situation. I mean, I can live without bed..but not without a shower. At least there’s a shower here..but still inconvenient.The pharmacist who live in the same house, she loves nature too much. Too many plants..and that means you create the entire ecosystem. Plants..then bugs, then frogs and other amphibian species come to eat bugs. And don’t forget the mosquitos, I hate getting mosquitos biting my ass when I take a dump..but there’s nothing I can do, I have to suck it up.

It’s such a drag to take a shower each day. I’m not used to with this. I always hate amphibian, frogs, toads since I was little and I still do now. When the rain stops, I have to deal with this. Baby frogs in the bathroom…oh my god I hope they are not gonna jump to me.
That’s just not enough, although there’s window screens preventing the mosquito..the bugs can still get in the room. If it rains today, there’ll be millions of bugs coming to our room tomorrow. There were just so many of them in the room, crawling on our bodies and where we sleep and the bugs smell, too! We were so depressed and upset with life. I basically cried during the first 4 days here. So we have to do something to make out life situation better.

This is the solution to our bug problems.

This is the backyard, what a heaven for god’s creatures!

Have u ever seen a kitchen like this? It’s just unpleasant to even cook. There’s no sink, u just have to wash the dishes in a bucket.

The ceiling..makes me feel like harry potter in the cupboard under the stairs.

This is the only “wardrobe” we have.

The Ghetto Towel Hanger

Well, luckily I brought my laptop to entertain myself. We try to find ourselves something to make our living situation better.

For example, my friend’s makeup zone made out of stereo box.

Kate is watching movies…

A guy from a Korean series, “Love Story in Harvard”

I have to look shitty becoz I’m living in a shitty place:P

So that's the first part of my Sukhothai internship blog, I still have more to bitch about..hehe...

BNH Hospital: My Internship

It's been almost 3 weeks now that I've been doing this internship at the BNH Hospital, Soi Convent, Silom. The internship is a part of my study, Pharmaceutical Science, so I have no choice whetherto do it or not, though, fortunately enough, I at least got to choose where to go...

My best friend, Kate, at the pharmacy room. This photo is kinda shitty coz taken with cellphone.







Surprisingly, this is the first time for this hospital that they accept the internship so far, for Pharmacy Dept at least. So it's new for both the students and the pharmacists to mentor us :)
This hospital is supposed to be international oriented, it's got contracts and deals with embassies and such, also lots of tourist and expats come here, not to mention hi-so Thai ppl.



The environment here is so nice and pleasant, maybe becoz it's customer oriented, they really focus on customer service so they have to make it as nice as possible, i guess.

The fun thing about this hospital that I won't find it anywhere else in Thailand is that it's pleasant to work, i get to use English alot, and we don't have to put up with doctor's handwriting on the prescription!!(for Outpatient Dept. at least)

Though, since it's a private international hospital, it's gonna be expensive..some service charge added, u know. So the patients(or should I call customers?) have lots of expectations..
One different thing that this kinda hospital has and other public/governmental ones don't is the service mind..which I'm totally fine with that, my part-time job is customer service thingy anyway..

So yeah, I'm enjoying it so far and I don't regret at all that I get to do the internship here. Although, I don't get to learn the hardcore pharmacy shit like the public governmental ones(becoz they accept the 30Baht policy shit from Thaksin administration so you get all sort of patients coming) but I do learn something that the governmental hospital doesn't have...everything has its own value, right?

That's me and my friend, kate in the garden.

Trying to be a garden presenter, hehe:P

I hope my uniform doesn't look like a nurse assistant or some technician too much..

Some pose from my friend as well ;)

Err....she likes plants and flowers, I think..

3 of us in the rest room :P

Thanks to BNH Hospital