memories in Ireland 99-05

Bertatih di bumi Ireland

2006-02-28T12:31:00.000+08:00

Hye friends,

Let us continue our journey to Ireland..

My flight to Ireland was scheduled for the 9th of September 1999, and we were requested to gather at KLIA at 9pm for a briefing session. It was a bitter sweet memory as it was the first time for me to leave my family for a long period of time. Yet, it was also exciting as I had never leave Malaysia apart from a brief visit to Singapore in 1997.

After a very wet farewell and goodbyes (everyone was crying apart from me!), we finally left KLIA at 00.10, 10/9/99. The flight was pretty much uneventful but as it was my first time in an airplane, it was hard not to look impressed and excited all along.

We arrived in London Heathrow at around 5am in the morning and the 13 of us managed to get lost getting from one terminal to another, due to the several unappointed "leaders". After an hour of wondering from terminal to terminal by bus, we managed to get to the immigration control and proceed to the domestic terminal where our flight Aer Lingus was going to fly us to Dublin.

The flight to Dublin was delayed, so when we reached Dublin Airport after the 1 hour 20 minutes flight, where 7 of us was going to stay and 6 of us (3 girls & 3 boys)were getting another flight to Galway, we had to literally run to catch our flight. Thankfully Dublin Airport is relatively small (equivalent to Senai Airport, JB) so I managed not to collapse while running with my heavy handluggage.

We were so breathless when we reached the immigration control that we found it hard to speak, let alone to understand the thick Irish accent of the immigration officer. One of the things that I can't forget was that the man asked me, why were all of our names bears a "binti" and what did it mean. I tried to explain to him what it meant and at the same time tried to convey the message that we're late! Then he asked again why our friend Parves (who's a boy) does not have a "binti", and I have to explain again that he had a "bin" instead.

When he finally finished with the questioning (in a very friendly way, mind you), I told him directly that we're catching a flight to Galway and that we're very late. He simply said to me," Oh, the gate is closed. You're never going to make it". I was so shocked that I must have made a very silly face, that the man burst out laughing and said "Just kidding!". I didn't know whether to smile to cry, but as I say my friends faces, I know that he got me :)

We managed to catch the Fokker flight to Galway, which took about 45 minutes. The view form above was Subhanallah so breathtaking. Ireland looked like a huge green jigsaw puzzle with white specks all over the place, which were of course the sheeps.

When we arrived, 3 seniors (Kak Lin, Kak Munira & Kak Ummi) were waiting for us with 3 huge cabs, but unfortunately our baggages were stranded in Dublin. After dealing with the airlines company, we headed to Galway.. our new home.

We, the girls stayed with our seniors for a couple of nights ( our luggage arrived 12 hours later) and the boys went straight to their house. We had had a terrible jetlag, that we always went to bed at 5pm, and wake up at 3am, purely due to hunger!

The very next day after we arrived, our lovely seniors took us shopping for warm clothings around Galway, and I opted for winter clothings eventhough it was still autumn, as I could not bear the 8-10oC!

I'll tell you all about our beloved Medical School in National University of Ireland, Galway in the next post. Stay tuned :)

Langkah Bermula

2006-02-22T09:17:00.000+08:00

It all started when I was finishing my final exams in UKM Matriculation. An announcement was made that MARA was finally offering scholarship again after the 1998 recession. All students who had achieved GPA 3.80 in the 1st semester exam were allowed to apply for the scholarship which was offered for Medical Degree in Ireland. I never thought of studying medicine locally as an option, so I was one of the hundreds hopefulls that applied.

The offer letter reached my mailbox couple of weeks after we finished the matriculation. I went for the interview in MARA building with my dad with 50-60 other UKM students. The interview was held in 2 days, the first day was dedicated for UKM students while the second day was for matriculation students from USM, UM and Unimas.

All the candidates from UKM where divided into 3 groups, where we were interviewed twice, the 1st one with MARA officers and the second one with doctors representing the Irish Medical Consortium. We were also required to write an essay to "sell" ourselves,on "why am I a good candidate".

Alhamdulillah the interview went well, and the Irish doctors from the IMC said "we'll see you in autumn" before we parted, and I took it as a good sign :) Alhamdulillah in July '99 the long awaited letter arrived after I have registered in UKM Medical Faculty for 2 weeks.

The departure was scheduled for 9/9/99 and I was over the moon!

I'll tell you all about the departure and the first time I set foot in Ireland in my next post...

stay tuned ;)

Welcome!

2006-02-22T08:17:00.000+08:00

welcome to my personal blog :)

this blog is part of Aisyahafiz383 blog, where I will share my exclusive experiences when I was in Ireland as part of my life persue from the year 1999 to 2005.

I hope it will be of use to all friends and family, especially to anyone who's planning or thinking of furthering their studies in this great country.

Stay tuned, ok ;)

-Rita Aisyah