my 3-week long predeparture course concluded last week with the scholarship award ceremony on saturday. looking back at the experience, even though it had only been a short 3 weeks, it was really fun and enriching, and i have grown in some ways after the course.

the fun came from OBS and cooking lessons. even though i had been to OBS several times, it was the first time i climbed the inverse tower there. seemed easy on the ground, but the spaces between footholds and logs seemed to be 10 times wider when u are actually up there haha. we also had some trebuchet making competition, where all the materials cost money and had to be purchased with points earned from the completion of team games. it was quite fun cos our trebuchet was built by this phy whiz so it actually worked :D and the finale was a sea ex followed by a land ex the next day.

for our cooking lessons, we went shatec, where we learnt how to make some really simple fool-proof dishes. so now at least im assured i wont starve... but of course, how nice the food actually is will be yet another story. oh yah i kind of cheated and teamed up with a cooking pro so "our" final products tasted quite delicious ;)

however, i felt that the most memorable part of my course was my 1 week community attachment with HCA hospice. quite unlike the other community service that i had done in my secondary school and jc days, working at hospice does not necessarily bring u the satisfaction which usually comes with helping people out. the patients are terminally ill, and many of them have only days to live. some of them are really discouraged, and merely lie in bed and stare blankly into space the whole day, when they could possibly be doing something more enjoyable. others are ridden with much pain because many of their organs are failing, and its really heart wrenching to see them undergo so much suffering.

the experience really makes me treasure what i have at the moment -- my health and my family members. and i am very impressed with the dedication which the doctors and nurses have displayed. they could be working in hospitals and clinics, but they chose to work in hospice, where they have a much larger job scope, which may even include helping to resolve family problems. most importantly, they try their very best to allow the patient to live their last days to the fullest. as their motto goes: we cannot add days to life, but we can add life to days.