I'm going WILD! I love my PBL group...

Guess what? I'd just got myself drunk for the first time in my life. It was Lauren's brithday yesterday n our PBL group went out for a party at Tiger Tiger in the Manchester city centre. Before that, the girls gathered around at Lauren's flat and we had some drinks. Lauren'd literally fed me with the alcohol. At first I was quite okay with a quarter cup of vodka, mixed with orange juice. Then when I told her I haven't feel anything after about an hour and a half, she poured the half a cup of vodka into my already quite alcoholic orange juice. Goodness... after that cup, my head was spinning like merry-go-round n I was saying so much of silly things. I'd told my PBL-mates beforehand that I'd never been drunk before n they've got to take care of me if anything happens. It's quite funny about that the rest of the girls were also as drunk as I was (actually most of them worse) yet they took care of me as well as they could that they kept asking me whether I am alrite while I think I should be the one taking care of them considering their mental state. I think Rachel n Claire were the only ones who managed to keep their composure. I remember Anisha holding my hand to make sure that I cross the road safely as she was yelling "No yeeyen, wait for the greenman... yes, that's the greenman. Hi greenman, come on, let's cross over". On the way to the city centre, Lauren was still passing me tonics n gens (I haven't got a clue what kind of alcohol is it..). Throughout the nite, I could see Rachel keeping a close eye on me.. really sweet of her. She's always so quiet in the group but I bet she's one of the most responsible among us.
I followed the group (My PBL-mates n Lauren's flatmates) all the way to the club (walk-bus-walk). In the club, I was dancing away at first. I think it's because of the alcohol influence, I'd really enjoyed it. We were dancing from one lounge to another. Then the spinning started to wear off + I was quite tired, so I sat down with John n Viv. Both of them sounded like my big brother n were obviously keeping an eye on me n make sure that I'm alrite. I started to get annoyed with the noise n the smoke. Yet it was the sight was actually rather enjoyable - people snogging around at random n doing really sexy n somewhat disguising action... It's really been an eye opener for me. About 1:15am, I went back with Laura n Karen. I manage to get myself to bathe, n didn't really had a good nite sleep.
Today, during the communication skills session, my PBL-mates started to tease me the moment they stepped into the room n I was like 'I wasn't that drunk last nite' n they unanimously went 'o yes u were...' Today it was my turn to interview the stimulated patient. I was paired up with Adil. I was quite nervous throughout to be honest n was really glad that Adil took the lead rite from the beginning. At some point, I feel that Adil n the patient were talking to smoothly that I don't know where to come in. I didn't talk a lot. N the dreaded feedback moment came. I thought people were going to comment on how bad I was in keeping up with the conversation n I was definitely expecting negative feedbacks. Even when Nasha (our facillitator) asked me what are the positive things I thought I did, I was just lashing out about all the negative things in my head, about how the questions just did't get structured fast enough to be asked at an appropriate time, about the fact that I'd only understand at most 80% of what the patient's saying (I didn't said this but actually I had to pretend to be emphatetic at a point because I didn't get what the patient said). When she insisted about the postive stuff that I'd done, I managed to come up with a 'well, I picked up from Adil pretty well' n after that all I hear was constructive n encouraging things all the way through. Frankly, I'm really happy n excited today coz there're just too much fantastic feeling run through my nerves now. My groupmates n the facillitator complimented on how ritefully I kept quiet but kept a good interest on whats the patient saying, asking small but relevent n meaningful questions at good times. The old lady who was acting as the stimulated patient also told me that she distinctly noticed that I was smiling all the way n listened attentively, well mannered, empathetic, sensitive and cared to ask for consent for small things which other healthcare workers would had been ignorant about. To top it all, Nasha n my PBL-mates were reassuring me that it was a wonderful interview even after the session. I am really touched by their gestures.
I went to see my PBL tutor before the communication skills session n I was telling her how much I love my PBL-mates, n I really meant it. I think the combination of people in semester 1's PBL 15 COULDN'T HAVE BEEN BETTER! Also Dr Westwood pointed out about how she think I'd do fine from what she's observed about me, which is a bit of a pleasant surprise. She even said she was sure that it wouldn't be a problem for me to chair the group n believe that I'll pass the semester 1 exam with flying colours - how amazing is that? She said she saw no problem in me sharing knowledge in a PBL group while literally all of my other Malaysian, even Singapore friends who are doing medicine n dentistry engaged in PBL complained about how difficult it is for them to get their messege across the group that very often it just got stuck in their heads until the session is over, finally feeling frustrated. I was completely flattered.
When I left KMB, I thought I was never going to find a better combination of people than M03P. I was clearly wrong n here I am finding another perfect group of great people to work with. Meanwhile, I'd learnt quite a lot about British culture (Clubbing's one of the major British culture according to John) n to date, I'd been quite attracted to two guys, whom both I saw today, both r proper gentlement n one of them dressed particularly smart today. I'm obviously not going to publish their names here, so go figure...