we started 2014 with no expectations,
anticipating a quiet year free from major life changes. little did we know that
in april, the mister would serendipitously find himself in business school. but
let us back up a little! saw the new year in from the maldives,
a place we finally got the chance to visit together. from the maldives it was
back to singapore for a few days before hitting the ground running with work
(him) and uni (me) in the +44.
having finished foundations of clinical
practice before christmas, it was straight to junior rotations on the wards with
eight weeks of chronic ill health and disability, followed by four weeks of women's health, child's health, mental
health and infectious diseases each. this actually brought me nicely to july,
with no study break before exams. after two years 'pre-clinical' with lectures
and seminars, it was such a relief to be having hands on experience on the
wards and i enjoyed finally feeling like a baby doctor. things started making
sense (oh phew!) and i didn't mind the long hours because being in school was a
breeze compared to work. lucked out with a four week "junior
assistantship'' (part of longer 8 week chronic ill health rotation) on a clinical oncology ward (thank god i
wasn't assigned neuro-rehab or something similar...) and was all the more
psyched to be with cancer patients dawn to dusk.
travel-wise, we were lucky to sneak some time
out to be master and mistress of ceremony at our
dear friends' wedding in singapore in feb, and sort of spend my birthday back home
the same weekend. visited the amalfi coast over easter,
and it was there that we learnt the mister had been accepted
to do the executive*MBA*global (americas*and*europe) with
columbia&london*business*schools.
it's a 20*month dual*degree program so fingers crossed he'll graduate with 2xMBAs (one from columbia*, one from*LBS). the beauty of the e*MBA is that everyone on the program is also working full-time. we're grateful his employers have sponsored his time (without docking his salary - so important!) because he takes a week off work every month to attend class in either london or NYC. which also means he's in NYC for a week every other month. the classes are intense with 8am to 10pm days being common, after all they're squeezing the contact hours for 2xfull-time MBAs into 20 weeks. this trans-atlantic commute hasn't been without its perks, like my tagging along in july to soak in the sights and sounds of the big apple while he was hard at work. it's a great group of people (69 students, 37 different nationalities) with illustrious classmates who're nothing short of inspiring. the average age of the class is 35 with an average of 10 years post-graduate work experience. the mister's fortunate to have snuck in at 29*years old having worked for 4 years. all this from a cold call (and cold email) to the admissions team. within two weeks of first contact, he studied for and aced the G*MAT, interviewed and was accepted. our conspiracy theory is they were desperately looking for diversity and he fit the bill ;)
as if to celebrate his acceptance to bschool and do some "defensive traveling" in anticipation of crazy months with no down time, we made use of the early summer bank holiday for a whistle stop tour of moscow. incidentally when crimean tensions were on the rise and he gave me a heart attack when we were on a free city walking tour he said the fighter jet fly by (!!!) was an invasion and not the national day rehearsal i thought it was.
it's a 20*month dual*degree program so fingers crossed he'll graduate with 2xMBAs (one from columbia*, one from*LBS). the beauty of the e*MBA is that everyone on the program is also working full-time. we're grateful his employers have sponsored his time (without docking his salary - so important!) because he takes a week off work every month to attend class in either london or NYC. which also means he's in NYC for a week every other month. the classes are intense with 8am to 10pm days being common, after all they're squeezing the contact hours for 2xfull-time MBAs into 20 weeks. this trans-atlantic commute hasn't been without its perks, like my tagging along in july to soak in the sights and sounds of the big apple while he was hard at work. it's a great group of people (69 students, 37 different nationalities) with illustrious classmates who're nothing short of inspiring. the average age of the class is 35 with an average of 10 years post-graduate work experience. the mister's fortunate to have snuck in at 29*years old having worked for 4 years. all this from a cold call (and cold email) to the admissions team. within two weeks of first contact, he studied for and aced the G*MAT, interviewed and was accepted. our conspiracy theory is they were desperately looking for diversity and he fit the bill ;)
as if to celebrate his acceptance to bschool and do some "defensive traveling" in anticipation of crazy months with no down time, we made use of the early summer bank holiday for a whistle stop tour of moscow. incidentally when crimean tensions were on the rise and he gave me a heart attack when we were on a free city walking tour he said the fighter jet fly by (!!!) was an invasion and not the national day rehearsal i thought it was.
twas a good summer! we celebrated our second wedding anniversary in june at whitstable, kent. inlaws came to
london to celebrate his 30th birthday in july, i stayed with J and her family in
aix-en-provence, and then in august it was a cruise with my family before the mister and i continued to lisbon.
had about a week back in london after, before going to singapore for more holiday /
family time (me) and reservist (him). [8th cycle, missed the last 2, doesn't
want to be posted out of unit and eventually be the 40 year old loner doing
reservist with a random unit, plus it's a short reservist that counted as a
high-key so it made sense to TAKE LEAVE TO DO RESERVIST]. national pride rant
aside, in the second half of 2014 we've also had the chance to travel with his
classmates. the mister co-captained a sailboat around sardinia, we spent some time port making and tasting
in porto, combined a work trip to dubai with the F1 in abu dhabi, as
well as visiting classmates in washington DC and then sao paolo en route to chile. miraculously amidst all that hedonism, he also scored a perfect GPA and quite literally topped the dean's list o.O having no personal academic achievement to brag about, looks like i'll continue to live vicariously through him haha.
i started fourth year in september and
it was a brief throw-back to pre-clinicals with some intense pharmacology
modules. was done with end of fourth year exams a week ago and then it's "get out of
jail" / student selected components and electives all the way till summer
break 2015. thrilled the stars have aligned and have lined everything up for
central london (zone 1, no less!). the prospect of staying put for nine solid
months and not having to commute is nothing short of bliss.
it's gonna be a low-key christmas and shaping up for a busy new year with dear friends in town as our tiny flat once again becomes a revolving door B&B :)
it's gonna be a low-key christmas and shaping up for a busy new year with dear friends in town as our tiny flat once again becomes a revolving door B&B :)
wishing you and yours happy holidays and the
very best in the year to come. as always, thanks for stopping by.
lots of love,
j
a wonderfully epic year~ ^^ Such a heart for your new career you truly have, and such a clever Mr Jo. hope to spend more time w you guys in '15!! <3 much fishlove. ><> ><> ><>
ReplyDeleteaw thanks fishyboo! not quite epic year, there were a couple of spectacular personal lows, as you'd know. then again, you always do ;) suppose, yes, mr. jo is adequate. i feel inadequate. can't wait to see you in the flesh. miss you lots.
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