My last two days have been pretty relaxed (in terms of school work). Yesterday I had class from about 8am to 5pm, but I had 2 breaks throughout the day. I only had 3 lectures and the rest of the time was spent in a nutrition lab and then in my PBL. I still really like my PBL group and my tutor, but we always go WAY overtime and it ruins my plans for the rest of the day. Yesterday, we were supposed to finish at 3pm and we didn’t finish till after 5pm. We definitely learned a lot though (and it was interesting)!!
This morning I had a biochemistry lab for a few hours and then had the rest of the day off. I came home and made myself lunch in my new toaster oven. It was raining and thundering all afternoon- but stopped (mostly) by about 4pm. Bryan and I have wanted to find a pool to swim at for a while, so we decided that since we didn’t have much school today, that we would go looking! (Bryan is the guy from Calgary with lots of tattoos and everything- and he swam for Waterloo during his undergrad (Chemical Engineering) and went to Olympic Trials and Nationals and everything as well.) The pool we found is an outdoor 50m public pool in a park fairly close by (Victoria Park). Bryan was a good buddy to swim with since he hasn’t been in the water for a while either. We only swam a couple thousand meters- but it was good enough for our first time in the pool in a while. We decided to buy a 30-visit pass so that we can go a few times a week from now on. It is weird to be swimming outside at this time of year… especially when Brent was just telling me about him and his dad ice fishing a few hours earlier.
I’m starting to get a little bit homesick (I think it is sinking in that I’m stuck here for 4 years), but hopefully it will pass. Everything is so new right now and I think that it’s a good thing that I’ve been so busy- cause when I stop to think about everything it gets to be a little overwhelming.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
I am totally exhausted right now- but had an interesting day so though I should write about it before I head to bed. I was back at the hospital today, which meant a very early morning. Unfortunately, today was also the beginning of frosh week, so my rez had a HUGE kick-off party last night to celebrate. Since my studio is in the main building (which has a bar on the main floor), my window happened to be about 20 meters from the giant sub woofer that was pounding dance music till about 1am. Sabiha and I did go down to the party at dinner time to get a beer and some free food- but we only stayed for about half an hour.
Anyway, my day at the hospital was good despite all that. This morning we saw a patient with esophageal varices who had been vomiting blood all night (so he said). He looked like he had a rough life- had tattoos of naked women all over him and very hard to understand even though he was only 49. Esophageal varices are usually due to cirrhosis of the liver (which in his case was probably due to alcohol abuse). At lunch Nick, Josh and I went to the cardiology ward, played with the eco machine (I forget the proper name- but it is used to look at heart murmurs), and watched an angiogram in progress. The angiogram was really, really awesome. We had to sit behind glass with the radiographer and the nurse since you have to be wearing a lead vest to go into the actual operating space. The man getting the angiogram was awake (they only use a local anesthetic) and there was blood all over his leg- at the femoral artery- which is where they put the tube in. We could also see the doctors injecting die into the coronary arteries on the computers screens and the nurse was telling us what was going on and what to look for. I can’t wait till we learn scrubbing, gowning and gloving so that we can go right in!
We had a quick lunch at the staff cafeteria- which is probably the cheapest food that I have found yet in this country. I got a whole lunch for $4.00 (mac and cheese, zucchini and peppers, and an apple juice).
After lunch we went to the clinical skills lab and learned the basics on our stethoscopes, how to take blood pressures (on each other with a sphygmomanometer) as well as other vitals like respiration rates and heart rates. We also took our temperatures with those thermometers that doctors and nurses put in your ear (and it only takes 2 seconds)!
We finished that at around 3pm, so Nick, Josh and I went looking for some more interesting patients. I found a 50 year old lady who just had her hip replaced, so I wanted to go talk to her- but her family was there visiting, so I’ll have to try to find another one next week. Dad’s having his hip resurfacing done sometime fairly soon- so I wanted to see what this lady had done and what she thought about it so I could tell Dad! I never really got to talk to her, but she looked like she was doing well.
There weren’t any other really interesting patients in the orthopedic ward, so we went back to the emergency ward (where we were last week). There we found a guy with a broken jaw (he got sucker punched at a bar on Friday night) and a 21-year girl who probably had Crohns disease (but hadn’t been diagnosed yet). We looked at the x-rays of the broken jaw- and it was really a HUGE break!
I took the train home with Nick and Josh and then went to get sushi for dinner with Sabiha when I got home. The restaurant we went to was right around the corner from our rez and the sushi was self-serve on a conveyer belt. I didn’t eat much though- cause I think I might have had some bad yogurt this morning and my stomach has been bothering me all day. It is finally starting to feel better now!
I’m off to bed- I have another early morning tomorrow. Only 33 days till Fiji! Miss you guys! xoxoxo
Anyway, my day at the hospital was good despite all that. This morning we saw a patient with esophageal varices who had been vomiting blood all night (so he said). He looked like he had a rough life- had tattoos of naked women all over him and very hard to understand even though he was only 49. Esophageal varices are usually due to cirrhosis of the liver (which in his case was probably due to alcohol abuse). At lunch Nick, Josh and I went to the cardiology ward, played with the eco machine (I forget the proper name- but it is used to look at heart murmurs), and watched an angiogram in progress. The angiogram was really, really awesome. We had to sit behind glass with the radiographer and the nurse since you have to be wearing a lead vest to go into the actual operating space. The man getting the angiogram was awake (they only use a local anesthetic) and there was blood all over his leg- at the femoral artery- which is where they put the tube in. We could also see the doctors injecting die into the coronary arteries on the computers screens and the nurse was telling us what was going on and what to look for. I can’t wait till we learn scrubbing, gowning and gloving so that we can go right in!
We had a quick lunch at the staff cafeteria- which is probably the cheapest food that I have found yet in this country. I got a whole lunch for $4.00 (mac and cheese, zucchini and peppers, and an apple juice).
After lunch we went to the clinical skills lab and learned the basics on our stethoscopes, how to take blood pressures (on each other with a sphygmomanometer) as well as other vitals like respiration rates and heart rates. We also took our temperatures with those thermometers that doctors and nurses put in your ear (and it only takes 2 seconds)!
We finished that at around 3pm, so Nick, Josh and I went looking for some more interesting patients. I found a 50 year old lady who just had her hip replaced, so I wanted to go talk to her- but her family was there visiting, so I’ll have to try to find another one next week. Dad’s having his hip resurfacing done sometime fairly soon- so I wanted to see what this lady had done and what she thought about it so I could tell Dad! I never really got to talk to her, but she looked like she was doing well.
There weren’t any other really interesting patients in the orthopedic ward, so we went back to the emergency ward (where we were last week). There we found a guy with a broken jaw (he got sucker punched at a bar on Friday night) and a 21-year girl who probably had Crohns disease (but hadn’t been diagnosed yet). We looked at the x-rays of the broken jaw- and it was really a HUGE break!
I took the train home with Nick and Josh and then went to get sushi for dinner with Sabiha when I got home. The restaurant we went to was right around the corner from our rez and the sushi was self-serve on a conveyer belt. I didn’t eat much though- cause I think I might have had some bad yogurt this morning and my stomach has been bothering me all day. It is finally starting to feel better now!
I’m off to bed- I have another early morning tomorrow. Only 33 days till Fiji! Miss you guys! xoxoxo
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Things didn’t start out very well today. I ran out of credit on my phone and internet, so both my landline and my internet got cut off. Since it was the weekend, it was very hard to get credit added to my account, but I eventually found someone in the building who let me add some credit to my phone line. My internet is still not working well- but I should be able to get that fixed sometime next week. My mobile also doesn’t really work very well. I bought it the day after I got here and have since realized that I got ripped of in Chinatown. I’m trying to deal with my crappy reception and the unreliability, but I really don’t know how long it will last for! All those problems made it kind of difficult to get in touch with everyone here!! …But luckily I was still able to receive calls.At around 1pm, I met up with a whole bunch of people down at Circular Quay so we could take the ferry over to Manly Beach. Janice, Brooke, Nick, Sabiha, Jacqui, and two Australians (Sarah and Tom) all came. The ferry ride was really nice, but it was a little bit cloudy. I could not believe how many sailboats were in the harbour and how close we came to hitting them numerous times!! We also saw a tall ship being escorted by almost 10 police boats- which was really neat!
The ferry ride took about 30 minutes to get to Manly and when we got there it was looking even cloudier :( . It is only about a 3 minute walk to the beach when you get off the ferry- so we went straight there, and then right into the ocean! It was colder than I thought it would be and the waves were MASSIVE, but it was really fun. There was lots of kelp and seaweed around, which was kinda scary, but I got used to after a few minutes. There were so many surfers around (outside of the designated swimming area) and everyone seemed to be good swimmers. I, on the other hand, was getting totally pummeled by the waves. Brooke and I decided that we needed to get bathing suits that stayed on better if we had any chance of getting past the break.
(This is Janice, Brooke and Nick after our swim.) 
(Waves!)We spent about 15 minutes in the water and then about 30 minutes sitting on the beach before it started raining. Not the best day to go to the beach- but I’m sure I’ll be going back soon.
(Janice, Nick, me and Brooke on the ferry.)We got some hot chocolate (at Max Brenner- an AMAZING drink place here) and then took the ferry back to Circular Quay. We walked around the Rocks for a while and found a cute little pizzeria that was very busy, so we decided to have dinner there. It was good and cheap, so we were all happy.
After dinner it was raining even harder, so we just decided to all go home. I came back to my apartment, talked to Brent for a while and watched some “House” on my computer. (All the doctors here have been telling us to watch that show since it is medically accurate and deals with all kinds of strange cases.)
Tomorrow I am back at the hospital and we will be learning how to use our stethoscopes and take blood pressures (as well as some other vitals). Also, Brent’s friend (Alphabet) called me again to check up on me and invited me to a big lifesaving competition (State Championships) that is going to be at one of the beaches in Sydney next weekend. I think I’m going to go on Saturday!Friday, February 23, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Happy Birthday Mom! (Mom’s in Ethiopia right now, so this is the closest I’ll get to saying happy birthday on the actual day!)
Today was another really long day for me! I was up around 7:30 and had to meet my PBL group in the Anatomy Museum at 9pm. This session was not necessarily mandatory, but our PBL tutor is a MD and one of our anatomy professors, and he says that the main weakness of the Sydney Medical Program is that there is not enough anatomy- so he is trying to fix that for the 8 of us at least! We are going to have this extra session every Friday morning at 9am (and we don’t have to come- but I don’t know who wouldn’t since it is probably where I have learned the most so far). The anatomy museum here is probably in one of the nicest building on campus. It has a cute little courtyard in the middle of it with giant palm trees and plants all over the place. (I will take a picture next Friday). The museum itself is also amazing. They have everything you could possible imagine. It is like having our own personal ‘Body Worlds’ exhibit- but even more extensive. Today we looked at the hand (what happens in carpel tunnel syndrome), but mostly looked at the heart and the lungs, as well as a lot of chest x-rays. Our ‘homework’ is to go to the butcher, buy a sheep or pig heart- and dissect it! Apparently we don’t get the human hearts for a while still and he wants us to know it now! I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to perform this ‘dissection’ since I don’t really want to do it in my small studio in the same room as I sleep and eat- but I’m sure I’ll think of something.
Today was another really long day for me! I was up around 7:30 and had to meet my PBL group in the Anatomy Museum at 9pm. This session was not necessarily mandatory, but our PBL tutor is a MD and one of our anatomy professors, and he says that the main weakness of the Sydney Medical Program is that there is not enough anatomy- so he is trying to fix that for the 8 of us at least! We are going to have this extra session every Friday morning at 9am (and we don’t have to come- but I don’t know who wouldn’t since it is probably where I have learned the most so far). The anatomy museum here is probably in one of the nicest building on campus. It has a cute little courtyard in the middle of it with giant palm trees and plants all over the place. (I will take a picture next Friday). The museum itself is also amazing. They have everything you could possible imagine. It is like having our own personal ‘Body Worlds’ exhibit- but even more extensive. Today we looked at the hand (what happens in carpel tunnel syndrome), but mostly looked at the heart and the lungs, as well as a lot of chest x-rays. Our ‘homework’ is to go to the butcher, buy a sheep or pig heart- and dissect it! Apparently we don’t get the human hearts for a while still and he wants us to know it now! I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to perform this ‘dissection’ since I don’t really want to do it in my small studio in the same room as I sleep and eat- but I’m sure I’ll think of something.
After the anatomy museum I had an hour off before the lectures started, so I went to the travel agent on campus and bought my ticket for Fiji! I’m so excited! (I am starting to really wonder what the point of a travel agent is, though. They don’t get you better deals than you can find yourself and they mess up visa stuff. Brent went to a travel agent in Toronto to get a flight to Fiji- and they quoted him the best price to be over $1300 more than we found it for on the internet!!!)
Anyway, for the rest of the day we had all kinds of lectures on cell structures, enzymes, diets, body image, eating disorders… etc. and a really long one on how doctors are more likely to be alcoholics, get into car accidents and commit suicide than the normal population. They gave us some pretty interesting stats- but were mostly trying to convince us to follow the advice that we would give our patients and follow a healthy lifestyle. We also had an hour lecture on how we should tell our patients and our superiors if we make a mistake. That one was really boring, but I know they have to tell us all this stuff anyway.
After the lecture, all the 1st years went to the Manning Bar in the Student Union Building. Some of the 2nd years were there too. I tried a lemon-lime bitters drink (which is apparently popular here and Brent says is really good). It was ok, but I think it might be an acquired taste :) he he he. After the Manning bar, I walked back to my apartment, dropped my stuff and then went to meet Janice, Brooke and a few other friends at the Marlborough Hotel (a bar- they seem to call all the bars around here “_____ Hotel”… it is really weird) to have some dinner. I came home pretty early since I was SO tired. I’m not used to these LONG days after my year and a half of no school!
Janice, Brooke and I are going to do something fun tomorrow- but it will depend on what the weather is like! Maybe Bondi beach?!!?
I also got some more pictures from Janice of the past few weeks, so here they are:
These pics are from the Aquarium (the first weekend I was here). L to R: Len, me, Sabiha, Bryan, Sadiq.
Jellyfish!
The seals were getting fed...
This was in the tunnel under one of the giant tanks...
The Croc...
This sign we found in the Rocks on our walk to the Opera house that same day...
A park at the harbour full of people watching cricket. We ate our fish and chips there and tried to figure out what was going on. 
This is my first day at Nepean Hospital! I am standing with Nick (who is from Ottawa and in my clinical group). 
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
These past few days have been full of labs and classes. We finished up the case study on chest pain today (but we will be revisiting cardiology for another 5 weeks at the end of this year) and we are moving on to nutrition and GI stuff for the next week.
This is frosh week (or ‘O’ week as they call it here) for the rest of the university, so a lot of kids have been moving into my building lately. Last night the fire alarm went off at around midnight (memories of Molson Hall at McGill). The alarm here is horribly annoying (there is a loud speaker in every room) and it goes off for about 15-20 minutes. I was on the phone with Brent and I think he was almost as annoyed with it as I was! I stayed in my room because the 2nd years told me that this happens all the time and there is really no point going downstairs (I found the same thing at McGill).
People in the med program have started to talk about their plans for the April break. The upper year meds told us we should travel during our breaks 1st year since 2nd year we will be studying for our barrier exams and 3rd and 4th years we don’t get many holidays. I have heard of a lot of people who are going to India (but I am ok not going back there for a few years), South Korea and Indonesia. Some of the Australians are going to Fiji and some of the other Canadians are going to travel up the east coast of Australia. My VERY exciting news is that Brent just booked a flight to Fiji today!! Fiji is only about 3 hours away from Australia, so it will be easy for me to get there! And… my 25th birthday will be during my April break, so I will get to spend it with Brent. A lot of backpackers go to Fiji so we are planning to get some cheap accommodation on the beach and relax for a few weeks. I am so excited! It is only 37 days away. (Norma’s sister, Linda, is going to be in Fiji at the same time- so maybe we will see her there! :)
I also got my first care package in the mail today :). I got some cards, some letters, some photos and a CD. It is very exciting to get mail here since it doesn’t happen very often :) he he he. Hint hint. Just joking. ;)
Miss you all and can’t wait for some visitors!! Xoxox
Oh- I also made pasta for my first time tonight- in the microwave! It turned out ok- but was a little bit crunchy. No more cockroaches to report.
This is frosh week (or ‘O’ week as they call it here) for the rest of the university, so a lot of kids have been moving into my building lately. Last night the fire alarm went off at around midnight (memories of Molson Hall at McGill). The alarm here is horribly annoying (there is a loud speaker in every room) and it goes off for about 15-20 minutes. I was on the phone with Brent and I think he was almost as annoyed with it as I was! I stayed in my room because the 2nd years told me that this happens all the time and there is really no point going downstairs (I found the same thing at McGill).
People in the med program have started to talk about their plans for the April break. The upper year meds told us we should travel during our breaks 1st year since 2nd year we will be studying for our barrier exams and 3rd and 4th years we don’t get many holidays. I have heard of a lot of people who are going to India (but I am ok not going back there for a few years), South Korea and Indonesia. Some of the Australians are going to Fiji and some of the other Canadians are going to travel up the east coast of Australia. My VERY exciting news is that Brent just booked a flight to Fiji today!! Fiji is only about 3 hours away from Australia, so it will be easy for me to get there! And… my 25th birthday will be during my April break, so I will get to spend it with Brent. A lot of backpackers go to Fiji so we are planning to get some cheap accommodation on the beach and relax for a few weeks. I am so excited! It is only 37 days away. (Norma’s sister, Linda, is going to be in Fiji at the same time- so maybe we will see her there! :)
I also got my first care package in the mail today :). I got some cards, some letters, some photos and a CD. It is very exciting to get mail here since it doesn’t happen very often :) he he he. Hint hint. Just joking. ;)
Miss you all and can’t wait for some visitors!! Xoxox
Oh- I also made pasta for my first time tonight- in the microwave! It turned out ok- but was a little bit crunchy. No more cockroaches to report.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The only exciting thing I have to tell you about today is that I spent quite a while this morning chasing around my first cockroach. As you probably can imagine, I was not very happy to see it, but I didn’t want to let it get away so I chased it down until I got it! I didn’t realize how fast those things move. I guess you can’t really avoid them here- I’m on the 5th floor of a new building and they still manage to get up here! Yuk yuk yuk.
Other than that, my day was pretty ordinary. I had two classes this morning- one on the anatomy of the thoracic cavity and one on biochemistry (which is horribly boring). I had a long break for lunch and then had a PBL session. We learned so much about chest pain and heart attacks I can’t even believe it. It was supposed to be an hour and a half long, but ended up taking 4 hours! We ended up coming up with our diagnosis, treatment, management and mechanism all today (which wasn’t supposed to be done till Thursday). But- now because we did all that, we have our Thursday session off! :) We learned about how to read ECG's, how an angiogram (and angioplasty) is done, tons of the anatomy and physiology of the structures in the chest, and what kind of medications we would give in these situations. There is lots more to learn- of course- but it is a good start.
Anyway, my PBL didn’t finish till around 6pm, so I had missed the movie that I had planned to go to with the other Canadians. Instead I went to Kmart to pick up a few more little things and then took the bus home.
I got a few pictures from Sadiq of our first few weeks here- so here they are :)
This is (from L to R) Bryan, Sadiq, Sabiha, Brooke, me and Janice at the Opera House.
This is the same day- at Darling Harbour. (L to R) Len, Janice, Sabiha, me, Brooke, Bryan. (All Canadians)
This is at the camping trip. (L to R) Emmy (Oz), Sadiq, Elaine (Oz), me, Len, Jacqui, Bi (China) and Janice.
Other than that, my day was pretty ordinary. I had two classes this morning- one on the anatomy of the thoracic cavity and one on biochemistry (which is horribly boring). I had a long break for lunch and then had a PBL session. We learned so much about chest pain and heart attacks I can’t even believe it. It was supposed to be an hour and a half long, but ended up taking 4 hours! We ended up coming up with our diagnosis, treatment, management and mechanism all today (which wasn’t supposed to be done till Thursday). But- now because we did all that, we have our Thursday session off! :) We learned about how to read ECG's, how an angiogram (and angioplasty) is done, tons of the anatomy and physiology of the structures in the chest, and what kind of medications we would give in these situations. There is lots more to learn- of course- but it is a good start.
Anyway, my PBL didn’t finish till around 6pm, so I had missed the movie that I had planned to go to with the other Canadians. Instead I went to Kmart to pick up a few more little things and then took the bus home.
I got a few pictures from Sadiq of our first few weeks here- so here they are :)
This is (from L to R) Bryan, Sadiq, Sabiha, Brooke, me and Janice at the Opera House.This is the same day- at Darling Harbour. (L to R) Len, Janice, Sabiha, me, Brooke, Bryan. (All Canadians)This is at the camping trip. (L to R) Emmy (Oz), Sadiq, Elaine (Oz), me, Len, Jacqui, Bi (China) and Janice.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
I’m not going to write an entry for Sunday since I didn’t really do anything exciting (or at least anything that is exciting to write about)! I mostly organized and cleaned my place and spent some time hooking up my printer and putting notes together… etc.
Also, I might not be able to write every single day anymore cause I do have to start doing school work sometime soon (I’m not sure my hour countdown studying methods will work so well for med school, Heather… he he he)- plus most of my days now might not be that interesting anyway! :)
I think Mondays are going to be the most tiring day of the week. Not only am I at the hospital for the entire day, but I add on two hours of travel to each end (which I’m not used to) making the days easily over 12 hours long. I left my apartment at about 6:30am this morning with Nick (from my building). We decided to walk to Redfern train station today (the dangerous one) since it was closer- but we picked up about 4 other people on the way. It really didn’t seem that dangerous to me, but I guess I’m oblivious to that kind of thing sometimes. I’m still going to try to steer clear of that area if I’m alone.
We got to the hospital at about 8:30 and our first session didn’t start till 9am, so I had some time to find my locker and relax for a bit. From 9am-11:30ish we had a session with our doctor (who will be in charge of us for this entire Block- about 3 months). I am in a group of 5, and the doctor in charge of us (Dr. Grant Miller) is a retired general surgeon from Australia. He worked as a surgeon for 34 years- but didn’t want to retire completely, so now he is teaching us! He also told me that there is a surgical instrument named after me called the ‘Desjardins forceps’ he he he. I think they are used for some kind of bladder or stomach operation, but I can’t remember for sure.
My group is pretty good- everyone is nice at least. There is one guy from Ottawa, one girl from New York/Australia, and two guys from Australia. The girl from New York is kind of irritating it seems, but pretty nice. One of the Australian guys is also a nice kid, but a serious piece of work. He rode his motorbike to the hospital the last Wednesday and carried around his helmet for the whole day. Today he was wearing dress pants with “Rip Curl” written in white across the butt and kept his sunglasses on the back of his head the whole day. Plus he was on his cell phone practically the whole time- when Dr. Miller was talking to us and even when we were seeing patients! I couldn’t believe it.
Anyway, the 5 of us spent the first part of the day with Dr. Miller learning about medical histories, myocardial infarcts and a bit of background about DVTs and diabetes…etc. He took us to see two patients and we watched him do histories with them. The first patient was 83 and had been in the hospital for a while for various reasons (including angina, heart attacks and prostate problems). He was very hard to hear because he had been intubated recently and had bruised vocal chords. His family came in part way through our visit with him and we were able to get much more information from them. The second patient was also there for heart problems and he was only 59. He had really bad oedema (Australians put an extra ‘o’ in a whole bunch of words here!) in his legs. After that, the Ottawa guy and I went to take histories of two other patients in the cardiology ward. All the people we got to see were men and they are all pretty old. Plus all of their histories were really extensive and complicated and took at least 40 minutes for each one!
At lunch time, we got free lunch (from some medical insurance people) and then heard a lecture from some 4th year students on projects they have done or interesting cases they have seen. (This lecture is always given on Mondays and we always get free lunch if we go! They call it the Grand Rounds.) One girl did her project on leeches and maggots in medicine. I heard about that while I was in India, but I didn’t know that they used it here (and in North America). Apparently they have even been using leeches in our hospital for people who have had a finger or toe amputated. It helps restore venous blood flow once it is reattached (but they haven’t been able to isolate the active ingredients, so they are still using the actual leeches)!
After lunch we had another session with the nurse who is in charge of Med 1 students. We just learned about some basic things like taking height, weight, BMI…etc. and then she took us around to all the different wards in the hospital. We even got to see where the ambulances come in!! (So when Brent comes here I will know where to find him :) Also, our hospital has the biggest ER in the state, so I think that will be fun to spend some time in. We are also allowed to watch operations starting in a few weeks (once we learn how to ‘scrub in’ properly).
After that session was done, a few of the students and I went and found a few more patients to interview. Nick and I found one in the ER who had some kind of infectious disease. He had been admitted to the hospital on Thursday with some kind of infection and rash, but the doctors still haven’t been able to figure out what is wrong. First they thought it was a staph infection, then maybe toxic shock syndrome and then maybe measles- but they still really have no idea. Nick and I shook his hand, so we are hoping it was nothing contagious (that we aren’t vaccinated against)! He he he.
I got back into the city at about 5:30, but I got really lost since I tried getting off at a different station (I wasn’t with anyone going my way, so I didn’t want to get off at Redfern). It took me about 30 minutes to get back to the right side of the station and then I got some groceries on the way home- so I didn’t get home till about 7pm. What a long day! Hope everyone at home is doing well! I miss you guys lots! xoxox
Also, I might not be able to write every single day anymore cause I do have to start doing school work sometime soon (I’m not sure my hour countdown studying methods will work so well for med school, Heather… he he he)- plus most of my days now might not be that interesting anyway! :)
I think Mondays are going to be the most tiring day of the week. Not only am I at the hospital for the entire day, but I add on two hours of travel to each end (which I’m not used to) making the days easily over 12 hours long. I left my apartment at about 6:30am this morning with Nick (from my building). We decided to walk to Redfern train station today (the dangerous one) since it was closer- but we picked up about 4 other people on the way. It really didn’t seem that dangerous to me, but I guess I’m oblivious to that kind of thing sometimes. I’m still going to try to steer clear of that area if I’m alone.
We got to the hospital at about 8:30 and our first session didn’t start till 9am, so I had some time to find my locker and relax for a bit. From 9am-11:30ish we had a session with our doctor (who will be in charge of us for this entire Block- about 3 months). I am in a group of 5, and the doctor in charge of us (Dr. Grant Miller) is a retired general surgeon from Australia. He worked as a surgeon for 34 years- but didn’t want to retire completely, so now he is teaching us! He also told me that there is a surgical instrument named after me called the ‘Desjardins forceps’ he he he. I think they are used for some kind of bladder or stomach operation, but I can’t remember for sure.
My group is pretty good- everyone is nice at least. There is one guy from Ottawa, one girl from New York/Australia, and two guys from Australia. The girl from New York is kind of irritating it seems, but pretty nice. One of the Australian guys is also a nice kid, but a serious piece of work. He rode his motorbike to the hospital the last Wednesday and carried around his helmet for the whole day. Today he was wearing dress pants with “Rip Curl” written in white across the butt and kept his sunglasses on the back of his head the whole day. Plus he was on his cell phone practically the whole time- when Dr. Miller was talking to us and even when we were seeing patients! I couldn’t believe it.
Anyway, the 5 of us spent the first part of the day with Dr. Miller learning about medical histories, myocardial infarcts and a bit of background about DVTs and diabetes…etc. He took us to see two patients and we watched him do histories with them. The first patient was 83 and had been in the hospital for a while for various reasons (including angina, heart attacks and prostate problems). He was very hard to hear because he had been intubated recently and had bruised vocal chords. His family came in part way through our visit with him and we were able to get much more information from them. The second patient was also there for heart problems and he was only 59. He had really bad oedema (Australians put an extra ‘o’ in a whole bunch of words here!) in his legs. After that, the Ottawa guy and I went to take histories of two other patients in the cardiology ward. All the people we got to see were men and they are all pretty old. Plus all of their histories were really extensive and complicated and took at least 40 minutes for each one!
At lunch time, we got free lunch (from some medical insurance people) and then heard a lecture from some 4th year students on projects they have done or interesting cases they have seen. (This lecture is always given on Mondays and we always get free lunch if we go! They call it the Grand Rounds.) One girl did her project on leeches and maggots in medicine. I heard about that while I was in India, but I didn’t know that they used it here (and in North America). Apparently they have even been using leeches in our hospital for people who have had a finger or toe amputated. It helps restore venous blood flow once it is reattached (but they haven’t been able to isolate the active ingredients, so they are still using the actual leeches)!
After lunch we had another session with the nurse who is in charge of Med 1 students. We just learned about some basic things like taking height, weight, BMI…etc. and then she took us around to all the different wards in the hospital. We even got to see where the ambulances come in!! (So when Brent comes here I will know where to find him :) Also, our hospital has the biggest ER in the state, so I think that will be fun to spend some time in. We are also allowed to watch operations starting in a few weeks (once we learn how to ‘scrub in’ properly).
After that session was done, a few of the students and I went and found a few more patients to interview. Nick and I found one in the ER who had some kind of infectious disease. He had been admitted to the hospital on Thursday with some kind of infection and rash, but the doctors still haven’t been able to figure out what is wrong. First they thought it was a staph infection, then maybe toxic shock syndrome and then maybe measles- but they still really have no idea. Nick and I shook his hand, so we are hoping it was nothing contagious (that we aren’t vaccinated against)! He he he.
I got back into the city at about 5:30, but I got really lost since I tried getting off at a different station (I wasn’t with anyone going my way, so I didn’t want to get off at Redfern). It took me about 30 minutes to get back to the right side of the station and then I got some groceries on the way home- so I didn’t get home till about 7pm. What a long day! Hope everyone at home is doing well! I miss you guys lots! xoxox
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
I got back to my apartment (from the camping trip) at about 9am. I had a shower, ate some breakfast and then had a nap for about 45 minutes. It was hard to sleep cause it was really hot and bright in my room. So, I talked to Brent for a while on our webcams instead.
At about 2pm I walked over to Broadway to buy a toaster oven and run a few other errands. I got the cheapest one at Harvey Norman and got another $5 off cause it didn’t have a box. It still came to $55 though. Everything here is so expensive. I just can’t get used to it. After that, I went to Kmart to pick up a few school supplies. While I was in the stationary isle, I randomly ran into Brooke who was there looking for a notebook. She didn’t have anything to do, but didn’t want to go all the way home (on the North Shore), so she ended up coming with me. I grabbed some groceries at Coles and then we walked home through the campus. Brooke hasn’t got a place to live yet (she is temporarily living with her Dad’s cousin) so she is starting to get pretty desperate. When she first came to Sydney, she didn’t even want to consider where I am living cause she thought it was too expensive for student housing, but after looking around for places during the past 2 weeks I think she has realized that she is not going to do any better than this. I spent the whole time walking trying to convince her to come and live in my building. I think I had totally convinced her (especially after she saw my place) but when we went to apply online, it said there were no more studios available. She is still going to try to apply for a place on Monday, but I’m not sure she will get one. I think it would be really nice to have her in this building cause we get along really well. (She’s the one I had my lab at McGill with). She also has a boyfriend at home in Toronto- and we seem to have a lot in common. Her boyfriend might be moving into her parent’s house at the end of the month as well!! :)
Anyway, Brooke and I hung out at my apartment for a while and then went out for dinner with Bryan for some Thai food on King St. It was really good and fairly cheap, so we were happy. After dinner, we went to an on campus bar to another event held for 1st year med students. Most of the Canadians were there, but not that many Australians. I did meet a few really nice Australians though- which made me feel a little better about them since I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Aussies I met at the first year camp in Appin. (Hopefully they aren’t reading this blog!) I got home at around midnight (dead tired) and then fell asleep talking to Brent on the phone. Oooopsies. He he he
At about 2pm I walked over to Broadway to buy a toaster oven and run a few other errands. I got the cheapest one at Harvey Norman and got another $5 off cause it didn’t have a box. It still came to $55 though. Everything here is so expensive. I just can’t get used to it. After that, I went to Kmart to pick up a few school supplies. While I was in the stationary isle, I randomly ran into Brooke who was there looking for a notebook. She didn’t have anything to do, but didn’t want to go all the way home (on the North Shore), so she ended up coming with me. I grabbed some groceries at Coles and then we walked home through the campus. Brooke hasn’t got a place to live yet (she is temporarily living with her Dad’s cousin) so she is starting to get pretty desperate. When she first came to Sydney, she didn’t even want to consider where I am living cause she thought it was too expensive for student housing, but after looking around for places during the past 2 weeks I think she has realized that she is not going to do any better than this. I spent the whole time walking trying to convince her to come and live in my building. I think I had totally convinced her (especially after she saw my place) but when we went to apply online, it said there were no more studios available. She is still going to try to apply for a place on Monday, but I’m not sure she will get one. I think it would be really nice to have her in this building cause we get along really well. (She’s the one I had my lab at McGill with). She also has a boyfriend at home in Toronto- and we seem to have a lot in common. Her boyfriend might be moving into her parent’s house at the end of the month as well!! :)
Anyway, Brooke and I hung out at my apartment for a while and then went out for dinner with Bryan for some Thai food on King St. It was really good and fairly cheap, so we were happy. After dinner, we went to an on campus bar to another event held for 1st year med students. Most of the Canadians were there, but not that many Australians. I did meet a few really nice Australians though- which made me feel a little better about them since I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Aussies I met at the first year camp in Appin. (Hopefully they aren’t reading this blog!) I got home at around midnight (dead tired) and then fell asleep talking to Brent on the phone. Oooopsies. He he he
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Friday was an incredibly long day!!! I got up at around 8am to get ready for my first class at around 10am and to pack for the camping trip. I thought I was going to have to lug around all my camping stuff with me to my classes, but luckily Len called me at 9:30 to tell me we could pick it up later!!
Today was the first day of real lectures and I thought they were great! We had a lecture on cell death and cell adaptation (cell biology), an introduction to anatomy lecture (which was pretty detailed and boring) and then a ‘doctor in the community’ lecture all before our lunch break (at 1:30pm). I wasn’t sure what to expect from the community doctor lectures, but I really think they are going to be great! Half of the 1.5 hour lecture was spent on learning about Iodine deficiency disorders, goiters, cretinism, etc. (mainly in Tibet) and the other half was about public health and smoking (including some incredibly graphic pictures of mouth cancers and patients with emphysema). It was a really interesting lecture!!
We had lunch in a little courtyard near our lecture theatre and then had two more lectures in the afternoon. The first lecture was a science based lecture on arteries, atherosclerosis, and heart attacks and the second one was about how to take a medical history from a patient. Again, they were both good lectures! We have to start taking medical histories right away at my hospital, so I’m glad we’ve learned the basics already. I’m also glad that I have a science background and that I remember a bit of what I learned at McGill. Nothing has been too advanced yet or anything, but I can imagine that those without a science background would be feeling very overwhelmed after the lectures today.
The lectures ended at 4:30 and I rushed back home to grab my things. A girl named Elaine (from Brisbane) has a car here in Sydney, so she offered to drive Len, Jacqui, and me down to the Med Camp at a place (south west of the city) called Appin.
Before we left the city, we stopped at Len’s place so he could grab his things. I can not believe how nice his place is!! He doesn’t have much furniture yet, but the layout of the apartment and the view of the city is amazing. He is actually only paying about $460/week for the place – which I think is a great deal considering how nice it is- and in comparison to some other places I’ve seen for almost as much. Once his girlfriend is here and paying half of the rent, it actually will be quite affordable (as far as Sydney standards go). I’m excited to find a real apartment when Brent gets here- cause it is much easier to find a nice place if you’re willing to pay over about $350/week. They say the key to surviving the rent/living costs in Sydney is to live with a partner! Here are a few pictures of Len's apartment (and his view).
Anyway, it took us about 2 hours to get to Appin since we didn’t really know where we were going and there was a lot of rush hour traffic. The highways in the city are streets like Eglinton Avenue at home, so you can’t get anywhere very fast. But, apparently, our car (full of Canadians and the Brisbane girl) was one of the only cars not to get lost- so we ended up being the first car there!
The campsite/area was pretty sketchy and the bugs started biting as soon as we got there. We all changed into our pants and shoes right away. The camping party had a theme- “anything scholastic”- but I didn’t pack my high school uniform in my bags, so I wasn’t able to come up with a good costume. I don’t think any of the Canadians really dressed up- with the exception of Stuart, I guess, who wore his sweater vest from the other day. He he he. This is a picture of Stuart and me.
The rest of the night was ok, but not amazing. They served us spaghetti for dinner and then had a trivia game (with mostly Australian pop culture questions) for us. After that they had a limbo contest, a giant twister game and some beer pong. I played one game of beer pong with the other Canadians, but I just watched the other games. A lot of the Australians are much younger than the international students, so I think they were at the camp for “different reasons” (I won’t elaborate) than we were. A lot of them were drinking way too much and were horribly annoying. I was also starting to understand Dad’s concern about me picking up an Australian accent while I was here. It is fun to listen to sometimes, and on some people it can be charming, but a lot of the time, it does get quite hard to listen to.
Janice and I spent a lot of the night comparing words and the way we say things with some of the Australians. Some things they say are just plain weird. They don’t pronounce their “r”s at all and they have such weird words for some things. Plus, they don’t know anything about “ice” hockey and they can’t stop talking about Cricket.
This is a picture of Len, Elaine, Jacqui, Sadiq/Stuart, and me when we first got to the camp.
At about 4:30am, Janice and I decided that we needed to try to find a place to sleep. There were a few big metal sheds on the campsite- full of bunk beds covered in thick plastic. Most of the beds were taken already and the sheds were full of mosquitoes since the lights had been on earlier and there were no doors or anything! Janice and I were also worried that we weren’t going to wake up in time to catch our ride back to the city (leaving at 7am). So- we decided that the best thing to do was to sleep in the car we were riding in. It was a VERY small compact car, and Stuart managed to find us as we were getting into the car, so he came along. Janice and Stuart sat in the back and I sat in the passenger seat. It was squished and a little cold- but at least we escaped the mosquitoes in the sheds! We found out later that A LOT of other people had slept in their cars as well.
We left the campsite by about 7am the next morning (or a few hours later). Some people hadn’t even gone to bed yet. The traffic was light on the way home (and we got a ride with a guy from Sydney), so it was a much faster drive and only took about 1.25 hours. We got dropped off in the middle of campus and walked home from there. I hadn’t been that tired in a very long time.
Today was the first day of real lectures and I thought they were great! We had a lecture on cell death and cell adaptation (cell biology), an introduction to anatomy lecture (which was pretty detailed and boring) and then a ‘doctor in the community’ lecture all before our lunch break (at 1:30pm). I wasn’t sure what to expect from the community doctor lectures, but I really think they are going to be great! Half of the 1.5 hour lecture was spent on learning about Iodine deficiency disorders, goiters, cretinism, etc. (mainly in Tibet) and the other half was about public health and smoking (including some incredibly graphic pictures of mouth cancers and patients with emphysema). It was a really interesting lecture!!
We had lunch in a little courtyard near our lecture theatre and then had two more lectures in the afternoon. The first lecture was a science based lecture on arteries, atherosclerosis, and heart attacks and the second one was about how to take a medical history from a patient. Again, they were both good lectures! We have to start taking medical histories right away at my hospital, so I’m glad we’ve learned the basics already. I’m also glad that I have a science background and that I remember a bit of what I learned at McGill. Nothing has been too advanced yet or anything, but I can imagine that those without a science background would be feeling very overwhelmed after the lectures today.
The lectures ended at 4:30 and I rushed back home to grab my things. A girl named Elaine (from Brisbane) has a car here in Sydney, so she offered to drive Len, Jacqui, and me down to the Med Camp at a place (south west of the city) called Appin.
Before we left the city, we stopped at Len’s place so he could grab his things. I can not believe how nice his place is!! He doesn’t have much furniture yet, but the layout of the apartment and the view of the city is amazing. He is actually only paying about $460/week for the place – which I think is a great deal considering how nice it is- and in comparison to some other places I’ve seen for almost as much. Once his girlfriend is here and paying half of the rent, it actually will be quite affordable (as far as Sydney standards go). I’m excited to find a real apartment when Brent gets here- cause it is much easier to find a nice place if you’re willing to pay over about $350/week. They say the key to surviving the rent/living costs in Sydney is to live with a partner! Here are a few pictures of Len's apartment (and his view).
Anyway, it took us about 2 hours to get to Appin since we didn’t really know where we were going and there was a lot of rush hour traffic. The highways in the city are streets like Eglinton Avenue at home, so you can’t get anywhere very fast. But, apparently, our car (full of Canadians and the Brisbane girl) was one of the only cars not to get lost- so we ended up being the first car there!
The campsite/area was pretty sketchy and the bugs started biting as soon as we got there. We all changed into our pants and shoes right away. The camping party had a theme- “anything scholastic”- but I didn’t pack my high school uniform in my bags, so I wasn’t able to come up with a good costume. I don’t think any of the Canadians really dressed up- with the exception of Stuart, I guess, who wore his sweater vest from the other day. He he he. This is a picture of Stuart and me.
The rest of the night was ok, but not amazing. They served us spaghetti for dinner and then had a trivia game (with mostly Australian pop culture questions) for us. After that they had a limbo contest, a giant twister game and some beer pong. I played one game of beer pong with the other Canadians, but I just watched the other games. A lot of the Australians are much younger than the international students, so I think they were at the camp for “different reasons” (I won’t elaborate) than we were. A lot of them were drinking way too much and were horribly annoying. I was also starting to understand Dad’s concern about me picking up an Australian accent while I was here. It is fun to listen to sometimes, and on some people it can be charming, but a lot of the time, it does get quite hard to listen to.
Janice and I spent a lot of the night comparing words and the way we say things with some of the Australians. Some things they say are just plain weird. They don’t pronounce their “r”s at all and they have such weird words for some things. Plus, they don’t know anything about “ice” hockey and they can’t stop talking about Cricket.
This is a picture of Len, Elaine, Jacqui, Sadiq/Stuart, and me when we first got to the camp.
At about 4:30am, Janice and I decided that we needed to try to find a place to sleep. There were a few big metal sheds on the campsite- full of bunk beds covered in thick plastic. Most of the beds were taken already and the sheds were full of mosquitoes since the lights had been on earlier and there were no doors or anything! Janice and I were also worried that we weren’t going to wake up in time to catch our ride back to the city (leaving at 7am). So- we decided that the best thing to do was to sleep in the car we were riding in. It was a VERY small compact car, and Stuart managed to find us as we were getting into the car, so he came along. Janice and Stuart sat in the back and I sat in the passenger seat. It was squished and a little cold- but at least we escaped the mosquitoes in the sheds! We found out later that A LOT of other people had slept in their cars as well.
This is Janice with one of the Aussies- named Mic.
We left the campsite by about 7am the next morning (or a few hours later). Some people hadn’t even gone to bed yet. The traffic was light on the way home (and we got a ride with a guy from Sydney), so it was a much faster drive and only took about 1.25 hours. We got dropped off in the middle of campus and walked home from there. I hadn’t been that tired in a very long time.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Today was a pretty relaxed day. I slept in a little since I was up late the night before (waiting for Jamie to wake up in Montreal so he could help me with some computer problems- which he did!). I caught up on a little emailing and went to the Medical Book Store to buy some note sets and text books. At around noon, I went to my first PBL. It was a great session and I have an amazing tutor. There are 30 tutors for the med students but only 5 of them are actually MDs---and I got one! He is also the Dr. who teaches us anatomy in our classes, so he will be really great to have. His PBLs are going to be very clinical he says- but I think that’s an exciting way to start off my first Block (about 9 weeks). My group is also really great so I’m so happy about that. I’ve already heard some bad stories from other groups. This week we are dealing with heart attacks and chest pain- so in a week I think I will know quite a bit about it. After the PBL, I went to buy a printer from the mall and then took the bus home (without paying…accidentally! I’m glad I didn’t get caught).
I did a little grocery shopping in the afternoon and then went back to the Medical Book Store to buy my stethoscope (which I need for Monday). It is a Littmann classic II- which is a pretty basic one, but it should be just fine for school. Oh- and it’s purple! :) I also had to get a little flashlight/torch.
I went to King St. in Newtown tonight to get dinner with Sabiha. We went to get a burger and some salad since we both haven’t had much meat or vegetables since we’ve been here. I still only have my bar fridge and a mini microwave, so I have been mostly living off peanut butter and banana sandwiches and some yogurt.
I have decided to go on the camping trip tomorrow. It costs $45, but almost everyone I know is going- and they were bugging me about going too. We have lectures all day tomorrow and then we are leaving straight from there- so I won’t be home till sometime on Saturday! I’m not sure what to expect- but I’m really worried about what kind of bugs I’m gonna find (especially after that giant spider). I’ll write when I get back to Sydney!
I did a little grocery shopping in the afternoon and then went back to the Medical Book Store to buy my stethoscope (which I need for Monday). It is a Littmann classic II- which is a pretty basic one, but it should be just fine for school. Oh- and it’s purple! :) I also had to get a little flashlight/torch.
I went to King St. in Newtown tonight to get dinner with Sabiha. We went to get a burger and some salad since we both haven’t had much meat or vegetables since we’ve been here. I still only have my bar fridge and a mini microwave, so I have been mostly living off peanut butter and banana sandwiches and some yogurt.
I have decided to go on the camping trip tomorrow. It costs $45, but almost everyone I know is going- and they were bugging me about going too. We have lectures all day tomorrow and then we are leaving straight from there- so I won’t be home till sometime on Saturday! I’m not sure what to expect- but I’m really worried about what kind of bugs I’m gonna find (especially after that giant spider). I’ll write when I get back to Sydney!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Today was amazing, but I’m horribly tired now. I got up at around 5am since I had to leave before 6am to get to the hospital on time. My friend, Nick, who lives in my building (and who is very nerdy and a super-keener) was knocking on my door to leave about 10 minutes earlier than I had planned- so I had to rush on my way out. We caught a bus to Central station since it was still dark and we’ve heard bad things about Redfern station (I figure this added about 25 minutes onto our trip). We met Janice at Central station and then caught a train at around 6:30am (for $6.20 one way) to Kingswood station, where our hospital is located. My shoes were hurting already (but I had come prepared with band aids, and put them on as soon as I sat down in the train). The trip took about an hour and fifteen minutes which left us about 15 minutes to walk to the hospital (which turned out to be about how long it takes)! So- two hours later we arrived at our hospital. It is in a nice area far west of the city- but the good news is that if I move out there in the 3rd and 4th years that the rent will be about half of what it is here in Sydney (and maybe even less!).
We started off with a lecture and being welcomed by a number of people and doctors- again. After that we went up to the 5th floor (which is the teaching floor of the hospital) and played an icebreaker game called “Surgical Smarties”. They separated us into 5 relay groups of about 10 people each. Each team had a pair of goggles, gloves, gowns, head things, shoe covers, a stethoscope, a urine dish, forceps and a cup full of smarties. Each person had to get dressed completely in the full surgical gear, then pick up a smartie with the forceps and carry it across the room to your next teammate. It was pretty funny.
I can’t remember all the stuff we did today- we had people talking to us about research opportunities, health and safety, fire procedures, security in the hospital… etc. and we had a tour of the hospital. They gave us ‘morning tea’(a.k.a. snacks in the morning) and the same mystery meat sausages for lunch. After lunch we got our ID tags that give us access to the entire hospital and then we were split up into our 5 groups again. We had to complete 5 stations- emergency first aid (which was very basic compared to the beach training stuff), fire stuff (we got to spray hoses and CO2 fire extinguishers to put out mini fires on the roof of the hospital- see picture), medical library orientation, patient transport and lifting, and learning how to wash your hands. There are three different ways to wash your hands and you use a different kind of soap for each one. The first one is for casual uses (we should do this about 3 times every half an hour when we are seeing patients, they say!). It takes about 15 seconds and there are specific techniques… he he he. The second way is used if you are going to be taking blood or inserting canellas…etc. This takes about 2-3 minutes and you use a more heavy duty soap. The third way is before surgery and you have to wash practically your whole arm! It takes about 4-5 minutes and you use the REALLY heavy duty soap. At the end of the session, they made us rub this stuff called “glitter bug” all over our hands and wrists. We had 15-20 seconds to wash our hands and then they took us into a dark room with UV light to see what spots we missed. It was pretty neat! Make sure to wash your thumbs and in between your fingers! Those spots are hard to get.
That was it for the day- but it went right from 8am till 5pm with really no breaks (they were even talking to us while we were eating)!
I also met a LOT of people today. I don’t remember anyone’s names, but I do know I met a lot of them!! There are SO many engineers in the program- I can’t believe it. I think it is because you don’t need to have biology as a pre req for this school. I also met an architect. There are quite a few students (even several Australians) who are in their late twenties or early thirties. I also met a guy from Ottawa today (who is in my clinical group for the rest of the year).
Janice was finished her sessions before me, but she waited for me downstairs and arranged us a ride- so we took it of course. But- it took almost as long as the train and we were sitting in traffic in a small, hot car with no AC for most of the time. The guy who drove goes to the hospital on Wednesdays from now on, and I go on Mondays- so I guess I won’t be getting rides from him anymore anyway.
Tomorrow I have my first PBL session (with my group of 7 or 8). It is a pretty light day compared to today. Friday is full of lectures and then they are sending us camping 2 hours south of Sydney for the night. You don’t have to go, but it is strongly recommended. I am still deciding.
Today is Valentine’s day and my valentine is stuck in Canada :( . He’s going over to Dad and Norma’s for dinner though- so that was nice of them to invite him!
Happy birthday Nono!
We started off with a lecture and being welcomed by a number of people and doctors- again. After that we went up to the 5th floor (which is the teaching floor of the hospital) and played an icebreaker game called “Surgical Smarties”. They separated us into 5 relay groups of about 10 people each. Each team had a pair of goggles, gloves, gowns, head things, shoe covers, a stethoscope, a urine dish, forceps and a cup full of smarties. Each person had to get dressed completely in the full surgical gear, then pick up a smartie with the forceps and carry it across the room to your next teammate. It was pretty funny.
I can’t remember all the stuff we did today- we had people talking to us about research opportunities, health and safety, fire procedures, security in the hospital… etc. and we had a tour of the hospital. They gave us ‘morning tea’(a.k.a. snacks in the morning) and the same mystery meat sausages for lunch. After lunch we got our ID tags that give us access to the entire hospital and then we were split up into our 5 groups again. We had to complete 5 stations- emergency first aid (which was very basic compared to the beach training stuff), fire stuff (we got to spray hoses and CO2 fire extinguishers to put out mini fires on the roof of the hospital- see picture), medical library orientation, patient transport and lifting, and learning how to wash your hands. There are three different ways to wash your hands and you use a different kind of soap for each one. The first one is for casual uses (we should do this about 3 times every half an hour when we are seeing patients, they say!). It takes about 15 seconds and there are specific techniques… he he he. The second way is used if you are going to be taking blood or inserting canellas…etc. This takes about 2-3 minutes and you use a more heavy duty soap. The third way is before surgery and you have to wash practically your whole arm! It takes about 4-5 minutes and you use the REALLY heavy duty soap. At the end of the session, they made us rub this stuff called “glitter bug” all over our hands and wrists. We had 15-20 seconds to wash our hands and then they took us into a dark room with UV light to see what spots we missed. It was pretty neat! Make sure to wash your thumbs and in between your fingers! Those spots are hard to get.
That was it for the day- but it went right from 8am till 5pm with really no breaks (they were even talking to us while we were eating)!
I also met a LOT of people today. I don’t remember anyone’s names, but I do know I met a lot of them!! There are SO many engineers in the program- I can’t believe it. I think it is because you don’t need to have biology as a pre req for this school. I also met an architect. There are quite a few students (even several Australians) who are in their late twenties or early thirties. I also met a guy from Ottawa today (who is in my clinical group for the rest of the year).
Janice was finished her sessions before me, but she waited for me downstairs and arranged us a ride- so we took it of course. But- it took almost as long as the train and we were sitting in traffic in a small, hot car with no AC for most of the time. The guy who drove goes to the hospital on Wednesdays from now on, and I go on Mondays- so I guess I won’t be getting rides from him anymore anyway.
Tomorrow I have my first PBL session (with my group of 7 or 8). It is a pretty light day compared to today. Friday is full of lectures and then they are sending us camping 2 hours south of Sydney for the night. You don’t have to go, but it is strongly recommended. I am still deciding.
Today is Valentine’s day and my valentine is stuck in Canada :( . He’s going over to Dad and Norma’s for dinner though- so that was nice of them to invite him!Happy birthday Nono!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Today was a much more interesting day- I thought. Class didn’t start to 9am today, so I had time to talk to Brent for a little bit before school. I was raining again this morning- but this time it didn’t last very long.
We had an hour or two of lecture all together this morning mostly explaining our “option” (which I’ll explain), and the opportunities available through the university to get involved in rural medicine. Every student has to do an “option” that is due in July of 2008. We can choose almost anything!!! Some ideas they gave us were medical research, clinical experience, medicine and music or even building houses and educating people in Uganda. They offer some options through the faculty here, but they are also open to suggestions from the students. So- pretty much any medical related projected (so long as it is approved by the school) is ok! The project has to take about 40 hours to complete and you have to write a paper on how it benefited your personal and professional development in medicine.
After those lectures, the class split into 4 groups and you had to attend 4 different stations- Assessment, Pathology, IT/Computers, and Themes. There were all really interesting- except for the computer one cause I hate computers- still (and especially since Jamie isn’t here!).
The assessment station was mostly about how we are going to be evaluated. We found out when our exams are and which ones count. For the first year and a half (and maybe longer) there are no grades. You are marked: excellent, satisfactory, undecided, or unsatisfactory. Obviously, you need a satisfactory to pass. They say this helps students work together in groups and to help each other (as you would in medicine), instead of having to be competitive and selfish to improve your class ranking. We have a few other things we have to do- like the “option”, a “poster project” and a “portfolio”, but they seem to be most concerned about our attendance at this point. I guess uncle Rob wouldn’t have done very well in this program. He he he
Our next station- pathology was really interesting. Just before we went into the classroom in the pathology building (on the 5th floor), I saw a GIANT spider on the wall. All the Australians were laughing at me since I was so shocked by it. They say they see those spiders all the time- and I think they said they were called Hunter Spiders since they hunt cockroaches. I guess that’s a good thing- but it really looked so scary. It was gray and furry and GIANT.
Anyway, we only spent a few minutes in that classroom before we got to go to the Pathology Museum. It was so neat! It was full of over 1500 preserved specimens. Every specimen is labeled under the system of the body it belongs to, as well as the pathological condition. We saw so much and we weren’t even in there very long! Anthrax (on the skin), gangrene (in the foot), all kinds of cancers, rickets (on the femur), tuberculosis, coal workers lungs, heart diseases, osteoporosis and heaps more that I can’t remember. While we were in the museum, we also met our PBL (Problem Based Learning- like they do at McMaster) tutor groups. These are groups of about 8 people and we meet 3 times a week to discuss a “case”. In the first session we are given most of the patient history and we have to come up with a hypothesis as to what is wrong and what is causing the problem. (Then we have to go and research and read about it.) In the second session we get to ask the “patient” more questions and come up with a diagnosis… etc. In the third session we have to come up with the mechanism (of the condition) and then plan a treatment. Every week we get a new case and have to go through the same steps. Apparently there are about 140 of these cases throughout our years here- meant to cover the 140 main problems that a doctor would come across. Anyway- my PBL group seems really great. There is one lady (probably in her thirties) who is from South Africa and the rest are from Australia. I had lunch with them today. They were laughing because I said ‘eh’ a few times and they said I say ‘about’ like ‘ABOOT’ (but I really didn’t think that I did)!
Anyway, after lunch we had the IT session for an hour. I’m not really sure what was going on- but most other people didn’t either, so I didn’t feel that badly. Also, I have a new email now that I will be using in addition to my jossyd@hotmail.com. It is jdes5706@med.usyd.edu.au .
Our last session was called Themes and it was really interesting too. We heard a story about a couple who had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary early last year. Two weeks after their party for it, the wife went to see her GP and revealed a HUGE fungating breast cancer (the cancer had grown so much that it had grown out through her skin). The doctors wondered why she had left it so late. They soon found out that it had spread to her lungs (and was causing a cough) and to her knee (which was causing her pain). The woman said that she just wanted to make it to her 50th wedding anniversary and didn’t want to be a burden on anyone. L It was a very sad story (and the lady died about 6 months after- even though the doctors only thought she had about 3 months to live). Anyway, at the rest of the session they talked a lot about the 5 different themes/sections that the Sydney Medical Program focuses on. They are Doctor-Patient relationships, Doctors and their communities (the differences between practicing in big cities, rural areas, developing countries…etc), Evidence Based Medicine (looking at past procedures, treatments and outcomes…etc), Professional and Personal Development and Basic Science and Clinical Skills. They told us how lots of people think that medicine is just about knowing your basic science and clinical skills (which they say IS very important), but that the other areas of medicine are just as important.
After school, I went over to Broadway shopping mall to get a few groceries and things- and I ran into my friend Charlie (from Sudbury). He is still looking for a place to live and he says it is just impossible. He had written off the village last week (where I’m living), but decided that he’d take a look today since he is getting pretty desperate. There are still some studio apartments available in my complex, but they don’t have kitchens, so I’m not sure if Charlie will take one or not.
When I got home from school, Brent’s Australian friend, Alphabet, called me. He is the head of the Rescue and Lifesaving Program in Northern Sydney and was one of the people who wrote Brent a letter to help with his visa. Alphabet gave me all is contact info and told me to call him anytime if I ever needed anything! He says he is going to call me every few weeks to check up on me too. He was really really nice!
I have to take a few of my earrings out for tomorrow since it is our first day at the hospital. They told us that older patients (especially) don’t want to see tattoos or too may earrings…etc. on their doctors.
I’m going to try to get to bed early tonight since it is going to be a VERY long day tomorrow.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Today was the first day of school. For the most part it was pretty boring, but still exciting cause it was the first day! We had to sit through a lot of boring lectures that were a little repetitive and had welcomes from practically every faculty member at the university (or so it seemed). It was raining quite hard all day and fairly cold- not quite what I pictured the weather to be on my first day. We got lots of free food today- morning tea and muffins, mystery meat sausages for lunch, and then wine, beer, champagne, orange juice and hors d’ouerves when the day was over. I got a lot of free stuff by signing up for medical insurance stuff at booths set up around the lecture theatre.
Graffiti Lane on campus- Sadiq and Len.
I met a few Australians today, one guy from China and one from the UK. My group of friends still kinda stuck together though. After the wine and snacks four of us walked over to the mall and I bought a webcam and a few groceries. Stopped at Stuart’s rez on the way home to hang out with the other Canadians and then came home to set up my webcam. It is pretty neat! I’m very tired now- I haven’t had a full day like this in a while!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
I went to Ikea today with Sabiha. We took the bus and the train there and it took us about two hours (even though I think it should have been a 45 minute trip). I’m not sure Sabiha knew where she was taking us- but I can’t really blame her since I didn’t make a huge effort to figure it out either. Anyway, I got a lot of things there and I’m feeling much better about my apartment now. I got 4 lamps, a bedside table, some dishes, cutlery, a cutting board, a laundry basket, a garbage can and some cheap picture frames to put pictures of all of you up! (It is hot and humid here, so my pictures were starting to curl already!! I needed some frames.) I still need a few more little things that were out of stock, but I’ll head back another time. We took a cab home from Ikea (about $30 split in 2) so that we wouldn’t have to pay for a delivery.
In the evening we went for some free pizza and pop at the restaurant in our complex. It was pretty yummy, but didn’t really meet any new people there or anything.
I spent a few hours in the evening putting together my Ikea stuff and talking to Brent. Brent got a webcam that we can use over skype now and it is so amazing. It was so good to be able to see him. I think I’ll try to get one in the next few days as well.
Tomorrow is my first day of school and I’m actually pretty excited. I don’t think I’ve been excited for my first day of school since, maybe, Grade 5.
In the evening we went for some free pizza and pop at the restaurant in our complex. It was pretty yummy, but didn’t really meet any new people there or anything.
I spent a few hours in the evening putting together my Ikea stuff and talking to Brent. Brent got a webcam that we can use over skype now and it is so amazing. It was so good to be able to see him. I think I’ll try to get one in the next few days as well.
Tomorrow is my first day of school and I’m actually pretty excited. I don’t think I’ve been excited for my first day of school since, maybe, Grade 5.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
I met Len and Sadiq at the Edward Ford Building this morning at 11:30am. When I left my rez to meet them, it was grey outside, but not raining or anything. Of course, as soon as I started walking, it started raining and I was soaked by the time I got there. I ended up taking off my flip flops and walking barefoot most of the way since my flip flops were so wet and slippery. We waited inside the building for about 5 minutes until the sun came out again. Bad timing, I guess.
Len and Sadiq showed me around the campus a bit since they both had been here longer than me. I saw the squash courts, the student union building, graffiti lane, the quadrangle, the fisher library (which is the largest library in the southern hemisphere), and Victoria park where there is an outdoor 50 m pool.
From there we walked towards downtown and met Brooke at Central station. We found her surprisingly easily and then headed towards china town and paddy’s market to try the cheap shopping first. There was tons of stuff there, but nothing very suitable for a hospital. Brooke bought a bathing suit and we tried on LOTS of wigs. There are wig stores everywhere here… so weird!
Brooke and I talked for a while today and I found out she has done some pretty interesting things. She graduated from McGill in 2005 as well and has been living in Africa (Uganda mostly) ever since. She was there traveling first and then ended up staying to do HIV/AIDS research. It sounds like she really enjoyed the work, but experienced a lot of bad things while she was there. Here are a few of them:
-She has had malaria.
-She was missing/lost for 4 days in rural Africa camping in a tent on her own.
-She was in a huge bus/car accident on some dangerous road where over 30 people on the same bus as her died. She was one of 3 people who survived because she was wearing her seatbelt. Her bus crashed head on with another vehicle, flipped over and she was left hanging upside down in the bus. When she got herself out, she saw the local villagers who she thought were coming to help, but they came, stole everyone’s stuff and left. I assume they eventually got rescued.
Brooke trying on some sunglasses.
-She was also robbed several times, but one time was particularly bad. When she was on the train in Zimbabwe, a group of men broke into her cabin, stabbed her friend, beat her up and stole all their stuff.
(Brooke’s family doesn’t know about all those bad things- so if you happen to be talking to her parents at our graduation or something- don’t mention it. )
Anyway, back to our day. We walked towards town hall to a store called David Jones and Len took us to an Oyster bar that he had been to a few weeks ago. We sat around a really nice bar and had a really good meal. It was the first time I tried raw oysters. They were so slimy, but I guess they were ok. I also had the best pad thai ever. We stayed there talking for a very long time.
After our late lunch Brooke and I went looking for some casual business clothes. We started in David Jones since we heard it was nice, but figured out quite quickly it wasn’t our kind of store. The first pair of shoes that I picked up were only $1050 taxes included. The rest of our shopping trip wasn’t particularly successful but we did pick up a few little things.
This is Sabiha (in dentistry).I got back to my studio at about 8pm and talked to Brent for a while. At around 10pm Len and Sadiq came by the rez and Sabiha and I walked around Newtown with them. We got some really good gelato and then came back to the picnic tables by our rez to talk for a while.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Today was another pretty good day. I woke up late since I was up so late last night. Talked to Brent, had a shower and then headed down to the campus to meet up with Janice, Sadiq and Len. We took the bus down to Town Hall and then walked over to Darling Harbour. We met Sabiha, Brooke and Bryan (a 1st year too) at the Aquarium. It cost about $20 to go through the aquarium (and that was with a discount coupon and student card!). I’m not really sure it was worth it. It was nice, but it wasn’t very big, and is very very old. I’ve definitely been to better aquariums and I’m sure that Sydney has much more to offer to those visiting!
After the aquarium, the 7 of us had a beer and some snacks at a restaurant on the water. Then we walked through the city and the Rocks (an old kind of residential area) over to Sydney Harbour. I was on the phone to Brent just as I rounded the corner and saw the Sydney opera house and Harbour bridge for my first time. It was amazing. We stayed there for a few hours and I’m sure I’ll be back there a lot.
We walked around for a while and then decided to get some fish and chips and go sit in a park by the harbour (with a giant screen TV playing cricket). Australia and England were playing so there were lots of people in the park watching.
I found out that the Bryan I met today used to swim for Waterloo. He’s an engineer and has been working for the past 7 years to fund his medical education. Pretty impressive! Although, looking at him, you would not think he was a swimmer, an engineer or a medical student. He is covered in tattoos, he smokes, he is chubby and he has a huge beard… he he he! But it is all very deceiving I guess!
This is Brooke and Bryan- two more first year meds- trying on sunglasses at the Aquarium.
Anyway, we all got home at around 9pm tonight and decided not to go out. We were walking around for about 8 hours today and the sun is very hot. Us Canadians are not used to this weather at this time of year! He he he. Not that I’m complaining.
Tomorrow I am meeting Brooke downtown to go shopping. I REALLY don’t feel like shopping right now, but we have to buy some clothes for our clinicals. They told us that now that we are in school to be doctors that we are expected to start acting like them and dressing like them. They said it isn’t going to happen overnight, but that we have to start now. I didn’t think doctors were that different from us!?!?!
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Today was a pretty good day. I woke up at around 8am and got to talk to Brent for a little while (he was at work). At about 10am I headed over to register in the Edward Ford Medical Building on campus. There was a big line to register, but when I got there the last person in line was a girl that I talked to a lot while I was at the interview in Vancouver last September. After putting my foot in my mouth, I found out that she actually hadn’t been accepted, but that her new husband had been -so she was there for support. She is also probably going to do teacher’s college here instead. Either way it was nice to see a familiar face.
The registration stuff took a while and they sent us all around the campus to different buildings to get different things done. It was confusing, but a good way to get to know a bit of the campus- and to visit the Great Hall which is part of the old main building on campus. The University is over 150 years old, so you can probably imagine how nice some of the old buildings are.
I went home for some lunch, talked to Jamie for a while and then headed back to the campus for an International Medical Student welcome and basic orientation. The dean talked to us along with several other administrative people. They were helpful and were basically there to welcome us to the profession, I think. They also told us that of the 43 international students in the medical program this year, 32 of them are Canadian (almost all of them from Toronto area and Vancouver area). We all seem to be equally frustrated with the Canadian medical system. (Some of the Canadians were accepted at schools in Canada, but decided on Sydney instead!)
This is Sadiq (“Sweater-vest”) and Len at Sadiq’s rez. They are first year meds too.
At the end of the session they had some food and refreshments for us and had 5 second year students come in to talk to us a little and to answer any questions we had. Since TWO of the second years there happened to be placed at my clinical hospital, my friend Janice (a med student from Toronto who is also at my hospital) and I spent some time asking them lots of questions.
After the session was over, the second year students invited about 10 of us to go one of the local pubs with them. It was called ‘the Alfred’, and was right across the street from the hospital. We stayed there for a very long time and ended up having dinner there too.
After dinner they told us to come to another med school hangout in Newtown, called Marly’s. This was a really nice bar with a bunch of patios and good music. We stayed for one drink and then grabbed some food on King St. and walked to a house full of 2nd year med students. It was a beautiful house worth almost a million dollars!! Don’t ask me how they are affording to live there!!
I found out so much useful information from the 2nd years though. They told us the really dangerous parts of town, the good places to eat, cheap fruit and fish markets, and how to get around the city. They also convinced us that we are placed at the best clinical hospital and they seem to absolutely love it. I’m really happy about that because I was kind of feeling shafted since I was placed at a hospital so far away. I also found out that I do live in a very hip and trendy part of town, although, it is also known to be the lesbian and gay area. I really haven’t noticed, but I’m sometimes oblivious to that kind of stuff if I’m not looking for it.
Unfortunately, the station that is best for me to take to get to my hospital is in a very bad area. There have been stabbings and shootings lately and they tell girls not to go there alone (even during the day). Apparently the aboriginal population here is a big problem and where ever there are lots of aboriginals, they pretty much tell you to avoid. They say that those areas are like pockets of a 3rd world country stuck in a developed city. I’ll get around this probably by finding people to travel with, or by going to station further away (even though it will add about 30 minutes onto my 1.5 hour trip).
Medicine does seem like it is going to be a very exciting profession. They told us today that this day (along with the day we graduate) are the most exciting times of our lives. We are starting a challenging and rewarding career and will hopefully have a profession we will enjoy for the rest of our lives.
This is the med building on the left and part of my walk to school.
Sydney University seems like a really good school to go to also. They are very internationally oriented, over 150 years old and are well respected. Also, in the medical program, we start in the hospitals next week! This kind of early clinical experience is impossible to get in Canada, so it is really exciting that we are getting it here. We will be taking blood by the end of the month!
The main people I met today:
Janice-1st year med student from Toronto and at my clinical hospital. Living on campus in a rez called the International House. Went to Waterloo. We are planning to go to the Aquarium together tomorrow.
Sadiq- 1st year med student from Vancouver. Went to Yale and has been published even though he is only 23. Nice, very well read and very smart. Staying on campus in St. Paul’s college which is a very religious and traditional rez. He has to wear a suit and tie (and a robe) to dinner every night. We have already given him the nickname “Sweater vest” or “Stuart” as in Stuart little who wears a sweater vest.
Len- 1st year med student from Peterborough. He has been here for 3 weeks and has got himself an apartment for a lot of money!!!!! Plus “white wear” (fridges, stoves, washing machines…etc) are not included in rentals here so he has bought himself all that as well. Funny kid though. Has a long term girlfriend in Canada who is planning to come over here in a few months. Len went to Western for his undergrad. Reminds me so much of my friend Mike Landell (from the beach).
Brandon- 2nd year med student. Lived in my same rez last year and is at the same clinical hospital as me. Also runs a volunteer first aid medic thing for students that I think I will join. He is from Vancouver and went to UBC.
Bryan- 2nd year med student. From Seattle and wants to be an emergency doctor. He turned 30 last June, but doesn’t look very old at all. He is also placed at my clinical hospital and loves it there. Both 2nd year students were SO helpful to us! I think Brent and Bryan will be good friends when Brent gets here.
I am on the young side as far as international students go- but apparently all the Australians are very young compared to us.
The registration stuff took a while and they sent us all around the campus to different buildings to get different things done. It was confusing, but a good way to get to know a bit of the campus- and to visit the Great Hall which is part of the old main building on campus. The University is over 150 years old, so you can probably imagine how nice some of the old buildings are.
I went home for some lunch, talked to Jamie for a while and then headed back to the campus for an International Medical Student welcome and basic orientation. The dean talked to us along with several other administrative people. They were helpful and were basically there to welcome us to the profession, I think. They also told us that of the 43 international students in the medical program this year, 32 of them are Canadian (almost all of them from Toronto area and Vancouver area). We all seem to be equally frustrated with the Canadian medical system. (Some of the Canadians were accepted at schools in Canada, but decided on Sydney instead!)
This is Sadiq (“Sweater-vest”) and Len at Sadiq’s rez. They are first year meds too.At the end of the session they had some food and refreshments for us and had 5 second year students come in to talk to us a little and to answer any questions we had. Since TWO of the second years there happened to be placed at my clinical hospital, my friend Janice (a med student from Toronto who is also at my hospital) and I spent some time asking them lots of questions.
After the session was over, the second year students invited about 10 of us to go one of the local pubs with them. It was called ‘the Alfred’, and was right across the street from the hospital. We stayed there for a very long time and ended up having dinner there too.
After dinner they told us to come to another med school hangout in Newtown, called Marly’s. This was a really nice bar with a bunch of patios and good music. We stayed for one drink and then grabbed some food on King St. and walked to a house full of 2nd year med students. It was a beautiful house worth almost a million dollars!! Don’t ask me how they are affording to live there!!
I found out so much useful information from the 2nd years though. They told us the really dangerous parts of town, the good places to eat, cheap fruit and fish markets, and how to get around the city. They also convinced us that we are placed at the best clinical hospital and they seem to absolutely love it. I’m really happy about that because I was kind of feeling shafted since I was placed at a hospital so far away. I also found out that I do live in a very hip and trendy part of town, although, it is also known to be the lesbian and gay area. I really haven’t noticed, but I’m sometimes oblivious to that kind of stuff if I’m not looking for it.
Unfortunately, the station that is best for me to take to get to my hospital is in a very bad area. There have been stabbings and shootings lately and they tell girls not to go there alone (even during the day). Apparently the aboriginal population here is a big problem and where ever there are lots of aboriginals, they pretty much tell you to avoid. They say that those areas are like pockets of a 3rd world country stuck in a developed city. I’ll get around this probably by finding people to travel with, or by going to station further away (even though it will add about 30 minutes onto my 1.5 hour trip).
Medicine does seem like it is going to be a very exciting profession. They told us today that this day (along with the day we graduate) are the most exciting times of our lives. We are starting a challenging and rewarding career and will hopefully have a profession we will enjoy for the rest of our lives.
This is the med building on the left and part of my walk to school.
Sydney University seems like a really good school to go to also. They are very internationally oriented, over 150 years old and are well respected. Also, in the medical program, we start in the hospitals next week! This kind of early clinical experience is impossible to get in Canada, so it is really exciting that we are getting it here. We will be taking blood by the end of the month!
The main people I met today:
Janice-1st year med student from Toronto and at my clinical hospital. Living on campus in a rez called the International House. Went to Waterloo. We are planning to go to the Aquarium together tomorrow.
Sadiq- 1st year med student from Vancouver. Went to Yale and has been published even though he is only 23. Nice, very well read and very smart. Staying on campus in St. Paul’s college which is a very religious and traditional rez. He has to wear a suit and tie (and a robe) to dinner every night. We have already given him the nickname “Sweater vest” or “Stuart” as in Stuart little who wears a sweater vest.
Len- 1st year med student from Peterborough. He has been here for 3 weeks and has got himself an apartment for a lot of money!!!!! Plus “white wear” (fridges, stoves, washing machines…etc) are not included in rentals here so he has bought himself all that as well. Funny kid though. Has a long term girlfriend in Canada who is planning to come over here in a few months. Len went to Western for his undergrad. Reminds me so much of my friend Mike Landell (from the beach).
Brandon- 2nd year med student. Lived in my same rez last year and is at the same clinical hospital as me. Also runs a volunteer first aid medic thing for students that I think I will join. He is from Vancouver and went to UBC.
Bryan- 2nd year med student. From Seattle and wants to be an emergency doctor. He turned 30 last June, but doesn’t look very old at all. He is also placed at my clinical hospital and loves it there. Both 2nd year students were SO helpful to us! I think Brent and Bryan will be good friends when Brent gets here.
I am on the young side as far as international students go- but apparently all the Australians are very young compared to us.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
I woke up at about 4am Sydney time today because of my jetlag (I assume). It actually ended up working out well though since I was able to make some phone calls to Canada at a reasonable time there!
At about 10am I went to an international student orientation with Sabiha (the dentistry girl). It was a pretty useful session because I met a handful of other Canadian medical students and we were given lots on information on living in Sydney (such as banking info, places to go and not to go, avoiding deadly spiders and snakes and to make sure to swim between the flags at the beach). It turns out that one of the other Canadian medical students was my lab partner at McGill in my 4th year.
I managed to get a lot done in the afternoon. Sabiha and I took the bus (which is SO expensive) downtown and explored china town for a bit. We did some cell phone research, opened bank accounts and I picked up some necessities like an alarm clock, some hangers, some cleaning supplies and some snacks.
I was very sad to hear that Brent’s 2nd application for his visa was denied today. We were obviously hoping that he would be coming soon, so this is going to delay things even longer. There are still some other options- but now he might not be here for a few months. I’m trying to stay as positive as possible, but sometimes it gets hard!
I miss you all. Wish you were here.
At about 10am I went to an international student orientation with Sabiha (the dentistry girl). It was a pretty useful session because I met a handful of other Canadian medical students and we were given lots on information on living in Sydney (such as banking info, places to go and not to go, avoiding deadly spiders and snakes and to make sure to swim between the flags at the beach). It turns out that one of the other Canadian medical students was my lab partner at McGill in my 4th year.
I managed to get a lot done in the afternoon. Sabiha and I took the bus (which is SO expensive) downtown and explored china town for a bit. We did some cell phone research, opened bank accounts and I picked up some necessities like an alarm clock, some hangers, some cleaning supplies and some snacks.
I was very sad to hear that Brent’s 2nd application for his visa was denied today. We were obviously hoping that he would be coming soon, so this is going to delay things even longer. There are still some other options- but now he might not be here for a few months. I’m trying to stay as positive as possible, but sometimes it gets hard!
I miss you all. Wish you were here.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Just writing to let you know that I’ve made it to Sydney! The trip was so long and I had bad luck with a few little things, but I survived! J I wasn’t very impressed with the Sydney airport, but otherwise things have been ok. The customs lines there were longer than I’ve ever seen!! It took me about an hour just to get through to the baggage claim. After that, I had to wait in another line to declare some chocolate mini eggs that I had with me. Nothing was moving fast- that’s for sure. Getting a shuttle to my apartment was also a little bit of a wild goose chase- but a couple hours later I made it to the university with my 175 pounds of luggage.
Since I’ve been here, things have been pretty good. I met a girl from Vancouver in the same building as me who is here to start dentistry. She’s been here since Friday so seems to know a little bit about what’s going on. She’s been really helpful so I’m thankful to have her around!
Yesterday we walked around the campus a little (which is HUGE, but very pretty). We also went for dinner at a little Italian place (bring your own booze) on a really neat street close by. I’m living in an area of Sydney called Newtown which seems to be a really popular and trendy place. There always seems to be lots going on. It almost feels like a warm, english Montreal.
My studio apartment is also a lot nicer than I was expecting. (But I guess after Molson Hall at McGill, anything would seem nice!) I somehow ended up with a wheelchair accessible apartment on the 5th floor of the building. It is really spacious, though, and my bathroom is huge (plus there is a seat in the shower!!). I will send pictures once I am a little more settled in. My view out my window looks onto a small street, some trees, and the campus, with the downtown skyline in the distance.
Since I’ve been here, things have been pretty good. I met a girl from Vancouver in the same building as me who is here to start dentistry. She’s been here since Friday so seems to know a little bit about what’s going on. She’s been really helpful so I’m thankful to have her around!
Yesterday we walked around the campus a little (which is HUGE, but very pretty). We also went for dinner at a little Italian place (bring your own booze) on a really neat street close by. I’m living in an area of Sydney called Newtown which seems to be a really popular and trendy place. There always seems to be lots going on. It almost feels like a warm, english Montreal.
My studio apartment is also a lot nicer than I was expecting. (But I guess after Molson Hall at McGill, anything would seem nice!) I somehow ended up with a wheelchair accessible apartment on the 5th floor of the building. It is really spacious, though, and my bathroom is huge (plus there is a seat in the shower!!). I will send pictures once I am a little more settled in. My view out my window looks onto a small street, some trees, and the campus, with the downtown skyline in the distance.
And mom is still at home working on Brent’s visa. So hopefully it won’t be long before he’s here too!
My address here is
Jocelin Desjardins
c/o Sydney University Village- room 2507
90 Carillon Avenue
Newtown, NSW
2042
Australia
And my phone number here is 61 02 9036 4207. If you ever want to call me :). I have skype on the computer (which is free to talk if you get it too!). Also if you buy a calling card for $20, you get over 900 minutes of calling to Australia.
My address here is
Jocelin Desjardins
c/o Sydney University Village- room 2507
90 Carillon Avenue
Newtown, NSW
2042
Australia
And my phone number here is 61 02 9036 4207. If you ever want to call me :). I have skype on the computer (which is free to talk if you get it too!). Also if you buy a calling card for $20, you get over 900 minutes of calling to Australia.
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