I'm in situ at Warwick Medical School and have been told, along with my coursemates, that we are now proto-professions. So that means I've got to behave and act like a pillar of the community. That is hard seeings as I thought I had another few years of not acting like a pillar of the community.
I am quite concerned about the fact that I have so far completed only 3 days of med school and am already exhausted. I'm hoping it's due to the fact that I haven't stopped since moving in on Sunday. For a few days before I moved down here I wasn't sleeping well. I think this was due to nerves about such a huge impending change.
I arrived at the Halls of Residence at about 3pm on Sunday and started to unpack. There was stuff everywhere and I didn't really know what to do with any of it. It is kind of sorted now except for the wok which is room sharing with me due to a bit of a lack of space issue in the kitchen. I guess with a bit of lateral thinking it will join it's other cooking implement friends in due course.
After I'd strewn my belongings around the flat it was time to head to the welcome BBQ for this year's cohort. Only, as it wasn't BBQ weather, it was more of a case of some microwaved sausages in a sports pavillion. It was nice though, the atmosphere was great and everyone was quickly talking and laughing with each other. Not quickly talking, as talking quickly, but quickly getting on with each other I mean. Kind of thing. Later on we headed onto the pub on the campus to meet our second year 'Mums and Dads' who are going to be our mentors for a while and occasionally cook for us and buy us drinks. The important things like that. All in all it was a fun evening and great to meet new friends.
Monday and Tuesday were packed with the usual admin type lectures. You know, the IT services lecture conducted in obligatory monotone amongst other delights.
Last night there was a pub quiz and although we should have won we didn't. So that was the end of that really.
Our lectures today were more of the sort of thing we are going to expect over the next 18 months and included intros to anatomy, histo (supposedly my forte, having impressed the lecturing pathologist on my answer on why we do frozen sections) and communication skills.
Today was the first proper go we had at working in our study groups and it went pretty well. It was a bit daunting at first but it's nice to be able to mix lectures with active discussion and tasks.
The rest of the week is going to be in pretty much the same form. The pace really is hectic I think I'm really going to have to have my finger on the pulse (boom tish) to keep up,as is everyone. I'm pretty sure there's going to be some great laughs along the way though and the staff and facilities are excellent so I think we are all in for a great time here.
Tomorrow night's tomfoolery is a night out on the tiles called Dr and Nurses Night. This involves cross dressing (mainly lots of guys dressing as nurses) and hitting a nightclub in Coventry. It all sounds a little surreal. It always worries me also when an establishment has some deviant spelling going on in the name as it's never usually the sign of a prestigious establishment. Anyway, I'm sure it'll all be very funny.
Looking forward to popping back up north to spend some time at home. This week has been a bit full on but next week I should be able to get into some routine and get things a bit more sorted.
Over and out
NLO
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Here I go again on my own
Just a quick post today. I spent most of the day thinking about packing, procrastinating, making a tentative attempt at packing, then being distracted. I think I finally got most of it done about an hour ago. Hmph. I hate packing.
Well, this time tomorrow I will be in situ at University of Warwick. I'm heading down around 11.30am and moving into Halls before then meeting my new coursemates at a welcome BBQ and going to the local pub to meet our 'Mums and Dads'. This confuses me, I'm pretty sure I've known mine for nearly 26 years. What it is, we get assigned to someone in the 2nd year who will be a point of contact for us for a while. I'm hoping mine will tell me how to pass the exams. And they allegedly cook a meal for us. Sounds good to me :o)
I'm pretty tired now. I'm feeling kind of nervous at the moment about the move and everything but excited aswell. I'll try to update the blog during the week as and when I get time. This week is full of lectures (as it will be from hereonin) and there's a lot of stuff that's been organised by the Med Soc, with pub quizes, pub crawls and other various forms of pub based recreation happening through the week. I've been informed that the highlight of the week is going to be Dr and Nurses Night on Thursday which involves lots of men cross-dressing as nurses.
More about that later.
Over and out
NLO
Well, this time tomorrow I will be in situ at University of Warwick. I'm heading down around 11.30am and moving into Halls before then meeting my new coursemates at a welcome BBQ and going to the local pub to meet our 'Mums and Dads'. This confuses me, I'm pretty sure I've known mine for nearly 26 years. What it is, we get assigned to someone in the 2nd year who will be a point of contact for us for a while. I'm hoping mine will tell me how to pass the exams. And they allegedly cook a meal for us. Sounds good to me :o)
I'm pretty tired now. I'm feeling kind of nervous at the moment about the move and everything but excited aswell. I'll try to update the blog during the week as and when I get time. This week is full of lectures (as it will be from hereonin) and there's a lot of stuff that's been organised by the Med Soc, with pub quizes, pub crawls and other various forms of pub based recreation happening through the week. I've been informed that the highlight of the week is going to be Dr and Nurses Night on Thursday which involves lots of men cross-dressing as nurses.
More about that later.
Over and out
NLO
Friday, 5 September 2008
Play that funky mu-zak... on second thoughts, don't.
Today I'm going to talk about the music that we have to endure when being put on hold.
Yesterday I had to phone up the council with a query regarding my council tax. I don't like having to make phone calls at the best of times but this was one call I was dreading. It was just a straight forward question I had, nothing too complicated to sort out so that wasn't why I'd developed a nervous twitch. It was down to this reason alone - I knew the torture that the council had lined up for me for having the audacity to trouble them.
The fact is this. Being put on hold is bad enough. Frustrating - check. Boring - check. No scratch that, I mean mindnumbing - check. Nowadays I usually make sure I'm logged onto the internet when I know I have to make a call like that so at least I can do something useful, for example, blog about how bored I am being put on hold. However, the first time I ever phoned up the council I didn't expect the racket that they put on for me to listen to, presumably to keep me entertained. I think it can only be described as being sort of an emsemble of reception class age children trying (and failing) to sing and clap both harmoniously and in time and thus achieving neither. I can sort of see how this could be considered endearing but not when a 'genuine' brass section, courtesy of a Casio keyboard from the 80s accompanies it. And just incase you don't appreciate it the first time, they have it on a loop. So your hopes of the song changing to something more tolerable in a little while are dashed.
I am pretty sure that the council tax phone lines can't always happen to be engaged for around 10 minutes each time someone phones, but it certainly seems to be the case in this instance. This leads me to wonder if the staff know how bad the hold music is and, for their amusement, keep you hanging on for a token length of time. Then by the time they respond you either - a) forget why you have phoned in the first place b) are covering your ears to block out the music but don't hear the person talking to you on the other end of the phone who then hangs up on you or c) have lapsed into some sort of coma. My other theory is that they just pick something awful for you to listen to with the hope it's going to put you off phoning in the first place.
This all leads me to the important question - where the hell do they find this tosh to inflict on us in the first place? Do they employ some kind of 'hold music scout' to seek out the most dreadful noise to delight us all with? Are there special recording studio facilities where people who are desperate to get their big break go to in the meantime to earn a crust by deafening the poor unsuspecting consumer? Answers on a postcard to the usual address please.
Over and out
NLO
PS - Very soon you will be getting some actual, genuine , real-life insight into what life as a medical student is like. That's right folks, on Sunday I'm moving down to Warwick and Monday will be my first day on the long path to finally becoming a doctor. Help us all.
Yesterday I had to phone up the council with a query regarding my council tax. I don't like having to make phone calls at the best of times but this was one call I was dreading. It was just a straight forward question I had, nothing too complicated to sort out so that wasn't why I'd developed a nervous twitch. It was down to this reason alone - I knew the torture that the council had lined up for me for having the audacity to trouble them.
The fact is this. Being put on hold is bad enough. Frustrating - check. Boring - check. No scratch that, I mean mindnumbing - check. Nowadays I usually make sure I'm logged onto the internet when I know I have to make a call like that so at least I can do something useful, for example, blog about how bored I am being put on hold. However, the first time I ever phoned up the council I didn't expect the racket that they put on for me to listen to, presumably to keep me entertained. I think it can only be described as being sort of an emsemble of reception class age children trying (and failing) to sing and clap both harmoniously and in time and thus achieving neither. I can sort of see how this could be considered endearing but not when a 'genuine' brass section, courtesy of a Casio keyboard from the 80s accompanies it. And just incase you don't appreciate it the first time, they have it on a loop. So your hopes of the song changing to something more tolerable in a little while are dashed.
I am pretty sure that the council tax phone lines can't always happen to be engaged for around 10 minutes each time someone phones, but it certainly seems to be the case in this instance. This leads me to wonder if the staff know how bad the hold music is and, for their amusement, keep you hanging on for a token length of time. Then by the time they respond you either - a) forget why you have phoned in the first place b) are covering your ears to block out the music but don't hear the person talking to you on the other end of the phone who then hangs up on you or c) have lapsed into some sort of coma. My other theory is that they just pick something awful for you to listen to with the hope it's going to put you off phoning in the first place.
This all leads me to the important question - where the hell do they find this tosh to inflict on us in the first place? Do they employ some kind of 'hold music scout' to seek out the most dreadful noise to delight us all with? Are there special recording studio facilities where people who are desperate to get their big break go to in the meantime to earn a crust by deafening the poor unsuspecting consumer? Answers on a postcard to the usual address please.
Over and out
NLO
PS - Very soon you will be getting some actual, genuine , real-life insight into what life as a medical student is like. That's right folks, on Sunday I'm moving down to Warwick and Monday will be my first day on the long path to finally becoming a doctor. Help us all.
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