just spent 3 hours listening to o&g tutorials ... guess the topics were kinda important but doesn't help with the boredom =.= I guess I prefer to study these things alone, heh. Oh well, weekend's ahead, hope I can get some things done then.
February 2012
This morning I tagged along with the Level 3 Neonatal paeds on their ward round. Standing around while listening to people talk stuff you've never heard before wasn't very educational. And it's hard for me to intrude and ask lots of questions when you're in the context of a team of very busy doctors trying to manage some very sick patients. I don't know what kind of educational experience the uni thinks they want me to gain from that but it doesn't seem like it's a very realistic expectation whatever it is. Anyhow I think I'll go off and eat something before this afternoon's O&G tutorials. Weekend's just around the corner, at last.
*throws revives, phoenix downs, defibrillators, 1-ups and zelda fairies at blog*
There, that should do it. Game references aside, this blog HAS been dead. I guess I shoulda made a better effort to keep it going while I was overseas but I guess I was on holiday mode, haha. And holiday mode = super lazy = no posts. It's funny how that works cos as soon as I got back to Auckland I was put into full-on work mode and that was that. I'm not very good at keeping my life in balance as you might have already figured out. I guess this year I want to take my studies more seriously than I have been (isn't that what I said last year? -__-). I wonder how I'll go this year. Hopefully I get to earn money next year $_$. Definitely a good motivation to pass this year, uhoho.
Vancouver was good. I guess the highlight of the city for me was the shopping ^^;. Stuff in NZ is pretty expensive. For example, it's not uncommon to see jeans priced at "2 for $100" and that's their special price. And half the time they don't even have my size (28) and even if they do they don't necessarily fit cos sizes here seem to be bigger for some reason. And not often do NZ shops have the styles I like, either. Not that I'm super fashion conscious but I don't think it's a crime to want to wear stuff you actually like. In Canada and the States it's easy to find jeans for like $25-$30 and even after conversion the prices are still really good. And they actually cater for my size and styles, too ^^. I guess I wouldn't go there just for shopping since the plane ticket there would be $2500-$3000 return, but if you're going there anyway, why not take advantage of the situation? Heh.
At the mall! Whee~
Daiso! And its $2! (not $3.50, what a rip...)
In terms of sight-seeing I don't think I've seen a lot of Vancouver's touristy places. We did go to the aquarium and Gastown (an old-town style area of the city which is pretty much half a tourist trap with Canadian gift shops everywhere) but apart from that we didn't go much elsewhere. Not unless you count Science World but that's mostly for kids so I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to. Catching up with family was nice too I guess, but it didn't seem to be the same as when I was a kid and played with the other kids and got spoiled by all the aunts and uncles.
Gastown. Forgot how it got its name...
Going to Hawaii was a nice experience. I wouldn't say it's the way I would normally spend a holiday since I guess I'm more like an indoors person, heh. Not to mention I would have the funds to afford that kind of holiday in the first place if I were to go on my own. The family time did have some value I suppose since I don't really get to spend time with my parents and even less with my aunt, uncle and grandma. It was nice to be able to see a part of the world you would never really get to see under normal circumstances. Hawaii is very much a tourist place. Especially Oahu. Man, that Waikiki place is such as tourist trap, its so silly. Everyone there is either a tourist or a person working in the tourism industry. And the markets are full of pushy salespeople who keep trying to sell you things you don't want. And when you try and walk away they'll like lower the price by a few dollars and expect you to buy it. Then if you till don't buy from them they act hurt and ask if it's too expensive for you or some shit. There are no supermarkets or anything like that either, so if you're hungry you either pick up some overpriced groceries from these hybrid dairy/tourist shop places called ABC stores which are located at a frequency of one per block (ABC = all blocks covered) or fork out $20 and go to one of the many restaurants there. To be honest, I didn't feel too comfortable there and I don't think my family was either, given we're kinda conservative when it comes to things like food. We went on a lot of tours, visited the cultural museum (they had a NZ section lololol) and Pearl Harbour.
A sea turtle! Now you don't see those in the wild every day.
Pearl Harbour~
Part of Pearl Harbour is still an active military base...
R.I.P. USS Arizona
I liked Kona a lot better. The accommodation was really nice, probably the nicest place I've stayed. And the whole environment was a much more relaxed, even though it's still a touristy place. We rented a car there and drove around for most of our time there. I guess a lot of the scenery did remind me a bit of New Zealand in some ways. A lot of empty space. Lots of beautiful views of the ocean and really spectacular sunsets during the evening. I guess for people who lived in the city for all their lives that kind of change in scenery is something you'll only ever get once in a while. For me, the city is still my place. I can't seem to appreciate nice views and scenery as much as other people do. Perhaps I don't see the value in such temporary experiences. I do like taking photos of stuff though, eheh.
Kona airport! Everything is outdoors. How cool is that? =P
^^
Sunset at Kona
Back to the real world...
I'm currently 4 weeks into my O&G attachment and it's busy as hell. Luckily I got a nice team that's pretty chill and lets us do heaps of stuff but the expectations from the uni are ridiculous. I'm talking about night shifts and weekends in particular (I wouldn't mind if I was being paid but we're NOT - we're PAYING to stay up 12 hours at night and do 24 hours during the weekend. Where's the logic in that?). And the fact that the uni can't get it's act together enough to realise that they scheduled two people to do the same Neopaeds seminar topic and made me do a THIRD seminar one to make up for the topic that got missed cos they fail in organising their shit. And more silly logbooks. Faar. So annoying. Apart from those small gripes I think O&G is actually a pretty nice run. The ward rounds are nice and short which gives you some time to do things in the morning and the clinics are good with lots of patients to see every week (although our team does have a lot of students which limits the learning opportunities somewhat). Unfortunately I do tend to get kicked out of gynae examinations half the time but that's to be expected of humans.
I finished presenting my second seminar and doing this week's web teaching today which is why I'm feeling a little more relaxed about things at the moment, especially with the weekend coming up. I still have that (totally unecessary and stupid) third seminar to get onto and OSCE stuff to prepare, but if I just focus on those over the next 2 weeks I think I'll be able to finish this run comfortably. Ah, I don't know why I chose to start 5th year with the 2 most difficult runs, oh god paeds is next ><
Anyhow I've spent far too much time writing this. I need to really catch up on sleep, gotta go for neonatal intensive care ward round tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading~
About Me
- Lunatarius
- Hi, I'm Jeff! Welcome to my blog, where I share random thoughts and things about my life. Enjoy :)