40 winks

I recently met a few more first years, and it was quite an interesting conversation.

The new lecture halls were opened for use at the beginning of this month, and we were chatting about how amazing it all is. Because, get this, the first years got to move in there. Not the fifth years, or even us second years. No, the littlest of the lot get to use the new facilities first.

So these little first years were complaining about how the seats are just far enough apart that you can’t comfortably lean on your friend’s shoulder- without feeling like you’re about the fall through the cracks, so to speak. “You can’t lie on them because it’s too far. It’s not comfortable to sleep with your head on the desk. I can’t sleep sitting upright! It’s horrible! Pluuus…! The lecturers can see you, and it just seems rude to sleep in front of them. Also the class is really loud…”

On and on they went. Until I responded with a, “You can’t fall asleep in class? You. Will. Learn.”

And it’s true. I feel worn out all the time; chronically exhausted, as I like to call it. Sometimes things get to be a bit much, and a nap in the middle of a particularly boring lecture never hurt anyone. In fact, I wake up feeling pretty good. But then again, I do something those first years have yet to discover…

During the clinical part of our blocks, few people actually turn up for the lectures, so there are plenty of open seats. As my very good friend, Anthea Lakay, likes to say, “Laziness makes you clever.” [A sneaky sort of clever, that is.] My sneaky plan? I lie down across the empty seats, and catch a pretty decent nap. J

We don’t always have time to sleep, especially now that midyears are rolling around. So when you have a few minutes, you [and by you, I mean me] basically pass out. Did I mention you’ll sleep anywhere even remotely comfortable? Every minute of shuteye helps. It truly does.

2014/05/30

What a day

Today was… well, to say insane would be putting it mildly.

This morning, we wrote a one hour Physiology paper on the cardiovascular system. Then my group, the second group that is, would be on lockdown for the following two hours, while group 1 wrote the ECG test in Gergs. I say lockdown because we were pretty much being treated as prisoners: No electronic devices, the noise level had to be kept down and even bathroom breaks were supervised. I kid you not; one of the invigilators accompany you.

That was the plan. But we all know that plans don’t work out the way we want.

Shortly after 12, Prof Paige walks in, asking us not to crucify him- it’s not his fault and he’s mighty upset about it too. Well hell, we thought, what now?

Gergs double-booked. And we had to wait another 2 hours before we could head up and write our ECG test. At that point, it felt too late to study, I was hungry, and went way past angry and straight into I-actually-don’t-give-a territory.

In short, group 2 spent 4 hours on lockdown. All because the Gergs staff didn’t have their admin straight, and they wanted to prevent us from obtaining inside info about the test.

So yeah, all in all, a fantastic day. [Picture me rolling my eyes and then pulling a gag face.]

Lastly, I’d like to wish Mazzie a very happy birthday. Or, as Kayla so aptly put it, “Happy second decade!”

2014/03/24

Close Shave

Not too long ago, I had a chat with a sixteen year old. And oh my, I feel old.

One of her friends walked by and she made the comment that she’d rather he shaved his beard. Curious as ever, I turned around to catch a glimpse of this fella. I kid you not, he was barely rocking stubble.

Needless to say, we argued back and forth about whether males should shave or not. Personally, I reckon a beard increases a male’s handsomeness at least tenfold. She completely disagrees. To be totally honest, I didn’t understand it at first. But then I remembered that, back when I was in grade 10- as she currently is- I felt the same way: Males look better clean-shaven.

Wrong. There’s just something extremely attractive about a male with a beard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking a mile long or unkempt and unruly. I’m talking about a well-groomed, neatly trimmed beard. Decent.

It seems one’s taste and what one perceives as attractive or not, changes as one matures. But perhaps there’s more to it. My closing argument [I swear I felt like an old person] was that she’d understand when she was older. Of course, she denied it. Duh. What was I expecting? My mother readily agreed with me, though that shouldn’t have been news- my dad’s had a beard since… before my time. J But what really surprise me was the fact that her own mother agreed.

I prefer a male with a beard, rather than without it. Quite a few [pretty much all] of my [female] friends agree. Is it just us, or is it a thing? Does one naturally tend toward the more rugged, manly appearance as one grows older? Or are we, and by ‘we’ I mean me, just strange creatures?

I’d love to hear your input on this. Just for interest’s sake. Be sure to comment! J

2014/03/11

Resolve

I’ve finally figured out my New Year’s resolutions. J

Okay, so they’re more like March resolutions for the rest of the year. Buuut the point is I’ve made them.

This year, I resolve to:

©      Read at least of Mark Twain’s works.

©      Get active, get fit, and get those abs I’ve been wishing for.

©      As far as academics go; don’t fail.

©      Play guitar more often, and actually learn new songs.

Yeah, I think that about covers it for now.

I’ve actually gotten off to a great start on all accounts, except the first. I’m hunting for his stuff. Desperately.

Oooh, a quick aside: I broke a personal record this weekend, when I read Divergent, by Veronica Roth, in less than 3 days. Yeah, I am proud of that admission. J

I’m off to another lecture now. Have a great day, y’all!

2014/03/05

This and that

Since the end of my Resp block, many things have happened.

I suppose I should start off by mentioning my end-of-block weekend. Mine was a really chilled. Back when Resp started, we made huge plans to go out and have fun and just not be at home. But when the time came, I kept my plans simple: Play guitar, write, work out, and sleep, sleep, sleep.

Baby 2.0
Photograph taken by myself

While I spent some quality time with Baby 2.0 [I swear he really needs a new name. suggestions may or may not be appreciated- depending on how I feel at the time.], I admittedly wrote less than I’d have liked. I did, however, mange to get in tons of sleep and two solid work outs.

I also spent some time working, where I decided to bust out my Xhosa-speaking skills. Needless to say I was met with many amused and smiling faces. However, there was one woman in particular who insisted in responding in English. Yeah, I needed a moment to recover from that one. >.<

Name badge, Cardio study guide, laptop and phone.
I'm totally prepared.
Psssht, yeah right. >.<

Monday morning we were back at the grindstone once again. Cardio started last week, and let me tell you, it’s been hectic. Between dissections, lectures and more hospital visits, I’m just about worn through. As I mentioned before, going to hospital is amazing, albeit semi-depressing, but lectures are boring. Also, I’d always assumed I’d enjoy dissections, but it’s completely lost its allure. It takes a lot out of you, but it can still be fun. I recall our very first cardio dissection: Chris, Haley [yes, the same Haley from my hospital group], and Ofentse were opening up and unpacking our cadaver, the lovely Mrs Jones. [The name has been changed to protect the identity of the deceased. I’ve always wanted to say something to that effect, although, in all seriousness, we don’t know her real name.] Leendert and I were watching this, while a very unsuspecting Kathleen read the instructions for that day’s dissection. Unsuspecting, you ask. Not two minutes in and both lungs go flying at her. For no particular reason. Of course, I began laughing almost hysterically- out of pure shock. It was as if the lungs just flew at her. In hindsight, it was slightly creepy…

Doctor's coat- I feel legit.
[Yeah, that's Baby in the background.]

Study, study, study.
Fun, fun, fun. >.<

That’s basically what I’ve been up to these past few days. Well, that and studying. >.<

Jadri Conradie, with his adorable nephew.

Today is also Osler’s awesome Primarius’ birthday, so I’d like to wish Jadri Conradie [one of the awesomest- yes, I just said that- males I know] a very happy birthday. Have a great one, buddy. J

Well, folks, I’m afraid that’s all we have time for. Tune in again next week for another episode of *cue dramatic music* Thoughts of a mentally unstable medical student. J

2014/03/04

The girl in the white coat

Apart from that being the blog of a friend of mine [Read Nicole Spence’s blogs at www.thegirlinthewhitecoat.blogspot.com ], it serves as a description of my day.

Today was… pretty incredible. It was the first time I donned my white doctor’s coat and went to hospital. Although we didn’t do anything, it was quite the experience. As I’ve said before, the coat gives one a somewhat perverse sense of power. And, I won’t lie, some people look at your with something close to admiration- not that we’ve done anything in our short lives to deserve it.

We spent an hour with our registrar, Dr Elmo Pretorius, who took us through the general examination. There exists a wealth of knowledge in those who have gone before us, and this was particularly evident today. It seems as though we’ve only been at it for a short time, but to be able to walk into a hospital ward and understand at least part of the medical jargon makes one realize just how much we have learnt.

The MBChB 2018 class was split up into groups of 8 members each, for these hospital sessions. Apart from myself, my group consists of: Stian “Sports and TV are what I like” Nieuwoudt, El-Marie “Animal Lover” Gallant, Firdows “they call me Death Star” Gamieldien, Duval “Oh yeah. I can sing” Geddie, Jacques “I’m a sea person” Geldenhuys, Lee “I only wear Addidas shoes” Murdock, and Haley “I smuggled a hamster into my res room for an entire year” October. That’s how they introduced themselves- I am so serious right now. Well, they didn’t put their one-interesting-thing-about-me fact in between their names and surnames, but I’m sure you get the gist.

Introductions aside, I’m quite happy with my group- peculiar lot that we are. I’m just excited to go back to the hospital and actually do stuff.

P.S. Our patient was a confounding case, and neither Doc Pretorius nor the consultants know what is wrong with her. Yet. But I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted. Well, it is getting late, I’m beat, and I really should be studying for my end-of-block next Friday.

Ciao ciao. And remember to keep monitoring that pulse!

Xoxo

12 February 2014

Vensters 2014

Once again, it has been ages since I’ve last blogged about anything. And not for lack of content either. I’ve been quite busy.

Shortly after my last post, my family and I went away on holiday. Epic as it was, that week should have had an entire blog dedicated to it, but alas. It does not.

Also, in my previous blog, I mentioned that I was anxious for second year to begin. I take that back. Kind of. There is just so much work to be done! By the time the first years started, not only had we been back for 3 weeks, but had already written our pre-clinical test.

But this is about Vensters, the single most looked-forward-to event of first year orientation. They put on street shows all over main campus and, for just R15, one gets access to every single one. It was an incredible night, one that brought back a multitude of memories from my own time performing at Vensters. My friends and I traipsed around the campus, singing and dancing like the unstable characters we are. I saw my cousin Ghaalib briefly, got bulldozed by Laylah [Read her blogs: www.theethrealdeal.com ], and, to my absolute wonderment, ran into an old friend. Suffice it to say I did not expect to see him there, but it was nonetheless fantastic seeing Micky again.

So much went down that night. More than once, we ended up lying in the road, just staring up at the stars, unable to move much. We laughed and laughed at jokes that weren’t even funny. Mohammed and I had an argument [all in good humour], things were said a little too loudly, and Taufeeq and Adam got the wrong idea. We made a point of not explaining it. Have a little fun, they say. J Also, a very happy 20^th birthday to Khalid Mohamed ‘Poppie’ ‘Pops’ ‘Popsicle’ ‘you-have-too-many-nicknames-to-remember’ Pohplonker.

Although I only got home at 2am, and got very little sleep before I had to be up and head off to take care of some business, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. So thank you, to everyone who made Friday night so absolutely epic, whether you were mentioned by name or not. Also, to the rest of the crew, who could unfortunately not make it, we really missed you.

Here’s to a crazy year ahead, and many more awesome nights like this! =) <3

2 February 2014