‘Sup With Pete

A picture of me at the ‘Mums and Dad’s Casino Night,’ it was a BLACK TIE event, so I borrowed a friend’s bowtie to wear with my suit.

Monday, October 24, 2005.

Hello,

It’s been a long weekend for me! But, loads of fun as usual. Friday is one of my longest days of the week – so I was in Anatomy lab until 4:50 pm. On the way home I had to stop in at the Grocery Store to get some wine for the formal (formal dinners are every Friday night, and you’re allowed to bring in a bottle of wine). After finishing our dinners, we headed down to the hall bar, and then out to “Wedgies” a huge local club – busy on Friday nights, cheesy music so everyone can sing along while they dance.

I managed to keep myself up until about 2pm . . . not normally a big deal, but I had to be up Saturday morning at 6am to go to Birmingham with the medics sports teams. Birmingham had us up for a little tournament in all sports. I am playing on both medics hockey (field hockey) and medics rugby. Got there around 10am – to play our game at 10:30. I am the team’s goalie, so I’m all padded up kinda like an ice hockey goalie, but instead of skates, I get to wear these huge boots over my shoes (kinda look like space boods). In field hockey, the goalie can’t cover the ball, so their main job is just to kick it back out onto the pitch. It was really fun, and they want to keep me on as goalie for the year (I don’t really know how to play field hockey anyways – so it’s fine by me). We ended up losing 4-1, but we played well. I thought I had a lovely photo of my self to post, but it turned out that the guy taking the photo of me in my goalie outfit actually took a movie of me standing there smiling so I can’t post it! We had a really greasy English lunch (sausages, fries, fried beans, beer), and then I went to play Rugby. The rugby team had brought a full team, so I dressed as a sub, and didn’t end up playing. I was glad, I’m still a bit unsure about playing, and so it was nice to not have to worry about getting sacked in the match. Birmingham seemed to have a lot of really big players, and seemed to take the game way more serious than us. We also lost in rugby too. Actually, we lost in every sport except Netball, a women’s sport kinda like basketball, but with no backboard, and no dribbling the ball, only passing (you can’t move with the ball either). In Birmingham, the sports are more serious, b/c the medics there aren’t allowed to play varsity – so all of their teams were way more serious. After Rugby – all the teams went to the medic’s bar in Birmingham, and we had drinks and hung out with the Birmingham medics until about 11pm. We arrived home at about 1pm. A long day. Also, because we’re farther North, when I got up a six, it was still dark, and of course it was dark when I returned at 1pm.

Sunday – I was up bright and early (9:45) to play field hockey, again, in the regular intramural team, at 10:30. I managed to only let in 2 goals, but we ended up in a tie, 2-2. I then came home for Sunday Roast, which is my favourite meal of the week. This week it was lamb, potatoes and gravy, carrots, and cheesy cauliflower, there was a nice rhubarb crisp for dessert. I spent my afternoon, doing homework and playing squash.

Sunday night was the ‘Mum’s and Dad’s Casino Night.’ In Bristol, we’re all put into ‘families.’ Two or more parents in second year, are paired with two or more students from first year. I have a ‘Dad’ and a ‘Mum’ who are second years, and one sister who lives in a different hall (I also have a brother, but know one has heard anything from the guy). It was sort of a get to know your medics family night. We had tons of fun. My family was winning tons of fake money playing blackjack, and so we decided to split our money in half and bet them both – well of course we lost them both, so we retreated from the table, and continued to join the party in the bar. It was a really good time, and it was a ‘black tie’ function, so I borrowed a friend’s black tie – I don’t have a tux shirt, so I just wore it with my plain white shirt. I still looked pretty suave. My medics family was tons of fun, and I had already met them, as they had us to on of their houses last week before the medics pub crawl.

Today was my other long day. I had classes from 9-5, with a 2 hr break from 12-2. I didn’t get back until 8pm though, because there was another meeting to meet my ‘personal tutor.’ It’s a doctor in the community (outside of the university faculty), they’re supposed to be for support and someone to ask questions or help out with any needs. My tutor was very nice, he’s a man in his early 40’s with 3 very young children (1,3,5 yrs). He work in the hospital right by the university in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine. He goes by ‘Mr.’ because apparently in Britain, if you become a surgeon, your become part of some Barber Surgeons of England, and lose your title. It’s apparently very respected, and very old, and the original reasoning was that surgeons do more repairing, and less caring or something like that (to be honest I don’t understand, it’s simply old fashioned, and he’s apparently allowed to call himself Dr if he wishes). He seems really keen to get to know me and the other first year with me, and he’s hoping we’ll come see him at the hospital – and also go out for some drinks sometime.

Well, not much else, light day tomorrow, so I get to sleep in - and lots of time to do my homework.
Later,
-Pete