Hockey NAMS and EXAMS

Space Invaders from ‘The Car’

This is me goal tending – not much action, so a bit of a dance going on for the crowd.

This is Bristol 1 (pink&black) and Bristol 2 (just black)

This is Ellie taking a shot, and us meeting up with Leister during a break during the Plate final match.

Tuesday, 02 May 2006

Hey,

Wow, so it’s been almost a month since my last post. But, basically I had been revising for my exams last week. I got home from Switzerland on April 6th, took that day, and April 7th off, then basically studied every day until my first exam last Monday on April 24th. It was absolutely exhausting. I had one exam on Monday (nutrition/biochem/genetics) that covered everything from October to December plus 2 biochem units this term. Then on Tuesday I wrote and exam on Immunology, Oncology and Pharmacology. We were kindly given Wednesday off to revise for our 2 exams on Thursday, one covering the sociology/ethics/whole person care part of medicine and in the afternoon a whole exam on epidemiology. This then rounded off with two exam on Friday morning, Anatomy on the whole year and histology on the whole year. That’s why I had been studying for the three weeks since returning from Switzerland.

During the break, I did manage: a trip to the Clifton Suspension Bridge to see the new lights put on and the awesome fireworks display on April 8th. This was to honour of Isambard Brunel’s 200th birthday (the same day as my brother John’s). He was the guy who designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge which spans the Avon Gorge in Bristol, Paddington Station (London), Temple Meads Station (Bristol), the S.S.GreatBritain, and much more. He was basically one of Britain’s famous 19th century engineers. There’s even a University named for him – and he also did a lot for Bristol. I also got out the night before Easter and had a few drinks with some other medics studying here, and watched some Rugby. Went out for curry on Easter and also saw a movie over the holday’s. So I did get away from the books every now and then.

As for how they went. They went okay. The hard one’s went better than I thought because I studied so hard for them, but the easy ones went not so good, because I didn’t study as much. I’ll be getting my marks for the year at the end of May, so I’ll let you know. It’s amazing too, I read a quote in one of my ethics readings about medical students. It basically said how before medical school people worry about not achieving, and upon getting to school all they worry about is failure. That really seemed to sum up these exams, because that’s all I seemed to worry about!

This weekend though was great. I headed back up to Newcastle for a Field Hockey tournament. I didn’t get to see our family friends there because there was no free time from the tournament. Basically, we left right after all the first year’s finished their exams. It’s called NAMS Hockey for the National Association of Medical Schools. So it was hockey teams from all the medical school’s in the UK that had one or more hockey teams and could make it. These included Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leicester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Peninsula, Sheffield, Southhampton, Warwick and of course, Newcastle.

It was loads of fun, except for the fact that I hadn’t slept all week and was faced with two full days of playing hockey. Newcastle organized a great night out when we got there. Everyone was there in Fancy Dress the English term for putting on costumes. We went as ‘Space Invaders’ – so as you can see from the pics, I was painted green, with pink hard, head boppers, green tights and black underwears. Other schools had such things as construction workers, lifeguards, black-tie, etc. It was good fun.

The next day, after about 4 hours of sleep and a slight hang over we all got up and headed for the tournament. It was just outside Newcastle. We brought 2 teams, Bristol 1 and Bristol 2. We both played 3 games. I was on Bristol 1, we played fairly well, for our state, I think we lost 2 game 1-0 and tied one. The other Bristol team did much better that day. We did play well though. I basically stood there for 2 of the three games on the Saturday. The 2 goals were both scored on breakaways. Then, on Sunday the teams were all ranked into a Cup (the A teams), a Plate (the B teams) and a Spoon (the C teams). Both our teams were in the Plate championships. Here we got to the finals. But first got to play Bristol 2 in the semi-finals, which was awesome getting to play people from your own team (we just split into 2 for the tournament). Bristol 1’s won (that’s my team), but we lost to Leicester in the finals 2-0, sadly. It was a great game and there’s a pic of us in the middle of the pitch having a conversation while the refs left to deal with some locals who were disrupting the tournament.

All in all the weekend was load of fun. The Saturday night was also another great night out with the hockey team in Newcastle. We were brought out for a curry and a night out of drinking and we wore just jeans and our social shirts – no green paint/tights! On the way home from Newcastle (which we departed at 6:20 pm), we stopped off in the town of Rugby and had a home made curry, courtesy of my friend Ash’s mom. It was awesome! Just a great way to end off the weekend (a little spicy though). We arrived back in Bristol at about 1:30pm (you can see why I flew last time).

This week, we’re starting the 2nd year basically. It’s studying systems. We’re doing cardiovascular now, as well as musculoskeletal. We’re also doing resuscitation training – which I’m guessing is learning Artificial Respiration, etc like what you’d do in a first-aid course. Also, Wednesday is a sports-club dinner for all the medic’s sports, so it’ll be a great night out, followed by my 23rd birthday on MAY 4th! Due to possible drinking on the 3rd we’ll be playing some baseball on the downs after dinner and just going to the pub. Friday will be the last Wills Formal of the year.

Also this month; Wills is running a champagne cruise up the Avon. And I’m also hoping to get up to London to see BodyWorlds, the new anatomy exhibit that’s supposed to be amazing.

Hope all is well, and the weather here is getting more and more stunning everyday. People are out on the down’s playing football, having BBQ’s and enjoying their last bit of sunlight before exams! (everyone else’s exams start at the end of May).

Have a Happy Birthday Mom, on the 4th!

-Pete

This is the team just dressed in costure before leaving Bristol.

This is me, Joe and Vicki at the curry place (I got a bit of sun this weekend) and us at the bar in costume.

This is our Bristol vs. Bristol semi-final match (i’m not in this pic)

This is us at the bus stop and on the bus, on the way to downtown Newcastle for the NAMS party.