‘Sup With Pete

Hey - sorry, i’ve been busy with moving back from France to UK, and exams. Will update the site next week with my end of days in Grenoble and trip to Geneva! Hope all is well. -Pete

Me in Marseille - the harbour and the basilica are in the background


The Harbour in Marseille

Fishmarket in Marseille

View of Marseille from Palais de Pharo

Chateau d’If - prison, from the book The Count of Monte Cristo

Frioul Islands, outside Marseille

Ile d’If

Me on Ile d’If

Rue in Marseille

Monday, January 28, 2008

Salut,

It’s already the end of January. I’ve been back in France for 3 weeks, and it seems to have flown by.

I returned on Jan 8th, and immediately started in hospital the following day in ENT (Otorhinolaryngology or EarsNoseThroat). It was a great placement. I met some great French students, got to examine loads of Ears, noses and throats and saw interesting surgery. It was however, brief, 1 week, so I quickly departed my new friends at the end of my first week.

I went skiing at Les Deux Alps that weekend with some friends from medicine and my residence. On the Saturday, it snowed the whole day and whilst we were skiing. It was poor visibility and difficult skiing, but really fun. Most of the time I was knee-deep in snow, and at one point I was even up to my hips, which I have never done before. I did however lose a ski at one point when I fell on a turn. I spend a good 15 minutes digging all around in the snow looking for my stupid ski. Luckily I found it, but I was worried I’d be stuck walking down the mountain that day! The next day, it was beautiful and sunny, but after the exhausting day previously, my thighs were killing me and I took it easy. We spent a good 2 hours lounging around in the lawn chairs they set out in the sun with a chocolat-chaud.

The following past 2 weeks I’ve been in Rheumatology. I honestly expected another boring placement – thinking back to my musculoskeletal unit in 1st year – where we studied complex pathways of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis. But I’ve been surprisingly interested in the whole area of medicine. I’m also in a great firm, the doctors are excellent teachers, the students are very considerate and understanding too. They’re very encouraging and let me do loads of work in the Ward. I’m also lucky that one of the French students did an exchange to Bristol (and loved it) and one of the doctors is Australian, who is amazing at French, but will quickly explain in English if I don’t understand. He is also teaching the French students/doctors a bit of English by putting up English expressions and translating them. Eg – Let’s take this outside … it’s helping my French too. I’m going to be starting my last week there and I’m actually pretty sad to leave next week as it has suited me so well. It’s okay though because all of the French students will be changing placements too, so it won’t stay the same anyway. We all went out for dinner last Wednesday to celebrate our time together – I had Raviole, which the French Students claimed was different from Ravioli, and I had to try it. It was basically Ravioli – but was cooked in cream, and was cheese filled. I had Raviole with Mushrooms and it was absolutely amazing!

Last weekend I went to Marseille for the day with two friend from my residence. It was a bit of a trek to the south coast of France, especially when our train broke down. It was funny though –we left Grenoble at 06:30 and were supposed to change at Valence and arrive in Marseille at 10:45. We were 3 hours late getting into Valence, but they put us on a TGV and we got into Marseille at 10:20. So, even though our 1st train broke down, we made it to Marseille early!

Marseille was awesome. I’ve never seen the Mediterranean before, and it was stunning. I did notice that Marseille was much dirtier; garbage in the streets and weird smells, the buildings were a bit more run down. But down by the water, it was gorgeous. We mostly just walked around and saw sights. The harbour, the city hall, the old fort, the Jardin de Pharo. We also took a boat tour out onto the Mediterranean (I mean, how many chances do you get to go out into the Mediterranean when you don’t live there!). We went out to Chateau d’If. It was made famous by the book ‘The Count of Monte Cristo.’ We walked around the Island for over and hour and went in and saw the prison. It certainly was a prison, but much nicer than I would have expected. Meaning big rooms with fireplaces – but no toilets or view of the ocean. I wouldn’t have liked it – is what I’m saying.

Anyway, we stayed in Marseille until it got dark. Took some pictures of Marseille and night and viewed the city from the Palais de Pharo. We headed back to Grenoble at 8:00pm.

The next day, 4 more medical students came from Bristol. I showed them around Grenoble and have spend most of the week helping them get settled. We’ve also cooked together (as 3 are in my res.) and 3 of us went skiing at Les Deux Alps Saturday. Yesterday we went and hiked up to La Bastille. The old fort that looks over and once protected Grenoble. It was a beautiful hike, and one the the girls made us an awesome picnic complete with olives, French cheese and French bread. So good!

Back to Rheumatology for my last week before starting Cardiology. 5 weeks left!

Hope all is well,
-Peter

Me and Michael in one of the Telecabines at Les Deux Alps - i’m wearing my *new* ski helmet

A Long Flat piste (ski run) at Les Deux Alps

Lounging in the Lawn Chairs during lunch (not the most flattering pic)

Barrels, taken in the caves of our Chartreuse distillery tour

La Bastille - we walked the 2.3km to the top on Sunday

Grenoble at Dusk

View from the Glacier at Les Deux Alps

Me, skiing on a Glacier on Dec 1st!

Us waiting for the tram after the discotheque. You can see there’s smashed class. This is from one of the many many many many many many many………. etc. strikes that happen in france. Riots happen oftern (manifestations) and things get broken. Basically people broke glass at all tram stops in the city that weekend.


I’m hiding behind Laura here. She’s from Finland and we had a party for her before she returned home for Christmas. We all got these “Caramel Brulés” at the Pirate Bar. They fire it up, as well as the bar, and you stick a straw in the middle and down the drink. The alcohol is on fire too, even though the picture doesn’t show it. Don’t worry, it doesn’t burn … too much. I think this is a cool pic.


A piste/mountains at Les Deux Alps - not much snow yet.

Another view from the top, on the glacier. People are going up on a T-Bar. These are everywhere in France, don’t know why they don’t just put in more chair lifts like Canada - maybe Canadians are more lazy, but I still prefer to sit!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Hello,

(this isn’t the most interesting – won’t be upset if you just want to look at pics –Pete)

I am really enjoying being in France at the moment, there’s always things to do and places to see, however there’s medicine to do too, so I haven’t been up to much over the past 2 weekends/weeks, although I’ve been feeling quite busy.

When I say ‘not much,’ I mean 2 weeks ago I just went out and met people / had 2 migraines that week. There are 2 Swedish girls on my floor, and another 6 floors up. They had a ‘Glamour’ party at a bar, which basically meant dressing up all Glittery-like. I didn’t dress up much, but put on a black shirt that got covered in sparkles. It was also another international night, so there were again loads of people there from all over the world. I took lots of pics over the night (none very good though), and through taking my camera in and out of my pockets, my keys must have fallen out, because when I returned home at 2am, my keys weren’t in my pocket! I thought, ‘this has never happened to me before!’ and I’m always so good at checking before I leave the bar. We called our Swedish friends who are on speaking terms with the bar manager who checked the floors after everyone left and luckily found them! They said I was lucky, they don’t usually check for lost keys, but who can turn down 3 tall blond Swedish girls who bring a hundred people to your bar – of course you’ll look for their friend’s keys! Now I keep my Bristol keys on a separated key chain from my Grenoble keys just in case!

Two days later, on Friday, November 23 I headed out with people from my hall to a night organized by the international society. it was a stage show and discotheque. However, we missed the entrance to the show, which was some sort of contemporary dance, and the disco wasn’t very good. We left early. The following day I had a migraine and stayed in, mostly just watched movies – Troy, in French.

Last week I mostly sorted out stuff so that I could go skiing! Yes skiing. I can’t remember if I’ve ever been skiing on December 1st before, but last Saturday and Sunday I went skiing at Les Deux Alps – about 1 hour and a quarter from Grenoble. It started out when I was called into a meeting by the ERASMUS secretary. She told me that I only had health insurance. I responded, “yes – I need that in case I’m hurt in France.” She said yes, but in France you need Civil Insurance in case you hurt someone else. I was confused. Basically she used this analogy – if you put potted plants on your window sill, then they fall on someone, you are liable. As a medical student/person living in France, I, as well as everyone else, need insurance to cover others if I hurt them. Kind of like comprehensive driving insurance.

Back to skiing. Well, my UK bought health insurance doesn’t cover Skiing, luckily this Civil insurance also has professional insurance (ie. in case I do something/ something happens to me at the hospital) and personal insurance – which covers skiing! So I’m covered.

Skiing is quite simple at Grenoble. You pay €30 only for the year. This gets you discount at 3 resorts in the area, and you can buy tickets to travel with the university or you can go on your own. Basically a round day trip to Les Deux Alps with full access to the whole mountain costs you €24.50 which is an amazing deal. Normally the day pass without travel to and from Grenoble would cost you €28.00! The ‘École de Glisse’ also gets you 20% discount at ski rental places. And that gives you skis at €15.00. This is great for ski prices. Anyway – boring number stuff, but I was quite impressed at how cheap they keep it all for students.

I had 2 wonderful days at Les Deux Alps. The first day I went with friends from La Tronche. They weren’t very good (no offense guys), so I didn’t do much of the more challenging stuff. I think if we go again I’ll try snowboarding so we’re all at the same level. The second day was just me and a medic friend. It was sunny, cloudless in the a.m., and we basically went everywhere that was open. Only 33% of the hill was open at this time of year.

As for medicine, I finished my radiology placement – which got a bit boring. Now I’m in Orthopaedics which is awesome! I work on wards sometimes taking ECGs, I’m allowed to help with casting, which I haven’t done yet. I can go into surgeries and I sit in on consultations. I’m trying to do a bit of work in the afternoons too – you know, learning.

Otherwise, keeping busy with swimming, jogging and squash. The French squash instructor has been too nice to me and not told me that I have to pay (I am a non-comprehending anglo-saxon). But the students let me know that there was a €36 membership fee. I can’t play again until I return in Jan, because it’s done for the year, so I’ll pay for my membership when I return. We play at a club, so it’s only free for students on Thursday afternoons.

Well, I’m back to UK in 2 weeks, and Canada 2 days after that for the Holidays. Can’t wait!

-Pete

Me and Dave atop La Bastille - Grenoble in behind.

The hospital i’m in Hôpital du Nord is the big building on the right hand side of the pic. In the upper left quadrant of the picture you can make out my residence, it’s a tall, V-shaped white apartment building.

Place Victor Hugo in Grenoble city centre

Friday, November 9, 2007

Bonjour/Hello,

I’ve just spent my first few days in Grenoble, France. It’s a city in the French Alps, about 2 hours south of Geneva with a population of about 150,000 people. All I can say is that it’s been interesting so far and most of all … French.

Since my arrival here Monday thing have been a bit up in the air with regards to my course and well everything. But after much deliberation, it seems I may be able to get on with my degree here by this coming Tuesday. It’s okay though because it has given me time to adjust, relax, meet people and work on my French.

It all started with Sandrine. She is the lovely secretary that deals with the medical students from all over Europe that have come to Grenoble. She speaks better English than I do French, but sits there patiently when I try to tell her things in my mixed-up-awful-grammar French. The problem was that my first day, was her first day. This is because she has just replaced the old secretary who is on maternity leave. We’ve managed to sort through everything together, and she’s helped me get on track. There’s just this whole problem of everything being so French.

In France you see, everybody seems to love forms and paperwork, sort of do this, go here, bring a photocopy of this, etc. Sometimes you go to so many places you end up back where you started. This happened when I tried to get my lecture schedule. Sandrine sent me to one building, the secretary there made me wait till someone came back, that lady gave me a number to phone, and that women told me to go to Sandrine. They also don’t put everything in one place for you. I have physical to be allowed to go into hospitals, so I have to get the mantoux test for TB at the student health services on campus, then I have to go to the other student health service (15 min on the other side of town by Tram) to see the GP who signs my form.

My residence is a different story. I live in the Residence de la Tronche, it’s a tall white concrete residence that fits into the whole 1960’s concrete megalithic futuristic theme that includes all buildings at the university. I’m on the second floor of about 9 (I’m not sure exactly) and I have an awesome view of mountains, but sadly I’m not near the top, so I don’t get the view of the city as well. It’s about 130euros per month which is extremely cheap, but you get what you pay for. The kitchen for 30 is simply 2 hobs (stove elements) and a sink. There is no toilet paper, or seats – provide your own - and everything is slightly shabby. Even the lights are all on timers (except your room) so that no electricity is wasted. This is a palace though, compared to some of the halls in Grenoble where the toilets are simply holes in the ground (Turkish toilets). But, it’s amazing how quickly you adjust. I’ve got a bed, desk, chairs and tons of storage space. The people are friendly and fun, it’s close to the hospital, my campus and the tram and it’s cheap, so why not!

I am part of Grenoble Universities. I go to U. Joseph Fourier which is about 1 of 6 universities here. They all pretty much run together in the north of Grenoble and is composed of 60,000 students. Making 1/5 people in Grenoble a student. My university is Medicine/Pharmacy/Sciences. The universities are all connected by the tram system and you can get unlimited travel as a student for about 20 euros a month. Also good value. The campus itself is composed of many 1960s styled concrete buildings, as if they were trying to be futuristic, but failed horribly. It is made beautiful however by the 25,000 trees (no joke, a statistic) that dot the campus. The university is so widely spread out that you feel like you’re in a forest-city. No building is within about 20 metres of each other too, making the campus long and sparse. Much different to the compactness of Bristol University.

So what have I been up to? Well, I arrived to the continent from Bristol on Saturday, November 4th. I flew to Geneva as it was the closest to fly to from Bristol and spent the night with the Turvey’s. My brother Dave who is traveling Europe also arrived the same day. We spent the day walking around Geneva, then visited with the Turvey’s that night. They kindly drove us to the train station on Sunday, where we caught the train to Grenoble, about 2 hours south.

We arrived and found a cheap hotel for the night because I couldn’t get into my residence until Monday. Dave and I bought tram passes and toured Grenoble. Found the enormous campus, the hospital, my residence. Then went into grenoble. We did the main tourist attraction in Grenoble with was to take one of the four glass telecabine baubles to the top of La Bastille – an old fort atop a mountain that overlooks the city of Grenoble, originally used for defense since the 1500s. It was a misty day, but it was still beautiful. You were able to see the enormous size of the city and oddly, for a city in the Alps, how truly flat the city of Grenoble is. After reading more statistics Grenoble is in fact the flattest city in France with a difference of only 213m in altitude. We toured la bastille, and then returned to our cheap hotel for some rest and French tv. For dinner, we went to a small French restaurant and had raclette (spelling?) and wine. Raclette is an amazing French meal where you have giant melting piece of Gouda cheese that you scrape onto potatoes, meat, bread, salad and get as much cheese and helpings as you like. We rolled on back to our hotel and watched the movie ‘Kill Bill’ in French before drifting off to sleep. Dave stayed the following day and helped me move in then left Tuesday morning.

Tuesday until today. I’ve just been getting things sorted for living here. Meeting people. Physicals, meeting various directors and secretary’s, buying essential items like shampoo razors, etc that you always seem to forget, food and especially my own toilet paper! My tram pass amazingly was done in one place and took a total of 5 min, I was astonished that I wasn’t send somewhere else.

Last night an Australian guy I met from a few floors about invited me out with some of his friends. We had a few beers at EVE (university bar/student centre) and then went into town to a pirate themed bar. It was pretty cool, it felt like you were in an old wooden boat and there was rum hanging from nets in huge jugs all around the bar of different flavours. They played some French music but loads of English tunes we all know and love.

Grenoble is often so covered in mist and clouds you don’t feel like you’re in the mountains. However on a clear day, you suddenly see the enormous snow-capped mountains that surround the city and you’re reminded of how awesome the Alps really are.

As for the language, everyone’s been quite patient and understanding with me, and if I have a problem they’ll reassure me with a bit of English. So, so far so good, but we’ll see.

-Pete

The Glass baubles on the telecabine to the top of la bastille

Grenoble is built on the Drac and Isère rivers - this is the Isère

This is me, Steph and James - we’re all in 3rd year together, and this is us in our scrubs for the Fresher’s (Frosh) pub crawl. All the clinical years wear scrubs.

A picture of Leigh Court where the World Aids Day ball was held. - A 19th Century Estate near the Suspension Bridge

The Inside of Leigh Court

My housemates and I at our Christmas Dinner last Sunday - in our living/dining room

This is a picture of my room (however it’s a mirror image, and I can’t figure out how to get my webcam to take normal pictures)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Hello,

Wow – I can’t believe it’s the end of another term. I’m coming home this Saturday (Dec 16th) to Brockville. I can’t wait, it’ll be nice to relax, and have some quiet time at home to study for my 2 exams in January, and to see my family and friends at home.

I’ve been fairly busy as usual these past two weeks with events and end of term Christmas parties – also trying to get some work done before I go home as well as getting everything organized.

This past term I’ve been working on this academic year’s pre-clinical revue. The Revue is the play that the 1st and 2nd years put on that makes a bit of fun out of our course and our lecturers. I was acting in it last year, and this year I’m part of the team that’s organizing/writing it. It’ll be fun. We’re getting a good plot – however there’s still lots and lots to go! However, It’s been a bit of hard to fit it in this term and lots of work to do after exams this January because we’ll be starting rehearsals in Feb.

After I finished my clinical week, I decided to do something fun as a bit of a break. So I went to see the musical ‘Cats’ with a friend. I know some of the music from it, mainly from high school, but never actually managed to see it. It was actually playing in Bristol and tickets were very cheap for students to sit up in the top level. The show was very entertaining, and we made a really great pasta meal before we went out.

That weekend, Dec 1st was World Aids Day. 3 of my medical friends organized a Formal Ball to raise money and awareness for AIDS and a certain local charity. So, there were loads of people from my class going to it as well as loads of my friends. I sat at a table with 9 people I lived in Wills Hall with last year. We were greeted with a mulled-wine reception, followed by a buffet, followed by a Ceilidh (barn dance), followed by a DJ. There were also extra things to do like people giving massages, casino, photographers, laughing gas, and more. They even had two celebrities come from a British TV show called ‘Casualty’ (like the show E.R.). It was a great night out with friends and a awesome party! It was held at the Leigh Court Estate. It’s an old estate from the tudor period, however the tudor mansion was knocked down by a rich banker in the 1800s and was re-built with the building above for his family. Now it’s a events centre. The next day we all took a break and watched the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie that come out fairly recently here. I also played some hockey the next day (Sunday) but other than that didn’t do too much.

On Monday I attended a talk on doing an Erasmus Exchange next year. It’s a neat program that’s only offered at certain medical schools in the UK. Basically it’s a European exchange between medical schools. Bristol Medicine does exchanges in France, Spain and Austria (provided you’re proficient in that respective language). I am interested in going to France next year – so I wanted to hear what it was all about. For me there are 5 different schools across France I can apply to and I would be doing a 4-month exchange there. I’ve been taking a French course this year – so we’ve been learning about medicine in France and I’ve been brushing up on my french. It’s something I’m really interested in doing, I think it would be good to have if I come back to Canada to practice medicine, but I’ll discuss it with my family over Christmas.

Last Thursday, December 7th was the medical school Christmas party. It was the same as last year. They rented out a bar and had a choir sing carols by the door where you were given champagne and mince pies. After much socializing there was a band followed by a DJ – a great way to end the year and the term and to hang out with your classmates! Then, on Saturday, I went to the Underwater Society’s Christmas party (scuba club). You see, these parties are a must do – they’re just usually one of the top parties for each club every year. At this party we had a full 3 course Christmas dinner then going to a bar together.

I followed this up by on Sunday, having another Christmas dinner with my housemates. We got the supplies on the weekend, then on the Sunday we cooked a turkey with all the trimmings (roast potatoes, stuffing, peas, carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, gravy, etc), and for dessert we had apple and mince pies with cheese. While we cooked the turkey, some of us went to the student’s carol service at a local church in Clifton. I think there must have been about 1000 students there! It made it feel like Christmas singing some carols and then going home to a full Christmas dinner (made me miss home a bit though). We stayed up late, talking, singing a few carols and we also had our neighbours over for some dessert (they’re in our year too).

So, now I’m just trying to get everything organized before I go home for the break! Just doing some work, cleaning, laundry. Hopefully some books I ordered come before I go home as well. One’s a text-book that won’t be much help if I don’t get it before the Christmas break!

I hope all’s well with everyone, and you have a Merry Christmas if I don’t post before then.

-Pete

This is pic of me and some of my med school buddy’s at the Ball

My housemates and I in our Kitchen

Me, and the Christmas tie I wear to the Medic’s Christmas Party