Archive for the 'November' Category

View of the Wills Orchard out the back window of my room. It’s not much snow, but it’s still snow!

This is the lecture hall where I have all my lectures with my class (approx 230ppl)

Friday, November 25, 2005

Hello,

Snow! Snow! Snow! Yes, it snowed today in Bristol. I was out late last night with some people from hall and it was pretty cold. One of the girls studying geography and meteorology was claiming it was going to snow (which I hear is pretty rare in Bristol because we’re so close to the sea) but around 7am it snowed here. It was just a beautiful way to start the day, especially knowing there’s already been some snow in Canada. I opened the blinds and there it was! I also looked in my planner and noticed I’m coming home in 3 weeks tomorrow, which with the speed this week went, I think will come around quite soon.

Since last weekend I played hockey as usual on Sunday. It was a later game though, so I didn’t miss Sunday Roast which is usually a really good lunch served every Sunday, and I usually miss it. After I played with the medics (win 3-0), some of the first year medics from another hall were playing with their hall and really needed a goalie. So, I graciously didn’t put up a fight and joined their lovely team (by the way, a rival hall to mine). It was a great game, both sides held out, but in the end the other team scored a goal on me in the last 30 seconds and we lost 0-1 (.

Monday night, I went on a pub crawl with some medic friends (well mostly medics). My friends Guy and Wiz who organized the wonderful ‘pub golf’ outing a few weeks ago decided it was time for another get together as most of us have Tuesday mornings off so we can sleep in. After considerable debate, it was decided the theme of the night would be ‘What we wanted to be as a kid.’ It was amazing. I enjoyed the company of She-Ra Princess of Power, Batman, Robin, a Goddess, a Belly-Dancer, a pirate and many more. I went as a builder/construction worker, which was not always my dream as a child, but it sufficed as I have little resources and the guy down the hall from me is a paleontologist and had a hard hat and neon vest when he’s underground doing geology stuff (Thanks Tom!). It was a great night, we hit up several wicked pubs, then got separated after we stopped for food but it was still great.

Tuesday, I played 7 games of squash in the morning with a medic friend who also had Tuesday morning off. Then spent the afternoon doing some homework (biochem lab report, epidemiology hmwk, phys hmwk). Then, believe it or not, I played about 7 more games of squash. It wasn’t too good for Wednesday, because my muscles were still all day. I went in the afternoon and watched my Rugby team have a match against OTC (kinda like the reserves in Canada – army guys). The medics team dominated the army guys and won the match. It was a great game to watch, but it was freezing cold, especially after the sun began to go down. Justin called me from Toronto, which was awesome to have a bit of a catch-up and hear what he’s been doing. I went out on a pub crawl with some of the Rugby guys to all of the Hall pubs in the area of Bristol where I live (5 pubs). It’s always interesting with all the goings on with them that I almost stay as confused as I do when I’m playing Rugby (if that makes any sense), there’s loads of Rules and games. I am starting to get the hang of both though…. Afterwards I had a chat with my parents, and about 5 friends from home on MSN (What a day!). Got me really pumped to go home in 3 weeks, and also made me a teeny bit homesick.

Thursday, my dreaded day began with a not-too-interesting histology lab (I’m sorry to histology lovers if there are any, but I find 3hrs looking at microscope slides of cells from various tissues of the body a little tedious and draining), but for future docs it serves a point to know what’s going on in the body! Had my epi tutorial all afternoon, and then, after rushing back to Wills to make dinner (FISH & CHIPS) I went for a run (which was refreshing in the cold weather) and headed out to the pub. We went back to the Coronation Tap where the cider tastes like juice but a half pint is equal to drinking a glass of wine. It was really awesome, but man it was packed! They’re very efficient though (mainly because most people only drink their ciders, so they get ½ pints ready and you don’t have to wait long at the counter). I got in at about 1am, but stayed up for about an hour chatting with some people here. I didn’t have to be at the school until 10:30 so I knew I could sleep in.

Today wasn’t great. I was okay this morning, but I started getting a migraine at lunch, and I don’t think it helped that we went to a smoky pub for lunch and then to an anatomy lab (lots of smelling formaldehyde!). I felt pretty sick by the time I got home, so I didn’t go to formal, and I’m getting to bed early (I have to be up early tomorrow, going hiking near Bristol for the day, I’ll let you guys know about that later…) I did play a game of Snooker with a neighbour, and now I’m just getting some stuff ready to bring with me tomorrow.

Hope all is well,
Pete

This is me as a builder/construction worker on the pub crawl, and my night out in Clifton at the Coronation Tap

This is a view from the top of Whiteladies road. Today was a beautiful day and the air was clear so you could see the whole city of Bristol from the top of the hill. It was stunning ( a bit hard to tell in the pic though). Bristol is really hilly too, you can see some of the rolling hills in the background.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Hey,

This weekend was really nice. After formal dinner on Friday – I did go down to the medics pub to see the band. They were alright, but the drinks were cheap so all was good. One problem, there was a special on for rum and coke doubles, and the bar tender held up two fingers (which I thought was indicating a double), so I said, “Yes!” Then he gave me two doubles – let’s just say I was not exactly sober after leaving the bar. This was after about a bottle of wine at dinner, and a pint before the doubles. We then proceeded to a house party near the Uni – at a 2nd year medic’s place. It was a good night.

Saturday was a lazy day. Got up late, had brunch, played some squash and did homework. I ended up skipping out on the bond night and just taking it easy. I had the hockey tournament the next morning, and I had to be up a 7:30, so I decided just to take it easy. I got my first English haircut too – though it barely looks any different than a Canadian one (was a little more expensive though).

On Sunday we left for the tournament in Southampton. Southampton is about a 2hr drive away from Bristol going east. The tournament was held for some of the medical schools in Southern England abbreviated T.I.T.S for Tournament in the South. They even gave us t-shirts! It included Bristol, Southampton, Peninsula (which is a combo of Plymouth and Exeter which is a joint Uni) and Birmingham – the London schools did not attend. We brought two teams, and due to the lack of goalies, I just played for both teams. This work except when the two teams had to play each other (we just recruited a goalie from Birmingham). There were two divisions, we got 3rd place in the first division, and in the 2nd division we actually placed 1st, beating Birmingham in the last game. It was a great day, but Southampton was really cold and my legs were exposed behind the goalie pads. So, after 5 hrs of playing (yes, 5! I only got two 20 min breaks, excluding half times), my legs were as purple as my goalie pads. I played really well (so I was told), and really enjoyed myself. It’s good to come back with a win (even if it’s only seconds!) That night when I got home, there was a quiz in the bar. I love the bar quizzes – there are about 8 categories that have about 12 questions and they vary each week. This week one was a Belgium category (there’s a Belgian girl in the hall that made it up), I got almost every question right, except for one about what you can see in Belgium from space (I can’t remember now what it was though). There’s usually other categories like music, sciences, news, general knowledge, sports, etc. They have them every 2 weeks in the bar. My team won this week and they gave us a bottle of vodka to share (between like 12 people!).

Monday was my usual long day of lectures. I finished the day off with a hockey practice and 4 games of squash. I needed some exercise, because at hockey practice there was almost no shot on goal, so I just stood around for about 45 min, except for the start where they gave me some goalie training. Today I got up, played 5 games of squash and headed down to the University for some inoculations. As me and my Dad found out before I left Canada, I was not immune to Rubella even though I had a booster. Also, in England you require a Hepatitis B booster shot, even if you have more than enough antibodies (aka ME). So they gave me one in each arm and sent me sorely on my way. I must admit, my nurse was very good at giving needles – little pain involved! I then headed into downtown Bristol. I forget when I get stuck in that University bubble, how big Bristol really is. Apparently it’s like the 5th biggest city in the country. I went downtown and there is just dense city (not skyscrapers, but certainly tall buildings), shopping malls, stores, bars, etc. It was a little overwhelming. Trying to get the bus home I realized that there were about 25 different bus terminals, and I had to search them all for the right bus up to my Hall. By the way, I went to buy a printer downtown, and managed to get one for £20 off – it sorta happened by accident. I went up to the counter and told the lady I wanted the one for £49.99 (which was one of the cheapest ones!) and the lady brought me one that was £29.99 and I was like, “I think you gave me the wrong one.” She then pointed to the Christmas catalogue and said that it came on sale yesterday. I was so happy with my new found money saving skills that I bought an Iron (£3.99), more bath towels, a drying rack for my radiator (£1.49) and a sort of ironing mat, so I can set my shirts and pants on my desk and iron them (£3.99). Everything at the store seemed to be on for a great price! The printer I ended up with was a Lexmark z735 – I don’t really know about lexmarks, but it seems okay, and lots of people in Guelph seemed to have and like them.

Anyways, this was sort of a blah, blah, blah blog entry, but that’s what’s up with me. Today was just a gorgeous day, and it was nice to get out and around Bristol.

-Pete

This is me in my goalie gear for field hockey after the match on Sunday (at 5:00pm!).

Tuesday, November 8, 2005.

Hi,
I always seem busy here, but I think I’m just keeping myself busy all the time. It’s really weird when I get some time to myself – then I wonder what I should be doing, or it seems like there’s something I should be doing, even though I know there’s nothing to do. (does that make sense?)

Last week was another great one, except it’s been really rainy lately (I know I should’ve expected a lot of rain being in England, but it’s very frustrating!). Last Wednesday was the usual Rugby practice – they had us doing fitness, running and pushups and stuff to try and get some of the guys in better shape (I wasn’t at the game the weekend prior, and I guess they really slowed down at the end of the match). It was still a good practice though. Thursday and Friday always seem to drag on, as they’re my heave 9-5 days. On Thursday I had my first introduction to histology ( a bit of a boring subject ) . It’s the study of tissues, so this week we did “Epidermis” – so I spend 3 hrs making notes and looking down a microscope at epidermal cells throughout the body (skin, sole of the foot, stomach, esophagus, etc). Then had a physiology tutorial (which my TA was not prepared for, so it dragged on, followed by epidemiology for 3hrs (not so fascinating either, learning about Standard Errors and Confidence Intervals for hrs at a time). It’s not all bad, Friday biochem was neat learning about metabolism – and the afternoon was anatomy where I got 13/14 on my spot test.

Friday night I went to formal dinner – very good this week, chicken/veggies/wine/rocky road pie. Then went down to the pub and out to a club for the night (it’s closing down for 2 weeks for refurbishing, so they were giving away tons of free stuff, I didn’t win anything though).

Saturday, I spend the afternoon playing squash with some friends, played some Snooker after dinner and got some work done.

Sunday was a LONG day. I got up, and was invited to come play Cricket for Wills Hall. They needed players even though I have no clue how to play Cricket. It was indoor cricket, so it wasn’t too hard to play, just the rules are confusing. Ie: there’s no strikes (just swing as much as you want), you can also get people out if you catch the ball off the wall – not just in the air, you’re up to bat in 2s, and you two work together to guard 2 wickets (bases standing up on their sides), the fields try and hit the wickets while you’re running, but it’s a hard thing to do. You score pts by you and your partner running back and forth between the wickets while the fields are trying to get the ball – the fielders try have to get you out so they can get up to bat and score pts like in baseball. You only get to bat once though. There’s still tons of other rules I won’t go on about. Basically I played terribly, but the English guys all had a good laugh (I held the bat backwards when I got up to bat for instance). We managed a win at 74-73, so all in all it was great.

Afterwards, I walked back in the pouring rain, only to miss Sunday lunch, by 10min. So I made some cup-a-soup and had a sandwich and went to hockey. I played a stellar game, and was voted “man of the match” – lucky me, eh? I didn’t let in any goals the entire game, and then at the last minute (honestly) they scored in a big confusion into the left corner. The ref blew the whistle right after the next “face-off” it’s not really a face off, it’s like a kick off in soccer. We won 2-1.

Sunday night, I still managed to play squash for 2hrs, amazingly. I also managed to get hit on the side of the head and sprout a nice goose egg bruise. To be honest, cricket was a very leisurely sport, so not much exercise, and I play goal in field hockey, so not much exercise either. We played a little tournament, and then played ‘king of the court’ for about 45min. I came home and talked to Dad, Mom, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Barry and my cousin Brian in a bit of a conference call on Skype. It was neat.

Monday:
Same old day of 9-5 lectures. Got back at about 5:30, after walking in the rain (again), and went up to dinner. Dinner was just what I needed, I think my entire tray was full of good food and I finished off the whole thing. Afterwards we headed out for a special night. We went to a local pub named “Coronation Tap” aka: Corry Tap for some special local cider (like beer, ie: strongbow), in a little area west of me called Clifton. You have to understand though, this cider is 8-10% and tastes like apple juice. They only serve it in ½ pints. This is because I can sleep in on Tuesday (along with may people here) so we decided Monday night would be good. Well 8 half pints later I left the bar in a well done stupor, and decided not to go to the club afterwards. There was tons of drinking games too at the pub, and they always play International Drinking Rules – so if you do things like swear, call someone by their real first name, drink with the wrong hand, etc. you have to drink). It was great fun, and I must say, I was really dehydrated the next day. But can you imagine drinking beer that tastes similar to apple juice, it was amazing.

Today, I got in a few rounds of Squash this afternoon, watched some movies, and got some work done.
-Pete