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These are pictures from the Cannock Hockey Tournament we had. Then there’s the not so hot one of me wearing some of my goalie kit.

Monday, February 13, 2006.

Hey,

Been a long week, but not done much. Didn’t feel the greatest last week, but I seem to be feeling a little tired after the weekend. Mostly just went to classes last week. Saw the movie Munich last week which was about getting revenge for the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli Olympic team in the 1972 olympics. It was a great film, but there wasn’t much of a conclusion and the end felt a bit unresolved.

Thursday was my first ever visit with the GP practice I am placed at. I did a home visit with another student in the class. It was a really neat experience we got to learn about the illnesses (one of which I had never even heard of), and we had to learn patient history and mainly how the patient felt about the experience of disease and going through treatment. We also got a bit of free cookies and cakes with the visit. This week I’ll be sitting in with the GP at the practice for the afternoon watching him work. On Thursday night we all when down to a bar to say farewell to our anatomy demonstrators (TAs). At Bristol, we are all put into groups of 10 for each lab and there’s one demonstrator for each group. They’re all doctors a couple of years out of high school, who are great teachers and fun to be around, so it was sad to see them go, but another excuse to get out to the bar with medics. So all the first years and the demos met up for a few drinks and went out for the night. Lots of fun!

Friday was just classes all day, and I just stayed in with people from hall in the evening. There was a Chinese New Year formal, but I didn’t attend as I had missed the sign up last Monday.

Saturday was an early start playing a few rounds of squash with some friends from neighbouring halls. It was great exercise, but I wasn’t playing too well. Must have been tired or something after getting up early. In the afternoon there was a rugby match of England vs. Wales. The beginning of a six nations tournament between England, Wales, Scotland, France, Italy and Ireland. So, it was a pretty big match. England gave Wales a pretty good pounding winning 47-13. It was a good game at the start and then England really pulled ahead. Afterwards we went out and got a great thai-curry and then went out to the pub for the evening.

I was up Sunday at 6am to go 2hrs to Cannock, a village north of Birmingham. A medical group had sponsored a huge field hockey tournament for all the medical schools in Britain. We had to be up there by 9 for registration. It was a nice tournament, there were free meals, loads of chocolate and candy, t-shirts, umbrellas and of course, hockey! I got to play 6 matches and we won one by default because on of the London schools didn’t show. In my category we played Durham, Manchester and Liverpool. Not a lot of the team could come because other years were doing exams, so we were missing most of out offense. It was pretty hard to play a very offensive game when everyone’s used to defending. Also we didn’t bring any subs, and one of our players got injured, so we had to play half of the game against Manchester 1 man down, and then had to borrow someone for the rest of the matches. It neat though because I’ve never played those universities before because we play our medics matches against the medical schools in the south of England. We only won our first match, so we were in the plate (B level) finals. Our game against St.Bart’s (in London) was forfeited, so we went straight to the semi-finals against Southampton. We were completely worn out, and managed a shameful loss of 0-5. Still had a great day though, I played goalie for Sheffield in one match, in which we lost 0-2 to Nottingham, who were really good, had a great tournament, but wished we could’ve had the whole team there.

Came home Sunday night and all of the 1st years that played got together and made some pasta with tomato sauce and watched the movie shrek2 to celebrate our not too victorious day. No champagne though (all a bit to worn out). I came back to Wills for the 11:20pm kick off the good old American Football, aka The Superbowl. It was pretty funny, tons of people were watching, but few knew what was going on. I kept getting asked which team was which, “Are the guys in yellow the Pittsburgh seahawks?” , “No, the seahawks are grey and they’re from Seattle!” It was funny, most people had no clue and flipped coins to determine which team they vote for or betted on. I am still a bit of a Steelers fan, if I needed to pick a football team, but I was pretty sure they would win. People still be against them anyways. Good thing they won, eh? Rugby doesn’t stop as much as Football, and the clock almost never stops, so people seemed to be always asking, “Why have they stopped, AGAIN!” Good fun. After a full day of hockey though, and a superbowl that started at 11:20, I feel asleep during the Rolling Stones’ halftime show. So decided to head back to bed (1:30am) and brag to everyone that the Steelers would win, even after I left – which they did.

Classes were great today. Our afternoon lectures were cancelled, so we got it off! I played some more squash, and played much better. I did a bit of work, and then this evening I went down for a play practice. Yes, I’m in a play (how do I get involved with so much stuff?” It’s called the pre-clinical review – where people in the pre-clinical years (yr 1 & 2) do some theatre that makes fun of our professors, the medical school and Bristol Uni. There’s also a clinical one too, but of course, we’re not in that. So, I got a part and we had our intro session, met the cast, talked and read the script, I’ve got about 8 or 9 lines, but I managed to make it into most of the scenes, so that’s pretty cool. It’s a bit of a secret, but I’ll let you later my part. I think I got it because of my accent – I’m supposed to be a bit American or something. Hopefully I’ll pull off my outs and abouts at showtime!

Wow, amazing how I can stretch a fairly uninteresting week into a long winded story of my whirlwind adventures in the strange land of Eng-land. Got a group of friends to live with next year, so we’ve got a house viewing tomorrow, I’ll have to take a pic or two for you to see. Have a good week!

-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

Tuesday, October 18, 2005.
Hey,

Pictures of me Sunday night at the medics pub crawl (not the best one of me!, and we’re all wet because it was raining – as usual). It was a great night out – Medics seem to study hard but party hard. It was a ‘theme’ pub crawl, so first years wore pyjamas (me in my housecoat, pyjama pants). It was a great night out – Medics seem to study hard but party hard. It was a ‘theme’ pub crawl, so first years wore pyjamas (me in my housecoat, pajama pants, and you can see them, but I had on some very funky Zebra head slippers), second years had to wear something pink, and third and up wore scrubs ‘with a twist.’ It was great, we went to about 6 bars and pubs, and the very last one was privately rented so it was all medics. It was a great way to meet medics. These pictures are me with medics from my hall. There’s also the whole ‘Sunday night’ thing. We’re pretty sure that they organize it Sunday night because the upper years know that all the first years have class at 9:00 Monday morning, and have class until 5:00pm Monday night. IT WAS A LONG MONDAY!

Today wasn’t too bad, reviewed a bit of work from yesterday – then we had lectures all afternoon about our GP placements this year. There’s one problem – we all got packages about where our placements would be, and with whom, but mine was empty. Me, with about 50 other medics are placed in practices in the spring term, which is actually in January, I guess spring comes a little earlier here (feb/march or so). It has its benefits and non-benefits. It means I practically get all my Tuesdays off. We also all get Wednesday afternoons off so, I get a free day and a half each week. This also means that Mon, Thurs, Fri are 9-5 class days (yikes!). Everyone else though, won’t get a free day, they’ll have Tues morning off, but GP practices in the afternoon. The GP visits are not so much to learn how to diagnose, but how to interact with patients and how to learn to communicate (big part of being a doctor). This also means that next semester, I’ll have a slightly heavier work load. Mainly, because the biggest exams are going to be at the end of March, and I’ll have this extra course. But, they can’t fit us all into practices this term, so I just have to live with it ;o).

Tonight, I went to a meeting for a sort of service/charity group meeting for UK med students call MEDSIN. Its very interesting, I’m just not sure what to get involved with yet. It’s a worldwide organization (just called medsin in the UK), I can get involved with AIDS awareness, teaching in Africa, STI awareness, fundraising, organ and bone marrow donation, I can even get involved with the medical curriculum and its methods and policies. There was a lot of people and I was tired, so I just joined the club, but will sign up later for which area I want to get involved with.

On a side note – I AM ALWAYS WAITING IN LINE HERE (called QUEUEING), but there are lines for everything, I know there’s lots of people here, but everything just seems a little poorly organized. Oh well, it’s doable, just annoying sometimes.

Well Ruby tomorrow, and homework – and I can actually go in a set up my bank account (yay).

Hope everyone is well,
-Pete

Wed, Oct 12, 2005.
Hey,

This is a picture of White Ladies Road. This is the road I walk down to campus (2.2miles) and walk up back to residence at the end of the day.

Today was interesting. Because it is the first week of school, I had no formal lectures. Normally i’ll have wednesday afternoons off, but not usually the mornings, so it was nice to sleep in. By the way, the whole university gets wednesday afternoons of for sport, music and other extra curriculars.

Today my sport was medics RUGBY. It was pretty crazy. First of all, i’ve never played. Second, the minute I get there it begins to rain. Then it rained harder. We start off the training session with a warm up match. For someone who’s never played before, it’s like watching an on the move wrestling match. The ball does not stop when it touches the ground like in American Football, and you’re allowed to grab your opponents shirt in a tackle. You can even hold someone’s shirt and keep them from moving in certain cases. So i’m standing there, and people are shouting things like “Stay in a line,” but do I know why? So basically I stood in the back and watch this mass of running, shouting and cheering with no clue in the world on what has actually happened.

After this warm-up. We do a bit of drills together, then we split into Forwards(more like defense in Football, more bigger guys, but not all) and Backwards (Offense). I was picked to be a forward because i’m tall, don’t know much about the game, and they need defensive players. So, now i’m a forward. I still don’t know what a forward does exactly. But I spent the next hour smashing into pads, passing the ball, practising my tackles (doing a bit of wresting), and practising my blocking. I managed to jar my shoulder, and my nose is a bit tender, but I have all my teeth. If anyone from home reads this, tell my Dad I wore a mouth guard or ‘Gum Chew’ as they like to call it here.

By the way, did I mention that this was all done in pouring rain - this rain was extreme even for England – they’ve had as much rain today as they’ve had in the past month.

So after this hour, we get back together with the offense, who’ve been practising away, and play a game. I still haven’t a clue on what to do but oh well. Basically I just pushed people around and did small tackles if someone had the ball. In one case, I was given the ball to start a play (I honestly think it was done as a joke, because they all knew I hadn’t a clue). Well, all of a sudden there’s 5 guys blocking from my team, and 8 guys attacking from the other. I just set the ball in a teammate’s hand and he got it where it needed to go.

All in all, it was a riot, I met loads of medics, and believe it or not, it rained hardest on the walk home, so when people saw me, I was one huge, muddy, soaked mess. But it was awesome.

Tonight, I’ve also joined the expeditions society. I went to a meeting, and they’re holding a trip to Wales (the BRECONS) next weekend. I’m hoping to go. It’s just a day hike saturday, and we come home sunday. It shouldn’t interfere. I’m hoping to use this club to get around England. Also, there international student Center runs events. They’re going to London this weekend, but i’m going to stay in, hoping to go to Winsor castle with them. I went with mom, but I’d love to see it again, and its only like 15pounds, which includes the travel and entrance to the castle.

Well if you’ve read this far you’ve done well. Email me if you like to hear from me, and keep reading!
-Pete