‘Sup With Pete

Halfway through second term!

Published on February 16, 2006 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This is a picture from dowtown Bristol (in the summer) near the waterfront.

Sheep – if ever you go into the countryside in England you see sheep. This is what sheep look like on a hill in England.

This is me and Katie at dinner on friday night. When we were out with 23 others for our friend’s birthday

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Hi,

Not been up to too much lately – sorry for the lack of posts, but not too much news. Last week I mostly just stayed in every night and went to classes during the week. Right now we’re still doing Biochemistry (along with genetics), as well we’re studying medical ethics, pharmacology, anatomy and immunology. Thursday, I had my first GP placement where I sat in with the GP. We mostly just sat and watch but we got to learn how to take blood pressure and about certain conditions we saw in the practice. That night we had our first rehearsal for the pre-clinical review. It’s supposed to be a funny play, but after seeing it acted out it’s absolutely hilarious! It’s mostly just the way that people portray our professors and what we learn, it’s great! With my accent, I seem to just get laughs without trying so I’m enjoying it.

The weekend was mostly partying at night. Friday night, there was a returnee’s formal for past Wills students so we couldn’t attend it. But, it was a friend’s birthday, and another friend was kind enough to organize a night out for 23 of her friends (medics and other friends). It started with a dinner at a nice restaurant near the university. Their specialties were Mussels and kinds of Pizza. I got Mediterranean mussels (mussels cooked in a tomato and basil sauce with chilies). I was a whole kilo of mussels that came in a huge pot with a plate of fries (chips) on the side. They we soooo good! It’s fun eating mussels, because you save the first shell and use it as a tool to eat all the rest of the mussels. The restaurant also was an independent brewery, so we were all sipping some nice pilsners and pale ales (except those drinking wine). Afterward we parted for a small bar to socialize and then headed down to one of the clubs for some dancing. On the way we happened upon a late night bumper cars. 4 of us got into two cars and had a blast smashing each other before heading into the club!

Woke up at about 10:30 on Sat, and played some tennis in the early afternoon (it was sunny and nice outside) and watched the rugby match of England vs. Italy. We all went out that night to the Corronation Tap for some cider drinking and socializing. I managed to go there with a bunch of people from my hall, but they sort of petered out and medics started showing up. By the time the pub closed (11:30 in England), I was there with medics. We decided to keep going and went back to my buddy’s flat for some more drinks and to play a bit of poker. We managed to finish by about 2:30am and my and another medic from my hall walked back to Wills Hall in the rain.

I got up on Sat for an 11:45 hockey game against the Doctors from one of the Hospitals in Bristol. These guys are fun to play because we’ve played them a few times so it’s a bit of a grudge match and I think the Doctors like trying to beat the medical students. It started off pretty great with a 2-0 lead by half time. I wasn’t quite on the ball being a bit hung over, and in the second half let in 2 goals. So, we ended at a 2-2 draw, but we shoulda won, we just couldn’t get a goal even though we spend the whole game in their end of the pitch. Mostly did my homework on Sunday night and skipped the Wills Bar Sunday night quiz.

Monday was quite an active day for me. We finished lectures by 2pm. I went down to another hall and played squash with 3 other medics from my year. After about 2 hrs, went back to Wills for some dinner and then went to hockey practice. When I play out of goal (like in practices), I can’t believe how much I run around. Field hockey players are constantly on the run, so it’s great exercise, but TIRING! Especially when at 9:00pm they’ve scheduled a fun match against the OTC (university of bristol’s officer training corps). But we had a great team out and it wasn’t tiring for me at all. They played the entire game at the other end of the pitch and I only had one shot on goal the entire match (could be boring, but when you’re that tired you’re pretty grateful you don’t have to work hard!). We beat them 5-0, which was also nice because there were some medics who were playing for OTC, so it gave us some bragging rights in class the next day.

On Tuesday, valentine’s day – I really didn’t do anything. No girlfriend at present, no energy, needed sleep and I was kinda sore from my Monday, so I took it easy. Especially because last night (wednesday) was the university’s sports night. Basically it’s a party at the Student Union for any university sports teams. Both rugby and hockey went, but I went with hockey because I’ve been playing with that team more as of late. It was great, our team wore our pink social shirts and went on a bar crawl before hand to socialize and have a few drinks (play some drinking games). There were live bands, a DJ and loads of people. It was really fun.

Today was LONG. Got up and went to lecture followed by a 3hr biochem lab where we extracted DNA from sperm taken from pigs testicles. We mainly just wanted the DNA, and apparently it’s cheap and easy to get from pigs testicles. Mainly it’s just to look at properties. I was lucky too, because we were doing a lot of centrifuging, which I am pretty expert at since all last year at Guelph I volunteered in a lab in which I spent 1-2hrs a week pipetting and centrifuging blood samples from women in a breast cancer study (for anyone who doesn’t know what centrifuging is, it’s when you put test tubes in a machine that is expensive and a bit dangerous because it spins at 15000(-/+)RPM. This is done to separate mixtures, ie DNA from pigs testicles. Just have to balance it and make sure the lid’s closed!). After my lab I quickly grabbed a soup and sandwich and caught the bus to my GP placement. I spent the afternoon at a house visit to an elderly couple with another colleague of mine. Now I’m relaxing and saving £££ by staying in for a change!

Formal dinner tomorrow night. Hopefully my good friend Wilson will be visiting me next week while he is visiting England and Spain for reading week!

Hope everyone is well,
-Pete

Late night bumpercars – no breathalizer test required! Sports night photos – foosball at the bar before hand, and me and some medics friends on the dance floor at the event. Hockey we have pink polo shits with nick names. Mine is “IceMan”

Tournament in Cannock

Published on February 7, 2006 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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

Formals, Burns’ Night, still having fun!

Published on January 30, 2006 in January 2006. 0 Comments

These are pics of me and some medics at the masquerade ball, the clifton suspension bridge on my journey and my beautiful mask that I wore.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Hello!

It’s been a busy little while and it’s just taken me a bit of time to update this site. Also, my camera is being a jerk and not working – so I’ve only got pictures from friends and from my phone (the one’s from my phone aren’t as nice, but they’ll have to do!)

So, what’s up with pete? Let’s start at last Saturday. I woke up late after a nice long sleep in (lie-in in England). I went to brunch and was invited out to play some football (soccer) in the orchard – the field behind my room – that afternoon. This was just with 6 other guys from my floor here at Wills. It was a nice sunny day and a little cold, but warm enough to wear some shorts outside. England winter feels like Fall(Autumn) in Canada. We mostly just kicked the ball around and played a little game at the end, but man, is it ever muddy! You can’t really tell from the pic, but the backs of my arms are completely black and the whole shower was splashed in mud for the next three days! It was great to play some soccer; I always wonder how I played it so little last term – being in England of all places. After my shower, it was about 4pm. So I went for a walk into Clifton (the beautiful area of Bristol, near where I live). We walked down to the suspension bridge (see photo). It’s a nice walk and at the lookout there’s the oldest suspension bridge in Britain and there’s some caves you can go walk around in. It’s really beautiful. Upon heading into Clifton we noticed some children that were sliding down a rock face. We sorta thought – what the? Upon closer inspection we realized that down a small groove there is a polished surface on the rock face. We took off our coats and sat on them and slid down the rock face, like going down a metal slide. There’s a pic here of the girls I was with all sliding down like going on a toboggan. I’m not sure if it’s a geological anomaly or if it been from years of people sliding down the rocks. So if you come to Bristol come rock slidin’ with me! A buddy of my took a video of me going down on my back, it’s pretty sweet! Afterwards we headed into Clifton centre to the Chocolate Bar. It’s one of those entirely chocolate places (girls seem to go nuts over this thing). I had an intensely rich chocolate cake slice and hot chocolate made from cocoa. It was amazing, but I didn’t feel the greatest after eating all that chocolate! We then headed for a post-dessert pub supper. I had a panini and chips (fries). What else? Just headed back for the night and played some poker with some of the guys in my building.

Sunday, got up and played a small hockey game. The pitch was half frozen, so we played a game of 6 on 6 on half the pitch. Normally it’s 10 a side on a full pitch (not incl. goalies). We were down 0-4 at half, but finished the game with a spectacular 4-4 draw! Didn’t do much the rest of the day, just got some food and hung around the hall. Monday, we had the afternoon off as a treat (we were supposed to be working on our reports due today). I went out with a medic friend to a shopping area in Bristol called Cribbs Causeway -> my first time there, but it’s like a box store area with a big mall. I got a big elastic band for my mask, and some needed items such as an alarm clock, a bag for my rugby boots, you know, boring stuff. But it was nice to get out there once. We came back in time for tea (dinner, in England), and then got some good old homework in as I had a brief presentation the next day.

Tuesday was a full day of lectures and tutorials. I played some poker that evening and relaxed. On Wednesday I didn’t go to Rugby practice, as I had to get work done on my project for today. It was an epidemiology report called a Data Interpretation Exercise, comically given the acronym DIE! It was basically a series of questions about an epidemiological study that we had to answer and we had to design our own study at the end. I worked on it mostly Thursday, Friday and Saturday and it was done before Saturday night. Wednesday, the work wasn’t going so hot, so at about 4pm I went out and played some football (soccer, and threw around an American football) for about an hr. Thursday was my first day at my GP placement! I’m in a group of 8 students under the direction of 2 GPs. Last day was an intro session. So, we met the GPs and we had a tour of the facility. It’s an amazing new practice, with a pharmacy, 6 GPs, a dentist, a physiotherapist, some alternative medicines, a travel clinic, and more! I think it’s going to be great. This week I should be doing a home visit or else attending the practice. It’s also way out in East Bristol. I never really realized how big Bristol really is, but it’s about 500 000 people. So we were about a 35 minute bus ride across town. (Don’t worry; we get reimbursed for travel expenses!) It was nice to see a bit of the city and get out of the University bubble.

Friday was a full day of lectures and anatomy lab. Our quiz was on the arm, and brachial plexus (nerves in the arm) and after my presentation on the arm last year, I got a perfect on my quiz! That night was my first ever Burns night at formal. Both my grandmothers have strong Scottish backgrounds, so it was neat to see something of Scottish heritage. For those of you who don’t know Robert (Rabbie) Burns was a Scottish poet, song writer, and much more. He is celebrated each year – it was Wednesday, but we celebrated Friday. The dinner involves a reading from him and eating Haggis! Yes Haggis the food composed of a forcemeat of the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep mixed with oatmeal, well seasoned and put into bags made from the paunch of the sheep. Believe or not, it tasted pretty good, as long as you didn’t think about it. The haggis was ushered in by 2 bagpipers and we all toasted the haggis with a good ol’ pint of Scottish whisky! It was a great night. I just stayed in afterwards and worked on my DIE though.

Saturday evening was the masquerade ball for the medical students. It’s a big dinner and dance formal. It’s usually themed, as this year was masquerade. I took tons of nice photos, but my memory card malfunctioned during the night and I can’t get the photos off it, so you’ll have to enjoy the ones I got from friends. I met before hand with the 9 other people I was sharing a table with and we had champagne before heading to the reception before the meal. The meal (not the greatest), was roast potatoes, veggies and chicken preceded by a salad and finished with some cake. There was a string quartet, bands and loads of wine (maybe a bit too much in my case). It was a great banquet and a fun night.

Also, by the way, I was invited to play for the U of Bristol hockey team as their goalie on Saturday morning. To be honest, it was the 3rd string team, but none the less, they were desperate for a goalie and contacted my captain to see if I could play. I didn’t end up playing though because the game was cancelled (frozen pitch); people in England just aren’t used to a little ice here and there I guess. It was pretty neat to be asked though. Sunday afternoon I did play 3 hockey games though. Two for the medics and one for Wills Hall. In all 3 games I didn’t let in a single goal! We didn’t win the Wills match, left at a 0-0 draw. I spent the night editing my report, and finishing a set of biochem questions due for today. I also enjoyed some great English fish and chips for dinner.

Today we got the results for our exams. I passed! Which is great news, I found the exam quite hard, but I know I can do better on the next ones. I was a little worried about these, even though they’re progress exams (like midterms in Canada).

Hope everyone is well, and wondering what Canada’s thinking of their new Tory minority government. Will it work, will it last, and do people care? I’ve also got my contract for camp this summer. So I won’t really be back to Canada till August 12th, but it’ll be a nice break and I know the job – I did really miss it last summer.

Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far!

- Pete

These are pics of my after playing football, the girls sliding down the rock face, me and Katie at the choclate bar, and another one of me at the ball.

Back in Bristol – What a busy man!

Published on January 18, 2006 in January 2006. 2 Comments

This is a picture of Bristol. This is on an untypical sunny day, but shows how everything here is green!

This is a picture of the medical library at Bristol.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Hello!

It’s been awhile, but I’m back in Bristol now and havin’ a good time! Weather here is a stunningly warm 7-14°C! I got back a week ago to Bristol, slightly early in preparation for my exams last Friday. I didn’t really want to deal with jet leg, so I just studied until I felt tired and then went to bed. Getting up for my exams on Friday was like getting up at 2:30 in the morning. Can you imagine writing an exams that started at 4:00 in the morning (to you)? It was pretty rough, but I had a coffee with my breakfast and that did the job. With respect to my exams, lets just say they were really hard, much harder than expected. It was an eye opener to what they expect and I’m sure I’ll be better prepared for the next exams.

Christmas break was pretty awesome. Before Christmas, I got up to Toronto to catch the symphony with my Mom. We saw Hanel’s Messiah, and the orchestra was accompanied by a 200 person choir. It was nice, but I caught myself falling asleep a few times, because I was still on England time. Great concert though. I then got up to see my Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles and cousins before heading home. At home I spent most of my time visiting with my family and seeing friends. I made pretty amazing mask for the medics masquerade ball which occurs at then end of January with my free time, and I also studied for my exams. I got out skiing in Quebec, just outside of Ottawa. It was great to get on my skis for a bit and hit the slopes. I spent NewYear’s Eve in Ottawa with my hometown friends. First we made an amazing dinner, then headed to the South End to a quick party and then back downtown to the bar for the countdown and champagne. It was a nice little bar we went to, good dancing and good music. It must have been about -16°C outside, and one of the lovely ladies I was with thought she looked nice in her sandals and decided to wear them out to the bar. She was just a tad cold waiting for the bus to take us to the party! University was starting later in Guelph this year, and so I didn’t make it up to visit people because most of them we not back until I was flying back here. It’s sad but I wish everyone there the best in their last term in Guelph!

Since my exams, I have become active again. I mostly lazed around over Christmas, except for my one attempt to go jogging in the bitter Canadian cold. After that I couldn’t be bothered to go to the gym. Friday, after my little sleep and early start, I managed 5 games of squash, and same on Saturday. I wasn’t up till 1:00pm with the time change, but got onto the courts in the afternoon. On Sunday the Galenicals (the medical student’s society at Bristol) Mixed Hockey played 3 matches (which I played goal for all 3). We played the first to against the medical students from Southampton. I had a great warm up and was completely tired out before the first match, but we played superb, and I think Southampton made like 3 shots on net the entire game! We won 7-0 in the first game. In the second game we played a harder match. We battled them out until the second half. I did a spectacular save whilst doing the splits and pulling the muscles in my right knee. We kept them off us until the last 15 minutes where they scored a goal over my right shoulder. They then managed a second goal in the last few seconds of the game and we lost 2-0. In the third match we played a team from bath. We played well (especially after a tiring first 2 games) and won 5-1. I figure having 3 goals scored over 3 games is pretty good for a team, and their goalie!

That all occurred on Sunday, and after my 3 tiring matches, I managed to go skating with about 20 other people from Wills. I still felt to be a pretty amazing skater compared to my British colleagues, but it was great to back on the ice with all the warm weather in Britain. It’s honestly like early spring here! We all went out that night to the Coronation Tap – the place with the sweet, but very alcoholic cider. It was great to see everyone again, as we were all back that night to be ready for exams tomorrow. I only had 2 pints in the bar, in case you were wondering.

Monday, after attending a brand spanking new lecture on pathology (something I have not done before) – I was graciously asked to fill in as a tour guide for students attending their medical school interviews. (Filling in for someone who had 5 pints at the Coronation Tap) It was great, because I remembered all the stuff from my tour last year with the medical school. I did the tour with my friend Sally, a fellow medic and resident of Wills Hall – also a viewer of the infamous ‘Sup with Pete website. We took them around the medical school, library, lecture halls, and then up to Wills Hall to show them around. I did meet a student visiting from Toronto, and got to explain to all the students that my accent was not Irish, but Canadian! Good times. Went back and attended more lectures for the rest of the school day. That night I went to a hockey practice. There was no need for goalies, so I played on the pitch for the first time ever. When I said I was tired after 3 games of hockey this weekend, it was a completely different experience from playing on the pitch. On the pitch you need endurance, which I am lacking after sitting on the couch eating and drinking over the holidays. I was completely exhausted in about 10min! Also, was the whole right handed stick thing (I am a lefty). Field hockey is played with a right handed stick that you flip over on the left side of your body. It took my almost the whole game to get used to playing more on the right, and flipping over to play on the left. The ball just kept whipping past me when I tried to stop it. Also, compared to ice hockey, you are using a very very tiny blade. It was great fun, but I was instructed to stay in net (I’m hoping due to my skills as a goalie, and not due to my skills on the field!). The practice was about an hr, and I got in a couple games of squash with a buddy of mine before bed. It sounds like a busy day, but it’s really not! Just filling in the hours.

Tuesday, I took off. Slept in until about 10:30, after which I got up for lunch and read my book. I headed in for lectures at 2:00-5:00. I was supposed to see an interesting lecture based on the book, “The Selfish Gene,” but the lecture hall was sold out, so we came back and watched some movies. Today I also got to sleep in till 10:00, had a lecture and then Rugby practice in the afternoon. I’ve still not quite got the hang of Rugby (don’t know exactly what it is) but I’m still lovin it, and I’m going to continue with it.

Got my phone bill today. It was extremely expensive. I looked into and realized that they have given my the wrong plan (yikes!). So, now I’ve got to go in and sort it out, I don’t want to be paying $80.00 for each bill!

Got a busy day of classes Thursday and Friday, but will be going to another formal on Friday night. Hope everyone is well.

-Pete

This is a picture of where I went skiing in Canada

This is a picture of the back of my house in Canada, just before Christmas. You can see how much snow fell from the level on the barbeque and and tables.

This is a picture of the Christmas formal, before we opened our Christmas crackers.

Home to Canada!

Published on December 18, 2005 in December. 0 Comments

Sunday, December 18,2005

Hello,

I’m now home to Brockville for about a month for the holiday. Friday was a Christmas formal for Wills Hall. We all got Christmas crackers for the roast turkey dinner and afterwards sang Christmas carols. Last weekend I mostly just studied and wrote my essay for biochemistry on Saturday, then on Sunday played to hockey games. The first one we one 3-2 and the second tied 1-1. The first game I made some nice saves – I was warmed up really well because the other team got there late. I had a solid first half, but let in two goals in the second.

On Monday I took a break for the evening and we had a friendly hockey match against the doctors from BRI (BristolRoyalInfirmary) – doctors who have graduated 5th but are now in residency. We ended with a social – went out for drinks and curry. It was great, but I didn’t get done there till about 11:30pm. Then we headed down to a cool club at the waterfront where a friend was having her birthday. A whole bunch of people from my hall were there so it was just a good time, dancing to Christmas music. The club has a bunch of different rooms that play different music – one’s even made like a ski lodge with wood furniture and fireplaces – it’s just a neat club.

For the rest of the week I didn’t do much ‘cause I had my exams on Friday. On Tuesday I tried to do some Christmas shopping with little success. On Wednesday evening I went to the carol service in the Wills Chapel. I got to sing some Christmas Carols and listen to the Wills singers. I even found out that in England they sing, “O little town of Bethlehem” with to a different tune. It was much more melodic than the North American version. Afterwards we had some mince pies and mulled wine. I really liked mulled wine (sweet wine with spices)– it’s like apple cider in Canada, but it’s alcoholic.

Friday morning was our exam. Wrote histology first, I really have no clue how that went, it was really tough. Then, wrote Anatomy which I think went really well. Friday night I just socialized with the few that were left in the Wills. Firstly we went down to the bar for some cheap drinks and drinking games, and then headed out to the club. They played the usual cheesy music that everyone can sing to and then some Christmas tunes too (everyone loves the cheesy music!).

Managed to stay up till about 4am and still get to breakfast and on the bus to the train station by 9am. Then, as I just got my ticket and two trains were both leaving the station I ask the station man, “Is this the train to London?” The doors were practically closing. He said, “Yes, get on the train” I got on and the doors closed, looked up at the sign saying – to Newcastle, which is about a 6hr train ride north, when I planned to head to London (east) for my flight that very same day! I got off in Newport, Wales (Casnewydd-ar-Wysg) where I got to hear some people speaking Welsh for the first time – it was also my first and only time to go to Wales. I only spent a few minutes there and then got on a train to London. Got into Paddington Station and headed out to Heathrow where I still made it there 3 hrs early for my flight. It’s a good thing that I left early for London, or I’d probably still be stuck in England! My flight was okay, due to the smaller, older aircraft that Air Canada flies to Ottawa, I was situated as far back as I could from one of 3 projector screens on the entire plane. But, it was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which I’d already seen, so I didn’t mind the distance too much. The food was good and I had a nice woman beside me who actually had a conversation with me. You know how loads of time on planes you don’t say anything to the people you sit with? My parent were waiting there for me when I got in and we just headed home. I stayed up till about 11pm here, which is 4am in England.

So, now I’m in Brockville, where it’s a warm (-7 °C). There is about 12inches of snow or more on the ground and the people next door are out building snow forts. It’s kinda weird to see the snow after being in England where I could still go to dinner in Wills without wearing a coat (although England is fairly cold right now). It’s nice to see some snow now, and I can’t wait to get out skiing!

I’ll probably keep updating the site over the break, but I’ll be back in England on Jan 11th. Happy Holidays,

-Pete

Leicester, X-mas Party, Home in a Week!

Published on December 8, 2005 in December. 0 Comments

This is me at the medics’ christmas party with two of my mates and a pic of us going down to the party from Wills Hall on the bus. You can’t see it, but I was wearing an awesome snowman tie that played christmas music and flashed when you pressed the end of it!

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Hey,

Life is getting back to normal now, after being ill last week. I thought I was feeling better last Friday night when I went to formal, but I was still unable to eat much. I got better for Monday though by managing to take it easy over the weekend.

Saturday I went to Leicester. We went overnight because our game was on Sunday at 12:00pm but the rest of the Bristol teams were going up for games on Saturday. Leicester was great because I got to visit Allison! For friends who don’t know Allison, she’s practically the only Canadian I know from home in England, she’s from Brockville to and studying medicine. She took the time out of studying to give me a little tour around Leicester and to have a coffee (sounds kinda like a dating advert). I thought Leicester was a nice city (from what I saw), and campus. There was lots of huge Victorian style buildings and the city centre was all decked out for the holidays. Leicester is different in contrast to Bristol, it has a lot of red bricked buildings more like home, whereas Bristol has a lot of Sandstone buildings which are very beautiful, but it was nice to see something different. The only thing was that the centre was PACKED with people, I could barely move, but I was down there with a friend on the hockey team from Hong Kong and she said there was loads of space to move around compared to home (yah right!). The team went out Saturday night for drinks/clubbing/partying with the Leicester hockey medics. The people I was staying with were very nice and let me get into their house at like 10pm (I was still ill) so I could get a good nights sleep (I probably shouldn’t have gone away, being ill, but I had started to feel better and thought I could do it).

Sunday, they made us a full fried breakfast (I was staying with two other UoB medics), which was great and very generous! We then headed to the match. I had a pretty good game, saved loads and only let in 2 goals. I actually did a successful tackle out of the net for the first time! We won the game 6-2 (I think), a great match for us! I did manage to stop the ball (really hard plastic ball) with my inner thigh (where there is no padding) and am now sporting a nice, ugly, bruise. We got back around 4pm, and there was a sports club dinner for all the medics teams (so Rugby, hockey, netball, football medics’ teams were all there). They were serving pizza and a bottle of wine. After being ill all weekend, I decided it would be more beneficial to stay at home and get some rest.

Monday I went to class all day and learned stuff. Tuesday was my day off, I went into the library and got some work done then tried to do a bit of Christmas shopping which was unsuccessful. Tuesday night was the medic’s Christmas party. It was great – our society booked out an entire bar for the evening and it was all filled with medics. For £2.50 you got a small glass of champagne and a mini mince pie. Mince pies are a real tradition here at Christmas, my grandma used to always make them at home, so I’ve had them – but they don’t seem to be as big of an item in Canada, but I love ‘em. I had lots of fun, it’s great seeing everyone and wishing them a merry Christmas. The wine/beer was cheap and the music was awesome – just a great Christmas party.

On Wednesday I went to my physiology tutorial in the morning, we mostly took up homework and learned some things for our exam in January. Then after lecture I went to Rugby practice. I had fun, we just played touch Rugby for the practice, but it was great because I’m still figuring out the game (I don’t really do much on the pitch at the moment). I did manage to get a hold of the ball a few timea, and I did score a try – it wasn’t too much, as the play was already at the tri-line and I was just passed the ball, but I guess it was sort of my first one. I was pretty tired that night, and managed to get to sleep at like 9:30.

Today, I woke up late (8:20) after my long sleep and made my breakfast before heading to class (10:00 – so still loads of time). We had histology, which for the first time I found very interesting, for studying tissues, and I felt I really understood the lesson. The last histology sessions have been a little more vague. I had my epi tutorial in the afternoon which I also found interesting, but thought the time moved really slowly even though we were done by 4pm. Tonight I auditioned for the medic’s play next term – don’t know why I did it, but they are very good at making you do embarrassing things (I guess that’s what an audition’s all about). I had to read a passage, but I’ve never had to propose gay marriage or sing the Canadian national anthem in an interview before! It was a riot though, even for me.

Well, Christmas formal tomorrow (last one of the year). We’ve already got a huge conifer Christmas tree in the dining hall and one in the pub. I’ve got and essay due Monday and two exams next Friday to study for on the weekend. I think I’ve got a Rugby fun game an a hockey game too this weekend. Can’t believe I’m home in just over a week!

-Pete

This is my bedroom (looks messy, but I just have my books out) and my little ensuite bathroom, it’s not huge, but there’s more than enough space for 1 person.

I HATE BEING SICK!

Published on December 2, 2005 in December. 0 Comments

This is the older part of wills, this isn’t where I live, but it’s where I eat, they have HUGE rooms and the rooms are drafty, so orginally built with wood fireplaces, they now all have gas fireplaces to keep themselves warm.

This is a pasture we walked through at Mendips, see the beautiful cows!

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Wow, can’t believe it’s December already! November seemed to just fly by this year. There’s only about 2 weeks left of school before the holidays! I hate leaving updates to my site for almost a week, but I’ve been sick! Luckily, I had Tuesday off, and only one lecture on Wednesday that I was able to miss and get the notes off someone else. I was pretty much bed-ridden, a little nausea, but mostly just severe headache and fever. I went into the Student Health Services today with swollen tonsils and it was concluded that I have strep-throat, which I could have guessed because this is about the 3rd time I’ve had it. It’s more the fever than anything, it give me such a bad headache and stiff neck that I can feel it every few hours when the Ibuprofen wears off. My throat’s actually not too bad, as long as I keep drinking fluids it doesn’t get to sore. So yes, that’s been my week since Tuesday.

Saturday, I went hiking in the Mendips, just south of Bristol. It was pretty stunning scenery and mostly nice weather (sunny for about 4 hrs, then as what usually happens in Bristol RAIN!). But it was a good day. I was there with the expeditions society, so we had a map, with checkpoints and questions laid throughout the area. We had to get the questions and answer them and we had tasks to do at each of the checkpoints. It was awesome, tons of fun. It was neat too, some of the trails went through people’s farms, so we were just walking past cows, jumping over cow patties, leaving the gates open behind us (just kidding). Afterwards we went to a really classic English pub, I mean it was really dark, the walls were wood, there were wood fires burning, low ceilings, locals (most of whom had brought their dogs along for a pint) and loads of real English ale. I had a local ale, for the life of me I can remember, but it was really good. After returning home, I managed to eat a quick mean, get changed into my suit and still head out for a house party with the expeditions society after a day of hiking! Good times.

Sunday, I played two games of hockey in which we lost both, but should have won both. The first game was against the doctors from Frenchay hospital – we got to play at the campus of the University of Western England (UWE) which is also in Bristol, but it was kinda neat because they have a campus university (like Guelph in Canada) whereas University of Bristol is sorta scattered throughout the city (that’s why I don’t really take pics of the campus, because there really isn’t one!). So we played these doctors, who played well, but when we play most of the game in their end, we should’ve scored more goals then they did (maybe it’s my fault!). Same with the afternoon, we played one of the halls’ hockey teams and they beat us 1-0, and literally the whole game was in their and their goal went under my foot, which really pissed me off. We did stick around an practice afterwards, so I got to practice my dives, and tackles which were pretty fun (in turf hockey, the goalie can run out and sort of slide tackle the ball from the opponent (or just block it by lying down), only one problem, you’re on your ass if they manage to get around you! That’s why I need a bit of practice; I’m just sort of learning what to do. It was fun though.

Hopefully I’ll be better for this weekend. Bristol Medics are going to Leicester to play their medics’ teams. I’m hoping to catch up with Allison (only briefly, because I know she’s studying hard for exams, but I can’t wait to see her!).

-Later,
Pete

These are a picture from pub golf a while ago, this pic got sent to me so I thought I put it up here, and another pic from mendips from the highest point in the area, you could see the bristol channel and the mouth of the avon.

SNOW in Bristol!

Published on November 26, 2005 in November. 0 Comments

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

Poor ‘Ol Pete

Published on November 18, 2005 in November. 0 Comments

This is me at the pub after skating, sipping some Kronenbourg. Below that me at the Bristol skating rink. You can’t see my amazing plastic skates, but trust me, they were pretty amazing!

Friday, November 18, 2005

Hey,

So I’m sitting down to lunch today and the medics start taking the piss out of me (British for ‘making fun of me’) about getting my hair cut here. Then they start talking about me, until I realized that they were spewing out stuff from my weblog. Yes, apparently if you type in ‘Bristol’ and ‘medic(s)’ into Google, you get my webpage. Now, some people here have read it – and they’re making fun of the crap I wrote in the ‘about’ section, and about my weblog in general (for fun, not serious). I guess I must have been drunk when I wrote it, but I know it’s funny and it’s probably going to stay that way (yikes!). But, I am foreign, and I’m really getting used to people laughing at half the stuff I do. When I look back at what I wrote, I laugh too, I guess I’d have to make fun of me too! So bring it on people! Also, I may have to start an editorial column for people here to talk about me – we’ll see!

Not much doing since Tuesday. Wednesday: Got some needles (immunizations) the other day – so I missed my Rugby practice. Got a MMR for Rubella, because apparently I’m not immune since my last booster, and a hepatitis B booster. One in each arm. Due to the shots, I missed my Rugby practice. I went for a run afterwards, tough and some of the boys were out helping the girls medics practice where I was running, so I played a quick game with them and finished my jog. Afterwards I got to go skating. It actually felt a bit like home, except I was actually good a skating. Here, skating is something done less often, so you get rental skates that are dull as hell (I could barely push off without the blades sliding back). And, since no one skates, I was pretty good (whereas at home I’m pretty awful). It was awesome, I got to drag some people around the ice, throw some snowballs – and it felt a bit like winter at home. By the way I’m home in a month (Dec 17th)! Went out for a nice, warming pint afterwards. Thursday: School all day, came home, went to the bar in the evening for some live music and watched a bit of the movie Snatch with some of the people here, got up early today for class, long day, probably going out tonight, as it’s Friday.

Hope you have a great weekend,
-pete

Clear Skies

Published on November 16, 2005 in November. 0 Comments

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

‘Sup With Pete

Halfway through second term!

Tournament in Cannock

Formals, Burns’ Night, still having fun!

Back in Bristol – What a busy man!

Home to Canada!

Leicester, X-mas Party, Home in a Week!

I HATE BEING SICK!

SNOW in Bristol!

Poor ‘Ol Pete

Clear Skies

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