dealing with death... well sort of.

At the end of each PBL case, we are given a closing statement. It’s meant to wrap things up and give us “closure” if you will. for the most part, they are cheesy one liners like “mark was transferred to a metropolitan hospital” or “stephen leaves the hospital 4 days later with a management plan in place". This week was a little different. We had our first (hypothetical) patient die on us. I know this sound so wrong but, it was almost a bit of a relief. We’ve all been wondering for the past several weeks as to when they (the School of Medicine) were going to “kill” our first patient. It’s now happened and now we can move on.

More words from the grapevine.

Rumour has it that our class of 400 has dwindled down to about 360. We’re not even ½ way through 1st year and we’ve lost 10 percent. If we were to continue to lose people at this rate (let’s say 10% of the class per ½ year) then our graduating class in 2010 will be closer to 170 students. Don’t believe me? Do the math. Sure the rate is probably a gross over-estimate and a pointless calculation in the first place but I needed to clear my head of all this type 1 & 2 respiratory failure, asthma, emphysema, partial pressures of O2 & CO2 and other mumble jumble that my brain was getting bogged down with.

One student left because his wife got pregnant and the school wouldn’t let him defer his placement for a year.
Another student left because she decided med school just wasn’t for her and research was her calling.
Another student left for financial/personal/family reasons.

The thought of dropping out hadn’t really crossed my mind until I had heard this stat. don’t worry. I have absolutely no intentions of dropping out any time soon. I think my stubborn pride will keep me here til the bitter, bitter end. If not that, then the sun and the beach will!

aussie english lesson #4

It’s been almost a month since the last aussie-english lesson. You know what they say about languages.
If you don’t use it, you lose it.
SO…

1. Mossie bite – mosquito bite. “Damn mossies! I’ve got mossie bites everywhere!”

2. No drama – not a problem, not an issue. I first heard this being used by my surf instructor a couple of weekends ago. For example: “we’ll go through some basic skills as a group and then if you want to go and try to catch your own waves, that’s no drama”. Or “if you want us to take some pictures for you, that’s no drama”. No drama. I love it.

3. Goon – REALLY cheap wine. Can usually be purchased in a plastic pouch. How can I describe this… it comes in box. Within the box is a plastic pouch. The pouch usually holds like 6L of CHEAP wine. The pouch is attached to a little plastic tap. You set the box on a little ledge of some sort and pour yourself a glass.

4. Refectory – cafeteria. And as such, “meet me at the main caf” becomes, “meet me at the main refec”.

5. Bring a plate – potluck.
“I’m having a bring-a-plate at my place on Friday night. So, bring a plate!”

6. Chemist – pharmacy. I think they still call pharmacists, pharmacists. But the pharmacy is called a chemist. “I need to drop by the chemist to pick up some panadol” (which is Tylenol here in Oz).

7. Macca’s – short for McDonald’s. If you say MickeyD’s they won’t know what you’re talking about.

8. Bogen or yobbo: aussie term that has similar meaning and connotation as “hick” or “yokel” back home.

9. TAXI! – used in jest towards someone that knocks something over, trips, or does anything that is associated with alcohol intoxication. The clumsy person can be of any alcoholic state. So why do you yell out “TAXI”? well, the idea is that they are too drunk to function properly and you are calling them a taxi to send them home.

study hard!

just made my day

:D
check THIS out.
scroll down. see anyone familiar?

words from the grapevine

So the rumours are true.
For the last few weeks, if not months, there have been whispers that the school of medicine (SOM) will be ridding the second year program of REAL lectures and replacing them with on-line resources instead - mostly in the form of voice-over powerpoint presentations.
Some people are clearly unhappy and upset about this decision.
Some people are content.
Some don’t really care much.
Me? I’m not really sure how I feel about it all.

First let me give you some background information.
it seems as though the biggest push to go electronic is because of our class size. To make a really long story short, in previous years there have been a much larger clinical component to the course in second year. Simply put, there is no place to house 400 students for lectures in our clinical locations.
We’re assured that it will just be the lectures that go all “e-” on us. We will still have our clinical workshops, clinical communication skill sessions, PBL groups and our smaller clinical coaching sessions.

I like the idea of being able to access lectures when I want or need to. Having the power to stop and rewind the lecturer at the touch of a button is appealing. I’ve done a course back in undergrad over the internet and I didn’t mind it too much. I don’t think it really will change much. Those that regularly attend lectures will regularly download and watch lectures. Those that don’t, simply won’t.

You obviously can’t ask your computer screen questions as they come up (well, you could... doesn’t mean it’ll answer you though!) but that can be (and WILL be) alleviated by forums, e-mails and other means.
There is the whole social aspect. Seeing friends… interacting with other people… all very important.

But I think at this point what bothers me the most is the (imminent) stigma. There is already some stigma attached to our cohort for being the biggest class in all of Australia. Questions about the quality of education have already been raised. But now, we’ll have to deal with the stigma of getting our med degrees through the internet. Of course that’s not how it is, but surely that’s the way it’ll be portrayed in the media and that’s how the layperson will take it to be. how will this affect us when we're trying to match for competitive residency programs?

And how will this REALLY affect the quality of our education? I guess we’ll just have to see in 4 years right?

One student brought up a good point. This is not something that was hatched overnight. We should’ve known about this earlier. As a matter of fact we should’ve known about this before we accepted our offers. I can’t help but agree. and if I DID know of this before, would I be here?

tough choice

it's not like i have to decide tomorrow.
but i think i've narrowed it down to 3 possibilities.
1. GP
2. emergency med
3. paeds
probably in that order.
pretty random i know. meh.

day 5.

Got up bright and early and caught a shuttle bus to the airport.
Flight was at 7am so I got there by 6am. And what do you know, there was a flight at 6:30am with some empty seats. I caught that instead and saved myself an extra 30 minutes of bumming around the terminal.

I really enjoyed Sydney.
It’s a mix of Boston (the harbour), New York City (Central park), a little bit of Montreal (St. Catherine’s Street) and something else. Something that I just can’t seem to place my finger on. But I like it!

So what do I have to show for my 5 day trip in Sydney?
Well…
I’m home with a full stomach of food and have satisfied my cravings for Korean.
I’ve had barrels of laughs.
Made tons of memories.
Made some good friends and strengthened my relationship with others.
Have more pictures than I could possibly print out. At last count it was around 420.
Besides that?
Well, I did pick up a little something for myself…

for those of you that REALLY know me, you’ll know that I have a bit of a soft spot for snow globes. Now I’m fully aware that they are completely useless and really a waste of space. But I’m just a sucker for a good snow globe. Now I’ve been hesitant to let too many people know about my secret love. mostly out of fear. Not fear of ridicule. But rather, fear of being cursed with horrid and ugly looking snow globes as gifts for the rest of my life. Mark my words. I do NOT want a snow globe for Christmas, for my birthday, for Valentine’s day, for father’s day (in the future) or for any other occasion!

Kudos to ethan for driving me to the airport on Wednesday morning.
Kudos and a big sloppy kiss on the cheek for jules for letting me crash at her place for the last 4 nights.

School has started up again.
I can honestly say that I am refreshed and ready to take on another block of readings, library sessions and endless PBL sessions.
I am looking forward to this block. only 7 weeks until my first mid-year exam and my WINTER break. I know, winter in june?!?!

OH!
something i forgot to mention.
on day 2 i hugged the REAL "free hugs" guy.
don't believe me? here's proof!

if you don't know who the "free hugs" guy is - how can you not know? the man has been on OPRAH for crying out loud!!! - watch the video or check out his site ( http://www.freehugscampaign.org/ ).

day 4.

Went to the fish market.
the fish market in Sydney is the second largest in the world. Only behind the one in Tokyo, Japan.
It was definitely big and there were plenty of fish of different colours, sizes and smells. But it wasn’t as expansive as I had imagined. I thought it would be this huge maze of shop after shop after shop. Not quite.

mmm...


i can only wonder how big the WHOLE fish was.


pucker up!


so many fishies.


It was only 11:30am but looking at all the fresh fish and the smell of fish and chips started to tickle my taste buds. I decided that resistance would be futile and ordered myself some fish and chips. $5 got me a huge piece of fish and a mountain of fries.

It was delicious. I’m not sure if it was the best fish n’ chips I’ve ever had but they were pretty darn good.

After seeing all those dead fish.
I decided to head to the aquarium to look at some LIVE fish.
I’ve been saving the aquarium for a rainy day (literally). But I’ve actually been very fortunate with the weather. It has been sunny every day with the temperatures around mid-20s. just perfect for walking around and touring the city. Not too hot and definitely not too cold.

to get to the aquarium, i walked through darling harbour.


As with everything else in Sydney there is an admission fee for the aquarium. Your student ID gets you a small discount - $19 for a day pass. And let me just say this. It is worth EVERY penny. I loved it.

here's me and bruce!


i assure you that THAT is not a rubber crocodile.


who knows how to tell a crocodile and an alligator apart? by it's size? no. by it's snout? no. the most reliable way to tell them apart is to look at their teeth. with alligators, the lower teeth fit in under the upper "lip". so when an alligator closes its mouth you can only see it's TOP teeth. whereas with crocs you can see both the top and bottom teeth when the mouth is closed. see my visit to the aquarium WAS an educational experience!

these are called "little penguins". seriously.

they were SO cute!

there were also seals... he blinked!

another neat little fact: do you know why seals wave their fins in the air while swimming? it's for heat-regulation. their fins are the only part that don't have any hair. and so, they wave it in the air to cool off!

and SHARKS!


i actually touched a shark.

this is a port-jackson shark. it is just a little baby. just 8 months old. they don't get terribly big, just a few feet at most. and they have teeth that are more like our molars. i was expecting it to be slippery and slimey. it was actually a little bit like sandpaper.

later that night some friends and i went out for dinner and then for drinks at the belgian beer cafe.
among other things, i had a little sampler. those look like full pints but they were actually little 100mL glasses. i SWEAR!



the gang: stephen, grace, tina and jules. stephen is a toronto boy here for teacher's college. grace and jules are here for dentistry. tina is a local finishing up her degree in pharmacy.

i think this was my favorite day.

day 3.

i met up with some friends (remember my german friends victoria and sarah?), jumped on the ferry and headed for manly beach.
the ferry gave us some great views.




when we got to manly,


we bought some food and had a picnic on the beach.
the girls had their salads.


and i had my foccacia calabrese. you KNOW i don't eat no salad!


we spent the rest of the day on the beach.


the beach was pretty cool. but it definitely wasn't as good as the ones on the coast. what can i say? i'm spoiled that way.


when the sun went down, we grabbed some dinner and then headed back to the city. but not before dessert of course!


the pictures didn't quite come out as nicely as i would've liked them to, but the bridge and the opera house sure were pretty under the stars.



this is at about 6:30pm on a friday night.

think all those people are still working? probably forgot to turn the lights off, that's my guess!

day 2.

After a good night’s sleep, I headed back up towards the quays.
This time I took a different route.
On my way up I went into the botanical gardens...


the state library...

the libray was quite impressive


it also has the only copy of darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES in its original binding, held in any public collection in australia.


pretty cool.

and then through hyde park...

hyde park is no where near the size of central park in new york but there are parts of hyde that remind me of central. Like this:

also, the whole concept of having so much green space so close to the heart of the city reminds me of new york.

i also came across this statue.
apparently it was put up in my honour.

look just behind my head. it reads: "albert the good". :D

i then made my way to this building called the queen victoria building.
it is a beautiful victorian style buidling that's been turned into a shopping centre.
i have never seen such a beautiful 'mall' in my life.
it's got great big winding stairs with stained-glass windows.


giant clocks


and just has this real victorian feel to it.




On Thursday night, I went to a john mayer concert.

Now I’ve never really been a huge fan of john mayer. Not that I disliked him but to me he was just another musician. But after a few days of listening to his CDs (in preparation for this concert of course), I must say that he’s really started to grow on me.
I had a really good time at the concert. it was john in his jeans and t-shirt and his guitar. no fancy costumes. no fancy video show. just him and his band. And after hearing him live, it almost makes me want to pick up my guitar again. I can just hear my mom and dad saying “I TOLD YOU SO!”


Look how happy Julie is.
She now has no regrets. She has let john know how she feels about him - she was one of many girls (and boys) to yell out “I love you john!” during his performance.
Now the ball is in john’s court (Julie is on a first name basis with john. And well, so am i).
Let me know how that works out for ya jules!

After the concert, we just kind of stumbled on the back door of the building. There were heaps of people with their cameras ready and their faces pressed against the fence.

They were obviously waiting for john.
First to walk out was Jessica. Well I was convinced that it was Jessica. And after having witnessed julie’s bravado, I decided to follow suit. i told Jessica that I loved her and asked her to marry me.
So it was all in all a good day for jules and i. we both got some important things off of our chest. we’ll just wait and see as to how john and Jessica want to play this.

BUT the next morning we were watching the morning news and turns out elle mcpherson is in Sydney promoting her new lingerie collection. In retrospect, I think it was elle and not Jessica at john’s concert. Oh well.

sydney re-cap

so I’m back.
My trip to Sydney was an absolute blast. And I’m exhausted. I flew out of Brisbane on Wednesday morning and I just got home a few hours ago.
but it feels good to be home. that's right. i now refer to brisbane as home. don't worry though, toronto will always be HOME-home.

DAY 1.
The flight to Sydney went over without a hitch.
I even made it through the metal detector in one try.
I don’t think I told you guys this but during my flight from Toronto to Sydney, I had to walk through the metal detector at least a half dozen times. It kept beeping! On top of removing everything from my pockets, I had to remove my wristwatch, take my belt off and even take my shoes off! It was like that kayne west video “all falls down”. I thought I was either going to have to strip down to my socks or they were going to run me through the x-ray machine!

ANYWAYS…
I made my way from the airport to the city via a quick 11-minute train ride. (Toronto really needs to have the subway link to the airport; enough of this bus to the airport business). When the train pulled in, I was amazed to notice that it was a double decker train. As you walk into the car, there are stairs that lead up and down. I decided to go down. It’s kind of cool. Your eye level is at the feet of the people waiting on the platform. But as quickly as I was impressed with the whole double decker deal, I also noticed the smell and the dirt of the subway car. The best way to describe sydney’s trains is to say that they remind me of the ones in new york. If you’ve ever been on the subway in new york city, you know what I mean.

i then made my way from the trains to the bus stops to catch the bus to my friend’s place. As I walked through a long tunnel, all I could think about was how fast everyone was walking! After spending the past 3 months of my life living in the SUBURBS of Brisbane, I felt like a country boy in the city.

After dropping my stuff off at julie’s place, she gave me a tour of the university of Sydney.


So this is the Fischer library. It is said to have the biggest collection of books in the southern hemisphere. It doesn’t look worthy of having such a title.


Don’t you love aussies and their sense of humour?


It was kind of weird walking around thinking that this could’ve very well been MY campus.

Afterwards, I headed north towards the city and the quays.
I took the requisite pictures in front of the opera house and the harbour bridge.


that's the harbour bridge in the background. now i was initially planning to climb the harbour bridge but it was so expensive. to climb it during the day it's something like $160. if you want a romantic twilight climb, that price jumps up to $240. what the heck? it just wasn't worth it.


and the famous opera house.

Here’s a tip for all of you that are traveling by yourself.
When asking a stranger to take a picture for you, try and pick someone that is carrying a REAL camera. I’m talking about one of those SLR camera and not the point-and-shoot ones that everyone above the age of 12 has. Trust me. It’s worth the extra effort. A real photographer will take the effort to at least centre the picture for you. I have so many pics that were taken by strangers in which I or the building is not centered and/or cut-off.

i spent the rest of the day walking around sydney.
sydney's got so many beautiful buildings. here is just a little snippet.


this is sydney town hall. it's not a town hall where they hold town meeting and stuff like that - but perhaps they did a long time ago.


it's actually used for organ concerts. it's got this HUGE organ. i am told that the grand organ has 8,000 pipes!


chandelier hanging in the foyer of town hall.

i walked up and down and all over sydney. i felt like i had walked half way across the world. and on several occasions, i thought i was back in toronto.




later that day i met up with julie for some much needed korean food.
we decided to go for korean bbq. needless to say, it was good!

we then took a little stroll down to darling harbour. pictures really don't do this place justice.