this week is my mid-semester break. after this week, it's lockdown mode. 9 more weeks of class and then FINALS!!!
what do i have planned? not much actually. i'm actually going to try and get some work in, tie up some housekeeping stuff (sign up for USMLEs, do my taxes) and just stick around the city to take in some of the brissy culture (picasso exhibition at the art gallery, rock climbing, a brisbane broncos rugby league game). that's the plan.
i do plan on doing some reading though. some non-med-related reading. sort of. today i finished off this book called "the house of god" by samuel shem (pseudonym for stephen bergman). it's this ancient book, and by ancient i mean from the late 70s... about the life of an intern. i read it cause it kept coming up... my clinical coach mentioned it, ifinding mentions it, older med students have mentioned it... i guess you could liken it to vincent lam's "bloodletting and miraculous cures". that book - although, in my opinion was not very good and unworthy of the giller prize - is unofficially considered to be a must-read for all life sci/"pre-med" students at UofT.
i'm told "house of god" is mandatory reading for all med students and interns. it starts off quite cynical and vulgar but in the end i can see what all the hype is about. in the end it's sort of romantic. a little bit of a love story. i enjoyed it.
on an unrelated note... the NFL season starts this week. and many are predicting the dallas cowboys to win it all. romo-owens-barber. are these the new "triplets" that'll take us back to the good ol' days of the early-mid 90s? maybe.
Showing posts with label non-med books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label non-med books. Show all posts
Monday, September 1, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
excerpts from "an imperfect offering" by james orbinski
pat had left this book for me when he came to visit. it's written by dr.orbinski, a toronto doctor who was at one point the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières. he writes about his experiences in various war-torn countries around the world - in particular rwanda. although it reads like a history textbook in some parts, there were about a dozen pages or so that i dog-eared and i just wanted to share a few of these with you here. if you get a chance, it's worth a read.
life isn't fair. (page 57)
" one day i was in a small village near Mugonero to help with a polio vaccination campaign. the clinic was in the middle of the village, and because our jeep had broken down on the way we were an hour late. babies were crying. the air was humid and heavy with the heat. still, mothers had come from all the neighbouring villages and lined up in the hundreds with their infants to get the vaccine. we'd been working for about an hour when one mother gently pushed her baby boy into my chest. he was beautiful, and so was she. she held his leg out to me. it was limp. i took the boy, and he smiled at me. he was a fat and happy baby who smelled of soap. his mother started to speak, and the nurse translated, telling me that his mother wanted me to fix his leg. she said he couldn't crawl like the other children and had been dragging the leg behind him for the last few weeks. i looked at the boy's health card as he played with my stethoscope. he had already had two doses of the vaccine. this was to be his final booster. twice his mother had bathed him in the morning and walked miles to stand all day to get him the vaccine, and twice the vaccine had failed. the problem had to be the cold chain - the vaccine had to be kept cold right up until it was used, otherwise it deteriorated. the boy started to cry, wanting to go back to his mother. "she has three daughters. he's her only son," the nurse said. i explained as gently as i could that the leg was never going to work properly. the mother stepped back from me as i spoke, holding her now happy baby to her chest. rwandans rarely cry in public. for a brief moment, tears came down her cheeks. i reached out to touch her arm. i noticed the calluses on her hands as her son wriggled to turn to face me. i felt my own soft white palms with my fingers. through the translating nurse i suggested that when the boy was older the mother could bring him to the Mugonero Hospital to see about a brace. she listened carefully, saying, "nnn, ehhh," and finally "yego" as the nurse spoke.
the nurse told me that the mother had cried because she knew her some would be a bicycle-chair boy. "but he can go to school too," i said. "no," said the nurse, "they don't have the money for both." by now the mother's few tears had dried, leaving faint white salt marks on her black face. she bowed her head to me, turned and walked away to some waiting friends. i left the line to buy a fanta, and it started to rain. the drink had been kept cold in the cooler at the roadside stand. i sat down on a big rock. the children laughed at the muzungu sitting in the rain while michael jackson's "thriller" played on a battery-powered ghetto blaster. the clinica can't keep the fucking vaccine cold, i thought, and i hoped that the rain would mask my tears. "
only humans. (page 253)
" she said that she had escaped being killed by the Interahamwe. "my mother hid me in the latrine. i saw through the hole. i watched them hit her with machetes. the men were angry and strong. i watched my mother's arm fall into my father's blood on the floor and i cried without noise in the toilet." i listened to her and watched her lips quiver as her words came at a slow, staccato tempo. i watched her brown eyes look away as tears dropped to her cheeks and i could not stop my own.
at that moment, i felt both despair and rage. despair that she knew intimately our capacity for the most extreme rational cruelty; that she was alone. animals could never do this. animals can be brutal, but only humans can be rationally cruel. we can choose anything, we can be anything, we can get used to anything, i thought. only humans can be evil. only humans can make this choice. i felt my heart pounding and i wanted a gun. i wanted to kill the men who had done this to her. i wanted to pull the trigger again and again and again. my heart was racing; i was fighting my tears, gasping for air, for freshness, for something other than this. then eli clasped my arm with his strong hands. i felt an overpowering despair for the little girl, for myself, for all of us - that we can be alone, trapped in our passions, in our reasons, in our minds, in our politics, that i and those men could be so angry and strong. "
because we can. (page 349)
" at one point during one of our meetings the minister had expressed his fascination with 'you MSF fellows and ladies. why do you do it?' he asked.
i replied immediately, 'because we can.' "
life isn't fair. (page 57)
" one day i was in a small village near Mugonero to help with a polio vaccination campaign. the clinic was in the middle of the village, and because our jeep had broken down on the way we were an hour late. babies were crying. the air was humid and heavy with the heat. still, mothers had come from all the neighbouring villages and lined up in the hundreds with their infants to get the vaccine. we'd been working for about an hour when one mother gently pushed her baby boy into my chest. he was beautiful, and so was she. she held his leg out to me. it was limp. i took the boy, and he smiled at me. he was a fat and happy baby who smelled of soap. his mother started to speak, and the nurse translated, telling me that his mother wanted me to fix his leg. she said he couldn't crawl like the other children and had been dragging the leg behind him for the last few weeks. i looked at the boy's health card as he played with my stethoscope. he had already had two doses of the vaccine. this was to be his final booster. twice his mother had bathed him in the morning and walked miles to stand all day to get him the vaccine, and twice the vaccine had failed. the problem had to be the cold chain - the vaccine had to be kept cold right up until it was used, otherwise it deteriorated. the boy started to cry, wanting to go back to his mother. "she has three daughters. he's her only son," the nurse said. i explained as gently as i could that the leg was never going to work properly. the mother stepped back from me as i spoke, holding her now happy baby to her chest. rwandans rarely cry in public. for a brief moment, tears came down her cheeks. i reached out to touch her arm. i noticed the calluses on her hands as her son wriggled to turn to face me. i felt my own soft white palms with my fingers. through the translating nurse i suggested that when the boy was older the mother could bring him to the Mugonero Hospital to see about a brace. she listened carefully, saying, "nnn, ehhh," and finally "yego" as the nurse spoke.
the nurse told me that the mother had cried because she knew her some would be a bicycle-chair boy. "but he can go to school too," i said. "no," said the nurse, "they don't have the money for both." by now the mother's few tears had dried, leaving faint white salt marks on her black face. she bowed her head to me, turned and walked away to some waiting friends. i left the line to buy a fanta, and it started to rain. the drink had been kept cold in the cooler at the roadside stand. i sat down on a big rock. the children laughed at the muzungu sitting in the rain while michael jackson's "thriller" played on a battery-powered ghetto blaster. the clinica can't keep the fucking vaccine cold, i thought, and i hoped that the rain would mask my tears. "
only humans. (page 253)
" she said that she had escaped being killed by the Interahamwe. "my mother hid me in the latrine. i saw through the hole. i watched them hit her with machetes. the men were angry and strong. i watched my mother's arm fall into my father's blood on the floor and i cried without noise in the toilet." i listened to her and watched her lips quiver as her words came at a slow, staccato tempo. i watched her brown eyes look away as tears dropped to her cheeks and i could not stop my own.
at that moment, i felt both despair and rage. despair that she knew intimately our capacity for the most extreme rational cruelty; that she was alone. animals could never do this. animals can be brutal, but only humans can be rationally cruel. we can choose anything, we can be anything, we can get used to anything, i thought. only humans can be evil. only humans can make this choice. i felt my heart pounding and i wanted a gun. i wanted to kill the men who had done this to her. i wanted to pull the trigger again and again and again. my heart was racing; i was fighting my tears, gasping for air, for freshness, for something other than this. then eli clasped my arm with his strong hands. i felt an overpowering despair for the little girl, for myself, for all of us - that we can be alone, trapped in our passions, in our reasons, in our minds, in our politics, that i and those men could be so angry and strong. "
because we can. (page 349)
" at one point during one of our meetings the minister had expressed his fascination with 'you MSF fellows and ladies. why do you do it?' he asked.
i replied immediately, 'because we can.' "
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
yes! we have a home!
our rental application was FINALLY approved. YAY! it took them nearly 4 business days to process the darn thing. geez. any longer and you'd think they were building a house from scratch! but all's well that ends well. it's the house that we wanted. i will post pictures up soon but it's this new brick house (not a queenslander) with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, 2 bath - all upstairs and then another self-contained unit with kitchen, bath & laundry facilities downstairs. yay!! we should be moving in this weekend.
in other news...
been watching a fair bit of tennis lately. only because the australian open is on practically 24 hours of the day. watched Roger Federer's 5 set win over Janko Tipsarevic. that was nerve-wracking. i don't think i've ever seen federer so shaky, his game seemed so... incomplete.
also watched Ana Ivanovic beat Katarina Srebotnik a couple of nights ago. a couple of things i've noticed about ana:
1. she's a cutie ;)
2. she always bounces the ball 4 times before her first serve and 5 times before her second serve. yes. we counted.
speaking of women's tennis, i have a question for the female tennis players out there. when a female tennis player takes 2 tennis balls before her first serve, they usually put one under their skirt. now where does this ball go? and what keeps it from falling out? do they have a little clip for the tennis ball? are their panties made out of velcro so that the tennis ball sticks to it? does it get tucked UNDER their underwear? where? where does it go?!?!
i finished The Time Traveler's Wife. it was good. really good. but if you haven't read it yet, don't. it's good but oh-so-sad. ok. so maybe i'm just being a big sap. so many parts of this book reminded me of... well, me.
in other news...
been watching a fair bit of tennis lately. only because the australian open is on practically 24 hours of the day. watched Roger Federer's 5 set win over Janko Tipsarevic. that was nerve-wracking. i don't think i've ever seen federer so shaky, his game seemed so... incomplete.
also watched Ana Ivanovic beat Katarina Srebotnik a couple of nights ago. a couple of things i've noticed about ana:
1. she's a cutie ;)
2. she always bounces the ball 4 times before her first serve and 5 times before her second serve. yes. we counted.
speaking of women's tennis, i have a question for the female tennis players out there. when a female tennis player takes 2 tennis balls before her first serve, they usually put one under their skirt. now where does this ball go? and what keeps it from falling out? do they have a little clip for the tennis ball? are their panties made out of velcro so that the tennis ball sticks to it? does it get tucked UNDER their underwear? where? where does it go?!?!
i finished The Time Traveler's Wife. it was good. really good. but if you haven't read it yet, don't. it's good but oh-so-sad. ok. so maybe i'm just being a big sap. so many parts of this book reminded me of... well, me.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
warning: monster post ahead.
picked up a few books from a girl who just finished her intern year and was looking to get rid of her textbook stash. i managed to pick up...
-o'callaghan and brenner's kidney at a glance
-rohen's color atlas of anatomy and
-davidson's priciples & practice of medicine.
all for $50. some of them are slightly older editions but $50! i'm happy.
i then walked around the CBD (central business district) with a camera in hand, looking like a major tourist. i don't think i've ever put up any pictures of downtown brisbane. have i? well here are a few...
WAIT! before i get to the CBD, i don't think i've ever posted up a picture of the med school either...
from there i jumped on the busway and headed towards the city.
first things first. this is my favorite gelato place in brisbane. probably just as good as "hollywood gelato" on bayview in toronto.
the gelato place is just across the street from brisbane city hall and the museum of brisbane.
this stately looking building USED to be the state treasury building. it now houses brisbane's conrad treasury casino & hotel. oh well.
queen street is probably the equivalent of yonge street back in toronto. however it's a pedestrian-only street. it's kind of cool. there are restaurants down the middle of the street with stores lined up on either side. there's always at least 1 street performer trying to make a living. today there were 2. one guy that climbed poles and did hand-stands on them...
and another playing a didgeridoo.
ok. that's the end of our brisbane tour for the day.
i know. i know. this is my 4th post in 4 days.
a blogging friend says that she blogs when she's bored or upset. i blog when i'm bored, when i need to procrastinate, when i just want to share something and sometimes - just sometimes, when i'm homesick. like when i post about what i'd like to eat and stuff like that. don't worry. i'm not homesick now.
homesickness - such a weird thing. kind of like lovesickness. it comes and goes in waves. one moment you're fine and then BAM! suddenly it hits you. like last night, i was watching the movie "man of the year" with robin williams. good movie. it was shot in toronto. no doubt about that, you can see UTS, king college circle, metro toronto convention centre, what looks like the gym of leaside high school, what used to be a ford dealership on lawrence & birchmount... i love watching movies that are shot in toronto & trying to figure out exactly where they shot it. everyone knows "good will hunting" has severals scenes in one of the lecture halls of MP (McLennan Physical Laboratories) at UofT. you can see forest hill p.s. and its lawn in vin diesel's "pacifier". adam brody's "in the land of women" - not a particularly good movie by the way, has a scene in yorkdale's food court. ok. i'm getting carried away. what i was gonna say was that while watching that movie, i got strangely homesick. seeing all those toronto sites, kind of made me miss home. weird. that's never happened before...
in other news... of course now that i'm abroad, i find myself visiting, tsn, the globe & mail, the star and the like more frequently. and it's not just me. other friends that are away from toronto confess to taking greater interest in what's going on in toronto than they did while they were living there! is it just because we don't want to be completely disconnected? again, i'm getting distracted. what i actually wanted to direct your attention to was this article. crazy no? sounds like something out of some wacky korean drama!
oh! one more thing. finished coupland's "the gum thief". if you haven't read it yet, don't bother. seriously. now "the time traveler's wife" on the other hand is fantastic. i've just started it. i should have picked it up when she first recommended it.
-o'callaghan and brenner's kidney at a glance
-rohen's color atlas of anatomy and
-davidson's priciples & practice of medicine.
all for $50. some of them are slightly older editions but $50! i'm happy.
i then walked around the CBD (central business district) with a camera in hand, looking like a major tourist. i don't think i've ever put up any pictures of downtown brisbane. have i? well here are a few...
WAIT! before i get to the CBD, i don't think i've ever posted up a picture of the med school either...
from there i jumped on the busway and headed towards the city.
first things first. this is my favorite gelato place in brisbane. probably just as good as "hollywood gelato" on bayview in toronto.
the gelato place is just across the street from brisbane city hall and the museum of brisbane.
this stately looking building USED to be the state treasury building. it now houses brisbane's conrad treasury casino & hotel. oh well.
queen street is probably the equivalent of yonge street back in toronto. however it's a pedestrian-only street. it's kind of cool. there are restaurants down the middle of the street with stores lined up on either side. there's always at least 1 street performer trying to make a living. today there were 2. one guy that climbed poles and did hand-stands on them...
and another playing a didgeridoo.
ok. that's the end of our brisbane tour for the day.
i know. i know. this is my 4th post in 4 days.
a blogging friend says that she blogs when she's bored or upset. i blog when i'm bored, when i need to procrastinate, when i just want to share something and sometimes - just sometimes, when i'm homesick. like when i post about what i'd like to eat and stuff like that. don't worry. i'm not homesick now.
homesickness - such a weird thing. kind of like lovesickness. it comes and goes in waves. one moment you're fine and then BAM! suddenly it hits you. like last night, i was watching the movie "man of the year" with robin williams. good movie. it was shot in toronto. no doubt about that, you can see UTS, king college circle, metro toronto convention centre, what looks like the gym of leaside high school, what used to be a ford dealership on lawrence & birchmount... i love watching movies that are shot in toronto & trying to figure out exactly where they shot it. everyone knows "good will hunting" has severals scenes in one of the lecture halls of MP (McLennan Physical Laboratories) at UofT. you can see forest hill p.s. and its lawn in vin diesel's "pacifier". adam brody's "in the land of women" - not a particularly good movie by the way, has a scene in yorkdale's food court. ok. i'm getting carried away. what i was gonna say was that while watching that movie, i got strangely homesick. seeing all those toronto sites, kind of made me miss home. weird. that's never happened before...
in other news... of course now that i'm abroad, i find myself visiting, tsn, the globe & mail, the star and the like more frequently. and it's not just me. other friends that are away from toronto confess to taking greater interest in what's going on in toronto than they did while they were living there! is it just because we don't want to be completely disconnected? again, i'm getting distracted. what i actually wanted to direct your attention to was this article. crazy no? sounds like something out of some wacky korean drama!
oh! one more thing. finished coupland's "the gum thief". if you haven't read it yet, don't bother. seriously. now "the time traveler's wife" on the other hand is fantastic. i've just started it. i should have picked it up when she first recommended it.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
first few days back.
this is my home for the next week or so. just until i find some permanent digs.
yes, it's true. i have not unpacked. why would i? i'm gonna be moving in a few days again!
typical dorm room really. there's a kitchen downstairs and a washroom/shower just down the hall. the best thing is that there's a room cleaning service - they change your sheets, vacuum the floor and empty out your garbage. better enjoy it while i can. don't think any of my future roommates will be too keen to vacuum my bedroom once a week for the upcoming year!
let's see. what else. just finished "the memory keeper's daughter" by kim edwards. i really enjoyed it. sad, but a really great book.
next up is either douglas coupland's The Gum Thief or audrey niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. hm... there's really no fair way to pick. so...
eenie---meenie---minie---mo!
looks like it's coupland first.
yes, it's true. i have not unpacked. why would i? i'm gonna be moving in a few days again!
typical dorm room really. there's a kitchen downstairs and a washroom/shower just down the hall. the best thing is that there's a room cleaning service - they change your sheets, vacuum the floor and empty out your garbage. better enjoy it while i can. don't think any of my future roommates will be too keen to vacuum my bedroom once a week for the upcoming year!
let's see. what else. just finished "the memory keeper's daughter" by kim edwards. i really enjoyed it. sad, but a really great book.
next up is either douglas coupland's The Gum Thief or audrey niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. hm... there's really no fair way to pick. so...
eenie---meenie---minie---mo!
looks like it's coupland first.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
euphoria...
don't want to jinx myself but i feel like the exam went well.
We don’t get our marks back for another 4-6 weeks though. Bummer. All that I can really do at this point is enjoy my 3 week break. and THAT i plan on doing. i'm so happy. feels good to have that first one under my belt.
What am I going to do with my 3 weeks of sheer freedom? i actually feel like i don't know what to do with myself. i've spent the last several weeks studying ferociously. now without that constant need to study, i don't know where to go from here.
Well... there are a couple of non-med books that I’ve been itching to read. Philippe Legrain’s “Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them” and Douglas Coupland’s “Life After God” have been calling me from the edge of my desk begging to be read for the past couple of weeks.
I also need to find a new place to live for next term. To make a long story short, my current place requires that I sign another 6-month lease contract in the middle of July. That would take me into mid January. Since I don’t plan on being here for the months of November and December and ½ of January, I find it pointless to waste 2.5 months of rent.
Oh! And I almost forgot. I’m going to sail the seas! Haha! Some friends and I are heading up to Whitsundays during the last week of June. We’re going to rent a catamaran and sail around for about a week. I kid you not. I can’t wait!!
To kick things off we're going out for some steak tonight. STEAK! STEAK! STEAK!! to celebrate our first term of med school (we're one-eighth of the way there!) and celebrate our friend matt's birthday (which was yesterday).
We don’t get our marks back for another 4-6 weeks though. Bummer. All that I can really do at this point is enjoy my 3 week break. and THAT i plan on doing. i'm so happy. feels good to have that first one under my belt.
What am I going to do with my 3 weeks of sheer freedom? i actually feel like i don't know what to do with myself. i've spent the last several weeks studying ferociously. now without that constant need to study, i don't know where to go from here.
Well... there are a couple of non-med books that I’ve been itching to read. Philippe Legrain’s “Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them” and Douglas Coupland’s “Life After God” have been calling me from the edge of my desk begging to be read for the past couple of weeks.
I also need to find a new place to live for next term. To make a long story short, my current place requires that I sign another 6-month lease contract in the middle of July. That would take me into mid January. Since I don’t plan on being here for the months of November and December and ½ of January, I find it pointless to waste 2.5 months of rent.
Oh! And I almost forgot. I’m going to sail the seas! Haha! Some friends and I are heading up to Whitsundays during the last week of June. We’re going to rent a catamaran and sail around for about a week. I kid you not. I can’t wait!!
To kick things off we're going out for some steak tonight. STEAK! STEAK! STEAK!! to celebrate our first term of med school (we're one-eighth of the way there!) and celebrate our friend matt's birthday (which was yesterday).
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