Miss Potter and the Northern Hemisphere Winter

After Matilda, I pulled an all-nighter to try and get my sleeping patterns in line with Australian time. Also, I was in an 8-person dormitory and didn't want to wake everyone up at 4:30am with my phone's alarm. Besides, the common room was surprisingly comfortable and I had access to plenty of power points. Only once did someone try to make unwanted conversation with me. It helped that I only got back from the theatre around 23:00, so by the time I was packed and showered, it was quite close to midnight so I only had a few more hours to go. My parents helped by keeping me on Skype for most of it. Also Mr Ravenclaw sent me a couple of cute texts.

Instead of a cab to the airport, the YHA booked me a hired car which was only 32 pounds as opposed to 60-70 for a minicab. I fell asleep for most of the journey to Heathrow, where we arrived before 5:30. So I basically didn't have to queue for anything. I sped through the VAT refunds, the check-in, and the security counters. Terminal 4, where Etihad takes off from, isn't the biggest terminal, so it didn't have that many opportunities for me to further work my debit card. I did get some things from Harrods though, because you can't get them in Australia, they're good quality (given that the bag I bought for my mum in 2005 is still going strong despite her using it at least weekly), and they were sightly cheaper than usual due to being duty-free.

I was also hungry so I had some porridge from "apostrophe cafe". Porridge always makes me feel so English. I still had time to kill so I wandered over to a newsagent and ended up buying a 2-pound copy of Cosmo UK. (What?!? I like the fashion sections!)

As soon as I settled into my seat on the first flight to Abu Dhabi, I fell asleep. I literally only woke up when my food came (earlier than everyone else's because I order veg meals...it's easier than specifying no red meat and no processed meats). And there was a ridiculous amount of food - for some reason, Etihad consider sandwiches to be snacks. Seriously? I thought a snack was a teaspoon-sized packet of peanuts. I did wake up properly for the landing though, which was annoying because some baby screamed continuously for about 20 minutes while we descended and the air pressure changed. And you know how crying is contagious with babies? Something about how the hive response will save them from danger if I recall correctly? Yeah, it wasn't pretty. 

I've never flown through Abu Dhabi before so I didn't know what to expect. I was faced with a 10-minute trek through the airport to the "Transfers" area, where all our hand luggage had to be re-scanned. I was actually afraid that I'd be slow to my transfer, but they were surprisingly efficient (they didn't make us unpack our bags and take our laptops/liquids out for inspection, and very few people had to walk back through the metal detector a second time).

The second flight was the long one. But it was a really good 14 hours! I had the window seat and one guy had the aisle seat and there was nobody between us! Furthermore, the two kids in front of us (a baby boy and a preschool-age girl) were beautifully behaved. They dropped a few things (pillows, socks, etc) behind them which I picked up, but their father thanked me, and the baby boy gave me the cutest smile every time! (I'm not much of a baby person compared to my friends, but this icy heart will occasionally melt...) 

Again, there was way too much food, but somehow I managed to get through it all (despite handing most of my trays to my brother when we flew to England in December). I guess three days of not eating lunch to save money helped give me an appetite. Plus, my parents don't order me vegetarian meals when we fly as a family, so if we're sitting at the back of the plane, I often have no choice and get served something I don't eat. Anyway, Etihad had this really amazing eggplant stew thing that is making me crave eggplant as I write this. 

I don't know much about planes, but I was impressed by how soft the landings were on Etihad. I barely noticed them (or perhaps I was more sleep-deprived than I would like to admit). Anyway, I had to wait a really long time for my baggage to appear but everything was intact, so yay! Then I went out to wait for my mother and brother in the pickup area, and nobody complained about how heavy my suitcase was! 

The first thing I did when I got home was shower! Oh, glorious, uncomplicated mixer tap with a strong, non-pulsatile stream! And only then did I start unpacking 2 months of memories. 

The day after I got signed off, I still woke up at 7am. This was a good thing though, as I had made an arrangement with my flatmate to leave my bags in his room so that I could enjoy one last day in Oxford despite being technically evicted at 11am, and he had to be at hospital by 8am. Although I tried to go back to sleep afterwards, I wasn’t successful, so after a breakfast of good old migoreng and handing in my keys, I decided to walk into town (my bus pass had just expired). Besides, it was such a nice, sunny day, and the squirrels were out – a most auspicious sign in my books!

But alas, just as I started walking through the park to get to college where I had to pay my dinner invoice, the heavens opened up and I was blasted with wind and rain – enough to break my umbrella and waterproof boots. So after sorting out things at college, I headed to the common room where I sat next to a heater for an hour planning my next move. I decided to stroll down to town and pick my spirits up with a bit of retail therapy. Claire’s was having a sale of 10 accessories for 10 pounds (including brush sets, light-up mirrors, socks, and Hello Kitty paraphernalia), and I wanted a Lush moisturizer (Lush is slightly cheaper in the UK than in Australia once you convert things). After this, I decided to just hang out in a coffee shop until my Sydney friend, AZ, finished his 11am tour.

AZ and his friend R had come up from London to have a look at Oxford, and since I had a whole day free, I could think of no better way to spend it than getting people into colleges free on my Bod card and such. And HS, one of the other elective students also leaving at the end of January, was keen to also catch up on tourist attractions. We started with lunch at Turl St Kitchen, which supposedly played host to such famous faces as Oscar Wilde! R was game enough to try the buffalo steaks, while I just stuck with a frittata.

And then we began college-hopping!

Since we were on Turl St, we worked our way downwards. Exeter – famous for the bust of Tolkien lurking in the chapel, Jesus, and Lincoln. Then we tried to get into the library, but it was closed to all those except members. So we headed down to Christ Church, after which point HS had to leave us to move out of her accommodation. The three of us remaining walked to the Christ Church meadow, where we spotted some deer! We then walked past Corpus Christi and down the street to Magdalen, which is my secret favourite. There I put my most charming face on as you’re technically only allowed to bring one guest in per Bod card and took many photos in the rapidly fading light. Finally, we stopped en route to the train station at the Grand Café (the oldest coffee house in England) to have “Cream Tea” which is scones/jam/clotted cream with a pot of tea. It was delicious! I then walked those guys to the station before getting a bus back to my flat to pick up my luggage and catch the bus to London. I was originally planning on attending the college salsa night for a bit, but figured leaving Oxford to arrive in London earlier (and avoiding being groped by seedy guys) was a better option.

I arrived in London at the Marble Arch at about 9pm, hopped in a cab and checked into my hostel, the YHA on Bolsover St. I found the staff really helpful, the rooms clean, and everything fairly secure. I would definitely recommend this hostel if you were looking for somewhere cheap to spend the night (though possibly next time I will be spending extra to get a private room, as living with 7 other people has difficult moments…like when you want to pack at 11pm or when you need to leave at 4:30am, but don’t want to wake everyone else up).

After a quiet Thursday night, I was definitely ready to get going on Friday morning. I got up a bit too early, so after grabbing some stuff from Pret I went for a wander around the west end while waiting for the box office of Her Majesty’s Theatre to open (to get Phantom tickets for 21 quid!). I stopped by the post office to get rid of two kilos of stuff, and then at 10:30 I got 21-pound seats for me and AK (a friend from Potter fandom)!

After this I headed straight up to the zoo to wink at a boa constrictor. It was a little anticlimactic because the snake in the movie wasn’t technically a boa constrictor, but it was a really great zoo nevertheless. Not as sprawling as Taronga, but definitely a lot of interesting animals (oh my god, the reindeer!) I came back at about 15:00 to just chill in my dorm and get changed for the night, before deciding to window-shop some more. I met up with AK at 17:00 and we went to Forbidden Planet, which is an awesome sci-fi/comic book store in Chinatown! I may have splurged on a little something…but it’s not for me, so it’s okay, right?

AK was kind enough to treat me to dinner in a surprisingly authentic Chinatown restaurant (and she gave me chocolate too! Holy crap I have a new best friend!) before watching Phantom. Glorious Phantom. Which I’ve loved since I was a kid and discovered my dad’s “Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber” CD. Phantom and Christine were excellent, but for me the standout was actually Raoul who had a surprising depth to his voice. The set was stunning – I was surprised that even though the stage was about half the size of the Capitol in Sydney, it was really compact and they made really good use of the space they had. Loved the multi-levels!

On my way back to the hostel I stopped at a Tesco’s to replenish my calcium supplies (69p milkshake FTW!) and vitamin water for my travels. I slept soundly until 8am the next morning, after which I started packing before I realized it was 9am, meaning I had only an hour to be dressed, breakfasted, and at the Cambridge Theatre to attempt to score Matilda rush tickets. But once I got to Kiko’s café, an Italian place across the road from the YHA, and had a giant veggie English breakfast placed in front of me, I decided that if I couldn’t get Matilda tickets, I was quite confident I could get Wicked ones anyway. So I didn’t wolf down my breakfast, but enjoyed it with my excellent Italian-style coffee, went back to the hostel to clean my teeth, and only then did I make my way down to Leicester Square. It was past 10:00 by this point, so I was expecting a queue, but I actually just walked straight up to the box office and asked if they had any student tickets left. There was just one…just for me! (Apparently a bunch of couples had rocked up just before me, but there had only been a single ticket left…)

The next thing on my itinerary for the day was a Harry Potter bus tour. It only started at 13:00 so I caught the tube to Embankment and just wandered around the shore. I had yet another Starbucks hot drink to kill time and use the bathroom, before making my way to the assigned meeting place at Temple station. There was a lovely Brazilian girl in a Slytherin scarf who I had a very animated fan conversation with as I put on my Ravenclaw robes and scarf. Nobody else was dressed up though, sadly. But the tour was fantastic! From the comfort of our heated bus, we were driven around to a number of filming locations. It finished at King’s Cross where I got a proper picture with my school uniform and the trolley at Platform 9 ¾.

It was kind of late by this point, so I was more than happy to just head back to the hostel for a bit. Then I had a big falafel salad for dinner before the show started at 19:30. I almost treated myself to a candy cupcake, but given that my breakfast had come with chips, I thought it wasn’t a particularly good idea.

Matilda was amazing. I had heard good things about it from a few of my Sydney friends who had dropped into London last year, and I was a fan of the book, and I’m a sort of fan of Tim Minchin, but it actually exceeded my expectations. It’s a high-energy show with a lot of catchy tunes, and I felt the characters were very true to Roald Dahl’s. The set was also surprisingly good! I would tell you more but shhhhhhhh spoilers!

And now I’ve plonked myself in the common room. I have to start making my way to the airport at 04:45, so I figured instead of waking everyone in my dorm up, I would just hang out in the common room and pull an all-nighter. The fringe benefit is that when I get onto the plane, and I get to sleep, I will be totally in sync with Sydney time!

I got to ward rounds about one minute late, but nobody seemed to notice me anyway. Until Dr R was like, "how are you?" and I turned around thinking he was addressing someone behind me, and there was nobody there :P

Instead of tailing the resident around though, I followed one of the consultants up to the gen med ward. Oxford is different to Sydney in that many people with simple heart conditions are managed entirely by the general medicine team, don't have much contact with actual cardiologists, and never get moved to the cardiology ward. So I saw 4 patients with heart failure with Dr D, who quizzed me throughout the morning. Luckily I was able to answer his questions about Barret's, Multiple Myeloma and Thyroid diseases because they show up in 5th year case protocols!

I then made a mug of instant ramen. Shortly after coming out of the staffroom though, the emergency alarm went off. It turned out one of the patients (a 50-year-old lady with dilated cardiomyopathy who'd just had an ICD inserted) on the cardiology ward collapsed, having gone into VT. A minute later I heard her talking though, so I assumed she recovered. But then she went into VT for a second time, and lost consciousness.

In years 4 and 5, whenever there was an emergency, all the students would be told to get the hell out of the way. I was about to do the same here, before one of the junior doctors asked if I knew how to give CPR. When I replied in the affirmative, he told me to get a pair of gloves on and get into the room ready to take over from someone doing chest compressions. I did a couple of times, though I fear I wasn't terribly useful because I'm a bit of a weakling and I tire quickly. Actually, once more fit young male doctors came along, my job was to hold the arms of the patient because in her semi-conscious state she kept flinging them around, dislodging her cannulas. The patient's pulse came and went, she flipped between sinus/VT/VF, they had to put a magnet over her ICD because it kept randomly going off, many shocks were given, PE/rupture/etc were all ruled out eg by echo, a heck of a lot of adrenaline got infused, they had to suction the intubation tube because it filled up with sinister red fluid, and the team even tried some amiodarone. The resuscitation efforts continued for about one and a half hours but unfortunately, with the patient becoming less responsive and the pH dropping severely and the lactate rising, and since the patient had requested to not end up in the ICU, they decided to stop. 

My paternal grandfather passed away when I was 11, my great-grandfather when I was 12, my maternal grandfather when I was 16, and my great-grandmother when I was 21, so this wasn't the first time I'd seen someone who'd recently passed away. But I don't think any of that fully prepared me for how sad and scary it is when someone slips away rapidly before your eyes. Like as I saw the patient's extremities turning blue, watched as successive blood gas readings came back more and more acidotic, felt her grip weaken in response to "squeeze my hands if you can hear me", and then got asked to help clean up some of the blood before the patient's husband came in, I still didn't quite believe what was happening. I just kept imagining she was going to get her pulse back properly, and then slowly but surely wake up. And also, when we were leaving the room, I couldn't help but think how horrible her final moments must have been...she was evidently aware that she had a tube down her throat and a needle in her neck and two more in her arms, plus we were squashing her sternum, and taking arterial blood samples from the femoral artery (that's basically in the groin, folks). One of her cannulas failed so a new one had to be put in, and she tried to fend off the needle. And even when we weren't checking her response, I noticed she sometimes just held my hand anyway. 

But yeah. Just nothing completely prepares you. I sort of sleep-walked out of the ward and to the registrars' room to message someone online, because I remember just desperately wanting a hug but being too scared to ask any of the doctors. So I got a virtual hug from Mr Ravenclaw. Then I decided to call it a day and calm my nerves with some piano and fudge. It was kind of good timing, as I realised I could properly bid farewell to the Steinway that has served me so well during my term at Oxford. Whenever I've felt like a wreck, I've usually gone to the piano and just played all the bad feelings away. I did a post office run to send off some goodies to Northern Ireland (only 2.70 pounds including packaging for a small parcel going across a body of water!? And the lady felt apologetic that I couldn't quite fit it into a "large letter" and had to pay more. I'm pretty sure I've paid more than $5 to send a hat from one Sydney suburb to another). 

The weather was dismal. Seriously, not only was it bucketing down, the wind was howling away so that even if you had both an umbrella and a raincoat, you still got wet. And since nobody was keen on joining me for an Atomic Burger (apparently there's a burger place that's decorated to look like a cartoon), so I just went back to my flat, did a quick ab workout, showered, and then ate up the last of my udon. I just need to figure out what on earth I'm going to do with my rice, because I have a large packet and nothing to cook it with. I think I may just end up eating it plain one morning. 

I was going to write an entry the other day about how the snow had all melted, and just like the winter wonderland, and my English adventures (along with all my petty woes), nothing can last forever. But I can't think of a clearer example than today of how fragile life is. And it is so humbling when you think that even though it was my first time, for everyone else in that room it was just part of their daily job. They have the courage to deal with such trials as these many times a month. I have been reminded once again that even though I'm near the end of my med school journey, I'm barely at the beginning of becoming a doctor. 

What did I do with my Thursday...well, I went into hospital as usual, but I didn't do my usual things. Because...it was the day of the final year med students' final exams, and I had volunteered to help out from 8am-5:30pm. There were a few reasons why I'd signed up:

1. The promise of a free lunch and free snacks.
2. To meet other med students (and it turned out also, junior doctors who were currently doing research).
3. To support the 6th years, because our job was to provide them with a stress-free run through their stations.
4. To earn brownie points with consultants from my department, who were being examiners.
5. To see the students (and examiners!) dressed up in "sub-fusc". This usually consists of black pants/white shirt/white bowtie for boys and black stockings/black skirt/white blouse/black ribbon for girls, all worn under academic robes. However due to the infection risk, during the practical exams, robes aren't worn and the white shirt sleeves are all rolled up to the forearms. Still, it was quite a novelty! I wonder what would happen if we turned up to our exams in sub-fusc for lulz. I mean, I had a conversation with a 4th year med student who explained she quite appreciated the exam uniform, since it helped her get her head into the zone.

I was also hoping to get to observe some of the actual exam stations, and see what kinds of questions were asked in Oxford finals, but since I was assigned to be a chaperone, I only managed to see/hear some of the questions and marking schemes. Nevertheless, I could tell that the standard of the candidature was extremely high and once again I felt slightly underqualified to be in Oxford!

There was an amazing walnut cake for afternoon tea, but I missed out on the apparently even more amazing "lemon drizzle" cake. Coincidentally though, I found a recipe for it in one of the free newspapers we were given to read during the breaks, so I will  be attempting it when I get back to my kitchen and my utensils and my ingredient supply. I had been planning to go out on Thursday night to a bop, but I was too tired to go (and besides, I wasn't terribly keen to get hit on) and ended up curling up with a bowl of noodles and a new book recommended by the boyfriend.

Friday was one of my insane days! I followed my favourite resident and registrar all day until Journal Club, where we were shouted lunch by the people marketing "Edarbi" (azilsartan medoxomil). I then went back to the ward for a bit, although it was quite sad as we had to tell the husband of a lady with carcinoid that she was reaching the final stages of her illness. I stalked one of the consultants back to his office and gave him my elective forms, so that he would have a few days to fill them out. It's actually been quite difficult as I have been floating around the three cardiology teams: electrophysiology, intervention, and imaging/structural/failure for the last month without a lot of emphasis on a particular one (well, except maybe EP, I don't understand it well enough...) So hopefully Dr D has seen me enough to say that I've been present and involved in my elective. I guess if I haven't, then perhaps I could stay another 4 weeks here...but I'm not sure if my visa, wallet or family would like that.

So I came home at about 3pm and attempted to do a load of laundry. Unfortunately, the machine swallowed a few of my coins and appeared jammed, so I trekked up to the accommodation office to ask what could be done. Apparently I may get refunded my 1 pound 20 pence...if the machine gets serviced in between now and Thursday. The chances are slim, but hey, I tried. And I put a sign on the machine with Don't use this machine! It will eat your coins! so hopefully nobody else will suffer the same fate. I got my laundry done eventually in another machine (though it looks like I'll have to do yet another round of washing tomorrow...aargh!)

I then had a shower and got ready for the two parties I had to attend this night. Firstly, there was a black tie dinner to celebrate Robert Burns' birthday. Burns is a Scottish poet, the author of Auld Lang Syne and a couple of other famous bits and pieces, so Scotland like to celebrate him with "Burns Night". It admittedly felt a bit weird to be celebrating a Scottish poet on Australia Day (well, it was the 26th in Australia by 1pm 25th Jan GMT) but it was SO much fun. We began with drinks upstairs, before we were serenaded with a guitar/violin duo as we descended the stairs to the dining room in our tower. And then the bagpipes suddenly began! We filed into the hall as Scotland the Brave played. None of the other elective students managed to snag tickets, so I ended up surrounded by strangers, but everyone was amazingly nice and put me at ease immediately. The first course was soup, after which the bagpipes came out again, as the Haggis was brought in (="Piping-In of the Haggis"). As I'd specified "no red meat" I was classified with the vegetarians, so my haggis/neeps/tatties was once again a safe, spicy veggo version. In between our mains and dessert we were once again serenaded by our guitarist, who sang a few of Burns' songs. One of the fellows of the college also stood on a stool (not a table, or a chair, because that was not OHS-friendly) to recite the tale of Tam O'Shanter (yeah, same name as the ridiculous hats my school made us wear in winter). Even though it was in Scottish, he acted it out so well that I understood most of it (plus he gave us a synopsis, so that helped!). After this awesome entertainment, we had Cranachan. Holy crap it was strong!

After this there was coffee/chocolate and Scottish dancing. Unfortunately I couldn't hang around for long as I had to be at a "sexy sub-fusc bop"! I love doing the sexy schoolgirl thing so this was really fun! Plus, 2-pound vodka/cranberries? Who wouldn't be enthralled?! I came home at around 2am though, aiming to be fresh and bright for Quidditch the next day.

This didn't quite work though, because I left my Skype running on my phone and got woken up a few times during the night. I also found out that my body clock does not like me sleeping in. Hurrah for my regular 7am wakeup, even on a freaking Saturday! I went back to bed, of course, but barely slept and ended up wide awake before 9am. So I stumbled out of bed, made some ramen, decided to give Justin a call, tried to eat gracefully in front of him, and perved on his amazing house.

I made it to Quidditch, got my weekly dose of crazy cardio, and got horrendously muddy (to the point that I am considering not bringing my boots back, because no matter how much I rinsed and scrubbed, the mud would not budge), then excused myself a bit early so I could tidy up before BD's afternoon tea (she's a med student coming to do her elective in Sydney!) Unfortunately I left my scarf behind, so I may need to put all my knitting projects on hold while I make myself a new piece of Ravenclaw paraphenalia. Furthermore, the public toilets had no sink, only an "auto soap/wash/dry" machine. So I was basically sticking my head into the machine, wiping my face with the inside of my hoodie, and...yeah, it wasn't a pretty sight and no matter what I did, I couldn't get most of the gunk out of my hair.

BD's place, which is a little bit north of Oxford, is a beautiful old house with multiple cuckoo clocks and numerous photos of family all over the walls. We were treated to some amazing food, including a very authentic pavlova, and some malteaser concoction that looked like brownies but was actually solid chocolate. BD's mum was so sweet and thanked me already for helping out BD with her Sydney visit. Her sisters were also really great, helping to cook and clean up! And BD's friends were awesome. Even though I do funny things like call "yohg-urt" "yoe-gurt", they still put up with me :)

Eventually it was time to go, and I decided to head straight back to my flat. I was fairly glad, as shortly after I arrived back, it started pissing down...

The train journey from Oxford to Edinburgh should only take about 6 hours. When I jumped on the train at 6:38, I expected to end up in Edinburgh at 12:22. In reality I was there at 15:50. Why? Snow causing our train to break down, meaning we had to go to Edinburgh via Glasgow instead. Not a disaster (and it meant I got two Scottish cities for the price of one), but quite annoying given that I had very little time in Edinburgh as it was anyway. 

While waiting for me to show up, my cousin and her partner had managed to procure two dozen Krispy Kreme donuts (being given away for free as a promotion for a new store). I was very, very glad for the sugar hit after nothing but a peanut butter sandwich, a pack of grain wave equivalents, and a packet of apple juice. We strolled around the Old Town and finished up with a coffee at the Elephant House Cafe, one of the birthplaces of Harry Potter!

And then I embarked on a Harry Potter tour of the city led by a lovely Glaswegian called Gemma. We went to an old graveyard which featured a McGonagall and a Thomas Riddle

I was joined on the tour by my friend CC from uni, who's on elective in Edinburgh. We had a great time catching up, comparing elective experiences, talking about what we would do with intern year around the corner, and so on. We also went out for dinner at Maggie Dickson's where I had a salad twice the size of my head that came with potatoes. Not bad value, really! 

By then it was kind of late, and I was starting to get cold/tired/snow-beaten so I met up with my cousin again at the bus stop to her place, which was outside a frozen yogurt store! I couldn't believe people in the middle of a Scottish winter would be interested in froyo, and yet I saw over a dozen people go in and out in the space of 15 minutes! What the?! Having said that, I also saw girls wandering around in short skirts and thin rights, so perhaps some people are just immune to the cold. 

My cousin lives in a lovely new apartment with double-glazed windows with water views! I would seriously have been happy with a couch and a blanket after my 8-hour ordeal but she had an awesome spare room which she'd tidied just for me. With a double bed that made me think of home. We also stayed up late just gossiping and talking about our family members which was really fun! I ended up sleeping at 11pm. 

When I got up at 8am nobody was awake anyway. After reorganising my suitcase and such, I had some time to kill, so I skyped the boy. Since it was just on my iPhone, I couldn't send videos but he was nice enough to give me a view of his kitchen where he was cooking up a storm (the most complicated thing I make is fried rice, whereas he has the patience to make pasta sauce from scratch and elaborate stew things). 

My cousin took me to brunch at this place where we had mocktails called the "Bloody Shame" and real Scottish breakfasts served on skillets. I got to try the vegetarian haggis with a potato cake-like thing. Not quite game enough to try black pudding yet, but I assume it'll be offered at Burns Night this Friday. 

And then we went into the city, via Holyrood Palace and Arthur's Seat (which unfortunately was quite icy and a bit too dangerous to climb). We did, however, get a decent way up the hill and got some views of both the sea and what looked like a dam. And then we strolled back through the student areas of the city to reach the train station, making a stop at the Balmoral Hotel where the final Harry Potter book was finished, and a Cafe Nero to warm ourselves up. 

My train was delayed by about 10 minutes, but given the debacle yesterday, I was just glad it hadn't been cancelled! I spent the journey getting through the third book of Game of Thrones, practising my Catan strategies, and knitting yet another sock. I used the 20-minute gap waiting for my final train at Paddington to refuel with a sandwich and smoothie (originally I'd planned to just have some midnight migoreng back at my flat, but I was just too hungry to think by this point). The trip back was surprisingly speedy, and I arrived in Oxford only one hour behind schedule. Luckily, I was still in time to make the last bus back to the hospital, thus avoiding cab fare and making more use of my Oxford Key! I'm pretty sure I've made more than 15 return trips so I've now earned the cost of it back :)

Time for an update, I think. The last few days of my second week in hospital got kind of hectic, because the guy who was meant to be my supervisor finally showed up. So I had to be on my best behaviour and stay in hospital til at least after 4pm. But I learnt lots of stuff! I have played with an ICE catheter! I have heard a lot of ESMs and felt "slow rising" pulses! I have gotten horribly confused by the different units used to report blood test results! I have met lots of patients/doctors/students who think I'm American! I have spent a lot of time in the med student clubhouse known as Osler House (WHICH HAS A PIANO OH MY GOD MY WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS ARE CURED)! My team have made a LOT of orthopod jokes! Also for some reason I’ve had to chaperone 2xPRs. And this is the cardio ward! I shudder to think what gastro/neuro wards are like here!

Also I saw a blood glucose monitor that claimed it was "fast, compact and stylish". Excuse me, "stylish"? How on earth can a piece of medical equipment be "stylish"?

The other elective students (C, H, J and R) have all started now, which has made my life a bit more interesting (though K has gone home, sadface)! Although nobody is staying at the hospital with me (maybe I should've paid the extra $$ to stay in college...but then I'd have to catch the bus into hospital every morning, and I hate mornings), we've had dinner together (<3 Wagamama!) and gone to a party (or rather, a "bob") together, and I'm hoping we can do a pubcrawl together too (C's idea).

Ah yes, the "bob". Where the action only starts after 10:30pm, 6-shot cocktails cost a mere 4 pounds (my readers will probably be dismayed to learn that I asked for a half-sized "Willy-O", the Osler House specialty), candy brains/eggs/teeth etc are served, people proudly wear cardboard boxes/paper plates/newspaper/garbage bags/next to nothing, "Gangnam Style" is the only song that brings everybody together, and the vodka lemon/lime consists mostly of a really disgusting green cordial. It was held in the main room of Osler House, with the canteen being converted to a bar and the couches being cleared away to create a dancefloor. However, I noticed people spilling into other rooms, especially the pool room (but alas, the piano room was locked for the night). And despite the bitter cold, a number of people were loitering outside...smoking >_<

I've also been adopted by the Quidditch Society and the Harry Potter Society (which overlap a bit). Thanks to them, I've gotten some serious exercise, I've had someone to see Pitch Perfect and Les Miserables with, I've gained the courage to just stroll casually into colleges (thanks soooo much B and M for taking me to Trinity and Oriel!), and I've consumed a significant amount of chocolate biscuits while knitting my next sock. They are also teaching me to speak Oxford English (yeah, apparently it's not all about the Oxford Comma). It's not a library card, it's a "bod card", for example. And we have to be quiet because of "collections".

Actually, their knitting club, a subset of the HP Society, deserves a whole paragraph. Not only is everyone making Hogwarts scarves and eating chocolate biscuits, they are the coolest (read: geekiest) Oxford students I've met yet. And for this I love them all. Today, they sang excerpts from Les Miserables, spent >15 minutes discussing the number of minutes in a year, and discussed past and upcoming D&D campaigns (admittedly, I don't play RPGs because I lack the time, but for all my dating I have {happily} been a D&D widow, which I prefer to being a football widow or something because at least D&D/Shadowrun/Pathfinder/Dark Heresy are compelling intellectual pursuits).
But generally, I love Oxford students in general (except the smokers, they’re just gross)! Even though they say things like, “awwww, who thinks it’s cute that the Aussies are cold!” I’ve still had really fun conversations with them. Especially about our wildlife. And our beaches. I’m so excited that some Oxford med students are coming over in the next few months! I hope I’ll be able to drive them up to the northern beaches and stuff.

This week I also managed to fit in lots of touristy things! I did the free Footprints walking tour on Saturday morning when J, my med school colleague/neighbour/revue friend came to visit. The guide was genuinely funny, eager to tell us all the tales of Oxford (e.g. the Mallard Duck story, the college “where fun goes to die”, and the antics of several Rhodes scholars including Bob Hawke and Bill Clinton). We also wandered down many cobblestone roads, got inspired by the same sights/sounds that CS Lewis (omg the Narnian lamp post!) and Lewis Carroll did, discovered what a “kissing gate” is, and took a jumping photo near the Bridge of Sighs. Today I visited the Bodleian Library, the Radcliffe Camera, the Divinity School, Harris Manchester College, New College, and the Museum of Science (so I’ve now done most of the Harry Potter sites, apart from Christ Church, which is a work in progress as I’m trying to get myself invited to dinner there).

And don’t get me started about my retail therapy…remember that red dress I mentioned a few entries ago? Well, it got marked down from 18 to 10 pounds, so I caved in and bought it. Since I’m going to start going to parties more, investing in a decent dress is not a bad idea. I guess the problem is that I also caved in and bought a 20 pound wool trench coat and a 5 pound pair of cute pink shorts (I’m planning to wear them to skype the bf). Oh, and today I did my varsity shopping…bought a Green Templeton hoodie (whose logo DS will approve of), an Oxford t-shirt to match it, and some track pants. WHAT?!? I got a student discount! Oh, and I bought some tea towels for my mum and grandma and another female relative that I have forgotten to buy presents for. Oh well, I plan to chuck all my toiletries before I leave home, so that’ll free up significant weight/space in my bag…

And now speaking of toiletries and things, I can’t help making a few comments on my accommodation. ( Read more... )

In summary, it’s been a really hectic week, but I love this place and it’s going to be so hard to leave after one month (except when I think of the warm weather back in Australia, then I can’t wait to go home and defrost)!

Oxford, Days 2-4
I'm now settling in, learning the nuances of my flat. For example, one of our showers doesn't get hot enough to have a comfortable shower, the lights in the bathroom take 5 seconds to turn on, I can get moderately dodgy wifi from one corner of my room, and the washing machine on the far right gets stuck mid-cycle.

I'm also slowly getting acquanted with Oxford itself. You can't seem to walk anywhere without bumping into a beautiful old church or something, and I love that. I even intentionally got lost a few times. Sometimes I was following squirrels. Yeah, feel free to judge me. 

Today I went to the Asmodean Museum...wait, Ashmolean (dammit, DS, for putting Wheel of Time into my head, but it's your birthday so I'll forgive you) which turned out to be quite amazing - I spent about 2 hours wandering around there without even paying to get into the "special exhibitions"! I especially liked the collection of Egyptian mummies, the musical instruments (omg, I saw the Messiah!), everything Roman (I managed to read a few of the Latin sentences without having to look up the translations!), the Greek pottery, the Chinese porcelain, and the Japanese paintings. Actually, I was really proud of myself today because apart from buying some tofu (hurrah! I can stop being malnourished!) I didn't spend any money today (Ashmolean museum is free, and I have a frequent-rider bus ticket).

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my other days in Oxford. Okay, granted, I had to do several rounds of groceries because I prefer to cook most nights, even if all I cook is pasta, noodles and fried rice. I also ran out of hotel soap...but fortunately Boots chemist was having a 50% off sale, so I got this fantastic vanilla/raspberry body wash for a little more than one pound. This stuff usually retails at Coles for over $4 a bottle. And oh my gosh, I love it! It smells like those strawberry-and-cream hard candies that I haven't seen since the 1990s. And even though I have been using it for less than a week, I already feel all nice and moisturised. When I get home, and it comes on special at Coles, I will buy a shelf full of it.

But yeah, I still need to get a dress for my formal college dinners. I saw a nice red-and-black dress today, but it was a little bit big and not quite formal enough, so I put it back. I kind of want an excuse to get something from this quirky place, which I see every time I ride the bus, but it's probably so expensive I may as well be shopping in Australia. And as hard as I try, I will probably gain weight in between now and my gradball in November. 

Anyway, you're all going to think I've been all play and no work. I actually disagree...I think I've been fairly well-balanced so far! I've been getting to hospital at 8am for ward rounds, then going to the ward, or the cath lab, or outpatients. I've also spent some time in echo. The bosses and registrars have been really nice so far, even when I've asked horribly dumb questions like, "What's a firm? Is it just like a team?" Some of them even seem to like Australia (one registrar thought that Australians have cool place names, eg Wagga Wagga).

I feel like I need to work on my mannerisms because the way I phrase things sometimes sounds odd to English people. In my next entry I'll make sure I describe in detail a situation where someone looked at me a bit funny. I mean, usually they can smell my accent a mile away so they roll their eyes and think, "stupid Aussie" but like...oh, I dunno. Actually, to be honest, it works both ways, because sometimes I take awhile to process what people with heavy northern accents are saying :( some of the doctors must just think I'm really dumb.

I've also had the pleasure of meeting one of the other elective students. K is from Poland, and apart from being ridiculously smart, beautiful and gracious, is a really fun and adventurous person! I actually feel quite bland next to her (in fact, with everyone telling me Oxford is extremely competitive, how the hell did I get in?!?)  I imagine all the other elective and native med students are similarly super-hyper-overachievers...eeeeeek!

But yeah, there you go! Not only have I survived week one, I'm having a ball! And the other Oxford students haven't even officially started term yet...next week, the parties start!!

The only things that weren't awesome about Paris were:
1. Pickpockets and Pedlars
Though we fortunately escaped unscathed, we were constantly hassled by pedlars trying to peddle everything from flowers to souvenirs. While this doesn't strike me as terribly different from Florence or Rome, the ones here were really in your face and not afraid to block your path. And the signs everywhere warning you to check your pockets, even in places where you had to pay roughly 10€ for admission, were really quite disturbing. I mean, seriously, pickpockets buy a ticket up the Eiffel Tower because they are so sure they will earn back the cost of their ticket?

2. No free wifi
This was the fault of the Marriott assuming that all people who stayed there could afford to pay 20 euros a day for Internet. Fortunately though, the Louvre had an Apple store (near their Lauderee!)

3. Gridlock
I live in Sydney. I'm used to traffic jams. I've seen how the Princes Highway can be an enormous parking lot and how backed up the Harbour Tunnel can be. But nothing prepared me for Paris (or Rome for that matter). Because not only do you have congestion, you have chaos. For example, the only rule about roundabouts is that you accelerate to get in and pray other people slow down to avoid you, because the roundabouts are giant monstrosities with things in the middle that prevent you from seeing the other side. Also, apparently three or four lanes of traffic can turn left despite there being no traffic lights or signs. But I guess it's just a sign that the city's ancient streets were never designed to deal with the glut of cars.

Now we've gotten all the yucky stuff out of the way, let me start gushing about Paris the way everyone usually does!

The drive to Paris was our longest yet - we left at about 7:45 in the morning and crossed the Swiss-French border just before 9am. We only reached Paris itself after 4pm (due to aforementioned atherosclerotic streets). By then, we were all too tired to go out shopping, and went our rooms instead to nap before dinner.

Dinner was served at a nearby 400-year-old restaurant. We started with a classic - French Onion Soup. I especially liked the melted cheese on top, even after my mother pointed out how gruyere has the highest fat content of hard cheese. The main course was fish with spinach, which was tasty but hard to eat because it had millions of tiny bones, the thickness of a strand of hair. Dessert though, was this coconut and raspberry parfait that was very welcome indeed in the swelteringly overheated room. I wish I'd gotten the Creme brûlée though, because it was the size of my face.

After dinner we had a bus tour around Paris followed by a cruise! This took us on a loop around the Seine, past all the big historic buildings. It was septilingual, being in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean and something else I couldn't figure! The Eiffel tower literally sparkled in front of us, we had the best view of all the bridges, and we even saw a few rodents racing along the river bank (which made me think of Ratatouille!)

I was so tired though, that I fell asleep on the bus ride back to the hotel even though our tour guide was still narrating.

Our only full day in Paris began with a short drive around the city. It was just after 8am, so we caught the sunrise, which was magnificent and soon gave way to blue, unclouded skies for our trip up the Eiffel tower. We were the first group up, and we had purchased tickets ahead of time, so we queued for less than five minutes! Our French guide even suggested that if we wanted to start a fight, we ought to wave our tickets at the people in the regular queue. Our tickets only took us up to the second level, but this was easily enough to give us a stunning view of the city. We took our cliched windswept photos, queued for the bathroom (or if you were a male, walked straight in and out) and shunned the 18-euro souvenir mugs. At the bottom, just before getting onto our bus again, our French guide suddenly ran his hands over my shoulders/arms and went, "what a fantastic colour! Very chic!" with reference to my bright pink coat. But my mother had to spoil the moment by going, "her boyfriend hates it!"

Next stop, the Louvre! We had a few minutes of free time to get some macarons, some McDonald's, and some wifi, before entering the museum. Unfortunately we didn't have much time for more than a brief look at a very few of the paintings. We didn't even get terribly close to the Mona Lisa because there were 10 rows of people in front of it. And we missed the Egyptian section, which I would've been really interested in. But we got to see lots of statues (which our guide made funny comments about bits falling off) including the hermaphrodite. And omg, the ceilings of the Louvre! Especially the ones with the corners decorated with the initials of important French monarchs.

My mother in particular found the crowds really unpleasant, but I was just glad it wasn't the high season (spring/summer). Also, I guess the big crowds give everyone a bit of anonymity. It probably explains the ridiculous amount of PDAs I caught sight of (even in the underground fortress of the Louvre where the most used to be ...can anyone think of a less romantic spot?)

After the Louvre we went for a tour of the French Quarter and Notre Dame. I would've loved to sing Disney songs there, but there was a sign asking for "silencio" and "安静＂. But it was a magnificent cathedral even without the colourful characters running around singing crazy songs like "Bells of Notre Dame" and "Hellfire".

We would've liked to go shopping afterwards, but shops tend to be closed on Sunday's. So we got a few souvenirs and headed back to the hotel to have a rest before our Moulin Rouge outing. ( This needs a cut tag. )

I hit the bed almost immediately after getting back to the hotel, which was at almost midnight. We then had to be up at 6 and out by 7:30 for our trek back to bonny England.

Ciao Firenze!
Despite looking up the weather the night before, I neglected to dress appropriately for it...fortunately, the morning was spent on a bus. We only reached Florence after lunchtime (though after a series of dinners/lunches with many servings of pasta and pizza, I was happy to go with my parents' recommendation that I skip lunch and just have some crackers). After this we went for a walk to the Academia, where for the second time I got to see Michelangelo's David (this time with a tour guide who kept harping on how good-looking he was, how "tender" his face was and how we ought to admire his behind). I also saw a Stradivarius violin! But it was a little anticlimactic because I expected it to look significantly different from a regular violin :P and apart from just looking like a really old violin...yeah...I'm sure it sounds a million times better than my old violin though! Oh, and I saw a gigantic "tenor viola" which made me giggle.

It was a very rushed trip though, because we had to see all the highlights of Florence before it got dark (and it's winter now, so...) Our guide really just took us around the major churches of the city before dropping us off outside peruszi leather warehouse. There we spent an hour browsing through all kinds of luxury goods. My mum got a few jackets and other leather goods. I'm not a gigantic fan of leather in general so I wandered over to the sunglasses section. Especially the "50% sale" rack! I found a gorgeous pair of Armani sunnies for €190. I then caved in and bought a lovely little "regenerated leather" (I assume it's recycled, so that's all right with me) wallet for €10. So...that balances it out, right? 

Then it was down to our hotel for a 1-hour break before our trek to dinner in the Tuscan Hills. We did a 100-point turn on our way uphill...

...which was totally worth it! I was stuffed full of pasta once the mains came around! And the chef gave me a tour of his kitchen (I suspect it's because I was smiling all night, thanks to a delightful Skype session with J just after checking into the hotel). And there was SO MUCH FOOD. Holy crap. I say this after every Italian meal, but in all seriousness, I cannot believe this. Montebuoni was our best meal yet.

We drove home past a Tuscan monastery which was up on a hill and amazingly beautiful in the moonlight. And at this point I realized I was drunk enough to write J an email without punctuation, so he suggested I head off to bed, which I did. And had to get up at 6am the next morning to trek over to Switzerland. 

I've dreamed of returning to Venice since I visited in 2005 with my school's music tour. For some reason, I found it really magical - a combination of the history, architecture, food, and music. I have fond memories of running around the rainbow houses of Burano, making friends with Italian high school girls (some of whom are still on my Facebook), trying to communicate with Italian guys in tight shirts on Murano, lying about my age to get a child's ticket into the Doge's palace, being attacked by pigeons in St Mark's square, gorging on gelato, performing in St Mark's, taking photos of all the glassware we couldn't afford, and singing in the back of boats. (I also understand slightly more Italian than I do German (thank you, 5 years of Latin) so reading menus, street signs and such are less stressful. )

Of course, everything is different now. I'm no longer a teenager with a teenage metabolism, I'm in a relationship so I can't go around creepily taking photos of cute Italians for my scrapbook,  and most of all, it's winter. This means sub-zero temperatures, short days, early closing times, and FOG. Fog is terrible for photos because all the colors are ruined. Also I found I couldn't use my flash without getting weird speckles from all the water vapour. But as my brother says, it makes you feel like you're in Pirates of the Caribbean, like big pirate ships are just waiting to come out. And when we were doing our gondola ride, it felt extra spooky. 

Yes! After missing out on gondola rides in 2005 when it just rained continuously, I can finally say I have done it!! And we really did it in style this time - with a bottle of Spumante and a guy serenading us accompanied by a piano accordion. We were ferried through the mist at dusk, while "Moon River" played. How much more could anyone ask for?

Once we came back from the gondola ride, we hopped into another boat to get a look at St Mark's square at night. It really started to get cold...but thanks to my 5 woolly layers, I felt comfortable enough to sit on the outside to get a really good view of the grand canal. Again, the mist added to the atmosphere! We then sat down for a hot chocolate at one of the cafes (which we later learnt would've cost us 10 euros if we'd gone without the group).

We arrived back at the hotel at about 7:30 and had another three-course meal that finished with...TIRAMISU!! Which was the most amazing tiramisu I've ever had in my life...it was creamy, chocolatey, full of caffeine and alcohol. My dad rushed off to a concert and left halfway through dinner but I went up to my hotel room to do laundry. Yes, my life is so exciting! 

On the second day in Venice we had a lovely "sleep-in"...an 8:45 start! Which I used to catch up on photo uploads and Skype. Breakfast was a simple affair compared to the Germanic feasts of the past week - cereal, toast, eggs, cheese and fruit (and bacon/pepperoni/ham for the carnivores). Our first stop of the day was a glass showroom where we got to watch a glass blowing demonstration and then get pestered by a salesperson to buy €500 glassware sets. If only I had more money...the tumblers in particular caught my eye because they had the ability to always land upright when dropped  ("because of gondola!")

Afterwards, we were taken to St Mark's again for a walking tour of the back streets of Venice by a lady who liked to say, "yoohoo!" and told us where to get cheap pizza. This we did...regrettably...because we then went out for a multi-course lunch on the island of Burano at about 3pm. It started with bread and fish purée, then there was lasagna, risotto, fish, salad, calamari, prawns, and to finish it off, biscuits, coffee and amaretto! And lots of red and white wine, which was beautifully light and easy to drink...

That night was fairly uneventful - just a lot of packing, Facebook messaging, catching up on Once Upon a Time, snacking lightly on popcorn, and knitting. Because the next morning, we had a 7:19am train to catch. My brother set his alarm for 4:30am which quite annoyed me (I had set mine for 5) but he didn't get out of bed for almost 30 minutes anyway, so I got dibs on the bathroom :D

We went down to the lobby to use the last of the free wifi, breakfasted when the hotel restaurant opened at 6:30, and left the hotel at 7:00. Luckily our train station was just opposite us, so it was very easy to be on the train by 7:15. We had to change once before getting on the special "high speed" train to Rome. I used the train time to nap, study cardio, knit, and listen to copious amounts of Josh Groban. 

So yeah, for the second time I have escaped Venice without being bitten by vampires in white dresses :D