(no subject)
I promised Han a long crazy entry. Um, here it goes. Except it's not gonna be crazy cause I don't feel so well - just as my psych prof said - you usually get sick after all the stress is over. and so now i have a sore throat, kind of, a headache, and a runny nose. it's quite lovely and bleh. But I should update, I have this journal and so yeah.
On the bright side, I am in munich, yayaya.
Anyways, first semester, was, in one word, very stresful, okay that's two. Right. but it was lots and lots of fun too... i mean, medical fun, uhhh hard to explain, just cause somethings other people couldn’t laugh about... like playing around with the micropipettes during bio labs and squishing the slides by accident and making, typical typical, nice latex glove balloons (but with the innervation fields of the nerves all pretty and colorful). the highlights and lowlights were many, i guess i'm repressing the, as you say in german - "durststrecken" - paths of thirst. uuhhh i can't speak english anymore, as many people have told me. oh well, that's what march and living here is for. Yesterday, was walking around the city and heard about 70% english, 20% bavarian, which I can't understand cause i'm retarded and they speak funny, 5% russian and 5% other, inclusive of high german. dude, it was weird. alright back to semester one of insane medical studies. Just cause I haven't written since, mmmm, new years, and usually only collectively and no details etc.
All my profs and lectures were good... stressful and demanding, but good... I can't speak for terminology though (latin) cause I never went, but that's okay. And I scheduled my physical therapy appointments after my accident.. uuhh right, more later... for during my bio lectures, so didn't really go to that. In November I tore the Lig collaterale ulnare (yeah, sad, I know what it's called... it's the inner one) on my elbow and was in a cast for four weeks... It sucked majorly, BUT, the good part was that I always was reserved a seat by my friends during lectures so I ddin't have to hurry in between lectures. niceness... It still kinda hurts now, but the surgeon (i ended up going to millions of doctors and getting to know the german health care system, which isn't bad per say, but can be improved... too much beauracracy!) sad that turned out better than imagined - which is fine... even though I will not attempt the act again for a while that caused me the pain and ambulance --- I was doing a cartwheel on a trampoline. People, don't ... it's just bad. :-) Owhhh. Enough of that. Learned all of phyiscs and chem and bio in three months, scary. I mean, sure, we only scratched the surface of these fields, and did many medical applications, but still - it was a lot - used to be spread over two semesters, but they changed it up and it was insane, even the profs said so. The thing is, they had to cut material, but we still had to know everything anyways.
Class info is BORING - ha ha- it’s all medical related, anatomy, embryology, histology, medical psychology, terminology and the basics phyiscs, bio and chemistry. Had three labs a week as well as two seminars (termi and anatomy, seminars and labs are divided by “seminar group” of ca 20 people, there are 10 groups plus the dentistry students and the medical biotechnology students) every two weeks. The finals were alright, it meant January was hell - oh well. The thing is, you can never know everything… but you try and it’s hard and arg. I think I passed everything though… I know for anatomy and embryo cause they were oral - aka - you actually do have to know everything, if you miss a question - you fail. lovely. lovely. they were nerve wracking cause I’d never done a real oral exam before - and for embryo, I was the last person tested after waiting for THREE hours. but the huge tropical fruit ice cream bowl with mmmhmm with a friend was a good reward.
Peoples are nice. That’s all I can say - they’re mostly friendly and good people - but the thing is, since getting into university is still largely based on GPA and nothing else, people aren’t like oneself. It’s hard to explain - I mean, you find your people… but for me, it was kind of limited to my seminar group cause there is no dorm life and social stuff is weird with the age span from 18 (me, I’m the youngest like ever, it’s sad) to, in our seminar group, 31. however, the oldest starter is mid forties or something, some already biology-studied woman who now can’t find a job now. That’s the thing too - jobs. Arg. I’m keeping a look out and just trying to gain as much perspective as possible. Not saying no jobs for doctors, it’s the opposite, the need need need… but still, the conditions… who knows. Yeah, so went out a couple times, but wasn’t life changing or anything - although I do like the fact that I can just order batida de sol or a caipi without showing id.. :-P ha ha.
Xmas was fun… my bf came :-P that was the best gift of all… we rode the ferris wheel and got fat off all the yummy xmas market food. New years I got quite drunk for the first time, but thank god stopped before throwing up - etc… drank water… but it was an amusing experience… I get really really friendly and say things I wouldn’t usually say... There was a russian accordian player on the beach at Warnemuende where we were celebrating - and I used all the ten vocabulary words and the like three verbs I knew to get him to play odkuzhava and other russian classics… then there was some open air dancing, was slippery and it’s hard to turn in a circle when you’re drunk. But that’s another story - at least I remember everything even if the chronological order is a bit smudged.
So now I’m gonna start fulfilling one of the millions of requirements for the study of medicine in rostock - doing three months of free slave labor in a hospital during the vacations of the first four semesters “to get to know how a hospital works” - really just washing people, washing floors, passing out food, cleaning, and being a slave to the nurses for 30 days this stretch. And maybe, if I’m’ lucky, get to see some surgeries or do rounds with a doctor. Arrived yesterday morning by night train - 12 hours, usu it’s 9 ish, but it’s a slow train that waits in certain stations… didn’t sleep much, was sitting, it was annoying, but cheap. Went and gave them my papers yesterday, ahhh such thick accents all the people here! - I start next Monday - dunno what ward yet… and got a free light pen at the insurance ppls where I was as well - cause I have to be privately insured to “work” in the hospital, arg. But munich is cool - it’s a very very large city, walked around from where I’m living at - friends of ours we met while we were living in Brookline - Ostbahnhof, to the middle of the city… see map I drew on, and pics… Kristina (the girl I’m staying with - used to go to my elementary school and BHS for her junior year, she’s one year over me) introduced me to nice new jazzy dance-worthy music - and yummy food here... Tomorrow gonna finish my snail mail i've been owing people, as well as see if there's a nice gym around here, and just try to get rid of my cold, but i can, i just need a bit of rest. slept 10 hours tonight, and then during the day again from twelve till three... feels good.
Fotki pictures with some details
On the bright side, I am in munich, yayaya.
Anyways, first semester, was, in one word, very stresful, okay that's two. Right. but it was lots and lots of fun too... i mean, medical fun, uhhh hard to explain, just cause somethings other people couldn’t laugh about... like playing around with the micropipettes during bio labs and squishing the slides by accident and making, typical typical, nice latex glove balloons (but with the innervation fields of the nerves all pretty and colorful). the highlights and lowlights were many, i guess i'm repressing the, as you say in german - "durststrecken" - paths of thirst. uuhhh i can't speak english anymore, as many people have told me. oh well, that's what march and living here is for. Yesterday, was walking around the city and heard about 70% english, 20% bavarian, which I can't understand cause i'm retarded and they speak funny, 5% russian and 5% other, inclusive of high german. dude, it was weird. alright back to semester one of insane medical studies. Just cause I haven't written since, mmmm, new years, and usually only collectively and no details etc.
All my profs and lectures were good... stressful and demanding, but good... I can't speak for terminology though (latin) cause I never went, but that's okay. And I scheduled my physical therapy appointments after my accident.. uuhh right, more later... for during my bio lectures, so didn't really go to that. In November I tore the Lig collaterale ulnare (yeah, sad, I know what it's called... it's the inner one) on my elbow and was in a cast for four weeks... It sucked majorly, BUT, the good part was that I always was reserved a seat by my friends during lectures so I ddin't have to hurry in between lectures. niceness... It still kinda hurts now, but the surgeon (i ended up going to millions of doctors and getting to know the german health care system, which isn't bad per say, but can be improved... too much beauracracy!) sad that turned out better than imagined - which is fine... even though I will not attempt the act again for a while that caused me the pain and ambulance --- I was doing a cartwheel on a trampoline. People, don't ... it's just bad. :-) Owhhh. Enough of that. Learned all of phyiscs and chem and bio in three months, scary. I mean, sure, we only scratched the surface of these fields, and did many medical applications, but still - it was a lot - used to be spread over two semesters, but they changed it up and it was insane, even the profs said so. The thing is, they had to cut material, but we still had to know everything anyways.
Class info is BORING - ha ha- it’s all medical related, anatomy, embryology, histology, medical psychology, terminology and the basics phyiscs, bio and chemistry. Had three labs a week as well as two seminars (termi and anatomy, seminars and labs are divided by “seminar group” of ca 20 people, there are 10 groups plus the dentistry students and the medical biotechnology students) every two weeks. The finals were alright, it meant January was hell - oh well. The thing is, you can never know everything… but you try and it’s hard and arg. I think I passed everything though… I know for anatomy and embryo cause they were oral - aka - you actually do have to know everything, if you miss a question - you fail. lovely. lovely. they were nerve wracking cause I’d never done a real oral exam before - and for embryo, I was the last person tested after waiting for THREE hours. but the huge tropical fruit ice cream bowl with mmmhmm with a friend was a good reward.
Peoples are nice. That’s all I can say - they’re mostly friendly and good people - but the thing is, since getting into university is still largely based on GPA and nothing else, people aren’t like oneself. It’s hard to explain - I mean, you find your people… but for me, it was kind of limited to my seminar group cause there is no dorm life and social stuff is weird with the age span from 18 (me, I’m the youngest like ever, it’s sad) to, in our seminar group, 31. however, the oldest starter is mid forties or something, some already biology-studied woman who now can’t find a job now. That’s the thing too - jobs. Arg. I’m keeping a look out and just trying to gain as much perspective as possible. Not saying no jobs for doctors, it’s the opposite, the need need need… but still, the conditions… who knows. Yeah, so went out a couple times, but wasn’t life changing or anything - although I do like the fact that I can just order batida de sol or a caipi without showing id.. :-P ha ha.
Xmas was fun… my bf came :-P that was the best gift of all… we rode the ferris wheel and got fat off all the yummy xmas market food. New years I got quite drunk for the first time, but thank god stopped before throwing up - etc… drank water… but it was an amusing experience… I get really really friendly and say things I wouldn’t usually say... There was a russian accordian player on the beach at Warnemuende where we were celebrating - and I used all the ten vocabulary words and the like three verbs I knew to get him to play odkuzhava and other russian classics… then there was some open air dancing, was slippery and it’s hard to turn in a circle when you’re drunk. But that’s another story - at least I remember everything even if the chronological order is a bit smudged.
So now I’m gonna start fulfilling one of the millions of requirements for the study of medicine in rostock - doing three months of free slave labor in a hospital during the vacations of the first four semesters “to get to know how a hospital works” - really just washing people, washing floors, passing out food, cleaning, and being a slave to the nurses for 30 days this stretch. And maybe, if I’m’ lucky, get to see some surgeries or do rounds with a doctor. Arrived yesterday morning by night train - 12 hours, usu it’s 9 ish, but it’s a slow train that waits in certain stations… didn’t sleep much, was sitting, it was annoying, but cheap. Went and gave them my papers yesterday, ahhh such thick accents all the people here! - I start next Monday - dunno what ward yet… and got a free light pen at the insurance ppls where I was as well - cause I have to be privately insured to “work” in the hospital, arg. But munich is cool - it’s a very very large city, walked around from where I’m living at - friends of ours we met while we were living in Brookline - Ostbahnhof, to the middle of the city… see map I drew on, and pics… Kristina (the girl I’m staying with - used to go to my elementary school and BHS for her junior year, she’s one year over me) introduced me to nice new jazzy dance-worthy music - and yummy food here... Tomorrow gonna finish my snail mail i've been owing people, as well as see if there's a nice gym around here, and just try to get rid of my cold, but i can, i just need a bit of rest. slept 10 hours tonight, and then during the day again from twelve till three... feels good.
Fotki pictures with some details