Making up the Month

Because so much time has past since I last posted, here's just a quick summary of things that have happened since:

- Uni...snore....because I have early mornings everyday and such large gaps between morning and afternoon classes, I've been taking naps in Philson Library!

- We've been given 'clickers' to use for one of our pharmacy papers! It's really cool as they put up a multiple choice question on the big screen and we select a letter with our clicker. A graph then shows up displaying how the class answered! It's funny because as soon as the answer is said the bars of the bar graph suddenly readjust, with the correct answer shooting up! We've only used the clickers once so far though.

- I've joined the MHSSSO (Medical Health Sciences Students Symphony Orchestra...they thought MHSSSO sounded better than MHSSO!), which is an orchestra one of the third year med students tried to get off the ground. We have rehearsals every Monday night, and I offered to play the viola (since there's usually a shortage of violists and I'd make it in out of need rather than choice!). This means I have to carry my viola around campus every Monday. It's proven to be a good conversation starter, despite everyone thinking it's a violin! I've missed two rehearsals though due to too much work and my over-nighter last night. We've got a performance coming up...next week I think?

- We have a dispensing lab for our Pharmacy Practice paper in which we have to practise checking prescriptions and contacting patients and doctors to make sure they're correct, as well as printing out labels, counting pills and labelling the containers. Wow the tutors are so strict on how things are done! We had a practice assessment last week which had nine different stations with different tasks.

- 'Jesus Week' took place at uni. I didn't attend any of the events as I was up at Grafton, but a few of my friends attended the Atheists vs Christians debate (apparently the Christians wiped the floor clean!), and I did walk by on Friday afternoon after class. I managed to catch a glimpse of some Asians dancing to some slow Christian song, which was amusing. There was also this 'Prayer Station' and people wearing bibs offering to prayer for people (I think..). Good on them for getting out there and doing something!

- Our pharmacy students association (APSA) had an inter-year indoor soccer tournament. Our year which has some pretty die-hard soccer fans/players were hoping to take out the tournament this time round after failing to do so last year. I didn't get to go watch, but apparently we came oh so close to winning the final! Unfortunately the interns won with a controversial goal!

 

- Jireh and Andrew, two guys from our youth group who play for their schools' respective soccer teams finally faced each other! It was Rutherford vs Rangitoto! While I'd tend to remain neutral, being a Rutherford old-boy made me support Andrew slightly more! Unfortunately Rangitoto won by one goal, which was scored in the dying minutes of the game!

- Last week I was catching the bus home. I fell asleep, but when I woke up, our bus had pulled up beside another that was parked on the side of the road in Pt Chevalier. There was a man being attended to on the ground, while the front windscreen of the bus was smashed! The passengers of the bus got on our bus, and they were talking about how the man looked slightly intoxicated, walked onto the road and got hit by the bus! They sounded quite shocked and a little traumatised!

 

- I've been assigned this community pharmacy in Lincoln (out West Auckland) for three whole days during the upcoming holidays. This year we have to spend three full days at a community pharmacy! Nooooo!!!!! And I thought one day was enough! I'm also freaked out about it because I have to actually dispense six scripts and consult a patient or two! I'm not good at that stuff, as I can't remember anything! I really don't want to give the wrong advice and end up looking like a complete fool!

There is a lot more that has happened but I'll add to this post as I think of more...

Start of Uni = End of Sleep

Wow over a month since I last posted..don't think I've ever gone that long without posting! So here's a post to finally get things going again!

Uni has been hell in terms of the amount of sleep I'm getting, and it's not because I'm doing so much study, but because of the 8am starts I have almost everyday! I get to sleep just slightly after midnight, and not only find it so hard to get up in the morning but I've been falling asleep in class more often this semester than last, and I always end up having a little nap in the library!

This semester my timetable is arranged so that I tend to have a lecture early in the morning, followed by a large gap and then a lab or workshop in the afternoon that finishes at about 5pm. I'm up at Grafton for all my classes now which to me isn't such a great thing, as most of my friends are over in the city campus! Sometimes I try to wander back to the city and hope that I stumble across some of my friends!

So far the first few weeks of the semester have been non-eventful. In the first two days of uni all third year pharmacy, medicine and nursing students had to attend this Quality and Safety Assurance Seminar, or something like that at the Rendezvous Hotel in the city. We were put in mixed groups and assigned a table. I was in group 32, and just happened to be sitting at a table which was behind a pillar! This meant that the speaker on the stage always ended up standing right behind the pillar, so all I'd be able to see was an empty stage!

I was reunited with this nursing student who was in my Maori Health Week group last year, and so we sorta hung out together for most of the two-day seminar, which involved listening to speakers, as well as working on a group case. Our one happened to be based in the hospital. I can't really be too specific because we have to be confidential about it, but all I'll say is it involved an overdose. I was so clueless, as I had no idea what registrars, consultants and charge nurses were! We don't really learn that sorta stuff in pharmacy.

We were getting marked on our participation, so I did my best to act as if I was contributing whenever our supervisor came along (she had to look after two groups).

To be honest, it was quite hard staying awake during the talks! I kept falling asleep! There was one time when I was starting to doze off, and one of the girls hit the table quite loud and I suddenly jumped. I don't know if she hit the table just to wake me up or what!

During morning tea on the second day, I thought I'd try make myself a cup of tea to see if it'd help me stay awake. The result? FAIL...I thought I'd try again with a different type of tea at afternoon tea later that day, but when I went to fill my cup with hot water, I didn't realise the giant tank had coffee in it! I ended up just making myself some coffee, and surprisingly it worked! I stayed awake for the rest of the afternoon! Fortunately our group didn't have to present on stage.

I originally thought that seminar was bad...well it feels like a holiday compared to the actual semester now that it's in full swing with classes, assignments, labs and reports! I've just done an all-nighter trying to complete a lab report that was due today, and have a presentation on anaemia tomorrow, so I will continue this post tomorrow!