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I am so glad it is the weekend because I had a super busy last two days.

Thursday

  • Worked 7 to 3 in the stress lab. Stress lab is my least favourite rotation because it is really busy all day long and can get really chaotic and hectic at certain points. The tech I was working with got me to run the whole thing with no help. IT WAS HARD!! I did manage to do it though, which I think is a pretty good accomplishment. I got a pretty good evaluation for the week.
  • Then I walked around downtown for an hour.
  • Met up with Scott near his work, then walked over to Meat & Bread for dinner. Unfortunately they were out of porchetta so we decided to walk all the way back to Davie Street to try out the American Cheesesteak Co instead.
  • Ate a delicious classic cheesesteak with beef, American cheese, and sautéed mushrooms.
  • Killed time in a coffee shop for an hour or so.
  • Went to Zsofi and Dylan’s apartment for Dylan’s birthday party! Drank some wine and got to try Dylan’s homemade ice cream sandwiches. Really good.
  • Finally went home and went immediately to bed.

Friday

  • Scott went to Edmonton for 4 hours. Seriously. He had to wake up at 4:30 AM to do that.
  • I went to school. Human Behaviour class was extra uncomfortable and awkward. So much second hand embarrassment. Wasted two hours of my life in Research Methods learning about maybe using highlighters as a research aid, and some other stuff that we already went over in another class last year. Then a couple hours of Communications, which was actually fine. I don’t mind that class.
  • Went out for bubble tea with most of the people from the other set. I miss them. I had milky strawberry slush with pearls and it was yummo.
  • Went home for a couple hours. Scott arrived with sushi in hand. The best.
  • Took public transit for 1.25 hours to get to SFU to help out at the skeleton club Gangnam Style pub night. I helped sell tickets and do coat check for three hours. It wasn’t the best night for a fundraiser (Thanksgiving weekend!) but I think we still made a bit of money for the club, which is really good news.
  • Bussed home and collapsed into bed for the night.

Today is homework and chores day. We have to get the apartment ready to host the 2nd Annual Orphan Thanksgiving Potluck on Monday night. I think we have 12 people coming, and I’m making turkey again. :D

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Whataweek what a week.

Monday through Thursday I was out at clinical at my new hospital. While they definitely do a few things differently, it wasn’t a huge adjustment from what I got used to in the summer. Most of the routines and protocols seem to be the same. It’s a smaller department but they’re still very busy.

The patient population that goes to St. Pauls is a little different than VGH even though it’s not really that far away though. (St. Pauls is right in the downtown core of Vancouver). There are a lot more no-shows and we often can’t just call them and see where they are because they don’t have phones (or addresses).

I’m on the stress lab rotation where we get the patients up on the treadmill so we can give them the tracer while their hearts are being stressed. It is not my favourite rotation because there is a lot going on at once and I don’t get to sit down at all. I will be happy when these two weeks are over.

On Friday’s we have school, even if we are out at clinical for the rest of the week. It’s the only time we get to see the other set. Our classes kind of stink on Friday but I love seeing everyone and getting to compare our clinical experiences. We had a good long gossip session at lunch today, haha. Today felt really weird, like an odd mix of a Monday and a Friday and I keep getting mixed up. 

Well this is getting long and it’s text-only so I guess I’ll just wrap up here for now. Happy Grand Final day and GO HAWTHORNE (I guess??). We’re off to Moose’s Down Under for Grand Final 2012 Aussie fun.

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Only 22 more days left for me to complete my summer goals list!!

  1. Finally paint the cheapo wooden drawers we got from IKEA. I think I’m going to go do this RIGHT NOW.
  2. Make delicious popsicles in my new popsicle mold. once (strawberry lemonade). twice (strawberry frozen yogurt). thrice (strawberry raspberry vanilla frozen yogurt).
  3. Go swimming in the ocean for the first time in Vancouver. done!
  4. Ride the rides at the PNE. well we went on ONE ride. :/
  5. Watch fireworks. done.
  6. Finish my Settlers paintings.
  7. Sell a pair of shoes or a shirt or a painting.
  8. Go to one of the night markets in Richmond. done. twice, actually!
  9. Regularly visit the farmers market on Saturday mornings. once. twice. thrice.
  10. Read some books while I actually have the time. Insurgent (Veronica Roth), Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson), The Art of Fielding: A Novel (Chad Harbach), Geek Love (Katherine Dunn), currently reading Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn).
  11. Make a nicer looking menu planning board. done!
  12. Find a new person to play board games with. done!
  13. Try a new fruit. I guess fresh figs counts for this one.
  14. Do a successful venipuncture on a real patient. I’ve done about 75 now.
  15. Make a new blog header.
  16. Take more pictures. completely failing.

Last night was lots of fun. We drank enormous drinks that had candy in them and I ate SEVEN KINDS OF CHEESE in one meal!! (Our table shared a trio of fries [poutine, fries with gorgonzola, and truffle oil fries with parmesan], I had a three cheese grilled cheese sandwich, and my salad had feta in it). EPIC MEAL.

Scott stealing some of my drink.

I hope I can get a job at VGH next year. They are really fun/great people there.

Thinking of another challenge for me to do this month: take a photo of every dinner I have. I know I already post food pictures here and there on this blog but I only ever really post the special stuff. I think this month I’ll try to document every dinner so you can see some of our more regular dishes. We’ll see how it goes.

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Tomorrow is my last day at the Children’s Hospital. The kids were pretty fun in general but I don’t know if I could ever work there. It is so incredibly sad and depressing seeing the sick kids. Cute kids with bathing suit tans but crappy organs or Stage 4 cancer, kids with horrible infections. It just sucks. Children should not be allowed to get that sick. I got all tear-y eyed if I looked at them too long.

Dad says that maybe working there would be the most rewarding, but I dunno. I dunno if I could/want to handle sick kids every single day.

Anyway.

Scott and I got to have dinner with a friend from Ottawa and her son the other night. (Hi Jane!) She was in town visiting her family and emailed me out of the blue inviting us out for dinner. We had a tasty dinner at Trilussa on Main Street. We ordered a whole bunch of the pizzas and shared them all. The best part was the strawberry and nutella dessert pizza. Mmmm.

So looking forward to this long weekend. I’ve got VGH work drinks tomorrow, I’m visiting one of my classmates at her family house on the Sunshine Coast, and then Scott and I are renting a car and going shopping in the US as well the day before school starts! Fun times ahead!!

Oh lastly, here are my Children’s Hospital inspired nails. I haven’t been painting my nails lately because of work and my weird hand skin problem, but the latter is getting a little better now and I figured this rotation was my chance to wear a little colour on my nails for once. Excuse the wear and tear, I have to wash my hands a lot, and I did this manicure last Sunday!!

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Bleghhhhhh my life is a little boring at the moment. Just getting up early, going to work, listening to screaming children/Dora/Barney/High School Musical, coming home tired, watching some TV, and reading an hour before bed. The most exciting part of the week was a numb arm. (Mine.) Will see the doc about that when he gets back from vacation…

TGIF (tomorrow). I’ll try to do a lot this weekend to make up for this zzz week.