Things are good.

Not my usual tone of title but that's how I feel!
I've managed to get over my induction week freak-out (haha, they were just trying to scare us), and I'm feeling well settled in.

We had our first PBL case this week and I think it went pretty well. I definitely haven't done enough study from it, but, hopefully, I will, and apart from that the seminars and wrap-up and all that stuff went fine which suits me just dandy!

A lot of people are complaining that the course isn't challenging enough, and it is a well known fact (the course directors even spelled it out) that our first semester isn't exactly open-heart-surgery stimulating kind of stuff... But, having been through part of a course where I was completely shattered from the workload of the first semester, I am ok with this. I know it will get a lot harder ( and only after Christmas, come on people, its hardly 3months!) soon enough. And I think its good that we get to grips with how this course is structured before the work piles on.

Had "consultation skills" this week. Now I know a lot of med students and doctors bitch about these classes because they think its all too touchy-feely, namby-pamby and completely pointless in the practice of clinical medicine. Well, I don't think it is. Ok, some of the stuff does seem silly (there is an awful lot of "how does that make you feel?", and personally, if a Dr asked me what I "was hoping to get out of the consultation today" I would have a very low opinion of their competence). But on the whole I think its a really good thing. And the weird thing is (even though the interview process was supposed to weed these ones out) you can already see who are going to be the hard ass "people-are-diseases-so-treat-them-that-way" kind of doctors. And I think consult skills will do them a lot of good. And they do teach you some useful stuff that will really make it easier for us I think. So, so far so good. Plus, roleplay is all about the acting which I LOVE!!!

Not so excited about having to read scientific papers, but oh well I suppose its good to get us started young......

And next week, I get to go and poke real live people......woot!

Possibly the best thing about this uni though is the fact that it has an olympic size swimming pool. Swimming makes me happy. And I just went this afternoon, which possibly accounts for my overly cheery & optimistic tone.

Watch this space for a return to form....