I have no idea why I'm awake at 6.45am on my day off, but I am, two hours before my alarm. So unexpectedly have two extra "units of time" (Re: About A Boy, lol) unaccounted for. Read? (Currently at the bedside: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which the Australian Medical Students Association President left at my place when he was crashing here.) Watch a dvd? (Too early.) Study? (Much too painfully early for the s-word!) Update my oh-so neglected online thought-bank? For sure. A hot Hazelnut Latte by my side, Jamie Cullum's new album playing in the background... check, check.
The end of May really was a blur of ACTION, all-go, no moment's pause to think, reflect... breathe. The third week of May culminated in moving from my parent's place (who have now shifted to the City of Sails) into my new flat on the Monday night; finishing up our six-week group Public Health project (of which I was team leader); rushing back and forth between my last E.D. shift and our project presentation to our clients on the Wednesday; preparing to host our national Student Association Exec meeting here.
Thursday
- 6.30am: woke up --> beautiful drive to the airport to pick up first lot of Exec members and the Conference organizing committee flying in.
- 7.30am: arrived at airport to find fog literally *just* over the runaway (unbelievable). Cue: panic. The plane circled above the airport for twenty minutes, with two failed attempts at landing; then an annoucement was made that they were running low on fuel and heading back up to Christchurch. *Horror* *Panic* Conference team needed to get to Queenstown to set up for our national Conference starting... tomorrow! At the last minute though the pilot attempted to land one more time... successfully! Thank goodness. Near Crisis #1, on the biggest weekend of our Exec's calendar. So now we were running super behind, but at least, we were running.
- 9 - 10am: Driving all around town, picking up various things and setting up for Exec meeting at St Margs College.
- 10.30am: Rest of Exec arrive, however delayed. And almost ready to start our meeting.
- 10.45 ~ 6pm: Face-to-face meeting. Non-stop. Full-on. Brain exhausted. Then half of our Exec left for Queenstown, while the other half stayed here the night. Three of them were also crashing at my flat. So the challenge of packing four adult bodies, and four suitcases/packs into my tiny three-door corolla hatchback.
- 7 - 10pm: Exec dinner at Etruscos. [My brain officially checked out as of four hours ago. lol]
- ~11.30pm: Bed. Crash.
Friday:
[Five hours sleep]
- 5.15am: wake up, pack for Conference which I had yet to do!! Wake up the others.
- 6.15am: all of us leave my place to pick up rental vans for Conference.
- 7am: meet Dunedin Conference delegates outside med school. There were two Exec members per van, one to drive, one to sit shot-gun and help. I was the latter.
- 7.45am: vans leave Dunedin --> my (awesome) van took a wee detour to the beach where I bought everyone a coffee! (Good start at getting to know one another, and breaking the ice -- TI grant put to good use.)
- 8.15 ~11.45am: loooong drive to Queenstown. But we had fun in our van. One of the girls baked these incredible chocolate cupcakes too. Mmmhmm...
- 12pm: catch up with everyone at the backpackers in Queenstown, register for Conference. It's freezing!
- 12.30pm: grab some lunch with a couple of the other Exec members.
- 1.30pm: Official opening of Conference by the mayor of Queenstown, with our 160 medical students from all over the country.
- 1.3o - 4.30pm: AMAZING RACE! It was AMAZING! We got random teams of 7 - 8, and it was a real race around Queenstown, just like the T.V. show. The Conference organizing team got the help of the tourism school in Queenstown (for free, I think?), and the race included a shot-over jet, rafting across the lake (who knew I would ever raft??), running all over town, awesome (not lame) team-building exercises, a Gondola ride, and even a bungy jump for one person in your group. AND my team came third! Out of like... twenty. There was A LOT of screaming on my part, trying to hype up my group, get them excited, encourage them. There was such an incredible buzz throughout the whole thing, and even teams who came last had just as much fun (if not more!). You really got to bond with these complete strangers in your group. It was... just incredible. I think the general consensus was that we could have all gone home now satisfied! But the screaming combined with the freezing air meant my voice was on the rocks Day 1 of Conference, lol.
- 4.30 - 7pm: recover from the physical exhaustion, shower, dinner, get ready for cocktail function.
- 7pm: marshal delegates to the cocktail function
- 7.30 - 10.30pm: cocktail function at a fancy bar in town. Lots of talking, in a very noisy environment = more strain on my already dodgy voice.
- ~11.30pm: Bed. Crash.
Saturday:
[Six hours sleep]
- 6am: wake up, shower, get ready
- 6.45am: set up breakfast for delegates
- 8am: coffee run for Exec
- 8.30am - lunch: incredible, inspiring speakers, to the point of getting teary-eyed more than on one occasion just due to pure inspiration and encouragement. "Points of failure." "Re-inventing yourself."
- Afternoon: going on a mission with one of the other Exec members, Vaish, to get bouquets for each of the Conference team. Turns out finding a florist that was open in Queenstown is not an easy feat. We ended up spending the entire afternoon walking around in the freezing cold, to end up finding a place a drive away. But eventual success. Our formal Conference dinner was up at the Skyline (a Gondola's ride up the mountain), so the two of us got an extra free ride up when approached them about hiding the flowers before dinner. It was so beautiful up there, with 360degree views of Queenstown. Vaish and I stood there for a while watching them set up for our dinner, taking in the views and the surreal atmosphere, just breathing it all in.
- And dinner was... incredible. One of the highlights of medical school. The only word that comes to mind is, EPIC. The three-course meal, the conversation, the views... the sexy, beautiful future doctors of NZ, lol. Our keynote was Simon O'Connor, co-author of Talley and O'Connor's Clinical Examination (one of the cornerstone textbooks for medical students!), and he was incredibly funny. He had this dry humour, he had all of us doubling over laughing -- a real stand-up comedian if you'd believe it! And then the dancefloor, the band, and by the end of the night, EVERYONE was dancing. One of the other Exec members and I had a wee fun competition to see how many speakers we could get up to dance, and I whupped his arse 5-2 -- I even got Simon O'Connor dancing! Every time I went over to him, he had a group of doe-eyed students around him; finally, I just politely interrupted, and asked him if he would like to dance! And he said yes! Oh man, it was pretty funny. Everyone was dancing, and having a blast. How often does that happen? Where no one feels excluded or intimidated or out-of-place. It was such a special night. We left the Skyline around midnight when the band wrapped up, and that was just the beginning... lol.
Sunday
[Two hours sleep]
- 6am: wake up, shower, get ready
- 6.45am: set up breakfast for delegates
- 7.20am: I had the esteemed job (two years in a row now!) of knocking on all the doors and waking up very, very hung-over medical students. Overcompensating with chirpy-ness and enthusiasm, with a hint of seriousness ("Good morning! It's 7.20am, and you now have forty minutes to get up, eat, look beautiful..." "I don't care if you're half asleep or hung-over, come 8.30 we want bums on seats for the first speaker!" "I rule with an iron hand!" "And to be a real b***h, I'm going to turn the light on... now.").
- 8.30 - 9.30am: clean up breakfast; room check to make sure there weren't any stragglers still sleeping. (I know, mean, but that was part of the deal of them accepting a place at Conference!)
- 10am: finalise everything with the backpackers staff
- 10.30am: head over to Conference venue, catch the last of sessions
- lunch, wrap up, then get my head around all the transport back. I was in a car with one of the other Exec members, and we got home four hours later at 6.30pm.
- 6.30pm: liaise with some of the other Exec members, get a couple of them to the airport
- 8pm: link up with the last three vans arriving, driven by the Auckland Exec boys who were staying at my place for the night
- 8.30pm: dinner with the three Auckland boys in town
- 9.30pm: Baldwin Street, as per request, lol
- 10pm: my place
- 11.30pm: Bed. Crash. Voice, gone. Throat, flaming. Nose, running.
Monday
[Five hours sleep]
- 5.30am: wake up, dress. Voice, definitely gone. Throat, burning. Nose, stuffed.
- 6am: drive one of the Auckland boys to the airport for his 7am flight back home
- 6.30am: drive back home
- 7am: Bed. Crash.
- 10am: wake up, feed the other two Auckland boys
- It was awesome hanging out with them for the day, despite being very unwell and most likely infectious. Impromptu coffee with the head of the UN bioethics committee; chat with the esteemed Paediatric surgeon and Professor of Anatomy; coffee at the beach. The perfect end to the most epic of weekends.
- 6pm: Airport.
- 9pm: Bed. Crash. Sick.
Since then, I've started my Ward Management run at the hospital: six weeks of Cardiology, followed by six weeks of General Surgery. And it's an intense run. I can't believe how intense it is. Physically. Mentally. Occasionally, emotionally, lol. 8am starts, 5pm, 6pm finishes. On Friday I was there from 7.3oam until 6.30pm. And the days themselves are so full-on, on your feet all day long. A preview of what life will be like when I start working in November. But I'm seeing it as a learning experience, trying to get the most out of it, kind of like a trial-run for the real thing in less than half a year's time. My priorities have definitely shifted though, I don't really have a choice. You're at the hospital ALL day, come home exhausted, make dinner/eat... then you have a couple hours to either recover, study, or some sort of physical exercise (in order of importance for me). I've been trying to keep up with Bikram Yoga (yoga in 38degrees Celsius heat!) which I started going to after my half marathon (knowing I wouldn't feasibly be able to keep up running during winter here - I go to work in the dark, come home in the dark), but it has definitely been relegated in my list of priorities, and rightly so.
What I can't get over is that, less than ten weeks time I will be DONE with med school. Yes, technically there is my elective overseas for three months, but in my mind that's three months of travelling before I start work. In less than ten weeks, I will be done with med school... done with life, here, after eight years. In less than ten weeks, it will be the official end of an era.
Wow. I mean, in theory I always knew this day would come. But, the question is, did I really believe it? And could I have ever predicted what it would have been like.
As you get older, birthdays become less of a milestone. But it is in these moments, these transitions, where the significance of "chapters" of life feel oh-so real. And the idea of having a finite length of time left of my life here... is making all of the above feel oh-so real.
Is this what they mean by growing up? Is this what they mean by becoming an adult? Is this what they mean by one door closing?
No comments:
Post a Comment