London and lots of MedSin's

After having spent some wonderful days in Switzerland I went to London to see my friend Se. She told me in March that MedSin was about to celebrate its 10th anniversary and that the English Medical Students' Association was organizing a ball and I should come. Said and Done!!


After having solved some shoe drama, coping with the fact that we were late and pre-partying with some vodka, we took a cap to get to the ball. However, we ended up in the wrong hotel first...


It was great to meet all those friends from numerous meetings again. When I ended my "career" in the German Med Students' Association I thought I wont be seeing many of these folks ever again. I loved catching up with Akihito, Nat, Troels, Lousie, Irina, Emily and many more.
Soon after some champagne and more wine everybody loosed up and our table was the loudest, first on the dancefloor and most active in karaoke after the ball... to say it with Tina: we were SIMPLY THE BEST


The next morning was very slow for all of us and we felt a bit like being "underground".
A good old English breakfast helped us quickly.
We went shopping and coffee house hopping around Covent Garden in the afternoon.


Since the weather was "typical London" with rains and overcast skies I spent quite some time in numerous museums. Really loved the Natural History Museum!
On Monday we also saw WICKED- the musical about the witch in Wizzard of Oz and how/ why she turned evil. A very good production with (okay it is a musical) some tacky parts in between but really enjoyable...


I enjoyed my time with Se and her lovely sister so much! We had Korean and Indian dinners, watched Will&Grace, talked talked talked and enjoyed eachothers company a lot... I am really looking forward to see her again in July/ August.



I also had an interressting photoshooting with Steven, a London based photographer and will publish some pics hopefully soon....

Zürich- revival/returnal

Yiipieh so once again I could go to Zürich and meet my friend Isabella. I have been looking forward to that moment for quite some time... I had like 5 days and since Isabella didnt have to work we had a great time doing so many things...

After we went to YOGA classes on Monday and after we did find out that silly-me brought Autralian Dollars insteadt of Swiss Franks we went to the season opening
of Rimini bar (one of THE places to meet and greet in Zürich in summer time). I also could catch up with some of Isabellas lovely friends like Marisa


The first of May in Zürich is usually the day of violent riots. Left and right wing "intellectuals" try to fight in the streets and the police has to try to keep them sepearated...
We went to the Kasernenhof where a peacefull demonstration of political opinions mostly by migrating minorities from all over the world took place. One of the great things: that demonstration is served with their national specialties. So we enjoyed spring rolls, gözlem, fish and ships, african dishes and much more...



The day after we went on a hike on Ütli Mountain all the way over to where Lindt& Sprüngli produces its famous chocolate (have been there sooo many times in my Swiss rotation) and of course we visited and shopped in the factory outlet...
I also had Tibetian food for the first time in my live: salty butter tea and other things were not very familiar but very good....


I also had to shop a tiny bit in town (finally got my Swiss fridge magnet) and while Isabella was working on her dissertation I was checking out down-town Zürich.
Later on we went to the pinkapple filmfestival where I have been last year. I watched the first part of Donald Strachey's crime series "The Third Man Out" and the next part happened to be on the programme while I was in town so we watched "Shock To The System" and caught up with Marco....

Time flew by and as much as I enjoyed our jogging and sun bathing tours all around the Werdinsel, breakfast on the balcony and so many things more, that much I am looking forward to go back in just two weeks time....

Hiking

I have started to go hiking with this mixed crowd of Australians, Americans, Brits and Germans in April and enjoy our hikes more and more. The group structure is very dynamic, new people come and go, sometimes more Germans, sometimes more foreigners sometimes women and children and sometimes just blokes... The weekend after my exams we went on a hike in the mountains of the Palatine...

THE BIG DAY

The big exam day was also my birthday, so the pressure was on me, cause I wanted to give myself the biggest present possible.

0800 we had to be in hospital and each of us 4 got a patient (real one , no actor) that we had to interview and exam and write a 8page report about his medical history, his disease, differential diagnosis, treatment and so on.

One hour of lunch break, but no-one could really eat!

1300 the presentation of our patient to the profs and bedside question round number one.

After that first thrill, we all went to a conference room for 4 more quiz rounds (internal med, surgery, obstetrics and gyn, paediatrics).

1730 we left the room already with the good feeling that we all passed

20 annoying minutes later we got called in again and were told that we all passed and that they were really happy with us as a very homogenous group (all the group study time did really pay off!) and that we all get a B for our exam.

Afterwards we went to the SAIGON a Vietnamese restaurant in Mannheim, my best friend Adina, Todd and others joined us for a combined exam and birthday dinner. We all were just so beat that we didn’t really feel like partying.

A long day came to an end and shortly before midnight I was at home.

The next day I could finally open up all my birthday present! My family and friends are the best!!

PREexam PREbirthday

My exam was coming closer…

As a study group, (Antje, Ben, Tine and my simple soul) we have been meeting on a regular base consistently for the last 6 weeks.

Preparing and repeating all the stuff we needed for our last exam and to finish med school.

We always had great breakfasts breaks and laughed a lot. In the picture at the very left we took one of my plush animals to demonstrate and practise the twisting, turning and flections of a baby in the process of delivery.

The day before our exam I started to knot my tie, didn’t want to loose any precious time in the morning…

Also my birthday was coming closer….

Mister coincidence said I get the chance to finish my studies the same day I would turn 26.

As all the years since I left home, my grandma packed and sent a great packet including real flowers, expecting that, I opened it before and could enjoy a great bouquet already the days before.

A Visitor from Duss

Norbert was able to swing by for a couple of hours to meet me in Heidelberg two weeks ago. We had a fun sunny afternoon…

Party on Eve of Wedding

While the spiral of life didn’t stop turning, Daddi and me did a little trip to Berlin/ Potsdam. Charly (gotten pregnant by either the Swiss cheese or Lindt Schoki while doing her rotations in surgery and internal med) was about to get marry and we wanted to celebrate with her.

Unfortunately we didn’t really manage to be there on time, bus lines stopped operating, other trains were delayed, no cabs to get, … It took us 5 hrs to Berlin and almost another 4 (!) hours to get to her house (at 10:45pm) which was only about 45 km away – and we had only 1,5 hrs to stay- we had catch last train (00:25am)… We had us, we had fun nonetheless and we had some books with us to study…

All the best for the new family!!

Adventures in OZ

So with this posting I will try summarizing my last weeks in OZ and deliver all the pics:

After Marakoopa Caves, Tahune Airwalk and Wineglass Bay, Adina and me challenged Craddle Mountain and it was a very tiring but still fun hike.

I also got the waterskiing pics from Caz (Weymouth) so here are my first attempts on the water! Well, I have to admit I was quite some time facedown-wards in the water, too. And my forearms were even more sore than after rock-climbing!

Adina left and Todd came for some days in NZ and Sydney.

I had some passport issues and it took pretty much time to solve them, we still had some great adventures:

Blackwater Rafting at Waitimo Caves

Thermal Wonderland at Rotorua

Tamaki Maori Village Experience

Wet Zorbing

Cathedral Cove (walk)

And a Sea Kayaking tour to that gorgeous and famous sandstone formation. Look out for the new “Chronicles of Narnia”. (parts of the movie were shot over there!)

A little stop in Sydney at Mardi Gras time and a trip to the Blue Mountains were the last highlights down-under.