Chan Weng Kit's Blogspot: DAY 190

Mar 10

1) Today has been a very long day for most of us. For starters, it was an 8-5 kind of day. As in lectures from 8 a.m. all the way to 5 p.m., with nary a break in between. Anatomy today was really fun; we learnt about the liver from Mr. Quinlan, a retired consultant orthopaedic surgeon. We also found gallstones in the gallbladder of the cadaver, something which we never would have expected!

2) In the afternoon, we had another bunch of lectures to go. It was at this time I decided that nothing was entering my mind, and if I had stayed I wouldn't have picked up much anyways. So I did what had to be done - packed my stuff and went to the library. Had a really short power nap, got up and felt a lot more productive than I would be if I had stayed on for the lectures. I studied the rest of the afternoon, before going to Dunnes to get some cookies.

3) In the evening, I went to RCSI to attend the Annual Inaugural Address of the RCSI Surgical Society. We were absolutely delighted to have Professor James T. Goodrich as Guest Speaker for the night. Prof. Goodrich is Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery, Paediatrics and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, as well as the Chief of Paediatric Neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, New York. Essentially he shared his experience of what changed his mindset from that of a highly decorated US Marine during the Tet Offensive(!), to the world-leading neurosurgeon that he is today. All in all an extremely informative talk indeed.

4) There was a wine and cheese reception in the atrium afterward, at which I had the honour of getting a photo taken with him. That really made my day. Afterwards, he engaged in conversation with some of the other seniors and doctors, which is when I made my leave. I still had to go for dance practice in the Tutorial Room. Today, we did an entire run-through of our performance, from start to finish. I'm really taken aback by the passion and commitment shown by each and everyone present. It makes me want to give my absolute best also, to make this International Night a resounding success.

5) By 9.30pm, practice was over, and I returned, as you would expect, to the library. Took a while to type this out and upload the photos, and voila! That's the end of my blog update today, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks as always, and have a great weekend. Cheers!