DAY 567-575

Mar 22 - 30

1) I've been pretty busy the last week, for a couple of reasons. RCSI Cancer Society organised their Daffodil Day Bake Sale, in an effort to raise funds for cancer research (Irish Cancer Society). Initially we were not given permission to use the Expo Stage at the No. 26 New Academic Building, but in the end we managed to set up there - and what a collection it was! Brownies, lemon squares, Rice Krispies, cupcakes, Daffodil flower badges, and even TWO tubs of Gino's Gelato (!) sponsored by Gino's themselves. While the other society members had baked most of these sweet treats, yours truly being the less culinary inclined could only provide moral support and manpower.

2) Initially, there wasn't that large a turnout - probably because the students had class. Soon, however, the numbers began rising, partially due to the awesome deals we gave them. €1 for a tub of Gino's anyone? We tried to give them the most bang for their buck, short of actually toppling the ice cream. After a while, the ice cream began to melt, turning into a gloop of still awesome goodness, so Claire had to take it to the refrigerator. All in all, it was a really good day to raise funds for charity. Just a pity I couldn't be around the whole day, as I had other business to attend to.

3) Among the many things I've done, none was more striking than my getting a haircut. I used to get my free haircut at the Dublin School of Barbering, but recently I've noticed the website (where you book your appointment) has been taken down, and my efforts to walk there to enquire have been unsuccessful so far. As I could not wait much longer (see my 'before' pic below and I'm sure you'll agree why) I decided to have a haircut anyway, at the Grafton Barber. They have a student deal for €10 on weekdays, before 12pm. So I got my haircut, and even received a complimentary coffee as well! Not a bad deal at all :)

4) Last week was International Cultural Night 2018. My friends have been working incredibly hard for this moment - where different student bodies compete in a dance-off to promote their culture and background. I wasn't participating in this edition (I did last year) as I could not commit to the long hours of practice, compounded by the fact that I've now relocated to Beaumont. To cut a long story short, PMCSA (the RCSI equivalent of MSoc) clinched Overall Champion with a brilliant display of diversity and artistic flair - as they enthralled the audience with their intricate dance moves, accentuated by their authentic costumes and outfits! A truly monumental feat, and a huge congratulations to all those involved! :)

5) Today was our OSCE Station exams. It is a practical exam, with no grade but a simple pass-fail system. Fail, and there would be a repeat exam the following week. No one wants to fail, and so, in the days leading to this date, my friends and I were practising like mad, to cover all possible scenarios. We each took turns playing the patient, examiner, and the medical student. The videos available - we felt - were not much help, but fortunately they provided us with the mark sheet criteria as well, so we could go off that. As my batch went into Tutorial Room 4 of the Smurfit Building today, my heart was beating with anxiety. What would be the task? Would I be able to complete them in time? (we had only five minutes)

6) In the end, I got a Mr. "Smith" (for those studying in RCSI, you'll remember him as the very famous surface model with Dr. Mark Murphy in those YouTube videos), and the task was posterior chest examination. I had just finished chest wall expansion when time was called, and it was feedback time, by the invigilator. "You've passed. Good technique overall. Congrats". That's all I needed to hear. One huge load off my shoulders. And now, just two weeks more till our Cardioresp mid-terms, and another two weeks till our final semesters. This semester - and indeed, this year - is passing by so fast I can hardly catch up. And with that, I'll end my blog update here. Enjoy the photos, and thanks for tuning in. Have a great one, cheers! :)

RCSI Daffodil Day Bake Sale!!

(with my new haircut XD)

Bake Sale!

(more pics below)

Congratulations guys - awesome job! ^^

The morning view as I await the bus to the city centre (Eden Quay)

A huge thanks to Education in Ireland for this! :))

That is a very impressive diagram indeed!

Whoever did this you've got real talent :)

From this...

To this!

Wearing the Irish Cancer Soc T-shirt, just in time for the Bake Sale

Cupcakes, Rice Krispies, brownies - for €1 a pop!

The pièce de résistance - Gino's gelato in two flavours - amaretto and strawberry!

The Post Office ("GPO Dublin")

Smurfit Building 2nd Floor - practising for our OSCE's

DAY 562-566

Mar 17 - 21

1) As predicted, "the Beast from the East" has returned - dubbed the Mini Beast from the East - over the course of the weekend. Temperatures dipped below zero, with the usual chilly-to-the-bone winds, bringing the wind chill factor and the RealFeel temperature well into the double digits (below zero, that is). Thankfully, conditions have been improving and we've seen sunny weather thus far. Hopefully that will continue for the rest of the week, and indeed, throughout the month. Just when you thought spring should have well and truly come...

2) Last Saturday, Ireland celebrated St. Patrick's Day. The date that St. Patrick's Day falls on is thought to be the date that St. Patrick died and is therefore his feast day; the day is a holy and religious day in the Catholic Church, but more recently has come to celebrate Ireland as a nation too. Unfortunately, the parade didn't pass the streets where I live (I stay at Beaumont, which is quite far out of town) and as it was freezing on that day and some bus routes were diverted, I didn't go into town myself.

3) Things have been picking up since the last blog post. We have our OSCE practical exams coming up, in about a week. These exams are different from the ones we did back in Junior Cycle - these are assessed based on a simple pass-fail system. While some may prefer this as it does not account towards the weighted average at the end of the semester, this also means you cannot afford to fail it, as you would not be able to progress into the next semester. No pressure then...

4) Just two weeks after our OSCEs is our Cardio-Respiratory mid-semesters. And two weeks following that is our final semesters, which end on May 9th. Not a very good time for me to be slacking off. Anyway, that has been a summary of the past couple of days, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks very much for visiting, and have a great day ahead. Cheers!

The night scene in Beaumont

(just to the left is the Northside Shopping Centre)

It just dawned on me that these devices are "Assembled in Malaysia" :)

The photo quality doesn't do it justice here, but that is some really good, authentic Laksa noodles! ^^

My host mother's awesome cheese omelette! :))

DAY 557-561

Mar 12 - 16

1) Another week has passed. Literally two weeks after our mid-semesters, we have our OSCEs, after which we have another CR exam (two weeks following). As a result, there's barely time for a breather, as we struggle to keep up with the lectures. At least the weather's looking a lot better now -warm and sunny, and longer daylight.

2) But one can only hope that this is not a foreshadowing of the calm before the storm. After all, Met Ireland reports the return of the "Beast from the East" later this week, with three warnings already issued for heavy rains and gale force winds, and an alert for flooding in parts. While we have been largely affected thus far, only time will tell if the impact will be as large as it was with the previous encounter with the storm.

3) On Monday night, I participated in the RCSI Model United Nations, a collaboration between the RCSI MUN Society with UNICEF Society - to organise a keynote speech/ MUN conference. The title was "Syria - Paving the Road to Peace. Our guest speaker, Dr. Bismar, is an orthopaedic surgeon who travels to Syria and other conflict zones on medical missions. He gave his keynote speech detailing his experiences while in Syria, after which it was time for us - the delegates - to draft out a resolution ("solution") to the crisis.

4) As the delegate of USA, the onus was on me to draft a resolution to be debated upon. Other delegates formed their own alliances as well, and proceeded to draft out their resolutions. All in all, it was an exciting and informative session, as I really broadened my understanding of the crisis plaguing the Middle East. Innocent lives were being lost in a proxy war that has been going on for years, yet the coverage has been startlingly lacking, and *dare I say it* we've become desensitized to such depictions of violence and brutality in these regions.

5) Ultimately, the event was a huge success, and we were given our certificates of participation. I took the night bus back to Beaumont, reaching at around 11pm  - Beaumont is far ): Anyway, that was the gist of my week (the rest was just studying, eating, not getting enough sleep etc), so thanks very much for dropping by. Have a great weekend ahead, cheers!

Delegates of the world

Delegate of the United States of America

Dr. Bismar - orthopaedic surgeon and guest speaker of the conference :)

Night by the Liffey

Group photo again ^^

DAY 543-556

Feb 26 - Mar 11

It has indeed been far too long since my last blog post, and I can only offer my apologies. Various circumstances have forced my delaying of updates, chief of which was our mid-term exams, which concluded today. Our mid-terms were supposed to be last Monday, but due to Storm Emma (nicknamed the Beast from the East) it had to be postponed.

So onto a brief recap of what has transpired since my last update. First and foremost was the “Beast from the East”, so termed due to the strong icy winds from Siberia, Russia. A five-day weather advisory was issued by Met Ireland, culminating in a Red Warning for snow and a brief period of blizzard in Ireland - as temperatures plummeted to an all-time low of around -7 degrees Celsius in certain regions. This was certainly one of the lowest temperatures we've endured in a long while, compounded by the really quite terrible wind chill factor.

Stores were closed for several days, public transport ground to a halt as road conditions became unfavourable due to the thick buildup of snow, and Beaumont Hospital opened its doors to the homeless, and kept everyone warm and fed. Not all was gloomy though, as netizens took the opportunity to build snowmen and igloos. RCSI itself was closed, but that didn’t stop me from using the library at Beaumont to study.

A week later and temperatures are back to normal. Apparently there’s another storm brewing – the Pest from the West. Oh how I love these creative names. Anyway, on to the next bit – Research Day. Originally meant to be after our exams, we instead had to take time off to attend this compulsory day. As usual, I was involved with a research poster, while some of my friends did an oral presentation. In the end, the winner of the undergraduate category was Melissa! Congratz to her, and great job everyone who participated as always :)

The days leading up to my exams were particularly odd. On some days, I could really focus and get stuff done, while on others, I just didn’t feel any motivation to study. It didn’t help that recently I’ve been getting headaches after waking up (which isn’t good because I can’t then sleep to recover), but so far it’s been more of a nuisance rather than anything too major. Hopefully it’s just a build up of stress and I’ll be back to my usual self soon.

Today was our mid-terms. We had two consecutive papers – Foundation in Microbiology, followed by Foundation in Pathology. I wished I did more studying, but what’s over is over, and I have another exam (our OSCE’s) in a fortnight. So there’s that to distract my mind over. Anyway, as I was making my way back to Eden Quay to catch the bus back home (after my usual post-exam buffet), I found the bus services had been disrupted due to what was billed the “Protest March”. Basically, netizens in support of the ProLife movement were gathered from all over to protest the repeal of the 8^th Amendment, which equates the right to life of a pregnant woman with that of an embryo or foetus. In doing so it criminalises abortion in all cases except where to continue a pregnancy would result in death. Chants of “2,4,6,8 – we will not discriminate!” filled the streets as people holding banners and placards paraded through the streets along the Liffey.

Thankfully, the weather has gotten significantly warmer, which I hope will continue as I look forward to running the Greater Manchester Marathon in April, in aid of the Children’s Adventure Fun Trust in UK. That has been an outline of my activities for the week or so, along with some beautiful pics of the events in chronological order. Thank you very much for visiting my blog, and hope to see you soon, in the next one. Cheers!

P.S. Really quite a lot of pictures these past two weeks, so take your time to scroll down if you're keen. Enjoy :))

"Repeal the Eighth" was the main theme of the day, 

as netizens took to the street to call for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment

View from my window - overlooking the back entrance to Beaumont Hospital :)

Woke up to this overnight! :^)

Even the memorial plague at Beaumont was covered in snow

Posing with my art submission for the Art Gallery ^^

Prof. Cathal Kelly gives the welcoming address for Research Day 2018

My masterpiece - just revel in the manual dexterity and fine motor skills needed to make those indentations in the face XD

(okay who am I kidding)

The entrance to our house

On the road to Beaumont Hospital (back entrance)

Snowy night at Beaumont :)

On a particularly snowy night...

A really beautiful snowman ^^

Apple crumble and vanilla ice-cream, at Jimmy Chung

Art gallery display (this is Faiz's submission)

My submission (bottom)

"Breaking Dawn"

Faiz, me, and Lai - at the Art Gallery display

St. Andrew's Church on Suffolk St

Research Day 2018!

Yes I'm well aware of the overgrowing unkempt hair XD

Buffet spread of finger foods

Forgoing food to capture the atmosphere

Multidisplinary team revision was interactive in that we got to use this cool device

(made in Malaysia!)

Today's story - buffet at Ten Thousand for a change :)

"Say NO To Abortion!" the sign says...