This is Poland #1: Polish customer service

I've been thinking about starting this category for a while- to explain a few interesting aspects of life in Poland. Not that it's all that strange, but some things do stand out...

So I'm thinking of changing my cellphone provider and had a few questions about which phone to choose, prices according to my usage etc and I thought I'd just get in line for the customer service chat while doing other tasks online... This is what I got:

I'm like..... if you don't speak English, then why even bother with the chit chat???! And clearly he *did* know how to put sentences together so I really don't understand why he couldn't either find someone with skills or simply say "nienienienienienienienienienieninieNIEEEE" like the other honest people who claim not to be able to communicate in anything but Polish, Czech or Russian!

Excellent. Now I actually have to man up and go to the Play shop- it's not like there's a guarantee that the English speaking people on the phone will *actually* speak in English...!


.n

Textbooks for the lazy.

I'm trying to buy my books second hand off amazon.co.uk and other places online. Being lazier than your average cat at Sunday brunch I've left this way too long and probably need to start reading off real material soon. My relationship with wikipedia is getting a little too intense....

So I came across this and it made me chuckle:

A cover of an actual medical textbook! If only there was one of these for every single subject I have the next five years... Hah... I'd especially like to see the one for "oral and maxillary surgery- made ridiculously simple".........which we found (well except the title was missing the part after the hyphen) at one of the medical bookshops today and is probably the biggest piece of "book" I've ever seen in my life. Oh surgery, I just can't wait!



So long..! I'm going to send off my amazon order now before I put more DVDs than books into the shopping basket..


.n

Paraaa....paraaaaaaParadise!

The final days of the summer holidays could not have been better. Couchsurfing with Gosia in Warsaw was a blast on its own and further topped with Coldplay live at the national stadium on their Mylo Xyloto tour!

I think 'wow' is all I have to say. Such amazing sounds and surprises! ..and the lights!! The lights, more than anything else, made the concert so unique. I've never had a similar experience before even with glowsticks.. Everyone got to wear wristbands which lit up as a part of the show and you could see every person moving to the music. This footage is probably the best I have found on youtube which explains it all :))





Still in awe... So glad I went!


.n

Summertime gloominess >_>

Don't be deceived by the previous post- I can count the number of sunny days we've had in July so far ON A SINGLE (human!) HAND!

Can't wait for next week to commence... might as well squeeze in even more hours at work...

So now I've gotta run back out to fetch another bucket of vitamin D before it finds a cloud to hide behind. Laterzzz.



.n

#summertime

My phone doesn't support apps like Instagram. Now I know you're all thanking the heavens for my lack of interest in technological advancement when it comes to my gadgets. Otherwise your newsfeeds would look something like this...

You'll be dreading the day when a samsung-universe-something-something finds its way to the palm of my hands. In the meantime- happy summertime!



.n

The last haul...(& de-crippling myself)

Almost done now...! I've been in such a complaining mood lately and am actually getting really restless and missing home very much- I really can't wait to feel the cool breeze and smell of the sea and drive around in my funky scooter #daydreaming.

Histology was a tough one yesterday- I've now realised that I definitely need more than 120 minutes to complete 100 MCQs in order to have the chance to think twice about what I enter into the answer sheet!!!!
But for what it's worth; it was a very fair test compared to anatomy which was pure evil....
Oh well, only the practical exam on Friday left before I get to go home (!!!!!) Practising on the quiz section of the department website right now- just have to keep looking at all of the slides until Friday so they'll stick to my brain I guess. It's all very monotonous and mostly just splashes of pink and purple, but there are a few ones I really like:

Filiform papilla stained with AZAN staining- wooow this is actually really colourful!

http://www.histologia.cm-uj.krakow.pl/Repetytorium/repetyt.html

Silver stained liver ; central vein - my definite favourite!

Respiratory bronchiole- kind of pretty I guess

http://www.histologia.cm-uj.krakow.pl/Repetytorium/repetyt.html

Most of the slides look like even more boring versions of the bronchiole, so there's a lot of pink mush that we need to be able to differentiate. Bah..!

I spent the time after the test yesterday packing up my room and chilling without having a bad conscience because the chemistry retake was going on this morning so I didn't feel like it was time spent skiving (slept until 8 this morning and it felt strangely nice) I'm packing up now because we have to move out of the flat :( It's such a shame because we really like it here, but the owner has decided to sell the flat- quite cheaply for what it is, but still none of us can afford to buy it- otherwise I seriously would! We only found out ~a week ago that we need to find a new place for next year. Luckily we have now found a place that is quite ideal. We will probably know by tomorrow if we can move in.

Also I really can't stand the crutches any more, so I decided to de-cripple myself and will stop by the hospital tomorrow to see if anyone can squeeze me in at some point....



I think I've compressed my ulnar nerve while using the crutches too because my little and ring finger is tingling a little. Oh, the things you learn in first grade!



.n

Crippled.

Hello hello, stupid day!

It's just my foot. It sort of hurts. A lot.

Last night got me no quality sleep whatsoever and even considered going to the emergency department in the middle of the night for some advice but held on until 5:30 this morning. Karoline helped me out and I skipped my way to a clinic which is literally down the road and up a side street. We got there in time for 7am which is when they open. The receptionist did not speak English and did not even try to understand what was wrong. I just skipped back out once I'd used up my taxi-Polish-skills and gotten nowhere. She did give us the address to another clinic where I could get some help though. So we call a taxi, it never shows up and luckily Karoline manages to hail one off the side street. We get in and it feels really strange taking a cab to a place I'd normally walk to within 5 minutes....

This place was allegedly the emergency department of the university hospital and we're guided down the stairs to a strange little hallway where people register. They manage to find someone who speaks English and she's initially just like- "this is strictly for emergency situations like fractures and sprains, so you should actually just go to THIS address!" .....and writes down the address of the clinic we just came from. I actually asked her whether she was kidding me or not and after showing her a little pain-burst she let me register and wait for an English speaking doctor to arrive at 8am. We wait in the hallway for almost an hour and around 8:45 they ask me to come in, put me in a wheelchair (fun....) and send me to radiology. A cool paramedic guy rolled me away to take an x-ray and rolled me back, placing me in a corner for another hour. I did some chit chatting with an older Polish lady who actually knew the odd English phrase which was quite sweet.

I started to get a bit impatient and whipped out a fabulous "przepraszam" to get their attention. The so-called English-speaking doctor kept jabbering in Polish even after I said "nie mowie po polsku" TWICE, so he found the nurse I met earlier who said there were no fractures, just a dark shadow on my x-ray which means I have to wear this stupid CAST for a week:

at least 4 out of my 5 toenails were painted and are now nicely on display...

She gave me a few other papers including a prescription for anti-coagulant injections which I have to inject myself for 10 days or so because this shadow could apparently be a sign of clot formations (?). I even got my x-rays on a CD- which made me slightly amused...

I was told to go to get the cast on my leg somewhere close to radiology and Karoline rolled me down the halls. Got redirected to 3 places before finding a place to register for getting a cast and the line was so immense I just wanted to cry. Karo even offered to go home and get our histology notes so we wouldn't just sit there waiting for 3 hours with nothing to do. I registered to this place again miraculously being able to communicate with the grumpy reception lady and we went back in line. Then we somehow managed to find another doctor who spoke English and explained the situation, so he took us to a completely different place to get the cast. Met the paramedic guy again, this time on his lunch break in the cast-making room. I got the cast and realised that what's normal practice in Norway is not necessarily the same here- they could not offer me any crutches! Paramedic guy gave me the "see, this is the way out country works"-look and this is where we parted. Karo rolled me into a cab and we were outside the flat at noon. Skipped my way to one of the medical shops next door and bought these fancy teal crutches in the pic above. Gotta love the stylishness of the situation!

So yeah, to sum it up:

I'm wearing this stupid cast and walking on fabulous crutches until the 22nd (hopefully without the horrible pain at some point) injecting those anti-coagulants every day and going back after my last histology exam on the 22nd for a health check. Hopefully won't need to crutch-up again for my flight on the 23rd... crossing my fingers and healthy toes as we speak.

How it happened, you say? I have __no__ frickin clue. If I have to get my foot casted every time I go out jogging, this could be a really sad life!




.n

First block down.

So far I've had three finals and they keep getting more and more ridiculous.

Theoretical anatomy was a nasty slap in the face and I'm not even exaggerating when I estimate a failing percentage of 25% of the class (not entirely sure here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was that high). It was literally like playing odd one out/spinning the bottle/bingo/yatzy/whatever luck-related children's board game you wanna call it.
I guess they really wanted to give us a killer of a test to see who had read all the blue and yellow boxes with the tiny print in italics, which is fine to include, but filling up half of the test with crap I was explicitly told not to focus too much on defeats the point of an exam! Seriously, who cares whether the MALE nipple is located on the level of the 4th rib or 4th intercostal space?? Just for the sake of feeling even dumber I even tried palpating my own ribs and nipples during the exam- still managing to get the answer wrong ^^

Walking out of the exam seeing everyone else's WTF-just-happened-faces was disturbingly reassuring. I started to mentally preparing myself for an early return after the summer break even before making my way out of the anatomy building. What's quite good about our school though is that they process the results of the exams pretty quickly- not like in Edinburgh where you get your results months after when you've probably even forgotten which exam you sat.. So people start getting their results roughly an hour after the test. Lucky me waited for 4 1/2 hrs- 2 1/2 of which I sat in front of the computer refreshing and re-logging into the result page. Bah... whatever, I passed and I am proud to the bone!

That evening I went to party with people from the choir which was a nice breath of fresh air before cramming some organic chemistry for the rest of the weekend- time that could have been well spent doing histology, but whatever. At the end of the day I could truly identify with this entry from http://whatshouldwecallmedschool.tumblr.com

Cramming for my exam late at night and then I'm like: 

 

The exam- again in my opinion- was a tad difficult, probably emphasised by my don't-give-an-f attitude. Anyways, the chem teacher actually lowered the pass mark because the test was "clearly very hard", so this just proved my thinking of not really taking any of this seriously to start with.... I guess a "YAAAY" is in order here.


But it gets better..

Today was another round in the hall, this time for Polish and medical history. I for one quite like the last part of it- not as interested in the first mainly because of the way it was incorporated into the curriculum as "we know you really don't care about how Poland came to be, so we're just going to have a bunch of mandatory lectures, let you sign your friends in if they're not present and give the answers to the questions we may ask beforehand" So I went quite well prepared compared to others in my class and we're all in a tiny room that could barely fit us all so we sat next to each other even in the aisle. Knowing this the professor had made two tests to distribute with the idea of people sitting next to each other having non-identical questions- to minimise cheating I'm assuming..  No shit, Sherlock. We just switched around the papers and talked our way through the answers. I guess he was fully aware it was going to happen though- hilarious man & no hard feelings. I'll be disappointed if I didn't score 100% on this...

As you can see, things get a bit silly here at times. Now I'm hoping I can actually go to that Coldplay concert in September instead of writing up another histology final...!

Motivation? "I ain't got time for your histo!"

Leave all the following statements unmarked EXCEPT the best one::

a) Examination days are the ultimate days for dressing up in the skirt I own with the tightest/most painful waistline 
b) The anterior cardiac vein drains into the coronary sinus
c) I didn't feel the need to pop any NSAIDs yesterday AT ALL
d) It's too late to start panicking now anyway.


Seriously hoping to pass this shit..


Right answer: D

Cookies and the NYC experience

I've yet again completely forgotten about the existence of this blog. I started writing about the NYC trip but the photos would not upload properly so I just dismissed the entire post out of agitation. Nevermind, it was an awesome trip and I even surprise myself with the feeling that I really want to visit that place again ...but D.C. is definitely next on my USA list.

 

Magnolia's bakery's cupcakes in Central Park! Bliss :D 

 

The (apparently) infamous Strand bookshop- quite amazing how I left the place with only six items...

 

 I'd actually never had a bowl of chilli in my life. Super tasty!

Cherry blossoms :)

  

Prospect park botanical gardens. cutest bonsai tree ever at the bonsai museum.

Brunch at McD. Well, it had to be done semi-Amurrrican style. I ordered water just to bastardise the whole experience. Didn't eat for another 6 hours... Bleh..

Museum of Modern Art- such a cool place with the wittiest things I've ever seen... This is me pointing out the shot after being told by the clerk where on the wall it actually was. He must be doing this 500 times a day at _least_ judging by peoples' confused faces...

..and finally one of the finest parts of our trip- Highline Park! Located in the Meatpacking district this is a fine gem that is absolutely worth seeing.Basically this is currently a park with rail roads elevated over the streets next to the Hudson river where they used to transport goods from the ports into the city. The rails are still there as you can see with the addition of greenery, benches and lights. It's a free tourist attraction, but people actually hang out here too. There was also a projector screening short films and art projects to the wall of one of the buildings free for people to sit down and watch. Super cool!

[YAY, the post is actually saving this time! Now I can move on..!]

So out of nowhere our kitchen oven started working again. My face went:
Really????!!

 and so I started to catch up with the baking I have missed out on for 6 months... Not only have I been craving 'rosinboller' for half a lifetime, I still had not been able to try out a single recipe from the book I got from Ina and Sara last Christmas!



I made these lovelies yesterday and I am counting on my flatmates helping out with the eating...!
Oreo cheesecake cookies :))

Might blog again some time soon when I get tired of exam revision. It's going to be a dull month I can tell (except for the abundance of sunlight of course- liking that part quite a lot!)


.n

Title without a title.

The past few weeks have been rather hectic even without any of those dreadful deadlines. Karoline and I have had anatomy-dates in the kitchen, had sushi for dinner three times a week, almost finished another litre of soy sauce and pretty much worked our asses off. We even had a pre-party before going out to the rowing team's fundraising night and I'm rather intrigued to see the photos I took with my Diana camera once I get the film developed :p

Here's to silly lime faces!

 

...and prominent forearm flexor muscles!

I've been climbing on Mondays and worn my palms out every time and spent minimal time on thinking about the NYC trip- which I will get back to. I've also been very excited about what's going on back home with my little pregnant friend who is not pregnant at all any more :) I was super happy to hear about Victoria and Stian's newborn baby girl on April 1st! 

So the past few Saturdays I've been going to these walking tours around Krakow! One was about communism in Krakow where they took us to Nowa Huta which is a place that was specially built to be a typical communistic town ~30 mins outside the city centre. Learned a little about life in the 50's and onwards, steel factories,  concrete buildings, gangs and pigs and chicks being sold out of car trunks!

General architecture in Nowa Huta

 

Was interesting to hear about how nobody actually knows the names of the streets in this part of the city because the apartment complexes were organised into concrete neighbourhoods which were given separate names such as the "cute" block. I should have taken a photo of the building overview maps to show how the building numbers weren't organised very well either with blocks going from 1-4 in a straight line, then suddenly a building number 12 showing up next to the number 4 then continuing on to number 5 etc. Strange but interesting tour!

The other one was around the Jewish ghetto area from the war. We walked all the way to a site where there used to be a labour camp (Plaszów) a bit into the suburbs. It was really worth seeing with a guide as he showed us pictures of how the place used to look and told stories about the now completely deserted field which just looks like a grassy hill with hardly any traces of the Holocaust left. I didn't take any photos, mainly because the weather was insane with rain and coldness surrounding us wherever we went. The hot chocolate at the end was much longed for!

So as you can see it went from being summery to spring-y to a true winter day when it actually snowed (!) on Sunday- while Marte and Magnus came to visit.

 

Snow in the air!?

Despite the weather we were just chilling out with tasty food, courageous walks around town in the cold and a bit of shopping at the mall. My New York essentials are all bought and almost packed now! Just got to make a packed lunch for tomorrow and wait for the lovely Agata to come over to crash for the night on her way home  from Edinburgh :)

By the way- I got a hair cut the other day ^^ Might show it off later...  So long!

.n