As some of you know, I usually knit during class, but this fall in my free time I tried my hand at crocheting. I had a specific request from a friend for a Hobbes doll and just couldn't figure out how to knit one. Four and a half months later, this guy finally arrived on their front porch.

Hobbes Doll. Photo credit Cameron Booth.

I created the whole thing by myself consulting a few arigurumi patterns for body building and of course the comic strips for style.

Thought I forgot about you?

Ok, to be fair, maybe I did...for a little while. I had such an amazing holiday break that words don't do it justice. P & I were back in Canada at his mom's house surrounded by family, friends, and the warmest generosity. We made it back to Poland and have adjusted back into our routine with only a few New Year resolution-style changes.

We are both choosing to eat better and are adjusting some habits in our lives for the better as well. So far I've been impressed with both of our efforts and I think we may just be able to keep this up. Hopefully by the end of the month we'll have a gym membership, so we'll be able to add some exercise in the mix.

School will begin to ramp up soon as all my "exempt" classes come to an end. I am trying to build better study habits now before things go full swing and so far so good. By February, anatomy will end & we have the NBME exam, microbiology will be in high gear, parasitology will be moving as well as biochemistry and physiology. Throw in some genetics lectures and classes and the beginning of neuroscience and now we're talking. I am excited for this and am looking forward to having to work!

Snow 1, Chelsea 0

It's the Friday before break and all my classes have been canceled. Therefore, I'm officially on holiday. This would be pretty great if I weren't on crutches. Wednesday this week, as I was just leaving for school, I crossed the snow-packed street in front of my house and slipped landing on my left knee. It didn't help matters that I had about 10 kg of books in my backpack too. I managed to crawl back to the side and hobble back to the apartment. A trip to the doctor that afternoon didn't provide much insight except that my pain structure is abnormal for any of the typical knee injuries. I responded that I don't have typical knees.

I borrowed crutches from a friend, got a compression bandage from the doc, and he started me on 10 days of heparin. Why heparin, you may ask. Well, Monday I am getting on a transatlantic flight to head to Ottawa for the holiday break and, having a recent leg injury, may be at risk for a blood clot.

I am supposed to go back today, Friday, for an ultrasound to see if there is any soft tissue damage like a meniscus or ligament. After two days of staying off it though, I am feeling quite a bit better. I know I should go through with the ultrasound just to be safe, but I'm pretty sure they won't find anything. I have a feeling that in a few more days I may be back to at least 80%. That means no jogging for a while, but the fact that I fell just walking across the street means I won't be jogging outdoors anyway! It's gross out there!

Papers in order

We just returned from a whirlwind last minute trip to Gdansk to get P's new biometric EU passport. It means he is in the clear for leaving Europe next week and is the proud holder of two passports again. Now, this week, it's time for me to make sure I have all my papers in order. My resident card expires on Saturday and my new one should be in any day, though I have yet to hear from the office. I have to take a few hours on Monday to go and do some investigating and see if the decision has been made in my case and if my card is ready. Just more pre-holiday stress, something everyone needs more of, right?

Weekend update

It's snowing and sticking in Poznań! The place has turned into a winter wonderland. If I thought my cobblestone church-lined street was quaint before, it is downright picturesque now. The snow was a beautiful backdrop for our little and late Thanksgiving dinner. It was lovely with Turkey (parts, not a whole bird), mashed potatoes, 3-bean salad, wild mushroom stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a  homemade apple pie. We had a friend and her son over for dinner. The cats welcomed their attention and I welcomed their help in the kitchen.

It's going to be a big week around here as P starts his new job this week. Oh yeah, did I mention that he got a job?! I am so excited for him as it's at a really cool place and should be a challenging position for him. We are also starting to look ahead to the holidays and the prospect of a trip across the pond. We are not so excited about the new airline transatlantic baggage restrictions nor the scan/body search requirements as we transit through the US. That being said, I am still so excited to head to Canada for the holidays!

The Bells

One of the things I truly do love about living in Europe is that without looking at my watch I can tell you when it is 6am, 9am, 12 noon, 6pm, and 9pm. It's the church bells! We live across the street from a church and at those times there is just a cacophony of bells. They don't mess around with the 2 bells for 2 o'clock or 5 for 5 o'clock business. They just let them all ring five times a day. Even downtown, there are churches on every other corner and the bells ring out in succession across the city. It's a comforting sound to me. And a few times those 6am bells have saved my ass when I forgot to set my alarm!

NMBE Histology

In a couple hours I will go to take the National Board of Medical Examiners histology exam with my classmates. I feel fortunate that I received my histology education at Gdańsk as I see how unprepared my classmates are for this exam. I have been studying with friends going over material that has been purely review for me but has appeared to be new to them even at the end of the class. We'll see how the results will look.

As I have been surrounded by test-takers recently,  I realized that I've never been an exam freak-out person and for this I am very thankful. Somehow I seem to be able to keep my sympathetic nervous system in check and approach exams as games or problem solving rather than life or death tests. I recently listened to a Radiolab program that touched on this and made me recognize that this testing paradigm shift that I established years ago is extremely beneficial. When I've explained my test-taking behaviour to others, oftentimes they seem to assume that I am taking the material lightly or not being serious enough for the subject matter. I argue that if you stress yourself out with the material and/or situation, you will not perform your best and, particularly with medicine, if you do not preform your best there can be serious repercussions.

Ok, enough procrastinating, I have an exam game to get to.

Odd but true

It is illegal to perform a vasectomy in Poland.


Cue "Every Sperm is Sacred".

Anatomia

[Rant]
I'm in weird position at my school in that I do not have to take Gross Anatomy due to my previous courses from Gdańsk. Well, I don't have to take the course, nor the school exams, but I am responsible for taking the NBME exam (National Board of Medical Examiners) with the rest of the class and have therefore chosen to attend classes and labs as a way to review for this exam. And this is what puts me in a weird position.

Long story short is that I'm teaching half of the lab classes. I'm running it much like I had anatomy in Gdansk, asking everyone questions and pointing out notable structures. Several of the students have joked that I should get a salary because I'm doing more than many of the assistants. I try not to step on the assistant's toes. When they want to teach, I step back and let others move up partly out of respect and partly because some of them drive me flipping nuts! However, when something is unclear to the rest of the students, which is often, I will ask questions to clarify answers. I am usually respectful and even-tempered especially when it comes to working with assistants and professors, but I almost lost it today.

In order to be a good teacher you must LISTEN! Big Baldy, we'll call him, can actually give good informative if not slightly off-topic lectures that most of the class benefits from. He cannot, however, answer a single g.d. question and when he asks a student a question, he rarely understands the answer and will say you are wrong--even if you are right. A large group of us were working together to identify a part of a bone today. We'd offered many answers and were told they were all wrong. We were utterly stumped for a good five minutes until Big Baldy finally tells us what it was...which is what we'd been saying all along. I pulled him aside and said in my most polite way, "Sir, we have given this answer at least 5 times and were told that we are wrong. Why is it suddenly correct?" He shrugged me off and gave me a BS answer.

His partner today received the brunt of my wrath, unfortunately for her. She'd asked us again about a part of a bone, stating that it is a specific name...a name which is not in any of our atlases, textbooks, or recommended resources for the class but is found in the Polish atlas. I'd had it. How can you possibly expect to test us on names of structures that are not provided to us in lecture, are not in the recommended textbooks, and are not in the English atlases? I continued that if something like this were on an exam, it would be worth going to the professor and/or the dean with it. The English division professors need to know what our textbooks and atlases name things if they expect to test us. I understand her point that the structure is important, which it is, and our text states the importance without naming the different parts, parts that are 2mm away from each other. I was not mean, but I was short and very serious which flustered her more than I'd anticipated, but oh well. The funny part is that I won't be tested by the department, so if it's on a test, I won't even know.

[/Rant]
Taking a deep breath now. 

Last week our Sociology of Medicine professor, a kindly old man who has been with the university for 50 years and is affectionately known as Papa Smurf, took us on a mini field trip to the part of the building where he normally works: forensic medicine. We had just been talking the class before about child and domestic abuse and he welcomed us to the forensic hallway where they have displays of the kind of things they see. Some are photos, some are specimens or parts of specimens in jars, and there is even a full body that was found in a mummified state with it's two aborted (also mummified) fetuses--that's mummified as in very well preserved, not with the wrapping like the Egyptians. Everything was arranged thematically: stab wounds, gun shot wounds, skull fractures, illegally aborted fetuses (Catholic country = no abortions), etc...

For the sake of all I won't go into details about what I saw, but there were both interesting pieces and disturbing pieces. It was a conversation I had on the following Monday about the trip that intrigued me. One of my classmates is a Romanian American guy from California. He said that the mini-field trip had hit him pretty hard because his mother had tried to have an illegal abortion with him--coat hanger and all. For him it was strange to look at the fetuses that were aborted (some also killed the mother during or after the procedure) and realize that it could have been him (and his mom). I know plenty of people who were "surprises" or "mistakes" for their parents, but I'd never met anyone who actually knew that they had survived a botched abortion. As a parent in that situation, in what circumstance would you release that information? It's a situation and relationship that I've never encountered before.

A weekend off--not really

Friday afternoon we caught the 2:45 train to Sopot for a weekend full of family, friends, and unfortunately business. We're staying at P's cousins' place but P was late because he had to go pick up the key to our old apartment--we had got a call from the posters our friend put up all over town, someone wanted to see it and the owner's rep was super sick. He finally made it and we had beers and sat up until midnight chatting with the fam.

Saturday morning, P showed the apartment while I had coffee and caught up with friends. We met up and headed for his uncle's place to have dinner with his aunt, uncle, and grandpa. Dinner with this group of people always includes at least 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of something else, this time homemade fruit infused vodka, as well as a huge meal with coffee, tea, and cake. I can tell my Polish is progressing because I could participate a little more in the conversation. Bit by bit, I'm making progress. We headed back to the cousins' place and had to start taking care of business while slightly tipsy. The guys who saw the apartment would like to rent it and we have to work with the owner to come up with a satisfactory plan which meant a late night call to Canada. It's more complicated than it sounds, unfortunately, but we're working on it.

Today, Sunday, I'm meeting with a few more friends--ones who seem to be on the path to burnout with too much studying and I've been asked by other friends to try to intervene. A 19 year old isn't going to listen to anyone, but I'll give it a shot. It'd be an easier intervention if she was doing something bad, drinking too much or sleeping around, but it seems even studying too much can be bad for one's health.; everything in moderation, right?

The rest of the weekend will include: a giant party for P's aunt (where the wine will flow like water), a (perhaps drunken) phone call to Canada to arrange things with the apartment, a trip Monday morning to the old apartment hopefully to sign a lease with the new people, a trip to city hall so I can de-register that I live here in order to register in Poznan and get my visa process started. Then we'll get on a train for 5.5 hours and be home around midnight Monday night. Ugh. Here's hoping that all goes to plan.

Unpacking

We've moved so many times in the last 5 years, you'd think we'd be pros at this by now. The unpacking has begun in earnest. We (re)built the record shelf and the reshelving process has begun as well. Our bed is in place, though our headboard still needs to be unpacked and installed (it attaches to the wall, which will require purchasing a drill). The kitchen is almost done unpacking. It was a pretty complete kitchen, so we're packing up what was there and replacing it with our stuff. If I'm going to break a dish I'd rather it be mine!

The hardest part of unpacking so far has been the clothing. We don't have a lot of space for hanging yet and we haven't figured out a great storage system so most things have been living in piles around the house. It will get better with time and planning though.

School is in full swing and I am counting myself lucky that I received exemption from two of the big classes (anatomy and histology). I will still have to take the NBME exams, but my presence in class and lecture is not required. That frees up a lot of time to get stuff done. Yesterday, for example, we walked 30 min to get to the office to sign up for internet. We've signed up and received the modem but it may be up to 3 weeks before it can get installed! Here's hoping for a speedy installation guy.

And just when you think everything is going so well...the bad stuff. We still have not found someone to rent our apartment in Gdansk. The lease we signed did not have a clause to give notice to break the lease so we are legally responsible for it until either (a) we find someone to take over the lease or (b) the lease ends in February. Every lead we've had has fallen flat and we're having to post fliers around the schools hoping to entice some students. It's an extremely frustrating situation and, after having been through a very legit lease signing process with our new place, we realize at how we have been totally screwed over by our old land lady. The lease protected only her interests and none of ours. Ah, but we live and learn.

This weekend looks like it will be the last weekend of good weather for a bit which makes it even more exciting that I get to pick up my new bicycle tomorrow. Piotr is heading to the flea market and I am going for a bike ride. It's getting chilly enough outside that I need to find my bike gloves though--these long fingers don't work so well when they get cold.

Once we get internet, I fully intend to keep this blog updated more regularly even if it's just one liners. We'll see how it goes once I start to get buried in studying. You know what they say, even the best intentions...

Bagel Shop & School

I have to say, so far I am really impressed with Poznan University of Medical Sciences. I don't know if they got EU funding or if it was paid for by student tuition, but they've taken great lengths to renovate the buildings and lecture rooms. The lecture room I was in this morning has an electric outlet for every seat as well as what looked like a DSL internet plug! I think the fact that this school has been around longer than Gdansk makes a difference too. Gdansk was built post war when everything was gray and made of concrete. Our major building was built before that so it has more character than the communist era buildings. Even the stair wells are amazing. The side stairs that lead up to individual departments have a skylight above and almost an MC Escher feel to them as the next flight of stairs begins at a different place than the first one ended. It's a great illusion.

And the students! I am in love with my classmates! Yes, quite a few of them may still be spoiled brats, but at least they are slightly older brats and are that much more mature and I'd say they are the minority. One guy showed me to this little mall near the school that has free wifi so I could check email. It turns out that a Bagel shop just opened there 3 days ago. I met the owners (a Dutch/Polish couple) because the guy had come around giving opening gifts to all the ladies. And the bagels...OMG, YUM! I have not had a bagel since Christmas last year in Ottawa. Both he and his wife spoke perfect English, of course, and told me all about their business plan and were super nice. It's a place I will definitely be going back to. Unfortunately, it's not the cheapest place, but I guess it's on par with US prices. I had an AMAZING bagel breakfast sandwich and a coffee for about $6. Actually, that'd be cheaper than some places in the states. Strolling through the little mall afterward I found they have a small world food store (hello, peanut butter and Asian delights!) and a pet store. The whole place is super-chic and geared towards international clientele. I went in the pet shop to see what prices were like for the cat litter we use and they were actually on par with our shop in Gdansk. I told the lady in Polish that I was learning Polish and tried to infer that Piotr and I were moving from Gdansk with two cats. She cracked me up, she started correcting my Polish! That's great! Most shop keepers (that I've experienced in Poznan) will switch into English at the first sign of Polish struggle, but not her.

I'm about to go in for our first Anatomy lecture. Anatomy may be interesting this year because I already took it. Unfortunately, I don't think it will transfer though because they have a higher credit requirement than Gdansk did, but it's worth asking.

Our New Apartment!

We've got a place! We sign the lease and get the keys next week. You can watch the slide show below or click here to view it in Picasa. The place is fully furnished, albeit with slightly ugly furnishings, but we will be able to make it ours easily. It's less than 500 ft from a tram stop with service to either downtown or the train station (about 10 minutes each) and a little more than that in the other direction to the "fast" trams that arrive in the center in about 5 minutes. It's closer to the city center than when we lived in North Portland and Poznań has been adding bike lanes and bike routes all over the city. Oh, I have a bike now too!!
Here's a map of where it is:
View Larger Map


We are very excited about it, but not so excited about actually moving. Those of you who have helped us before understand why. Our packing supplies arrived yesterday and this weekend we begin attacking the records! Oh, one more thing about the apartment--we have two couches that fold into double beds, so there's more than enough room for guests! Come visit!!

We are moving!

We are moving to Poznan and I start school on Wednesday. We spent Thursday and Friday of last week beginning our apartment hunt and it will continue when we return on Tuesday. While in Gdansk, we're starting the packing process, ordering extra boxes, and arranging all the logistics.

As for school, I am already on the official student's list. I will find out Monday what group I'm in and Wednesday I'll get to meet everyone. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I can say this: every interaction I've had with the school has been great. The dean's office gave me a welcome package--a PUMS bag with course catalog, maps, and a nice new PUMS executive folder--with  with all the information I need to get things started.

I will try to post updates as the week(s) continue, but we haven't arranged for internet in Poznan yet.
Back to packing!

A morning of peace

This morning is different. This is the first morning in too long that I feel at peace. Perhaps it was the release of going out last night or sleeping in until 11am, but my stomach is not in its usual stress related knots and I have a feeling that everything will be alright. It's P's first real day off in over two weeks--two weeks of 12-20 hour days, almost no sleep, and way too much caffiene--so perhaps its the fact that both of us are relatively stress free today. We know that our situation will most likely be changing in the next week, but the fact that we will soon know what is going on is more of a relief than a stress. But for today, we are sitting around in our pajamas, listening to records and drinking coffee while we write emails and tidy up work spaces.

Application Submitted

This is what I received Friday morning in my inbox:

 Dear C.D.U.,

We've received your recent enquiry regarding our 4-year MD Program and, judging from your description, you would be a very good candidate for the our program. The classes have already started here, however we've had a couple of last-minute resignations which freed up positions in the freshman year.

Could you please scan and send to my e-mail or fax a copy of the following documents as soon as possible:

-completed application form this page
-college diploma
-college transcripts showing that you've completed your pre-medicals (Biology, Chemistry organic and general, Physics)
-a photocopy of the bio page of your passport

After reviewing your application, we will let you know in the beginning next week, if we can offer you acceptance for the academic year 2010/2011.

Best regards,
Mr. Man from Poznan

By Friday afternoon, I had submitted all the requested materials and now I am just waiting. I'm pretty good at waiting; I've been doing it for a while now. It's not a sure thing, but it looks pretty probable. My MCAT scores come out Tuesday as well, so by then we can make the most informed decision. Until then, I wait.

The news is no news yet.

We heard from our man in Poznań, P, this morning that the rector is out for the week. He'll be back on Monday and already has an appointment with our guy, who has forwarded our letter and his on to the rector and the deans. We also learned that P not only knows the rector as a classmate but was a former business partner with him too. Apparently they go way back. P says he's a very nice man, so we'll see what happens on Monday.

Until then though, I am still working on my US applications and Piotr will be heading to Warsaw on Wednesday morning for a couple days of intense business meetings. The cats and I will hold down the fort and keep each other company.

Time for plan K

Plans A through J haven't worked so far, so it's time for a new one. Here is the latest update.

The school did not get the 15 student commitment it needed to hire a full-time financial aid person--there were holes the size of Texas in the plan anyway--and so the plan fell through. One brave student has decided to take on the role of financial aid officer, and all the responsibility that it entails, in addition to his studies to ensure that he can get financial aid. He will handle other students' loans as long as he is in school--for 3 or 4 more years. Good on him.

Here is why that plan doesn't work for me. One, I'm interested to see if the Department of Education will allow him to have this position. It seems a huge conflict of interest to be both financial loan officer and student, as he is effectively loaning himself money. Two, if the Dept of Ed does allow this, what happens to the students who are still in school after he graduates? There is no guarantee that the school will allow another student to take over this role so that these students could continue. Three, why would I want to continue at a school that obviously doesn't want me?

Piotr labeled this relationship as a battered-wife syndrome. The school and the American students were in a working relationship, though I dare say neither were exactly happy. The school, in between kicking us while we're down, has moments where they welcome us back with, "If each of you pays $2000 more per year and is responsible for the cost in case of an audit, then I guess we'll let you back." At which point, many of the US students are ecstatic about returning only to find out the next day, "Haha, just kidding! You guys are on your own!" After the Chancellor lied to our face about when the school found out about this issue (he said mid-July but I have it from another authority as April 9th), that's when I checked out. Thanks for playing, on to plan H.

The one promise that the school has come through on is that they worked out a deal with the University of Medicine in Poznań, arranging for all students in good standing to be offered places in their respective classes. Piotr and I had been considering a move to Poznań anyway because it has a much better economy for Piotr to work in, however, moving to another 6 year program full of 19 year-olds is not that appealing. In a long shot effort, I emailed the rector of Poznań on Friday asking if there was any chance to be admitted into the first year of the 4 year program. It's highly doubtful, but the worst he can do is say no, right? We also have a secret weapon: Piotr's good friend in Poznań, Dr. Piotr, went to school with the rector and has agreed to go talk to him on Monday on our behalf. If it works, it means I would be starting classes, oh you know, Tuesday--which brings about a whole other load of timing issues with the move, but it could work.

Again, it's a long shot. In the mean time I am still working on my application for the states. I am trying my best to get my personal statement in check and get it out to those people who are writing me letters of recommendation. All the school related events this week seemed to put my life in slow motion and consequently, I accomplished very little this week. So now it's time to get my butt in gear and let my tenacity take over.

Personal Hell,oh wait, I mean Personal Statement

Writing a strong personal statement can take a couple weeks to a month to draft, edit, re-write, only to then trash it and start over again...and again. A couple weeks would be a luxury right now. The stress of timing my application is upon me and I am really struggling. I am trying to brainstorm stories, ideas, themes, and it seems all that is coming out is drivel. I gave myself all week, with the deadline of today, to have it finished to send off to all my writers of letters of recommendation and I find that I am in no better position today than I was on Monday, save a few pages of pure backwash.

The personal statement is my chance to make my application stand out from the GPAs and MCAT scores and I know that I have a diverse non-traditional background and life history from which to draw anecdotes and stories, but I cannot seem to find a theme to start with. Every time I try to write something I get a paragraph in and hit a wall. I wish I could just write, "Can't you see how awesome I am?"