...So yeah, it's me again...!

I'M BACK EVERYONE. REMAIN CALM. It's okay, really. There was no need to panic. Put down your weapons etc.

Well, God knows when I last posted, but the last few months were a horrendously stressful/occasionally nice combination of...well.. many things. No doubt I have forgotten most of it, but here it is:

• Resit exams

July was the most stressful month of my life so far. You go through the horror of UCAS, interviews, moving away from home, first year, second year, Infection and Immunity module etc..., only to find that you fail by one question, and your future on the course will be determined by a four hour exam over two days in August (which just happen to be the first days of Ramadhan too, so no hearty brainfood breakfast for you, matey). Having people to revise with helped, and there was always the silver lining of we-will-have-a-better-knowledge-of-stuff-for-Phase-One-Exam, but nevertheless it's as though someone physically beat my confidence to a pulp for a month. Happy ending and all that, since I did pass, but the lack of summer holiday (due to getting thrown straight into Ramadhan) before term started again, and the fact that it was the first big exam I failed, mean I still feel like an imposter on this course. But you know, we shall see when it comes to Phase 1 exam... ¬_¬

• Ramadhan

I spent all of Ramadhan/August working on my dissertation. Which was 10,000 words, all about constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. Seriously. I know so much about bowel movements now it's untrue. The things I've seen @_@ etc. Still amused by one of the things I read about a certain laxative- 'Excessive doses can cause explosive and uncontrollable diarrhoea'. LOL. It's the small things :)
Did manage the finish the dissertation on time :D Not looking forward to the Viva exam on it though.. you basically get grilled on your dissertation, so they can verify that you wrote it @_@ I can't even remember what I wore/ate/did yesterday, how am I supposed to remember 10000 words on bowel movements?!

• Further becoming female

So yes, my efforts to be a girl continue, with the purchase of this AWESOME maxi dress (I know!!). Not for every day use, naturally, just for Eid. Also! The fact that I now have nails, having been clean (...of nailbiting) since June, means that I have been able to experiment with various nail polishes! :D Current favourite: sparkly deep purple :O And I saw an awesome tip about blowing Barry M dazzle dust over your nails straight after putting on polish. So pretty @_@ Ahem. I'm sorry, world. I sold my soul to girl-ness. But dammit, I can't resist sparkly things! It's the magpie instinct!

• The giving up of all fizzy drinks. NO, SERIOUSLY.

I KNOW. Having spent the second decade of my life drinking Pepsi as a staple drink, I decided on the day before I came back to uni, that I wasn't going to have Pepsi anymore. Or anything fizzy. Because I still wanted teeth by the time I turned 30. My family, who were witness to my grand announcement, responded with a hearty, all-round laugh. So supportive ¬_¬ But the reverse psychology worked, because I've successfully given up just to spite them! I'm not going to lie, there have been challenging times. Old habits die hard after a decade of turning to drink to solve all my problems. Further exagerration etc. I was classically conditioned to calm down as soon as I had pepsi. I have now had to replace this with having a staple snack of Kit Kat Chunky with tea. Not sure if it's actually worse for my health...but it's the principle of giving up that counts. Ahem.

• Term starting

Yes, we came back to uni near the start of September. Sickening. The past seven weeks have consisted of neurology and pharmacology modules, along with a neverending bombardment of reminders about how we will fail the Phase 1 exam, and how hard the OSCE (practical exam) will be, and how we should already know the full medical course inside out or we are basically doomed, and how we should have started revising two years ago, and if we didn't, then we might as well leave now. Etc. So no pressure on us at all. Whatsoever. And just for the record, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN NEUROLOGY. WHAT. THE HELL. I'm still too weirded out by the fact that my brain is learning about itself. I fear it will become self-aware and try to break out of my head :|

• Cannulation/Venepuncture

Two of the coolest things we've done in a semester of nothing cool whatsoever. Cannulation = where you put a needle with a tube into a vein, and it stays there so you can give medication and fluids through it. And Venepuncture is just taking blood from a suitable vein. These were so much fun, though I would have preferred to practice on real people. But the cool fake arm things with the fake veins with the fake blood running through them were still very much fun. The blood went everywhere! :D And I now can't resist finding suitable veins on my hands/arms. Excellent stuff.

• Illness

I'm pretty sure that my recurrent illnesses have been due to the beating my immune system has taken from the stress since June. In ay case, the most recent illness has given me the infamous man-voice again (WHY does nobody else's voice go this weird when they have a cold?!), and also sinusitis, and sniffliness. Yes. Because sniffliness is a medical word. OH, speaking of cool medical words, apparently 'blob' is a medical term for something to do with the eye that I can't remember but was very impressed by in the lecture! :D

• Bathroom saga
  

Yes. Our bathroom was under construction for a week. This was the worst week in history. It was supposed to take two days, but inevitably two turned into seven, when several tiling disasters happened. The horrendousness included being unable to shower for several days, and having to use public toilets during the day due to ours being unusable, but these things paled in comparison to the fact that our bathroom door was REMOVED ...yes, REMOVED, and so if we wanted to use it we had to close the nearest door, throw a blanket over it so it was no longer see through, and have a sign saying 'DO NOT ENTER'. This loss of dignity means that nothing can ever be embarrassing again.

• London

Yes! This weekend, as a pre-birthday surprise, my parents took me and the brothers down to the Science Museum in London for a day! :D AWESOME stuff. The day included a lot of food (naturally), an IMAX showing of Born to be Wild (which was adorable- baby elephants and orangutans!!!), a 4D show where you experienced rocket take off and landing and driving in a moon buggy and got jolted around and sprayed with water when you returned to Earth and landed in the sea. (not amusing). Various space exhibits meant that we geeked out massively, and I spent far too long in the Art/Science/History of Medicine exhibitions! Despite them having creepy dummies that look like real people and freak me out. So many scary medical instruments too...think amputation handsaws @_@ All in all, a totally awesome surprise :D

So yeah, I'm supposed to be getting ready, and should probably go. I'm sure I've not mentioned something properly major, but it's all good for the moment, because otherwise I will be late for this GP thing I'm doing for my student selected module. Long story. SO in a while crocodiles, it was nice seeing you all again :D

*waaaaaaaaaaaaaaves*