little taste of paradise

Peniche, Portugal

yesterday

not sure

At diving tonight Ricardo (my crazy Mexican ex-olympic coach) asked me to do something he called "overtaking". Now, he made this sound like a perfectly fine and normal thing to do to your fellow divers waiting patiently for their turn to do their next dive, but this is what we would call 'cutting'. Yes, thats right I was asked to cut in line. After every one of my dives, I was supposed to go after the next two people in line after me no matter how many more people there were to go. Hmm, I had two feelings going on while I was overtaking. The first one was, oh geez, are all these divers going to end up hating me!? and the second was: feeling like a little kid in a candy shop without adults around, just being given unlimited access to something I know I shouldn't be allowed to get away with. My devil horns definitely came out and my diving seemed to show it. Everything was higher, faster and better. Oh, and Ricardo never explained why he had me do this, and really, I'd rather not know exactly what is going on in that head of his.

little things

Plenty of things made me smile today: fresh blueberries on my special K, knowing that a cellular deposits on the basement membrane in the glomerulus of the kidney were immune complexes not amyloid (although of course you never get asked the questions that you know the answers to), biking into town and returning with a backpack full of goodies making me work up a sweat to get them home, rolling my own sushi for dinner, getting an awesome text from Chris....

But the thing that probably made me smile the most was right at the end when my friend Bobby's not even 2 year old cutest little girl Maddie asked for me by name and Bobby skyped me and we got to say goodnight and give kisses to each other. Best ending to a pretty good day. Oh, and I forgot to mention I can't wait to meet her in person!!!

bits

ireland beat france in rugby today (its the six nations tourney)...i went out dancing with friends of a friend whom i'm really starting to love to hang out with...tomorrow im having a home cooked meal at a home of a friend who's mom teaches home ec and its supposed to be amazing.

good night!

change of mood?

I feel like re-entering my blog as I'm getting back into the swing of lectures and studying again. The past three months have been filled first with finals, then with holidays, then with hospital time. Now that things feel back to normal (class, tutorials, etc) I feel like I can start writing again. Not much to say at the moment just thought I'd fill in the dead space a bit. Yesterday we had a practical skills session on rectal exams and I was able to practice the best way for my stubby little fingers to feel what they can up someone's bum. Not the nicest thing to talk about (or do!) but definitely practical I'd say. What it made me think about? If you have long skinny fingers you might be a better doctor. Or, maybe practice can make up for it. hmmm

On a more exciting note, we had snow this week that stuck around for a couple days and it really feels like winter. Snowball fights and snowpeople everywhere you look! I spent a few evenings laying bed watching the snowfall and it was gorgeous. I like it but for some reason I'm feeling like I miss home a little bit more than usual. Not sure what thats all about.