Post numero 200

I am safe and sound at home, even though I probably had one of the longest trips ever. Some of it was my own fault, I just got 3 hours of sleep the night before (the reason for it I explain later), but somehow I managed to catch a ferry that was awfully full with a lot of less enjoyable people. A lot of foreigners (by that I mean other nationalities than Finns and Estonians) and everybody decided to go and sit exactly where I wanted to. It was so stuffed that a man even asked me if he could sit with me at my table (something that I hate when people do it, I do not want any stranger's company even though he is quiet and does not bother you.

But I figure that I need to say something nice too and not just whine. It was really nice spring weather both in Tallinn and in Helsinki, the sun was shining, the streets were free of snow... And since I finally learned how to travel with minimum luggage, I walked 30 min from the bus station to the ship. In Helsinki I met up with Jenny and ate a nice(compared to those we get at our school everything we get in Finnish universities seems like heaven!) student meal. Fortunately for me she was just as tired as I was so communication happened on the same level ;)

Another nice thing was that I got to read a real book and I am halfway through it. It is Mark Haddon's A spot of bother. But I am reading it in Swedish (got it for my birthday from Mom)

I can already now say that I am a bit disappointed about this book, since I really really loved his bestseller The curious incident with the dog in the night time and I had hoped that he would do something in the same stil as that book. Well anyhow, it is nice to read a real book once in a while. I am secretly hoping that I would have time to read loads and loads later in life when I am pregnant and at home with a baby. Or just next year when the worst semester of med school is over. One can always dream!

Maybe somebody of you is wondering how my and Fanny's challenge went. We did excellently and enjoyed a nice McDonald's meal on the international women's day :) And we watched Tudors and talked all night long, and that is why I went to sleep at 3am.

Enjoy the early spring all of you!

Cause you had a bad day...

Bad day today. The test was really frustrating because I realised writing it, that I did not know the stuff as well as I should have known them, taking into account that I read a lot. And it hit me that this is a really really difficult subject, if you think about that one should know a lot and lot of microbes and write an exam about it, solving clinical cases etc. The virulence factors and antibiotic treatments are frying my brain. But to all microbiologists' defense, this is a interesting subject. Just a lot of info to take in...

Also this day was just generally crap. You know, one of those Mondays. Where the bus is way too late, you get a annoying e-mail and the dishes are just piling up; the world just summa sumarum hates you.

But thanks to my roomie, the day did not end as bad as it was midway through it. She got me a lifeline on her way home (Coke light), was just in need of some ex tempore pancakes as I was so I had an excuse to make them again. We talked all the crap stuff through, we realised the test did go as bad as we thought and vips, my day was saved. As Juno would put it: The sun was shining on my ass again.

Tomorrow we have our last day of 500grams, oh joy! McDonalds here we come. No dishes. No cooking. H E A V E N.

Hope your week started better than mine, and if not, just make the sun shine on your ass and get a roomie just as good as mine :D

Sunday

Go and die all you bacteria already. I hate you. I do not want to know anything about you anymore. I want it to be Wednesday so I can take some days off and travel to Finland!

Congrats to my little brother S, he has his 15th birthday today and can finally cruise around on a vespa. Or soon at least ;)

American Pancakes

Me and my roomie decided a couple of days ago that we would have a American pancake brunch on Saturday. Said and done!

We used this recipe:

2,5dl flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar (just noticed I forgot this, oops..)
1 egg
2,5dl milk
2 tablespoons butter

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl. Melt the butter and put the butter, milk and egg in a separate bowl. Mix.

We used honey, whipcream and strawberries as toppings. Halfway through the process we were sort of disappointed that we only got 6 pancakes total, but after we added all our toppings and started eating we quickly noticed that you do not need a lot of them :d Here is the result:


If you are a pro (like me :D) you can flip the pancakes just like they do in the movies! Lätt som en plätt.

Otherwise this is one of those shabby stay at home and study day. Still on the to do list is cleaning the apartment, it's my turn this week. And some dishwashing. Yesterday evening/night I got some ex tempore plans, so maybe I can watch a movie instead tonight.
(yes I feel kind of optimistic today, the sun is shining outside and everything so.)

Family Doctor

In Estonia they have a family doctor system. It works something like this: You come to any family doctor's (or perearst as they are called here) office and ask them if they have a free space for you on their patient list. There is a maximum amount of patients one perearst can have, this is regulated by law. Each perearst gets money from the state (as I have understood it) for each patient on their list. Because these doctors work is like a private business and they need to get all appliances themselves there are a lot of perearstcenters where a lot of these work.

As a patient, you will always visit the same perearst, and this doctor also is the "first contact" in your health care chain. He/she will send you to specialists and other medical investigations.

Today I got to be with a female perearst for 3 hours, it is included in our course "Perearst". Earlier I was quite sceptic to this system, mainly because I just was not used to it. In Finland you can be glad if you can see a doctor the same week, and you will always visit a different one.

But, I find this system very nice, now that I have seen it in action. The doctors have a very personal relationship with their patients, they know their names and faces and their history. Also these are the doctors "in charge" and specialist have to contact and consult with the perearst during treatment and investigations. The doctors also want to follow up their patients more and do easily give second appointments. Very nice, thumbs up. Maybe I will have to get one now too :)

The time went by really fast, but I did not get to do anything practical, the patients visiting were mostly follow up patients, being to other specialists and consulting back to their own doctors.

Thumbs up also for my lost and found Estonian language self-esteem. It was killed this autumn due to a bad teacher, now that I ditched her I suddenly speak more and understand better what people talk to me. Väga hea. But I find it harder to keep my languages apart. I sometimes just can not speak any language, not even Swedish. Yesterday I only knew Finnish. Today I mixed my Finnish with Estonian. I hope it is only temporary.

I and my roomie will continue with weekly challenges after our 500gram per day challenge. We will chose one for each week and also what kind of prize we will get after a completed challenge. After this week's challenges, which stops in Tuesday, we will go and eat McDonalds :P Looking forward to it already!

For those visiting Tartu sometime and like Sushi; go to Tasku's sushi bar which can be found on the third floor above Cinamon's café! Yummy Asian food that is not eating big holes in your purse.
For a nice cake, go to Tasku's second floor right left from the escalater. Take the Napolia kook, enjoy!
(Now you also know what I did with K after our perearst practical. Also we avoided studying by going to some shops. Now I sit here bloging rather then studying. Does it sound familiar?)

On Monday we will have kontrolltöö/test in Microbiology. We will have to get acquainted with these guys:

Staphylococcus aureus


Vibrio cholera

Microbiology is a very very interesting subject and one that I will need in my everyday praxis later as a doctor. But there are a LOT of details, and a lot of similarities between the bacteria. Another problem is how to get all those antibiotics into my head (last semester's knowledge...). No other choice but to continue where I stopped yesterday.

A nice weekend to you all!

Date a girl who reads

I found this amazing text on one of the blogs I usually read:

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."
— Rosemary Urquico (via nn)

Weekly Challenges

Me and my roomie started Weekly Challenges, just to have something else to think about during the weeks.
You already knew about my personal Pepsi-challenge, which I managed fine, even though the amount of sweets consumed were higher than normal :D So I came to the conclusion that it is like choosing the lesser evil of two alternatives. But anyhow, I managed and needed something new.
This week we are having the "500grams-of-fruits-and-veggies-a-day"-challenge. I am kind of lazy eating them, even though I buy them. So let's see if it will change my life or what. Harvard School of Public Health will give you some motivation, and maybe you want to join this challenge too?