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How To Save a Life by The Fray

Step one, you say we need to talk.
He walks, you say sit down it’s just a talk.
He smiles politely back at you,
You stare politely right on through.
Some sort of window to your right.
As he goes left and you stay right.
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came.

(Chorus)
Where did I go wrong?
I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness.
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life.

Let him know that you know best
Cuz after all, you do know best.
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you’ve told him all along.
Pray to God he hears you, And pray to God he hears you.

(Chorus)

As he begins to raise his voice,
You lower yours and grant him one last choice.
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you’ve followed.
He will do one of two things.
He will admit to everything,
Or he’ll say he’s just not the same
And you’ll begin to wonder why you came.

(Chorus)

I was walking back today from watching "The Devil Wears Prada" (good movie btw!) with my housemate and she was upset and frustrated with her boyfriend who apparently screwed up once again (you get the picture) just as they are working through their trust issues after his last infidelity. And naturally, she posed that old age question that every female I know has asked many times, why do they cheat?

So, that got me thinking. Are we built to be a monogamous or polygamous species? The age old tradition and value of monogamy was set generations ago and has stuck. We’ve always been told that each person is destined for one person, the person that they will spend the rest of their lives with. And I fully believe that. I’m all for monogamy and can’t wait to find the love of my life.But then again, with the number of divorces and failed marriages being so large now, one wonders, maybe the human species, like many other animal species, is not meant to be monogamous.

I remember one of the lecturers from my good old days of undergrad (3rd year biomed sci: Animal Behaviour) saying that it is the ultimate goal of any species to preserve the species. Males in many species are driven to maintain their line i.e. spread their seed as widely as possible to ensure that their line is preserved (yes, I know that’s slightly crude but I can’t think of any other way to put it right now! :p). Females, on the other hand, in  ’survey and sample’ the available choices before settling on the male they see as the fittest and strongest as to ensure that their young will have the maximum chance of survival.

Right, so with that in mind, one could say that this could apply to us as well. I mean, we are mammals and therefore animals after all. Maybe we are suppose to be polygamous. I mean, a shift towards polygamy seems to be occurring, hinting at the possibility that those long valued traditions of faithfulness and loyalty to your chosen life partner will no longer exist.

But then again who knows? This is just some of my random speculations at 1:05 in the morning. Let me know what you think. Mmmm…I should stop here and actually get some sleep.

And so begins another week…5th week of med school. The weekend I swear goes by too quickly. This weekend was a fairly good weekend too. Went out Friday night for Indian dinner with the girls (Vanessa, Vicky and Jen) and then met up with the rest of the gang (Tim, Hakan, Jay, Scott, Derek, Dan, Billy, Dave, PJ, Becky, Brandon and Greg) at this place called the Franciscan Well. Its an awesome place, very laidback and they brew their own beer. Apparently that’s where they hold the local October Fest. The party was then moved to club/lounge called Kickback, where they played a weird mix of music (from the 60s all the way to the latest stuff) but it was a blast!

Saturday was unfortunately spent mostly at home as typical Irish weather (yep…rain!) was out in full force that day. And today was spent on cleaning the house, as we have our quarterly apartment inspection tomorrow.

Meh…another long week of classes and lab. Can’t wait for next weekend. Its the long weekend followed by Halloween! Yayness!

I am meant to be doing some anatomy reading right now but I can’t seem to find the motivation to do it. We’ve only just finished the upper limb and neck and already, I feel my brain’s going to explode! :p So many bones, muscles, nerves, arteries and veins to remember. But take away the massive amount of memory work that needs to be done, the human body is so fascinating and complex. The way we’re put together, and how everything is organised in a way that just works, its riveting stuff! :p

Anyway, that aside, here are some random thoughts:

1) I miss home..been thinking bout home a lot the past few days. Maybe its coz things have just been really stressful lately, or maybe its because i’m sick of eating the same food everyday (stirfry, pasta,stirfry, pasta, you get the idea), or maybe its because everyone I know is going home this December (friends here and friends everywhere else) except me…*sigh*. It’ll be a long time before I go home and that in itself will only be for 2 months..

2) Over the past month, I’ve discovered a whole new meaning to the word rainy season! Gosh, it rains so bloody much here..no wonder its so green! Two of my umbrellas have already been broken because of the ‘horizontal rain’ here. My third one is this huge golf umbrella and is green and white with the word ‘Ireland’ on it (one of my attempts to blend in with the Irish culture…hehe, just kidding!). This one so far, seems to be surviving and cross your fingers, I hope this lasts.

3) Oh this one’s for you Ryn and Rach: I’ve looked high and low and I have yet to find leprechaun for you guys…they must be in hiding out from the rain..:p

4) okay, so that last one was really off the planet, here’s one final one, as pointed out by one person (you know who you are :D) my last two blogs seem to be purely about partying. So from now on, I’ll do my best to mix it up..occasional blogs about partying and mostly blogs about just random stuff.

Note that I have two completely unrelated topics in today’s report as both these issues are on my pondering list at this very moment.

Generation gap..yea..it means exactly what it means. Age-related personality diferences, or in other words, age-related goals in life. Let me explain further. Majority of the kids in my class are 17-18 year olds, fresh out of high school, desperate to have the full university experience :p. And then there’s us "mature-age" peeps, not that mature really, just over the age of 21, who have done the whole undergrad partying scene. Don’t get me wrong, we all do love the good party now and then (mainly on the weekends), just after 3-5 years of undergrad, you kind of get the idea of how to balance academics and social activities. Don’t worry Bel, the Shen spirit is still alive, just reserved for weekends…:p

So here’s the real issue. Because of the differences in ages, both groups don’t really have much in common with each other. Its been almost a month now and its still a little bit hard to find that common interest. I suppose its only natural but I feel slightly guilty as I’m not really experiencing the whole Irish culture as you guessed it, all the Irish kids fall into the ‘fresh out of school’ category. And yes, because of that, us ‘mature-age’ kids have been called a little ‘cliquey’ (spelling?).

I’m sure all that will change in time and its not really that much of an issue. Just something to reflect on.

Oh, on a completely different tangent, movies and medicine..the best elective ever! So glad I picked it as I needed something non-science and a subject that actually required thinking rather than just plain rope-learning. We had the first lecture today, which was purely an introduction but it already sounds like its going to be excellent fun. Our first assignment was to watch Frankenstein and Doc Hollywood, and just think about how the doctors are portrayed in these films in terms of their professionalism. Who would have thought that medicine and movies would be linked together in a subject? But, i’m super super excited about it (if you hadn’t guessed that already! :p) and am looking forward to watching those films.

Right, going to watch CSI for now. Am so sore from Aerotone..:(…I hate push-ups and squats!!

I decided that the category for today’s blog would be food and drink, considering that’s all I’ve been doing most of the weekend.

This food and alcohol filled weekend began on Friday at Vicky’s and Vanessa’s house (awesome place by the way as well as awesome ppl! :D). Anyway, we stuffed our faces with fried rice, thai green curry, chicken stir fry and pasta salad along with white chocolate pecan cookies (I love you Betty Crocker! :p) and blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream (Thank you Marks and Spencer). And yes, and this is for your benefit Bel :p, alcohol was not missing, we did have some wine along with the meal.

So that was all well and good. We then followed that massive meal with a drinking get-together at this guy Tim’s house. Man, his house was like in this really dodgy area and us girls were just like alright, we’ll be fine just as long as we stay in a pack..just stay together. And it took forever for us to find it! But it was worth it in the end. The company was excellent, the booze didn’t hurt us much either..the party was just brilliant overall.

And tonight, OMG, after a day of shopping, I went over to Jing’s house for dinner, where she cooked up a storm! 3 kinds of yummy stirfries and rice and finished off with apple pie and honeycomb ice-cream. Its official..I’ve FOODED and DRUNK myself up this weekend!

So yea, my life in Ireland is SO NOT ALL WORK..I still play hard too *grin*. I am keeping the party spirit alive as much as possible!

Aargh..okay..I put up a blog last night but for some reason it didn’t go through. But let’s try this again.

So yea, I have officially ended my third week of med school. I can’t believe its the weekend, finally, some sleep! Med school is as tough as everyone says it is: pretty heavy workload, long hours and they demand a lot out of you as a med student. I mean, the second day in, we’re thrown into the deep end and given a cadaver to dissect (trust me, it was so much FUN! :p)

But that does not mean that I regret becoming one. To those of you who know me well, you know that I’ve wanted this since like FOREVER. :p Me=med student..sometimes it still seems so surreal to me. The effort it took to get here, believe me, is worth it.

I know I’ve got a long road ahead of me though and there’ll be times where I’ll be constantly whining and ranting about how tired I am on this blog. So, guys, just be prepared for some full on complaining over the next five years.

This being a whole new phase of my life, I decided that a blog would be perfect to sort out as well as share my thoughts and reflections on being a doctor. Also, this being a whole new country, I thought that it would be GRAND (for some reason, the irish love that word) to share the cultural experience of the Emerald Green Isle with you.

I know I’ve been MIA for a while ( I swear! I’m not becoming a recluse!) but that’s just because I’ve been without internet for the longest time. Now that I have it, expect updates from me fairly frequently.

To all my loved ones ( you know who you are), I miss you guys desperately. I am always thinking of you.

That’s about it from me for now. Will share with you my experiences in Ireland thus far in my next blog.