University of Leicester Open Day!

Well, I went to the University of Leicester last month...

And you may have seen my tweet about how pointless it was... If only I'd have known that before actually getting there! Would've saved me a wasted journey!


The presentation on Medicine itself was in incredibly high demand! There were only two talks: one at 2pm and one at 3pm. I thought it would be better to go for the earlier talk, but ended up queuing for half an hour before the talk started, in a massive crowd of people (all of whom looked younger and far more intelligent than myself), to be told when we all got in to the talk, that there basically wasn't much point in me bothering to apply there - I'd be far, far better off taking GAMSAT and applying to either St. George's or Nottingham...


Basically the reason that it was so pointless was because they're bringing in a new system (at least I think it's new) where they'll be point scoring potential candidates on their previous academic qualifications i.e. GCSEs and A-Levels, as well as their degree classification...
Which means I've got NO chance!


I already knew it was a long shot because of the year long paid work experience requirement, but still, I thought it was at least worth a look!


I must admit that I was particularly reluctant to like the city of Leicester - back in the day when I was browsing Universities for my first degree, I went for an open day at Leicester's other University, De Montfort, and wasn't that impressed. And also knowing that a 'kind of' ex had moved to the city made me even more reluctant to go there! But I have to say that when I got to the area that the University of Leicester was in, I was a lot more impressed than when I went to DMU (which is on the other side of the city)!


Everything about the University is nice, the people seemed relatively friendly, and certainly welcoming. The Uni was neat and looked shiny and new (although the same can't really be said for the Medical School building - which apparently is going to be replaced by a newer and shinier building in the near future). See the shoddy picture below for a glimpse at the Med School building...

This is also another shoddy picture of the Medical School from the side (at least I think it's the Medical School - but don't hold me to that!)

I don't really think there's anything else that I can say about it - It certainly doesn't look like I'll be applying to study there, but that's not to say that I don't like the University, because I do.


Oh, and one of the taglines of the University, which you will be utterly bombarded with if you go and visit is:
"Elite, without being elitist". 
Trust me, you will see it absolutely everywhere! It's been drilled in to me now!


I would recommend that people check it out, of course! You can't take my word on which Medical School to study at!


Next time I'll be telling you all about Keele University!


Thanks for reading! xx

King's College Open Day!

So, so sorry for neglecting my blog like this!
Last summer, I went to an open day at King's College London... As the title says.

To be honest, I'd never really been to that area of London, and I didn't even know whether it was Guy's Hospital or King's College Hospital that I had to go to. Turns out, after following the map, that it was Guy's after all.

It absolutely threw it down on the day, which usually equals a very bad hair day for a certain frizzy-haired wannabe medic.

My soaked umbrella!

When we got there, I was impressed by the exterior of the buildings. But, to be honest, it's what's inside that counts, isn't it? However, I liked the inside too.

The Campus

We had an introduction talk, in which my phone loudly went off... Embarrassing...

We then went to a Pathology lecture with the prestigious Professor Sebastian Lucas, which I thoroughly enjoyed! 

Although I wish someone would have warned me that there was going to be slide in the presentation with a picture of diarrhoea with blood on it!

It was kind of a good job that I didn't have time for lunch beforehand!

We then got separated for tours, which mainly consisted of walking around the interesting Gordon Musuem:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/teares/gktvc/vc/gordon/index.html

Which might have been better if our tour guide hadn't walked off without us.

Still don't know where she got to...

And probably would have been even better if I hadn't have walked, loudly, straight in to a metal bin, in a room where I was surrounded by silent, revising medical students... Yet again, embarrassing...

But, for the remainder of our tour, we joined another group, most of whom were sixteen or seventeen year olds with great innocence and faith in themselves. That's the thing about being a prospective Graduate Medicine entrant, you feel a bit inadequate when faced with all these fresh faced geniuses... Or maybe that's just me.

Even though we got separated from our tour guide, it really isn't every day that you get to walk around a place and see pictures of dead bodies in the process of decomposition, or get to see actual craniopagus siamese twins pickling away in a jar...

We then went to get a free drink and snack, where my Dad knocked his coffee over. Which went all over the floor, the chair, his jacket, and some papers... Embarrassing!
So all in all, we both made fools of ourselves!

A Bridge

Here are a couple of facts about King's College London:

1. It's apparently the only University campus in the UK with a McDonald's restaurant built in to it.
2. It's also overlooked by probably the biggest building that I have ever witnessed!

The massive building!

I enjoyed my trip there, and also the sightseeing afterwards, yet I feel that the fact that KCL is UKCAT entry it has to go slightly lower down on my list of Medical School preferences. Ideally, I wouldn't like to take UKCAT and GAMSAT together.

The view from Millennium Bridge

If you look on my 'Plan' page, you'll see that KCL does make an appearance!


Now, I promise that I'll be back soon with tales about my trips to Leicester and Keele!
xx

Random Shiny Balls in the Street... Ahh London.

Happy New Year!

Well hello!

Firstly, like always, I must apologise for neglecting my blog again!

And, again, I must make my usual promise of getting round to publishing some posts that still require a bit of tweaking (they've been sat in my drafts for ages... One of them since last July!!)

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a fantabulous new year. 

I'm sat here, and it's the early hours of the morning at the start of a brand spanking new year. I'm not really a big party animal, which I think I might well have mentioned here before... So I welcomed 2012 by watching the pretty fireworks on TV with my parents, whilst stuffing my face with biscuits.
Yes, I really am that cool.

To complete my wild celebrations, I decided to go on a huge online spending spree to celebrate my penultimate student loan payment. So I don't think my bank balance with thank me come the morning, but oh well...

What better way to start the new year? (Well, actually, I'm sure there are plenty of much better ways, but...)

I guess one of the points that I wanted to make is that this time of year is always a really reflective one, so I've spent the last few days thinking about how 2011 shaped me. How much I've grown up. How I've unfortunately lost some people in my life, but thankfully gained some others. It's been a bit of a wild ride, which sadly went a bit pear shaped from September onwards, but, here's to 2012 being amazing!

Until next time!
xx

Apologies!

I am so sorry that I've completely neglected this blog for ages!


I've got loads of other entries for you in draft format, which are awaiting editing and publishing... I will get round to publishing them eventually. I promise!


Basically, I've been back at Uni for a few weeks, and right now I'm either too busy analysing Shakespeare's complete works, or attempting to teach people through the use of drama, that I don't even have the time to contemplate writing in this blog (or to revise for GAMSAT)...


But, I promise, once my Uni work dies down (which I'm hoping it will at some point), I will try and blog more!


To be honest, there isn't that much to report! My work experience has ended, but I've got more clinical work in the pipeline, subject to lots of checks (Occupational Health and CRB etc), so hopefully I'll be back working with patients soon!


Anyway, until next time!
xx

Newcastle University Open Day!

Last Saturday I went to the Newcastle University open day!

I was feeling pretty tired, because of early starts taking their toll on me, but had to drag myself out of bed to leave home for 8am. 

6am starts really don't agree with me...

After a rushed half hour journey to the train station, we (Daddy Bee and I) got to the platform for the train to Newcastle. We boarded the train when it arrived, in full knowledge that it was going to be one heck of a long journey.

Nearly three hours passed of being sat on a noisy train, on seats with barely any leg room and across from an American lady who kept on staring at us. After the tiring but picturesque train journey was over, we hastily made our way to the Metro station. We eventually arrived at the University, after a short Metro journey, but over two hours after the open day had commenced. So I knew that it was unlikely I'd get tickets for any of the Medicine talks. 

Geordieland

We rushed over to the building where Medical School talk tickets were being handed out -  the King's Gate Building of the University - to be told the inevitable, they'd all gone. 

Tickets for all three talks had gone in an hour. 

So, I didn't get into any of the Medicine talks. I still had a wander up to the Medical School regardless and caught a glimpse of the exterior, which looked impressive to me!

Newcastle University's Medical School

We also went to the Information Fair, and got talking to the loveliest female security guard ever! I was talking to her for about five minutes, but I could've honestly stood there all day listening to her talking with the best accent ever. 

I absolutely loved the city of Newcastle, even though I didn't get to see very much of it. After all, two hours isn't a lot of time to explore anywhere. 

They have a noodle bar in Haymarket Metro Station. Which is a bit of a clincher for a noodle addict such as myself...

I'm thinking about going again, later this year, perhaps. But travelling the day before and staying overnight, so that I don't miss out again!

My poor attempt at getting a decent picture of the King's Gate Building

Luckily, Newcastle University sent me a recorded version of the presentation yesterday.

So if you, like me, couldn't get into one of the Medicine talks - Or even if you couldn't make it to Newcastle altogether, you can watch the presentation here:

https://lectopia.ncl.ac.uk/lectopia/lectopia.lasso?ut=15865&id=11112

Success, at last!

Just a quick update...
After months of trying, I have actually managed to get a work experience placement!
I've finally found someone mad enough to take me on!

I start next Thursday, and will hopefully get to work every Thursday morning for the rest of the summer holiday, or until the foreseeable future if it goes well!

I'll be working in the Chemotherapy unit.
Maybe emotionally challenging, But I'm sure it'd be the most rewarding.

Everyone I met at the hospital seemed really lovely to me, and hopefully I won't mess it up!

Obviously, I'm bound by patient confidentiality rules, so I won't be able to let you know too much about how I'll get on!

Thanks for reading!

xx

P.S. I get a special t-shirt, not a tabard, but I'm okay with that...

News, news, news!

I actually have a bit of good news about work experience/voluntary work!!
I know! Hold the front page!


I'd just got through to one of my local minor hospitals, after over a week of trying, to be told that the work experience co-ordinator lady is on annual leave. So I got told to ring back either at night on the 14th July or early in the morning on the 20th. 
I rung off, feeling a bit disappointed that I still didn't have any work experience sorted.


I have sent several letters off to local GP surgeries, applied to two local major hospitals for voluntary work, and even tried pestering local hospitals for short term work experience. But no luck.
Until today, that is.


I scrolled down my phone looking for the number of another local hospital that I've tried several times to get through to without any luck, when I came across the voluntary services number of the other major hospital of the same city.


And just by chance, I thought "Why not?" and rang them instead.


I've never really been able to get through to them either.


I emailed them last November, to be kindly and gently rejected.


I also sent them a volunteering application form by email in April and never heard anything back.

So I thought I'd ring them, because I'd got nothing to lose.

And I only got through, didn't I?!

The nice lady on the phone has offered me an informal chat/interview tomorrow about a long term work experience post, and has also invited me to a group interview on the 20th July about being a long term volunteer with them!


Cue happy face!