A sunny day turning gray

I just got home to find myself exhausted and disturbingly tired and I really didn't see that one coming. The comic above and the quote below pretty much sum up this day :D

Today began as a great day and I was surrounded by a lot of smiling faces. I ate my pepper burgers that I made for lunch and that was like the peak of the roller coaster.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere a dusk shadow seemed to sweep upon me and I got a strange feeling. I had a hard time concentrating in the end but something was there to keep me going. There's a lot to it but I just can't put my finger on it.
When the class was over and I got back out it was raining.

Still warm, but raining...

"You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can't forget. Those are your 'friends.'"
- Arnold H. Glasgow

Repetition of repetition

Today we got over the test and entered the repetition phase of the course. Since Dr. Moshe isn’t coming back the schedule is going to be kind of transposed. We should have the last physics with him but now we’re starting the repetition and making old entrance exams (that contains physics) before the actual lessons.
Well, no sad faces, the sun is smiling and we got together before the repetition class, yeah you’ll read correct, to repeat.
I woke up early, my biological alarm woke me up at seven, and I took a shower and ate some breakfast before I took the bus into the city. I met the other guys and we went to Slussen and sat by the water in the sun repeating the material.
The lesson later on was really fun, we had a quiz-game and a jeopardy-game as well and me and Jeanine, team named “London Forces”, won the challenge and the candy prize (!) but since we’re good guys we shared it with the others.
If the weather is fine tomorrow we’re going to study in the park.

"A baseball swing is a very finely tuned instrument. It is repetition, and more repetition, then a little more after that..."

Broken vows and unanswered questions

The holiday finally and sadly came to an end and I took the regular train back to Stockholm.
I really had a blast during the spring break, and yeah, calling it a spring break is actually rather legit. The sun was with me all the way and as usual that brings a smile to my face. I spent some quality time at home with Caroline and visited my parents and brothers a lot. Being able to roam the streets of Skärhamn in shorts and t-shirt, along with washing the car and preparing the boat for launching, gave me an amazing spring feeling.
Relaxing the whole holiday was not an option thou. This Monday we had our second course test so I kept my knowledge alive by reading something every day. The last day before I went back I studied extra hard. I actually forgot to bring the question booklets so I didn’t have any chemistry tasks to solve but that problem was solved by one of my friends from class – via the facebook chat (!).


When I woke up at Monday morning and was about to hit the road I felt quite confident with the material and since I knew we would have an oral exam as well I used the five hours of travelling to draw anatomical sketches and structures presentations.

The train ran late again due to a signal error at the same location as last time. I was in time thou and could breathe out before the test began. Everything seemed just fine but then a huge distraction struck the class – we we’re expecting Dr. Moshe to actually be back from whatever part of the world he fled to but obviously he pushed thing forward (again) and is not coming to class for another two weeks.
This really pissed us all off and I was still mad during the test.
The thing that really bugs me is not only that he breaks parts of the contract we signed up for in the beginning but also their unreliable and unfair marketing saying things like "you will have professors teaching...", "we can arrange different school applications..." and finally the company motto: "we're with you all the way" - then prove that you can live up to that motto and your paying students expectations.

Halfway through I was even more pissed off, complaining about the questions in a test is not something I usually do and I really didn’t think things could get any worse than the last test but for crying out loud, who wrote those questions (!?). They were not wrong in the material point of view but English grammar and spelling should be correct in a test. I was more puzzled over the grammar than over the substance of the questions – and then something is really messed up.

I finished the test and went out to discuss with the others and they pretty much experienced the same thing. After the break we corrected our own tests and I really even if it didn’t feel as it would go my way it really did. I scored a 93% (!) which really surprised me because I was partially lost in the chemistry part regarding oxidation and reduction and such. Still, I managed to guess correct but I won’t count those points when it comes to my “self evaluation” afterwards. Guessing is bad and all it proved is that I need to study that a bit more.
Chemistry seemed to be the part where the majority of the class lost the most points and I’m not surprised, it was rather difficult.

After the test we gathered together, well most of us, and we went to Friday’s for a couple of after-school-beers and some food. We had a really great time, with some strange encounters thou, but over all – a great evening.

I brought my longboard with the hopes of skating home the last part from where the bus stops going and so I did, until I faced the gravel, hard. The thing is that the road seemed fine, but covered in snow some parts were of course hidden and I really didn’t think that there would be completely cut off asphalt parts covered in gravel. I took a leap, with my 15 kilo backpack on my back, and skated down one of the hills. Halfway through I saw the gravel coming in the darkness and I managed to save my ass right in the last second. Two minutes of bradycardia followed that close to death experience and before I knew it I was home lying in my bed sleeping.

It was a day filled with all kinds of problems – and solutions...

Moving stuff and making sushi

The Easter holiday is well welcomed. The first thing me and Caroline did when I came home was to begin cleaning the apartment. Last weekend we met with our friends that want to have the apartment once we moved out and we sat down and talked things through.
Afterwards, when we had come up with our transfer plan, I called our landlord and told him our plans.
He was very understanding and said that a quick transfer was the best thing for all parts. Our decision to move out was made between us both and it actually feels great that it went so smooth. I’m moving back to my parents and Caroline is going to move back home as well.

Yesterday we got picked up by my brother and his girlfriend and we all went to our parents. I loaded the car with my stuff that I don’t need and we stopped by the mall to get the last things we needed for the evening.
When we got home to mom we began preparing to make sushi. One of my presents from my brother, who is studying to become sort of a marine cabinet-maker, was an “oshi rice presser”. It worked perfect and the oshi sushi was really delicious in taste as well as in looks.
We had a really great time and making sushi is a really great way to spend a Friday evening.


Today, me and Caroline continued the cleaning and packing.
The weather is marvellous and being outside in shorts and t-shirt feels really great – I hope it stays like this for a while, if it does I can bring my longboard to Stockholm after the break.


I have totally turned my head off for a while but I think I’ll have to turn it on again on Monday and begin with the studies for our upcoming exam next week.

No worries, a holiday is for relaxing...

05:22

As I sat on the bench, surrounded by the cold air that chilled my bones, I turned on my PDA and played Taro Hakase to block the sound of the highway. I looked around and my eyes started wandering along the horizon. It was still a bit misty and I could just almost assume that the sun was on its way up.



As out of nowhere my eyes encountered a tree growing alone in the distance. I smiled and thought of the old metaphor about our knowledge. The stem was not perfectly straight - it was bended, crooked and wind pined - but still standing proud. Its many branches looked rather blurred in the point where they met the dark blue sky but if I restrained my eyes I could more than well see that it was trying to reach even higher.




The cold took a bit of a distance and I still don't know if it was because of an early, swift and warm breeze or if it was just me noticing that the bird's intense singing actually managed to penetrate my headphones during the two second song changing fadeout. I decided to turn the music off for just a while and quietly listen to their play instead.
It's amazing how much you can hear if you just listen for it. The melting of snow, slowly pouring towards its friends in the ocean,

Noticing the very small wonders in life can not only complete one's day but also give it a really good start. I smiled and returned to my inner world of Yo-Yo Ma and Dvořák when I saw the bus breaking the peaceful scenery I just painted up for myself.



When I think about the future - I smile.
When I think of the past - I smile.
Today, wherever I look - I smile.

And the world smiles back at me...

The best weekend in a long time

When I come to think about it this weekend has to be the best one in a really long time. Right now I’m sitting in one of the uncomfortable seats in the train, waiting for it to leave to get me back to Stockholm. This week is going to be a bit hectic due to a lot of heavy lessons and travelling. Our spring holiday begins at Thursday and I’m going back home for one and a half week. It's going to be really fun to come home for such a long time but I'll miss my new friends too.

Saturday was heavenly. My girlfriend Caroline bought us VIP-tickets to the lounge at the cinema Bergakungen in Gothenburg. I didn’t know what movie we were about to see until the fancy man in the theatre outfit presented it to us. It was another Swedish production and to be honest I usually don’t think that they are any good at all. This time it was different thou.
The title of the movie was “Änglavakt” (English title: Among Us) and after the movie I had to swallow my low expectations. It actually was the best movie I’ve watched in a really long time.
I totally loved the dialogue between the French and the English men in the park.

Yesterday we celebrated me and my brother’s 22nd and 19th birthday with our big family. I got to eat a lot of food that I have really missed, such as my mom’s homemade raspberry pie.

It actually was the best dinner in a really long time...

Absence of teachers

Recently, our class have started to wonder where the bloody hell our leading teachers are.
We’ve had medical students, finishing their third year of studies at Karolinska Institutet, for almost one month straight now. No offence, they are doing a really great job keeping the level of the classes at an acceptable standard. What bother me, and others in the class, is that Dr. Moshe and his brother Dr. Uri, who are supposed to lead the course with their knowledge of the exam procedure choose to stay home.

We pay a lot of money to get their expertise and yesterday we got to know that neither of them is coming during the second part of the course.
This has awakened a lot of doubt among us which is extremely unnecessary – we have enough to think about as it is. The small uproar started with complains and as far as I’m concerned somebody sent a mail with complaints to Dr. Moshe. Since we pay for a service we must expect to get what we pay for. As it is at this very moment the contract that we signed up to is way out of league. It states that we were going to have licensed doctors as teachers and among them – most of the time Dr. Moshe and Dr. Uri.


The complains via mail and the medical students gave some results. Moshe is coming after our spring break and had suddenly a lot of information regarding schools, exams and such.
I guess it’s as with all companies – the more work others can do for you the better it is. Then you can just sit back and enjoy. Of course I don’t know the reason why Moshe and Uri didn’t plan on getting over here and I’m really not the one to judge – but since we pay for a service we also have the utter right to complain if the service is in some way doesn’t match our request.
Regarding the studies so far I feel that I’m doing really great. There’s a big black hole in the chemistry part thou, we just finished the last chemistry but the part of organic chemistry just don’t want to stick. It’s really boring reading, just a mass of text and structures that have to be grinded and inserted. I really miss the calculations thou. Calculating pH and such is actually pretty fun when you know how to do it.

The anatomy is as good as ever. I actually can’t wait to get to the point where we start our unprepared presentations. And yeah, speaking of which, the presentations handed out this week had yet another unsigned row at next Monday. Topic? Protein synthesis.
What we do is that we send a list of subject around and people that feel like having a presentation sign up for a specific topic. I really can’t see why some seem to push their presentations ahead, I mean if you do it now you just don’t get a good practice and presentation skill you also can fill up your “presentation-quota” when we still have little to think about. Later on we get into the repetition phase and then I really want to focus on that. Regarding protein synthesis on Monday, I signed up for it – it’s a good way of fluently learning yet another system.

Sorry for the massive wall of text hitting your optical nerves, I’m sitting at the train now going home for the weekend after a really nice evening with Jackie and Jeanine from class. We had steak and watched the Road with Viggo Mortensen. Gosh, how I love apocalyptic movies. The footage was really impressive and I’d really like to watch it in 1080i.
The early bird catch the worm – me an Jeanine, who’s going home to Oslo and then further away to London for a weekend, got up at 6 o clock and went to the central station.

My sweet twenty two is tomorrow and my dad bought me high quality headphones that I’m going to fetch at Komplett in Gothenburg on my way home, can’t wait to try them out. Caroline bought us tickets to a secret film at the cinema and I’m really happy that she did. We kind of need that.

5 minutes left until the train reach Gothenburg, without any time delaying troubles, isn’t that surprising..?

2nd thoughts

Oh yeah, some second thought's about my presentation about my brother's genetic disorder 22q11-DS the other day.
It went very well and I could tell that the guys in class were interested throughout the whole presentation that I think took about 30-40 minutes. A long presentation you might think but hey, I left out so many things and it felt like I could talk for hours. I missed some pretty important things as well but I think they got the whole picture.

It was a small presentation about a big syndrome...