Canada day 1: I love pavements.
Hi, I'm Katie, a final year medical student at UCL. I've passed my finals, done all my UK based placements, and now I'm off to Canada to do my elective! I'm doing a month in paediatrics in a town outside of Vancouver, and a month in HIV/ID in Vancouver. I start the foundation program in Wessex in August, so I'm looking forward to having some time to enjoy medicine without being assessed or in charge of patients! I've gone to Canada on my own because as a very stressy person who likes company when doing new things, I thought I should start to be a bit more of an adult. Maybe. So far the only two people on similar-ish time zones to me are one of my best friends from school (elsewhere in Canada) and my American boyfriend, Steve.
My first day in Canada was a bit of a mess, honestly. I arrived the night before into Vancouver and was staying in a hotel that looked like it was the next set for an episode of Criminal Minds. The latch on the door was broken, the carpet had a suspicious stain- but nobody gets murdered in big cities, right? Right?!
I was meant to be getting breakfast around 6am to get a taxi for 7am, but me being my normal sloth self, I had some difficulty separating myself from the mattress. Despite having all of an hour to just out some clothes on, I was still late for the taxi. It was the weirdest thing in the world, being able to tell the taxi driver I'd come to Canada to study, but I'd already passed my MBBS (subject to ratification to UCL bla bla bla).
I made it to the bus station with my excessive amount of luggage to find that not only are Canadian bus stations much, much nicer than ours, they're also deserted at 7.30. They also have fro-yo vending machines?! I made it on the bus to my rural town, got picked up by my AirBnB host, and promptly burst into tears the second I was left alone. Turns out flying halfway across the world on your own, then being left in a random house in a rural town, is kind of scary. And when I say kind of, I mean really really.
Luckily it was still a reasonable hour back home and my best friend was able to calm me down, despite me sending a lot of very stressy messages about the lack of pavements. How am I meant to know how not to get run down by the exceptionally huge trucks if there's no pavement? I know this is such a first world problem, but it really was what tipped me over the edge. I was alone in Canada with no food, no local shop, nobody to call and NO PAVEMENTS.
Thankfully the AirBnB has a beautiful dog who sat with me, and I eventually got a grip and went outside, only to see the holy grail of all elective students: a pavement. I had a beautiful walk through the park behind the house, found a superstore, and bought Triscuits. Of all the American things Steve has introduced me to, Triscuits are very, very high on the list. I made it home, stopped having a go at Steve for daring to go camping and be out of signal on my first weekend, and called my parents to tell them that after the previous two sobbing phonecalls, I was alive and happy, and most importantly, fed.
Here's what I've learnt so far:
- I will panic when exhausted
- Triscuits are the food of Gods
- Pavements mean a lot to me
- Crossing the road in Canada at a 4 way intersection is terrifying
- This town has some really beautiful parks
- Sleep solves pretty much everything.
Now, it's day 2, I start paediatrics tomorrow, and I'm off to get a Slurpee.
My first day in Canada was a bit of a mess, honestly. I arrived the night before into Vancouver and was staying in a hotel that looked like it was the next set for an episode of Criminal Minds. The latch on the door was broken, the carpet had a suspicious stain- but nobody gets murdered in big cities, right? Right?!
I was meant to be getting breakfast around 6am to get a taxi for 7am, but me being my normal sloth self, I had some difficulty separating myself from the mattress. Despite having all of an hour to just out some clothes on, I was still late for the taxi. It was the weirdest thing in the world, being able to tell the taxi driver I'd come to Canada to study, but I'd already passed my MBBS (subject to ratification to UCL bla bla bla).
I made it to the bus station with my excessive amount of luggage to find that not only are Canadian bus stations much, much nicer than ours, they're also deserted at 7.30. They also have fro-yo vending machines?! I made it on the bus to my rural town, got picked up by my AirBnB host, and promptly burst into tears the second I was left alone. Turns out flying halfway across the world on your own, then being left in a random house in a rural town, is kind of scary. And when I say kind of, I mean really really.
Luckily it was still a reasonable hour back home and my best friend was able to calm me down, despite me sending a lot of very stressy messages about the lack of pavements. How am I meant to know how not to get run down by the exceptionally huge trucks if there's no pavement? I know this is such a first world problem, but it really was what tipped me over the edge. I was alone in Canada with no food, no local shop, nobody to call and NO PAVEMENTS.
Thankfully the AirBnB has a beautiful dog who sat with me, and I eventually got a grip and went outside, only to see the holy grail of all elective students: a pavement. I had a beautiful walk through the park behind the house, found a superstore, and bought Triscuits. Of all the American things Steve has introduced me to, Triscuits are very, very high on the list. I made it home, stopped having a go at Steve for daring to go camping and be out of signal on my first weekend, and called my parents to tell them that after the previous two sobbing phonecalls, I was alive and happy, and most importantly, fed.
Here's what I've learnt so far:
- I will panic when exhausted
- Triscuits are the food of Gods
- Pavements mean a lot to me
- Crossing the road in Canada at a 4 way intersection is terrifying
- This town has some really beautiful parks
- Sleep solves pretty much everything.
Now, it's day 2, I start paediatrics tomorrow, and I'm off to get a Slurpee.
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