I'm nearly done with the World's Most Disjointed Attachment.  As you know, I spent the first week in plastic surgery.  The following week I spent in ophthalmology, which I have to admit I found far more interesting than I expected to.  There's something about looking the wrong way through people's eyes that is amazing, and getting the visual information about various disease processes, both opthalmic and systemic, is fascinating.  Though I dabbled briefly with the idea of going into ophthalmology (it encompasses some surgery too, which is amazing) ultimately I think it is too focused a specialty for this bouncy attention span of mine.  Not to mention I don't like the idea of spending 5 years in medical school only to focus all of my further training on those 2 little globes in your face.  Last week was spent in Dermatology.  Quite dull.  I know, it's important for a number of reasons, but still dull.  Luckily we only had half days there, so I got to go to the gym and do lots of yummy cooking and baking as well.

We had a long weekend this week (some sort of bank holiday as they're called here.)  It was also the Guinnes Jazz festival and the beer festival, so there was plenty going on in Cork this weekend.  Had some Belgian beer (Pater, it was called) and chatted with a fellow named Barry who is heavily involved with the beer world in Ireland.  He told me about a liquor store that carries beer with hops in it.  How exciting!  It was a great opportunity to have some beer that wasn't a stout or bland European lager.

On to two days of anaesthetics this week, where we'll learn about pre and post-op assesments, and probably some intensive care medicine as well.  Then there are these academic half days at the end of the week, but I don't know what those will entail.  They haven't bothered to tell us yet.

It's been appropriately cool and rainy here.  Today there was a lone rain cloud (isn't there a chapter in winnie ther pooh that relates to this?) that rained on me for much of my walk to the grocery store, and then even gave a little hail once I got inside.  Luckily it had cleared up for the walk home.  Though there are some trees turning colors, particularly on campus, they don't compare to what I imagine I missed at home.  Sigh.  Soon I'll get to smell and hear the leaves crunching under my feet once again.

I'm feeling like this wasn't a particularly interesting post.  Sorry.  If I come up with anything more thrilling I'll let you know.

Ciao