It's the final countdown!

Gooooooodmorning

I've been staring at my phone for about 2 hours now. And I still have an hour to go. Why is it that, when you really look forward to something, you can't sleep. Well I do know the geese have something to do with it. They've been screaming on and off since 6. It's like they know when I'm about to fall asleep. Right at that point they start screaming again.
I'm really glad that in about 2 hours I will walk away from those geese. These 3 months made me realise I really hate geese. I think they are my least favorite animals. Or at least one of them. They always attack me :( On the other hand, baby goosies (goslings) are really really cute. I'll show you a picture:

Isn't that unbelievable cute? I wish I could take one with me. But they turn into goose. We do not like goose.

It's kind of a weird feeling, knowing that you will like leave and never come back. I'm quite happy about it cause I don't really like living in a student home. I thought I was messy but turns out I am actually quite clean. Did you read that mom? I am not messy!!

Next time you accuse me of being messy I'll show you the kitchen pictures!
But anyways I will miss some people I met here, mostly colleagues. Everyone was so nice here! And the placement itself was really good, I learned so much. Before I wasn't sure if I wanted to work in a hospital, but after this placement I am pretty sure I would want to. In a small hospital though, since bigger hospitals usually look at patients in numbers instead of actual living beings. Although I like the nursey bits like catheterising people etc, It's not what I find most important. I want to work on a ward where I not only have to help people physically but also mentally. I like talking to people and trying to help them with their problems. Even if it's only by just listening. That's the part I missed the most here. Even though my English is pretty good, if I may say so myself, it's still not your native tongue. I could make conversations with people but it's not effortless. You don't have as good as a conversation as you would have with someone who speaks your own language. But anyways I am still happy I worked on this ward, cause I have learned a lot. Not only about the job itself but also my preferences, so that's good.

Ew I am getting too serious now and it's only 8 in the morning.This is not a good sign. Let's talk about my room.
My room is like really boring at the moment. All my pictures are gone so the walls are just boring white. All the closets are empty just like my shelf. Looking at it now makes me depressed. It's just a boring tiny room with annoying an annoying closet which is too high for me. Hmm my floor is a bit dirty. I think they want me to leave my room clean, but I can't find a vacuum cleaner. Oh they told me not to say vacuum cleaner. Apparantly when I dutchies tries to say vacuum it sounds like fack you. English people don't really like it when people tells them that. Really weird, I don't know why. Anyways I am going on a fackyoucleaner hunt!
Okay I really don't know where the fackyoucleaner is. I will get in trouuublleee. Well at least I tried right? Oh yay it's already 8.15! Only 1 hour to go before I can leave my roooom. I will probably end up leaving in about 15 minutes orso. I'm a bit paranoid like that, scared that I will miss my train or bus or there is a huuuugeee line in check in orso. I need to get in that plane! And I am kind of hungry but I don't have any food left. So I need to buy some breakfast.

Ugh I so don't want to walk around with those 2 bags again. Did you know it's really annoying to get into a bus with a really big bag and a small bag. People tend to look at you like dude huurrryy up I want to gooo. And I am like well if you would've helped me the bus would've already been driving by now. But apparantly English people aren't that smart, or social. No actually most English people are really social. I think it's just student that are, eh let's say it nicely, not really that social.

Okay I decided I will pack my last bits and then I will leave for some breakfast! Isn't that like really smart? I know right. And then in about half a day I will be hooooome :D Hooraayyy!

Thank you everyone for reading my blogs! And I will see you all soon!
Love

Mobiles are evil

Hello!

This will probably be one of the last updates on my blog. Cause in 5 days I am home again!!

This week my mom came to visit me. And well mom and me in a big city equals trouble. So grab some crisps and you are allowed to laugh at us!

Trouble began the moment mum landed in Leeds. You know that when you board a plane you have to turn off your phone. Don't worry, she didn't crash the plane with her mobile phone, she turned it off! The problem was turning it on again.. She kind of forgot her pin code. Don't worry I laughed too when I heard it, mostly because this happened to me too. Anyways so she was stranded in Leeds without a mobile phone. Luckily Leeds is a pretty big city with lots of shops. So she found a Vodafone shop which gave her the code.
In the meanwhile I called her about 5 times, a bit worried because her phone was switched off. I mean the first 30 minutes I just thought mom was being mom and forget her phone. She does that, sorry mom but you do. But well after a while I figured she must have realized by now we have phones nowadays so it was a bit strange it was still off. Finally after like an hour she called. But then my battery decided to die so now she got my voicemail. But luckily I am one of those people who can't live without mobile phones so I had another one with me with full battery. (Oi don't blame me! I have a boyfriend in Italy with whom I need to keep contact) So after I switched my sim we were finally able to talk.

When she arrived in York we went to her bed & breakfast. The building itself was kind of old. Mom opened the curtain, which ended up in her hands. But the lady who lived there made up for it. She was really nice and chatty. The only problem was she had a huge accent and she talked kind of fast. But when she saw moms expression she realized she had to talk a bit slower. That was kind of funny.
And something really nice she said: 'Oh is she your daughter?? I thought you were friends!!!!' Thank you very much, I apparently look 30 years older orso? Mum looked very happy with her comment though. She reminded me like, every day.
The rest of the day wasn't really exciting. We went to an Italian restaurant which wasn't really that special. I had a pizza with like a layer of fat. Every time I lifted a piece the oil just dripped on my plate. Really healthy food here in England.

The next day we went to see the minster. The jewel on Yorks crown as the local people here call it. It's a really big building. And when I say big I mean really big. We decided we would do a bit of exercise and climb the tower which had about 250 steps orso. Which of course was absolutely no problem for us healthy people. A lady in front of us slowed us down or else we would've been up in like 2 minutes! We were totally not relieved by the fact that the lady had to pause every now and then to catch her breath. We didn't enjoy those breaks at allllllll. And we totally didn't had to sit down once we reached the top. Well at least I didn't. (There wasn't enough space for me to sit down but ssh) The view was really cool though.
The climb down was a bit scary. At least that's what I thought. The steps are a bit uneven and it's so small there. I totally thought I would misplace my feet, fall and die. So well because I was a little tiny winy bit scared I climbed down the stairs in a cramped way. So when I was finally down my leg were like on a strike. And mom had the same problem. After a little round around the minster we decided it would be better to just sit down somewhere. It felt like my legs were made of rubber or something. Or spaghetti.
That day we decided we were going to start use wii fit again.

We had beautiful weather this week so most of the time we were enjoying the sun in a park. I think that's the thing I like the most of York. You've got these parks where everyone lies down to enjoy the sun. It's a good place to look at people and their clothes.
Oh my god their clothes. Mom and me have this nice habit of checking out people whenever we are drinking somewhere or walking around or well just always. Cause people wear the weirdest outfits. Like some people don't know they are fat so they wear really short shirts and skirts or even worse only a legging. We had a lot of legging alerts.

Well I will see you all in 5 days!!
Much love

Potter blackmail

Greeting to all you non university people
(If you do go to uni then Hiya fellow uni student!)

It's been a while since my last post. It's not because I didn't have anything cool to say. I mean I always have something interesting to say. Everything I say is interesting.... I'll just admit, I was just too lazy to write.
I am still too lazy but I am kind of forcing myself through blackmail. If I don't finish my blog then I can't watch Harry Potter tonight. And I really wanna see Harry Potter. I have to say England isn't very good for my addiction. Before I went to England I was kind of almost completely healed of my obsession/addiction. I did occasionally think of it and when I saw the books I started drooling, but that's normal right? I mean I stopped wearing robes and I abandoned my quest of finding the ultimate wand. I also started doing normal homework instead of making essays about potions and goblin rebellions.
But since I am here I went into Potter mode again. I mean I saw, well I didn't actually see it cause they denied me access, but I was on King's Cross where platform 9 ¾ is located! And last Sunday I went to see the station they used in the first movie, when they arrived at Hogwarts. (Well Hogsmeade to be precise since there is no station at Hogwarts itself, that would be silly) I could almost see Hagrid there, waving to all the cute little firstyears. And little harry laughing at him and wave at him. *sigh* Yeah best day ever.

Ok before I totally go potter mode let me tell you about my day at the sea side!
Last Sunday my mentor Marijke took us to the seaside. First we went to goathland where sheep are holy. Funny they call it goathland while they only have sheep. Don't think the founder was too clever.
Anyway the sheep there just like walk around the village and stuff. So when you drive a car you have to be careful as they can appear on the road all of sudden. Well it's not really all of sudden cause sheep aren't that fast. But you get my point! And you can't hit them! As my mentor said: don't hit the sheep they will sue you, but it's okay to hit birds.
Anyways Goathland lies in the North York Moors, which looks soooo amazing. I still have to stalk Brigit (this is a hint) for the photo's but it was kind of impressive. It's like this huge park with hills where you can have really nice walks. At some point all you could see around you was well sort of grassland/savannah sort of plains and a road. that was pretty impressive. Like this:

After Goathland we went to Whitby. It has a nice little port and a beach. We walked around and had a little picnic. I got a burn that day, ofcourse :( But anyways we didn't have time to fully explore whitby as it was mega crowded. There is this ruin on a cliff which we wanted to see, but since we didn't have enough time we bought an icecream. Just as good. But nonetheless it was a really really cool day. Ohh and then we went to Marijkes house who lives in a really awesome village with an amazing view. And she cooked for us so we finally had some healthy food! And Brigit dropped her glass, which broke. That was kind of funny cause normally that was me but finally I behaved myself. Hooray!
Oh tip: if you are going out for a whole day, don't wear new shoes. My feet were killing me at the end of the day.

So yeah placement is going really well. I managed to catheterize someone and put an ng tube (tube that goes from your nose to your stomach) in someone else. So I feel very proud. But it's kind of hard to finish all school assignments there cause everything is in dutch. So people at intern can't really help you unless you translate everything. And trust me, that's a lot.

Mum is coming on Monday! So next weekend I'll probably have a new story to tell. I'm really looking forward to it. I have to say I am getting quite homesick now. But only 2 more weeks to go so I will survive.
Oh and I want to thank everyone for reading my blog and for all the nice comments! It puts a smile on my face.

So I don't feel like writing anymore now. I finished it. HARRY POTTER TIME!

Love

Want a ride on my taxi duck?

Morning!

The last few days I've been too tired to write a blog. I've been working 3 days in a row. Which wouldn't be very bad if they were just normal 8hour shifts. But lucky me could work 11,5 hours a day! So well I have to tell you, after that your bed is your best friend. Yesterday I even worked 14 hours. But I didn't really mind because I went to an operation theatre! I watched while the doctors cut someone open and pulled half of his bowels open. It was really interesting and I had this huge urge to ask if I could touch and poke and stuff. But luckily I resisted.

Anyways London!
London was really awesome. I am definitely going back again! Even tho we went for 5 days we haven't seen everything. We did see the Big Ben (Yay!), Madame Tussauds, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace with its change of the guard. And we were really lucky with the weather. Everytime we went out to play tourist the sun was shining.
Don't ask me why but I have always been a huge fan of the Big Ben. When I told that to a colleague she just looked weird at me and told me it's just a clock. But still if I think about London I think about the Big Ben. So naturally when I saw Bennie I got overly excited and I took, well, too many pictures of it.
Madame Tussauds is really amazing. It's way bigger then the one in Amsterdam. And the people in it are way cooler. I can tell a huge story about it but I think it's better if I just post the pictures so have a look!
Tower of London was pretty impressive too. We spend 2 hours in there and apparantly we still haven't seen everything. But we did see the crown jewels and some towers where they kept prisoners. You see a lot of writing on the walls that's carved in there by prisoners over the years. The story about the 2 princes that most probably have been killed there was impressive to read. There was also a tower where you could see some torture machine thingies. It's just so weird to stand in a room where years ago people died or have been tortured.
And at last Buckingham Palace. We went to see the change of the guards, which is a big ceremony they do every morning or every other morning. There were a lot of people so we didn't see everything but it was still cool to watch. And the most important thing, the new guards were from Nijmegen!!!!!!! I felt so at home. And they had those cool little hats youknow. Well it's not really little, actually they are just big. But they are cool.

Ah and the first morning in our hotel was, well eventful. At about 7 am the fire alarm started screaming. I remembered Brigit telling me that sometimes the alarm in her building starts and stops after a few minutes. So I kind of expected it to go off again. (It was very early, my brain was still in sleeping mode) So well after a few minutes of confused staring I realised it was maybe better to go out. So we went down without coats, sorry about that Ricky, and had to stand outside with all the other guests. It was kind of funny cause some people looked even worse then me. So well turned out someone had been smoking in his room, while everywhere are signs about this being a smokefree hotel. But hey who am I to judge.

Oh and I have the cutest little souvenirs. I have a little Big Ben (ofcourse), a little Tower Bridge, a red London bus, a red telephonecellthingy and a taxi duck!! Ohmygod I love my taxi duck. I mean look how cute it is:

Isn't it adorable?

So yeah that was London

The only thing I don't like about England is the fact that there are no trashbins. You have to walk around like an hour with your rubbish before you can throw it away. And still they managed to keep the streets cleaner then Holland. How do they do it?

Thanks for reading and leave a message!

Love

ps. Photos will come but this is my only free day and I need to do some homework ew. And tonight I am going to eat with Brigit and her parents! Yay.

Where did my story go?

HIYA

I am sure I posted a story like 2 days ago. Who is the funny one who stole it? GIVE IT BACK NOW!
Ok I'll just post it again

Greetings,

At the moment I am in one of the coolest places in the world, London!! I almost missed my train this morning. I needed to top up my phone but the machine didn't recognize my card so I had to go to a supermarket to buy stuff and then return it so I could get money. It was kind of a hassle. And the lady said she couldn't cancel the top up. When I arrived with the money she said she found the cancel button. Not very cool.
But I made it!

Oh yesterday I had a really cool day too, although by the time this will be online it's probably the day before yesterday since I don't have internet in my hotel room. Anyways I first went into time with a colleague of mine. He showed me a really cool pub. I like pubs! There were like beds where you could lie down and have a drink. How cool is that! Oh and I really love all those buildings in York. It all looks old, but in a good way. It all looks cozy and I don't know I really like it.
After that I had to rush home to get ready cause I had a dinner. Really scary, I've never been in an English restaurant before. I mean they drink milk in their tea. They probably have some weird things with their food as well. Turned out I was the weird one when I wanted ketchup with my chips (which are fries, confuses me all the time). They were like dude this is an Italian restaurant, don't order ketchup silly. And I was like, but eh fries? I want ketchup with my fries :(
But it was really nice!

Ugh I don't like the little ventilator in the bathroom. It's kind of noisy and it won't stop. Do they think I am on the toilet nonstop?

Anyways London! Oh I really love London so far. They have like pretty red busses and black taxis. So aaweesoome. I am still waiting for Riccardo, he won't be arriving before midnight so I am all alone in the room at the moment. I feel so so sad and lonely. And annoyed by the vent. Dude why won't it stop?
Oh I don't like kings cross. I wanted to go catch the Hogwarts express so I walked to platform 9 and 10. Turns out 10 is on a completely different platform then 9, and I couldn't go there cause you needed a ticket. So I got all disappointed and sad cause I wouldn't see harry potter. ? I have to admit, I am a real first class Harry Potter nerd. So I went to burger King cause I am healthy like that, they had free internet! So I googled Kings Cross. Guess what!!! They filmed it on platform 3 & 4. HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I got all excited and went to the bathroom. Yeah I still have that bladder infection so I kind of do that every 10 minutes. After that I skipped outside back to Kings Cross again. Guess what!!!!! The stupid #$%$#%^%&#% Englishmen thought it would be funny to put machines there so you can't get there without a ticket. HOW WILL I GO TO HOGWARTS NOW?!?!?! I am so upset. I think it was dobby. I'll just have to find some flying car and watch out for trees that hit.

Yeah I don't have much else to tell but I wanted to post this so my next blog won't be 3495873 pages long. It will still be long though, sorry in advanced. But I mean, cmon, it's London! Who doesn't want to hear about London? LONDON BABY!

See you mate!
Laura

Do the robot!

Hiya!

I am writing this on my night shift. Well obviously I retyped it at home but I totally wrote it down during my night shift. Which, come to think of it, is pretty amazing. I mean it is 2 am and my brains are still working, sort of. It's probably because of the high dose of sugar in my system. Today is the last shift of one of my colleagues so we've been partying! There are like crisps, Pringles, cake, cheesenibbles, lots of nuts, brie, chocolate, candies, pate and well a lot of other stuff. You could seriously feed a whole country with all the food in here. Some hours ago we've been partying with some doctors. We turned on some awesome music (like Barbie girl and abba) and started dancing. I didn't know doctors could dance like that. So yeah that's pretty cool. Oh I actually need to do something now.

So ok another interesting thing to know. I most probably have a bladder infection. Altho it is a selective one. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. I think it can feel the presence of doctors cause everytime I go to the doctors it's gone. So I have to go to the doctor after my shift. This is so awesome, I will go to an English doctor!
Yep turns out I have a bladder infection. I feel very poor, although the pain is gone for the moment. I had to wait 2,5 hours for I finally saw a doctor. But I've got medication now so it should be gone in 5 days. I still have to wait for lab results since I have weird symptoms for a while now. He wanted to make sure it hasn't gone to my kidneys. But I am not really afraid of that since that usually causes a lot more pain and a fever.

So this week I had 3 nightshifts in total. I am not a fan of them. You can't really do anything and then 12,5 hours look veeryyy long. So it's the first and the last time I did nightshifts. And I really can't sleep during the day. Apart from the geese, slamming doors and light, my body just refuses to sleep more than about 6 hours.

Oh Friday was pretty cool btw. We had a party with work, doctors mess. It was really fun cause you get to see a whole different side of people. The doctors here are really nice, and funny when they are drunk. We've been talking with some doctors for a while. And when I went for my nightshift last night people recognize you so that's fun. Oh and I had my first cosmopolitan and gin & tonic. I feel so proud! It was actually pretty nice.

So ok apart from I didn't really do exciting things this week. Thursday I am going to Londoonnn :D Riccardo and me will be staying in a hotel there for about 6 days. I am really looking forward to that. So expect a lot of photos when I get back :d

That's it for now,
Love

Ps. I so don't feel like rechecking my story for any mistakes so bear with me

Disaster tourism

Picture this. You are walking around, minding your own business, while suddenly you hear sirens. What are your thoughts at that exact moment?
I shamefully have to admit I am one of those kind that immediately drops everything and chases the sirens. I calculate the fastest way to reach the scene and try to push my way through the crowd hoping I would see at least a little bit of blood. And then of course I feel guilty because I remember that blood isn't something that just magically appears whenever an ambulance is near.

But I have to say, working in a hospital as a student is the perfect way to be a disaster tourist without feeling guilty. You are allowed to be happy whenever someone asks you if you want to look at a mini surgery. You are allowed to stare and move closer in order to see better. I am just a very enthusiastic student who grabs every opportunity to learn!
I think everyone working in a hospital is a disaster tourist in some way. Although everyone hopes patients will be okay and won't have any lifelong diseases. We do like to inject them, put catheters in them, cut them open, poke in wounds and well many more things you don't even want to hear. Although I have to admit I don't like to poke in wounds. I cringe at the thought of it. The other day someone needed a monster so they could send it to the lab. In order to do that they had to put this swabthing inside the wound. Like actually inside, you could see it moving under the skin. Do not like that.
But although I like to torture people by putting stuff in their bodies, the best part is still seeing them getting better. Talking about a paradox.
Sometimes you see patients coming in and you just can't imagine them getting better. They just look horrible and they've already been in the hospital so many times. But somehow they do manage to get better. And knowing you had a part in that process, that's just the best feeling there is. You actually helped someone survive, however small that part is, being a student.

Another part I really like about the job, you get to see the most strange stuff. This week a guy came in, said he had a sewing needle in his belly. Apparently he fell in it, which I find very strange. I mean how on earth can you fall on a needle? The needle had to stand up which is already kind of really difficult. Not to mention that the needle went all in, you have to fall pretty hard if you want a needle to fully go in. But even more strange, the way it was in his belly. Okay this is hard to explain so I will do it with pictures: (if it is not working: http://i54.tinypic.com/904wtu.jpg)

You would think he would fall like the first picture so you would expect to only feel the top of the needle. But apparently he fell on his side so you could feel the whole needle. It still puzzles me how on earth he managed to do that.
But anyways the doctor would try to get it out by making a little incision. They could just do that on the ward, so they asked me if I wanted to see it. And of course, being the enthusiastic student, I immediately stormed to the doctor. In the end the needle went all ninja so the doctor couldn't get it. But it was really interesting to see.

The rest of the week was pretty cool too. I get to do stuff like giving medication and remove cannulas. So I am starting to feel like I am really doing something. I feel like a real nurse now. Hooray!

Before I go I want to ask all of you to think of me, Monday evening before you go to bed, because at that moment I will be working. And think of me again Tuesday when you get up, because at that moment I most probably will be sitting behind the desk like a zombie.
Thankyou.

Cheers!
Laura

Ps. Leave a message =D
(reageer for the non dutchies)

Leggings, needles and garlic

Goooooood morning/afternoon/evening/night

First sentences are fundamental.
I was reading a little about how tips and tricks for blogs. And they were saying opening sentences are very important. Successful journeys begin, as they say, with successful first steps. But they were so kind to help, so you won't have to ponder over a first sentence for hours. And well, if I may say, this first sentence is just very catchy. I mean, admit it, the moment you read my first sentence you were forced to read on. It almost screams, ooiii you have to read this, this will be such an awesome story!!!! I agree with that.

Anyways now the hardest part of the story is done we can move on to funnier topics. Did you know English people are even worse then German people, no offence, when it comes to fashion. There are some nice outfits out there, but dude some people really need to read the basic rules of fashion again. There is this new trend where you wear your thight leggings just like a normal pants. And on top you wear a short shirt just like you would normally wear. And as a result you can see things you don't really want to see. I mean it's cool to be slim. If I were slim I would totally show it off too. But that doesn't mean I want everyone to see how exactly my buttocks looks like. Even my bikini covers them up better than those leggings. And really, even when you have no ounce of fat, your buttocks will still drill like a jelly when you walk. And that is not a pretty sight.

So anyways now you all have this nice little picture in your heads of drilling jelly buttocks I will move on to a more important subject. Last Thursday was the most awesomest day I have ever had. I was working with my mentor Julie and up till that day I didn't really do much apart from observing and doing some observations. Sort of the basic stuff. Don't get me wrong I was fine with that, since this was my first placement in a hospital and I was kind of really nervous. But well Julie made me do a lot of things. At first I was nervous as hell but I am really thankful. I could do help with medications in the morning. And in the afternoon I could pull out a venflon, like youknow the infusion needle. The patient didn't really look comfortable when he noticed this was my first time. But I totally rocked! After that I did it a couple of times more, just cause I could. And I did some bms which stands for Boehringer Mannheim test (I had to google that), which are to find out the blood sugar levels. Annddd at the end I even injected people. I feel so prouudddd! I am litteraly bouncing on my chair at the moment of excitement.
Oh and I saw a procedure(well I saw it 2 times) where they put this cameratube thing down someone's bottom. That was kind of unpleasant and interesting at the same time. I mean it's interesting to see what exactly they are doing and why and just to see inside someone. (That sounds kind of disturbing.) But well I mean it can't be a pleasant procedure. When they were done the guy just lay there like nothing happened. I was like, dude they just pushed a 60 cm longe tube down your exit-only-hole. How can you lie there like that?!?!?!

And on to some less disturbing subject. Tomorrow we will do some York sightseeing, hooray! So I will post some pictures on my blog after that.
And that was about it.
Finally a not so large story, all happy now? =D

Ugh I made some garlic sauce this morning and my room still reeks like garlic. If I don't upload some pictures in the next few days it means I died cause of garlicsuffocation.

Love,
Laura

Ps. I didnt do a spellcheck yet so bear with me (not to confuse with bare with me like I did in the beginning, which apparantly means get nude with me.)