Halloween

I think Halloween is my second favorite holiday.  Second to Thanksgiving.  My friend Brandon had a pretty large 'pre' party yesterday before we went to the club.  He spend weeks decorating, and months planning how to get pumpkins delivered, where to get a fog machine, black lights, etc.  It was a blast!  I met a lot of people that I've heard about and it was just generally a great time.  After that, a fleet of taxi cabs took all of us to the Club downtown, Crime Scene.  The place was off the hook!  Costumes there were amazing.  Fil was Elvis.  People went all out for this one.  It was one of the best Halloweens ever.  Buzz Lightyear was a big hit.

Buzz and a lovely Lady Bug

Elvis is alive!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Today I went with Fil and his cousin Tomek to get some Italian food.  Watched Transformers, then went and got sushi.  The sushi was surprisingly good.  I had some eel for the first time and some other new sea creatures.  Time for sleep, long day and not much sleep last night.  Contemplating on waking up at 4am to watch the Ducks and Lakers play.  Speaking of the Ducks, after sushi we walked around the Rynek and I spotted a guy wearing an old school Anaheim Ducks jersey.. represent!!

Friday

Had a few classes today, including biophysics.  Today we used models to demonstrate movements of muscles in both isotonic and isometric environments.  I did fairly well on the quiz and the lab went well so I was pleased.

I took a couple pictures on the walk to the biophys building, pretty beautiful, especially during the fall.

I just made some sliced potatoes with eggs scrambled and mixed with onions and tomatoes.. topped with lots of Tapatio sauce.  Almost out of the bottle already.

Soon to the party as Buzz Lightyear.  Should be fun, figured Peter Pan would be too cold.

4 day weekend!

Brisk Morning

This morning was -2 C.  Made the walk feel a little long.  The change of colors here is beautiful.

Snow?

Water Heater

I used a step down converter, converting 220V to 110V so I could use my awesome water warmer I just received.  The first time I plugged it into a similar converter.  This time I changed to a different one because the outlets of the other were used.  A moment after I plugged it in, it blew up!  Literally blew up.  The noise scared the shit out of me.  The metal heating element has a huge hole in it.  So much for my new favorite toy.  The room became full of smoke from the small CONTAINED fire.  

more shrapnel

Yes I am safe, no one was hurt and the dorm is still standing.  Maybe send another mom?  Also a fire extinguisher might be useful.  

Package from Mom

I got an amazing package from Mom today.  Some of what was in it: ear plugs, coffee, tea bags, propel water mix (all I drink is water and now I have more flavor), workout pants, Halloween candy, Mac and Cheese, body spray (all my clothes smell like smoke, not from me), shoe/foot spray for all the walking I do, highlighers, vitamins and vitamin C, and an awesome water warming device.

I stick the device in a cup of water and in a minute I have hot water, no more cold coffee for me in the mornings!  Thanks Mom!!

Classes today and studying at night

Lack of Blogging

My apologies for the lack of blogging the last week or so.  It has been pretty hectic with studying and such I haven't really been able to sit down and write a good blog.  I keep putting it off to write a detailed one but I figured it might be best to do more short ones so you know what I am alive and well.

Class has been going well.  I took a chemistry quiz today and got an 8.5 out of 10 which was pretty good considering most of the scores were around the 6 range.  I've been spending a lot of time studying and staying on top of my classes and it feels good.  Many of the students are slacking a bit and it will bite them in the long run.  WIth classes like these if you don't learn the material now when will you learn it?  There is so much information to know it is simply impossible to catch up at the end.

The weekend was fun, went to that Czekolate place again, we always end up there.  Good times with some of the classmates.  Yesterday I watched a lot of football while studying, maybe more football than studying.  I ended up going to my friend Brandon's place to watch the Chargers game.  He is a huge fan so it was nice to watch it with someone from San Diego and who actually cares about the sport.  He is also having a huge Halloween party on Friday, which I am looking forward to.  I will either be Peter Pan or Buzz Lightyear.  Another friend has an extra costume and I think Peter will be a bit cold considering it snowed a week ago.  Nothing measurable but I did notice some frost on the ground in the AM which was actually snow!

Histology Lab class.  Sweet set up with the flatscreens, projectors, and computers all hooked up to the microscopes

The majestic biophysics building.  It's the one pictured on the website, catalogue, etc.

A classmate being placed on a stretcher during our First Aid class

The baby I saved today missing his or her clean face so we can do CPR.  Sweet nighties, right mom and Aunt Laurie?

Again sorry for the lack of posts but I will try to do it more often

I need to make some food now and study.  I purchased some ground beef, eggs, vegetables, seasoning (hopefully it works well with the meat considering I can't read anything on the package), coffee, peanut butter, granola, and yogurt.  Also niegazowana water.  They sell so much gas water (aka carbonated).  It is terrible.  Nothing is more upsetting here than buying a huge thing of water and listening to the tssssss when you open it knowing you screwed up and got the wrong kind.  I've gotten pretty good at searching for the crucial phrase 'Niegazowana' but Fil doesn't seem to be as lucky, and he speaks Polish!

Tickets for the Lech Poznan v Manchester City game will be purchased on Wednesday.  We're getting the best seats in the house for $50!

Birthday Pictures

Finally got the birthday photos.  It will be a short message as it's late and I need to get some rest for class tomorrow at 8.  Watched a bunch of football tonight which was awesome!!  Here are the photos.

Interesting observation today, at about 10pm all the street lights and pedestrian lights turn off.  Saving power maybe?  Makes driving and walking more interesting.

Fil, El Professor, me, Tomek (Fil's cousin)

Cheers!

Thumbs up!

Ola, Tomek's girlfriend is the lovely lady in this picture.

Nastrowie (pronounced nas trovy e)  means Cheers in Polish

Yummy wodka (Polish w = English V)

Awesome photo

I have a sweet video of the birthday song but I'm having trouble uploading, will try again this week sometime.  

First Week

The first week was successful.  We have a very busy schedule that begins at 8am every morning and ends in the late afternoon/evening.  I do spend a lot of time studying but it is nice to be ahead of the game.  Many of the students didn't know what was going on during certain classes like anatomy for example.  In medical school you need to LEARN the material when it is presented or you will never.  This is something that I feel many of the younger students have yet to realize.  Friday, Tom, Emmanuel, and I, went to Fil's then went out to Czekolada (Chocolate).  We end up going there very often, it's kind of a love hate thing.  For the most part I am enjoying the classes.  I do like anatomy, it's weird to want to go home and learn the material.  I guess that is a good thing.  Anatomy is probably my favorite class.  I love how challenging it is learning about the most complex thing in the universe, the human body.  Today a few of us went to the Stary Rynek to get a nice dinner and a bottle of wine.  A nice relaxing Saturday night to rest up for a day filled with studying.  It is fairly late so I won't post pictures but I hope to get my birthday photos (there are some good ones!) and some other photos from a few of the classes up soon.

Classes

I will post more pictures when I have time.  This week was the beginning of our actual schedules.  The days aren't too bad, about 3 classes a day sometimes the classes are long due to labs and it takes up most of the day.  I realized I'm taking 8 classes this year.  Of the 8, 2 are languages (Polish and Latin) 4 are labs with lectures (biophysics, medical chemistry, histology & embryology, anatomy) and the remaining 2 are physical education and first aid.  That is quite a load.  I've been on a good routine of studying the material presented that day and then studying the material for the next day.  Hopefully I can keep it up and stay on top of it.  All my classes are at 8am, kind of nice to get up but it inhibits you from wanting to study late.  So far I enjoyed anatomy and histology.  The facilities for both are great.  They are in the same building and for the histology we have a microscope that is attached to our computers and a huge LCD TV for each table.  Pretty nice!  I hear a lot of people end up hating it towards the end, but we'll see.  Latin is going to be fairly crappy.  Time to get studying during my break before physical education.  I will hopefully post pictures of some of the classes and my birthday soon.

Current temp 43 degrees F.  Sunday has a chance of rain and low temperatures of 32 F so a chance of our first snowfall, maybe?

During Polish class the teachers always ask how are you in Polish to engage in conversation to begin.  Yesterday I responded with ziajbiscie (spelling?).  Zia beesh che.  Which means "fucking awesome" in Polish, thanks to my Polish friends for teaching me that one.  The teacher got a kick out of that.. thankfully!

A joke from El Professor on the night of my birthday.  My apologies for the explicit contents...



"American beer is like making love in a canoe..

Why?



Because it's fucking close to water"


Ha!

Birthday Weekend

Our last introduction course was based on medical decision making.  Having worked in the ER I was very versed in the terminology, techniques, tests, etc that physicians order to pinpoint the cause for disease.  That was the most interesting class I had thus far.  After that, we ate at Donatello's and got a workout in.  At night Fil and I met with our friends Tom and Emmanuel from the 1st year of the 4 year program.  We hungout for a while then went to a place called FBI.  That was a great club and we all had a lot of fun.  We always go places where many of our classmates are coincidently.  That night was no exception.  It was a great first night to a birthday weekend.  The following day, Fil had a party at his house organized by him and his cousin Tomek.  I've gotten to know Tomek well along with his friends including the infamous "El Professor."  There were about 10 friends there and we drank a bunch of delicious vodka.  They got me a Polish flag, wrote notes, and signed it, VERY cool!  Tomek's girlfriend was behind that gift of course.  We then went to jagota aka blueberry, which is a very hip club here in Poznan and it was a blast!  My two favorite clubs here in Poznan were the 2 we went to this weekend.  It was a great weekend with great people.  We took tons of pictures and videos that I will post when I get them.

Rising Sun

Classes start officially so tonight I am getting ready for classes.  Need to know where I'm going in the city.  I still need to purchase a couple more books.  Tomorrow I have medical chemistry and first aid.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nXbRYusNDM

That is a great video of Poznan.  Someone made this by walking through the city and I walk the same routes daily.  It really gives you a very realistic view of the city.  

Will post pictures from the party when I get them.

Lech Poznan Tickets

Today had more introduction classes: physiology, medical chemistry, histology and embryology.  Following these classes, classmates and I went to get tickets for the Lech Poznan vs Manchester City tickets.  It is about 4 stops down the road via tram.  Unfortunately tickets were not on sale yet, but we did waltz our way inside the stadium.  We were probably trespassing as some Polish guy started yelling at us for being in there, but it was awesome nonetheless.  They are still finishing the stadium but it is beautiful.  For 100zl you can get amazing seats, that's less than $40, so I think I will have to do it!  The game is November 4th so we will be continually checking online to see when the tickets are available.  

This is where one of the semifinal, quarterfinal, and pool play games in the 2010 Euro Cup will be held.

Later today I will probably go hangout with the huge Poles in the gym.  Tomorrow we have some more classes then the real thing starts on Monday.  My birthday is Monday so I think some of us will be getting together for a little celebration sometime.  It won't work well on Monday as we have class, so Friday or Saturday will be best.  

Funny note:  everything unlawful in Poland has a fine of 100zl and j-walking is probably the worst thing you could do.  No one does it here!  Fil has to stop himself often because being from New York it's strange to NOT j-walk, but here not a single person does it.  It could be midnight without a single car visible, on a small side street, and people still wait patiently for minutes for the light to change.  That fine is 100zl and NO I have not learned the hard way.  

Hockey starts today!  My handy website that I'm able to watch football on also has hockey!  

Go Ducks

Inauguration

Today we had our formal inauguration beginning at 1100.  It was actually pretty cool.  Most of it was in Polish but they did speak to the English program students in English.  The venue was beautiful.  It kind of felt like a cult in a way with the clothes the people wore, staffs and gavels, etc.  It went on for about 2 hours.  The last 45 minutes was devoted to a Nobel Prize nominee speaking on his research.  Unfortunately it was in Polish but the slides were in English.  He discussed the importance to nitric oxide in various systems in the body and other applications to paintings.  Much of it was devoted to how NO contributes to disease and how at a nano-level these molecules can be detected.  His studies focused on nano-technology ranging from nanobatteries to nanoengines.  Very interesting stuff.  Here are some photos from the event.

The ladies who I cabbed with to the Inauguration

Mr. Nobel nominee 

Outside

Friends at the Stary Rynek to get food 

Introduction to Biophysics and Anatomy

Class today was short.  Anatomy and biophysics.  Anatomy will be fun, and I think biophysics will be fun because it will be challenging.  I know some anatomy already and different aspects of examining patients and the different divisions of the body the professor was talking about so I should have a little head start.  Biophysics we talk of topics such as action potentials and different kind of imaging that I have some background with from Neuroscience.

Here is a photo I forgot to upload that showed where the concert was in Warsaw.

Today I'm just getting some things together for next week's courses and the inauguration tomorrow.  I'll hopefully get some good pictures from that tomorrow.

Introduction to Medicine

We had our first real classes today although they weren't very 'real.'  An MD told us a few stories he had while being a doctor, fairly interesting stories and we ended in 30 minutes.  We were supposed to have class until 1130 and switch rooms then continue until 1.  After 30 minutes, we were finished at 830.  Most of us did errands.  I did some much needed laundry!  I was able to get an open washing machine and wash some clothes.  I got an email at about 10 that was the introduction to medicine schedule, which had a class after the 830 lecture was over and before the 1130 one began.  Thanks for the heads up PUMS, but a bit late.  No one really went to that, I guess it was on clinics.  Tomorrow we have introduction to anatomy and biophysics and it only last until 1115.  Other than that nothing really exciting today.  Went to the gym with the huge Polish dudes and got some groceries including some instant coffee.. a must!  Time to get some rest for the classes tomorrow.  We're trying to buy tickets to a Manchester City match being played at Lech's home field.  The stadium is amazing, a friend of mine went to Lech's first game there and I saw the pictures... crazy!  I'm hoping we can go.

Photos from inside one of the lecture halls in the Anatomy Building

Warsaw

A couple days ago my friend, his cousin, and I went to Warsaw for a concert.  We barely made the train and we were off at about 3pm.  The trip only took about 3 hours, much better than the 12 to Prague.

We didn't tour the city too much but like most Polish cities, it has a huge mall.

The venue was M25 and we arrived there around 6.  It was very difficult to find, we walked past it numerous times until finally we saw security arriving.  We ended up walking in the side door and actually met beardyman!  He will be a huge hit in America in the next few years.  His manager told us that he has shows all throughout America in such venues as Coachella.  We were hanging out while he was doing his sound check sitting on a couch next to the stage.  There were 3 bartenders getting ready, Beardyman, his manager, the sound guy and the 3 of us in the room.

Fil and Beardyman (creepy looking)

We were hanging out with these two beat boxers that performed during the intermission before Beardyman came on.  

Right in the front, very cool!


We stayed there until the venue closed around 4 then went towards the train station.  The train was scheduled for 6am so we had a little time to kill.

Poznan is growing.  All of the other 6 universities here begin tomorrow and since it is a 'college' type of town, it was fairly empty the last month.  Already today many of the upperclassmen arrived and the dorms are filling up.  My roommate just arrived from his trip home, so much for the peace and quiet.

Today I plan on going to the gym a little then watching some NFL.  Class at 8 tomorrow so I have to get some sleep tonight, unlike most of these last 2 weeks.