Announcement! ;)

As from tomorrow at 8am, lectures will be held at Mater Dei.

Kudos to Colin Mizzi for this (unofficial) advert.

If You Dare...

Around this time last week I was getting myself ready for this:

Well, let me announce (fashionably late) that I dared go to this weekend. It was an amazing boost overall; I just wish I can experience this all over again. It surely gives me something to blog about other than boring issues taking place in hospital.

Obviously, the idea of boring differs from one individual to another. I could be getting many eyes rolling on this post. Most probably, people who came to this blog through the MMSA website would have preferred finding an article about the good, the bad and the ugly of World Diabetes Day (WDD). MMSA could have given me something to blog about without all the controversy - a controversy that occasionally helps Ms. Caruana Galizia keep her Daphnicle going twice a week on The Independent (for when she's too bored talking about politics). There was a time when simply saying that I believed in Jesus was a daring thing to do since it guaranteed to stir quite a lot of debate in any conversation. Currently, I rarely find people in the mood to argue about the matter. The majority would be simply nauseated by the fact that "born again Christians" (as we're called, I got to know) could be such a bad advertisement to the very faith they're so dearly devoted to. As much as this fact is, sadly, very true, it is also very true that...

“There are only a handful [of Americans] who hate the Catholic Church, though there are millions who hate what they think the Church is.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Well, on a lighter note, there were two people at that weekend who were a little bit more daring then others (if I'm allowed to stretch things a bit): they allowed be to have a go at performing neurological examinations on them at 7:30 in the morning. A free license to stay hitting people with a tendon hammer...what more can a medical student ask for? Well, I didn't ask for much really but I certainly got much more than what I asked for.

And for any Marana Tha youth out there reading this blog...thank you for such a fantastic weekend.

Migrating North

And so we are migrating - just like the ducks, the Starlings and the Purple Finches. In our case, the word "migration" refers to nothing more than a move (or should I say, THE much anticipated move) from one hospital (St. Luke's) to another (Mater Dejn)...how exciting! : It all started this week on Monday with the cardiologists. In fact, The Times has reported that Prof. Albert Fenech was given the honour to carry out the very first four angiograms at Mater Dei's new Cath lab (rumour has it there are already three holes in its gypsum walls. Maybe they'll be patched up with new master pieces coming from MCAST sutudents).

But, as the cardiologists and the cardiac surgeons were given the privilege to be the first to try settle down on new pastures, the Borg Bros. red van removals are still around with loads more shifting to do. Patients are still on the wards and students are still taking bloods, trying to look for Vacuette needles, only to find that these too are being slowly transferred to Mater Dei. Oh well! I attempted to use the much dreaded syringe, and pitied the patient in the meantime.

Still, it has been officially stated that the student body, too, is migrating with the birds in the sky (in our case, pigeons) on the 19th of November. The only difference between medical students and our feathery friends is that we stand a chance of flying off to a "slight turn for the worse" (birds migrate for better weather conditions). Various MMSA members have visited this new Medical School. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them but from what I was able to gather:

• there are offices for the administrative and academic staff
• 5-6 lecture rooms which we have to share with the IHC (Institute of Health Care) students
• a "study room" seating not more than 16 people, which must also be shared with the IHC
• and, for now, no library that the librarian knows about. Although, the medical school library at St. Luke's Hospital, will be experiencing some degree of movement. In fact, it's going to be closed tomorrow (8th November 2007) from 12:15 till 14:30.

This is, at least, what we've heard and what we've been told. All will, hopefully, be sorted out on the 19th of November. Till that day, all we can do is hope that this migration won't disrupt so much our teaching schedule. Not that there is much anxiety about the whole matter. If there's really any emotion you can squeeze out from the students, it would be confusion rather than anxiety. But, for those few who are secretly feeling anxious over the matter, I'd suggest the following alienation strategies:

• Most Med students have to get cracking for World Diabetes Day this weekend. Speak to Darlene for more details.
• Dear forth years, you are blessed with having forensics, public health and orthopaedics exams to look forward to.
• As regards the 5th years, you people shouldn't even waste your time reading my shit. It's simply not worth it!