my week #198

What a difference nine months can make! Nine months ago and on my first surgical placement as a medical student, I really didn't enjoy it. Fast forward to now and having done a week on plastic surgery (ironically the same one from last year), I'm seriously considering a career in the surgical field. The surgeons have really got me involved in theatre and the fact that surgical ward rounds are super brief and short are another positive.

Funny how things change! I mean, I'm still not loving the 7:30am starts and late finishes but compromises!

How has your week been?

my study week #8 : usmle step 2 notes

Now, I'm not thinking of taking the USMLE anytime soon - just want to set that straight - but I find their various revision books really useful. They condense everything and though it may not all be applicable to medical practice in the UK, I have used them as a springboard for this academic year. Therefore, these notes were all taken in April - June of 2015. Having already come across the majority of topics within the book I used (Master the Boards Step 2 by Kaplan), it felt much more like light revision than a heavy study session. And this was what I was aiming for.

These notes will ultimately be re-written and edited according to UK guidelines so they are just rough notes! And just to warn you, it's mainly all pictures from now! I may do an updated post of how these were re-written if I have time :)

the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett, illustrated by lauren child

Looking around, it seems that everything is now digital. Back in 2012 when I first acquired a Kindle, I was guilty of only having electronic books. However, fast forward to about six months ago, I realised that I missed holding a book in my hands. However, with space limited on my bookshelves and with space likely to be limited when I move out (possibly in eighteen months' time, exams permitting, eek!), I need to carefully choose which books I want physical copies of.

In essence, this meant I ended up choosing books that had cute covers and spines that I would be happy to read time and time again and would also look pretty on my bookshelf. Therefore, it's a good job that a lot of classic books have been re-fashioned into beautiful hardback editions!

A few weeks' ago, I talked about these adorable Rifle Paper versions of four literary classics and today, I want to introduce this edition of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is illustrated beautifully by Lauren Child - a name you might associate with Lola and Charlie.

Now, I'm ashamed to admit that I never read this book when I was a child. I read Heidi, Little Women and Alice in Wonderland but I never picked this book up. We definitely had a copy but for some reason, it never appealed to me and that may be, due in part, to the cover design which was just of some greenery with a brown wooden door visible through all of the leaves. However, this copy has no problems in the aesthetic department whatsoever and I was eager to see what The Secret Garden was all about.

This copy boasts beautiful illustrations dotted about at regular-ish intervals and I can definitely see it appealing to children of all ages. It is a copy that a parent could read to a child without the child getting bored due to the illustrations that help break up the text.

The Secret Garden is a long book for a child to read but I guess when you compare it to the latter books in the Harry Potter series, it's not so bad! Having now finished the book, I can see why I may have struggled to get past the first chapter. It's a bit of a slow starter if you're a kid but I found the pace fine as an adult. The plot is definitely aimed at a younger reader but even so, it didn't feel too juvenile and it had me wanting to know more at each stage.

I would say the main characters are Mary, Dickon and Colin and I loved the dynamic between them. Dickon is a good egg and then we have a complete contrast in both Mary and Colin - both of whom are kids who have been a little too pampered in their lives up until the point where they meet each other. Dickon instills a bit of humbleness into both of them without getting much in return whilst Colin and Mary both mellow significantly!

Overall, I'm glad I read this as an adult as I know for sure that I wouldn't have finished it when I was younger. It was more of a slog than I remember Little Women to be but it wasn't as tedious as some other books I've read, both as a child and an adult.

And one last thing... Isn't this spine just beautiful?

my week #197

This week was a week full of lectures in preparation for ten weeks of surgery placement. Through these ten weeks, I'll have nine weeks where I experience nine different surgical fields and then one week of palliative care. I'm quite excited for it, not least because some of the specialties now use robots but also because I'm now considering a surgical career. It's funny how a week sat in lectures actually feels a lot more tiring than a week on placement.

How has your week been?