Happy Holidays

This past week was my final week of classes, which normally means it would be relatively light and maybe just review for the midterms, but no such luck we were learning new stuff in each of the classes, some of it is even going to be on our midterm. But classes are now FINALLY over until the end of January (after our midterms). Our midterm schedule was finally released this past week, and it doesn't look too bad except we have an exam on the first day back at 9am and then one on a Saturday at 9am, but at least the Saturday one is our very last mid sessional exam.

Going into the mid sessionals it's hard to judge how we've been doing since we have only really had 3 practical assessments: 2 in ophthalmic lenses (the first one I did quite well on and the second was this week so wont get results for a few more weeks) and then the other was in clinical optometry where we had to do a drawing of someone’s retinal. We actually did the clinical optometry assessment at the end of November, but just got our marks for it this past week, and I ended up getting much better than I had thought.

I have actually surprised myself a fair bit this week as I managed to study for at least an hour or two each day! This is impressive for being so close to Christmas and such a busy week. See this week one thing I did was went with a group of my friends to an off campus housing place called the Heights which looks really nice since it's like an apartment of four rooms (which is good since there is four of us) and we each have a bedroom and our own bathroom/shower and so all we would share is the kitchen (which works since we all hang out in one persons kitchen all the time anyways). Plus this place also has a common area like a little living room right by the kitchen which is cool. I ended up looking at other places since some of my friends that are UK students aren't allowed to live in residence in their second year, also I found out that because they are almost done the new residence on campus then they will only be offering the suite style rooms next year (which is the basically same price as the place we looked at). But so over the Christmas break I will have to think about it and sort stuff out and figure out where I want to live next year.

Actually this week was basically filled with lasts and farewells, starting with last lectures of the term. Then on Wednesday one of my friends and I headed to the pub that evening and played a couple games of pool, as a nice end of term thing. Since at the start of the term it was basically a weekly thing that we would do, but lately with studying for exams and projects we hadn't done it in a while so we figured we would do one last one before the end of the term.

On Thursday a group of us ended up also going out for lunch to Pizza Express (a fancy pizza restaurant near campus) and had a nice relaxing last lunch all together before everyone went home. The place and food was actually so good and it was such a nice restaurant that we're planning to go back there every once in a while. While we were in the restaurant at one point we looked out and noticed that there was a blizzard outside! It was a cool day but I never thought I would really see any snow here, so it was quite a surprise. It lasted for about 30min or so and about a cm or two ultimately landed and stayed on the ground, which made it definitely makes it feel like Christmas time now!

 

Later that evening a smaller group of us who usually cook together ended up meeting at our one friends kitchen (as usual) and had a little bailies and biscuit party and a bunch of their flatmates (who we've gotten to know since we're always over there) also came and joined us, which was nice to see everyone again. Of course the bailies, chocolates and cookies were also a good way to finish off the last night of the term.

Friday was our final day of lectures for the term, and after class my five of us ended up getting together for lunch out our favourite hang out; Sac of Potatoes. Again at one point we had started meeting up there every Friday for lunch, so decided it would be a good way to end the term. One of my friends who is from the UK had his parents and grandmother was in town to pick him up so he brought them along and so it was a really great lunch and end to my first term.

I'll be heading back to Canada shortly for a few weeks so I can spend time with family and friends. While I’m in Canada, I don't know if I’ll end up writing much here, but when I get back I'll probably do a quick post, and then will be back mid-late January (well unless something big happens or I end up wanting to procrastinate my studying :P)

I hope everyone a very happy and safe holiday season and I'll see you in the New Year!

 

Cheers,
Jeff



*Word of the week: "liquid dish soap" back in Canada is called "wash up" (or more formally "washing up liquid" here) ... just something to think about when your washing the dishes this holiday season ;)

The last few weeks of term

I want to apologize as I realize it has been some time since my last post, but I'll fill you all in on what has gone done since then.


It has basically been business as usual classes and studying. Not too much excitement going on around here, since about half the school it seems had their midsessional exams. It seemed like basically all the business students (undergrad, masters, MBA, etc) had their midsessional exams starting on Dec 1st and went until Dec 12th, so the whole campus has definitely calmed down and been in study mode for the past few weeks. Myself along with the rest of the other programs basically aren't as lucky as we all have classes until Dec 18th and then our midsessional exams begin on Jan 11th. Which means it's going to be a fun Christmas full of studying :P ... but it should still be okay, since I have been doing a surprising amount of studying lately!

Believe it or not that was me studying! We had to make a pin hole camera for one of our labs, so we decided to decorate ours.

Aside from studying, my friends and I ended up going out to the German market a few more times to hang out and walk around (it's weird because it seems like you see something new each time). The last time we went was actually partially to celebrate one of our friend's birthdays. We all had a great time, even though it was a bit cold (really it was only like 0ish, but its cold for here :P ) and then afterwards we went to a pub and had some food and drinks and hung out for a few hours.

One other exciting thing I did since I last wrote was I actually purchased some of my equipment! I ended up buying a Welch Allyn ophthalmoscope and retinoscope. I was finding that images that I could get with both were about the same as I wasn't noticing a huge difference between the two, so then it ultimately just came down to feel and for me I was finding that the Welch Allyn seemed much more comfortable and natural for me. The only downside is I ended up purchasing the equipment from Canada, so that means that I have to be patient and wait until I get back for Christmas before I can start using it :P

                        Ophthalmoscope                    Retinoscope


Talking about Christmas I have actually got my flight now and so I'll be home for three full weeks! I can wait to see everyone again and it looks like it's going to be a fun busy Christmas! The biggest trick will be for me to remember to continue studying, especially since I just found out I have an exam the day after I get back :P, but it'll be okay, as I don't think that course will give me too many problems.

That's pretty much catches you all up to date, but I'll also send off one more before I head off for Christams.

Cheers,
Jeff



*Word of the week: In Canada we have "sweaters" while here they call them either "pullovers" or "jumpers" ... which I really created some confusion at first when I overheard someone talking about a "jumper" they saw at the mall ... since my first thought was that they were very calm, and a bit excited for having just witnessed someone jumping off a roof !

School, Eye Exam and the German Market

Now what did I do this week? Well it really seems like it's been two weeks since I last wrote on here because I have been just so busy, but I’ll try to keep this short.

School wise it has been an interesting week. My classes covered a wide range of topics from inflammation and the immune system to entropic phenomenon (which is in basic terms a visual sensation that is due to inconsistencies in the fluids and structures of the eye) and even the basics of prisms (because it's impossible to go a whole week without learning any math!). Actually on Wednesday this week I had four hours of math all with the same professor starting at 9am (which is unusual since normally we only have two hours of lectures on Wednesdays and only one hour of math), so it was definitely a lot all at once, but I luckily got through it (with a little help from a lot of coffee). This week two of my labs were fairly easy since in one we just did a bunch of stuff on Excel and then in one of the other labs we did some more focimetry (lensometry). It was nice to have these fairly straightforward labs, since in my clinical optometry lab we had an assessment on ophthalmoscopy. Basically we were given 30 minutes to use an ophthalmoscope and look into one of our classmates eyes and draw the fundus (aka the retina). We had to include many of the structures of the retina including many of the blood vessels, which we had to colour in using the correct colours. The instructors are then going to mark our drawing against the retinal photographs that they have of each of us. It actually doesn't sound too hard but basically everyone was nervous about it since we have only had three lab sessions so far on ophthalmoscopy, so we didn't really feel ready and thought we would run out of time, but it seemed to go much smoother than most of us thought (although we don't have our marks yet from that, so we'll have to just wait and see).

Part of my course involves me sitting as a patient for an eye exam at the school's optometry clinic and on Thursday I had my eye exam. The exam is performed by the final year students and the reception staff tell all the patients that it will take about an hour and a half. But some of my classmates had told me there's took almost 4 hours, so I made sure I had tones of time, but luckily my exam only took just over an hour. Now the eye exam was definitely different that what we have in Canada. For starters the pretesting involves the usual automated NCT (puff of air test which checks the eye pressures), but then the only other pretest that was done was about a 5-10 minute visual field test, which had two parts for each eye, the first part was just the white stimulus and the second part was a red stimulus. I then went to the exam room and the student and her supervisor introduced themselves. After dealing with all of the patient history portion of the exam the student then used their ophthalmoscope and looked at the exterior of my eye, the cornea and then all of the structures of my eye and then did a comprehensive examination of my retina. The student then placed a trial frame on my and did retinoscopy to objectively determine my spectacle prescription. They then subjectively confirmed and slightly modified the prescription by having me read out the letters and look at some spots on the eye chart while they added, subtracted and moved the lenses to the trial frame. Once they were happy with the prescription they then did some other little tests (cover/uncover test, amplitude of accommodation, pupil reflex, near point of convergence, near vision and motility tests). Once completed the supervisor then came in and verified the prescription and the health of the eye. I thought it was kind of neat to see how they did the exam, especially since it was the first time that I had an exam where a slit lamp and a phoropter weren't used or even in the room. It sounds so far that this is basically how most optometrists here perform their eye exams, while it is only a very small number who even have access to a phoropter. I am really starting to look forward to learn how to perform all of these tests and to learn the reasoning behind the different techniques used here compared to those typically done in North America.

Now asides from school this week I also went to the German market which is on downtown (which is a five minute walk from campus). The market started last weekend and runs until Christmas. So far I have been to the market twice, and looks like I’ll likely be going several times each week as there is just so much to see in this a massive outdoor market. Here are a bunch of the pictures that I have taken so far while at the market.

The farris wheel was actually much bigger than it looks here!

This was the small crowd on Monday around 4:30

The beautiful lights

Some of many little stalls with handmade gifts

Oh the sweet smells of donuts and chocolates!

...and don't forget about the candy and schnitzel!

Two of the many temporary pubs (note the huge lines...and to think it's only 5pm)

Now that was my week in a nutshell.

Cheers,

Jeff

Well I had to have some German beer with my schnitzel ;-)

 

 
*Word of the week: "brown sauce" which sounds gross but it turned out that it is just "HP steak sauce". Apparently Birmingham use to have a big HP sauce plant located here. I have also found that here brown sauce is more common than ketchup and can be found in all pubs and basically all restaurants. When I asked what my British friends what they put it on, they said that it's basically anything, like with eggs in the morning or with a sandwich at lunch. I asked about what they thought about putting it on a steak and well apparently that thought had never crossed there mind!

Basically a typical week

Let’s see what we did this past week...

School was pretty good as were now getting into stuff I learned at Georgian. Were learning about the different eye structures (cornea, limbus, sclera, etc.) and there is a lot of pathology that they are also introducing (most I learned at Georgian) but it's nice to lean it again, since now I actually have to know way more about each pathology. The nice thing is that with the pathologies they're introducing them now and then going to talk about them more and more over the next three years. They're actually doing the same thing with all of the pharmacology too. This past week we also had a quick lab learning how to do focimetry (the UK term for lensometry) on spheres. It was so basic, but they had a neat focimeter that was battery powered and the scale was actually inside the eye piece, so you got the stuff in focus and look down to see the value (unlike the normal focimeters where the readings are on the dial/drum outside at the side of the focimeter. (For those that don't know focimetry/lensometry is how we read the prescription of a lens). In my clinical optometry lab we also just did some more practice with the direct ophthalmoscope, since this Thursday we are going to be assessed on our ophthalmoscopy skills :-O. We will have half an hour to do ophthalmoscopy and draw and label a picture of what we see, but luckily it is only one eye we will have to do this for. (Again for those who have no clue what I’m talking about basically a direct ophthalmoscope is a handheld instrument we use to look at the back of the eye (the retina), and here there is the optic nerve, a load of blood vessels, as well as the macula (an area that is responsible for our central/detailed vision)). They are going to end up marking us by comparing our drawings to pictures they took when we first arrived back in the end of September. After my lab one of my classmates who had bought his own ophthalmoscope did some more practiced on my right eye and since I have some of my old retinal photos on my laptop we then compared. It turned out he was remarkable accurate, but the only thing was that it took about 45min-1hr for him to do it :-P. I'm just so surprised that they have us doing all this already, as some people in the class are still having trouble understanding what the difference is between retinoscopy and ophthalmoscopy. Retinoscopy is looking at a reflex of light coming out of the eye and from this we could determine the patient's prescription but we usually then take this prescription and then get the patient's input on what they like to refine the prescription (while as mentioned before Ophthalmoscopy is looking at the structures in the back of the eye).

On Wednesday there was an equipment fair at the school, where a few companies that sell Ophthalmoscopes and Retinoscopes came to show us there instruments. Keeler (a UK company) of course was there and so was Heine (a German company). Unfortunately Welch Allyn couldn't make it, which was disappointing for many of us from Canada. Most UK students ended up purchasing their equipment on Wednesday since we found out that we definitely need to have an Ophthalmoscope, retinoscope and a trial frame by the end of January. Most UK students seem to be purchasing from Keeler since it's the most popular in the UK. Yet most of us Canadians are still looking at our options since Welch Allyn is more popular in North America and also since it seems expensive here since its about £800-900 (which converts to about $1600-1800 Canadian) which seems like a lot of money for just a direct ophthalmoscope and retinoscope. Also we're not too sure about the trial frame, since the one that they seem to be pushing here is a new oculus trial frame, which looks nice but seems very expensive at about £300 ($600 Canadian). But we'll just have to see what I end up getting, since I have been practicing with all three types of ophthalmoscope, but I so far I seem to like the Welch Allyn the best, even though the Keeler one looks pretty cool.

Aside from school and the studying I have actually been doing lately, I didn't do too much last week. One thing I did was I had toad in a hole the other night, which is sausages in a Yorkshire pudding cake kind of thing served with of course chips and peas (it seams like everything come with peas and then either chips or mashed potatoes). As of now I’ve tried a Sunday roast, bangers and mash, steak and ale pie, Sheppard’s pie and fish and chips (which I got from a pub instead of a chipper, so it doesn't really count, but soon enough I'll go to the a nearby chipper which I have heard is good). Also the other Saturday a Canadian friend and I were hanging out and decided to head to the pub around 11:30pm (yes I have to specify am/pm since here the pubs are open and serve alcohol from around 9am until midnight). We just went to a pub that is kind of on campus. Since it was a Saturday evening we figured it would be relatively busy, but it turned out to be dead. But we ended up grabbing a pint and hanging out. then around ten to twelve they called last call, which initially surprised me but then I remembered that most pubs close relatively early every night, and it's just the "clubs" that are open until all hours of the morning. So we didn't pay too much attention since we were still good with our pints, so we went back to talking, but then next thing we knew around twelve the security started coming around telling everyone to drink up and get out. They were even using words like "less talking and more drinking". It was so odd that they stop serving about 10minutes before they kick people out, which is definitely way different than in Canada where they do last call about an hour before the place closes and in Canada you would never hear the security encouraging people to drink faster.

Oh and I almost forgot I switched my cell/mobile phone over to O2 from Virgin this week. One reason was that I was doing pay as you go and you typically get like 300 free text messages when you top up with either company which is great, but I found out that with virgin they give you the free messages the first month but usually you have to wait until the next month before you recieve the messages, so basically I would have to go a whole month paying for all my text messages (which adds up quickly). I of course called virigin (which costs money to all call the customer service department) and told them that I was thinking of switching to a different company because of this (and unlike in Canada where they do everything they can to keep you) they just said okay and gave me all the information I needed to switch companies. Most of my friends are currently on O2 and one of them got me a sim card so I ended up switching my number over to this new sim card. I thought my phone was unlocked already, but appearently it wasn't so I went and got it unlocked (which in the UK is no big deal ... but well that didn't go as smoothly as it normally should have ... which is a long story) ... ultimately I got it all sorted out so I now have the same phone number but I am on O2 pay as you go! I then did an initial top-up and they have a rewards program where I get to play an online game and win a prize for topping up (they do this to encourage people to top up since the money you put on your phone doesn't expire after a month like it does in Canada). I went and played and ended up winning a prize (well actually I am fairly certain that everyone wins a prize). I ended up getting a free graze pack. Graze is a UK company that basically these packages of fruits and nuts and delivers them to your door (ultimately it usually costs about £3, so it wasn't a huge win, but still nice). In the package they typically have three different things, one of which is some fresh fruit, but because of a postal strike here I ended up getting four things.

The first thing I got was called "milkshake mix" (which isn't actually suppose to be mixed for a milk shake, but would have been good) and it had dried strawberries, dried bananas and some white chocolate (the dried fruit I didn't like, but then again I'm not really a fruit person, but the chocolate on the other hand was oh so good).

The next one was called "seaweed peanut crackers" which were a bunch of peanuts that were coated with either some sesame seeds, seaweed, chili seasoning, or soy sauce. These were pretty good and crispy.

The next one was just as the name suggests "white chocolate coated raisins" which were of course great.

The last package then consisted of some honey cashews which were probably my favourite out of everything in the package.

This was a really neat idea for getting young people good healthy foods. Plus how it works is you tell them the types of foods you like or would like to try and then they send you whatever they feel like on the list of stuff you like or want to try, so this way you never know what you'll end up getting. If anyone reading this is interested (and lives in the UK) check out http://www.graze.com/ and use the code D1QRZKTN for a free box (they gave me this to pass on to any friends when I got my free box).

Anyways, that was my week last week ... as for this week I plan on going to the German market that is taking place downtown, so look forward to seeing some more pictures next week ;-)

Jeff

*word of the week: Here is where it gets confusing and took me about a month to sort out ... "french fries" in Canada are called either "chips" (if they are thicker) or "fries" (if they are thin like at MacDonald’s) here. They also still have potato wedges. What we call "chips" (potato chips) in Canada they call "crisps" here.... see I told you that it was a bit confusing :-P

Tiramisu & Bonfire Night! ... what a week :D

On the weekend it was one of my friend's Birthdays, so some of us decided to celebrate their Birthday on Tuesday. They wanted it simple and not have too many people to make a fuss about it, so it was just a few of us after the Optics Society meeting. We managed to make it a surprise and we got her a card and some flowers. Also one of my friends had wanted to make a tiramisu, so on Monday night we went out and got all the ingredients he needed to make the tiramisu and then we went back and I helped him make it. I had never really had a tiramisu before and judging by the name it sounded quite difficult, but ultimately once you had the right ingredients it was fairly simple. It just some homemade cream and coffee on these hard sponge cake finger cookies. Basically once you have made the cream you then layer some of the cookies and coat the cookies in coffee and cream (ironically "coffee and cream" is the name of a fast food restaurant beside the campus). You just continue doing this to all of the layers (minimum 3 layers) and then on the top layer you got to make sure there is a crap load of cream on top and then sprinkle some chocolate. Once finished you let it set over night so that the cookies can soak up all of the coffee and cream. On Tuesday we then managed to surprise the birthday girl (I think she was surprised anyways) and we all had the tiramisu and it turned out great.

I don't have the actual picture yet, but it looked kind of like this, but i'll post the actual picture when i get it :P

On Wednesday we made a quick little dinner since it was a busy day for everyone with classes and meetings, but we ended up having a pasta dish and then a potato bake. We had also planned to have a third year optometry student come over to have dinner with us too and also practice our ophthalmoscopy skills using her ophthalmoscope. It turned out well, although we didn't have too much time to practice, as the batteries died in her ophthalmoscope, but we're going to try and practice some more next week. She ended up having a Welch Allyn Ophthalmoscope which was nice to practice with a bit since the vast majority here are made by Keeler (a UK company). The products of the two companies appear essentially the same, but the designs are completely different, as well they all have a few slightly different features.

                        Welch Allyn                                    Keeler

It's good to practice with the different ones, since we have been told that we must purchase our Ophthalmoscope, Retinoscope, and a trial frame by the end of January. Although I shouldn't really complain about it at all since these are basically the only instruments that we have to purchase during our studies, while I believe that in North America you have to purchase a lot more equipment.

Remember, remember the fifth of November ... that was this Thursday! Over here apparently Guy Fawkes Day (also known as Bonfire Day) is basically like a big holiday (similar to our Victoria Day in Canada, except here it isn't a bank holiday). On Thursday evening a few of us wanted to go out and do something for Guy Fawkes Day. We had heard about two celebrations in town which were both about an hours walk (in different directions) from campus. We weighed all the options and opted to go to the one at Birmingham University, and I think we made the best choice. Seeing as it was about an hours walk, we of course opted to take a bus to the University. This was my first trip on the Birmingham bus system, and I was really hoping it would be on a double decker bus. But I figured with my luck it would likely just be a standard bus, or even one of those articulating buses that you see in Ottawa. It turned out to be my lucky day, as it was a double decker! On the way to the University we decided to stay on the lower level, since none of us had been to Birmingham University before, and actually it was the first time any of us had ridden on a bus in Birmingham, so we wanted to make sure we got off at the right spot. We managed to easily get to the University and it was really quite neat. Birmingham University seems to have a big residence area with a bunch of trees, grass, hill, and a big enough pond that they could actually call it a lake (unlike Aston's "lake" which is smaller than the pond that I grew up with).

They ended up having a decent sized "fun fair" with a bunch of carnival rides, a few games and a few food vendors. We walked around a bit and saw everything that was going on, and eventually found the Birmingham University's juggling Society who was juggling fire down by the pond. It also turned out that apparently this was going to be the best spot to watch the fireworks. We hung out there and watch the people juggle the fire for about an hour.

It turned out to be a typical English night, with all the rain, and so we wondered if they were going to cancel the fireworks, but luckily they didn't (apparently it is very rare for them to cancel a fireworks display due to rain in England). We ended up standing under some umbrellas and watched the fireworks display.

I know it kind of looks like snow but it's just the flash off the rain! I swear!

The fireworks show lasted about half an hour, and there were a bunch of neat fireworks that I hadn't seen before. It was a really good fireworks show.

Once it finished we tried to walk back to the bus stop, but it turned out that there was so many people there and everyone was trying to go back to the main walkway and it turned out to be shear grid lock. It ended up taking about twenty minutes cooped up in a massive crowd of a few thousand people before we finally got out of the crowd. On the way back to the bus I also stopped off at one of the vendors and picked up some cotton candy. We then went and took the bus back. This time I made sure we got up on the upper deck of the bus and I sat right overtop of the driver, it was awesome! It turned out to be a great night!

Since then I haven't really done anything, except study :P

Cheers,
Jeff


*word of the week: North Amercian "Cotton Candy" is just called "Candy Floss" here. It's very odd I find since cotton candy looks like a bunch of cotton, and not at all like floss. Plus there is no way that you could floss your teeth with it either!