Es guets nöis!

Christmas was nice, chilling and eating :) We had a sort of finnish christmas dinner and listened to christmas songs via YouTube(and watched Kummeli). Two beautiful days of snowboarding in Mürren, a great area, good snow and famous for a James Bond film. It has a restaurant on the top of the resort with a slight view of Mt. Blanc! We had plenty of sun and a clear blue sky, but I still don`t think I saw the mountain...

Now I`m waiting for the new years break to beginn. I have, again, 5 days off, which is awesome! I think I`ll stay in Lucerne, go snowboarding of course and spend time with the other interns. We don`t have that many plans for monday yet except Raclette, that`s for sure! The cheese is so delicious down here...

Some pics

Supposed to see Mount Blanc in the backround


Mürren, made world famous by a James Bond film...

Waiting for the holidays

Tomorrow to go and then I don`t have to work for five days, luxurious! And the next two weeks are also short, have to work only thu& fri, nice?! Thank god christmas holidays and new year too are in the middle of the week this year...

My mom, bro, godmom and two family friends (neighbours) are coming over to Luzern for christmas on saturday. Planning to do some sightseeing with them and definetly go snowboarding as much as possible! Cool to have my brother coming over too, so I have company when going boarding. We might go to Zurich some day too, I think it`s a place worth seeing! But this area has many sights too and a beautiful nature! A good friend of mine happens to be in the hoods with her family during christmas and we alltogether are going to meet on 26th in Lucerne.

But well, new year, I don`t have a clue what to do then. Some of the interns will be here, but most of them are going home over the holidays. I`d really like to go travelling around, since we again have 5 days off. But we`ll see, what`s going to happen, please keep me informed if you guys have some great ideas!!!

Lucerne doesn`t have a Weihnachtsmarkt anymore, they closed last weekend, so the idea of going there with colleagues before holidays failed. Luckily Lucerne does have plenty of bars, so we had a quite nice evening at a local place yesterday!

(I don`t have almost anything to do at work today, weird, it`s only 2.30 pm and I`m ready to go home, still 4 hours to go...)

The view from my room!!!

The season has begun!

Working on saturday morning was quite ok. I just had to go to say hello to the patients and check the papers with the nurses and then report all problems to the doctors on call. I got out around 11.30, I didn´t have any plans for the day yet and I desperately wanted to get out, so I went snowboarding in Engelberg! The season has begun! Snowboarding was great, good snow, not too may people and the best, the sun was shining! In the valley and Lucerne the weather was boring, again. Engelberg is only 30km from Lucerne, it´s great to have a car, right?

In the evening we went downtown with some colleagues, but drank just a cider. It was nice though and actually, Switzerland is not much more expensive than f. Ex Finland, a pint of cider was 9,50CHF which is about 6e, so that´s what a Strongbow costs in Helsinki too, right?

Zürich

Since I had to work on saturday, I had thursday afternoon OFF! Zurich is not far from Lucerne, only 60km, so I decided to drive there, instead of sitting just at home and wondering what to do with all the free time. Zurich is beatiful, it situated at a lake, with a mountain view in the backround! This is the great thing about Switzerland! Besides these facts Zurich has a great shopping street and many small alleys, cute cafes and restaurants. It wouldn´t be terrible to have a house hillside with a view to the Zürisee and the mountains in the backround. And the city is so centrally in Europe, many cool places can be reached by car in just few hours! Allthough, working must be even harder there than in Lucerne...

A regular day has three highlights

1. Coffee after the morning x-ray meeting
2. Lunch
3. The moment when I get out of the hospital, in the evening

Gettin' better, slowly...

You know what guys? I´m starting to like Switzerland! The weekend was great, finally the sun was shining and the weather was bright! I and three other girls went downtown on sat, Lucerne really is cosy and beautiful, it was the first time I saw the city during daytime! We had good Glühwein at Weihnachtsmarkt, walked hours around the city. It´s not huge, but there are many cute small alleys. And the lake with the mountains in the backround, I suppose I shouldn´t be complaining!

Well, working is hard. But isn´t it scary how fast a human being is able to adjust to a new working environment? In the beginnning of the week I already wanted to quit and leave this place ASAP, but now I´m almost totally used to having no life anymore during the weeks. And what is even more worrying, I´m fine with that.

On sunday we had planned to go hiking, but since it rained, we decided to drive to the capital, Bern. This was definetly a great idea, Bern is also, very beautiful! It´s really old, a medieval city. We had an audio guide (Ipod!) for about 4 hours, it was great, we propably saw the whole old city! And the grande finale was what else than Glühwein at the local christmas market, also Raclette bread! Nice! After a totally satisfying weekend I´m prepared to have no life for the next five days and almost ready to go to work tomorrow.

Some swiss medicine

To my finnish colleagues : all the new inpatients have to be examined completely, no matter what the symptoms are, EVERYTHING must be examined: skin, nails, mouth, eyes, heart, lungs, abdomen, thyreoid, lymhp nodes, arteries, neurology and of course, rectal status! Like a patient coming to a coronary angiography, I had not examined his arse, so I had to do it extra afterwards! And the highlight, I today had a patient with lumbago (discus prolaps susp) coming to internal medicine!!! Since when is that not a surgical problem... It seems that all kinds of patients are advised to internal medicine for examinations for further investigations and then we have to solve all their problems. This is so not my speciality... I want to be the surgeant who only has to cut people and someone else organizes the tiny rest of the process.

The germans

And not to forget, the many germans. It seemes like most of the doctors are german, where are all the swiss people? Somehow all the german interns found (and wanted to) each other immediately on the first day. And when I asked a german guy about the nearest grocery store, he answered:” There´s an Aldi in Küssnacht am Rigi.” To you no germans, Aldi is like Lidl, even cheaper and worse, but you know the germans, stingy as... A so typical german answer to my question! The good thing about the germanisation of almost the whole universe is, that I do totally understand the language and what people are gossiping about!

Word of the day: Chaos

Day 3: Chaos continued, frustration grew, allthough I already was getting used to having no life anymore, living at the hospital instead of at home (my new home was still as chaotic as the day I moved in). No parking license, car somewhere, hopefully no false parking fees, yet. Haven´t had a chance to go to the police and registration office yet, great, when? Am supposed to take care of the department all by myself tomorrow afternoon.. Yes, I have done it many times in Finland, but here, I feel like I´ve never even heard about medicine. Everything is so different.

Oh boy, when am I supposed to be able to enjoy to live in the beautiful Lucerne and Switzerland?

Living in a fairy tale.... not

The first day at work was an orientation day, very succesfull! I got to know some of my new colleagues, nice! I had some introduction at the department. I felt quite frustrated, because I could not help my resident doctor, but at the same time I enjoyed the easy beginning. A new resident had also his first day, my team mate so to say, a cool guy! Got home totally tired and headached, went straight to bed.

The ”older” resident was supposed to help out the new guy at the beginning, but she was sick on te second day. Not good, at all, since we both were new and did not have a clue! And above all, the chief was coming over to see the patients this day! Our senior doctor already was totally stressed out, the chief is tense. Well, luckily the chief was prepared to meet unprepared younger colleagues and everything went fine.

I also started to realise, how different the system is in Switzerland compared to Finland. Not delighting at all. The good difference to Germany is, that I don´t have to take blood samples or set infusions. But the system in Switzerland doesn´t seem to differ that much, since the doctors have to sort the papers and carry urgent blood samples to the lab themselves. Aren´t there any secretaries? The way of working is very uneffective. Furthermore old fashioned not to forget the hierarchy. Every morning there is a radiology meeting about the photos taken the day before and the inters have to introduce the patients in front of maybe 40 specialist doctors! Guess how quickly my heart is beating in situations like this?!? I miss Lohja hospital sooo much!!!

One thing I forgot about Africa

Funny language or funny way to pronounce english. Moffat our safari driver said : ”Laino!” Everyone looked eagerly after a lion lying on the grass. Somehow no one found a lion and after a while came out, that we were supposed to observe the Rrrrrhinos. And the many other misunderstandings : ” See the Clocodile in the livel, neal the glas and the tlee? Butches and bats meaning bushes and birds.” I was nicknamed as the plofessional photoglaphel. And my brother was the ”Young man”,who often was asked,: ” Do you smell the food? Are u sleeping? ”

Trip to suisse (wed 28.11.- sun 2.12.)

Might sound terrible, but actually it was just fine! A long journey naturally, by car, in the rain and dark, but it wasn´t that bad! On wed I took the ferry from Turku to Stockholm, drove on thu through Sweden (550km) and Denmark (200km) to Lübeck to visit friend! We had a nice Glühwein at a finnish stand at the Weihnachtsmarkt, then ate an awesome sushi dinner. I had been dreaming of sushi since Amsterdam airport on the way back from Africa...

On fri we drove to Berlin also called Big B, to hang out in my old hometown, it was nice to visit the place, but I was also glad to be able to continue the journey. I bought Onitsuka Tiger shoes, those are the most comfortable sneakers I´ve ever had!!! And we had a delicious lunch at Mr. Vongs´! After about four hours of driving we reached Marburg an der Lahn (by Frankfurt).

The weekend was cool, a cute city, great company, loads of food and booze, and the most, for free! Thanks to the sponsors of finnish med students in Germany ;) On sun I had the last part to drive, I took another friend with me to Freiburg (what a cute german city, again!). We had a good Döner (kebab), thank god, since I had been dreaming of a Döner since sat night... Surprise! After a few hours drive I already had found my way to the beautiful Lucerne!

Bye Africa, hello Switzerland!

From Zanzibar back to Nairobi, we spent the last day at Karen Blixens museum and at a jewellery factory in Nairobi. Back "home" around midnight( 24.11.), a short visit to a birthday party and to bed :)

The next challenge is called Switzerland! This journey beginns tomorrow, until then ahead just packing and moving my stuff to my moms place. And a little going away (again) dinner tonight with my girls :) Tomorrow I´ll take the evening ferry from Turku to Stockholm. The next day I´ll drive through Sweden, ferry to Denmark and futher to Germany, around evening I´ll hopefully reach Lübeck, where I´ll stay the night at a friends place. On friday then to Berlin and from there in the afternoon for the weekend to Marburg/ near Frankfurt am Main. The association of finnish med students in Germany is gathering in Marburg this weekend, great to see these friends again, also partying ahead! On sunday, the last part of the road trip to Lucerne! To work on monday, 7.45- 18.30, aaargh.. Quite a difference to Lohja hospital and even less paid! But, I hope the alps and nice locals compensate the shock ;)

Hakuna matata on Zanzibar!

A paradise, at least what comes to the beach resort we stayed at on the east coast :) Otherwise the island was quite dirty, it seemed to be more corrupted than Kenya and the people were much more pushing. But well, it did not bother! The stay in Zanzibar was really relaxing, the sun was shining all the time, the water was warm! I went diving five times, first a short refreshment, which really was necessary! Diving was perfect, clear sight, many colourful fishes, turtles, beautiful coral reefs! We went down to 18-20 m, there were few more experienced divers in the group, they went down to 30 m, but for me it was definetly exiting enough in 18 m! I lost my snorkel on the last trip, I didn´t know it belonged to one of the instructors, awkward.. Besides the snorkel I also lost a reef shoe, just one... But still, can´t wait to go diving again ;) Year off after uni wouldn´t sound bad.. ;) Food at the resort was great, african+ indian style+ fish( barracuda, red snapper, calamari), also bbq one evening! Always plenty of food, every time I ate far too much and regretted ;)

Dolphin tour was also great, we saw plenty of dolphins and swimmed with them, I almost touched one :) We spent the last day in the capital of Zanzibar (the island belongs to Tanzania), in Stone town on the west coast. Again the hotel was luxurious, I could have stayed much longer.. Africans really are soccer fans, actual results were written on a board in the street, in the middle of the town, the day after: Portugal- Finland 0-0. The food was great, again, we ate at a local fish restaurant: lobster, prawns, calamari... Delicious!

... continues

Day 3: Safari in Nakuru, the highlight of this trip were propably three leopards, mom and two kids. Besides these many more of the animals already seen the day before, also monkey babies, learning to climb, funny, they weren´t that balanced yet ;) Posing with hundreds of flamingos, being surrounded by many buffalos... Nice!

Day 4-5: To Masai Mara National Park, again a drive of at least 6 h on bumpy roads, but somehow at least I got used to the roads and felt almost comfortable, weird if it was smooth.. Our lodge was situated in the middle of the park and the animals, no fences! This time the backyard was manned by vervet monkeys, in the evening also by zeebras and impala gazelles, in the night even an elephant had been seen! Again, incredible safaris, the definite highlight were lion babies, they were so cute :) We also saw cheetahs and many elephants more, with various aged babies!

Day 6: To Lake Naivasha, boat ride, many of my favorites, hippos :) No crocos in this lake, quite a birdlife! End of the unforgettable safari, to Zanzibar :)!!!

Jambo!

Back from Africa, it was awesome! The people were very friendly and happy and we saw loads of animals on the safari :) But, from the beginning...

The journey didn´t start too well. Our flight from Helsinki to Amsterdam had 1 hour delay and at that point it seemed impossible to be able to get the next connection from Amsterdam to Nairobi, since we had 20 min time to run from a gate to another and Schipol airport is huge! Well, luckily everything turned out well, we weren´t the only ones late and after an exhausting marathon from gate C12 to F7 there were still 50 other passangers missing.. But it was crazy, the moment the plane arrived at the gate in Amsterdam, everyone stood up immediately to get their stuff form the lockers and started hurrying out of the plane. Never seen such a mess ;) The flight with Kenya airways to Nairobi was very good, great service and food(!), arrived in Nairobi 7 am.

Our safari driver Moffat was already waiting for us at the airport, the safari begun! Incredible views, Nairobi is situated on the top of a rift valley and the way to Lake Baringo went on the edge of this valley. The roads were sometimes quite good (sponsored by EU), but mostly not, so the 200km journey took 6h... After a late lunch we got in to the van again and headed to Lake Bogoria, to see some animals and geysirs. Luckily this trip wasn´t that long, since everyone was very tired after a day of travelling.

Excitement of the evening were hippos, they were having supper at our backyard, right outside of the lodges. This hotel was directly at Lake Baringo, so next morning propably these same Hippos were swimming in the lake and observing us at breakfast.

Day 2: Boat ride at Baringo, many hippos and two crocodiles, many birds, to mention a fish eagle catching a fish.
After the boat ride the trip continued towards Lake Nakuru. Afternoon safari ride, as a starter, right outside to hotel gate, two lions :) Further: zeebras, giraffes, rhinos, flamingos, buffalos, monkeys, a leopard taking a nap, gazelles, antilopes...

Heading to Africa :)

So, had my last day at work at Lohja. Sad but true :( Thanks to everyone, I had a great time, hope you enjoyed the cooperation too! I´d like to get back ASAP, but sadly they do not need a summer dr next year in the anesthesiology/ ER, so my comeback will not happen next summer, yet.. Please, keep me informed about all the huge parties coming ;D

Now I have a few hours left and then I and 6 other people are heading to Nairobi via Amsterdam, tonight, yes! Awesome, especially since the weather in Finland has gotten really ugly and dark... Blaah. The best time to get out of here ;) Two weeks holiday ahead, first a week of safari and afterwards another on Zanzibar. A colleague of mine just spent two weeks in Tanzania/ Serengeti and then snorkled the other week on Zanzibar between some dolphins, unbelievable! I hope I´ll catch some animal friends too..

On the road, again...

Hello mates!

Since it´s time to leave soon again, I thought about starting to write a blog too, to keep you guys updated! This next mission called Switzerland is beginning on november 28th. Still there´s much to come before that.. One week left to work in Finland, at Lohja hospital (which has been a great and funny place!). After that I´m heading with my family and some friends to Africa for two weeks!!! After a weeks safari in Masai Mara national park we´re flying to Zanzibar for another week. Quite exiting, I´m supposed to go scuba diving too for the first time, haven´t had a possibility yet, although the course in Umeå is already 2years behind...