Goin' South

Hello again,

Tomorrow is my last day in Belfast. It's been an interesting 2 weeks here: after a slightly hesitant week last week, I had a fun weekend looking round and great week this week, expanding my knowledge a lot, feeling a lot more comfortable in the new surroundings and meeting some new people.

I particularly enjoyed Tuesday night when I was invited to stay with the Henrys, the family of a high school mate of Dads. Despite my best efforts to hear stories, I can't seem to find any dirt on Dad and what he got up to at school (maybe he's been on the phone to people...). We had a lovely dinner and I got to meet their rabbit, Drizzt, who I'd heard about from when Mum and Dad went to visit the Henrys in 2005. They were all so lovely to me. The following day, Dr Paul Henry took me to a different hospital for the day to experience clinics there. He tried to arrange for me to go see some oncology surgery, but most of the surgeons were away, so I joined him in clinic for the day.

All the nurses, doctors and patients (and radiographers, porters, random ladies having coffee in the cafeteria etc) have been so nice to me, and I can't count the number of times I've answered questions about where I'm from, how I was finding Belfast, why I was crazy enough to come over here and miss summer or responded to "Oh, Australia my [sister/cousin/aunt/best friend's little brother's school teacher] lives there". Having a non-Northern Irish accent I really stand out, as, unlike Melbourne, the hospital staff and patients are overwhelmingly local. As a result, and because of the efforts of some of the doctors in finding me things to do, most people seem to have heard of me.

The patients here seem very stoic, every inquiry as to how they are is answered with "aye, I'm doing well" or at worst "aye, well, up and down a wee bit". Interestingly, the few overseas trained doctors I have met seem to adopt words/phrases such as aye pretty quickly (it sounds funny with an Indian accent!).

The other day I went and joined the radiologists who were interpreting CT/PET scans. I was in fits of laughter because they had a voice activated transcription system and they struggled to use it. Every time they said something, it could not understand their accents and so very different words appeared on the screen. I think it could understand their curses though!

Wednesday night I decided to head to the local student pub for dinner. I got there about 7:15 and it was pretty empty. Within a few minutes I had met some local girls who I chatted to for a while. We noticed there was a soccer match to be screened at 8, so the girls told me they'd probably head off to avoid it. Before we knew it though, they couldn't get out as the place was so full you could hardly move, as the pub filled with men arriving to watch the match. Apart from the 2 girls I met (who were totally uninterested in soccer), I only saw 2 other girls in the whole place (who were on the periphery). I got chatting to some Aussie tourists and their Irish friends who joked with me that the whole place would buy me drinks if I told them I was related to Johnny O'Shea, a Man United player (I didn't try it)! Unfortunately, it ended up being quite a boring game with the only goal being the one scored by Man U in the 1st 50 seconds of the match. Nevertheless, an interesting 'cultural' experience!

Its my last day in the hospital tomorrow, then I'm off to visit Ros in Dublin for a few days before heading to Oslo on Wednesday afternoon. Looking at the weather there, I think Belfast will soon appear warm to me!

Best Wishes to everyone there,

Anneke