first placement over and first visitor in nantes!

Wowza,

one month gone by already, it's really weird to think that we've done 1/4 of our time here. It's gone really quick and really slowly all at the same time.
I'm beginning to feel quite settled in really. Although this will probably all change the minute I start my new placement and feel like a newbie all over again.

Pneumo was really quite a good placement: any of you that are reading this thinking of coming to Nantes, i do recommend it. They were really nice, they could have done a better intro to the service, you are quite thrown into things but its defintitely a nice group of people to work with. There was another ward with more rare diseases - people with CF and tihngs like that but by the time I felt like I'd got my head round the main ward 3 weeks had gone. Also I felt that it was good to be dealing with quite bog-standard resp diseases because that's mostly what i'm going to see next year. However for my next placement I think I'm going to look into mixing it up a bit, maybe going to the hopital du jour. This is mostly because i'm slightly dreading gastro!

Have a few days off now which is really nice, i'm so excited for it.

Anyway, this weekend we had our first visitor in the form of Marie's mum, it was really lovely to have her here - i shall leave marie to describe her visit more but thought i'd post this little pic of the amazing goodies she bought me.



bises Alex

Communication francais style

Indeed I do have an example Marie!

First can I just say that oh I too feel Marie's pain - I reckon that I fail to translate a word in pretty much every single sentence that I say but I think I may have just stopped caring, its like, they think I'm an idiot, I feel like an idiot so at least we're all in agreement!

So anyways, back to fabulous french communication, for those of you who don't know the S in SPIKES is for setting - obviously a busy coridoor is not the place for discussions about end of life care. Now i can't remember what all the rest of the letters stand for but the gist is, warning shots, information bit by bit.

what you should most definitely NOT do is what one of the doctors on pneumo did
" well Madame " (i'm paraphrasing here obv) " you've had a blood clot in your lungs and we need to find out why this is, there's lots of reasons, including cancer, so anyway off you go, see you later"

Result: one frightened woman who hasn't really been properly told why she's in hospital and thinks she's got cancer, decides to leave "contre-avis". cue much loud discussion, then some shouting that i couldn't really follow and us externes being told to wait in the office and not go out in the corridoor, security men getting called. Ooh the drams

To be honest i quite enjoyed it, it was all very exciting, but I did feel for the woman and it's definitely a good example of how not to talk to patients.

Bizz!

People told me that after I’d been in France a couple of weeks, the language would become second nature and I’d begin to start thinking in French. NOT TRUE. I’m sick of making all these silly English mistakes! A prime example: today we were reading through the notes of one of the new patients on the ward and saw in her past medical history that she’d had an ‘Amygdalectomie’. Now I was pretty intrigued by this. The amygdala? The centre in the brain that controls fear and emotions? She had that REMOVED? But why, and how? That’s crazy! I excitedly asked the other student about it and was confused by his apparent indifference; ‘Bahhh, I don’t know, I guess she must’ve had an infection or something’. It was only about an hour later that the realisation hit me that the French have two meanings for the word amygdale, and that one of those meanings is tonsil. Having your tonsils out, not quite so exotic.

I can’t decide yet what I think about the French health system. Would I prefer to be a patient here or on the NHS? Sure there are fewer superbugs around here, and resources are more plentiful, and it’s easier to see a specialist when you want one. In terms of interior design the French totally win as well, the rooms are really spacious with enormous windows...but on the other hand you know what, as a patient there are some tests I’d rather not have unless absolutely necessary (I swear they give out colonoscopies at the drop of a hat)! Also it seems that communication skills sometimes leave a lot to be desired! Last week I saw the nurses break the news of a man’s terminal cancer to his family while standing up in a little corner of the corridor while all the doctors were going round on the ward round. I know Alex has a few examples she’s planning on writing about too. They need some Manchester SPIKES teaching!

On Thursday we will be receiving our first visitor to Nantes in the form of ma mere! I’m very excited...however there is another STRIKE on the go, this time of air traffic controllers! I hope it doesn’t ruin our plans!

Marie
xxx

flea maret purchases

Hey,
we went to the flea market today and spent many an hour looking at a mix of overpriced tat and amazing items that i wished i could afford
but what i could afford was
this



and this



and just because i took them here are a few photos of hopital nord laenec where i'm working : pretty huh?



we also made an attempt at partying nante style last night - didn't quite go to plan. The club was behind this really non-descript door and all we could see were 2 bouncers who said they were open and we could come in but still....it was really weird, so we ended up going to a bar for a drink which was cool, then attempted to find another club which turned out to be miles away so we ended up giving up and having a kebab, still it was good fun and nice to get out a bit. Next time we will succeed in dancing!

bizz

A first

So, yesterday was the first encounter I have had where I've been forced to do that weird kiss kiss on both cheeks thing when greeting French people I barely know...tres Francais...

I think I just about kept my cool and pulled it off, but the restrained English woman voice in my head spent the whole time going 'WOAH THERE! WOAH! PERSONAL SPACE!'

Marie
xxx

france certainly needs its health system

Cos i swear being healthy in this country is just god damn impossible - skimmed milk doesn't seem to exist - or low fat mayo for that matter and everyone eats enormous meals at lunch time of like steak and chips and there are beautiful looking cakes everywhere and yet they're all as skinny as anything!
NO FAIR!

Our halls are having an international evening and we have to take some english delicacies - TIPS PLEASE - bearing in mind we have no oven


in case you all didn't know its St Bernadette's day today




You know i think we should do like russians do and celebrate our Sts days as well as our birthdays - good plan no?

BIZZ

snow day!

1 Inch of snow is apparently enough to stop all buses in Nantes! it actually makes me feel that the english cope slightly better with bad weather and that's saying something! Unfortunately for Marie the trams are still running so she's had to go in to hospital. I'm umming and aahing about whether to take the whole day off because it seems to be clearing a bit now.

I might have to go in this afternoon booo, still, for now - nap time!

bizz

Oop La!

Don't listen to Alex! There are LOADS of things she has fun doing in Nantes, and I've got proof! For example:

Going on le internet



Waiting at tram stops in le pouring rain



Trips to le Ikea



See! It's not so bad here.

The strike is over now, and the bins have finally been collected, which is a bonus! I feel like we're getting more into the routine of cooking and things, and we are slowly starting to make some friends. Last week we went to the Erasmus welcome party and met some French girls who are going to Nottingham for Erasmus next year, and tonight we're going with them to 'Café Anglophone' which is some kind of French-English weekly social. At the weekend we're going to meet up with some Romanian Erasmus students who we met on the first day. It's difficult having such a crazy timetable though because it just doesn't leave us enough time to do these fun things! The average day seems to be 8am-7pm so by the time we get back to the halls and make dinner, we just feel too tired to go out or be sociable. Plus I'm still yet to meet anyone living in my building to socialise with! It's a bit of a ghost town.

Over the weekend we did some sightseeing around Nantes (although to be honest rather than tourist hotspots a lot of our time was spent seeing the sights of various cafés with WiFi trying to get on Skype). Sadly the 'Machines d'Ile' park with the giant mechanical elephant ride was closed so we're saving that one for this weekend. We did the Natural History Museum, the castle, and 'le Lieu Unique' which is quite a cool place - Nantes is the biscuit capital of France don't you know, and le Lieu Unique is an old biscuit factory that they've converted into a centre with a bar, restaurant, cute little shops, a hammam, all sorts.



And here is me at le Lieu Unique. Sadly we did not see any biscuits there during our trip but there were lots of other biscuit-shaped items available.

I'm going to go now and make the most of my Wednesday afternoon off by having a realllly long nap :)

Marie
xxx

Positivity

Things I do like:

1)patisseries and everything in them

2) the enormous pockets in my labcoat which can fit my steth, oxford handbook, notebook AND mini-dictionary

3) when people say "oop-la!" ooh-la-la is just so passe

4) wine at less than 3 euro a bottle (although you do kinda get what you pay for

5)the trams are pretty nifty, nice and speedy when not blocked my strikers

still don't feel like i'm generally having fun though, just doing ok, but I know it's still early days!

bizz alex

Right, I don't want to sound negative....

But here are a list of things I do not like about France

1) F***ing Strikers with their bins, and their blocking of trams lines and making fires that make my coat stink of smoke

2)The ridiculous hours that things are open, or more often not open. NOTHING is open on a sunday in town except the odd cafe and the cinema and museums. What do people do all day?

3) Basically everything about my halls except the people, who are nice. Nothing else is nice, the showers are dingy, the toilets have no seat, the kitchen has 3 hobs and a microwave for about 30 people - it's france for gods sake, and there's not even an oven.

4) The amount of time I'm expected to be in hospital - I'm not getting paid for this, i've done my exams, I want to spend my afternoons napping while i still have the chance

5) The price of basically all cosmetics/toiletteries - 1 euro 50 for like the tiniest bottle of nail varnish remover EVER

6)the price of alcohol in bars - 13 euros for 1 vodka and coke and one beer - RIDICULOUS - we're never going to meet people if we can only afford to spend our evenings drinking in our room!

however, it's not all bad tomorrow (or there abouts) I will write more positive things.


BIZZ

Hospital stuff

Le week-end is here! And I am really ready for it, it's been a tiring week.

My first day in hospital began stressfully with a strike across the tramlines - the tram stopped half way there and everyone had to walk part way past a barricade of wheelie bins on fire until the line was clear again. Luckily I managed to arrive just about on time to meet my consultant who was very friendly and showed me to the gastro department for my first placement.

There are so many differences between the CHU in Nantes and hospitals in the UK. Firstly, it's really strange having to get used to wearing a white coat (or a 'blouse') every day. I feel like everyone is looking at my shoes all the time because it's the only bit of my outfit I can see. The hospital is really nice inside. Most of the patients have a single room and it's maximum two people to a room - no wards! And barely a bottle of alcohol gel in sight, quite a contrast to NHS hospitals with their WASH YOUR HANDS signs all over the place. I suppose hospital acquired infections just aren't a problem here. The hours are quite odd as well, in my 'service' they seem to start at 8am each day and can just go home whenever all the jobs are done so it can vary quite a lot - for example on Thursday I finished at 3.15 but Alex didn't get out until 6.30. But everybody here takes a 2 hour lunch break! I said to one of the other students on the ward that it felt like a long time to me and he said 'Ohhh, on my last placement we only had one hour for lunch, it was terrible!'. Surely it would be nicer to take a shorter lunch break and have an extra hour in bed in the morning, or get home early in the evening...it will take some getting used to I think!

The language side of things is feeling really difficult too. It's frustrating when people ask you questions and you know the answers in English but just can't explain things using the technical terms in French. I've felt a bit like a spare part these past few days - everyone talks to me extreeemely slowly and if I ask if there's anything I can help with the answer is always 'no, it's OK thanks', which is difficult because until I get properly stuck in my French isn't going to improve all that much. Hopefully next week things will slowly but surely get easier!

I'll update in a day or two with some more interesting things about the fun things we've been doing, maybe with some photos of us at the tourist traps of Nantes! The plan for the weekend is sightseeing. Just wanted to put this stuff on here as it will help with the report we have to write for the medical school when all this is over. Maybe it will be useful for people coming to Nantes next year as well.

Night night
xxx

So! As Alex said, we're managing to survive so far. We have done a lot of things that I thought would be really difficult like finding our accommodation and sorting out the paperwork, buying a bus pass, buying insurance - it's good to know that our French is actually good enough to do all those things! Also, everybody we've met has been really nice to us and very helpful. I had heard that the French can be quite snippy and slow when it comes to filling out paperwork and things but that's not been my experience here at all.

The downside, then, is that the accommodation is absolutely horrendous. I expected something pretty basic for such a cheap price (maybe similar to Whitworth Park where I lived in first year) but this is ridiculous! Here are some more photos to illustrate the ambiance:





Note the metal grille at the window - I just love the way the sunlight streams through it in the mornings. And what a delightful selection of brown furry blankets. In my building there's one 'kitchen' for every three floors of people, and it contains two hobs, a microwave and a sink. So that's no oven, no toaster, no kettle, no fridge, not even a bin or any chairs. Luckily we've been able to buy some things at Ikea to make the bedroom a bit more comfortable, and Alex has a fridge in her room so we can store things there but still, it's...minimalist. The other students all seem friendly though. Tonight we got invited to a pancake day party but I think they're a bit early no?

Tomorrow is our first day in the hospital so I'm off to get an early night. Wish us luck!

Marie xxx

Si loin, Si bien

Yes i know that doesn't make sense but its franglais, that's allowed.
Anyways this is the beautiful view we woke up to:



But we managed to get quite a lot sorted out, going to the international office, the medical school, buying travel tickets and insurance. And we got into our rooms, this is marie's room



these halls are pretty sick ( and I mean that in the bad way) and the kitchens are tiny and dreadful, the only halls in the UK i've seen this bad were catered halls and even then the bathrooms were nicer! Still an enormous and expensive trip to ikea had at least made my room seem a bit more habitable.

now to face the medical part of things! xx