Tuesday: on placement, our mentor was not in today as she had done a nightshift and we saw her leaving in the carpark, but she stopped long enough to talk to us, which was nice. We were dreading what we would do for the day. On the ward initially we were ignored by the nurses and just stood around looking useless, which in fact we were. But then, to our mercy, the Greek student nurses arrived and said hello to us. We said to the two Marias (both of their names) that our mentor was not in today, and that we were being ignored by the other nurses. They were more than happy to take us under their wing. The shift was very enjoyable, having a laugh with the two Marias and learning some Greek from them. We met other Greek student nurses on our break when we had the longest break in history, they were all very welcoming even if they didnt speak English. So what started out as a pretty naff shift had turned out into a very fun one. In the evening we went to get our free meal from the city restaurant, I wish the women in there spoke at least a little bit of English, can't understand a word they say. Anyways I had a really wierd meal of pasta and a sort of carbonara sauce, followed by hotdogs and these wierd boiled potatoes in an oily sauce thing, followed by a sponge cake with a wierd syrup soaked into it. Overall for free I honestly can't complain, because it could have been worse.
Wednesday: Back on shift, again. We were looked after by the Marias, so we had another fun shift. At lunch we were introduced to yet more student colleagues, including a few more nurses and a doctor. The only thing was, we were sat at a table with these like electrician students (I think thats what they meant anyways) and they were very immature, but you know when you're being talked about in another language? We heard a lot of the Greek word for "English". Me and Kyle were not amused because there was a lot of laughter, and from the sound of it on our behalf. With this aggravating us we decided to speak to each other in our native north-eastern tongue, which and lets be honest, not even half of the north-east can understand, nevermind those who dont really understand English. Having this advantage made us feel better, even though we were still feeling aggravated by the two electricians (students, whatever!). Everyone else at the table was very nice, and made us feel welcomed. The cafeteria was closing, so we went and stood outside so the smokers could smoke and we could all chat some more. Unfortunately our relationship status's came up, for me this was not a problem, for Kyle it was a different matter. We couldn't stop ourselves from giggling because we didnt know how to say to the two Marias that Kyle didn't have a girlfriend because he had a boyfriend. So he avoided it as best as he could, while they tried to convince him that Greek women were very nice, am sure they are but they simply aren't his taste. That evening we met up with Gareth and Abigail for the free food, i had pretty much the same as the night before minus the tasty cake, Kyle on the other hand had a wierd pasta bolognaise with Squid in, or what looked like squid as one of the pieces looked like a minature heart, which at another point in time would have been cool. Kyle did not think so and so left most of it. Abi and Gareth told us about a live music thing which was just round the corner, and so, suspecting something free, we had a look. It turned out to be a concert to make money for the immigrants in to Athens. We went to a small vendor on the street and grabbed a beer each, and sat in the park listening to slightly familiar but very Greek music, drinking a can of beer. It was a very interesting and fun night.
Thursday: Didn't wake up til about lunchtime, checked my emails and found one off my Nana and Grandad titled "Greetings from the old country", I dont know if it was a combination of the content of the email and the song that had just started playing at the time (Nights in white satin - the Moody Blues), or whether i was hormonal, but I suddenly burst into tears. It made me smile getting the email, saying that the family (yes all of you) are reading this blog (makes me very happy by the way so thanks for all the support guys), and that it looked like I was working hard (obviously sarcasm). I would like to make it clear that I work as hard as the Greeks will allow me to do so. With my mind set on making Mince and Pea curry with Buttery Rice (Madhur Jaffrey style) I formed a plan to go to ikea get a jug and some scales and then on the way home the rest of the ingrediants. TWENTY NINE EUROS!! thats how much it costed for the cheapest set of kitchen scales I could find, and that was in IKEA. Absolutely shocking. IKEA had let me down for the first time in years. I was missing one spice, Garam Masala, and I was gutted, I made the curry still but it didnt taste the same, i had also used a Kilo of mince because of the lack of scales, so now we have just over half a kilo of mince and pea curry in our freezer. Personally I found it to be quite bland, but Kyle enjoyed it which is the main thing. However after cooking I forgot that I had chopped up chilli, and scratched my face and rubbed mosituriser into my Stress rash, which unfortunately went into my armpits. You can just imagine the consequences, my face was on FIRE as was my armpit, when I had done this I was on the phone to David, who immediately burst out laughing at my shouting about being on fire. Oh so very painful, I must have washed my hands about ten times last night. So when I woke up this morning I thought I would be okay to rub my eyes. How wrong can one person be? Painfully so apparantly, this morning I had an eye which I thought was on fire. Not pleasant at all. Forgot to mention , on our way back from IKEA we sat and watched a peaceful protest in Syntagma Square, however we were'nt naive enough to believe it would be just a peaceful protest and after seeing how many police were in full riot gear (including gasmasks) we made a contingency plan, should things get a bit more heated.
Friday (Today) : Back on placement, and we were with the two Marias, followed them around, asked lots of questions, and taught them some Geordie dialect. Kyle's head inflated dramatically because he was asked his opinion of why something wasn't working with a patient, and he had GUESSED correctly that the NG tube had moved from the stomach to the lungs. We also discovered he had a thing for neat and tidy beds, and so he became "Matron" Ambler. It was emergency day, and so we had to go down to the Emergency Room to observe, help, I have no idea what it is we are meant to do there. Mostly though we got ignored. When we went in the Doctor (who was part Canadian and spoke very good English) chatted to us and said she would have us doing things. We tried to do 2 ECG's and because their ECG machine is ancient (it uses suckers instead of clips) we struggled to get a good reading, after that we stood around getting in everyone's way. A lot. After work we went and got some shopping in so Kyle could make us Italian style carbonara. We bought the most amazing bottle of white wine for only 2.30 Euros. Got home and found that we didnt have a corkscrew, I tried the method suggested to me by my Nana and Grandad, but it didn't work. So I used the modern version of borrowing the preverbial cup of sugar, borrowing a corkscrew. I ran up to the next floor, knocked on a door where there was sound coming out of, and got totally ignored, I could hear the person on the other side raking through their bags, but no answer. Just as I was about to give up hope I hear someone leaving their flat on the floor down from us. "Sygnomi!" I shout at the top of my voice, to get them to stop while I leg-it downt the stairs. A man is waiting and looks at me, "do you speak English?" I ask he replies with "a little". Which is good enough for me. I try to explain as best as I can what it is that I want and eventually he understands what it is i'm asking for. "Ahh no problem" he tells me and leads the way back to his flat to get the corkscrew (which is directly under ours so I can return it back to him), I tell him I will only be a minute with it but he tells me to just bring it back tomorrow. A very nice man indeed. Tea was fab, as of course was the wine.
And so after a busy week and finishing it with a glass of wine I will go to sleep.
Goodnight x
Maria, Kyle, me and Maria
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