Something new....

2009-09-20T20:08:00.000+01:00

2009-05-18T01:09:00.001+01:00

*More Pictures of Marlo!!*
*Even MORE!!*

2009-04-13T09:15:00.000+01:00

休暇中

2009-04-08T00:50:00.002+01:00

アイルランドで色々あって、日本へ帰国しました。

日本はやっぱり私にとって安心できる場所です。

家族も一員増えました。

Marloです。よろしく!

"Nu-Jazz"

2009-03-15T15:58:00.002Z

最近音楽を余り聴いてないないなぁーと昨日ふと気が付きました。

I live for music.　朝起きると音楽をつける。病院へ行く時も音楽を聴いてる。

走る時も音楽。

高校、大学の1、2年目の時は "ghetto-fab" Hip Hope, R&B, ばかりしか聴いてませんでした。よく友達に｢Rie, you aren't black! Why are you listening to all this ghetto stuff?｣って笑われました。

The running joke in all my friends was "Rie always think she's black"

昨日友達のＦａｃｅｂｏｏｋプロフィールを読んでたら｢Ｈｏｕｓｅ－Ｊａｚｚ｣というジャンルを発見しました。

すごくイイ感じなリズムで、ジャズみたいにシブイ＋まろやかな音楽ではなく、スムーズなラウンジ化されたジャズです。

Acid-Jazzとはちょっと違っていて、｢Nu-Jazz｣というジャンルらしい。

ベースラインが効いてて、目を閉じて音を浴びるように聴いてみたくなる曲ばかり。

音楽を聴きながら本当に周りのすべてが消えてゆくみたい。

このサイトでＤｏｎ－ＲａｙのＮｕＪａｚｚミックスが聴けます。

Midnight Maraudaz : V22 Nu-Jazz Podcast mixed by Don-Ray

初めにＶ22を聴いてみてください。

33分目にＤＪがミックスした曲、本当に最高です。

救いは｢男らしい｣生き方。

2009-03-11T22:57:00.003Z

最近すごく落ち込んでいて、その上に忙しかった私です。

落ち込んで＋忙しい＋疲れてる＝家に帰ると一日中寝たいのに、悩み事いっぱいで寝れない夜が続く。

今住んでいる場所の一階に、私が弟達のように思う男子5人組が住んでいます。

5人のリビングルームは汚くって、タバコくさくって本当にit looks like something BLEW UP in there.

よく寝坊して授業の五割出席してるかしてないかわからないぐらいの5人…

よく｢夕飯の残り物ないぃー？｣っておねだりしてくる電話もかけてくるやつら。

｢んもぉー!　ちゃんと授業行きなさいよ！｣　って私が言うと
｢はーい、ママ｣って言い返してくる本当にあきれる子たち。

｢こんなだらしない生き方していいんかいな｣　って思う時はいっぱいあるけど...

"We are boys! What more do you want from us?"　｢しょうがないって｣ってよく5人の中で一番Ｍａｔｕｒｅなやつが笑う。

でもなんでかしらないけど、落ち込んでいるとき、この5人のアパートに行くと、気持ちが晴れるんです。

どうして私が落ち込んでいるか聞いてこないし、｢大丈夫かー｣ってなぐさめてこない。

(なぐさめてほしい時、他の友達に相談します。)

私は5人の中の一員、they make me feel like I am part of their ｢仲間｣

It's nice to be pitied, and comforted, and to be able to talk about my feelings.

But I know that with these boys, they will NEVER なぐさめるme.

でもその｢仲間。なにがあっても仲間。何かがあったら絶対にthey will always be loyal, and stand with me｣ってな気持ちが伝わって、安心できる。

一階のアパートにいてるとだらしなくなれる私。笑。

ちょっとその日のイライラや嫌な事が忘れられる。

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
今日その5人とバスケットボールしてた時、｢理絵＝仲間＝男扱い｣が伝わってきました。

こいつら平均身長１８０ｃｍなのに、手加減なし！腕がアオアザだらけになりました。

おい！笑。

でも楽しかったし、ストレス解消できました♪

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Dreams

2009-03-11T03:54:00.002Z

Do you believe that dreams are a manifestation of our subconscious?

最近私はいろんな変わった夢を見るんです。

友達と下校している時にみんなと歩かず空を飛んだり…

Dreaming that I got married and had a miscarriage.

友達と大ゲンカしたり。

Surreal, totally impossible, but almost possible dreams...

朝起きると全然頭がすっきりしない夢…

一日中夢の意味を考えてしまう…

最近夢日記も始めました。

At least I'm glad they are not nightmares....

2009-02-15T15:10:00.002Z

2009-02-04T20:35:00.002Z

マリアＣＨＯ

↑
これ、クリックしてください。

あなたはスゴイ!!

日本のテレビ番組がこのサイトで全部観れるんです!!

余り民報を観ないけど、後輩のマリアからこのサイトを教えてもらったとき、思わずダウンタウンＤＸを観てしまいました。

その前にクローズアップ現代を観てたけど。。。I'm really such an おばちゃん。(some habits die hard.....)

二月二日に放送された：「私の人工呼吸器を外してください　”生と死”をめぐる議論」　を観て it really got me thinking about life, and ending lives, and what is fair/not fair?

How far is medicine going to advance to benefit people, but also harm those with chronic diseases to allow them to PROLONG their suffering?

It's an ethical dilemma.....

寒波!

2009-02-02T15:27:00.003Z

←これ、雪雲です。

朝の四時に降り始めた雹。

七時ごろには雪に変わっていました。

ロンドン市内では5ｃｍぐらい雪が積もっているらしい。

今日は病院の仕事が早く終わったので(試験前なんで。。。涙。)外で走ろうかなぁーっとせっかく思っていたのに…

靴のひもをしばって外へでたら風がビュー。

雹が大雪に…

一瞬に空が真っ暗に。

しょうがないから勉強してからジムで走ります。

Sometimes being with girls is awesome

2009-02-01T21:30:00.002Z

女子より男子と仲がイイ私です。

みんなとキャピキャピしながらお買い物とか余り好きじゃない。
それよりジムや公園でランニングする方が好き。

ナイルサロンよりもフットサル。

でも一年に一回は女子だけでカクテルも良いね☆

Out of commission.

2009-01-24T11:47:00.000Z

ノロウィルスにかかりました。

Inspired

2009-01-15T00:03:00.002Z

I wish I was a photographer
A skilled one who can adjust
Aperture and light settings
To enable time to frost over-
So I can capture that lull
In between sunset
And total darkness.

Night molds into the sunset.

Hazy gray and navy over a dusky crimson
Almost like red street lights.
Transposed against the dark night-
About to billow over the city.

No color of paint can describe the moment.

Subtle and quiet.
Mellow.

To the extent in which you aren't so sure
If it's just a reflection of
Something else in your window.

But it isn't.

Because why else will you yearn
To photograph it.

What else
Other than the marvel of nature's palette
Could fill one with so much reassurance
Comfort
Serenity
That the darkness of night is about to settle?

I wished I was a photographer.

わぁー。

2009-01-13T18:31:00.001Z

I could not help but show this.....

昨日子宮内死のお産に立ち会いました。

36週目でダウン症だと診断されていた赤ちゃんは、結局一回も呼吸をせず亡くなってしまいました。

偶然にこの歌をＧＯＯＧＬＥで検索してみたら(Ｉ　ｒｅａｌｌｙ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｓｏｎｇ　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｗａｎｔｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｆｉｎｄ　ｉｔ．．．．今日の出来事に関係なかったのに。)、このビデオが出てきました。

もし自分の子供が子宮内で難病にかかっていたり、Congenital Malformation, Congenital Defectがあったら私はどうするだろう。

Ａｓ　ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔ　ｄｏｃｔｏｒｓ、we learn how to give both bad and good news... And we have to be the pillar of support when the bad news is really bad.

Do I have enough empathy in me if I follow obs/gynae and things go wrong?

笑う門に福が来て泣いた後にも福が来る。

2009-01-11T01:42:00.003Z

祖母からもらった2009年のカレンダーの一月の言葉がこれなんです。

月曜日から始まった産婦人科のポリクリ、第一週目からハプニングいっぱいでした。

友達?(元親友、今はただの他人です。）、クラスメイト、仕事仲間として尊敬し、5年間一緒に頑張って来た人に私はいじめられ、押しつぶされ、嘘をつかれました。

この人は自分の得、自分の都合を良くしようとし、私の名前を使って教授に、他のクラスメイトに嘘をつき、助産婦さん達に私の悪口やとんでもない噂を言いふらそうとしていました。。

その上に、勝手に私のスケジュール、病棟や夜勤のシフトを変えて、｢教授がこうしなさいって言ってたから｣といい済まして自分だけ楽をしていました。

So much drama!

まるで大奥ね。(昨日この事情を聞いたママからのコメントでした）

だまされやすい私です。

しかも金曜日までずっと、だまされていた事も知らずのままでした。

この人が言っていた事を信じて、頑張ってどうにかしょうと思っていました。
(朝の4時に電話がかかって来て、｢後一時間であなたのシフト始まるわよ｣って言われた時も、起きて病院へ行っていました。)

これはもしかして仕事場・教育場所でのイジメ?

いつもは余り愚痴を言わない私は金曜日に友達にちょっと｢この夜勤スケジュールどう思う？｣と聞いて相談にのってもらった時にすべてがit was explained to me.

Only because my friend was a WITNESS to her conversations with the professor.

私はその後友達から本当の話をすべて聞いて、教授と話した時...この前も色々この人とはトラブルがあったのですけど、やっぱり(その時は)友達だったので、その子の言い訳、弁解をすべて信じてあげいました。でも他の人と話せば話すほどI found out how WRONG I was, and how much she was messing with my life...without me knowing it.　Getting into details will just lead to me writing a BOOK about her, so I won't.

I felt betrayed, angry, sad, confused, frustrated....

Stupid...

ここまで価値観のない人初めてです。

笑う門に福が来て泣いた後にも福が来る。

泣いた後には虹が出る。

来週は笑って頑張ってみょう。福が来ますように。

まぁ、福はすぐ来なくても、いい経験でした。

At least I learned something more than medicine today. A real lesson on how to deal with the scum of this earth.

これからどんな人にどんな事されても、もしかしてI will never be surprised anymore. I've dealt with the true devil herself already.

2008 In Pictures

2009-01-06T17:38:00.006Z

一月：去年は末吉の予定でした。

二月：ニューオーリンズへ行ったよ☆

三月： College Ball. "La Cosa Nostra"

七月：シンガポールで産婦人科の研修。

九月：新しいルームメイトたち+友達とＨｏｕｓｅ　Ｐａｒｔｙｙｙ♪

十月：ママとパパが来たよ☆☆♪　すごく幸せでした。

十一月： American Thanksgiving Dinner を企画しました。

十二月：　大好きなアリアとモデルしたよ！

結果：2008年はイイ年でした!
大吉だったよ♪

ママからのコメント。

2009-01-06T07:12:00.000Z

ママからのメールの一部：

Ｙｏｕ　ｂｏｕｇｈｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｂｏｏｋ！　　Ｙｏｕ　ａｒｅ　ｓｏ　ｍｉｈａ！

　Ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ａ　best seller book.　last year in Japan.誰でも、どこかに　あてはまるようにかいてあるんだ。 I will not buy it , but I will borrow it, my blood type O.

ーーーーーーーー
なんや。わたしってやっぱり時代遅れや。

飛行機の中で大爆笑しました。恥ずかしいぐらい。でも結局開き直ってもっと笑いました。肩が震えるぐらい。涙が出るぐらい。

2009-01-05T22:22:00.003Z

私は毎年二回、日本に帰国します。その間にいつも流行りの話題、ギャグ、コマーシャル、その他などが色々替わっていたりしてるので結構苦労をします。

まぁ、別に合わせようとしない性格だからいつも周りがはしゃいでるのを第三者の目で「ホォー、今はこれか」って心の中で思ってるけど。

でも時々話しをふられると「…」うずくまってしまう。時々話しについていけない。笑いどころが分らない時がいっぱい…

その時は恥ずかしい。

まぁ、しゃーないか。なんだかんだ言って、私は外人ですから。

でも日本人なんだけどなぁー。(どっちやねん。)

今日(昨日？)空港で時間つぶしとして本屋さんへ行きました。

やっぱり日本。英語の本なかったよ。(当たり前。)

本屋さんでうろうろしながら…

「日本語のファッション誌買ってもヨーロッパでこんなコーデやこんな化粧しないしなぁ…参考にもできないよ！」(ってか日本帰ってきてもこんな服着ないし…)

で、目に入ったこの本。「Ｂ型自分の説明書。」

「ふーん。やっぱりまだ血液型とかって話題なんだ。」

私は結構、血液型、干支、星座とかで性格を決めつけられるのが嫌い。なんでこうして人を枠に入れなければならないのかなぁ…

だって。科学的にも生理的にも人を枠にいれられないんですよ！

Everybody is different. Physiologically, psychologically.　病気の診断の仕方も違うし。治療法もやっぱり同じ病気でも違う。

そしたらなんで性格は血液型で決まちゃうの？

しかも、そしたら基本、人間って4種類しかいないってこと？Ａ，Ｂ，ＡＢ，Ｏだけ？

たのしくなーい！

でもなんでかこの本を手にとった。読みやすそうだったし、なんだか表紙もおしゃれだったし。

And I read a few pages...

And I kept reading a few more pages....

45分後…飛行機に乗り遅れそうでした。

無駄遣いをしてしまいました。(ママ怒らないでね…ってかバイト代で買ったから…でもやっぱりママの目では無駄かも…)

飛行機の中でも必死になって読みました。

読みながら;　なんかこの本、｢私の性格見抜いてるなぁー」って思ってしまいました。

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
｢線香花火は好き。こう地味にね、バチバチって｣…｢これやってる時は誰も話しかけてくるな｣って思う。
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
oh my god..that's TOTALLY ME.
--------------------------------
｢たいてい自分でどうにかする。なる。意地。｣
本当は千鳥足。
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
Is this book actually like....observing my actions and my thoughts and has been following me my whole life?!

こうゆう｢わぁー分かってるやん｣ってな設定がいっぱい。

大爆笑してしまった設定もいっぱい。
さりげないツッコミで思わず大声で大爆笑。
結局笑いをこらえようとして、涙ボロボロ。

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
｢いい歳してお風呂で水鉄砲とかして遊んでみる。ピューっと壁のしみ狙撃。｣

｢以前泣いたシーンで、懲りずに毎回泣く。毎回心構えする(この先泣くぞー、うっしコイ!)｣
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

隣に座っておばちゃん、ゴメンネ、私こんなにうるさいお隣さんで。

今度本屋へふらーっと入ってら、みなさんも一回手にとってみてください。納得するかも…

☆理絵☆

Christmassy!

2008-12-08T15:43:00.001Z

Take your pick on which shot you like...but this is Henry Street last night!!

2008-12-06T14:49:00.003Z

So here are a few picts from the runway show...when the real picts and videos go up, I will link up to them!

We all did four walks each
1) Power-dressing
2) Country Wear/Equestrian
3) Day-Wear
4) Little Black Dress
For the amount we practiced, wow the show went by so quickly! It was like each walk was SUPER SUPER fast all of a sudden!

But it was so much fun...It felt almost automatic.

And the after-party was fun too! We all didn't have time to get rid of the run-way model make up, and kept the hair and makeup on...which was pretty cool because that was my first time EVER with this kind of makeup and it was intense!

Harry and I made "SEPTEMBER" in the choc-ball produced RCSI calendar. I'll be bringing some home later for everyone to enjoy if they want :)

Good bye Kilkenny...

2008-12-04T16:48:00.002Z

Goodbye Kilkenny...Today was my last day at Castle Gardens Surgery in Kilkenny. This week I drove two hours each way to get to Kilkenny in my friend's car. Irish roads are crap. That is a different blog post all together, and has nothing to do with my education so I won't talk about it.

I have decided during my 3 weeks in Castle Gardens, that GPs are awesome. They get all this flack for not being awesome, or doing things medically correct, or not being "helpful," but I realized community family medicine is brilliant.

1) Personal relationships with families
2) Acute and chronic conditions are seen
3) This kind of "closeness" between nurses, pharmacists, doctors, secretaries are NEVER found anywhere else except within the office.
4) The amount of respect given to these GPs for being such wonderfully friendly people are out of this world.

To top it off, my GP was an awesome man. He was so good natured, so friendly, so quiet, so courteous. Dandy, gentleman. He reminds me of a passive, mild version of my grandfather. Gentlemanly, well dressed, graceful, and charming.

When I left I was laden with

a) Fresh, warm loaf of brown bread
b) Fruit Scones
c) Scented Candles
d) Box of chocolates
e) Box of perfume and lotion
f) Two cards
g) Lots of love and warmth in my heart.

Honestly, I've never met a group of people so amazing.

Miss them all already!

Women in Surgery.

2008-11-28T00:43:00.004Z

Last night I went to a talk hosted by the Surgical Society of our college. The title of the talk was "WOMEN IN SURGERY"

外科医になるのは「Ｉｔｓ　ａ　ｍａｎ’ｓ　ｗｏｒｌｄ」ってよく言われるけれど、昨夜会った女医さん達はみんな「もし本当に外科医になりたいのなら、得る物、失うもの、職のために犠牲にしないといけないもの性別を問わず、みんな同じだ」って…

アイルランド、アメリカ、ヨーロッパではそうかもしれないけれど、日本ではどうなんだろう？

それとも女医としてのコンプレックスなのかな？

The conclusion of the talk was "If you have just as much motivation, just as much adrenaline, and just as much passion to be a surgeon as the next man/woman/person next to you, then you will do well, you will not be discriminated against, and you will find it hard, but you will love it."

All the women I met ranged from being pregnant at their consultant interview 30 years ago, to wearing jimmy choos and doing their hair before going into the OT.

They have never once felt discriminated against, commented against on their gender, and have loved their jobs.

Some took 15 years to be a consultant, others took less.

But what they did, was succeed in their goal.

I get shivers and an adrenaline rush thinking about it.

産婦人科、Obstetrics and Gynaecology-Is a surgical speciality.

That is my #1 choice of a career option. I love the happiness, I love the warmth it gives families. I love the hope involved in the birth process. Although there is death, and although when things go wrong, it is devastating beyond belief...but my month in SGH this summer was something that really made me realize what my calling was.

In my years at RCSI, I have had these moments that has given me the shivers.

1) When Mr. Osbourne passed me the Thyroid gland, straight out of a total thryoidectomy.

2) When a woman at SGH came in with a uterine cyst....and on the table we found that it was 30X30.

3) The minute a head popped out post C-Section.

4) As I held a woman's hand as she screamed through the birth of her first son. And her husband was there on the other side, tears streaming down his face....and wouldn't take his eyes off of his wife, even after she had given birth...the love he had for his wife...the hope that was in their faces for their family.

5) Doing a resp exam on a CF child in the ward in waterford...

* I gotta take a breath...thinking about these moments really make me so overwhelmed with emotions...*

And I realize, that all my happy moments are 1) in Surgery 2) in Ob/Gyn 3) Paeds

What does that say to me?

It says....I love Ob/Gyn...but I also love Paeds...

= I still don't know what I want to do as of yet; it's not set in stone, I like to keep my options open, but the choices are starting to narrow down. And I'm loving it.

XXXRieXXX

Kilkenny...General Practice=開業医？

2008-11-25T21:29:00.002Z

Sometimes when you look out the train window from Dublin-Kilkenny, you get the sunrise just right....

I tried to capture it, but I've only been semi-successful so far.

Leaving my house at 6.45 is a chore; its always pitch dark and seems like 3am....but when I watch the Irish countryside fly by me during the 2 hour train ride and the sun comes up, it makes me feel refreshed.

Me=TOTALLY A MORNING PERSON!! Hehe.

General Practice = 開業医？

Family Medicine/Community Medicine is what it is called in The US/Canada, but GP is not really a specialty in Japan.

It's something like that doctor's office you go to in your neighbor. 西岡先生, the doctor I always go to in Japan is actually a Gastro-guy, who also did 内科。胃腸科だったのかな？

まぁ、内科＝Internal Medicine
胃腸科＝Gastroenterologist.

でも開業して、結局毎日診る患者さんは
１）風邪
２）腰痛
３）その他などなど

＝GPじゃないん？

All I can say is, I dont think I could be a GP.

毎日同じオフィスで座って、動き回らないのって、結構BORINGかも…

But I gotta admit, there is something new everyday.....

Which is what keeps everyone going, I suppose....

A Brown Thomas Christmas.....

2008-11-21T00:02:00.004Z

Brown Thomas totally outdid themself this year...

I will post more pictures..But their theme this year was "Peace to the world"

They did Europe, South-Asia, East-Asia, and the Americas as their different window display sections, and pimpled/glammed it up.

Nov 15th marked the opening of Cartier and Tiffany in Brown Thomas...so it's all glitz and glam in there as well....These are a few of the pictures..until my camera conked out and I couldnt get more.. :(

XXX-Rie

Kilkenny

2008-11-20T22:50:00.002Z

I've been in Kilkenny for the past week....Keeping the story short and simple, I had a breakdown at the B&B because the place was SHIET.

So I'm commuting every morning to Kilkenny. It takes about 2 hours each morning, but I think about the Kyoto-jin who used to commute to CA every morning (and the Himeji chick *wink wink* Alisa!), and myself; (who didnt commute as much as the ppl mentioned above..but still had a commute...) it makes me think "wow, well, I guess I can start commuting again! Its only three weeks!"

The clinical practice manager thinks I'm crazy but hey, I'm enjoying it!!

But the GP surgery is fabulous, and the teaching is great. My day consists of drawing bloods, doing BPs, Urine Dipstick, giving vaccinations. Its very hands-on and the Dr. Lee is awesome!

My GP is super *Kawaii!* Today i saw him bicycling down the streets of Kilkenny out to lunch it was SO CUTE!

In other news, I have a three day weekend! Wahoo!

XXX-Rie

Roll Your Own Sushi Night!!

2008-11-14T22:24:00.003Z

We had "Roll your own sushi night" in my apartment this friday....I provided sushi rice and seaweed as well as the wasabi, shoyu..and my fab roomies supplied the following: Cucumber, Red/Yellow Peppers, Salmon, Cream Cheese, and Avocado....It was awesome.. Oh ya! We had Tuna too!!

I really had a great time cuz Krystina came out as well and it was soo much fun!

It was an awesome roomie bonding session. I started to like one of my roomies a lot more than I thought I did initially, which was a PLUS PLUS PLUS!

After that, a few of us went to see the Christmas Display at Brown Thomas. It was fabulous. And worth it..I'll be posting more Christmass-y things online later!! So all those pictures are for tomorrow okay :)

XXXRieXXXX

Life Updates After Being Away For So LONG!

2008-11-13T10:22:00.009Z

Hey Everyone....so I haven't uploaded anything or posted for quite a long time. I had my Paediatrics FINAL and PAPER which went really well (Yeeey!) and I was so consumed in life that I totally dropped off the face of the earth.

My parents came to visit for one week and I DEFINITELY didnt want to blog during then. I wanted to spend all my time with them, and only them. It was so painful having to tear myself away from them to go to class...

I swear, when they left, I was shattered. Inconsolable. My roomies saw me catatonic on the couch and just said "uh-oh..."

I guess I've been busy as well. News other than Paeds is that I'm learning how to "WALK THE RUNWAY" with a bunch of other girls and guys in my college to raise money for a charity Fashion Show/ Chocolate Ball. The theme is HIGH FASHION. Think Couture. Fabulous? YES.

Here are some more of my fav shots of my friends as well;

There is one boy who is always in all the shots...I think it's because not enough boys came out to volunteer their time for this..which is unfortunate, because they will get to wear some AWESOME STUFF!!

When my mother saw some of these shots, I think she was expecting a "smarter look". She kept on telling me to be more 知的。 Yah, maybe my photo pictures are just stupid-looking. Sorry mom. I tried.

FYI, these are all med students..who would've thought!!

In other news, LAST NIGHT I went to a Herbie Hancock concert. So Herbie Hancock. You can google the man, but Miles Davis=God of Trumpet/Horn in Jazz? Herbie Hancock=god of keyboard/jazz piano.

Do the math. I was in euphoria. I didn't know what to do. I thought I was going to just erupt into happiness and dancing and Oh my god...I cant even describe to you how life felt.

So now my next rotation is GP. I'll be in Kilkenny which is supposed to be the prettiest place in Ireland. So expect lots of landscape photos!!

XX
-Rie

Waterford!!

2008-10-14T15:32:00.003+01:00

Pictures in order are: Out the window on the way to Waterford, Tina studying on the train, and the entrance of our aparments upon arrival in Waterford....

Ardkeen Woods is a complex of apartments located RIGHT OPPOSITE Waterford Regional Hospital. It's only a 5 minute walk to the hospital, and a 10 minute walk to TESCO (which is open 24 hours!!...AND ITS HUGE!! LIKE COSTCO!!)

The apartments are great; two bedroom, two bathrooms, with a huge living room, full kitchen and full fridge. I can't complain at all. The heating is great and the showers are on demand hot water. (Which is hard to find in Ireland...I am too used to not having to boost!)

The hospital is great. Everyone is super nice and I've been able to take lots of histories as well as do a few physical exams. My goals for this week are:

1) Average of one full history a day
2) Average of one system physical exam a day.

Yesterday I met a girl with Cystic Fibrosis. She seemed upset because her mother wasn't there to visit her, and I was lucky enough to be able to befriend her.

So today I took half her history and tomorrow I'm taking the other half. She has so many things going on with her body that I wasnt so sure if she enjoyed talking about all of it in one go, so I decided to take it slow.

Sometimes I think....is being a doctor really suited for me? I like to take my time, and talk to patients, get to know them as people, rather than sick people. I guess that rules out Emergency Medicine for me...

I sometimes think that maybe I am not a good enough med student because of my inability to get info out of patients as quickly as my peers....

まっ、マイペースでいいのかな？って思う時もあるけど、周りの人と全然違うやり方で患者さんと接してる自分が間違っているのかどうか判らなくなったりする時が多い。

「自分が患者さんだったらこんな接し方をしてほしいなぁー」って思いながら接しているつもりなんだけれど、もしかして的ハズレだったりして…

I do realize questioning myself ｉｓ not especially good for my confidence....but I guess it's something I will never know for sure until I become a doctor...

The CUPCAKES...

2008-10-08T22:21:00.007+01:00

My room...

2008-10-08T22:16:00.003+01:00

Soooo....these are pictures of my room now; I took them about three hours ago when the light was nice...Thought ppl might be interested.

My new flat-mates are quite quiet, nice girls. There is one girl who is kinda annoying, but oh well, I guess I'll get used to her. All I have to do is lay low and study anyway, so I dont think it's a big deal..

Happy Birthday To My Friend...

2008-10-05T15:23:00.003+01:00

Don't know if you can see all the cupcakes or not....but it was my friend Tricia's 24th birthday about 1.5 weeks ago; I gave her a box of crayons and we went for coffee that particular Sunday with the promise of "a birthday gift full of color and variety" in due time.

So on Friday night after we got home from class, I went on auto-pilot; buying ingredients for a VEGAN chocolate cupcake (dairy free, egg free, cuz my friend is allergic to dairy). The recipe I adapted from an online source.

**I'll look it up and post for you later okay Xian?** (By the way, how were the PSLEs? I thought of you all day thursday you know!)

So this was my idea: "Decorate cupcakes with the IMAGE of Tricia...Inspired by HER!!"

I called a few of her friends and they decorated with sprinkles, cherries, coconuts, cocktail umbrellas, and all that fun stuff, while I pulled out cupcake after cupcake from the oven.

Tricia was the one who introduced me to Magnolia Bakery....and after awhile my curiosity got the best of me and I started my obsession with foodie-blogs and cupcake-decorating blogs...and I thought perhaps this event was quite fitting for her birthday.

She was surprised! Yey!

I'll post up pictures of the individual cupcakes later, right now I'm working on a small project for Tricia so she can remember the event for awhile.

XX

Feels The Same...

2008-09-30T23:25:00.003+01:00

This is the antique store just down the street from my apartment. Don't know why I decided to take a picture of it; maybe it's because I walk by the place every morning/night when I go to the hospital/come back from it.

Feels like we never left for the summer. My course shows no sign of slowing down; if anything, it seems to be showing signs of "about-to-go-into-breakneck-speed"

My next door flatmate is a Canadian girl who sounds American; loud and pushy. When I say loud, I mean I can hear her on skype with her family through her door, my door, and our walls...even though our walls are buffered by her bathroom.....so theoretically I shouldn't hear anything. My flatmate last year never heard my music (and my parents know I listen to my music on the 'loud side'), I NEVER EVER heard her voice EVER.

And now I hear this girl...at 11.45 at night and I wanna sleeep. Oh well whatever, Ill get used to it. Hopefully I can zone her out like I zone out the outside traffic. I shall think ZEN, think good happy thoughts. All I can say is that my bed is so comfy, there is no reason for me NOT to fall asleep.

Anyway, the reason why I am online today is to say this:

Does my stay in Dublin make me someone who "runs from her issues/problems?"

Take this situation: I had a problem with a girl I know in my class. I increasingly found her selfish, patronizing, inconsiderate, and sometimes very rude last semester. I kept on finding excuses for her cuz she and I had a semi-solid friendship for the past year and a half, and I didnt want to ruin it.

Her one tragic flaw was this: She could not take constructive criticism. At all. Nada. Zilch.

Even when I quietly voiced concerns...or jokingly did it...or even put myself down on her behalf to tell her about the things she did to me that I didnt appreciate, she put me down, didn't talk to me, had a tantrum, or would scold me.

Simply put, I tried everything and nothing worked.

I guess I consider myself to be fairly flexible...as in I give ppl a lot of leeway when it comes to pushing my limits...but once the line is crossed, I zone out. Totally.

Well, she pushed my limits, and SOME MORE. To the point where I kept thinking that maybe I was being the impatient one, maybe I was being the terribly judgemental one (when she was the one who tried to make me live my life, just the way SHE LIVED HER LIFE...)....

She was one of my closest friends in Dublin, and so I thought
1) Maybe she's stressed cuz of exams?
2) Maybe I'm stressed! Maybe I am being too selfish!
3) This is a test...a test to see how well I can deal with ppl who are hard to deal with.

But it got a point until a lot of my friends around me, and my then-boyfriend voiced THEIR concerns and said "this is bad for you, because you are always upset because of her...you are not enjoying your last few weeks in Dublin, and you need to BRANCH AWAY from her"

So I said to myself "Oh well, I guess instead of approaching her again, I'll just give it some time...wait till the SUMMER ENDS...and see how it goes..." and just left it at that.

See, so many of us do this: "I'll give the summer to cool it off." or "I'll wait until I get back from vacation to figure this out." or "Well, I'm leaving Dublin so I guess I can forget about this already..." or "I'm leaving Japan so who cares, I dont really have to care about this..."

Does this make me/us/ppl who come and go from different places WEAKER?

It seems like we're RUNNING/FLYING/TRAVELLING away from our problems....

Cuz I came back from summer break...and this girl is STILL THE SAME...and I'm still trying to figure out what to do...cuz she still has NO CLUE and interacts with me like I'm the same Rie....when actually, I'm slowly but surely tuning out more than half of the things she say..and practising zen everytime she comes near me.

Oh dear....

That's why I say...."Feels The Same....." cuz sometimes, things really don't change.

In Full Swing....

2008-09-28T06:26:00.003+01:00

Okay so right now I'm SUPER overwhelmed with my workload.

Its to the point where I don't know where to start with paeds...I went to the lib and borrowed my staple "idiot proof" books; "Paeds in a page" "Paeds at a glance" "Illustrated clinical signs in paeds" and small books like that which make things idiot proof so I can dive into it later.

I wish I spent more time fiddling around with my little cousins and trying to listen to their hearts more when I was in Singapore. TOO LATE NOW!

Last night my poor house-mates were stressing out about the upcoming Card-Signing. I felt so bad for them they sounded like they were in tears or something... :(

It's pretty reminiscent of how I was my first few weeks of first med. Shittin' bricks and shaking in my pants at the thought of all the stuff I was about to learn.

Which makes me really believe: The human mind, body, soul has an INCREDIBLE ability to adapt and evolve.

I wanted to post a pict of my room so my grandma in Japan could take a look at it, but I can find my camera USB cable from my storage boxes yet, so that will have to wait. When it does happen, damn sure Ill be posting pictures of my life more often!

XXX

Back From A LONG Vacay

2008-09-27T07:46:00.001+01:00

Everytime I get back to Dublin/feel like I want to, I restart a blog.

In all honesty, I dont know how I feel about blogs myself; like, who wants to open up their life on an online journal to people they don't even know?

So we'll see how this goes...a great friend of mine was in Korea for about half a year, and she documented her life on a blog, and little musings she had about life, and I really enjoyed catching up on her life every so often when I missed her terribly...

So maybe this can be something like that? Cuz hell, I'm terrible at writing emails!

XX

Walnuts, Pastry Sheets, and a TOASTER :)

2007-07-02T12:32:00.000+01:00

My rice cooker endeavours have been cut short since I started a new job/wonderful opportunity at an old people's home and one of the well-known hospitals in my area. Rice-cooker baking takes a long time, and now my day has been more of the wake-up-and-bust-out-of-the-house scheduling.

Unhealthy?

Yes.

Ah well, I know I should work on the "waking up early to eat breakfast" deal, but its not working...

Anyway, Japanese courtesy called for a few snacks for my mom's Quarter-Tennis team last Thursday, and she needed: "16-"somethings" to bring to the group!" Being the youngest in the group, and always getting little snacks from her "elders," it was about time my mom brought something.

I scrounged around the freezer and the cupboards only to find some honey, muesli, butter, walnuts and pastry sheets.

Perfect.

Crushed the walnuts, added the honey, added some muesli and made a sticky pasty kinda concoction. Nutty, sweet, and didn't look amazing....

Unrolling the pastry sheets in the freezer, i arranged them into little teaspoon fulls and placed another pastry sheet over the formation.

Made sure to put little air-holes in the top so the whole things doesnt EXPLODE!!

Sealed the two pastry sheets just using the tip of a fork :)

Ten minutes in the toaster!!!

Banana Bread!

2007-06-24T16:11:00.000+01:00

I realized today that there is a BIG difference between plain flour and bread flour. I dont know how to explain it-I wikipedia-ed it and found out it has something to do with the gluten/starch composition in the flour.

From now on when I make cakes, I will be sure to use proper cake flour as well. No wonder sometimes my recipes really dont turn out the way they are supposed to. The catalyst to my enlightenment was due to the amazing-ness that is the Japanese language. The noun for cake flour and plain flour, and bread flour are ALL DIFFERENT WORDS COMPLETELY. Brilliant, say. 上新粉、薄力粉、強力粉。

Anyway, using real bread flour, I made Banana Bread. This time I played the recipe TOTALLY by ear. My dad is in danger of developing Type II Diabetes, so I wanted something with less sugar, yet fluffy....

P.S-yes, this is another creation made in your single-person-friendly RICE COOKER!! Wahoo!!!

Ingredients:
10g dry yeast
180ml luke-warm water
100ml milk
1 egg
20g sugar
20g margarine
400g BREAD flour :)
1pinch baking soda
1pinch baking powder (I dont know if those two things make a difference, but I threw em in anyway.)
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon honey (just for a good measure)
3 "Dashes" (1 teaspoon?) Vanilla Essence. (Vanilla Essence comes out in little "nipple" drop bottles in Japan..not in small bottles with normal openings.)
3-4 bananas. Mashed. If they are hard to mash, pop em in the microwave for two minutes, add some (a teaspoon) of sugar, and they'll be mash-able. (Therefore you dont have to wait till they're ripe!)

Optional: A handful of walnuts. Whole, or broken up, your choice!

How To:...
1) Dissolve the dry yeast in 180ml lukewarm water, and let it hang out for awhile
2) Dump all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda/powder, and sugar) into rice cooker bowl.
3) Mix #1 and #2 and KNEAD like your life depended on it. (or until it looks nice and fun!)
4) Knead in the margarine and the honey.
5) Let bread rise for 45 minutes. Or turn the rice cooker on to "keep warm" for 5 minutes, turn off, and let bread rise for 20 minutes. (If you have the "keep warm" function on your rice cooker, GREAT!!)

(looks kinda gross when it hasn't risen yet...)

6) While you're waiting, go watch an episode of "Everybody Hates Chris" or "CSI" or "Grey's Anatomy...." or something like that.
7) Also, mix the egg with the mashed bananas while you're at it.
8) Done? Knead the bananas into the dough. (Add Walnuts if you want them!)

9) Throw the dough back into the rice cooker, press "Keep warm" for 10 minutes, turn off, and let it rise this time for 2-3 hours. (Depends on how fluffy/ bread-y/dense you want your bread to be. If you want it to be very dense, maybe 1.5 hours of raising is better.)

*****If you want your bread to be more dense, knead the egg and banana mixture BEFORE you let the bread rise the first time around, and let it rise for an hour. Skip procedure 8 and 9.

10) Bake in the rice cooker for one cycle, turn it over, and bake for another cycle (Or until you can poke a fork/toothpick/chopstick in it, and it comes out clean!) I baked it both sides, cuz I wanted both sides to be browned :)

Ta-DA!!!!!

After the bread rose for the second time, I added whole walnuts just to the top of the bread. I have crushed walnuts mixed into the dough, which I put in TOGETHER with the mashed bananas.

Yup. Its the second day and my dad already ate half.

He's a bread connoiseur, so I guess its a good sign!

Creme Brulee

2007-06-24T03:44:00.000+01:00

I made awesome creme brulee for my friends when they came over for a party. Yum yum! My friend took this recipe off of chubbyhubby.net, and gave it to me. I changed it up a bit, added my "easy cooking" tips to it.

8 egg yolks
600 millilitres fresh cream
100 millilitres milk
100 grams sugar
150 grams fine brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 100 degrees Celsius.

Combine the egg yolks, cream, milk and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk and pass through a fine sieve into a jug. Pour the egg mixture into small ramekins, or ceramic little cups!!!

Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours to 2 hours. just see that it is firm-wiggle it around, stick a toothpick thru it, make sure its not soupy! Remove, cool and refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours...if you like your brulee cold. They are really yummy warm as well.

Since we're talking about ricer cookers; DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD ALSO PUT the ramekins in the rice cooker and press "cook" for 30minutes....and get the exact same creme brulee? AMAZING!

Just before serving, sprinkle the top of each portion with a thin layer of brown sugar. Caramelise the sugar with a blowtorch and serve immediately. (dont worry about caramelizing if you dont have the blowtorch, it just makes it look nice.)

No Oven? No Problem.

2007-06-20T03:13:00.000+01:00

A typical Japanese household doesnt have an oven attached to their cooking stove. Instead, we have one of these:

Wondering what it is? It's a FISH GRILL.

So coming home to Japan I've been feeling pretty antsy...can't bake, mom makes dinner, (I can only help, which kinda cramps my "I WANT TO COOOOOOOK" style.), and I dont have a gym to go to.

My mom came home yesterday with this book: "Bread, snacks, and light meals even with a RICE COOKER!"

cha-CHIIIING!! *sound of JACKPOT*

The book was filled with so many fun things-Green tea sponge cake, pumpkin bread, strawberry jam...

(I realize this book is in Japanese...this one is a recipes for sesame-seed cake!)

But before I try out one of these fancy schmancy recipes, I wanted to try making PLAIN BREAD with the rice cooker.

So here goes

Ingredients:
Flour - 350g
Butter - 21g
Sugar - 21g
Milk - 35ml
Water - 180ml
Dry yeast - 5g
Salt - 6.5g

How To:
1) Place flour, sugar, and salt into rice cooker bowl.
2) Mix dry yeast and water
3) Mix dry yeast and water mix into dry ingredients
4) Put in milk and butter
5) Knead the dough...It should look something like this:

6) Cover it with a clean towel, and let it rise for about an hour. (Go do something, read a book, chat with your friends...)

7) An hour later, bring the dough up, and then drop it from about 50cm high, back into the bowl, to release the gas.
8) Repeat X 4

9) Put it back into the bowl, wait for another hour.
10) Take it back out, and split dough into 3 big balls and four smaller balls.
11) Make then into long "snakes" Twist them into little braid-ish things, and then make little balls out of them.
(They should look like little braided balls...mine don't look so appealing at all....you can also add butter/margarine into the dough's surface while you are twisting the "snakes" around and arranging them into ball shapes)

12) Back into the rice cooker, and this time, press "COOK!"

13) After one cycle, the bread is gonna smell AMAZING. Open the cooker & FLIP the bread over.

14) Cook for ANOTHER hour. (I know, you're thinking WHAT?)

15) TA-DA!!! I promised you bread didn't I?

EGG TARTS!

2007-06-16T12:46:00.000+01:00

Why Egg Tart?

No clue. I guess it's because it's and
1) Fairly easy to get ingredients for
2) All I needed was eggs and flour.

So I took a fairly decent-looking recipe off of "allrecipes.com" and made a few of my own tweaks and turns. I wanted to give this out to my dairy-allergic, and on a diet friends, and ya know, it would've been healthier for me as well.

INGREDIENTS

Crust:
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup margarine (or olive oil, if you prefer)
1 egg, beaten
1 dash vanilla extract (or essence)

Egg Filling
1/2 cup white sugar (or honey)
1 1/2 cups milk (whole, skim, or soy)
8 eggs, beaten (or 6 yolks and 8 egg whites)
1 dash vanilla extract
1 cup milk (whole, skim, or soy)
1/4 cup coconut milk powder (or 1/3 cup skim milk powder)

DIRECTIONS

Crust:

Mix together sugar and flour. Cut in butter/margarine/oil until crumbly. Stir in the egg and vanilla until the mixture forms a dough. The dough will be kinda flaky, but still moist. . Add more marg/butter/oil if it is too dry, or more flour, if it seems greasy.
Shape dough into 2 inch balls, and roll out with a rolling pin-press them into the muffin tin (or whatever else you are using.) Leave at least 1cm over the edge (the crust will shrink whem baked) and shape the edges into a triangular tip.
Bake the crust for about 5-15 minutes, depending on the thickness in 450 degrees F (230 C). Do not let the edges go brown, just make sure they are solid-ish.

Filling.

Combine the white sugar (or honey) and 1.5 cups water (or milk/soymilk) in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Crack & beat eggs. Strain the eggs through a sieve, and whisk into liquid mixture.
Dissolve the milk powder into 1 cup milk, and add vanilla essence (or extract)
Whisk liquid ingredients all together into one bowl.
Sieve 2 to 3 times to make it smooth.
Decant through a sieve into the crusts.
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown, and the filling is puffed up a little bit.

I think the smartest thing I did when I backed the crust was putting RICE in the muffin tin above the crust dough...On the one dough that I DIDNT put rice, a small air bubble EXPANDED in the heat and lead to a crackly, broken, UGLY crust. It was depressing. I ate it though. It was good. :P