It’s been a while. There is so much I’ve been wanting to write about but life and overall laziness have gotten the best of me. Let’s just say that I’ve been taking time to enjoy the holidays here in England. There are moments here that I KNOW I will miss once it’s over with. I can’t even fully acknowledge the halfway mark of this experience without getting sad. The holiday season in Newcastle just feels so warm to me. Certain holiday traditions and foods my flatmates have introduced me to, walking through the markets in town, decorating our flat, watching love actually and blasting Christmas music with the girls, these past couple of weeks have just been so wonderful.
It’s still crazy to think that I am in England. I almost think that this is someone elses life that I’m living, and not mine. There have been lots of days where I would just go to bed and think to myself, “did that really just happen?!”
Thanksgiving was one of them. Cannot even begin to express the gratitude I felt that day. My plate was definitely overflowing, and so was my heart. 
The following week, I traveled to Durham with the Newcastle Dance Society. The dance I competed in won first! Honestly, I loved it more for the feeling of being on a team again. It was really nice to get to know the girls better, cheer for each other, and enjoy a lovely celebratory meal.
My flatmates also drove down to watch me perform and even brought sammy the snowman (our new flatmate this holiday season). I left for a bit to spend the afternoon in town and have lunch with them. It honestly felt like I was in a scene straight out of a Charles Dickens book as I was walking down the narrow and windy cobblestone roads. There was a mix of old/new shops, pubs, outdoor markets, crowds of holiday shoppers, carolers, so much Christmas love in the air.
Ok so this is not an actual picture I took… I just wanted to keep up with this picture + caption theme I have going here. So for this pre-med program here, we get the chance to shadow doctors at the hospital. I got matched with a neurosurgeon and observed in on a craniotomy for a pretty large meningioma that was pushing over this woman’s brainstem. I spent 7 hours watching these doctors basically chisel and singe away at this tumor, bit by bit, carefully maneuvering their way around her brain, bypassing extremely crucial cranial nerves. I was on edge the entire time, and grateful that I had a mask to cover my expression of shock, horror, and sheer amazement at the procedure happening right before my eyes.
I wasn’t all just about the glitz and glamour of brain surgery though. I spent one the days sitting in on follow up appointments that this doctor had with patients he operated on previously. It wasn’t in the operating room as the doctors proceeded to crack open the woman’s skull to get to her brain, but in this tiny little examination room when I truly grasped the magnitude and severity of what doctors must face with everyday. Just hearing these patients speak of how their conditions are affecting them and actually seeing the affect of their conditions on their movements and speech at times really hit home for me. The empathizing feeling I felt for each case was honestly getting to be a bit overwhelming really. It just showed me how vulnerable and human we all are. This was a make or break experience for me, and I’m glad to say that I’m still in it for the long haul. If anything this experience has restored my motivation to keep going. It’s kinda hard to see the point memorizing parts of the brain, brainstem, spinal cord, motor neuron function, cranial nerves, etc., when you are in the confines of a library. But when you are in that operating room looking at an actual pulsating brain, it all gets put into perspective real fast.
Last Friday marked the end of term for us here. I went out on Saturday to celebrate with Amy. Her sister was having a holiday party and we got too drunk for our own good. It was quite a memorable night. Too bad I don’t remember the end of it. haha.
If there is one thing that I am grateful to modern technology for, it is not the ability to stream episodes of Dexter on the internet anymore (OMGGGG RITAA!!) but for the ability for me to take this picture of my cuite nephew. And he walks now too!
And finally, I am happy to say that the england scarf is finally finished! I think I want to do socks next. I’m all about the instant gratification in knitting.
WOW… haha that is so typical of me to combine what would normally be about 5 posts into one incredibly large one.
I leave tomorrow for for France. I’m so excited to meet my dad’s family. Oh gosh I’ve missed cambodian food so much..
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