One day!
Well, It's official... I'm off to the UK in just one day!! I have everything I need now... and the tough task is deciding what to take out of my backpack!
Dave's picking me up at 11am tomorrow, then we'll stay at his place till 5:30am on Sunday morning.. then we're UK bound!
Our first day in the UK (Aug 1) will be spent doing the main touristy things... london tower, london eye, buckingham palace, westminster abbey, etc.
2nd day: Abbey Rd. studios and Sherlock Holmes museum
3rd day: Wimbeldon.. Dave's choice!! haha.. but I'm excited to see it myself.
That night we meet up with our tour group.. and the next day we're off on tour for 18 days!
I'll have some dramatic stories to add to my emails/blog!!
See everyone in September!!
Good luck Discography! Hope you win a game... Richard... can you make sure to contact Brenton re: playing short short's team after playoffs.. and let me know when the game is.. i sooo want to play
Good luck Melissa and Abe: Can't wait to meet Benjamin!
I'm off to see the world!
down to the wire
Well, it's officially Thursday... and I am close to the wire again. I have submitted my assignments for my summer course, and have just emailed my ethics stuff off to my thesis advisor for some final revisions. Hopefully not too many. The next submission date for ethics is August 3rd... which means that I'd have to drop my stuff off on Friday morning because I leave the country on Sunday. It would be nice to be relaxing in Ireland, not thinking about how I have to submit when I get home.. SO i hope that it is done for Friday!!! PLEASE DEAR LORD LET IT BE DONE..
It's 1:30 am, so I'm slightly delirious from sitting in front of the computer for a good number of hours over the last few weeks. There is still so much to be done for my trip... like getting my passport (no fears... it'll be done on Friday morning). Most of my laundry is now done, and packed in my backpack. All our travel docs, etc., are organized and good to go. I'm heading into London on Friday to go shopping with Jenn, and figure out the last few things that I need. Then, Saturday, Dave comes to pick me up, and Sunday at 5am.. I'm off to the Airport.
So.. as usual.. my life is down to the wire. I've come to grips with the fact that stress drives me, and that I always seem to pull through. So.. if it works.. don't mess with it!
Ok.. I need some sleep.
Bye-Bye London, Ontario.... Hello London, England!
Well, tonight marks the end of me living in London, Ontario.... I've been here for 11 months now, and it's been quite the interesting time. I found this apartment in July of 2004, and thought it would be a great living situation for myself, or myself and a roomie. After much drama, it ended up just being me here, which worked out pretty well for the most part. It started off a little rough in September... no phone, internet, cable, cell-phone breakdown, computer death, slamming my finger in the garage, and then a mini emotional melt-down. Not to mention a scary amount of school work (Ed students.. remember the reading for that first workshop! Oh god!).
However, I made the best of what happened, and ended up meeting some super cool people here and organizing a pub-crawl.. which set the precedent for graduate social life.
I've learned a lot from living here, and perhaps I can impart this knowledge on my willing readers:
1. NEVER live in a BASEMENT APARTMENT!!! NEVER!!
Now if you do end up dismissing my advice.. here is some more. If you live in a basement apartment:
1. Buy long johns and a heating pad... I believe these items allowed me to survive the harsh winter living conditions that come with living in the basement
2. A space heater hikes up the cost of hydro... if your landlord is paying.. buy one!
3. A golf club, baseball bat, or large metal pole are must-haves when you live on your own. (Thanks Richard!)
4. Wanting to scream at the person living above you is a daily happening... your golf club can be used to hit the ceiling when (s)he decides to stomp around in shoes at 7am, have sex in a squeaky bed, leave the cell phone on vibrate and leave the house, his/her child decides to 'play' electric guitar, or when just plain aggravated (a LOUD stereo also helps with this).
5. Naps become essential when you have no idea how light it is outside (why do you think bears hibernate!)
6. Low ceilings have the potential to harm your tall friends when they are drunk.
7. Saying your basement is flooding is not a bad way to get out of work/class.... but it sucks when it happens!
8. NEVER live in a BASEMENT APARTMENT!
__________________________________________________________________________________
So... having said all this, I move onto bigger and better things. I'm off to London, England on July 31st for 25 days. I'm going to miss certain things back home, such as my frisbee team, a classmate's wedding, Abe and Melissa's baby Benjamin, and my family. But... I'll keep in touch while I'm overseas, and I can't wait to be miles and miles away from the hectic life of a graduate student.
I'm looking forward to my first trip with Dave, meeting new people, seeing new things, and all the drama that will unfold during that time!!
Come September, a new life will begin to unfold!
See you later London!!!
U of A MedShow Letter
Dear Dear Provost Amrhein and Medical School Dean Marrie,
We are both graduate students in the nursing Masters program at the University of Western Ontario, in London. We have come across the article in the Edmonton Journal, which addressed the MedShow, and more specifically the song degrading nurses. We are both deeply appalled by those who performed the 'song' and those who organized an event which sponsors sexist and derogatory content. That type of 'humor' is deeply offensive not only to all nurses (which include men too), but to women in general. Nurses are well-educated and intelligent people. Similarly, we are both almost certain that nurses have helped shape and orient every one of the medical students and clinical clerks at the University of Alberta in their training to become fully fledged Medical Doctors.
The fact that the MedShow ‘song’ lyrics referred to nurses as bitches and whores is an appalling accusation. No woman deserves to be called a bitch or a whore, regardless if the intent of the production was done in ‘tongue & cheek.’ Words of that caliber are words that promote violence towards women. Although we do believe the group of medical students who created and presented this ‘song’ are ‘normally a good group of students’ (paraphrasing the dean of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta), it is evident that there was a significant lack the critical insight towards the repercussions of such blasphemous statements contained within the song.
For instance, in a survey completed by Kettl, Siberski, Hischmann, and Wood (1993), they found that nearly 40% of nursing and occupational health students had been victims of sexual harassment while practicing in the clinical environment. A large coping strategy by many of the participants in this study included ignoring the behaviours or joking about it – both unacceptable strategies. Nurses are not the only profession vulnerable to sexual harassment in the workplace. Frank, Brogan, and Schiffman (1998) reported that over 47% of female medical students had reported gender-based harassment in their training.
We consider the ‘Nurses’ Song’ sexual harassment as it promotes violence against women. We also feel that productions as such provide good evidence that sexism is not a topic or concern that is being taken seriously in healthcare.
We sincerely hope that the performers and the MedShow sponsors/organizers deeply regret the decisions made concerning the ‘Nurses’ Song’ – professional horizontal violence is completely unacceptable. Furthermore, we hope that there will be significant changes made for any future event held at the University of Alberta under the MedShow title.
Finally, we feel that as a gesture of good faith, presenting a community or university Women’s group with a donation from the funds raised in the 2005 MedShow would show that the individuals responsible are dedicated to upholding and becoming proactive in gender-based violence.
We welcome your correspondence.
Shannon (last name) & Richard (last name)
RN, BScN, MScN (c)
One down, six to go
This weekend I attended one of my nursing friend's wedding in Waterloo. There are a group of seven of us who are pretty tight, and Melissa was the first one to get married. It was a gorgeous wedding, and it was so nice to see all the nursing girls. I forgot how tremendously hillarious we are as a group. The hillarity was much enhanced by the fact that it was an open bar, and my girlfriends like to drink. Luckily I was still in recovery mode from our pub crawl on Thursday night.. so I didn't have too much to drink.
I'm down to 12 days before moving time now. It's going to be rather interesting/scary to have my life in boxes in my brother's basement... but it won't matter for a month till I move again. I'm off to Toronto to take care of some travel documents tomorrow. I hate that I have to drive downtown, but that's life.
Ethics is being revised. RA work is pretty much done. N649 still has a ways to go.
The Life and Times of Shannon
This summer is flying by, and I'm a little bit in shock that it is already July 1st. Here is an update of what I'm upto.
a) I took a course in a week.. and still have a paper and presentation to complete for it. Yikes.
b) playing ultimate frisbee every Monday night... have yet to win, but we're having fun.
c) helped my brother move to Waterloo, and I'm now moving the cats there till September (when I take Molly and Tuck back)
d) working on my ethics proposal and have to get it in soon
e) doing RA work for Carroll
f) saw Dave and his friend Jamie off today for their road trip to B.C. They were looking a little tired last night, and more tired this morning at 6am. I'm hoping they have a great time out there, and they make it back in one piece (along with the Mazda 323)
g) I'm moving out of the dungeon come July 23rd!! All my stuff is going to storage at my bro's new place until Sept. 1.
h) working on getting organized for our trip in 31 days.
i) have a wedding shower to get organized for tomorrow in Waterloo (for my cousin).
That's all I will write for now....
