Someone please give me some motivation! I just find excuses and other things that is more fun to do the this.
Someone please give me some motivation! I just find excuses and other things that is more fun to do the this.
Oh it's been almost a week since I wrote something and you might think that's because I have been so busy, but no not really. Or a little bit busy have I been. But mainly cause I have felt like I have nothing possitive to write and don't just want to write negative things they are no fun to read, but figured some things out and I'm feeling like everything is going towards the better and I just have to keep a positive attitude to everything and it will be fine!
Last Monday was the PM seminar that went okey, but the staff on the hospital ha forgotten that I was suppose to be gone in the afternoon so there was some discussions about it ( I thought they where gonna be mad at me on Tuesday but they wasn't), I had told them the first week here that I had an exam that day. Have some things I have to work on in the paper but I'm just so stuck at doing like nothing during the days right now. I'm just so unmotivated that it feels like I'm getting no where. But I will just have to digg my head in to the articles and the paper and start some where otherwise I will Never finnish.
Much more fun to go out on ladies nights with new found friends and have a drink or go to the night market and get a henna tattoo. Or just go around for walks. I haven't been anywhere in particular this last week and a lot of time has been spent on the hotel room watching series or talking to friends on skype. But I found this really cool shop in one of the streets in old quarter that sold t-shirts and tops but the walls was covered in brow papers with different langues, every one that has been there to shop had written a not with "Hi", "How are you", "Thanks" and "Cheers" in their langues really nice!
I changed hotel yesterday after staying in the old one for a month this new one is so nice! Still don't have any real window but the room is bigger, the bed is bigger, the bathroom is nicer and not to talk about the breakfast. I'm looking forward to Saturday when I can actually enjoy the breakfast a bit and don't have to stress away to the hospital in the morning.
On the other hand I'm going to a wedding on Saturday but it's not until 15pm so I have time. Going shopping for a dress on wednsday, cause apparently I need to wear a "polished" white or colorful dress on saturday.... That sounds like me right? And I would really lie to buy a nice pair of heals to wear and then I remember that I'm allready a bit taller then most people here so if I wear heals I'm really going to be a Giant, but I like heals they look nice with dresses.
What else have I been up to this week? I applied for my first ever physiotherapist job. I mean It's time to start searching for jobs now so that I might get some after graduation in January. This job I applied for I really like to get, but I mean how big is the chance that you get the first job you apply for? Any way It's in Denmark and Kopenhagen, working with children. Last day to apply is today so we will see if I hear back from them or not later. Felt a bit grown up and weird actually applying for a job that I have been studying for the last 2½ years. It's kind of scary that that's the reality soon, real job as a Physiotherapist.
Long time ago
Good morning, or maybe not so good. My body and head doesn't really like me today, Well it didn't like me yesterday evening either. My little adventure yesterday to go to the West lake ended up in a 6h walk since I ended up walking there and back and then getting a bit lost on my way back to the hotel. So today my head is telling me that i should have been drinking more, my face that I should worn sunscreen and my leg that I should not walk for this long distance. But It was really worth it. So nice to go to a quiet place where you can't hear all the traffic from a busy Hanoi. When my parents and grandparents are coming down we are definitive going there and taking the boat out on the lake.
I would just like to spend the whole day in bed today and do nothing to just recover but i have to study so think I will go to some café and do that later =)
I would just like to spend the whole day in bed today and do nothing to just recover but i have to study so think I will go to some café and do that later =)
On the way to West lake
A part of the Historical legacy of Vietnam
I don't think there is anything that the Vietnamese can't transport on a motorbike
West lake
West lake
West lake
West lake
West lake
West lake
On my way home to the hotel
Don't like me.
What do you wear to.....
I think that my braids was one of the top topics during the rest of the day, at least among the female staff at the hospital, the big question was "had I done them my self?" Really fun some of them actually walked around me just to inspect them and try to see how I had done them.
A other fun conversation from today was the topic of today's "English class" (The days when there aren't so many patient's some of us sit down and talk so they can practice English). Today's topic was weddings and the cultural differences in how long to be together before getting married. In Vietnam they are very quick I got to hear stories with everything from 1 week then wedding to 6 months. I mean really you have been together for one week and then you get married? I think 6 months are way to short also but at least you have some time to get to start knowing the person you are gonna marry if you have 6 months until the wedding. But the conversation was fun with a lots of laughter, many because of the plan they made up for med. At least they made me a 4 year plan and not a 2 months plan. So compare to last week when everything was terrible this week is just getting better.
After this good day at the hospital I decided that I was gonna go to the Mega mall for some shopping to reward myself for the good job I made withe the new PM and gave in in on time yesterday. But I didn't find anything! nothing fun, my wonderful flatmate would have loved the stores with all the cute dresses but for me nothing. I was considering buying some training clothes but there was only Adidas and that we have in Sweden so that's no fun. So I decided to go and eat dinner instead and since I'm so tired of the rice (served to everything you eat here, there is even rice at breakfast at my hotel) I decided to go and eat at Pizza Hut. So to celebrate in my loneliness did I order a three course meal and though yes now I'm really spoiling myself, even ordered smoothie instead of any soda. And what did I pay? Around 70 - 80Kr. How could I spend so much money on food? So worth it just to get away from the rice so what that it was a carboverload sometimes are you worth it, plus that I trained when i got back to the hotel.
Total self-esteem boo...
But then I landed here and went to the hospital and the famous plan b that seems to required by most of the MFS-scholarship receivers was a fact. So now I'm sitting here and writing a new PM, the good thing is that I don't have to rewrite the whole thing and I'm 5 hours before Sweden so tomorrow when I'm starting to feel stressed about getting it in on time I can just think that "okey breathe you have 5 more hours to finish this, no panic".
But this new subject with children that have cerebral palsy are going to be so much more fun to study then the first subject, it's so much more closer to the original idea I had when I started to think about applying for the MFS-scholarship.
The thing is
No it's not gonna be an other depressing text about how I'm alone and homesick.
I'm now at week two at Vinmec and yes I'm starting to find my way around and I'm aloud to do some more things (not much but still it's progress), help out with some of the patients, discuss what I would have done in the different situations and so on. The thing is that the first day I came here I sat down and talked to the head of department and the head physiotherapist and we talked about my goals, what kind of patients they had here in the hospital and a lot of questions about Sweden. But since that day I feel a bit like they got a bit stuck on what I would like to write my thesis about and not so much that I said that I'm interested in learning and seeing as much as possible on the side of the thesis subject as well. The thing is also as I wrote before that I changed the subject of my thesis when I came here because of that they didn't have so many patients in this area right now, but said that they had a lot of patients in the new area. And yes they have a lot of these patients, all the day I see them in the waiting room but they don't come to see the physiotherapists. I mean they can have 15 patients every day and I have seen the physiotherapists work with 3, it's 3 good patients cause they come everyday witch mean that I really can observe them and see if I can see any difference. But what happens with the other 12 patients everyday? Well they come to see the rehab doctor that evaluates them and sends them for tests before they have an operation and after that they go home. I hope that they go to some physiotherapist maybe closer to where they live but I don't know.
I'm now at week two at Vinmec and yes I'm starting to find my way around and I'm aloud to do some more things (not much but still it's progress), help out with some of the patients, discuss what I would have done in the different situations and so on. The thing is that the first day I came here I sat down and talked to the head of department and the head physiotherapist and we talked about my goals, what kind of patients they had here in the hospital and a lot of questions about Sweden. But since that day I feel a bit like they got a bit stuck on what I would like to write my thesis about and not so much that I said that I'm interested in learning and seeing as much as possible on the side of the thesis subject as well. The thing is also as I wrote before that I changed the subject of my thesis when I came here because of that they didn't have so many patients in this area right now, but said that they had a lot of patients in the new area. And yes they have a lot of these patients, all the day I see them in the waiting room but they don't come to see the physiotherapists. I mean they can have 15 patients every day and I have seen the physiotherapists work with 3, it's 3 good patients cause they come everyday witch mean that I really can observe them and see if I can see any difference. But what happens with the other 12 patients everyday? Well they come to see the rehab doctor that evaluates them and sends them for tests before they have an operation and after that they go home. I hope that they go to some physiotherapist maybe closer to where they live but I don't know.
So I think I will have to sit down with them again and talk because I think they didn't really understand me when we talked the first time. But in one way I don't know how to explain it to them in an other way. A other thing is the misunderstanding or maybe more of a expectation from my side was that they would speak much better English then they do (even do I have been told that Vietnamese English usually aren't so good), both because when you send a email to them you get a respond in perfect English and when I asked about the English of the staff in the hospital (if I needed a interpreter) they told me no, the staff speaks good English. And yes some of the staff is fluid in English but none that works at my department, some of them are good and I can talked with them but there are still many moments when I don't know how to talk to explain things because they don't understand me and if I try to make it very easy the whole thing just gets the wrong meaning. The positive thing is that most of the staff goes to English lessons at the hospital every week so they are really trying. But the fact remains that their English aren't so good that I had hoped and I'm thinking about get a interpeter any way, not so much for the regular days but when the days come and I will do my interviews, It's better to have a interpeter and get some hopefully good answers then to spend most of the inteerview trying to explain the questions.
One other thing I have to talk to them about is if there is some possibilities to be more involved in the patients, cause as it is right now, I'm just walking around looking and asking if they are doing anything intresting and mostly the patients gets some kind of electrotherapy and if they just show me how the machine works I can do that.
I have this feeling that when you study to become physiotherapist in Vietnam you don't det to go out on clinical rotations to see and work with real patients but I don't know if it's like this. But everytime there comes a new patient they ask me if I have ever seen this kind of patient and it can be very basic patients like lower back pain, knee arthrosis, hip replacement, femur fractures and so on and these patients are some of the most common patients in physiotherapy and almost all of us in Sweden gets to see these patients through school or our clinical rotations. So I get a bit confused some times when they ask me these questions cause for me it's a matter of course to have seen these patients in the end of your education.
Not as I thought it w...
A good day
Today I have to be at the hospital until 12 after that i will go to a café and write on my PM until Linh get off work at 17. Then it's motorbike adventures and pizzacons that's waiting.
Today is gonna be a b...
Feeling like a giant freak, yes it's one of those day today. I know everyone here is friendly and often tries their best to talk to me and all. But today everything has felt bad. Starting with this morning when i was suppose to get my uniform from the laundry and they didn't know where my pants where. Shore you might think that's not a problem but when I got my pants the first time they had to take a pair and make them after me cause I'm taller and bigger then most people here. That's part one off feeling like a giant. And since I had to wait for them to find my pant's witch they didn't (I got to borrow a other pair that was very much to short so I looked ridiculous) I was late for the morning meeting so they had stared and since I wasn't there from the beginning they only spoke Vietnamese... usually I'm one of the first there and then they speak English or at least try. The rest of the day just went on like this, every one spoke Vietnamese, their was no patients for me to see until 3 pm ( I start at 8 am). I have basically been sitting on a chair doing nothing today. Oh yes I helped fold i don't know how many paper sheets. At least I have Linh that's sitting in the reception that wants to learn more English and tries to speak with me as much as possible. But then again at lunch I think I said 5 words because I didn't understand the conversations.
One more thing that contributes to this feeling today is the notion that they speak about me. I know I'm new and I don't look like them but still the feeling that every time I go in to the lunchroom or the elevator and someone is there that they start talking behind my back and even do I don't understand them and maybe they say something very nice it's still not a good feeling I get. When I have someone from the department with me it's usually better cause then they explains to me what the other people are saying.
Sorry for being so depressing but it's just one of dose days today. Tomorrow will probably be better only have to be at the hospital until 12 and in the afternoon me and Linh are gonna go and eat pizzacons. They look really good hopefully they taste good to.
One more thing that contributes to this feeling today is the notion that they speak about me. I know I'm new and I don't look like them but still the feeling that every time I go in to the lunchroom or the elevator and someone is there that they start talking behind my back and even do I don't understand them and maybe they say something very nice it's still not a good feeling I get. When I have someone from the department with me it's usually better cause then they explains to me what the other people are saying.
Sorry for being so depressing but it's just one of dose days today. Tomorrow will probably be better only have to be at the hospital until 12 and in the afternoon me and Linh are gonna go and eat pizzacons. They look really good hopefully they taste good to.
A big giant freak
Second day at the hospital, the staff and the physios are very interesed about the Swedish helth care system and how the physiotherapists work. One thing that I found very intresting yesterday was that they have rehabilitation doctors and all patients first meet the doctor that after the doctor tells the physiotherapists what kind of treatment he thinks the patient should be given. But what I started wondering about was, Vinmec has all the equitment you can need when it comes to the electro therapy area but they use it so much, I have learned to set up a treatment plan consisting of one maybe two main methods and then give them time to be tested out and see if it works. Cause if you go on with 5-6 methods then how can you know what is working and whats not working and maybe the patients injury can't handle so many methods at once. And what about the home excersises? Here in Vietnam there are no health centers only hospital that are private or public so if someone needs a physiotherapis they go to the hospital to meet the physiotherapist. But they don't give out excersises to go home with.
The funny thing is that i discussed this with one of the physiotherapists in the department and he agreed with me, he has been working for many years and was wondering a lot about how we work in Sweden so we had a long conversation about different areas and what I would do with that patient and what he would do and just shooting ideas back and forth. It was really fun.
Interesting discussio...
Just the fact that i got up this morning is amazing since I couldn't fall asleep yesterday and has been sleeping so bad this night. Probably cause I was nervouse about the first day at the hospital. But I got up and away to the first day at Vinmec.
The first impression when i got out of the cab was woaw this is a big hospital im gonna get lost, the second thought that went through my head when I got in to the lobby was -this looks like a hotel. I mean as soon as i got through the doors someone came up to me and asked how they could help me.They had one international disk and one disk for Vietnamese. When you have been at on of the disks their is a new person showing you were you can sit down and wait for someone to come and pic you up.
I didn't have to go to any of these disks I just called the person I was supose to call and sat down and waited. Efter been picked up I had to go to human resources and fill in some papers, atleast one of them were in english, the others in Vietnamese but they translated it for me, was just papers to sign about confidentiality that I had to sign. After signing papers it was the clothes that was next on the list for things to do, I got a doctors coat that later during the day turned out to be wrong so I got new chlothes in the afternoon, so now I look like everyone else in the department. But I'm impressed that they found clothes that fit me, considering the sizes of the people in this country. But they did so now are my clothes haning in my very own locker.
Third thing on the list to do this morning, being showed where to check in and out with my Vinmeci ID-card when I starts and finishing the days. I will work Monday-Saturday 8-17, seriously that's a lot and why are they working on Saturdays? I mean okey i have notice that this city never sleeps, it doesn't mather what time during the day you go out the streets are always busy.
After all this it was finally tie to go up at meet the department I will be at for the next 7weeks. When I walked through the doors I was met up by a very nice nurse that showed me to the head of the Department and then I got to meet the Cheif physio at the department as well. Sat down and talked to them about what I wanted with this time at Vinmec and what they could do for me. I also got some general information about the health system in Vietnam and Vinmec in particular. They were both very nice and helpfull, I might not stay at Vinmec for all seven weeks cause they said that they might be able to fix so that i could go to some other hospitals as well to see. But we will see about that later.
After this little meating I was shown around the department, I will never be able to remember all the different rooms... And the rest of the day I have just been following different physiotherapist around and watched when they work with patients. And answering a lot of questions, they are very intrested in how we do things in Sweden, but the main question has been "where are you from?" but most of them speak very good English so it's fun to have some to talk to. Sevral of them have allready told me places to go and visit and offered to guide me so that is nice. Started to feel a bit lonley at the hotel sometimes just walking the same streets every day.
My head is so tierd after this first day, so much new people and impression but i think that these 7weeks will be really fun and instructive.
Oh yes after one day at the hospital I'm thinking about changing my focus fore the bachelor thesis. So now I have to start allover with the memo that is due in 2weeks and I was finished with the old one. Oh well this one will hopefully be more intresting.
First day!
But one thing I was wondering about to day was that a lot of people on the street pointed to my shoes and said something, I couldn't figure out what they wanted with my shoes so I never stop just kept on walking. Later I realized that the man point at my shoes wanted to clean them... but come on it's a pair of gym shoes not leather shoes they are gonna be dirty again in a few hours. But it's nice of them to offer.
One more thing I figured out today is that even if the Vietnamese people not always are so good in English they want to learn. Today I have had 4 different person coming up to me and asked if they could speak with me for a few minutes cause they want to practice their English. So in a way I think that it could be kind of easy to get to know the people here so maybe I don't have to go on my walks on my own any more.
What do you want with...
Pictures
After this amazing lunch we went to the Literature mausoleum, I know i have already been there once... But it turns out me and the German girl missed a whole house. And i really like this place cause it's a quiet place in this noisy city.
After this she helped me get a Vietnamese phone number and we went for some drinks high up in a coffeshop from were you could see the whole Hoam Kiem lake, it was a beautiful view. So even if we haven't stayed in so many places today we have been going around a big part of Hanoi on the motorbike and when you are just sitting behind and going for a ride you can really look around and see the city.
I will upload some pictures from today later, now I think I will go for a eveningwalk so that i can stay awake until the international evening that is at LTU tonight.
Around Hanoi on a mot...
After sleeping a few hours in the hotel yesterday (was only suppose to sleep one hour). I took myself out of the hotel room and to the night market. Witch was a really nice market with a lot of people, I found a girl that had the same map as me that I got from my hotel and she looked just as lost as me so i started talking to her.
So today we met up in the morning and has gone around visiting different tourist attractions. We have been to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Ho Chi Minh mausoleum ( but we could just go outside it), the president residence, the house Ho Chi Minh lived in, the literature maunsoleum and the Hoam Kiem lake. So we have been around a bit.
So today we met up in the morning and has gone around visiting different tourist attractions. We have been to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Ho Chi Minh mausoleum ( but we could just go outside it), the president residence, the house Ho Chi Minh lived in, the literature maunsoleum and the Hoam Kiem lake. So we have been around a bit.
Today's realization was that out of cabs, tuctucs and motorbikes the motorbikes are the cheapest and easiest (you can easily fit 3 grown people on a motorbike), the tuctucs are the fewest and the cabs feels the safest. And we notice or rather couldn't notice and speed limit signs so no wonder the traffic is like it is down here and that it doesn't really matter witch lane you drive in.