activity

so a fortnight into fourth year, things seem to be picking up pace. changing gears, perhaps? i wouldn't know, being completely useless and unable to drive stick. then again, if my uk driver's licence is to be believed, i can! and motorcycles and massive lorry-type things too. funny how my one automatic licence when converted conferred me additional and undeserved powers. but i digress.

it's been o-k so far? funny regression to pre-clinical before it's fast and furious clinicals after christmas. enjoying the down time, maybe skipping more lectures than i should. i blame my short attention span (not so much ADD but you get the picture) and preference for reading over slides on my own (and not listening to someone drone on for 2h on end). 

some excitement in the next few days. a dear housemate from stockholm is visiting with a friend so that should be good fun. she's a sweetheart and being the nostalgic sap i am, associate her with a time when i was young and carefree. in a way i like to think i still am (me me me, oh dear!) but there's no denying that things are different now. we met on the very first day in stockholm and discovered we were corridor-mates (there were 12 en suites sharing a corridor!) which was nothing short of serendipity given how many hundred internationals there must've been. we'd natter away in japanese, much to the amusement of the corridor dad (dubious honour given how he was the only swede and been living there longer than the rest) he used to comment that we sounded like kittens, which in retrospect may have been more pervy than i'd have liked to believe. but hey, benefit of doubt + lost in translation! 

when it was time for me to leave, she helped drag my massive suitcase all the way to the tunnelbana and burst into tears as i crossed the turnstiles. and when i visited in summer, she let me stay in hers so it was nice to be back on our corridor to pretend i was still on exchange (when i had in fact just graduated and stared down an uncertain future of bar exam + medsch entrance exam + medsch apps.

we linked up in tokyo a couple of years later when she was working, and when i was in first year of uni round 2, we had a skype reunion. this time she was in stockholm with what was left of our then corridor, and i was in halls. finally finally two years on it's time for some proper facetime and i can't wait to see her again. only too happy to play tour guide and wish i was in edinburgh today (where she's staying with krishna, another of our corridormates but alas i took the commercial decision to stay put and patiently await her arrival. 

there we go - a lengthy preamble about why i'm looking forward to the next couple of days. it's the business before having houseguests now. supermarket run to stock up on milk and snacks, doing a few loads of laundry to make sure bedding is nice and clean, and general activity planning using accuweather as a guide.