The First Week

Well my first week of dental school has come and gone. It was a busy first week with all the social gatherings that I 'had' to go to but it was great. Much better than my orientation for first year university and the 'pants pants pants' song that science students were taught.

Monday consisted of the Dean's Welcome, a BBQ, a beer I choked down at the Plant and just general information.

Tuesday was a full day of activities at Rundle Park. It brought me back to the days of Leadership in High School. Icebreakers, team-building activities and all of those things. At first I was like "man I did those things before why do I have to do them again?". However, once I was there I immediately saw the need for them because well I hardly knew the 4-5 busloads of people who were there (included in this were med students, hygiene, dent and med lab). At the end of the day I had to get quite physically close to many males & females while standing on logs trying to cross the quicksand. I got to know lots of new people and get to know them outside of a classroom setting...something that I've quite often had a problem with.

Wednesday was scrub fitting...a 10 minute task that had a block of an hour and a half, financial aid info, curriculum overviews. The best part was the evening. Then, there was the Startline party at the (now smokefree!!!!) Ironhorse. I'd say that over 250 students, including myself, showed up in our hottest tropical attire and tried to dance the night away. I still classify myself as being one of the lesser quality dancers but when you are in the same faculty it somehow didn't seem to matter half as much to me. Sadly though, I need a new Hawaiiwan shirt because I've been using the same one since Grade 11 at Ainlay. I don't want to get pigeonholed.

Thursday was first going to the casino with my Grandma where I won 10 dollars. Then in the evening we had the Oath Ceremony where all 4 branches committed themselves to student created ideals. It reaffirmed my belief that the medical profession where one needs to show integrity and honesty. Most importantly though I thought it was great to hear that you aren't supposed to know all of the answers!! As well, it was an excuse to wear my pink tie!!

Friday was the costume golf tournament and pub crawl. I didn't go on the pub crawl because I was too tired and just chose to watch movies like Sin City at home. Going to the bar once in a week is enough for me. Back to the golf tournament. We went to a pitch and putt called Coyote Canyon in St. Albert. I came dressed as Dracula with an umbrela. Umbrela? you may ask...vampires are allergic to the sun. It was a great time and I golfed well. The only casualty were my gums that got chewed up from wearing costume teeth. Never again!

Too bad school wasn't like that all the time!