Life as a Hobbit

     The only hikes I've tackled around Christchurch have managed to be up so much hill.  Chicago got me real soft when it comes to elevation changes. I went from a flat residential neighborhood to climbing through a thin line of shady pines which shunted me out onto a sunny, unprotected hillside that just kept going up and up and up.  And up. Signs warned me as soon as I was on the trail proper not to mess with lambs.   I really wish the sign read Danger: Sheep. The smaller text just warns you not to pick up and try to carry off the lambs.  Like any baby seal left on a beach, picking up an unknown baby animal is likely to bring more trouble than good into their life. The text is awfully to the point.  "DO NOT PICK ME UP, as your smell will stay on me so my mum won't want me back and I could die."  And then the Mama Sheep says "I can hear my lamb, I will be back soon.  PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH MY LAMB." You don't have to tell me twice. T...

Hierarchy       Seems way diminished. I’ve worked with plenty of young 20-something residents (doctors in their first few years out of school, when they are doing their practical training) who are comfortable with being called by their first name. But seeing a salt-and-pepper attending (boss doctor) introduce himself to patients and their families as simply Andrew was rather surprising. I’ve definitely felt on equal footing as a team member, and PT, OT, MD, RN, we always go by name, not titles. Code status     Different hospitals I’ve worked at in the US have different approaches and cultures around the code status conversation, but it is usually rolled out as this terrible question: “Do you want us to do everything?”  Couching it in those terms does not communicate that CPR (and intubation, and last-ditch medications that have serious downsides, aka “everything”) can have outcomes like broken bones, inability to wean off of the ventilator, and t...

  Lonesome George was a La Pinta Galapagos Tortoise. I learned about him from this fantastic podcast (Let's Learn Everything - Episode 43: Gravitational Waves, The Loneliest Animal, and Graffiti). George was put forth as a candidate for loneliest animal since he was the last of his subspecies. For decades attempts were made to get him to fertilize the eggs of some closely related tortoises, so at least a hybrid would remain, but the eggs were never viable.   He died at age 102, which is only about middle age for Galapagos Tortoises. In the podcast people point out that George was able to live with other tortoises for his whole life, so he probably never even recognized that he was the last of his kind in a very specific way. George as a figure of loneliness doesn't hold a candle to the whale who cannot sing at the right pitch that other whales do. Read up on the 52Hz whale . I dare you not to feel a pang of sympathy at the idea of being lonely and alone in the ocean. W...

  The trail was named after the captain of the ship Hawk that wrecked on the beach here.  Poor Taylor, remembered for a bad day. When I looked at my phone it says I climbed 99 flights of stairs today.  Oops.  I had not realized this was such a difficult hike. My coworker recommended it as a family hike that she does with her kids I knew that she had brought her kids along so it had to be doable by me on a bright and sunny New Zealand morning. And this picture actually underestimates my climb,  because the bus dropped me off at the beach and it was another 300 foot climb to get to the trailhead.  300 feet is about 28 stories. The switchbacks need to be that spiky to get up those cliffs. New Zealand seems to wear gorgeous like it’s a comfy t-shirt, "No big deal I’m just going to be breath-taking around every corner, just cuz it’s comfy." The trail is an in-and-out, and there were multiple water fountains along the way, which were total lifesavers given ho...

  Naps. Look at those coarse whiskers. 

 Ooh-mah-roo.  Friendly Bay has a walking path and historical markers, so I spent the afternoon wending my way from marker to marker, my interest ebbing away like the tide. I am always compelled to read every placard and posted sign, and I can say that these were perhaps the dullest I’ve ever come across.  There were some dull photos and some dull primary documents (a newspaper account from the 1880s about an engine on a.. crane? A ship? I can’t even remember. Look, I can happily read about rocks used as infill and look at old photos of men with muttonchops and the exotic New Zealand port of Oamaru, where great breakthroughs in refrigeration were made so that NZ mutton could be exported all over the world. But not when they’re as dry as sawdust muesli.  The most interesting thing I can say I saw and retained from those information panels was the one that had a broken spot where a wasp might build a very sneaky nest.  I saw one fairy penguin and a lot of fairy pe...

People clock me real fast as being from the United States. What can I say, wherever I go I’m not from around here. I keep telling people that I came from Chicago. Most recently, Chicago. It comes out naturally, and unless they crack on questioning I don’t say Illinois, or Kentucky by way of California or all my other inbetweens of wandering.  I think it helps that Chicago is the only place I think about going back to (home to) which is a comforting degree of certainty. I have had home bases in the last 20+ years but my intention has never been committed like it is to Chicago. And the city shows up in funny ways in my daily life here, which feels synchronous. This evening I wanted to show my new flatmates what a snapping turtle looks like.  I pulled up an image search , and then got inordinately excited to see Chonkosaurus as the first search result. The quintessential, essence of, snapping turtle distilled. Wrapped up and delivered across the globe care of Joey.  Photo cr...

  Frolic - no different meaning than the usual one, I’ve just heard it far more often in daily conversation than is the norm in my life in the States. And I live a pretty frolicsome life Fling - to send something, ala “fling me a message.”  This makes me wonder, like a frisbee?  Like a fish?  Speaking of fish… Chocolate fish - a reward or public recognition. “She deserves a chocolate fish!” I have seen one store that carries marshmallows shaped like fish and enrobed in chocolate, so presumably the candy came first and then the expression. Maybe you win them as a prize at school.  Pottle - medicine cup or any little cup that holds things like dentures or hearing aides Moli - (for MoliCare, the brand name) an adult brief/diaper Consultant - most experience doctor on the team (equivalent to “attending”) Registrar - a doctor in training with several years of experience but not fully through with their clinical program House Operator - newly graduated doctor, ...

 I think this is the 15th time I have celebrated my vegan February tradition.  It has been easy to find vegan ingredients at the grocery store in New Zealand.  Mainstream restaurants don't seem to have many options but cafes will usually have a vegan nosh of some kind, and they have all the alt milks. A vegan full English.  I am missing a tomato that for some reason has been kind of cooked. I have to admit that peanut butter and chocolate chips make for a banger of a girl dinner.  I was leery of the sugar free chocolate, but they were the only vegan kind and they turned out to be quite pleasant.  The chocolate chips are tiny and cute, about the size of the bits of peanut in the peanut butter.  The standard peanut butter here is the hippie kind, peanuts and salt and nothing else.

 Take these differences with a pinch of salt, this is all just my first 4 shifts on the job worth of observations. I'm working in a rehab (nonacute) hospital.  In addition to the stroke rehab there's also a brain injury rehab, a spinal care unit, a same-day surgery suite, an orthopedics ward,  a full radiology and CT department and a laboratory for both outpatients and inpatients.  I had to have blood drawn for occupational health there and it was the fastest, most efficient blood draw I have ever had in my life, I was in and out in probably 5 minutes, blood safely in a little tube.  On the things we don't have, no emergency department or ICU or anywhere to upgrade a worsening patient besides popping them in an ambulance and sending them over to "the public hospital" which is the only thing I've heard people call Christchurch Hospital.  From what I have read about the private hospital (for the privately insured) they cannot maintain enough staff to kee...