Well, that's the first week wrapped up. Overall, it's been really good. I wasn't terribly excited about the first week, aware as I was that much of it would be fairly dull induction business.
Monday pretty much was, with person after person visiting us in the lecture room to tell us that our brains would be so full by the end of the day they'd hurt, then to inform us of how they could help to support us in various ways. It was good to find out from the IT guy how we could log into emails and brightspace and find our way around. It was interesting finding out who sorts out the placements and how. But my brain did not feel full by the end of the day and it certainly didn't hurt. Plenty of space left, desperate to do some biology!
Tuesday was very much more exciting. We learn about the structure of the course and how we'll be taught and assessed. Writing when our practice taster days and trust induction days would be in my planner really perked me up... they're within reach!
Wednesday was a VLE day, so I did some of the reading and note-taking on videos on Tuesday evening, then spent the day with the small people and did the rest of the reading in the evening. It was quite a bit of reading, actually, but lots of it was just refreshing my memory of things I either already knew, because going through IUI really enriches your understanding of the menstrual cycle, or had recently read in the Myles textbook I've been slowly ploughing my way through.
It was wonderful to spend the day with Master R and Miss O. Although actually, because I decided to go to Bury for one errand, then decided I should do an extra errand as well, then realised the clonking car really did need to pop to the garage, it turned into a really full day! But we fitted in frisbee and exploring at Nowton Park, lunch at Sainsbury's, and some great block building in the lounge. Some of it while I examined the insides of my eyelids REALLY CLOSELY.
Yesterday, Thursday, was definitely my favourite day because it involved REAL LEARNING. Group work in the morning, sharing our knowledge of the menstrual cycle. It was rather challenging, but I came out of it with a deeper understanding, from discussing it with others. And in the afternoon we were going over reproductive systems, which was interesting, especially some of the unusual diagrams and slides, the likes of which I've never seen before. We ended with a quiz, which we had to race to answer on our phones, which was unbelievably tense!! I didn't mind until I got a couple wrong, then I was really cross with myself, because this is stuff I do know... but I managed to pull it back towards the end and finished on the podium, so I was relieved about that!
Also, I was astounded that modern phones essentially turned our lesson into a TV gameshow. How times have changed since my day, when we scribbled answers on paper and passed to a friend to mark! Oh god. Could I be any more middle aged?!
Today we had a session in an IT lab, practising searching the library catalogue and learning about referencing. To be honest, considering that you can just click an icon when you're looking at a book/journal/dissertation on the library catalogue and it brings you up a copy and paste text to put in your references section, I don't think there's any excuse for referencing incorrectly in this day and age! When I was at Uni, you had to painstakingly type out all the information and format it correctly! Studying has got so much easier!
During our lunch break... actually... first, can we just discuss this lunch break business? We get a HALF HOUR break every morning; more than enough time to wee and drink a hot drink. We then get AN HOUR, sometimes MORE for lunch. AN HOUR!! I'm finding this both an insane level of luxury, given my previous careers as a mother and primary school teacher. The last time I had lunch breaks this long I was a drama student at UEA! Next week, I'm going to make sure I've got the resources to do pre-reading during this hour, because as lovely as it is to sit around chatting to my colleagues, I'm not wasting five good hours every week!!
Anyway, during today's lunch break, we had our fittings for our student midwife trousers and tunics, which was really exciting! We didn't expect to be collecting our kits that day, but they'd brought loads of boxes with them, so we we were able to!! I also tried on a dress, and I'm definitely ordering one of those, because I felt very much like a real midwife in it. Especially now I can sketch the levels of oestrogen during a menstrual cycle and describe meiosis! Still a long way to go... but I'm several little steps forward!
We had another group task this afternoon, and I enjoyed it immensely. We were challenged to discuss our experiences and feelings around birth and represent them using paper, pens, plastercine or our own bodies. Unsurprisingly, no group chose to act out a scene or a tableau. In my group, we'd got quite a range of experiences, involving both positive, empowering births, and devastating and distressing ones. We modelled these differences with plastercine, creating a scene featuring an armless, powerless birthing person lying semi-recumbent, while powerful, tall people stood looking down at her and then an empowered woman birthing upright. I think we did quite well to demonstrate how different birthing experiences can be, and how differently they can make people feel. Huge juxtaposition.
This weekend, we've got a community gardening session to plant five trees to begin our Scattered Orchard tomorrow morning, then nothing particular in the calendar. Master R has some homework to do and I have some pre-reading to do. And there's hoovering, dusting and some laundry to be done too. But I've mopped the floors this evening, so that's already ticked off. Oh, and I'd like at least one lie-in. Not because I'm tired from Uni. A 9:30-3:30 day with at least 1.5 hours of breaks I can cope with. Miss O waking in the middle of the night each night and interrupting my sleep, then waking for the day at 5:30 is rather less welcome! It would also be really good if Rachel's back would release from its current spasmy, ceased-up position, so she can move around a bit more freely. And not just because doing the majority of the jobs around the house is tiring... mostly because she's in such pain!
The mornings have been pretty easy this week, because since January, I've been making sure I get up at 6:30, so I can fit in all the morning jobs, including a work out and some yoga for me, and still have us all ready to leave the house by 8:30. I've been quite deliberately rehearsing this, slightly less relaxed routine so that by the time Uni came around, I'd know what I could and couldn't fit in. It's worked perfectly, as I've needed to leave at 8:20 to drop the children at their holiday club, just as we'll need to next week to walk to school. Some mornings, I've even managed to wash up the breakfast things! Since November time we've been making sure packed lunches and reading practise are done in the evening rather than the morning, to make getting up and out a little less stressful.
So far, it's all ticketty-boo!
P.S. I'm well aware it's not going to be ticketty-boo throughout, so I'm relishing it while it lasts!