So, I'm in Ireland right now, on a noisy train to go visit my study buddy from part I in Tullamore. There are a ton of loud Americans here! And for once, I am not actually one of them. I am quietly working on this blog post. Hahaha. I just finished the second part of the Irish dental exam yesterday, and it was exhausting. Je suis épuisée. I'm realizing the hard way that I am too old to keep living the life of a student. This was a months long process of stress and trying to find pockets of time to study. I'm spent. I don't know how well I did, I don't feel that it went as well as part I. I think there were more errors made and I'm terrible with interview exams, time pressure and immediate responses (I don't think I had hardly any interview exams in dental school, actually). On the other hand I don't feel that the exam was totally catostrophic, either? Some of the interviewers were definitely trying to help me out. "What is another thing that you would give to someone who was having difficulty breathing, besides their inhalor???" "Oh oxygen, yes!" Duh, forehead smack...after saying a bunch of medications that could potentially work, but were not the obvious of OXYGEN. Maybe it was terrible and I'm just too tired to really care about it at this point? Three parts to this section of the exam: 2 days of Theory (written papers), 1 day of OSCEs clinical stations, and 1 day of interviews.
I miss my kids and look forward to seeing those little stinkers tomorrow morning after my early flight back to Luxembourg. I made a few new friends this time while I was here. One girl is from Turkey, one from India, and another from Malaysia. All dentists who moved, or are moving to Ireland to follow their husbands/partners (but some of them also think their home country is going down the drain, so it's tough, but they feel that it would be better to leave.
....
Now at the gate to catch my flight to Luxembourg.. Apparently, Friday night was the first of three evenings of Taylor Swift concerts here in Dublin. Booking the train back from Tullamore was tricky because all the train tickets were sold out (except the one during the concert) and the airport was absolutely packed this morning at 4am. I mentioned how busy it was to the boarding pass agent, and she said "Tell me about it.... Taylor Swift, and this is just the beginning of it." and gave me this look, as if to say "all this for a pop show." Oh boy., I look forward to my life returning to some semblence of normalcy.
I'm flying out to California in a few days. I'm really looking forward to it, but I haven't been able to sleep much at all the last few nights with the early morning travel, and just not being able to fall asleep right away when I go to bed. I hope I survive the long flight with my kids. Luckily, my sister will be there to help (she is already in Luxembourg) and N will be there as well.
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