The Globetrotter

Being one to take everything to the extreme, I chose to go to India to gain some valuable (and very expensive) work experience.
I really did not know what I was letting myself in for when I went out there. The only pictures I had really seen of Indian life and culture were off the Taj Mahal, mountain ranges and the amazingly rich culture of Rajasthan.

I thought that India was becoming quite a developed country - I thought wrong. Sivakasi is a small town of little consequence in the middle of the state Tamil Nadu. It is basically a dust hole which relies upon its firework industry. Its far from a tourist hot spot but its a long way off a shanty town.

My work experience was amazing! I was taught a few of the nurses jobs and I got to shadow the doctors who even taught me how to examine the patients - Some examinations however were not that pleasant, namely a rectal exam of some old geezer.

One of the major culture shocks - after the indigestable food, was the state of public health care. I feel privileged that we have such the NHS as it seems far from disfunctional in comparison to the Government Hospitals. I saw nurse use the same needle up to 5 times and none of the surgical kit is specially sterilised.

Of course none of that stopped me from having a truly awesome time. I met some incredible people, made some great friends and got to have some once in a life time experiences.
I was able to observe an amputation and a caesarean and assisted in delivering a baby, which has got to be my all time greatest achievement in life so far.

Of course it wasn't all about the medicine. We took days off to visit Madurai

My first proper travelling adventure was on a once in a lifetime school trip to Xiamen in the southern province of Fujian in China. It is a really extraordinary city, it lacks the hustle of the overcrowded cities of Beijing and Shanghai, but it has some fantastic temples and beautiful beaches with stunning views over the ocean. Ok, so it doesn't sound that "extraordinary", but it was a city on an island, conected to the mainland around it by 3 bridges.

The whole purpose of this trip, which was sponsored by the British Consulate, was to promote relations between Britain and China and encourage is to learn Mandarin. If anything it put me off the latter, as it was incredibly hard to learn. I did however, make some great friends whilst out there. The 2 that i still keep in contact with most are Harvest and Popo. - Yes that is there real names!! Amazingly they chose these bizarre english names for themselves.

I love China!! Can't wait to go back to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and spend a small fortune (in chinese terms) in Beijing. - Thats all there is to say really