Long Time in the Making- 2nd Year DDS

Hello to all,

I understand it has been ages since the last time that I updated this blog. Sincerest of apologies sent out to family members and followers. The last time I posted was when I finished first year and was on my way home. So a lot to catch up on for the people I haven't talked to in a while. I'll start from the beginning.

So the summer was incredible. It reminded me how nice it is to be in Canada (and also how expensive Canada is compared to Poland). I spent some time at the Fredericton Dental Center with my favorite people in the dental world. Being in the dental clinic made a lot more sense this time around, now that I know a thing or two about dentistry. At the beginning of the summer I traveled to Toronto to visit my man KK (Shout out) and to see a few more beauties J&K Whelly (for their Birthday), K and my girl Jaded. We had a great time and really torn up the city. Here's a shot from the Rogers center after a Jays game (Crazy nice seats!):

Also from the summer, I lowered the ol' handicap in my golf game. I had probably the best summer of my life in terms of Golf. I mostly golfed out of Mactaquac (just outside of Fredericton) and made some serious progress in my game. My handicap is sitting around the 12.2 range with my low round of an 80 (golf pros not allowed to hate, this is good for me). Goal for next summer is to have it around 8 and to break 80. Beautiful scenery at mactaquac (Deer off the fairway of 18) and Backspin got this shot (Left) and I lipped out for my first hole in one:

Dad and I went down to Boston again this year, What can I say about the Sox? One of the most disastrous years I can remember. Everything went wrong for the them this year and it was tough to swallow as a fan. I'm sure next year we will be in contention again, I'm just hoping management will make a few high end signings this off season. Summer was still great though, I met some really great people (HINT HINT) and had a blast with old friends. I'm looking forward to next summer already.

Back to the Eastern Block:

Summer finished up and I was on my way back to Poznan. My boys J&K Whells met me at the airport to send me off. Much love gents! This time I decided to fly back with a friend so in order to do so I had to change airlines. Therefore I ended up flying Lot Polish airlines. Given my personal disputes with this airline I want to encourage everyone reading this to NEVER fly with this less than satisfactory airline. On the international flight, we had the sketchiest landing of my young life. My friend who was sitting beside me was literally in the middle of the aisle after we were safe. The worst part, all passengers decided to dish out a round of applause. As if to say to the pilot "great job in the cockpit, thanks for doing your job and not killing us". Absolutely outrageous! I booked a round trip so I have to go back to Canada with them for Christmas.....they have already cancelled one of my flights. So you read it here first, if you can avoid Lot, do so. they are the worst airline I have ever dealt with.

Academia:

So this year in school we are finally applying our knowledge to real situations. The most noteworthy progression of my education thus far is our class where we work on phantom heads. The work we do consists of cavity preparations, restorations and becoming familiar with all dental materials that we will use. The phantom heads may be difficult to imagine so guess what I did (Personalized lab coat courtesy the best Mom in the world, Dental Loupes courtesy student loan):

My professors say I may have a tough time with maintaining proper posture while working because I'm so tall.....Story of my life really. Can't go on roller coasters because I'm so tall, now I can't execute my profession the right way because of height....Great.


We are working on endodontics right now (root canals) and we had to purchase all of our own instruments for this. It makes me wonder what the hell I get with my tuition fees.

Polish is still on the rise. We have Polish twice a week and I also signed up for a Polish elective in second semester. I'm still having a crazy tough time with it but my vocabulary is not too bad. My trouble is trying to construct a grammatically correct sentence without showing my 5th generation Canadian colors. When people talk to me in fluent polish I do a lot of nodding and senseless agreeing...it seems to work for the most part.

Extra-curricular Stuff:

I got involved in the student government this year. I'm the vice president of our Dental Students Association (DSA) and head of the social committee for the English Program Students Union (EPSU).  With DSA we essentially try to improve any academic issues that dental students may have. We also organize dental conferences and school events. For EPSU we organized our schools Halloween party this year. It turned out to be an insane party. A lot of things went wrong and a lot of things went right. It was a fun night though. I hope you have seen the movie The Dictator because if you haven't, you wont get my costume for Halloween:

Movember:

Ok so closing with this. This is my second year doing movember. For those that are unfamiliar with movember, please see the following link www.movember.com

"During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in Canada and around the world. With their “Mo’s”, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men's health, specifically prostate cancer and male mental health initiatives."

I haven't started promoting my movember yet as I was waiting until I had a somewhat respectable base. Half way through November and I can't see my base getting any better than it is now. I would really like to raise some money here so I really hope some of you will see this and donate to my personal movember page. You can access the link here:

 http://mobro.co/scottkennedy29

Once on my movember page, you click "donate to me" under my picture. The next screen will show you payment information. Fill it out and click submit/finish (I promise the site is secure and safe). This is a reputable site and not a hoax I promise. I would really appreciate any donations toward this great cause. I always like to do something to support cancer each year. At St. FX I would do relay for life but here in Poznan we don't have that. Growing a mustache was the next best option. Again, I appreciate any support thrown toward my movember.

Shout-outs
I want to wish my Nanny Kennedy a get well. I'm thinking of you Nan.
Mom, Dad and Colby the dog- as per usual, miss you guys a bunch
Lauren & Pat miss you guys as well. Good luck with the basement reno without my expertise
Dan Collins- Congrats to you and Christy on the little fella!
Carol Nicholson and Alex Graves- A big Happy birthday sent out to you!
Poznan friends- god love ya's all.
Ms. Densmore- I'm a bad friend, skype soon. I'm sorry
All 4th year X students (KJ and Rachie in particular)- Congrats on the upcoming X-ring!

Next update will be sometime around Christmas break. Thanks for reading. Take care all. Chow

SK

Year one in the Books/ Black Eye Explanation

After a lot of hard work, long nights in the library, boosting my cortisol levels to the max and adapting to a completely new continent, I am done with the first year of my DDS. I actually finished about 2-12 weeks ago. It's a great feeling to know I can take a couple months and relax. Classes don't start up until Late September and I am leaving Poznan in Tomorrow!!!!

I have a Toronto trip to make at the start of July so I am excited to see all of my friends in the GTA (kk, J dubs, K dubs, KJ, Jade, B con to name a few). We have a date with the dropzone at Canada's Wonderland, so very much looking forward to Toronto.

Also, hoping the ol man reads this and thinks a trip to Boston will be a good idea. The sox look like they could use some support right now as its been a pretty up and down year thus far. I'm looking forward to spending some serious time on the golf course and playing a bit of frisbee in Fredericton as well.

My school requires that I spend some time in a dental clinic this summer, but that is a treat for me given the amazing Fredericton Dental Center staff. Although I wont be working there this summer (like last summer) I am excited so see everyone from the FDC. I have a lot better understanding of dental procedures now so I think shadowing will be much more beneficial to me now.

Euro 2012

Poland and Ukraine hosted the Euro 2012 Soccer tournament this year. Poznan was host to matches between Italy, Croatia and Ireland. The city of Poznan spent a good year preparing for the Euro by redoing their tram lines, streets walkways etc. The Euro started around the 8th of June and is just finishing up now in Kiev, Ukraine. Because Poznan was one of the host cities, all of the respective soccer fans came to the city to show their support for their country. The Irish fans were crazy drunk all the time, I don't even think they cared about the soccer, they just wanted to drink and have a good time. There is video of Croatian fans starting a semi riot in our town square which is only ~4-5 km away from where I live (just to give an added feeling):

So what I'm saying is that soccer hooligans/ soccer fans are every bit as crazy as the stereotypes we hear about. There were an exceptional number of arrests in Warsaw, where the Polish team played. It is really quite amazing to see how passionate these people are about the sport (or the activities that come with being a fan). Maybe I have a bias because I cannot stand soccer but I could totally see myself being like this with the Boston Red Sox. Not implying I would get arrested for the Sox, just saying that I can see my passion being this great. None-the-less, it was really interesting to witness and ride on the packed trams with the drunk soccer fans.

Random Things in Poznan:

We went to this thing the other night called "Noc Kupały" which is basically this night where everyone in Poznan goes to this area just past the city center and releases a sky lantern at 11pm. It was an amazing sight to see when there were 5000 of them in the sky. The lanterns are also known as Kongming Lanterns or Chinese lanterns and I was told that Poznan was going for the world record or something like that, although I highly doubt the record was beat. Here's a picture from the night:

Like I said, I have been done for about 2-1/2 weeks so I had some time to burn. You would think I would have updated the blog sooner, but no, I have just been lazy. To fill in the time we have gone Go-karting, played laser tag, went to a lot of movies and had a few drinks as well.

I had bought myself a bike a while back from a store similar to SuperStore in Canada. The first day I rode it, it broke on me. The pedal came flying off  and the gears didn't work. Also the seat wasn't secure and as I was riding it I hit a bump and the seat sank making it look like I was riding a mini tricycle (picture it). So I took it back to the store and they said they would fix it. I came back a month later and picked up the "repaired" bike. I took it out to the parking lot for a test drive and sure enough, it was still broke with the gears. They took the bike from me again and said it would be fixed. I went back 2 days ago to see what the status was and they said it would take another month. At this point I determined this is the bike from hell. I pleaded and pleaded to the guy for a refund or store credit and he was persistent against it. I finally broke through to him and he agreed to give me a store credit. I ended up getting myself a conventional oven and a couple bottles of vodka. 

My Black Eye:

Ok, now for any grandmothers or close relatives reading this, just know that I'm ok now. We went out to the same club we have gone to all year, I have been to this club hundreds of times and have never had a problem, ever. I know the management at the club and several of the bartenders and again, never had a problem. I was dancing with my friend and it was getting close for us to leave ~3 or 3:30 in the morning. I leaned in to say something to her and I caught an absolute haymaker sucker punch in the right side of my head. It stunned me and from what I remember I staggered backward a bit and tried to regain my composure to see what the hell happened. As I was doing this I think I caught another punch and my friends told me I was knocked out. I remember coming to as I was being helped out of the club to go to a hospital and my mouth hurt. I stuck my finger in my mouth and a big chunk of enamel broke off one of my molars. I was a mess. I was in the hospital until about 6am with two of my friends and once I got home I just slept the whole day. The marks have since healed and I am perfectly fine now (except for the tooth of course). I suspect the person that did this to me was someone in town for the Euro soccer matches. Here's the proof:

It makes me look tough right?

Alright, so I don't imagine I'll have a new blog anytime soon, maybe a summer recap, we'll see. I'm excited to be back in Canada tomorrow and excited to see everyone from home. Thank you all for the support over this year. It was tough during a lot of times but we made it. I'll leave you with an awesome video I just discovered, most have probably seen it but its awesome!!

Bye everyone!!

- Scott

Meet you Under the Horse's Ass

Hey gang,

Hope all of you had a fantastic Easter and are enjoying the spring weather (although I'm told there have been several snowstorms recently back home). I'm in the home stretch now with school and things are starting to get pretty hectic and pressure filled. I just took a trip to Prague, Czech Republic this past weekend just before I become buried in school. I want to share some of the trip with you and give a couple shout-outs as per usual.

Prague:

To start off, if you are ever traveling in Europe and are looking for the "wow factor", you absolutely must visit Prague! I really cannot stress how amazing this city is. It is rich in history and very esthetically pleasing. I recommend that any guy looking to propose to a lady should take her here and a guaranteed "YES" will be received. Prague really caters to all people as it has something for everyone. It also served our group of three quite well. Everything is relatively inexpensive in the Czech Republic, despite the fact that you fell like you are spending a lot. Their currency is worth about 20 times less than Canadian money. So if a beer costs 60 Czech dollars it is actually 3 bucks CAD (Check my math on that). 

We left Poznan at 5:30am and didn't get into Prague until 5pm. It was really a torturous train journey through desolate and war torn land. This may be an exaggeration but going through lesser Poland was very tough on the eyes. Some of the stations that the train stopped scared the shit out of us. I recommend flying into Prague if possible. We took the train based on price of course, so for 20 bucks round trip, it wasn't to damaging to the pocket book.

Rolled into Prague and stepped outside the train station to immediately being swarmed by mafia taxi drivers telling us that they would take us for a special deal at 980 Czech dollars (its like 50 bucks CAD). So we passed on that clearly and caught a real cab for 170 Czech dollars to our hotel. We grabbed a couple tourist pamphlets at the hotel and found a 6hr guided tour in English that included a boat tour, drinks on the boat and lunch at a sweet restaurant. The price was right so we jumped on that. The tour was unreal, the lady that gave our tour knew everything about Prague and we were treated to quite the amazing history lesson while we took in all the tremendous architecture.  Have a gander at all of the pictures below.

The tour met at Wenceslas Square, which is like the main meeting point in Prague and is all where all of the shopping, restaurants etc. are for the most part. You can see the main statue of the man riding the horse in this picture. A common saying in Prague is "I'll meet you under the horses ass". I used this line often!







There are many amazing statues all throughout Prague. All which have significant meaning in Czech history. There were so many however that I lost track and forgot what our tour guide said about them. I only remember a select few unfortunately. I do remember that our guide told us that often times the sculptor of the statues would make statues of themselves to be remembered in conjunction with the real historical statue..... I would probably do the same if I were a sculptor.
 
We took an amazing tour on a boat that swam us all over the river that divides the city of Prague. We went under the most touristy thing in Prague, the Charles Bridge (google image it if you haven't heard of it) and we were able to get some amazing pictures on the water.

 

Theater where Mozart played!

Cathedral

We also got a tour through a castle which sits at the top of Prague and over looks the entire city. It was obviously where the king and royalty lived back in the day and is now the political center of Prague. It is open to the public and we just happened to show up to the castle during the changing of the guards at the gate of the castle:

It was quite funny that we saw the guards crack up during this. So consider this video exclusive footage!

The Castle also has a vantage point a little farther inside the complex where you can see the whole city and this is where we were treated to the a tremendous view:

Prague is also home to the oldest working astronomical clock in the world. It tells you the year, month, day, time and astrology sign I believe. The tour guide told us how to read it but it was quite noisy and packed with other tourists that I could not hear the explanation.

After the tour we went out with friends we met on the tour, went back to the hotel, got ready and went back into town to begin the nightlife. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, met up with friends from the tour again, went to several clubs and had a great time. We caught the train later on Sunday at 3pm and got back to Poznan safe and sound. It was a tremendous experience and I hope I will get the chance to go back again someday.

Shout-Outs

Arnold and Sami- Thanks for an amazing trip boys. Cheers
Lauren and Pat- Thank you for the buckle and card.
Ms. Densmore- Thanks for the letter and the skype company. Glad we're not "fighting"
Ina- Thank you for the card.
All of the St.FX grads- good luck on exams and congrats on graduation.
The 2012 Boston Red Sox- Good luck this year gentlemen, hopefully another championship is in the works
Harvey- My father tells me you are following the blog. Hope all is well and that our habs will have a better year next season.
John + Keg- Excited for your birthday boys. 
KK- book it off work champ.

Thats it for now folks. Wish me luck on exams and finishing year 1 of this DDS. Given my schedule the next two months I doubt I will be able to blog until after I complete the year so I'll see you in a bit.

PS. If anyone knows of a position of work from July to September that requires one year completed of in a DDS program let me know. Rather specific eh? Cheers.

Also, Check this out if you haven't seen it. Crazy good!

A History of Dentistry

I ran into an interesting article concerning the history of dentistry. I copied and pasted it below. I felt it was worth blogging about. 

Be glad you were born in the twentieth century!

Judging from what archaeologists have learned from examining the bones and teeth of long-dead humans, people have been bothered by dental problems for thousands of years. Simply put, many of these ancient folk had holes in their teeth and probably suffered from toothaches and also abscesses, whose pain can be excruciating. At least in some places, they did what they could. Evidence of the use of dental drills has been found in Neolithic graves in Pakistan. (The Neolithic Age lasted from 12,000 to 5,000 years ago.) But whether this procedure brought relief to anyone is open to conjecture, of course.

The earliest writing regarding toothaches took place about 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Etched on cuneiform tablets, the Sumerians wrote of demons and tooth worms causing tooth decay. People would pray to gods such as Shamash, Anu or Ea to cure them of their painful oral afflictions.
Then about 2250 B.C.E. (before the Common Era), physicians began treating toothaches with something other than invocations to some god or another. A mixture of henbane and beeswax was heated by a hot iron, and then the smoke directed to the decayed tooth. The cavity was then treated with a cement of powdered henbane seed and gum mastic.

The first dentists appeared in Egypt about 2600 B.C.E. (about the time the Pyramids were built), and one of the best was named Hesi-Re, considered the "chief toother." However, there's no evidence that these dentists did anything more than treat toothaches and oral lesions.

The Chinese of about 5,000 years ago treated toothaches with substances such as arsenic, which typically killed the pain and perhaps the patient as well. Acupuncture was also used for tooth problems; 26 body sites were designated for relief of toothache.

As for the much revered ancient Greeks (Hippocrates, Aesculapius and Aristotle, et al.), they believed that all disease, including tooth decay, was caused by an imbalance of the four bodily fluids or humors. This was how bleeding began as a treatment, and it continued to be used in dentistry until the early years of the twentieth century!

The first dental bridges were produced by the Etruscans, who flourished between 1000 and 400 B.C.E in what is now Italy. They connected rings of gold with natural teeth, and the bridges found in mouths around the planet today are descendants of these prostheses.

The Romans, conquerors of the Etruscans, invented gold crowns, methods for securing loose teeth and created artificial replacements made of bone, wood and ivory. Moreover, by the first century C.E. many Roman physicians specialized in dentistry, particularly extractions. A common Roman treatment for toothache was gargling with a mouthful of urine - one's own or somebody else's. And during the first half of the first century C.E. the first cavity was reportedly filled by one Aulus Cornelius Celsus, who used a mixture of lint and lead pressed into the depression with forceps.
By 659 C.E. the Chinese were filling cavities with a mixture of silver, tin and mercury, or amalgam, as dentists call it, about 1,000 years before Western dentists began using it.

In the Middle Ages, dentistry seemed to have regressed somewhat, particularly in Europe. The prevailing theory of this time was that tooth decay was caused by tooth worms, and there were various ways of defeating these little devils, or so people thought. Blood-letting was a common treatment, as well as leeching, blistering of the skin, administering laxatives, placing garlic cloves in the ear or destroying the dental nerve by using a red-hot iron or strong acid. Interestingly, in medieval England, teeth were removed as a form of punishment.

In England during the middle 1600s, thousands of deaths were attributed to botched dental procedures, mainly because of infections resulting from unsanitary conditions. Also, many people lost their teeth because of scurvy, a deficiency of vitamin C.

In addition to scurvy ravaging people's teeth, many people began consuming large quantities of processed sugar, which caused an exponential increase in tooth decay. Reacting to such matters, William Shakespeare often mentioned dental pains and foul breath in his various plays.
In Italy of the 1400s, a physician named Giovanni d'Arcoli began filling teeth with gold leaf, admirably progressive for the time, but he also advocated cautery, bloodletting and laxatives as toothache remedies.

In 1530, Medicine for the Teeth by Anonymous was the first book dedicated entirely to dentistry. Written in German, rather than Latin, it was widely used as a training manual for many years to come.

In the 1700s, John Hunter of England began transplanting human teeth. Hunter would pay people for their healthy teeth and then implant them in the mouths of his patients. These implanted teeth would be tied to adjoining teeth until they stabilized. However, they rarely lasted for longer than a few months.

In the American colonies of the middle 1700s, many dentists implanted dentures and bridges. Patriot Paul Revere was one such dentist. Revere was the first dentist to identify a corpse using postmortem dental forensics. John Greenwood worked on George Washington's teeth, which tormented the poor man his entire adult life, though he never had wooden teeth; they were made of hippo ivory. Moreover, during the American Revolution, scavengers would rob graves for teeth to be used as dentures.

Dentistry began to take its modern form in 1728 when Frenchman, Pierre Fauchard, published his book The Surgeon Dentist, a comprehensive work whose use eventually crowned Fauchard as the father of modern dentistry.

In England during the middle 1800s, anybody could become a dentist without any training whatsoever, though some people paid as much as $1,000 to learn the trade.

The first root canals were performed in the United States in the 1830s. Arsenic was used to devitalize the pulp or root, which was then scooped out, all of this done without anesthetic.

In 1773, nitrous oxide (a.k.a. laughing gas) was discovered by chemist Joseph Priestly, but it wasn't used as an anesthetic until 1844. About the same time, ether was also used as an anesthetic in dentistry. Then chloroform drew people's attention, first used as an anesthetic in 1847.
In the Western dentistry of the time, early amalgam fillings contained a mixture of silver and mercury. By itself mercury is quite toxic. If it doesn't bind completely with the silver, leakage can occur, harming the patient. And these fillings were poured at a temperature of over 200 degrees, certainly very hot when applied to the exposed nerves in one's teeth!

In America in the late 1800s, itinerant dentist Edgar "Painless" Parker made a show of extracting teeth and, in England, William Hartley, a.k.a. Sequah, could extract as many as eight teeth per minute!

The first set of porcelain dentures were produced in France in 1788. These were the first successful artificial teeth produced from inorganic matter. In the middle 1800s, cheap Vulcanite rubber was used for dentures. And acrylic resins became widely used when rubber became scarce during World War Two.

Dentists began using cocaine as a local anesthetic in the late 1800s. Then it was replaced by Novocain in 1905. About the same time, people began using toothbrushes and toothpaste.
In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays (or ultraviolet rays), revolutionizing science and medicine. Just a year later the first radiographs of teeth were made. Tragically though, many people were harmed by the use of X-rays until precautions such as shielding became standard.
In 1906, Charles Land was credited for developing the first porcelain jacket crowns.

Around 1900, fluoride, an actual component in tooth enamel, began being used to fight tooth decay in the United States, and now most of the water in this country's water supply is fluoridated. Some people think fluoridation may have long-term health effects, though this has never been proven. However, using "too much" has been blamed for staining teeth brown.

In the early decades of the 1900s, teeth whitening became the rage. Unfortunately, many of these applications either didn't work or were harmful to teeth. In the early 1930s, a whitening agent called Tartaroff contained hydrochloric acid, which indeed whitened the teeth but also destroyed tooth enamel in the process.

The first electrically driven dentist drill was produced in 1870. And then in the 1950s the first ultra speed drills came into production, working at upwards of 400,000 rpm. These days, some dentists use laser drills, which provide much greater precision and therefore help prevent degradation of the teeth being repaired.

Nowadays, composite plastic resins, developed for dentistry in the 1980s, can be used to fill teeth rather than gold or amalgam, whose use is much more obvious and not as esthetically pleasing, though the metallic material tends to cost less and lasts longer.

Well, the history of dentistry continues to evolve as we speak. Perhaps one day genetic manipulation or the application of some miracle formula will eliminate tooth decay altogether. But until that time, though the physical pain may not be as great as in the olden days, the pain in one's wallet, so to speak, will nevertheless continue for the foreseeable future.

Source:
http://kosmo.hubpages.com/hub/A-Short-Painful-History-of-Dentistry

My Semester Break

Hey everyone,

So im just coming off my break and currently trying to get back in the swing of things with school. My break was without a doubt one of the most amazing experiences of my young life. Have a read about our trip to Zermatt, Switzerland and I also included a little bit about this past Friday night at the end of the blog. Enjoy!

Our Trip:

The gentlemen partaking in this trip of a lifetime were Benjamin Quinn, Keith Sproul and myself. Pictured below at one of the million summits: 

Myself, Ben and Keith at 13000ft!

Switzerland, in general is an amazing country. It was the best quality snowboarding I have ever done. The snow was perfect and the weather was perfect. Not too cold and not too hot. We only had one day when there was a blizzard and even than we only lost 1/4 of a day of snowboarding.

Good shot of how small the village looks (only half way up the mountain)

This mountain was huge. You would not believe exactly how big Zermatt is. Because its so big we spent a lot of time on chair lifts and gondolas. From the bottom to the very top took at least half an hour to 45 minutes. It equally took as long to snowboard down to the bottom. The grooming of the trails were 2nd to none. All trails were in immaculate condition and the terrain was so vast that you could go off trail for miles and still get to where you want to go. My only con was that none of the trails were overly challenging. Zermatt is more tailored toward family and intermediate skiers/ snowboarders. Regardless of this, everyday was literally a day in paradise for us.

This is known as Glacier Paradise, Heaven on Earth

The mighty Matterhorn piercing the clouds

I represented the X-Ring a lot. Still so proud to be a Xaverian Alum

StFX!

My first powder experience, I was so happy!

The apartment we stayed in was also fantastic. We all had to sleep in one big (I use that term loosely) room but luckily none of us were snorers. We had a kitchen with a stove so to save money we cooked a lot of our own food. It was Ben's birthday when we were there so on that night we cooked up some nice salmon with lemon and mashed potatoes. Simple but delicious. Not buying food every night definitely cut down on costs for us. In addition, the service at the apartment was tremendous. The gentleman owning all the apartments was named Richard and when he spoke he sounded just like gold member off Austin Powers :), he was the nicest guy though. He would deliver fresh bread to our room at 7:00am each morning and the day of Ben's birthday he delivered a cake to our room as well (with candles). I suppose for the money we paid that was the way we should have been served but none the less we couldn't have been more happy with the service.

Outdoor rink in the middle of the village. I wish I brought my skates to show the swiss how its done!

Fun facts about Zermatt:

1. The village itself is full of rich people who like to let you know they're rich

2. They have street meat vendors in the village but you can't get a coke to drink, you can only get champagne.

3. The village is completely car free, they use little electric buggies as taxis so people can get around.

4. The village is situated 1600 feet about sea level

5. Justin Timberlake was there...we think

6. We gathered that Swiss people are the most efficient people in the world. If they say "I'll meet you at 11:07", as the clock strikes 11:07 they show up. Extremely punctual and kind people made the trip pleasant for all 3 of us. Oh and their chocolate is to die for. Those of you that know me well can imagine the field day I had in the chocolate aisle at the grocery store.

7. To falsify number 6 a little, I broke up a fight in the middle of the street between a 50 year old and a 65 year old, I believe they were arguing about cab fair.

8. Zermatt actually lies directly on the Italian border. So on the 3rd day we were there we snowboarded into Italy and had real pasta for lunch.....As expected, the food was great and the service was shit. This was a full day expedition.

(I am noticing that as i type all of this up I am enforcing a lot of stereotypes hahaha)

Birthday Celebrations:



This past Friday (March the 9th) we celebrated 5 peoples birthday in our DDS class. It was an amazing night, we went out for a nice dinner and then myself and my friend Arnold left dinner early so we could get birthday cakes ready and let the other people joining the party into my apartment.  The birthday people walked in and we surprised them and sung happy birthday etc. After a couple hours at my place we had another surprise up our sleeves and had everybody go outside to find a limo waiting there! We rode around downtown Poznan for an hour in the back of a limo and had a blast. A little cheezy I know, but everybody had a great time and it was something none of us will soon forget. Shout out to Arnold and Martyna for helping out and making it possible!

That is all I have for now, The next couple months are crunch time and school needs to once again become the focus. I will tentatively be coming home to Canada on June 30th but that is of course subject to change. Hope all from home are doing well and missing you guys a tonne. Until next time! Cheers

One Semester in Europe

It has been almost 6 months since the day I moved my life to Poznan, Poland. It is hard to believe but I think I have settled in and I feel like tackling the next several years here might just be possible. As I have said in blogs before success here would not be possible without the fantastic network of friends I have. "I get by with a little help from my friends", truer words have never been spoken. We only have one more exam until our first semester is finally done, so right now things are pretty slow (the last couple weeks were insane though) aside from studying for this last one.

Polish has been one of the more challenging classes for me. I realized that once we began more difficult courses like histology and anatomy, polish becomes very low on the priority list. We only have polish class once a week and its tough to really get a handle on it when we only have it this often. However, the language barrier is much easier to cope with now!

Reflection on the school as a whole thus far is as follows. You have to be patient and you have to be motivated to succeed. I have had several people express interest to me in studying dentistry at this school and I hope that this blog I started will give these people a better idea of what to expect. I have no regrets whatsoever about coming here and I think it was the right decision for me in the end. If ever I feel down, upset, frustrated etc (and these feelings do come up) I give my head a shake and tell myself "I'm studying dentistry in Europe, what an incredible opportunity, get over it". You have to be able to teach yourself a lot of material, you have to maintain your moral compass, you have to remind yourself exactly why you are here and most importantly, you have to adapt to a completely new lifestyle academically and socially. The toughest thing for me so far was the realization that this is NOT Canada. How we do things in Canada is not how they do most things here, meaning that what might seem logical and rational to you is not necessarily shared by people here. This is where your patience is tested. So for you east coast folk thinking about taking the leap, keep the above in mind and also keep in mind that this is only my opinion and may not necessarily be yours. Poznan University of Medical Sciences

Dentistry Building (Many classes are here)

Collaegium Maius (Biophysics is held here)

Ok, now time to talk about the future. In approximately 2 1/2 weeks I will embark on the trip of my young life. Zermatt, Switzerland aka the picture on the Toblerone chocolate bar, will be tackled by Ben Quinn (Shout out) and myself. There is currently 81 inches of snow there, it is the highest altitude in Switzerland and is thought to be the best place in the world to ski or snowboard although many may argue Whistler to be in this conversation as well. Here are some shots:

We leave on February 17th from Poznan at 8:00pm. We get into Zurich, Switz at 10:55pm and will sleep in the Zurich airport until bright and early on the 18th at 5am when we will hop on a train to take us the 3 hour journey from Zurich to Zermatt. Once we get there we will drop our stuff off at the apartment we have for the week and immediately hit the slopes. There is approx 350km of piste (trails) and an enormous amount of back country riding (rocks and tress but the best snow exists off the trail). Zermatt is neat because it borders another small village in Italy and you can actually snowboard into the Italian resort attached to Zermatt. They are both part of the EU so we wont have to stop mid run at the border and show our passports (that was a joke...). I have been saying how excited I am to do this and as the time gets closer I get more and more anxious to do this. Cannot wait!

Lastly, Hi to everyone back home, miss you guys everyday and hope everything is A1. Shout out to Mom and Dad.

Apologies go out to certain people, I make mistakes like everyone else.

Leaving you guys with a crazy dunk from the NBA last night. Despite my hatred for basketball, this is awesome:

Bye Guys, Thank you for reading! Peace, Love and all that good stuff.

Back at er

Hey all,

Lets kick it off with a funny video of cooper, my sisters dog:

Just in the midst of getting back into the swing of things here in Poznan. I got back in town this past Tuesday at about quarter to 7 at night. The trip took about 21 hours and like i have said before I do not wish that international flight upon anyone. I would hate for this to come off as pretentious but I really don't think I can fly economy class for that flight ever again. Allow me to back this up; god blessed me with the genetics to grow to 6'6" tall, in many situations in my life this has been a great asset and I have usually embraced my height. However, flying in economy class for a 9 hour overseas flight when you're 6'6" is nothing more than 9 hours of pain and torture for me. When I get in the seat initially my knees are directly flush with the chair in front of me, this is somewhat uncomfortable but at least bearable. It is not until the 260lbs man sitting in front of me reclines his chair that the agony begins. I literally have no room what-so-ever. This particular flight had a double dose of tall man fever in that the guy sitting adjacent to me was drooling uncontrollably in his sleep, which lasted the duration of the flight (Some the the drool managed to reach my sleeve for the record). Anyway my total hours of sleep was 0 so I think I am going to plead the special person card card the next time and see if I can get a cheap upgrade to business class. Its funny because when you board the plane they make you walk through business class to get to economy class, and its one of those things you know they do on purpose just so they let you see what you're missing. Ok thats my bitchfest this time.

Christmas was awesome, it was a really nice break for me. I got to see lots of my friends and family and enjoyed the wonderful cuisine of Canada/ America (Arbys was a big hit a long with Moms home cooking). I had such a great break I really didn't want to go back to Poznan at all. I was a mess in the airport when it came time to leave, embarrassingly enough. 

So academically, we have a big couple weeks coming up. A big anatomy test is coming up on the 18th, the next week we have a histology test and a chem final as well. We all have a lot of work ahead of us, which I suppose begs the question why I'm blogging and not reading.

Swiss alps vacation is quickly approaching. We are getting beyond excited for it, should be the time of my life I'm sure.

Thats all I have for now, more stories to come. I'll leave you with a few pictures below. Miss everyone from home already.

Colby sleeping hilariously

Cooper sleeping cute

This is Pus and Boots in Polish hahaha.