adelaidemedblog

the time is 4:22 pm on the 11th of march 2007 in adelaide and i, mana, have just come back from the most crazy event that i have ever attended, known as medcamp.

in a nutshell it is a three day two night even that runs over the weekend; many first year adelaide medical students attend it for the entire duration while the older years attend on the second night.

in a bigger nutshell it is a crazy drinking event (i know of a grand total of three people who did not consume alcohol, myself being one of them, during the entire event) at night + a dj so you can not only drink but dance too. i did dance. and i was crappy at it. first night (first years only) there was a costume dance party with the theme being “uniforms”. the two sydney girls high students (who won the best dressed prize for the girls) came with two big billboards with the university permission forms for internet access on them (enlarged to make it very big of course) - thereby being university forms - or uni forms. (i didn’t get it until the third day when they won the prize).

we were all given little bags of stuff from ramsays (www.ramsaybooks.com.au) who sponsor the AMSS (www.amss.org.au) which among medical magazines and other thin educational resources, included a slinky (yay!) from Perks (another sponsor) and a packet consisting of a condom and personal lubricant. (just in case, i guess. the vast vast majority did not require them which was a relief, though, a small amount did. the rest of us postulated that they would make decent waterbombs to throw at people.

next day with less than three hours of sleep we were woken up by clanging saucepans (it is really loud when someone uses them like cymbals). breakfast was simple.

hmmm did i mention that something like 25 male first year students attended?

this means about 75 female first year students attended.

which means the female bathroom had very long lines (or so i heard).

so some girls resorted to using the guys bathroom. oh dear… I thought having girls in the cabins was bad enough (not because i hate girls - on the contrary - but because it has simply never happened before.)

anyway where was I? ah yes after a shower we had some medically-oriented things to learn - how to make a cast, how to suture a wound, how to do cpr (which i slept through…) and how to take blood pressure (this was probably my favourite bit.)

followed by some free time (volleyball + rugby + other stuff + free red bull). which i spent mostly chilling out with some friends + chatting with others + the twenty game + puzzles.

then the later year students started forwarding in for boat races. (now this actually has nothing to do with a boat at all but really to do with how fast a team of ten can drink beer, one glass at a time). i don’t think it was responsible, but hey, it’s medcamp, and a lot of things weren’t. surprise was that the second years beat the clinical all stars. impressive.

partyed a bit then got changed into my childrens simpsons pyjamas (yes i am small enough to wear childrens pyjamas) which actually went down pretty good with everyone (”you have awesome pyjamas” etc etc). some chat in cabin then sleep.

this morning i woke up (being threatened with a jug of water) and more tidying and more actvities (short ones) - one which made me feel nerdy (being able to name 80’s music - how bad is it to be nerdy in a group of MEDICAL STUDENTS?!) and even more nerdy (being the only one in the small group, including the second years running the station, to have a senior first aid certificate). and then after, being selected out of the group to play a game. which i should have seen coming but did not. basically one guy and girl is chosen from each group to play a game called “kangaroo-koala-dingo”. now as soon as i realised how this was going to work, i went back to my team and requested that someone else do it. anyway somehow i end up playing it anyway (against my conscience - this is bad). when the leader says “kangaroo” or “koala” or “dingo” the pair must get into one of three positions each supposing to refer to one of the animals (and the last to get into the position is out until there is one pair left.)

now i would have been fine with playing this game. except that the positions looked very much like sexual positions. oh dear… in fact i am sure they made it to be like that.