Hey guys so as you’re all aware, we’re approaching the end
of summer at a ridiculously fast rate (aaargh!!). I’m so sad that in just over
a week the holidays will be over for me, but I thought I’d share with you what I
did during my very busy summer!
As I mentioned in my last post, I did my IGCSEs last year. Despite
all of the hard work and stress during the exams, there was one good thing
about them – the last exam was on the 5th June. So whilst everybody
else was still toiling away at school, my class was on holiday almost a month
earlier than usual! This means that I had an almost three month long summer
holiday this year which is fantastic!
BUT…it isn’t all fun and games. As I will be talking about
later hopefully in my blog, I dream of studying medicine and becoming a doctor
in the UK. In the British system, for medical university applications a crucial
thing to have is work experience, and lots of it. So I thought: what better
time than now when I have three months ahead of me?
I had planned all of it way in advance, but the first thing I
started with was a week in a hospital in Geneva. Rather disappointingly they
had put me in the physiotherapy department so it wasn’t completely medical, but
it was a good experience nonetheless to be able to see the kind of atmosphere there
was in a hospital. Of course I was only observing, but I could still interact
with the patients and talk to them etc.
Then after that I spent a week with 9 of my friends at my
grandparent’s apartment in Cannes, in the south of France. This was a trip that
I had been organising for almost two years (!) – I did warn you about my crazy
planning! Because it was such an important week of the summer I think I’ll do a
separate post about this later so look out for that!
The day after I got back was quite sad for me because it was
the last time that I was really a gymnast. There was a solo competition which I
took part it (rather last minute because I’d been away for the past week) but I
won which was really nice and I got a 30 Swiss franc H&M voucher! Then the
coach did a new thing – she gave out awards for things over the year, and I got
two: one for highest score of the club at an international competition, and one
for doing well in a different partnership. Both prizes were a free pass for a
movie at the cinema so I was really excited about that too! After that one of
the mums had cooked an ENORMOUS paella (well, two actually)
for everybody which
was delicious and it was nice to just hang out with my gym friends and basically
say goodbye. Then I was straight off to the airport for my next bit of work
experience, in London!
I was staying with one of my old nannies, who I’d had for
many years when I lived in England, and we’re still very close. She lives in Wimbledon and I happened to be there during the two weeks of the tennis tournament which was a coincidence but made the area very busy!
The work
experience was in the paediatrics department of a hospital which I was really
excited about as that’s an area that really interests me. The whole two weeks
were amazing, I spent lots of time in A&E, which was so awesome as I saw
really cool cases like a girl with a needle completely stuck in her foot, and a
boy who developed a skin infection on his hands making them look like scaly
claws (disclaimer: I don’t mean this rudely I’m simply trying to describe what
it appeared like). I also spent quite some time in the neonatal area which was
really incredible, the babies were so tiny and weak, but you could see their
improvement daily. One girl there had been born at 800g! I think the highlight
of my time there was getting to watch an actual, live birth of a perfectly
healthy little boy. I happened to be in the labour ward that afternoon and had
the privilege of getting to watch this woman deliver. I hope she knows how
thankful I am that she let me stay in that room, and I dropped by her room the
day after to congratulate and thank her. I had a great two weeks, not only at
the hospital but with my old nanny, catching up and having fun, and of course
doing a bit of shopping – who can’t in London?
Then it was back to Geneva – but not for long! I was back
off to Cannes, this time with my au pair who I mentioned in a previous post. She
was on her way home to Latvia but wanted a few days at the beach first and so
did I! We had a really chill time, just going to the beach, eating WAY too much
ice-cream and watching movies at the apartment.
Half way through, my aunt and
cousin arrived so it was really nice to see them for a couple of days, but then
I had to go home again.
And once again, with barely 3 days in Geneva I was leaving
again! Destination: India! This was actually not my first trip to India, I’d
been once 5 years ago with my family, but this time it was completely
different. Again, this was a pretty significant part of my holidays, as it was
for a whole month, two weeks WE and two weeks travelling with my family, so I’ll
do a separate post on this as well.
So once I was back home there were only 3 weeks left before I
left semi-permanently for England. I decided to make the most of those few
weeks, doing everything that I wanted to in Geneva, eating at my favourite places,
seeing my favourite areas, doing my favourite activities, all on top of the
necessary things I needed to do (open a bank account, pet-sitting, packing,
labelling clothes, schoolwork, dentist appointments etc.) Now two of those
weeks are over, and they have been jam-packed! Here are some of the things I did:
a massage which we got a deal for from groupon which was so nice, swimming in
the pool (a lot), going to the lake, hiking on the Saleve mountain,
visiting
the United Nations and the Red Cross museum, going to the cinema to watch ‘now
you see me’ (which was amazing but quite confusing!), shopping for handbags, going to gym training eating
at holy cow a really nice, healthy burger place in town,
etc. etc.
This evening I’m flying to Venice for a long weekend, and
will be back on Monday evening (so no posts until Tuesday – sorry!) but I’m SO
excited! I’ll let you know all about it when I’m back in Geneva. And then next
week really is my last, but I still have plenty to do, most importantly pack my
suitcases which I still haven’t started to do (!). I’m also going to have a
leaving party with my friends at my house, and go to gym a couple of times to
say goodbye to everybody there. Other things on my plan include eating at my
favourite sushi place with my mum and sister, and then going to see an
incredible circus with them which we go to almost every year when it comes to Geneva,
more swimming in the pool etc.
And then, early next Saturday morning is the day! I’ll be
off to London with my mum, ready to start the three day induction period for
new students at my boarding school! So there you go – that was my summer! Busy and
hectic but I loved every minute (almost). Posts on my trip with my friends, and
my time in India will follow shortly (although maybe not until next week when I’m
back from Venice).
Thanks for reading!
Lili
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