Yesterday I got up early and caught the bus to King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), which is situated on the campus of King Saud University. This hospital is a lot bigger and a lot newer than KAUH, where I work. The entrance forms a big marble-covered atrium and you would be forgiven for thinking you’d walked into a sofa warehouse upon entering. Now, anyone who’s worked in a hospital before will realise the words ‘marble’ and ‘sofa’ do not belong in your everyday hospital. Sadly, those words have no meaning in my hospital either. Also foreign to my hospital, is a coffee shop and I was delighted (and extraordinarily envious) to find that also resided in KKUH’s illustrious entrance.
The reason for my trek out to KKUH was to take part in the Ophthalmology department’s symposium on Orbital Fracture Repair. While surgical techniques for facial injury reconstruction are not exactly relevant to my field of study it was still interesting to listen to the two American speakers and see the interesting (and gory) cases they presented. I’ve always found injuries associated with eyes have a tendency to make my stomach turn and the surgical clips they showed were no exception.
It was encouraging to see the number of women who attended the seminar, a lot of them doctors and I’d assume a few technicians/nurses. As usual, we were separated from the men and sat up in the balcony for the talks and had our own tea room and lunch area. I had an interesting experience at lunch, one of the department secretaries had removed her niqab (face covering) while I was getting food from the buffet. I returned to the table to find another girl sitting there chatting to the others. It wasn’t for a few minutes that I realised that the girl sitting on the other side of the table was the same person I see every time I go to the dept office! I can recognise her straight away by her eyes when she is veiled, but un-veiled she was a completely different person to me. Its amazing how your mind fills in the blanks when it has to.
Unfortunately, I’ve been feeling like I’m coming down with a cold this week. I’ve been fighting it but I think that I may not win after this weekend. Tomorrow night is the Christmas party at the Australian Embassy and Thurs evening I have booked my place on the bus to Ikea from my compound. Its conveniently timed as I have now worked out all of the things I want to purchase and am keen to organise delivery. I’m hoping to have it delivered next weekend, right in time for Christmas. Then I can spend Christmas day erecting furniture with my trusty allen key. What fun! I can’t wait to get myself properly set up.
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