Andrew Charlton, DTMH September 2017
Welcome, welcome one and all to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Student blog, Class of September 2017! My name is Andrew and it’s my pleasure to be writing the first blog post of this course for You, you’ll be hearing from me and the other student bloggers regularly over the duration of the course. It was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I arrived at the world’s oldest (and greatest) School of Tropical Medicine. As I walked along Pembroke Place on my first day, glancing into the faces of passers-by and trying to guess which of them might be a fellow student, I wondered what the next few months would bring. I stepped through the understated wooden front doors and stumbled into a corridor crowded with unfamiliar faces, feeling like Harry Potter on his first day at Hogwarts. The walls were covered with photos of far off lands and the air was filled with nervous chatter.
With awkward smiles, I queued for an ID card and registration and filed into the lecture hall for our introductory lectures. This was it, no turning back now, the DTMH was under way... So, at the end of week 1 how are things looking? Well, pretty good. It feels a bit like being back at uni, but without the boring bits. Who knew that hours of gazing intently at samples of poo could fly by so fast?! Or that Epidemiology would actually sound interesting (well kind of…)?
We’ve celebrated Seamus’ birthday and look forward with anticipation to a “life changing” night at Bongo’s Bingo. Barely an hour goes by without an open invitation to go climbing, wild swimming, climbing, boxing, gigging, squash playing, climbing, swing dancing or karaoke singing on the course whatsapp group. The only problem is, 3 months is starting to sound like it might not be long enough...