Jason Chapko

Pet's diary

Hey there... I don't know who wrote it but it's hilarious and so true! Have a laugh.

J

The Dog's Diary

 

  8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
  9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
  9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
  1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
  3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
  5:00 pm - Dinner! My favorite thing!
  7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
  8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

 

The Cat's Diary

 

Day 983 of My Captivity

 

    My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

 

    The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Bastards!

   

    There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

 

    Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.

     I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now ...

Saint David's Day

Hey there! Hope you had a good Easter Holiday! I was away from uni for about 10 days. I was at my parents house in Naples (Italy! not FL). I ate a lot, chilled out some and studied less...that's why I only took 10 days off instead of the 21 available...the finals are looming over the horizon like the Death Star! The rest of theeaster vacation I spent making summaries and then quizzing those summaries. Anyway...I was gonna write about St David's so here goes...

HAPPY ST DAVIDS DAY!!!

Yeah I know it's a little late (it's celebrated on the first of March) but hey!, better late than never! So if you wanna know more about this awesome saint and a bit about more about Wales in general, stay with me!

Saint David is the patron saint of Wales and his personal symbol is the leek. The daffodil is the symbol of Wales and is also associated with St David. In honor of St David I'm gonna tell you some of the coolest things about Wales that I discovered so far.

First a history of wales in one sentence: "When the ice of the ice-age melted, the climate got nice and temperate and Wales was colonized by stone-henge-building tribes, then the Celts, the Romans, the Germans and the English, with whom they have been struggling with for independence up until today."

Wales is one of the most densely populated places on earth...by castles! There are castles everywhere, some of them really beautiful. There are also a lot of sheep here, a lot more sheep than people in fact. The favorite sport here is Rugby. There are some of the best mountain biketrailes in world and they say the surfing is good too...(but way to cold for my tastes). They speak english here but some people also speak Welsh and all public signs and announcements are in both english and welsh. Welsh is a totally different language and sounds kinda of like the elvish you heard in Lord of the Rings or like a mix betweenarabic and swedish. The the people speak english with an almost musical accent, perhaps related to the fact that the welsh love to sing: you know those male voice choirs you hear atchristmas and in Lord of the Rings when the Elves come along?...that type of singing originated here. 

Speaking of singing there are some famous singers from here, the most femous of which is Sir Tom Jones (yeah baby!). In fact Tom was actually born in the same street I live in just a few blocks away! Other famous people from wales are Anthony Hopkins, Kathrine Zeta Jones and several Rugby players! The capital city,Caridff, has a beautifully modern stadium - the Millennium Stadium. Cardiff has some great night life and is a modern Euopean capitol in rapid development . Some of the symbols of wales are, as mentioned above, daffodils and leeks, but also sheep, love-spoons, and dragons (remember the Welsh green from harry potter?). This brings me to one of the most interesting area: mystery and legend!

Wales is chock-a-block full of legendary stuff. Starting with King Arthur and his knights. Camelot, Guinever, Lancelot, Merlin and the Excalibur are all based on welsh legends! The dragons in particular seem to be a very popular beast around here, starting with the Red dragon on the welsh flag. Another awesome legend, almost unknown, is that of the welsh princeMadoc who discovered America in 1190, came back to wales and then left again and joined a native-american tribe. More than 300 years later, european explorers found welsh-speaking tribes along the east coast of the US and Canada. Check out this link for a full account, it's fascinating! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc

To finish, a random curiosity: Hayao Miyazaki (one of the most famous Japanese directors and greatest animator after Disney) came often to wales and loved the countyside. A lot of his films have a welsh setting, especially his latest "howel's moving castle".

If I think of anything else to mention I'd post it here!

By for now!

It's Good to feel good

I'm pretty sure it happened that Tuesday when I was waiting in the lobby to go into radiology lab. When I walked out of the lab 40 minutes later I felt a tickling in my lungs. That was around 14.00, by 18.00 I was down with the fever. That is some fast acting bug! That (and the following) nights I had one of the worst fevers in a long time. Ohhhh the nightmares were terrible. When I talk about it now it doesn't seem that bad. It's nothing like normal nightmares where you're being chased by wolves and can't run fast enough or you walk into an exam room without knowing anything...no, this one was like my brain is trying to solve some impossible Rubik's cube, over and over and over...all night...it's terrible! And nothing seemed to help, not even the magic, miracolous and mysterious German drink that G has (something that usually seem to cure everything). That night I think I like 8 aspirins and my head soaked with the previously mentioned magic drink but nothing!...This went one for about a week and then it took me about another week to get my energy back. I figured the whole thing wasn't really life-threatening so my medication was limited to aspirin/paracetamol, teas and bed rest. Speaking of medication, this digs up an interesting dilemma in the health care world: When you have a common cold/flu really the only thing you can do is fight your own body. Yeah sounds strange but unless you take shovels of antibiotics, there is no magic pill to get rid of the invader itself. So, all this talk about getting rid of the fever and making you feel better, is actually about fighting off your own defenses, or in other words, fighting the symptoms, not the disease itself. What are the common "benefits" of the usually flu remedy? 1) reduce fever, 2) free your airways 3) remove aches and pains so you can be active again...well guess what, 1) the fever is there because your immune system works better at higher temperature while invading microbes prefer it a bit cooler. 2) A blocked nose is there so nothing else gets in and 3) the aches and pains are there precisely so that you DON'T get up and start climbing mountains and stuff. The reason you feel like sh%t the whole time is not because of the bugs, it's because of chemicals released by your own immune system when it detects an invading pathogen. You don't believe all this stuff?... look it up on wikipedia or something...now here comes the controversy: They say your body goes for an overkill when you get a simple little cold and can be more dangerous than the original bug that started the whole thing. So what should you do, let your body go nuts and play it safe or dope up your immune system and tell it to mind it's own business?...Well this last week I tried the latter, but wasn't very successful. But next time who knows, I gess it depends on wether I can afford to stay in bed for a week or not.  Well anyway, I think I bored you enough with all this philosophical talk.

I just wanted to say that his whole thing made me appreciate how good it really is to feel good! Ohh oh!, and I just discovered today (from youtube) an AWESOME variant of Salsa dancing called Bachata...I gotta learn that!

Next post I'm gonna talk about Saint Davids day, the welsh variant of the 4rth of July and St. Patricks day put together. C U  soon!!

Busy weeks ahead

...well sort of busy, but in a more I'm-looking-forward-to-it type of busy. I consider the week as starting on Tuesday, since Mondays I can sleep late and we only have 1 (one!) hour of radiology lab. So the "busy" part starts on Wednesday when I have a reception dinner with the Welsh Prime minister at the Senate in Cardiff (no, I'm not kidding) followed by salsa class and small house party. Then on Saturday I'm going to the BCA (british chiropractic association) spring conference which is held here at Glamorgan, followed by a gala evening. Then next week I got a Saint David's day night at the student union where I get to try the welsh lamb stew and shake it with some line dancing (all to celebrate the patron saint of Wales, sort of like saint Patrick's day but without the green beer, the beer is it's usual colour). Oh, and I also get to be a "patient" for the moch clinical entrance exam. That should be fun, 'cause, like Homer would say; "it funny 'cause it's something scary and it's not happening to me". Well, now I better go back and work on my ECG paper (doh!). I'm sure you'll hear more the events in the following posts.

See ya!

I start to see the light at end of the tunnel

Fieewwww. Just had our last written exam this year before the finals in May. Now this feels good but at the same time is scary. Good because we got rid of all the mid-year written exams, scary because it means the nightmare-inducing, horror-trip-to-hell experience that is preparing for and taking the finals is coming up. Actually it's already hear, because if I don't want to be f&#$ed really bad, I gotta start preparing now!..NOW! Well, not yet actually, because I still gotta go through two more chiro technique viva exams, 3 OSCEs (2-minute-to-answer-a-question-picture-based-exam) and two research papers before I can earnestly divert all my energies to the finals. Now for the ones of you that are starting to think university here in the UK is some type of mad workhouse, worry not. Unless you plan on studying chiropractic or medicine. But all has it's rewards: As they say; work hard party hard! Yeeeaaaahhhhh!!!!! So I better go put on a cool t-shirt 'cause now I'm off to enjoy the best that a Wednesday night at glamorgan can offer: new salsa class and clubbing in the student union! Wuuuuhooooo!!!

Britain....errrr...UK..uuumm how bout England?

I know there are a lot of people who are a bit confused about all the terms applied to the british islands. I thought it might be cool to ireno them out. It was a long time till I figured the actual difference between all the names used for this particular area of northwestern europe. Other than giving you lead in geography pub quizzes or trivial persuit, knowing the right name for the different areas is important as you don't want to offend or confuse anyone by calling them by the name of their neighborn-yet-arch-rival just across the field.  So, we got Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom...what's the difference??? How about a nice equation to explain it all:

Scotland + Wales + England = Great Britain

Great Britain + Northern Ireland = United Kingdom

Rebuplic of Ireland stands on its own

If math is not your thing, check out the photo below. Politicaly it's a bit more complicated. Basicaly we got 2 sovereign states, Rep of Ireland and the UK. By sovereign state I mean that they have their own army. Then we got the UK divided into 4 "countries". By countries I mean they have their own soccer teams....ok actually it's more than that, they got their own political system, own taxes, own language own BBC channel own flag etc. etc. So there you go.

A Welsh Superbowl

We were planning to have a repeat of the successful poker night of last week when someone suggested switching a poker-night for a Superbowl-night! I had planned to watch the Superbowl but had almost forgot about it, so the deal was struck. The party would start at 22.00 zulu at a friend's house who was luckily the owner of a nice big tv set and 5.1 sound system attached (ohh yeah!). All the people there were British except for me, another American from Florida who's in first year and my housemate G. We were all chiropractors of course.

I was kinda surprised when a Superbowl night was proposed as I wasn't exactly picturing the soccer-loving, rugby-cheering British as avid American football fans. I can explain this apparent paradox in two way: 1) The British are real sport fans no matter what sport is played and of course the Superbowl is an incredibly flashy and entertaining sporting event, so they're in! And 2), any excuse whatsoever is good to have a few beers and get wasted in good company!

We started with 21 (a drinking game) until kickoff. The game, which started at 23:20 had British in studio commentary. That was OK but since it was broadcast on BBC2 there were no commercials at all and during the "commercial breaks" the in studio guys just chatted. The first half was rather boring as there was only one touchdown but there was Superbowl drinking game (2nd down take a sip, fumble take 3 sips, touchdown 4 sips etc. etc.) to keep up the morale! At half time we had snacks and, yes you guessed right, more drinks, in the form of jagerbombs! The last quarter was the best, and as everyone in the end decided to cheer for the underdogs the Giants everyone was well happy! I guess next weekend will be back to poker, but this time with real money, wohooooo. Oh, and I guess now you can ad "Superbowl party" to the list of things you thought you would miss in the UK but you won't, from my previous post.

A typical week

Monday, 08:00 Zulu:

The alarm on my cell phone rings which makes my still groggy mind wish to continue enjoying the warmth and slumber in my bed, but then I remember that Monday we don't have any classes and so, Yooohoooo!, I can go back to sleep for another few hours! 10:30-ish , I decide to REALLY get up. Shower, eat left-over pancakes from Sunday. Fool around on the laptop. 12:45, I leave the house to go to radiology lab, randomly look at x-rays for 60 minutes, then walk back home. Lunch (left over Domino's, mmmmmmh), maybe little nap, then study whatever is relevant for the next exam. 18:30, go to Tesco to get supper. Eat, drink Dr Pepper, followed by either revision if there is an exam coming up, or little shoot-out on Call of Duty with G. 15 headshots after, Good Game and read a bit of the Hobbit (I'll never get tired of reading that book). Sleep.

Tuesday, 08:00 Zulu.

The alarm on my cell phone rings, this time for real! I get up, shower, eat some cereal, drink some espresso, pack my laptop in my bag and off to uni. Two hours in lecture, 1 hour looking down microscopes and 1 hour chiro technique later I walk back home. Lunch, maybe nap. 17:00-ish, time for workout in the spare room. Pump those muscles, feel the pain, feel the burn! Shower, Tesco, food. 20:00, ninja class (no, we don't use the throwing stars and blinding powder, but we do learn how to bring a man down to his knees in pain using only our pinky finger). 22:00, home again, shower, snack, Bilbo meats the trolls, sleep.

Wednesday, 08:00 Zulu.

Stupid alarm ringing again, get up, off to uni. 1 hour lecture and 2 hours chiro technique, walk back, lunch, probably not nap, study a little, waste time on reddit.com, waste more time on youtube.com, then quick supper. 21:00, salsa class at uni (yeah baby, shake it!). Back home, Bilbo playing riddles in the dark with my preciousssssss, sleep.

Thursday, 07:00 Zulu

Alarm rings...it's only 7, still dark outside and I have to get up!? F&%k! Take shower with one eye still closed, quick breakfast, off to uni. 2 hours radiology lecture without break...(trying not to fall asleep), 2 hours Neurophysiology (my head starts to bob), 1 hour physiology practical (that's fun, we get to attach people to electrodes and poke people with things). Back home, lunch, definitely nap! 2 hours later (maybe 18:00) I should do more workout by I'm lazy. Maye go over anatomy flash cards. Have dinner, the Hobbit is rescued by the eagles, sleep.

Friday, 08:00 Zulu

Alarm rings, I get up but thank god it's Friday. Shower, eat, walk to uni. 2 hours nutrition, 2 hours clinical physiology. Get home, have a little something something for lunch (black forest ham and homemade break for example), study, sleep, eat my last bar of almond snickers imported from the states (boohooo), study radiology, go to Tesco, eat supper, a little game of chess, watch a good DVD, the Hobbit enter Mirkwood, sleep, wake up 'cause right outside my window some drunk students are loudly trying open their door and can't find (or handle) their keys. Sleep.

Saturday, 09:00-11:00 Zulu

Wake up, and go for a nice fried breakfast! Maybe I do laundry, maybe I dive into books or wikipedia. No lunch, 'cause I had a nice late fried breakfast. Workout, shower, eat, dress up smartly, maybe go to the union disco or stay home for a nice poker night! The hobbit starts to fight a giant spider but I'm too tired and drop it before Bilbo can even draw is sword. Sleep.

Sunday, 11:00-ish Zulu

Sunday seems to go by way too fast! Feels something like; wake up, pancakes (hhhmmmmmm), clean the room, shower, internet, pizza-time (double-hhmmm), movie, post this blog, Bilbo kills a bunch of spiders. Sleep.

What you'll miss

When you come over here to the land of Her Majesty, there might be a few things you miss from the US of A. I also want to point outsome things you THINK you might miss but that you will find here.

[J's info corner: That's right, there's actually a real Queen here in the United Kingdom, as the name  implies. Now isn't that cool!? Non of this kennedy-dinasty-of-america, this is the real stuff!...(btw,  nothing against the Kennedys, I love JFK, or I would have if I'd been alive at the time). I'm still not sure why there is only a queen and not a king, the laws of succession are incredibly complicated. I get the feeling (also indicated by recent surveys like this one: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7162649.stm ) that the people here are still affectionate towards the monarchy, even though the locals don't seem to talk about it much unless it's media from some cheesy tabloid. Check out the film "The Queen" for more info, it's a great film.]

So here's a list of some of the things you might miss and what you can do about it:

• money:
  • the dollar is plunging to ever greater depths and the exchange rate for the pound is not very good for Americans. 1 pound is about 2 dollars. This kind of arrangement is psychological and tends to mess with your mind. You go around thinking that things are half as cheap as they really are and you must constantly remind yourself that you must double the amount to get it in dollars. Now things aren't actually twice as expensive, it's more like 50% more to buy the same product her in the UK compared to the US. Especially for electronics. So if you're just about to buy a new laptop, get it before you come over to the UK.
  • How to survive? As the saying goes; "when in Rome, live like the Romans", so in this case, live as the British: Shop at tesco or Lidl (quit convenient), eat a lot of beans on toast, go to drink at your Uni's union bar instead of the fancy ones (those are for special occasions), get a bike instead of a car (gasoline is WAY more expensive here) and as mentioned before, any big purchases that you have to make, do them in the US.
• the Sun (unless you're from Oregon or Seattle):
  • I've never seen so much rain in my life. Not that we get torrential flooding (well, actually we do) or hailstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes etc., but it's that constant drizzle that goes on day after day. Since I came back after Xmas (more than 2 weeks ago) there hasn't been one single day without rain!!! I almost forgot what the sun looks like. Now, I guess it is the rainy season so it's not always like this. In fact I should also say that September, October and November were very rain-free and quite nice.
  • So remember to bring all kinds of impermeable stuff to cover yourself and your gear if you plan to be outside a lot.
• Wide open spaces:
  • Like most of Europe, which has been urbanized for millenia, the UK has no great expanses of prairie, woodland, mountains, desert etc. Land here is very valuable and so a luxury. Things are compact (like the cute Mini car) and space saving. Bigger is not always better here. But then the villages, towns and cities have that beautiful British-old-continent feel and look to them.
  • So if you're really into hiking and the outdoors, don't go to London. Actually Wales is a great place for the outdoors (when the weather is good). It has some beautiful national parks and stunning coastline. They say the surfing is also real good here, if you can stand the cold water.
• Certain American cuisine items:
  
  • Ok, brace yourself; they don't got Taco Bell, Papa John's, Cool-whip, almond snickers, peanut-butter M&Ms, Mountain Dew and Cinnabon is only to be found in a few places. Thankfully they DO have Dr Pepper (great sigh of relief), but sadly, not the Berry-and-Cream and Cherry-Vanilla varieties. Of course there must be tons more stuff missing that I don't know about, so if you are particularlyapprehensive about one, just ask and I'll do my best to find out if they have it here.
  • I recommend just ridding it through as when you get back and can cover you taste-buds with that special flavour you longed for so much it will be a real treat.
• Finally, here's a quick list of other things you might miss; pickup trucks and hummers, driving on the right, the lack of stairs (almost every apartment you will live in has one or more flights or stairs), guns, baseball,American football and basketball (here it's only soccer, rugby and cricket) and the Fourth of July and of course friends and family. 

And now, just in case you were getting worried, here's a quick list of things you WILL find here:

• Most fast-food chains (except for the ones mentioned above),
• steak houses,
• most of the popular US sit-coms (although showing a but later than in the US),
• junk food of all types,
• pool/snooker (a lot of pubs have it),
• binge drinking (chug chug chug chug!),
• roast turkey dinners (but not whole fried turkey I'm afraid),
• plenty of celebrity gossip,
• California wines
• giant shopping malls

Now I'm sure that when you've been here for a while you'll develop your own list of things you will miss from over HERE once you get back to the states. I would predict that in that list you will include British humour (Mr Bean is only the tip of the iceberg), cosy pubs in the countryside, awesome architecture and...oh yeah, fancy dress parties!!!

Greetings!

My warmest greetings to all you guys who are readying this first post of mine. I’m Jason, but you can call me (or think of me as) J, JJ, or Jase. I won’t go into my biography here because 1; you can read some of it on the left, and 2; I’ll be sticking things here and there as I write posts, so I guess you’ll just have to keep coming back for more! But of course, if you are curious about something, just ask (my email should be around here too).

So, it’s been a week now since I got back to college from the xmas break, but it seems like I’ve already been back for ages. All memories of the good times I had at my parent’s home in Italy seem to have happened in another space-time reality. I guess I was catapulted right back into college rhythm the moment I stepped into the lecture hall. Also, there was a lot going on this week: I had a physics-of-radiology exam (which I think went well), I got my results back from the end-of-term-1 exams (which also went well) and we had a new lecture starting (nutrition). But I already know that the second term will be over before I can say “huevos rancheros” and I’ll be back in Naples eating pizza margherita and coloring easter eggs. But hey, don’t get me wrong, it’s great to be back. I’m really looking forward to the next term, especially the Sunday pizza-nights and the fancy dress parties.

 

[explanatory side note: in the US, if I were to be invited to a “fancy dress” party, I would assume that it were some kind of smart/black-tie party. Well, that’s what I thought when I first heard about it here in the UK. I was already trying to figure out what socks would best match my black suit when someone told me that “fancy dress party” actually meant costume party! I still used my black suit though, but added sunglasses and an earpiece to turn it into an Agent Smith outfit. It’s all good fun. Here in the UK people seem to really love them. They happen so often it’s like having Halloween every other week. Usually the parties have a theme such as “what you wanted to do when you a kid” or P-party (dress as something starting with a P). It’s a good chance to pretend you’re Indiana Jones or to practice your Clint Eastwood accent. And of course the girls are looking all sexy and stuff! So, you’ll probably hear my talk a lot about it.]

 

However, what was really nice about getting back was seeing again the people that I came to know as my "extended-UK-family". The other night we had a sort of welcome-back-after-xmas dinner, cooked by master chef Rose. She cooked a kind of chilli-alla-british; sort of weird but very tasty. My house mate G was in Texas the whole xmas vacation and told me all about the sunny weather, the plentiful supply of cinnabon and whitecastle hamburgers, the forays into Mexico for great food and cheap goods and, of course, the cowgirls (sigh)...I would have cried if I weren’t so happy that he brought me a giant pack of peanut butter M&Ms and a cowboy hat (yeehaa!).

 

So, in the following months I hope to share with you guys some of the awesome stuff going on here and maybe tell you more about my past experiences. I hope you’ll pick up some useful tips about visiting/living in the UK and I hope you’ll get that itch to go out and explore the world! Which reminds me, I gotta go out too now and explore Domino’s menu…my taste buds are already tingling!

 

See ya!

 

J