I started writing this post on the 27th of January. I was working away on my laptop downstairs, writing merrily – and then my sister unplugged the router upstairs. So my computer switched to “work offline” without me noticing! Well, I wrote and wrote and wrote and when the post was written to my satisfaction, then I tried to publish it… And of course, my computer told me: “Sorry, no connection.” Obviously, WordPress’ built in “save draft every 5 minutes” function hadn’t been working for a while. Most of my post was gone. And at that point I gave it up as a bad job and went to bed!!!
Ever since then I have been procrastinating on rewriting the post. (My sincere apologies to all my poor readers.) Anyway, here’s the bit of the original post and the rest of the freshly rewritten post!
Note to self:
Don’t promise to post a post on a specific day. That’s almost a guarantee that something will go wrong! Like yesterday, when the ADSL line decided to stop working temporarily…
Well, I promised to tell you about my first day as a medical student. I woke up (not as early as I should have) and while I was busy brushing my teeth, the phone rang. My dad answered it and obviously the call was for me! So there I was, brushing my teeth and trying to tell my dad around the toothpaste that “Yes, I’m coming!”
Eventually I got to the telephone and the lady on the other side delivered her message: “Hi, I’m from the Faculty of Health Sciences…would you still be interested in studying medicine?”
It was at this point that I passed out. (Just kidding!) I politely asked for some time to consider the matter and arranged to phone back later. Put the phone down and started helplessly laughing. I think my nerves may have been suffering from the shock. I’ll be able to tell you for sure in a couple of years time once I’ve studied stuff like that…
Then the hard part started! I had about an hour and a half to decide for once and for all: “Is this really what I want to do?” More importantly, “Lord, is this what You want me to do?”
Ultimately, I picked up the phone and gave my answer – yes, I want to study medicine! So the lady said to me: “All right, please come to the (name of building removed for safety purposes) at the medical campus to register.
That’s when the really hard part started! To find the (name of building removed for safety purposes) on a campus containing (or so I am informed) two hospitals, 3 residences and all the university buildings for the medical campus was no easy task!
When I finally found the (name of building removed for safety purposes), then the really, really hard part started! The place is like a rabbit warren – or an anthill – inside! Dark, full of passages and VERY confusing. Well, my dad (there for transport purposes) and I wandered around asking people where I was supposed to register.
First of all, they sent us to a little room full of queues. We picked the queue that led to a booth labeled information. When we (eventually) reached the front of the queue, the lady printed me another registration form. Unfortunately, it still had the code for BA Languages on it, rather than the code for medicine. The lady then directed me to a computer lab, where I could (apparently) register and they would fix my form at the same time…
Eventually, after wondering about in subterranean corridors for a while, we found the computer lab. At the lab, I was directed to a man sitting in front of a computer waving a piece of green card in the air. I told him about the problem with the code on my form. He started waving a red piece of card in the air. Another lady came to help. She fixed the code on my form, but then told me that I could not register here, I needed to speak to the lady in the red T-shirt, who would then help me.
So off trots little Renate to go speak to the lady in the red shirt! Who then led us back through the subterranean tunnels, through the rabbit warren passages and along an anthill corridor. We ended up right next to the little room full of queues where we had started! There, the lady let me into an office where I registered, she told me about everything that I’d missed and gave me stacks of papers and information!
But, oh no, don’t start thinking we were done yet! Nope, we still had to join one of the queues in the little room full of queues. We paid the money for registration with the Health Council (or something like that) and handed the form in to the lady with the red shirt. Only then could we go!!! (And by this time the security guards had pretty much locked up everywhere. They had to unlock the door so we could get out again!
I’m convinced that if you can get it right to register for medicine, then you can make it through the course with no trouble!!! 
