Plastic Surgery and Sun-bus

First day of “Stage” (internship) at Hôpital St Roch in plastic surgery unit.
Asked 3 people before finding my supervisor, Prof./ (Dr.) Mme Le BRETON, a petite, round woman who smoked like a chimney despite all the non-smoking signs and anti-smoking public service ads posted in her own unit. Her office reeked of cigarette smoke, As I entered, she was just stubbing one out while pulling out another. She took me and another student assigned to her unit to the 5th (top) floor, where we met the 4 “internes” (equivalent to US residents). We had the choice of either watching consultations or operations. Since we didn’t really know how to choose, one of the interns, Charles, took me with him to surgery, and had the other student follow another intern to consultations. Today, the surgeons did an extemporané (quick histological exam to determine whether a tumeur is benigne or maligne during the operation) on a 70-80 year old man who had lesions and tumors all over his scalp. Later a piece of skin was grafted from above his collar bone to fit on top of the scalpal incision. We chatted a bit, and it turns out that he used to be a doctor. When I saw him two weeks later, I found out that fortunately his tumeurs were benignes.

Also first day on Nice’s “Sun-bus” system.
The bus ride was 30 minutes long, but the bus was air-conditioned (climatisé) and full of velvet lined seats. But 30 minutes is nothing compared to the 2 hour bus ride I had every Wednesday to Northwestern from IMSA junior and senior years. So in all respects, wasn’t bad at all.