Buenas Tardes

All the while trying to maintain humble, I think I should be a relatively familiar name by now: I’m Xiya, (ex) 2nd year medical student at Université de Montréal, National Officer of Research Exchanges for IFMSA-Québec and Supervising Board Member on the SCORE International Team. This will be my 2nd GA and my 3rd IFMSA meeting that I will attend, the other two being the RM 2015 in Colombia and the MM 2016 in Malta.

While I should be extremely excited about this, right now I’m just downright frustrated : like Charles-Antoine, I took part of a SCOI exchange in Guilin, China and I’m on my way back to Montreal to pick up some material and head off to Mexico City. Except due to my extreme luck (insert sarcasm here), my flights got delayed despite the acceptable weather. I currently have no idea whether I can catch my next flight to Montreal (I have most likely less than 2h to clear immigration, get my lugage, get my next boarding passes and board the plane), which also means I have no idea whether I can catch my flight to Mexico City the next day, which also also means that I don’t know whether I can make it for the first day of sessions where I will be facilitating a workshop in SCORE. Please insert some screams. For future references, never book your flights this close in time.

All negatives aside, I think it is important to present my objectives for this meeting :

1) Survive

a. this sounds silly, but it’s not that far-fetched : I’m coming back from a physically, intellectually and emotionally heavy journey in China, and there is literally no break to breathe before the crazy demands of a GA. There is indeed no one to blame but myself for this. But I’m confident I can do this (I also kinda don’t have a choice).

2) Sign all SCORE contracts as planned

a. Most contracts for the next season have already been settled with the other NOREs through email, so I’m already confident that we have more contracts for our students than we did last year (hurray!). Some remain to be discussed, and hopefully I can maximize them to bring our SCORE game to another level.

3) Rock the Poster Fair

a. The poster fair is where the exchange officers present a poster describing their SCORE and SCOPE exchange programs. I made the one for IFMSA-Québec (which doesn’t look that shabby despite using powerpoint!) and I’m pretty excited to promote our awesome exchanges!

4) Meet old friends and make new ones

a. This objective always comes back and it is always relevant : I’m happy to finally be able to meet many friends that I met during my first RM, and I’m just as excited to meet new faces.

5) Enjoy my last GA

a. This will most likely be (although you never know) my last opportunity to participate in a GA, and I hope it can be just as memorable as the other ones.

Hope I can make it to Mexico!

Update : I did end up making it on time, but I also ended up missing my plane to Montreal. Thankfully the airport lady helped me reschedule so I can make it to my flight to Mexico.