Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself to you all.
I’m a dental student training at The Royal London Dental Institute, which is located in Whitechapel, East London.
The Royal London Dental School is a part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, which itself is a part of Queen Mary University of London.
I have served as the President of the Dental Society during my third year of training.
I was born in Ashford (Middlesex) which is just west of London and have lived in a town called Staines for most of my life but have recently just moved out of that house. I now live in a small flat in West London. Although I was born and bred here in the UK (so am technically British), I’m originally from Iraq. The last time I visited Iraq was back in 2001 (before the invasion) but hopefully, in the future, I will be able to go back to visit.
I’m lucky to have two amazing younger brothers Hussein and Omar – there’s only 24 months between each of us so we are really close.
There’s Hussein, he’s 24 years old and has just completed 6 years of medical school at Birmingham University and is about to start working as a junior doctor on the Academic Foundation Programme in Bristol.
There’s Omar, he’s is 22 years old and is training to be an architect. After finishing his A-Levels he did a foundation art course in London and has now completed part I of the architecture course at Oxford Brooke’s University. He will be looking to find a job as a Part I Architectural Assistant in London from September 2018.
And we are so lucky to have such a wonderful mother who has always been there for us. She’s my rock, my inspiration, my best friend and so much more.
My mum qualified as a medical doctor at university in Iraq, but didn’t work for long as a doctor when she moved to the UK before she had my brothers and I and became a full-time parent.
It’s a new hobby but I’m starting to get really into photography. At the moment I have a really good digital compact Sony camera (the Sony DSC HX90) and also a Nikon D5600 DSLR with a 35mm Nikkor lens and a Sigma 105mm macro lens.
I have serious wanderlust! I’m very lucky to have been able to travel to so many wonderful places in the world and the list I have of places I want to visit next is ridiculously long.
Linked with my love for travel is my great interest in languages and different cultures. I speak English, Arabic, Spanish and some Italian and French. I’d love to get better at Italian and French in the next few years so I can become a fluent speaker and the next language I want to learn is German!
Experiencing the endless food establishments all over London – you can never get bored with the variety. If you know where to go – there are foods from all over the globe!
Not sure what else to put here so I’ll stop here.
There’s another post that I decided to split into two parts: “Life Before Dental School – Part 1” and “Life Before Dental School – Part 2” in which I go into details about what I was doing before I started at dental school as a 23 year old in September 2015.