6/24/2012

Today I went for a paddle boat ride.  While I was out on the water I remembered that it is Saturday so I needed to do some economics homework.  I went to books a million and did the written work.  When I had finished I went home for a nap.  Unfortunately I think the jet lag is catching up with me today.  When I woke up Abbie helped me take my exam.  We went to dinner at voyages, it was fantastic as expected and we got choclava to take home.  After dinner I painted my nails, finalized my assignments and played zelda it was lovely.  Luckily we only put 20 miles on the car today.   Tomorrow I'll get back on track of driving as much as possible.

6/22/2012

Today was shopping day Abbie and I went shoe and pants shopping so that I can bring stuff back to Australia. I feel a bit bad that I spent so much but I I'd get plenty of stuff that is unavailable or much more in Australia. Abbie was having a bad day because I woke her up far too early(10am) and we spent so much time in traffic. But it was great just to be able to see my sister. We made delicious wontons and salad for dinner and played the new Zelda before finally getting some rest. I love vacation. I could take more of this

6/21/2012

Hi there! Guest blogger Abbie here, writing the blog today cause Maddie is driving me home! Today we got up really early and went all the way to Charlottesville, Virginia (that's a really really long way from Melbourne, adds Maddie, as she listens to me dictate to Siri!). Maddie was really tired and jetlagged because she spent too many hours on a plane, so when we got to Charlottesville all she did was sleep. She didn't tell me what she dreamt about, but I bet it was unicorns and rainbows and gum drops! We went to Panera on the way and ate bagels because they are super expensive in Australia! Mine was delicious but Maddie put cream cheese on hers, which is yucky! She seemed to like it, though.

Maddie knows a lot of things about finances and dealing with money, so she told me all about stuff when we were driving down. It was awesome though I don't understand most of it. Then on the way back I read A Game of Thrones to her! We are about 60 pages in, and Maddie likes Jon Snow because "he seems level-headed and not full of himself," which I take to mean because he's a beautiful and angsty bishonen! A cause I can get behind, of course! Of the first 60 pages, my favorite person is prob Benjen, but Varys is gonna show up soon, plus more Arya, yay! Other activities included reminiscing about vomit and discussing how our family makes weird punnet squares.

For those of you who are anxious to know, Maddie looks/seems pretty good, considering! Except too skinny, because Australians are too busy walking upside down and taking cyanide supplements to feed their beautiful ladies, it seems! I hope that was satisfying to all you well-wishes, 'cause you'll get to see her when you pry her out of my cold, dead arms! I miss her much too much to give up, though I might be persuaded if you asked reeeeally nicely. Maybe. No promises.

Tonight we shall get home at roughly midnight, and Maddie's going to order herself a DS and some Layton games, and then we're gonna play Skyward Sword! I hope we get to Girahim before she has to go back, because he is super fab and has rainbows in his heart! And Maddie likes her some manly men so she won't even be sad that Link has to wear pants! RIP skirt/stockings, but I digress.

Tomorrow we are going to go shopping for pants and earrings and shoes! We are keeping a mileage count as we go traipsing around the tri-state, so we'll keep you updated! Currently we are at 520 miles in just under 24 hours. Mostly Maddie drives cause she is a one-armed driving beast and I'm really slow, but it's not actually that scary! What is scary is she keeps threatening to massage my stomach because I had the terror-queasies this morning, frown! But that's a matter for another blog!

Some goals not yet reached:
Buy A LOT of stuff!
Play Dragon Age
Get mail
Find Maddie a cyborg arm/shoulder (Adam Jensen and friends, any suggestions?)
Go to the lake
Eat homemade jiaozi
More hugs!

Can we do it all during this holiday? Tune in next time for the thrilling continuation!

6/20/2012

So I left home and headed to the airport 24 hours ago. I'm still traveling. I am currently in the San Francisco airport. My layover in California is 5.5 hours. I was excited to go out for lunch but it took 2 hours to get through customs. I could have still made it to in n out burger and get back before my flight but I would lose my Vegemite. Since I was "in the system" the food from Australia was fine even though I had to go through security again. If I had left the airport, I wouldn't have been able to go through the international security check point and they would have confiscated the salty brown stuff. Instead I had a fantastic milkshake that made me very glad to be home. My first two flights were pretty fantastic. Each time I sat in a row with me on the window, a friendly guy on the aisle, and an empty seat in the middle to spread out. The food was only edible because I was stuck in a stuffy box for 13 hours.

I unfortunately was awake much more than is customary for me on an airplane because I couldn't find a position that was comfortable for both my neck and my shoulder. Speaking of my shoulder, no problem. I had to ask to skip the naked scanner because I can't raise my arm above my head. Other than that, I had no trouble. We had a beautiful sunset over the pacific. The movies were acceptable. Nothing too exciting. The Australian airport signs are much better than the US ones, just sayin'
On my flight from San Francisco to Pittsburgh I was seated next to Cory Snyder a boy that I went to high school with. How crazy! We talked and caught up while I was awake. Now I'm finally back. Yay!!!!

6/19/2012

Um earthquake....?!!!!
Katie and I were finalizing travel plans and shopping for make up when the house started to shake.  It went on for 10-15seconds and was apparently part of a 4.4 magnitude earthquare with the epicenter in Korumburra.  Korumburra is one of the towns I biked through when I took the trip to Wilson's Promontory.  There was also a corresponding earthquake in New Zealand there was no injury or damage in either.
In happier news I went to the doctor today and my arm is healing nicely.  I am packed and really excited to be heading back to the United States tomorrow.  When my friends finished exams around 4.  We went to the pub for a beer(for them).  Then we headed into the city for some shopping and dinner.  We looked and tried but didn't buy anything.  For dinner we went to a Chinese dumpling house.  It was really good and actually soy free.  They have a fantastic solution: touch screen ordering.  That's right no fighting over who has to order you order without having to speak.  We had vegetarian dumplings, beef, and pumpkin dumplings.  Then since we were in little china we went out for dessert too.  We had tapioca pearls with green tea ice cream and mango.  Luckily, we were with my friend Angela who's family is from Hong Kong so she showed us all the best places and made sure I didn't eat anything that would bother my allergies.  Everything was absolutely delicious! Last chance if you'd like to request items from Australia.  I leave Melbourne in just over 12 hours

6/18/2012

I'm all done!!! I'm so excited. Done done done. I'm on mental holiday. And I'll be on real holiday soon!!!
I took my exam at 9am. After that I helped my friend's study until 2. After that Steph and I went out for lunch and shopping. It was lovely. We got burgers at grilled and picked up several things that each of us we need. At 5 she headed home to study more and I headed home to do the thing that I have been avoiding to study. I packed and organized paperwork from my accident. The Australian system really makes health insurance easy the five hours I spent waiting for someone in the hospital has definitely been made up for in the ease of filing a claim. This isn't even standard health insurance which would be even easier this is extreme road trauma that is covered by tax dollars. I don't have to own a car, have a job or pay insurance. If I get hurt on a roadway government funding ensures that I get medical attention. When Katie came home we chatted a bit. I have a much harder time talking to her that I do many people. I think it's because I need to work on my listening skills. That's it for tonight, after exam parties start at noon tomorrow! Yay!

6/17/2012

Happy(united states) father's day! I had three objectives today. Study for my exam, make the house embarrassingly clean for when Katie gets home, and pick up dad's gift. I spent the first 5 hours of the day juggling the first 2 tasks on the list, baking zucchini bread, running the dish washer, and taking out the recycling between studying. Now I know what you may be thinking but the house has actually gotten steadily cleaner as Katie has been away and I'm hoping that she'll come home and be dumbfounded at the lack of disaster in the house. Probably not but it's worth a try. At noon I headed into the city to study with some friends. There were 5 of us and we worked on practical questions for almost 7 hours. When we finally packed up for the night I contemplated detouring on my way home to accomplish objective #3 but then I realized that since I'm not going to see dad today he won't know that I'm not getting his gift until after my exam tomorrow. Shhhhh don't tell him.
In my cleaning today I made some Oatmeal zucchini bread. It's tasty, it's healthy, and it used up the last of the food from the week.

I feel confident for my test tomorrow.  I hope all goes well.  I'm going to finish the last few chores then I'm headed to bed early so that I'm well rested for my exam.

6/16/2012

I had a fun day at footie. I stayed at home with the cardinals. I made ice bags, I kept score... And that was about it. Don't be confused my is not better and I did hardly anything. My arm moves as little as it did last Wednesday. (Ok fine it moves a little move and i'd give up my sling if the doctor would let me) It does still hurt quite a bit and I can't do much with my right arm but I'm being resourceful and helping where I can. The games today: the cardinals won, the snakes lost and I haven't heard from the seniors and the reserves. I walked home from footie instead of taking the train. I've been feeling like a sloth and wanted to "exercise". By exercise I mean procrastinate. When I got home 2 hours later. I made dinner, showered, cleaned for a bit and then finally sat down to study around 8. I was actually quite productive and would have kept going but I have an early morning study session so it's time for bed.

6/15/2012

Today was studying for the practical exam, hanging out with friends and watching cartoons. We meant to go in this morning at 9 but most of us didn't get there until almost noon. After practicing for about 3 hours we gave up on studying and went downtown for the Friday cupcake special.

A big Melbourne sight is the clock in Melbourne central station somehow even though I have been in the station on the hour I haven't paid attention properly. The clock opens and sings.
Pretty cool.
While I was out today my phone case broke. I got a new one. It wasn't hello kitty toast but I did consider it.

Then I headed home and watched cartoons while trying to fight off a stomach with all the internet's best tricks. I don't think that any of them worked oh well. Tomorrow I have footy. I can't do anything but they're paying me to try and help so I'll provide emotional support or something. Yay!

6/14/2012

The exam today was hard but I think I did well. We went out to the bar after the exam. My friends got beer, I got wedges(triangular fries). I didn't hang around long. The bar just wasn't exciting. Instead I opted for a chocolate and a massage. I'm so relaxed I don't even want to type. Ahhhh.

6/13/2012

Today was my physiotherapy theory exam. It was 6 questions and tons of fun. It took me nearly 2 hours to complete. I finished to find a text from Hannah saying that she had tried to cook for the dogs but was much too exhausted to clean up. Needless to say she left a mess. I was thoroughly grossed out. The entire house stunk and we were attracting bugs. I found ants in my oatmeal. Yuck! I spent 2 hours cleaning up the kitchen while listening to neuroscience lectures. 
After things were less disgusting I made zucchini lasagna. It was good but I limited myself to 1 piece. Then I did some pathway quizzes. At 715 I was absolutely exhausted so I decided to go to bed or at least take a nap and study more in the morning.

6/12/2012

So thinking back this is the last time since standardized tests in high school that I have really had exams all day. And even then it wasn't all day it was only all school day. Today I left at 730got home at 6 and did absolutely nothing in between except take exams. My trip in was a bit exciting. I got on a tram, there was a blocked track so I walked a few hundred meters to a connecting tram. we got stuck in traffic so the tram dropped us in the middle of down town and left😓. I grabbed a third tram that finally took me to uni. Since we have all been hibernating in our study caves I got to say hi and catch up with my friends briefly before the exam started. The first exam contained 45 images of perfectly dissected specimens with an accompanying ridiculous question. There were a few items that took me almost the entire 60 seconds to figure out what I was looking at, let alone answer questions properly. They construct their exams like the SAT so that the average person will pass but it takes an absolute genius to get a perfect score. They are also equally as intense. You can only have a pencil that they inspect. You cannot speak at all in the exam venue. They hand out the test and give you 15 minutes to read the exam. If you touch your pencil during this time you automatically fail. Then they time the exam down to the second and you are not permitted to leave until all the exams have been sealed in the proper file. Oh my!
I had enough time for a coffee before going to the next exam. I don't know if I'm lucky or unlucky to be hurt. My accommodations for the second exam were much more relaxed. They actually gave me the incorrect exam and it was only my honesty that kept me from taking it and giving my classmates a head start on what to study. From talking to my classmates after the exam theirs was so intense that many of them panicked and answered incorrectly. I liked my more mellow set up but I would happily trade it if I could take the exam without pain shooting down my arm. The thing I really missed was not being able to roll me shoulders. I can't even do the left one well because of the torque that it puts on the right.
After I finished my exam I decided that I had endured enough tram drama today and took the train in protest. When I got home Robbie's mom met me with spaghetti. I'll have to find a way to show my deepest appreciation for their kindness. Now it's back to studying. I have the 10 question physiotherapy exam tomorrow when we have to include references to support the answers. Yay!

6/11/2012

Australia sure likes their public holidays.  We had today off for the queen(of England)'s birthday.  In case you weren't aware the queen's birthday celebrates the birth of the monachary not of the person so it is her coronation date not her actual birthday which was in April(she turned 86).  I would have preferred that we didn't celebrate it since I had today off anyway and all of the offices that I needed were closed.  

I celebrated the queen's birthday by studying.  Then I headed into uni to study for a bit.  At 4:30 I had become thoroughly unproductive so I headed home. As you know I hate public transit but today I got the hello Kitty Tram!

I called Angela when I arrived home and we studied by phone for a bit.  At 7 dull Robbie came to pick me up for dinner.  They really do have a fantastic family who are very sweet and caring.  They heard that I had been hurt so they absolutely insisted that I join them for dinner.  I was of course thrilled and happily accepted.  Susan(Robbie's mother) may have to be the best cook I've met in Australia. I would have stayed and snacked all night but I needed to get back to studying.  2 more hours on the phone with Angela and my phone gave up.  It turned off and is aparently done for the night which I think is my cue to go to sleep as well.  Exams start tomorrow...Yay!

My swelling has started to go down and has been replaced with a very sightly bruise. 

Maddie, you cutie how do people keep their hands off of you?!

6/10/2012

I finally got out of my injury and study slump to be productive today. I studied for a bit and then around 1 I got in touch with the lady who had my bike. She offered to drop it by but I wanted to take a walk. On my way I bought a ball to hold and keep my fingers from swelling. I can squeeze it, I can roll it, when I drop it-it lights up.

My bike looks fine but I dropped it at the shop anyway to be looked over.
I don't know if it's my trouble sleeping or if the walk was just exhausting but I was ready for a nap when I got home.Hannah woke me up when she came over to feed the dogs. Whatever Katie made them smells terrible! As I was making dinner a HUGE cockroach ran across the ceiling. I was so grossed out that I had an unsurpressable urge to puke for the rest of the evening. I asked Hannah if she thought that she could give me a hand and she just laughed at me. Then I mentally freaked out for a bit. I was so outraged at the mess that had been left for me to deal with. I was trying to decide if I should hire a cleaner or stay in a hotel when I pulled myself together. Having a broken collar bone is a pain but it's not the end of the world. I did the dishes, took out the compost and recycling, washed the stove, counters, and table, swept the floor, and put away some of the piles. It's still a mess but I feel a bit better. I am going out all day tomorrow then I have exams for 3 days straight. I will probably study at uni all day Thursday and Friday. After that it's almost time to come home. I can't wait!

6/9/2012

I was going to go out today but I decided to put it off till tomorrow.  I started the day by walking the dogs.  Hannah is supposed to be taking care of them but they are absolutely driving me crazy so I took them around the block.  I studied for a bit.  At 2 Hannah and her dad offered to take me out for lunch so I took a study break to join them.  They got on my nerves a tad because they laughed at me struggling to eat but did not attempt to help in any way.  When we finished they took me home and I thanked them for their generosity.  10 minutes later I got a text from hannah asking me to please thank her father again.  She had to also give me his phone number since I have never called him before. I did and he made a snippy comment about how it wasn't up to my standards.  I thanked him again trying to sound genuine and sincere.  Then I took a nap.  Between the pain and the dogs I haven't been sleeping well so I was tired.  I was woken up by Hannah coming over to feed the dogs.  Nice of her though I still maintain that giving them a meal of home cooked food on top of their dry food every day makes them fat and spoiled.  She headed home at 7 leaving me the dishes to do:)
I am unnecessarily grumpy.  It must be the pain.  Or the up coming tests.
On the bright side I did find a fun study site today:http://www.anatomyarcade.com/ I can't wait till the exam. I'm so ready to be done studying.

6/8/2012

Good things today: I got the special consideration that I requested.  I will be able to type instead of hand write my answers.  I will also get an extra hour per exam and 10 minutes rest per hour.  Not bad huh!

My hair is finally looking normal.  I got a bit of studying done. I ordered pizza for dinner so that I could be a bum.  I went for a walk while enjoying rainy Melbourne. 

Not so good things: I was in pain all day.  I don't know if the pain is just catching up with me, if I'm starting to get stiff, or if I've just irritated it.  Hannah and Ken invited me out for dinner but I declined because I've already eaten and I'd prefer to go to bed.  Being social seems like so much work when I'm injured.  

The injury vacation ends tomorrow.  Get excited for pictures and study stories

6/7/2012

Today wasn't very exciting. Most of what I did involved studying and trying to figure out my exams. I met up for a study session at 10. Unfortunately I had to take a tram, then a train, then another train and then a tram to get to uni. My friends were all very nice and extremely helpful. We studied until three when I had my meeting with the Coordinator. She was also very understanding and we have scheduled for me to take my exam by computer. After my meeting Kat gave me a ride home. I studied cranial nerves for a bit and tried to get assistance for my other two exams. At around eight I was starting to get sore and tired so I called it a night.

6/6/2012

I had a really exciting day to day I started out by studying. I got through a couple lectures and made some cauliflower soup. I study a little bit more. I did some jumping jacks. At three I took a break to go for a bike ride. I was headed for the bike path next to the beach. I was a mile and a half from home when a lady decided that she was going to cut me off. I tried to swerve in break but I wasn't fast enough. My impact with the car left me with a broken clavicle and the world's tiniest scrape on my knee. I got to enjoy the Australian health system. It's good but slow. It took them 5 hours to take an x ray and send me home. This means that I'm back to riding the tram. Grump! Exams should be ok. I'm meeting with the coordinator to discuss my options. I'm hoping that I can talk her into giving me extra time to write. I really don't want to delay the exam. So I had an unfortunate day but everything worked out. I'm just going to have to cope with cabin fever as I heal.

6/4/2012

Despite my best efforts I had a very productive day.

If you remember(or look down) to yesterday I said that I was going to finish reviewing the pharmacology and then go to bed.  Well last night I managed to do 1 of 3 lectures before going to sleep.  That meant that my considerable workload for today was increased.  I do have all week to study but I have been asked to complete a section of 19 lectures for my review session tomorrow.  I had done a couple previously and a few more were incorperated into the pharmacology that I had done yesterday so I only had 11 lectures to outline today....Since each one take about an hour that it quite a bit of studying.  Of course, as hard as I tried I couldn't work straight through so at around 1 I made curried sweet potatoes. They are really good and killer spicy.

At the end of each lecture I would take a break to check my email and facebook.  That would normally take me on a detour to studying a different item for a bit.  Facebook is no good for procrastination when my classmates are all on talking about different aspects of the material.  I really wanted to take a break and go to the beach today but it would not stop raining, so I stayed at home and was productive.
Tomorrow will be a little more exciting.  I have swim workout followed by several study sessions and I need to go for a run(today was my day off).  Unfortunately, I won't be home so I won't have the ability to cook between studying but I promise to come up with something of intrest.

6/3/2012

I went through an impressive amount of pharmacology today.  I finished outlining the topics and revised my notes on the concepts that I had already outlined.  It is making sense.  I don't know how I got by with the limited understanding that I had before but I'm really happy that it is all coming together now.  I have done about 10 hours of studying today and I want to get in a tad more before I go to sleep.  Even more impressive than my studying may be my efforts to procrastinate.  I baked cherry-chocolate cookie bars.  They are fantastic! Since it's a Maddie original here's the recipe.

Cherry-Chocolate cookies:

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda(5 shakes)

1/4 sep salt(4 shakes)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 stick butter-(150 g) at room temperature 

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla(large splash)

1 super dark chocolate bar(85% is nice)

20 cherries chopped into tiny pieces

Squish butter and both sugars together with a fork in a big metal bowl until the butter is well creamed and the ingredients are indistinguishably mixed.  Then add the vanilla and so the same thing, followed by the eggs.  Then mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt.  If your chocolate is in a bar like mine was put in a plastic bag and beat with a mallet or frying pan.  If you really like measuring things the chopped cherries plus the smashed chocolate should be at least 1 1/2 cups.  After you have smashed and measured mix in the chocolate and cherries.  Check your dough to tasty part ratio.  If it doesn't look like you'll get some cherry/chocolate in every bite throw some more in. Spread in a 4x9 pan(or similar).  If it's an old pan you may want to put some foil down but there is enough butter that sticking will not be an issue. Bake at 300 for 70 minutes or until it's golden brown and looks like you can cut it without it melting all over the place.  (don't do the toothpick test, that doesn't work on cookies) Then cut into small pieces giving yourself at least 24 cookie bars. Ps I take no responsibility for the way that these look. I was going to make them look fancy but Katie got impatient as they were cooling and butchered them onto the plate. 

I also braided my hair and went for a 10 mile run.  I was faster this week doing the run at 8:50 pace, almost half a minute faster than last week.  Now I'm off to echo a few more lectures and go to bed.  

    

6/2/2012

Since it's Saturday my day was mostly football.  We had a good day today.  It was a bit hectic and a little stressful but nothing too big.  I started off the day with the cardinals.  They're my favorite.  They are a low stress club team that plays well.  They get exited about footie, they are well organized, and they don't sweat the small stuff.  We won by 60 points against UHS.  Since I went to UHS(a different one clearly) I had to make sure I was supporting the correct team.  At one point I though man my face hurts! and realized it was because I had been smiling for about an hour straight.  The secondary highlight of my day was 42km of bike riding.  Before the cardinal's game I went to the club to pick up the gear, then biked to the university for the first game, then I biked back to the club for the senior's game, and then home at the end of the day.  I think I might actually be getting faster.  The senior's game at home was past players' day so the president of the associated professional team along with the founder of the club came in for lunch and to support the team.
 We were up 100-30 at the beginning of the 3rd quarter(the terminology here is actually 3/4 time) and then they scored 10 goals and we only won by 9 points.  It was nerve racking but luckily time ran out before they could beat us.  As another accessory highlight to my day I had pharmacology.  I did really want to go out with the team for the past players' banquet tonight but instead I was good and came home to my pharmacology notes.  I found that I apparently had not fully summarized the material before the last test.  After looking at the lectures tonight I am amazed that I did so well on the test.  I don't think that I fully understood the concepts covered. Now, I have a mastery of the material and can happily explain to you the inflammatory process and associated therapies on the molecular level.....oops I better go back to talking about footie or you'll stop reading my blog. Um....The boys all did well, no major injuries, we have next week off for a public holiday, which corresponds nicely to my study plan. Let me quickly go over scoring for you so that you have a better understanding of how this works.  There are 4 goal posts at each end of the field.
If you get the ball between the middle two it is 6 points, if you get it between the middle and side it's one point, outside the goal posts is a free kick for the opposing team.  While we're at it have I explained that footy is played on an oval?

The field can actually be an oval of differing size and dimentions.  It is actually a cricket(lame baseball) field that is repurposed for the winter.  Footy started as a way to keep cricket players fit in the off season but has overtaken cricket in popularity.  I'll leave you with those footy facts for now.  More to come don't you worry!

6/1/2012

First day of winter!!!...?....!
I know, I know the seasons are supposed to be opposite and summer doesn't start in the northern hemisphere till June 21 or so when we reach the summer solstice. Well... The fun part about being the largest most influential country in the souther hemisphere is that you can start seasons whenever you want to! So winter is from now until the end of August. It's as simple as that. For the first day of winter and and also the first day of study-fest, I spent longer than normal on my bike. I biked into uni to study with some classmates, then studied by myself, went for a run, and biked home(sounds simple but took10 hours). Then, Katie wanted to go grocery shopping but was running behind so I biked to the store filled up the cart and she showed up just intime to pay. Nice of her? Maybe. It's also in her contract. She fussed about the $3 chocolate bar I threw in but I want to bake. She's leaving for 10 days so she a tad stressed. She is not supposed to do that as per her home stay contract. I don't care I wish she was away all the time:) but she's trying to placate me so I don't tattle on her. I will enjoy the quiet and freedom of being able to study undesturbed. I would try to take advantage of the situation and charge her for house and dog sitting but I'm quite happy that she is going away and would like to encourage her to do it more often. On the housing front, tori is looking to close on a house over the break so I may have a much better housing arrangement by August. It is steph's birthday so I should be going out to party with my classmates but studying pharmacology and going to sleep was just too appealing, so I picked that option instead.