7/31/2012

It occurs to me that I haven't had pictures in a few days.  I'll try to work on that tomorrow.  Today was a generally uneventful day.  I went to class and looked like a bum in my large sweatshirt. It's a very American thing to do.  It keeps me warm but it also keeps me looking homeless.  We had our first neurological practical today.  It was fun we got to pretend to talk to non-responsive patients. Then we did our small group learning assignment in record time.  The 3 hour assignment took us less than one.  We're pretty awesome and very organized.  During my extended lunch I looked at places to live and then I went to a free concert with an accompanying free lunch.  Unfortunately, I avoided the line and waited until it looked like the wait for food was shorter.  After being in line for 15 minutes I found that they were all out of veggie burgers(maddie safe) and only serving questionable sausages.  I pulled a christie and had a Ketchup sandwich.  I also bought a $1 cupcake from the bake sale around the corner. We did strength training in the afternoon practical, well strength training for the patient with loss of function. Then home, dinner, run, studying.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to bike.  I think going all the way to uni may be pushing it but a safe ride to work should be tolerable and if not there is always walking.

7/30/2012

I had a thrilling day today. We did resistance exercise in class. There is a tad to much, "figure it out yourselves" for my tastes but it was fun none the less. At lunch time I went for a 5mile run. Then we played in the simulation lab this afternoon. The simulators are basic even compared to first model STAN but we just pushed them aside and created our own patients. After class 10 of us went out for dinner and a movie. We went to china red, my favorite dumpling house. It was delicious and we were all thoroughly stuffed. Then we walked down to crown casino to see magic mike, which was AB-ulous. I got in some Olympics coverage on the train home, so all in all it was a good day.

7/29/2012

I was about to write my blog for the day when I was suddenly distracted by a book. I do like game of thrones and will be upset when I have to give it up to go back to using my bike for transportation. I had a bit of a lazy day today. I did laundry, talked on Skype, cleaned my room, organized myself for next week and that's about it. I studied some but not too much. I did sign up for a couple research projects and look for back up housing options. In my planning, I have also organized myself to get back into marathon training next week instead of just casual running. Biking shouldn't be too far off either. I can do 10 pushups but not quite in one set. The most I can do is sets of 7 but if I can do 3x7 I should be up to 10 sometime this week. I can't wait to be back on my bike!
Saturday night party: it was fine. I didn't really want to go and didn't really enjoy myself. Nothing was particularly good or bad I'm just not very close with anyone who went. I left early but an hour and a half was as much as I could manage.
Brunswick is actually really cool at night. There are lights that decorate buildings with art and movies.

7/28/2012

It was a muddy and rainy day of footie today. We had the reserves and seniors in the worst visitors locker rooms ever. Both teams lost so it was a bit of a depressing day. I got home at 6 and got ready to go out... Very slowly. I almost pulled a tomb of the unknown chief and went to bed. Luckily for my classmates I was so annoyed with being at home that I wet into the city. We'll see how it goes.

Push-ups:5/10

7/27/2012

Sorry the blog is a bit late.  I accidently ate too much last night and it was everything I could do to curl up in a ball and not explode into tears.
Friday was a fun day.  We started by swimming which is always a good way to start a day.  Then we had a lecture by a Canadian.  I was really excited until she said irreguardless and then I tuned out.  Irreguardless is not a word, if you thought it was, congratulations you are one of today's luck 10,000! The next lecture was on using video games to do biomechanical analysis.  It was really cool and the teacher was pretty fun as well.  After we had a meeting for our cardio project.  I looked awesome with my skyscape app. That was it for the day.  1230 and I was heading home.  I was switching trains and got a call from Steph.  The medical department had messed up her grade and she actually did much better than they told her she had.  I turned around and went back into the city for lunch.

They we went out for a drink.

Since I was in the city I picked up dessert on my way home.  There are delicious cupcakes that come in packs of 4.  I liked the package but no one else in my house got the joke.

I actually haven't eaten mine yet.  After taking 2.5 hours to get home I was really hungry so I had 4 pieces of pizza and some left over rice.  My stomach was unfortunately not impressed and I curled up in a ball of stomach pain for the next 10 hours.

7/26/2012

Today was a light day but somehow very tiring. We started early but were done by 1pm. Then my cohorts and I did our weekly stair workout. We are competing as a team in the eurekaclimb in November.  We got caught in the middle of the third set so we had to finish the last 20 flights walking instead of running because the university doesn't allow running up the stairs in the tallest building on campus. Total today we managed 52 flights of stairs. We all agreed that this week felt better than last week. We might actually be good by the time the race comes around. The time to beat is an average of 11minutes per person. We have yet to do a time trial. Maybe that can be the next step after we make it to 88flights in 1 workout. I stayed around uni studied a bit after the workout. When I got home I was too tired to be productive and took a nap. I woke up in time for dinner and more studying. My days get more and more intense all the time.

Push-ups: 5/10

7/25/2012

Today was massage day. It was fabulous before massage we had 4 hours of cardiac lectures. It was fun to learn about some of the newest techniques like robotic heart surgery. Then we did massage and each got to spend an hour being the patient. It was tough work but I suffered through:) I came home and made risotto. Nova took care of dessert. We had indonesian ginger candy.

I really liked it 

Pushups: 5/10

7/24/2012

I had a long day today. I got a late start. We didn't have to be in until 11 today. I gladly took advantage of the extra sleep. Since I had time, I brought my problem solving group cookies. We got to practice biofeedback and using paraffin today. It was great. I went to work right after class. Since class ended at 4:15 I didn't have time to go home before work at 6. Work wasn't bad but the 6mile walk home was killer. I had my school bag so that running wasn't really possible. I tried to catch some trams but none of the ones that I needed seemed to come. Unfortunately there really isn't an easy way to get between work and home without a bicycle. Speaking of bicycle I'm almost half way there maybe a week or two till I'm back. On my walk I passed an origami store.

 Pretty sweet! I also saw an opossum but didn't manage to get a picture.

Pushups 3/10

7/23/2012

Lazy Monday for Maddie. My days at uni seem so long. I feel like I get beaten with knowledge for 8 hours a day. I was supposed to go to the gym tonight but class ran 15 minutes late so I headed home instead. Katie had asked me to cook tonight but I got home to find that I was the only one who hadn't eaten. I decided to make cookie to bring into class tomorrow and then I sampled a few too many:) i did a bit of reading tonight but the long days make me not want to study. We start later tomorrow so I hope to wake up early and get some work done.

7/22/2012

I am officially done with economics. It was an interesting class and I really liked it. I hope there is a feedback form somewhere. I really enjoyed the class but found a mismatch between what we were taught and what was tested. To encourage my brain to work during the test I made muesli bread. It's really good and has so many seeds I start to think that I'm a bird.

While I was finishing my final our new exchange student showed up. Her name is Nova.

She's sweet. I took her on a walk to the beach. On our way we passed a store that was having alpaca day.

I love Melbourne. It was a nice 3 hour walk. When we got home I did some homework, cleaned my room and painted my nails. Things are a tad more hectic with two of us and are going to be even more exciting with 3 students but it's a fun learning experience.

7/21/2012

I had an interesting day of footie. I ran the 10k to the field and had been waiting for about 30 minutes when someone else came up to tell me that the game was a forfeit but no one bothered to tell the trainers. Even though they knew on Thursday when I was there. Georgia the other trainer was there as well so we drove over to the seniors game to watch for a bit. At noon we went back to our home field for the cardinals game. Everyone was out of it today. Georgia and I were mentally checked out because we had been sitting around for 3 hours unfortunately our lack of focus must have been contagious because the players were distracted and didn't play as well as normal either. After the game I ran home but found a shortcut so that it was only a 9k run. The shortcut goes under a bridge with marvin the Martian.
Rather hilly though. I'm still not at the top of my game but the run felt much better than it had Thursday. The day was sunny warm and quite fun. Although I was annoyed I enjoyed chillin with Georgia.

7/20/2012

It's Friday, Friday!
We also had our first neurophysiotherapy lecture today. Oooo. They said to us, "If you fail something it's going to be this." wahoo. Guess I better start studying.
After that we had a pain lecture. It was very interesting, maybe too interesting. I kept getting excited and looking stuff up when I should have been paying attention. After class we went scouting for free stuff again but came up empty. It was a fun and i got to catch up with Tuba. She knitted a very cute teddy bear over her holiday.

I really want to learn how to do that. Forlorn from our lack of lollies we each headed home. I had a lazy afternoon of Game of Thrones and planning for next week. I have plenty of preparatory work as well as review. In addition we have a new student coming tomorrow and so I'll need to cook some next week. At 4 I went to the post office to pick up a box for Katie. I purposefully never go that direction because there are nice shops that empty my wallet. I've been looking for a scarf and this one jumped out at me as I passed. It matched my outfit and everything.

 It is actually a men's scarf but I like it! I'm thinking of starting a trend where I wear my scarf, boots and a summery dress. Both of them are so toasty that I would still be warm.
Friday is Stan's turn to cook so we had pizza. Yay! He fancies himself a Jewish American Princess???!! So he makes take out or reservations. He is actually an acceptable chef when he does cook. Abs and bed so I can be top of my game for footie tomorrow.

Pushups: 1 out of 10

7/19/2012

Today was my first day back to work for real. I was there by myself caring for cramping calfs and dislocated shoulders. I did well. There was only once that my shoulder started to protest. Getting to work is also quite a chore. There is no good route by public transit so I decided to run there and back. I like to think that I have kept pretty active with my injured shoulder but the deconditioning was pretty obvious today. I made it there alright but gave up and walked half way back. I can't point to a limiting factor but I just lost all desire to continue running despite the fact that it is much faster. Total I think I ran about 9 of the 12 miles round trip it was a beautiful night but a bad run.
Speaking of workouts, today was officially my first day of training for the eurika tower challenge. 88 flights of stairs as fast as you can with a team in costumes! Our team is 3 boys and a girl we are currently taking suggestions for costumes but have some good ideas already.
With all this exercise you're probably wondering where I fit in school. Well today was a half day with an early start. I even stayed after to get my techniques sighed off for independent practice and then practiced for an hour and a half. I still have a bit of study to do but I hope to get caught up this weekend.
Today was also part orientation week for the rest of the university so we got some free goodies. My favorites were the flag cookies.

7/18/2012

Every notice how when you are cold everything seems miserable? I was sitting here feeling really grumpy and upset about how bad my day had been when in reality I had a pretty good day.  I woke up and went for a swim before class.  It was great.  I felt really strong and even pushed myself out of the pool this morning.  I had a chi tea and then I went to a cardiorespiratory practical.  We had two lectures, then I had lunch with my friends.  So far lunch has been much more enjoyable this semester than it was last semester. We are able to talk and relax since we aren't rushing off to do projects yet.  After lunch we had a practical on interferential current.  It is much different than what I had seen in the USA and is abbreviated IFT instead of INF I wonder if it's actually two different treatments? Either way it was pretty cool and fun to learn about.  I also got back a paper that I wrote for last semester.  I did terribly Yay! This may seem counter intuitive but I already have my final grade, so the fact that I did poorly on the paper means that I did well on the exams.  It was starting to cool down by the time I left the university.  It was a little cold on my walk to the train station and a little cool walking home.  I got really cold once I got into the house and stopped moving.  We turn off the heat during the day to save money so the house is chilly.  I sat down to study and since it was high 30s today I cooled down before the house warmed up.  I need to start coming home, turning on the heat, and then going for a run or something.  Tomorrow is a light day so I'll try to fit in some fun stuff.  

7/17/2012

Alright today wasn't much better on the excitement front. We did have a seminar today. Our patient presented with ankylosing spondylitis. Which is a degenerative disease that affects all the joints in the body but predominately effects the back. It was really cool to see how well he dealt with his condition.
The rest of the day was just studying and preparing for tomorrow.
I did find a fun recipe that I made for Katie. She said it was interesting but I think that it was because she wanted ice cream. So feel free to put ice cream on top.

Blueberry Pudding for One

2 tablespoons rice flour 

1 tablespoon almond meal
2 teaspoons corn flour
2 teaspoons tapioca starch
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
3 teaspoons softened butter, alternative spread, or oil
2 tablespoons milk, lactose free if required
¼ teaspoon vanilla
heaped ¼ cup frozen blueberries
2 teaspoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons water
½ teaspoon corn flour

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Rub in butter (if using) with fingertips until mixture looks like breadcrumbs.  Stir in milk and vanilla (and oil if using instead of butter) to form a thick batter.

Combine blueberries, maple syrup, water and cornflour in a large mug.  Heat in microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir, then heat for another 20 seconds.  Spoon batter over the hot berries and cook on medium-high for 2 minutes.  Stand one minute before enjoying straight from the mug.

This is the website where I found the recipe http://www.lowfodmap.com/blueberry-pudding-one-maybe/  It has a bunch of good healthy foods and specific ideas for dietary concerns.  

7/16/2012

Hey it's Monday! That means that I'm back to being boring.
I went to class from 9-4:30 today if you add on an hour for transportation each direction that leaves me enough time for a smoothie and not much else.  I could have done a tad more but my pile of homework took me another 3 hours.
I started my homework at the gym where I rode the stationary bike 16K while reading evidence to support pre-surgical physiotherapy in abdominal surgery patients.  I've devoted Monday to gym work so I also did a good deal of shoulder work.  I can now do 1/10 of a pull-up!!!!(or 1 pull-up with a 90% assist).  But no progress on the pushups.
On my train ride home I finished the first Game of Thrones book.  Barnes and Noble is holding the next 3 books hostage.  I have tried begging them to send a copy to my iphone.  I hope it works.
Tomorrow will be more eventful(because it can't be less).  I wish that I could give tell you about an exciting new technique that I'm learning but we are just doing introduction to how to be an aide.  We are doing heat and ice they are being surprisingly specific about how to fold the towel over the hot pack appropriately but pay little attention to why we actually use hot packs.  Anyway tomorrow I will do something crazy exciting just so I can tell you about it.

7/15/2012

I had plenty to do today but I decided not to do most of it.  The footie club had a reverse draw raffle and luncheon today.  I wanted to go but I did not want the 3 hours of walking to get there and back. Because it was an event,  I would need to look nice.  That meant that running over was not an option.  I looked up public transit and there were so many detours that it would take me 2 hours and 4 changes each direction.  I can't wait to be back to riding my bike.  By the way, for those of you wondering when that might be, I am not to ride my bike until I can do 10 pushups.  Right now I can do 1/2.  As in once up and down with my feet on the floor and my hands on my bed frame.  I'll have to start listing my progress daily so you can follow along.
So what did I actually do today: I finished my paper on the economic implications of Obamacare. Then I cleaned my room, water-marbled my fingers, read Game of Thrones, assembled the carrot cake, and started on my problem set for this week.

At 4 the new student that Katie is housing came over with her mother and sister for a pre-move in visit.  We at carrot cake and drank tea while Katie was demeaning and borderline offensive to them.  Nova, the girl that will be moving in with us, is from a very prominent Indonesian Catholic family.  Her mother either did not understand the conversation or was particularly good at holding her tongue.  Katie is accepting 2 more students at the end of July to earn more money.  She doesn't seem to realize that having students means that she is suppose to take care of them.  She is supposed to cook for me once a day and these other two girls twice a day.  I don't care because I hate her cooking and am happier when she doesn't cook but the other girls are expecting meals to be prepared.  She has already said that she isn't cooking every day....but they are paying her to cook for them...twice a day.... This could get interesting.

On that note, I made dinner for Katie and Stan tonight.  After dinner I organized myself for tomorrow, did all of my pre-reading, made some organizational facebook groups(for up coming projects) and packed my bag.

7/14/2012

First day back to footie! Footie this time of year is all about mud and magpies.

It is so wet and muddy that even the ball gets saturated. It is exceptionally hard to bounce a water logged ball on a muddy field but somehow they manage to get by.

 Both clubs and the reserves won but the seniors lost. Ron, the club director/organizer/go to man, pointed out that we still haven't had a weekend where all 4 teams have won.
In other exciting news I ran for the first time since breaking my collar bone today. Easy 10k to get to work. I was going to run another 10 home but it was raining and Georgia offered me a ride so I took it.
When I got home Katie and her family decided that we were going out for dinner. I told then that I had a paper to write but they talked me into the free food. During dinner Katie told me that she had guests to entertain tomorrow and asked me to make her a carrot cake. She really doesn't listen sometimes. When I finished the cake she said that it looked too thin so I made a second layer, icing, and fondant carrots.

Then I quickly stormed off to my room to study. I am happy with my paper and got an A on my weekly quiz do all is good.

7/13/2012

Oh my Friday the 13th. I hope you don't have triskaidekaphobia. I love that word and I so seldom get to use it. I had one bout of bad luck but otherwise had a good day. I some how managed to break my nook this morning. I didn't do anything to it but when I picked it up the screen had lines in every direction indicated that it was broken. Bummer. Other than that I went for a real swim this morning. My arm did pretty well and then felt fantastic for the rest of the day. We had a cardio lecture this morning followed by a seminar. Our patient is a paraOlympian in javelin. She was pretty cool. She has only had one arm her entire life and manages pretty well but she has found the same thing that I did. It's almost impossible to tie your hair up one handed. Luckily her friends and family help her.
After the seminar I went to the market and did some homework at Melbourne central(the train station/shopping center). Since I couldn't read I got the paper for the train ride home.

This is what I have needed my whole life. Toe slimming surgery! Yes!

This evening I decided to cook polenta. I have never been a huge polenta fan but for some reason I wanted to cook it. I got out my handy Internet and made garlic tomato polenta tartlets with basil mayonnaise.



Tomorrow is back to footie! Yay! Happy Friday everyone.

7/12/2012

Incase it wasn't apparent yet, I am definitely back into intense studying. I started the morning with a 3 hour exam. It was a retake from the end of last semester. I had a B+(an H2A in Australian terms) but they gave me a chance to reclaim 2 points and get a top mark(H1). While taking the exam I missed a lecture and a practical. Luckily I was able to retake the practical this afternoon but I completely missed the lecture. The practical was on ultrasound a therapy that is surprisingly widely used despite the fact that there is so little evidence to support it. Even the lose support that I had found in the US is completely refuted in Australia. My favorite conundrum is ultrasound over fractures. Some evidence suggests that it increases healing other evidence suggests that it is detrimental. Both types of studies have questionable findings and have not been successfully duplicated. It was raining when I headed home. I have modified my route so that I have to walk about 2 miles(1 school to train station, 1 train station to home) so that I am more active. I can't wait to get back to riding but the school work is testing my shoulder to the point that I don't want to aggravate it more. I was so bored and annoyed with the train today that I zoned out and missed my stop. Oops. When I finally got home I had a light dinner because my stomach is being uncooperative. After that I started studying. By the time I was ready for bed I had completed 2 out of my 7 objectives for the evening.
Sorry for the boring day I tomorrow I promise pictures and maybe an adventure.

7/11/2012

Today we started on Cardiorespiratory physiotherapy. We discussed the respiratory complications of anesthesia especially as it is involved upper abdominal surgery. After a brief lunch break we had a practical on mobilization. I hope that today was just an introduction and that we go into more depth later because it was very brief followed by "figure it out for yourselves."
I have a good bit of homework already I need to review 2 articles, read for class tomorrow and finish my paper on Obama care. I also found out that I get to retake my exam from last semester tomorrow. The university is giving me a second chance to take my exam since I was hurt during the final exam. I have a good grade now but I have the chance to improve my grade with no risk. Right now I have the Australian version of a B but if I get 2 points higher I will have an A. I should study but instead I'm working on the assignments for tomorrow. Hopefully I remember everything from 3 weeks ago. Cross your fingers.

7/10/2012

Days at school seem so much longer than days off! I went into school early this morning to swim before class. I can't actually swim yet but I kick boarded for about a kilometer. Then I walked into the city to pick up the rest of the manuals. I have sold all my extras, well all but one. I have 2 offers. Whoever brings me money first gets it. On my walk i found a fantastic store where you can become a ninja!
Our lesson for today was small learning. As a group of 9 we have 2 questions to research and answer in a page and a half essay. It is particularly irritating because it isn't graded. If you don't show up you will lose points from your overall grade after the exams at the end of the semester but we don't actually get any marks for the work that we are doing. Kinda like negative extra credit. The questions were difficult and we encountered computer problems so we had to work through half of lunch. After we finally finished we took a break to play around the world table tennis. If you aren't familiar with this game you play with an infinite number of people. Once you have hit the ball you run to the line on the opposite side of the table. Each person gets 3 lives after that you're out. As you get down close to the last few people it becomes quite intense. in the afternoon we "learned" stretching techniques. They are doing a terrible job at actually teaching us and we are expected to find the appropriate positioning ourselves. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the therapists at Allegheny Chesapeake physical therapy for teaching me good techniques without them I would be lost. After class we practiced for another hour. Then I headed home and prepared for tomorrow on my way.
We have no food in the house. There a couple things but too moldy to salvage. I had an apple with peanut butter for dinner because I found myself too lazy to go out to the store. Additionally Katie has decided to take on 2 more students. I hope she doesn't expect help from me because I have work to do. I'm already at Uni from 7a-6:30p but I could stay longer for a quiet place to study. Which leads me to news on the housing front: Kat is moving at the end of August and needs a roomie. Yay! I don't think she has a place in mind yet. I have had very little time to talk to her even though we are both at uni all day every day. I will keep you apprised as we get more solid arrangements. But I have a new buddy since Tory ditched me and a definite moving date since Kat has to move before the end of August. Yay!

7/9/2012

First day back! Somehow today seemed at least 4x longer than yesterday. I headed into my first practical of the semester. We fitted gait aids and demonstrates how to use them. I had the privilege of getting up in front of the class and explaining crutches while everyone critiqued my instructions.
Next we had a lecture on ultra sound and then a lecture on manipulations. I feel like things are moving a bit quickly here. After lecture we went to lunch at a Thai restaurant. It was quite good. Although we were probably the worst patrons ever as we ordered drinks and then ate the lunches that we had brought with us.
Next we went into the city to have our practical manuals printed and bound. This ended up being quite the drama as we accidentally gave them two of one file. Now we have six extra copies of the cardio manual but are still missing the neuro one.
While I was waiting for the manuals to be printed(before I knew about the mistake) I did a stair workout in preparation for the 80 story stair climb. I walked up and down the tallest open building on campus(9 stories) 9 times. You might think that walking stairs is easy but I beg to differ. It was enough work to give me a cardio workout.
I studied a bit before picking up the manuals and heading home. I found myself in bed by 7:30. Yikes! I read a chapter of my book but I'm really ready for bed now and it's 8:10pm. I would complain but on the bright side the jet lag makes 6am look much better than it otherwise would.

7/8/2012

Somehow I had more time than expected today. I had been trying to decide how to spend my day and ended up doing everything. I started out by being lazy and lounging around reading Game of Thrones. After I felt like a sloth I did the pre-reading for tomorrow. Then I walked down to the movie theatre and saw Ted. It had fart jokes so I liked it. Then I hoped onto a train and went to the game masters exhibit. I thought it was going to be more of an educational museum but instead I found that it was an arcade for old, new, and yet to be released video games. It was fun but I tired I each game quickly. They seemed to be in the wrong place so that you could play but you couldn't accomplish Ang objectives. I also really don't like using the wii controller for classic games. The buttons seem to be in the wrong place, or at least they did in the exhibit. It was a really cool exhibit organized by creator with everything from old PAC man machines to Mickey mouse to rock band to a new game that you need 3d glasses to play. Unfortunately there is no photography so I didn't get many pictures while pretending to text. When the museum closed at 6 I headed home to get ready for tomorrow. Unfortunately I got some bad news on the housing front. Tori who I was supposed to move in with decided to move back home instead of buying a place here. I'm a bit sad and back to searching for apartments. Hopefully I find something good soon Katie has decided that she wants more money so she has rented out two more bedrooms for next month. It's going to be an absolute mad house here. Plus she's back to getting on my case about being a loser. Somehow I don't care. I had a lovely day and school starts tomorrow. :) !

7/7/2012

Well I was going to go to the footie games and work today, but I had scheduled myself off and I had a bit more economics homework to do than I had previously realized.  I spent almost the entire day working on homework, studying and writing a paper.  My final project is on the microeconomic effect of Obama can on a private practice.  If anyone has any ideas, concerns, or insight into Obamacare please let me know.   Otherwise I'll be working on it all week and I'll be happy to share the impact on supply and demand, the effect of the changing patient profile, and why this isn't really socialized medicine(see England).  More on the school work front, I have my schedule and assignment list for next semester.  I am in class all day every day, I continue to work with the footie team, and we add in a hospital.  Then 80% of my grade for the semester is made up of the essay exams and practicals in the last week.  One day left till I go back.  I'm trying to decide how to spend it.  Sleeping all day? Working on my paper? Doing some prereading? or Going to the video game exhibit and maybe a movie? hmmmm...

7/6/2012

Today I started with banking and then went back to the gym for more biking while reading Game of Thrones. I was there for 2 hours but I still felt thoroughly unproductive. On my way back home i looked into the video game exhibit at federation square. Fed square is know for art and free shows. This was not one of them.
Entrance is $22 thus I plan to come back when I have more time to enjoy the exhibit. By the time I got home it was time to start getting ready for dinner. Man I hate public transit! I went out with Angela and her husband Dave. We started by devouring $50 worth of curry, naan, and rice. 
Then we went to the dessert story for a fruit avalanche with ice cream on top.  was so good. 
 Unfortunately my jet lag started to kick in after dinner and I barely made it home awake.

7/5/2012

Well I have officially found myself on the 7p-4a sleep schedule. i woke up this morning much to early but I didn't fight it because it will only make things easier when I need to wake up for class next week. I was pretty useless today. I read Game of Thrones and went exploring. Simultaneously. I started by going to breakfast at melbourne central. They have huge chairs that can engulf even a large person. I enjoyed coffee and a cupcake as I read. It was a bit drafty as I read about Jon snow and his adventures guarding the wall of ice. I was able to sympathize with the chilliness. Next I took my book to the gym and spent several chapters on the recumbent bike. At 1p I set of to explore Melbourne's near western suburbs. I made a video that I will hopefully be able to put up soon. May of the places I meant to go we're closed or not what I expected. I my first kabab in Melbourne. It's much like a gyro on different bread. I enjoyed the flavor but my jaw kept getting stuck so eventually I gave up trying to eat.
I had been talking to a few people while I was home about Melbourne's skyline. I had said that it was unimpressive. I just didn't know where to look. From fitzroy the skyline is quite nice. Not as good as coming through the fort Pitt tunnel but it's not bad. Exploring took 5 hours but I was able to read on the train. I was wide awake until the sun set at 530. I've been struggling to keep my eyes open ever since. Bed time at 7:17pm. Yay!

7/4/2012

Happy 4th of July!
Sorry I've been slacking on the blog.  I had a fantastic visit home.  I was ecstatic to see some of my favorite people.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see everyone I'll have to plan better next time.  I also enjoyed my favorite foods, the sunshine, shopping, and driving.  With one trip to Charlottesville, 4 trips to Pittsburgh, and driving around Morgantown the total comes to 1,243 miles.   As nice as my flight home was, the flight back to Melbourne was equally as bad.  We ran into traffic jams at every airport.  The plane would arrive on time but we were unable to park.  I ran between gate at every airport, luckily the plane waited for me at each stop but since I was one of the last passengers on the plane in LA they made me check my carry on.  All I wanted on my 14 hour flight was deodorant and pants.  I slept for most of the flight.  I am getting better at eating airplane food though they have not gotten better at making options that I am not allergic to.  Since I am now considered an Australian resident going to the USA on holiday the customs process is much easier, in both directions actually.  I left home at 1pm on Monday and got to the house here at 1pm on Wednesday.  That's  34 hours of travel. Yay! Duty free gave me the first reminder that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.  Good thing I brought my own stash back with me. Stan was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and bring me to Katie's.  I celebrated being back in Melbourne with a latte.
I find that I'm a bit homesick.  I dealt with it by listening to the I<3 radio party pod and going to the beach.
It was nice but cold, it's about 40F here.  I spent 4 hours doing a Belle impression(from beauty and the beast-head in book while walking).  On my way home I bought me flowers.
They're pretty.  I am also jet lagged so I'm calling it a night early.  Aside from my airport pickup, I have not seen Katie's family.  The house stinks but my room is clean and smells fresh as I left it.  My bike is back and looks good.  Hopefully it won't be too long until I can ride again.