9/30/2012

Sunday is the Run/Bike combo.  They tell you to do a bike ride after the long run to increase you cardiorespiratory endurance. Maybe if you're Lance Armstrong but my post run bike ride is just slower than a slug chasing a plant. The run today was really good I ran 1 mile further than last week in almost  an hour less.  Yay!!! Before I went out for my run,  I studied!!! After I came back from my run, I studied!!! This morning I skyped with my sisters as we were all studying.  It was quite fun.  Review 1 slide, watch Gillie's video, review another slide ask Rachel about the broccoli in the dining hall.
Other than running the most exciting part of my day was dinner.  I grilled a heap of vegetable, asparagus, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, radishes, and a turkey burger.  Half was for dinner and half was for lunch tomorrow.  I ate all of it for dinner.  oops.
While on my run today I realized that I haven't properly explained my new area.  I live at the top of a rather steep mile long hill called Mt. Alexander road. It makes the bike ride into class super quick but it's a pain at the end of the day. At the bottom of this hill is a rather interesting piece of architecture.  I think it looks like a french fry with ketchup going toward it

but people have all sorts of interpretations from cheese stick to guillotine.  It's weird but it's growing on me especially since it means that I'm almost home.

9/29/2012

My to do list for this weekend is short. So short in fact that it fits onto a tiny post-it.  Good thing to if it were any longer I don't think that I would get everything done.  All I need to do this weekend is run, bike, send emails, clean my house, do laundry, study, and write a paper about frozen shoulders.  No big deal.
I was so desperate not to write the paper that I started the morning with economics homework.  At 9:30am I went out for my bike ride.  We were supposed to get wind storms with some rain this afternoon and I wanted to beat them.  I made it half way before the windstorms started.  For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to ride on the bay...when they were predicting wind storms...If you weren't aware this is a bad idea for two reasons.  1. The wind is stronger coming off the bay and there is nothing to block the wind. 2. Sand hurts when you get pelted with it.  Getting back home was quite a struggle.  At one point I tried to ride on the road but I was starting to get blown into traffic so I went back to the waterside bike path.  It took me 1.5x longer to get home than it did on the way out.  Luckily I got home and was able to grab my laundry off the line just as the rain started.
When I got home I avoided writing my paper by doing 1.5 more chapters of economics.  Finally at 3:30 I couldn't procrastinate any longer and I wrote my paper.  It's not to bad at the moment.  I need to reorganize it a bit and it should be ready to be further edited by the time I go for my run tomorrow.
After the paper I mopped the floor and called it a night.  More excitement tomorrow:)
Other things to know: today was grand final day. The Melbourne version of the Superbowl. I missed it on account of too much homework. I would have made an effort to watch but the commercials aren't as good.

9/28/2012

I had another late start today. It was fantastic! I swam, had breakfast and ran before the seminar this morning. In our seminar we got to see 2 Parkinson's patients. It was very interesting. After the seminar we started the weekend with free pizza. Yum!
Then I made a really bad decision. It was raining today and I was wearing a light pink dress. I had running clothes with me but I decided to leave the dress and pink shoes on to bike home. Oh Maddie! Bad choice! My pink shoes and dress turned black and I've been trying to wash it all afternoon.
I have quite a bit of work to do this weekend so I have been studying all afternoon with a short break for a bike ride at 6pm.
If you have been paying attention I have shown you 49 of the 50 elephants that were put around Melbourne to celebrate 150year of the zoo and the birth of the baby elephant. Today's elephant is the last one and my favorite. The name of the elephant campaign was Mali in the city. The elephant is the city in Mali. It's an artistic representation of Melbourne and was commonly seen with decorations like necklaces and balloons.

9/27/2012

I had my first late start in almost 2 months this morning.  I celebrated by going in at 6:30 to swim.  It was nice to have the morning off though I was not as excited about being there until 5pm.  Today we focused on foot and ankle and I learned some cool tricks for runner problems:) After class we did stairs.  We found a new building with a stair case with both more stairs and higher stairs.  The only problem was that it is the business building with the many executive offices.  We felt rather awkward as we ran past.  The stairway is also very open so they could see us from each floor.  We still managed 5 sets of 15 stories so it was a good workout but we will need to find somewhere else again next week.  After stairs I happily came home and devoured some more leftovers.  9 meals later and more than half the food is still left.  I've been sharing in class too.  That just means that I don't need to cook this weekend.  The excitement of this evening was finally cleaning my room after putting it off since Sunday and working on my paper about physiotherapy interventions for frozen shoulders.  My paper seems to be going pretty well but I'm going to need to cut it down. They only give us 1500 words so I need to work on being thorough yet concise.
Since today is stair day this is a stair elephant or an elephant with the building that I will be climbing in the background.

9/26/2012

I hope that everyone fasting is having an easy and meaningful fast.  Mine wasn't too bad but I do miss home.  I went to services this morning at East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation.  It is an orthodox congregation where the women sit upstairs but it was friendly and relaxed.  I got there at 9am when the service was supposed to start.  I was interrogated at the door for their protection as well as getting to know me.  I definitely felt welcome in their community.  The service ran on JST and I was the first one there at 9:15.  We actually got started around 9:45 and many more people wandered in at it was going.  I stayed until the Yiskor service at noon.  Afterward I enjoyed the public transit system of Melbourne as I went to get groceries for break fast.  I got home around 3:30-4:00 and began cooking, partially because I was hungry and wanted to eat everything I could think of and partially because I was homesick and wished that I could be cooking with my sisters.  I had thought that 4:00 was a tad early to start cooking for break-fast at 8pm but I was wrong.  I finished just in time with only one break to do dishes.  I made cookie dough brownies, blintzes, broccoli and swiss quiche, eggplant and roasted red capsicum quiche, spinach dip in a bread bowl with veggies, and fruit with chocolate and a cream dip.

For only two small girls we didn't do to bad! I'm going to be enjoying leftovers all weekend.

This is a basketball elephant.  I bet he could have eaten all my food:)

9/25/2012

Arrrg new iPhone update has de-integrated all of the google products. Since blogger is a google product it has made things more difficult to up load and didn't save my post so I have to type it out again. :p

Today we got to go to the stroke rehab center at royal park hospital. I got a tad lost on my was so that even though it's less than a mile away it still took me an hour to get there. We had to opportunity to evaluate a high level gentleman who suffered a stroke several weeks ago in groups of 5 students. It was interesting to interact with the patient but a little confusing and irritating to work as a team. We all wanted to lead the questions in different directions. I made it home from the stroke unit in time to scarf down some food before the Jewish council of Melbourne said that it was time to start fasting. I found services for tomorrow but I didn't make it in time for tonight. Instead I looked up online kol nidrei services. There are actually some pretty good ones out there but it really isn't the same as the real thing. I really miss getting to celebrate the high holidays at home but to make up for it I'm cooking enough for break fast to feed everyone so... Just come on over to my place.

Ummm...elephant:

9/24/2012

Happy Monday! The theme of the day was review and preparing for our presentation Wednesday. Luckily for me the presentation is not worth any marks. 2 of our group members are telling the class about the project that we compiled this semester. I did help with the project and I have been doing as much as I can for the presentation. It's difficult to organize 11 people working on 1 case but we have managed pretty well. The other item of the day was review. The semester isn't over until the end of November but we are about to go out on clinics so our classes are wrapping up.
Kat's boyfriend had a dinner party tonight and Kat made a fantastic tolberone cheese cake. It was very tasty! Too bad there are no left overs:(
Look closely this elephant is actually very detailed beautifully decorated.

9/23/2012

I spent the day acting like the ironman in training that I am.  I am training really hard for the next two weeks so that I am able to taper after that and do fantastically in the Melbourne Marathon on October 14th.  I left the house at noon.  I ran 8miles to my friend Angela's house, then we went on a 9km run(she's training for a 14Km race at the beginning of November), after we finished I ran home.  I went a slightly less efficient way and arrived back at my door having run 20miles.  I quickly grabbed my water bottle and my bike(an helmet) and met my friend Steph for a ride around the city.  She went home this weekend and got her dad's bike so she has a shinny gold bike that goes super fast.  We were going to go for an hour but decided to do the city loop which is a tad longer.  I got home just before 6pm.  Sigh what an intense day.  I felt like I went non stop but the reality is I spent a good bit of time at stop lights, navigating turns and chatting.  Week 1 of official triathlon training done and I only missed 1 workout! Yay! Next week looks a little easier and I have more of a routine now which should help a bit. Pink=run, blue=swim, yellow=bike above the pen is last week, below is next week.

Aside from running and biking I also studied and grilled.  I made delicious fries and a turkey burger for dinner.  Since I had a big bike ride today I had my burger OTB style with pickles and peanut butter yummy.  After dinner I sat down to do my pre-reading for next week and it's RUNNING!!!! I was so excited.  As Kat was trying to get me to procrastinate by watching SNL skits, I was reading her a textbook about the biomechanics of running gait.  

This is a rusty elephant made of metal work. He's a cute one:

9/22/2012

Have you ever heard that you shouldn't go to the grocery store when you're hungry because you'll buy too much? The same goes for cooking...and I was really hungry.
I had left a nice Saturday bike ride around noon.  It was supposed to be 2 1/2 hours but ended up being closer to 3:15.  I had a small snack when I got home which only encouraged my hunger.  By the time I decided to cook dinner I was thoroughly starving.  I made a loaf of bread,

 dried fruit bars which came out more like a fluffier version of a fruit cake,

 pasta, sauce, ice tea, a smoothie, and I was about to start baking cookies when I realized that I was going over board.  It wouldn't have been quite so bad but Kat was out for dinner at a ball so all of the food was for my dinner.  Luckily I didn't go as overboard on the eating as I did on the cooking or I would have quite the stomach ache.  Instead I just have a mountain of left overs.
In addition to a long bike ride and a crazy cooking feast I also studied today first econ and then Neuro.  The study would be going a bit better if I wasn't distracted by Game of thrones and XKCD's click and Drag comic from last wednesday.  Though I feel that I can have a little bit of an easier weekend after my exam on Friday.  I'm doing a bit of study this weekend but resting up for clinicals, presentations, and papers that start next week.
Elephant:

9/21/2012

I woke up early to go for a run but decided to study instead. I studied for an hour before going to class to learn about nerve and other special tests for upper arm problem. Then I had a special lecture on headaches. At lunch I went for a swim which left me going into my test feeling well prepared. The exam was exactly what I was expecting. I know I answered all the questions well I just hope they can read my writing. It is a little messy since I had an hour to answer 7 essay questions and wanted to have detailed answers for each.
After class we got our uniforms for clinics next week. I'll show you pictures when we are all dressed up next week.
After that Kat and I went to the pub for a free beer. She had plans tonight with her boyfriend so I headed home with the intention of going for a run. Unfortunately, the excuses kicked in again and I decided to study instead of doing my workout. I'm excited for a productive weekend of study, biking, running and hopefully some baking.
This elephant is the fancy opossum one and modeled after at 1920's flapper dress.

9/20/2012

I found all the elephants!!!!!! I'm so excited when I came up to the last one I almost hugged it.  This is the final one that I have found.



I still have some stashed so you can keep enjoying elephants for the next week but the exhibit officially ends at midnight.  I'm sure you can imagine as I can all the effort that has been put into these elephants. Just so you are absolutely certain of the effort that has gone into the production here is a video of the making of today's elephant.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GIOqLOe46k&feature=related

Other than elephants I also had a lovely swim this morning followed by breakfast at the cafe next to the pool.  We learned more about shoulder evaluation and special testing.  I realized that while my previously injured shoulder feels fine doing most of the things I love to do(not pull-ups) it is still a bit unstable, tight, and painful in certain positions.  I'm not concerned since it can take a year or more to regain complete function but I will be careful to stretch and stregthen to prevent chronic problems.  We also learned about the two papers that we need to write over the next 2 weeks. Yuck!

The rest of my day was taken up by studying and procrastinating from studying for the neurological physiotherapy exam that I have tomorrow.  I feel prepared and when I try to study I feel like I'm beating my head into a brick wall.  Yet I feel like I should do it anyway so... I'm sitting in-front of my books and taking a break to do absolutely anything else every 15 minutes or so.  This has included organizing my workouts for next week, buying shoes, eating Mac & Cheese, doing dishes, and looking up recipes to make this weekend.  I'm thinking brownies or rice crispies.

9/19/2012

Today was the last day of cardiorespiratory physiotherapy. The only thing we have left to do for that class is a presentation and 2 exams. It's a shame because that was my favorite. Not because I actually liked what we were doing but because it is the most organized and well presented of our classes. The fantastic teachers can make even suctioning phlegm seem exciting. I'll miss the classes but I'll enjoy the free time.
Today was stair training day. We managed 7 sets of 10 flights for a total just over our goal. I can run for miles but every set of stairs is extremely hard.
After class and stairs I did a research study for the business school on decision making.  I spent 1 hour learning about a business and I had 25 minutes to get the other person to sign a contract that was favorable for my company.  I did! I'm awesome at fake manager situations! They gave up $8,000 and I only lost $3,000.  So it was favorable to both parties just more favorable to me:)
On my run today I got a few more elephants. I only have 2 more to go!
Kat has never had Mac and cheese do we made it for dinner and ate half the pan. Yum! Or as Abbie would say: gross!
Since today was stair day. Today's elephant is at the Entrance to the sky scraper that I am going to be racing up in November.

9/18/2012

I decided over the weekend to change my ironman training plan. The new one that I've found is better for my schedule with studying and clinics next spring, unfortunately it's a bit harder right now. I had a hard swim before class, a track workout at lunch, and a bike ride in between studying this evening. It is good but exhausting. I hope I can keep up with it. I did quite a bit of study today as well. Today was a long day with a practical on upper limb mobility in stroke patients, a group project on spinal cord injury, and a practical on neck movements and taping. I came home to review a study from Wake Forest on PT for patients on a ventilator to present tomorrow and study for my test Friday. What a long and productive day.
Today's elephant is for Grammie, it's knitted!

9/17/2011

Shana Tova! I unfortunately did not get to go to services today but someone else is giving a presentation for me so can go to Yom kippur services so I'm satisfied. I hear that Abbie is back home reading my Torah portion with Dad. I'm so proud of her!
Instead of services I made bagels for breakfast. Right out of the oven. Yum!

I also got to watch football with dinner so I didn't feel quite so homesick. My friends made a fantastic BBQ to go with it as well.

Elephant photo:

9/16/2012

I had a bit of a domestic day as I tried to prepare for next week. I wasn't in the mood to study this morning so I cleaned my house top to bottom. Everything from laundry to toilets and from mopping to cleaning up the patio. 2 hours later I ran out of things to clean. In most cases that would be a good thing but in this instance it meant that I needed to study. I studied for a few hours until Kat got back from her weekend camping trip. She has a fabulous weekend out in the Victoria wilderness. I might try it sometime. We took an outing to the grocery story where I got ingredients to make a feast for the week. This includes bagels for breakfast tomorrow, 7-layer bars for football tomorrow evening and strawberry passion fruit smoothies to make class more exciting. The bagels are of course a several hour process so the dough is rising now and I'll cook them in the morning.
I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend. Today's elephant is another artsy one.

9/15/2012

Happy thank a police officer day! I spent the day not doing much. My biggest achievement of the day was cleaning my kitchen. Otherwise I studied and read all day. I was a bit less productive than I intended to be but I hope to make up for it tomorrow.
Last night I slipped on a puddle of water on a concrete floor in high heels and smashed my hip. It wasn't too bad at the time but it is now tender and bruised. So I spent most of the day lying around....in a homework intensive type way.
Today's elephant:

9/13/2012

Today we had Musculoskeletal physiotherapy all day.  We started with a practical and then had a lecture on running injuries.  It was pretty informative but I got distracted by day dreaming as soon they mentioned Vibrams.  After class we did some study for a bit then Kat and I went home for another chocolate filled cookie.  My schedule gave me a short 5 mile run today that I did rather quickly.  I also found a new park to run around.  2 days ago I decided that I wanted to make bread.  I found a sourdough recipe that only takes 3 days to make.  You are only allowed to add 1 tbsp per hour for the first cup.  You can let it sit for longer than an hour but not less.  I've slowly been adding to it and finally had enough to make the bread for dinner/dessert.  It turned out alright.  It wasn't very sourdough flavored but it wasn't too bad.  It did get quite a hard crust and was soft inside.  I set my starter out to try again next week.  

Elephant of the day: cute but I don't know what it means.  

9/10/2012

I had a full day of uni and went for a 12mile run on my lunch break. More excitingly my friend Angela had a football party for her husband David who is from Vancouver and went to college in the US. It was fantastic and we had all sorts of delicious football foods. My largest feat of the day(possibly the year) was grocery shopping this afternoon. I bought eggs and brought them home on my bike with not cracks. Yeah I'm impressed too.
Another elephant from the botanical gardens.

9/12/2012

Today was swimming, stairs and my cardio rehab class. I think the class went pretty well. We answered all of the questions they cornered us with. This exercise class counts for 10% of my grade. After class and the weekly stair workout I came home and studied for a bit before going to the Napoleon exhibit with Nova.

You may be wondering why there is a Napoleon exhibit in Melbourne. Napoleon and his first wife Josephine were actually large fans of Australia's fleura and fauna and had many specimens brought back on exhibitions. The most exciting thing I learned was that Napoleon is responsible for the story of swan lake. There were no black swans in Europe until Josephine had two brought back to France from Australia. She bread the swans and had 6 at the time of her death. The black swan is such a stark contrast to it's white European counterpart that the natural contrast sparked the story. I found the exhibit fantastic.
While I was out Kat made muffin sized chocolate lava cookies. Yum! I ate a couple too many.

Today's elephant is called Mali waves

9/11/2012

We have several examinations coming up so most of my day involved preparing for those. Except for the part where I had lunch outside in the sun and had a pretty awesome around Flemmingtion racecourse tonight. Speaking of running.... I got my bib for the marathon in the mail today so I'm all set.

I don't know if I like getting my race packet so early seems like too much time for me to lose it. I'm starting at 6:20am tomorrow so I'm off to bed. Enjoy today's elephant it's the last of the 4 from the botanical gardens.

9/9/2012

While I was living with Katie one of the other girls there really enjoyed models and fashion. To be a good friend I took her to the free fashion week shows today. Today was the last day of Melbourne's spring fashion week so we saw a runway show

and a hair demonstration.

I had no idea that I had been doing ponytails incorrectly all my life. Now I know that no ponytail is adequate unless it has 3 elastics, 2 pins, and moulding spray. You also need to use at least 6 curlers to curl the ends before brushing it out. Since I was meeting Chen Chen at Katie's u also spent 2hours helping Nova with her homework and 10seconds helping Katie with her blue tooth.
When I got home I was hit with a wave of laziness and rescheduled my run for tomorrow morning. I finished the evening by cooking for the football party I was invited to tomorrow and studying.