11/28/2012

On my list of accomplishments today. I scheduled some more errands which I count as half way there. I also biked and ran. I got a new phone(my old one was cracked). Which is both fabulous and a pain. My phone was backed up to my computer but it's having some trouble reintegrating with all of the applications and passwords. I also lost a few pictures and phone numbers.
I had primanti's with Sean it was lovely. He's still saving the world and has taken up a second job as a movie star where he's going to be in a movie with Channing Tatum. Oooo
Miss Gillian is having a long night of study before her super intense math exam tomorrow. I know that she's going to do well but I brought her a frosted peppermint hot chocolate to help the study process. Yum!

11/27/2012

Today was my first experience with getting up early. At first it felt miserable but after I stopped at Panera for a bagel and coffee I was all better. I started the morning with some errands. Then I took the chance to enjoy my book for a bit. At noon I got all dressed up and went to the gym.
In addition to my ironman training I am also trying to do the concept 2 holiday challenge.
http://www.concept2.com/news/holiday-challenge-over-31000-raised
The goal is to row 200km between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I rowed 21km today. When you add that to yesterday I only have 158km left. Yay.
While I was there I also did my bike workout for the day. I should have gone outside but I was trying to save time. I was also going to go to Zumba but after the gym I was tired and my book was calling me. "The Name of the Wind" is starting to get exciting again so that's how I spent my evening. Oh and I made honey-sesame chicken from Rachel's favorite site;) and apple crisp but I forgot to take a picture before devouring it.

11/26/2012

Still getting over the jet lag. I spent half of the sleeping. That gave me just enough time to get my triathlon training in before going to dinner at black bear with Jackie. It was lovely to catch up. I ended my exciting night with a phone call to Erica in New Mexico. She moved away just 4 days before I came back to visit:(
I am really excited to be back but I'm still fighting the jet lag and after exam slump. Call me so we can plans. I'd love to see everyone I'm just being lazy.

11/25/2012

It's nice but a bit sad to be on holidays. I love seeing people but coming back to the cold and the dark is a bit depressing as well. So far I've been crazy busy running around but tomorrow things will quiet down and I'll have more free time than I know what to do with, well maybe. The best part of my day was getting peanutbutter and pickle burgers with Gillie at OTB. :)

11/23/2012

Finally in North Carolina! I made it just in time to see my cousin Allison as she was heading out the door. The travel was long and irksome but absolutely worthwhile to see my family for thanksgiving. By the time I got picked up from the airport and back up to the mountains I only had time for a quick workout before dinner. Then games, picture, and some online shopping before I passed out from jet lag.

11/22/2012

I am halfway home! I'm currently in Chicago in the middle of my 38 hour trip. I have layovers in Sydney, Los Angeles, and Chicago. It is an exceedingly long 2 days but it could be worse. I'm currently "enjoying" my 12 hour layover in Chicago eating pizza for thanksgiving dinner and reading a fantastic book that Kat lent me. All in all it could be much worse. Mostly I'm just excited that I'm only a few states away from my family and leftovers:)

11/21/2012

Done with first year Physio!!!! That is all. Now I'm packing, dancing and packing.

11/20/2012

2 exams left!!! I've been busy getting ready to go home while still studying and taking exams... But not too busy as evident by the large mess around the house. Good thing we have an after exam cleaning party tomorrow.
I swam before starting the study and exams today and while I was at breakfast I saw my very first wild opossum. I was so excited that I fell down a rather large stair. It was rather comical and embarrassing.
Can't wait for tomorrow afternoon!

11/19/2012

2 practical exams down today. It was really educational to watch my class mates and take the exam. I did alright I stumbled a little bit but I think that I generally did well. I freaked out a tad afterward but I think I was just being really harsh on myself. Anyway. 2 steps closer to being done. I am now 94%done with my first years as a Physio student. Yay! Other than the exam the day was really intense study with a break every once in a while to get a workout in before the plane ride Thursday and Friday.

11/18/2012

Eureka stair climb! We raced up 88 flights of stairs! Our team came 18th out of 141 teams with a total time of 59minutes. I was 15th overall female and 7th in my age group.
You can see full results at http://www.tomatoresults.com.au/default.aspx?CId=16&RId=28034
Our team ran under the wrong names so I was 131, Angela was 132, Katrine was 130, and billy was 306.
We also looked fabulous. We were of course dressed as the powerpuff girls. And billy was dressed as our dad. Billy, Kat's awesome boyfriend, was a last minute alternate for our team who took the place of Angela's husband who was unable to run due to a family emergency that took him back to Canada.
We all did fantastically and recovered quickly. I had a heart pounding few seconds when I was waiting for Kat and Angela to finish. I heard a medical call and saw paramedics run past. Luckily none of my team mates were pukers and we finished with no dramas.
The top of the tower is really nice and I could see way past my house(4miles away) even with the rain this morning.
Breakfast afterward was absolutely delicious and totally deserved.
I was home and back to studying by 10am. The mid afternoon run was on an absolutely beautiful trail. I decided to go exploring and it's a good thing I did because it was gorgeous! After the run I was back to study. I'm not procrastinating as much as I could be but the drive to study is diminishing. I'm so studied out. Almost there!!

11/17/2012

Tomorrow I get a break from studying because it's the eureka stair climb. We are super excited and had a pre-race dinner and sleep over so that we can all ride in together tomorrow. I have bubble hair and my running shoes all is a go for 7am!

11/16/2012

All done with written exams!! I'm so excited! The exam wasn't nearly as bad as I expected and I think I did well. On the way to the exam we ran into Kat's boyfriend who said, "hey I need you to make a cake by 7" yikes! Our exam didn't finish until 4:30 and I used the last of the sugar on Wednesday. We had the fasted speed cake making session ever. She made a fabulous raspberry white chocolate cake. I stayed home this evening to study but I got lazy and ended up lounging around a bit more than I should have tomorrow I have a chapter and a half to do , a long bike ride, and the 10km run that I skipped today... Arrg! But all done with written exams and I'll be home soon!! Also 2 days till the eureka stair climb big costume final touches tomorrow:)

11/15/2012

It was fantastic to have a day off of exams today.  I swam, practiced skills, ran track, and came home to study.  Unfortunately, I was less than motivated than I should have been.  I procrastinated and watched all of elementary, oops.  More excitement tomorrow after I finish the last of my written exam.

11/14/2012

3 exams down. The last written one is on Friday. Yay!!! I hope I did well on this one it's my favorite. I significantly over answered all the questions hopefully I get bonus points:) I was avoiding all activities this morning as I tried to cram in one more fact or research finding but one thing that couldn't wait was replacing my breaks. They were so worn that they were past dangerous and beginning to actually damage my bike so I took a 15 minute break to do bike maintenance. After the exam I was so relieved for the free time that I baked up a storm. I made jalapeño cheese bread and red velvet biscotti. They are delicious as alway but turned the entire kitchen red. I need to pick up supplies and found the best Oreo ever!! An Oreo with sprinkles on the inside. It tastes like magic! After I had biked and cooked I finished off the evening with more studying. Yay knowledge!

11/13/2012

Well I'm halfway through the first half of my exams! Yay! Today's was miserable. No one knew what to write. We all rambled for 2 hours. I didn't quite meet my goal of using 2 exam books but some of my class mates did. That was probably the most ambiguous test ever created.
Our exams are not on campus they are in the royal exhibition building. They sit everyone in one huge room and we all test together. There are at least 2000 students testing at once. With exams of all varieties. At 2pm everyone walks into the exam venue you take your assigned seat that has the appropriate exam on it. After you have placed your phone and keys under your seat you have 15 minutes to read the exam. No writing just reading. At 2:15 the man with the microphone says you can start. No one is allowed to leave in the first 30 or last 15 minutes. So you write and write and write and at 4:15 the man with the microphone says stop writing and you see how many more words you can fit in before it's obvious that you didn't stop. Then you close your answer book and someone picks up your exam. Once all exams have been collected you are allowed to leave. It's a bit intense and I feel rather like an ant. The fact that exams for many subjects are all taken at the same time makes me feel small. The building is actually beautiful and it has been gorgeous outside when we have left the venue as well. Nice and relaxing. Tomorrow is cardiorespiratory physiotherapy so I'm studying hard for that one. It's my favorite subject so I really want to do well. I've just been neglecting it to make time for the other things:( Billy cooked us dinner again tonight! I have the best housemate's boyfriend ever! He's so sweet and helpful.

11/12/12

One exam down! I hope it went alright. I missed several points because I missed the question on the back of the page. I saw it last second and tried to scribble something but I don't know that I actually wrote anything legible. The exam was good for the most part but had a few questions that we had never been taught. At all. ever.
Tomorrow's exam is of an experimental nature. They are trying out a new type of evaluation and hoping to show that it is a useful way to evaluate our knowledge. The idea is that they give us 2 papers 24 hours before the exam(tonight) and we have to come into the exam tomorrow and be able to talk about one of them(they decide which) for 2 hours in a variety of applicable contexts. So after our exam today we all went home to read an evaluate the articles. They're pretty bad. They may unfounded correlations and were both written and published by the university of Melbourne Physio department. I don't know how much I'm allowed to dis the people marking my exam but these papers kinda stink.
Kat and I were both busy grumping about the papers so her wonderful boyfriend came over to cook us dinner. It was amazing, chicken, salad, garlic bread and potatoes. I would have pictures of this masterpiece but I was on a conference call during dinner, thus unable to photograph the food.

11/11/2012

Hey Sunday! Long run day. In the middle of my study I ran 13.1miles then I biked the same distance(well almost, I took a few short cuts) in a little over half the time. I either run really fast, bike really slow or was quite tired. :) then more study, a trip to buy ice cream(and less importantly vegetables), study, BBQ dinner and finally study until about 4 hours after I wanted to go to bed. The first one is tomorrow. I hope I'm ready!
On my bike ride back I saw a very cool remote control sailboat competition. Highlight of my day.

11/9/2012

One week of study down and I think it might be getting to me. I was productive for most of the day but I'm beginning to feel like an over inflated sponge that is trying to wipe up a puddle of milk. I even took my study materials to the pool to review journal articles while I was kicking. My first exam on Monday is neurological physiotherapy so that's the plan for the weekend. I realized this afternoon that I have not cooked all week. To make up for it I made pasta in a peach and white wine sauce. The pasta was lovely also the white wine I found was called four sisters. Awww!

11/10/2012

As exams get closer I get even less exciting. I went on a 40mile bike ride this morning and then I came home to study almost no-stop for the next 12 hours.
Early last week Kat's boyfriend joked that we looked like birds nesting with all of our study material around us. At first I denied it but more and more it appears to be the case. At the moment I think that the bathroom is the only study free zone. There are notes on absolutely every surface.

11/8/2012

I didn't end up going on a long bike ride today.  I was too tired and there was too much study to be done.  As per usual I alternated study and exercise all day going for a short bike ride, a track workout, and indoor rock climbing.  Study was slightly more interesting today I listened to several lectures to refresh my understanding and began going over study questions in groups.  Reviewing study questions makes me nervous as I don't remember ever learning some of these concepts.  Looks like there's more study to be done.
I made a game to help with inhaled medications and their uses.

11/7/2012

More study as expected today.  Today I got a bit of a reprieve and was able to read articles all day.  I learned about the useful and not so useful techniques used in post-operative cardiorespiratory physiotherapy practice.

On a much more exciting note I finally got my bike shoes! They are beautiful!....and match my bike! Unfortunately my tire had a huge blow out on my ride home so I got to enjoy my shoes for 2 blocks before I had to take them off and walk home.  As long as I wake up in time my shoes and I are going to enjoy a nice long ride in the morning.  Can't wait!

11/6/2012

Happy Melbourne cup day!

What is the Melbourne cup you ask? It's the race that stops a nation! There are horse races all day at flemmington racecourse just down the road from me. At 3pm there is the Melbourne cup a 2 mile race worth 6.2 million dollars. Australians take off work, get drunk all day, get very dressed up and bet larges amounts of money for a race that lasts just over 3 minutes. I did take the time to watch it in between studying but that's all the festivities I could manage.
You can Watch or Read about the race.  It was thrilling.

The fascinators (hats) are fabulous

Study was a tad more social today as I went into campus to practice manual skills for 3 hours. I also did some stair training just 12 days left until the race!.... If only I didn't have 5 exams between now and then...

11/5/2012

I made it through my entire 7 hour study playlist, no cheating!....and kept going! I had a bit of a set back at around 10am when I ran out of paper. oh no! I took a break to buy paper and pens.  I also went for my swim.  3.2Km today, it was supposed to be 3.5 but I had to get back to studying.  I have the best housemate ever who needed a study break so she made me risotto for dinner so I could keep studying uninterrupted.  Yay!
I am desperately trying to find something for my blog today but the internet is uninspiring.  Maybe I'll just brag that as the weather gets nicer the fruit does too.  I got a watermelon for $1 and the mangos are fantastic.  I've been drinking smoothies as study food.  My favorite is the strawberry Jalapenio

1-Jalepenio with the seeds and stem removed
5 strawberries with hulls removed
10 ice cubes
1 cup almond milk
1 scoop of vanilla ice cream
(add sugar is strawberries aren't sweet enough)

 Put in a blender and blend until smooth. It's deliciously spicy but also cool and refreshing!

11/4/2012

Guess what I did today! That's right studied. For hours and hours and hours. I had a mid afternoon break to go for a 14 mile run and a 3 mile bike ride and then back to it. On the bright side I'm almost done with the first run through of the material so by Tuesday things might start to get a bit more fun for me.
Something that was recently introduced to me is Aussi rhyming slang. I don't get it but it's fun anyway. How it works is that you use the funny phrase in place of the normal phrase in everyday conversation for example you'd say I'll call you on the "dog and bone"(meaning phone)
Put on your best Aussi accent and try some of these out.
Dog & bone=phone
Dead horse=tomato sauce(aka ketchup)
Pain&strife=wife
Nail&screws=news
Froth&bubble=trouble
Babbling brook=cook
Plates of meet=feet
Ducks n geese=police
Apples & pears= stairs
Frog & toad=road
Jack & Jill=bill
Porkie pie=lie
Cheese&kisses=mrs.
Tin lid=kid
Malven star=car
Septic tank=bank
Georgie Moore=door
Shake & shiver=river
Mother&daughter=water
Bread&jam=tram
Potato peeler=shiela(girl)
Rub a dub,dub=pub
Steak and kidney=Sydney
Reg grundys=undies

11/3/2012

Aside from studying all day I also went on my Saturday bike ride and the accompanying jog.  I made it 39 miles today.  I'm still not a biker but it gets a bit easier every week.  I also made jalepenio cheese bread.  It's amazing.  There might actually be too much cheese! It's almost like a baked cheese sandwich with a huge glob of cheese in the middle. Absolutely delicious!

It's November 3rd so I think it's time for me to introduce you to Movember.  Originating in Australia, November is prostate cancer awareness month and it's even bigger than breast cancer awareness in NFL. 

What is Movember?

Everyone is trying to grow a mustache but since it's day 3 most people just look a little creepy.  

11/2/2012

School's out for summer... Well kinda. We had our last class of the semester today. Now it's a solid 11 days of study and then we have 8 really intense exams. My class celebrated by studying:( between lecture review and practice I don't think that anyone had an after exam party. I got home from class and studied for 7 hours. That's right 7. I would have gone longer but Kat's boyfriend was having a BBQ so we went over for dinner and to mingle with his housemate's friends. At one point i was involved in a shoe swap.... Just my size. It was fun yet awkward. When it turned creepy I headed home.
While I was biking today I saw some beautiful birds...and actually got pictures!

11/1/2012

Man I had an exciting day!(...insert sarcasm)
I woke up -> studied ->went for a run -> went to 2 lectures -> ran 8 sets of stairs -> studied ->studied-> ate dinner -> studied.
So that you're not as bored as me I'll give you 10 facts about Melbourne
1. Melbourne is the home of the world's largest Tram network
2. Melbourne is 2012's most livable city
3. Melbouranians spell many words with an "s" as opposed to a "z" as in realise, analyse, & organise
4. Melbourne is home to 5 of the 6 tallest buildings in Australia
5. Both "Charolette's Web" and "Where the Wild things are"were filmed in Melbourne
6. 35.8% of the population was born over seas
7. There are 30 public hospitals in 13 different health systems
8. The nation gallery of Victoria has the word's largest stained glass ceiling
9.The elevation in Melbourne is 0-10meters above sea level
10. The world's largest gold nugget was found just outside Melbourne(154Lbs)
... don't worry it's not going to be a month of bland blogs I have plans for the next couple weeks from games to trips and fun foods.