4/30/2012

I finally have my June Exam Schedule.  Yay! Hopefully I will be able to book flights this week.  They are giving us a whole 2 weeks off. Yes! I assume that I am still supposed to be working so I need to inform my footie team as well.  My day was class and more studying.  If you didn't think that my course was insane before, we have one of the busiest weeks of the semester leading up to our exam Friday.  The exam includes all 6 lectures from this week including both of the lectures presented on Thursday afternoon.  Plus we still have another 3 subjects that want our attention as well.  On our lunch break Tori talked loudly about how we going to take a break during lunch for the entire walk.  As soon as we got inside, everyone started studying anyway:) Poor Tori, it's good for her.  We piled on a couple more hours of class this afternoon then I headed home to study.  I am also on this test diet, it's supposed to help you stay focused.  Basically, you can't snack on junk while studying. That's a worthwhile concept since I'm spending much more of my time sitting and reading.  It also makes me plan out what I'm going to eat ahead of time so that I don't waste time thinking about food.  If it works I'll recommend it.
After this exam I think I'm giving up on physiotherapy and becoming an artist.  There is so much diagraming it's not funny.  I surprise myself with my visual-spacial abilities.

Just incase you were wondering yes the brain is the shape of a beach ball and no I did not misrepresent the pons, It's called artistic liberty. Tomorrow I have a little more time to study and Wednesday is my study party so you get diagrams like this all week!

4/29/2012

Well not to much of an exciting day for me. Katie had a heap of problems and I spent the day studying. Somewhere between her troubles with the Internet and her daughter with a rash I decided to stop being annoyed and help Katie. It's specifically hard for me sometimes because Katie is in the authoritative position but I try to help when I can. When she was at a loss of how to calm and treat her daughter I was able to lend a hand. There unfortunately seems to be more of a stigma about medical problems in Australia. The health care system is amazing but people literally hide their conditions from doctors and pharmacists. Maybe it's because my parents are doctors but I would never lie to a physician to get a prescription I actually need. Why go through the trouble of pretending you have something when you are paying the doctor to cure/treat your ailment? Anyway aside from Katie's problems, today I studied my butt off. Or probably studied my butt on since I sat and studied all day. My cranial nerve sheet looks fantastic.

4/28/2012

Big news of today... I got to drive.
This was no little around the block trip either.  I drove a stick shift car on the throughway.  It was a little scary because my mirrors were not where I am used to looking and I dislike shifting left handed.  I did fine.  I kept trying to drift left but no harm done.
I ended up in this situation because my footie game was away today.  I went with one of the players and all of the gear to the the northern part of the city.  They boys played hard but lost.  Over the course of the game I had a sprained ankle, a dislocated thumb, and my driver got a massive contusion to his left thigh. He tried once to push the clutch in with no luck.  This meant that I got to drive his Jetta back to the field house.  As I mentioned, we had a few moments but it was mostly smooth.  The two clubs lost today but both the seniors and reserves won their games.  Additionally, there were no other injuries.
Let me recap my footie team in case I have been unclear.  If you don't follow don't worry Michael the other trainer didn't know that we had 4 teams until today and I think he may still be a bit confused.
I am a trainer for Richmond Central amature football league team.
This team consists of 4 teams.
The seniors that play in division 3
The reserves which are similar to a Junior Varsity team in any other sport
The cardinals-the third string club that play on a more social basis than the first 2 teams in a much less competitive conference
The Snakes-the fourth string club that are the back ups for the cardinals
Each week all 4 of the teams play, the seniors and reserves play the same team but the 2 clubs (snakes&cardinals) may play the same or different opponents
I am the acting head trainer
Alice is the actual head trainer but she has been unavailable since I started due to her clinical placement
There are 3 other trainers-Michael, Henrietta, Georgia
Theoretically it should be one trainer per team but that hasn't quite happened yet because of scheduling, certifications, and stubbornness.
Today I was away with the cardinals and then drove home to be with the seniors.
After the seniors won I headed home to study for my exam coming up on Friday.  I am more than half way through the lecture.  Tomorrow is going to be finishing the lectures and review games.  I'll be home so skype me, just be prepared to discuss cranial nerves.

4/27/2012

The ball was absolutely fantastic. Everyone looked so nice! It went so quickly. It was midnight before we knew it and we all turned back into pumpkins... Kidding! :D when it ended at midnight we were having so much fun and didn't want it to end. We got on a bus and headed to the after party. Upon arrival we found that it was another $12 to get in, they wouldn't let one of our friends in, and it looked a bit less sophisticated than we would have liked. Luckily for my friends the after party was in the city giving them a free ride home. This was unfortunate for me because the ball had been in walking distance of my house and the after party was a $35 cab ride away(too late for public transit). Georgie and I split the cost and headed back to where we had just come from.
It was much easier to wake up and go to class today than you might have guessed from my late night yesterday. I hoped on my bike and rode in. I wanted to use the excuse to be comfortable and drink coffee. so, instead of packing nice clothes for class I brought sweat pants to change into. Our seminar today was quite fun. Michelle, the patient, has several autoimmune conditions that give her daily challenges. In addition her long-term medications have cause an array of side effects. I know you're thinking, "what does she have?" I felt the same way in class but honestly her condition is so hard to articulate that if I gave you her official diagnosis you would then say, "what's that?" (as I did). In summary she has an autoimmune condition that gives her a variety of symptoms affecting her sinuses, reproductive system, joints, musculoskeletal system, nervous symptom and clotting ability. It stinks but she is still active, positive and works almost full time. After the patient we reviewed our exam results. Try haven't quantified our scores yet but I got the general correct answer to 8/10 questions and got at least partial credit on the last two as well.
Dress up night #2 was smart casual.

 It was just a dinner for the international students to meet the dean of the school. This one was free as opposed to last night; however, the food was much better. Although I really enjoyed the food it did not enjoy my stomach. I was uncomfortable most of the way home and took an after dinner nap while my stomach settled a bit. Now I'm resting up for a big day of football tomorrow.

4/26/2012

My day started out a little bit hectic, turned a little bit crappy and is now really exciting.

I really didn't want to wake up this morning so I ended up rushing in to make my financial meeting. In the process I forgot my wallet. Of course! Luckily I was still able to do everything that I needed to. Today was compacted so we worked straight through. Around lunch time we got a message that our project grades were up. If you remember about 2 months ago I wrote a paper worth 30% of my grade. I felt really good about my paper and so did everyone who edited it for me. She failed me. But passed my friends that put in less effort and were less sure of their paper. I freaked out a bit. This is supposed to be a fluff class that brings up your grade and she failed my paper based mostly on stylistic elements. I'll have to talk to her and the director next week.
Tonight I'm going to my first masquerade ball. I'm so excited. I look nice in my dress,

 a little like a dark protagonist in my coat

 and I'm sure I'll look nice when I put on my mask. More pictures and stories tomorrow because I won't be home until late tonight.

4/25/2012

Today was Anzec day! It's one of the most important Australian holidays. This means that the university was closed and the physiotherapy department wasn't able to make us go to class as much as they wanted to. I know that you're wondering what is Anzec day? Let me tell you....
Anzec day officially commemorates Australia's involvement in world war I. The meaning of the holiday has evolved over time and now encompasses all veterans. To celebrate the holiday there is a dawn service. After that there is a footie game. It's always a big rivalry. After that everyone goes to the pub. It's the only day of the year that it's legal to play 2up. 2up is a fantastic game where you put 2 coins on a wooden plank. Then you wave some money around until you get someone to bet against you. Then you flip the coins and the person who guessed right gets the money. Kinda like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Ox8x0yjvM except this is a casino version.  Mostly it's just 2 drunk people betting against each other with no side bets.  They will sometimes put tape on the tails as well so that it's easier for the drunk people to see what happened. Wahoo! All while eating Anzec cookies. A delightful cookie that comes in chewy and crunchy varieties. Both are a thin coconut cookie that are quite lovely.

As for me I went to a cafe to study. After 3 hours I felt bad for sitting there for so long so I walked down to the beach and studied. When it started to rain I went to another cafe. I stayed there until they closed at 4. They I walked past grill'd. I hadn't been there before but the menu looked really good.

I got a fantastic chicken burger while I studied some more.

By that time it was 6pm so I headed home. I wasn't in the mood to deal Katie so I went for a run. I could only avoid her for so long but luckily for me Hannah was there when I got home. I wasn't hungry since I had the burger but I sat and chatted while they ate dinner.
All in all Anzec day was pretty good. We should have more of them:)

4/24/2012

Have you ever noticed that the more you need to be productive the harder it is to stay on task. I studied for a few hours this morning but other than that I have been procrastinating like it's my job. It's a little bit hard to get work done because the Internet at home is acting up again. I need to find a good place with free wifi to study tomorrow. I wasn't completely useless today. I finished another section of the wiki and up loaded pictures. We are almost done and I have definitely done more than my fair share. I am specifically impressed with my formatting ability. I constructed a complex diagram and inserted it into the website despite it's difficulty. It was cold and rainy so my transportation was less than enjoyable. I was supposed to run 6miles today but was satisfied after 1 in this weather. After digging around the kitchen for 2 hours looking for dinner I realized that the reason I'm always hungry is the lack of carbs in my diet. I have never such a small amount of bread and pasta in my life. Instead of being a healthy change it is making me insatiable, so I did the obvious thing and made bread... Delicious and takes up study time:) this back to working thing is hard. Luckily I have the day off tomorrow to study. I just need to make sure I actually study and don't just load around.

4/23/2012

I was not a happy cookie when my alarm went off this morning at 6. After biking in and getting ready I was still half asleep so I got a coffee. I don't know that it helped because my friends said I still looked tired at 11am. It was really good to see everyone and catch up although 8 hours of lecture on our first day was a bit much. I'm back into the productivity and studied during most of the breaks today and then again for 3 hours when I got home. We have a project due this Friday, an exam next Friday, and another project the following week plus a full social calendar set by the PT department. If I stay on task I should be able to accomplish everything.... As long as the Internet cooperates with me.

4/21/2012

Oops so it appears that my blog from yesterday didn't upload.  Here it is now but unfortunately in the wrong order. Today was our first real footie game of the season. Here is coach explaining the principals of football.  I think after a month I almost understand what he's saying.

One club lost, one club won, the reserves won and the seniors lost. Luckily we played Elsternwick which is the closest team to home for me so I jogged down and walked home. After the game we met at the Mt. View hotel for the season opening banquet. After that finishes Katie sent me out with the boys from passover. I wasn't thrilled with the idea especially after a long day of work while I stress out about how I'm going to get my massive project done but it ended up being fine.

Cool injuries of the day: dislocated wrist, torn cheek, sprained ankle, a sprained thumb and forearm contusion plus the normal scrapes and bruises

4/22/2012

I ended up staying out quite late last night.  We didn't get home until nearly 4am.  I still got up early and did laundry as I prepared for class tomorrow but was less productive than I would have liked because of my tiredness.  Katie is excited that I did something fun and I am upset about my loss of productivity.  I don't understand why the bike trip and site seeing are not considered fun but whatever.  It was kinda cool to see Melbourne's night life.  There are a large number of lines and everything is over priced.  Other than that the clubs are clean, smoke free, and generally nice.  So we went out in the two main areas of night life in Melbourne.  Above the river in the central business district(CBD) and below the river on Chapel street.  Chapel street has been likened to LA where the CBD is less commercial with more soul....apparently.  That's all I got, laundry, organization and a bit of work on the project that is due Friday...Tomorrow it's back to class. Yay!

Oh yes, Thank you very much for the card Grammie.  I love hearing from you. It really makes my day.  I'm glad you enjoyed the goon:)

4/20/2012

Dookie farm day 3: Again up at 7 for breakfast.  We packed this morning before going to meet Frank at 9.  When we arrived we found that Frank needed to go take care of a silo bag that the farm had sold.  This meant that we got to help Greg finish setting up his research project.  We planted the remaining trees, replanted the outside row, and replaced the row that had accidently been skipped yesterday.  Then we laid out protective stakes to keep the birds and rabbits from destroying the saplings.
After the project reached the point that we had done all we could to help we went to the administration building to talk to the director about the agsci program at Dookie farms.  There are currently only full time students on the farm so we were very interested to see how they were learning.  From what we could gather the majority of their education is independent with lectures that come up once a week and web cast lectures.  We also found out that almost everyone who works on campus has their own personal farm in addition to Dookie.  After we finished our chat, we met back up with Frank and he took us to see what he had been working on all morning.
  The silo bags seem to be a huge pain.  The Cockatoos keep poking holes in them, this allows the grain to spill out and also rot in the bag because of the moisture that is able to get in.
So Frank has sold some of the grain from the bag and is storing the rest in a silo that the farm recently acquired.  We took a trip up to Mt. Major where we were able to look over the farm and the nearby town of Dookie.
You would think that I would be tired of nature but it was beautiful.  For our last activity we went back to the orchard and picked another arms full of apples.  We said goodbye to Frank and Paul and headed back to Melbourne.  On the car ride back I worked on the Wiki that we need to create by next Friday.  I have done all of it that is solely my responsibility.  The rest we need to work on together and are planning to concur on Monday.  After a car ride, a tram ride, 2 train rides and another tram ride I made it home.  First I showered really well.  Then I started with the apples.  I felt a little like applejack.  I made apple cider so that I could make apple butter and then I also made an apple crisp.

Ah that was my day....Except for Katie.  She was quite the piece of work tonight.  She keeps telling me that I need to get a life. Sigh I have a life! For real! I feel like I'm beating my head against a brick wall! Haha and she's making me watch a motivational video because

4/19/2012

Dookie Farms day 2: I have videos but the weak Internet makes it hard to up load.
Day two was even more exciting than day 1.  We met Frank the farm manager right after breakfast.  We started the day cleaning up the sheering shed so that they can sheer the flock of sheep next week.


Next we helped to unload the 800 baby pigs the farm has been contracted to help raise. They arrived this morning by truck and we separated them into groups of 20 where they will be reared for the next 10 weeks before being returned.
We picked some more apples before lunch and came back to our house for sandwiches and wraps.  After a half hour break we went to help Greg the grad student plant trees for his research project.  It was a bit hectic because they hadn't plowed enough rows.  We we still able to help make the work load much easier but Greg will need to replant the last row tomorrow.

We got got to visit the special needs school on the farm.  This secondary school take 12 aspergers students per semester.  Tuition is $7,500 and it allows students a 3 to 1 student teacher ratio with a large amount of physical activity.
After the school we got to milk cows.  It was so crazy.  It is nothing like what a happens in cartoons.  Cows are milked electronically.  It is so cool how the cows know exactly where to go and what to do.  The do pee and poo like crazy! They pee so much it looks like a garden hose. It is insane! The milk is stored in a huge vat where it is cooled and agitated until it is collected once a week to be processed by a regional vendor.

The baby calf that was born yesterday along with all of the other calfs are fed special milk with colostrum.  It is collected from the new mothers twice a day and given to babies in feeders.
After milking we were done for the day.  We showered and went to dookie for dinner.  They have fantastic garlic bread, chicken parmas, spinach quiche, and mango passion fruit partfillio(it's a frozen slice with meringue, yum)
Then back to the house to relax and work on our project.

4/18/2012

I am on Dookie farms. It was quite an exciting day. We started by eating lunch at the very small cafeteria.

We saw a crop field being burnt.

A baby cow being born. Sorry the video is being blocked.  I'll try to reformat but for now enjoy the baby cows.

Sheep being sheered.


A beautiful rainbow.

There are also a large number of tropical birds here. They are drawn here by the unusable grain that is left out and remain because they are a protected species.

We enjoyed home grown apples.

We are staying at a fantastic house. Much better than I've had for the past week and it would only be $50 a night if the university wasn't covering it. I'm here studying with Marsha, Sophie, and Ally. We are doing fun bonding things like relaxing, cooking dinner, writing a web page and getting excited to milk cows tomorrow.

4/17/2012

Alright today's blog is going to be slightly more of a rant than normal.  It will be broken into three section so if you don't want to hear me whining please skip to the last paragraph. Thanks.

Left overs: For some reason Katie hates leftovers.  I don't know why she just has something against food that is cooked and then not immediately consumed.  Therefore if I make something that I don't finish all in one go I have to hide it in my room or be forced to either eat it or throw it out when Katie discovers it.  For someone willing to cook with ingredients well past their prime I don't see what is wrong with leaving matzo ball soup in the fridge for a day or two.

Footie: I like Aussi rules football I really do but the game is set up so the players are babies and I do more work than is necessary.  I'm pretty sure that it is one of the only sports in the world where the trainer goes to the player instead of the other way around.  A player will flag me down to tape his finger in the middle of a play.  I run out onto the field and don't have enough time to properly tape the injury while simultaneously watching the play because I am not allowed to be in certain areas at certain times and if the ball comes our way the athlete will want to use the hand I am try to strap.  Why can't the guy come off the field like any other sport? They are huge whiners and not that special:p

Gastric bypass: Katie's younger daughter wants gastric bypass surgery.  Not necause she's over weight, although she is, but because she is lazy and unmotivated and thinks that being skinnier will change her work ethic.  Katie's older daughter has already had gastric bypass surger and has regained half of the weight that she origionally lost. On top of that the procedure yielded complications that caused her to have pelvic organ prolapse at 22.  While I think that it is a very hasty decision Katie is very excited and pushing her to do it.  I really want to argue and change their minds but it isn't really my place and everyone else seems to think that it is a fantastic idea.  I guess I just don't understand but I don't see how gastric bypass will make her stop skipping work.

Sorry about that.  I just feel like no one understands me sometimes. Anyway my last day of holiday was lovely.  I had meant to study but instead I spend most of the day packing and discussing the community engagement project that begins tomorrow.  In addition I have been a bit unhealthy the past few days.  I have eaten far too much junk food, cheesecake, and bread.  To make up for it I ran to work instead of biking.  I know I can't eat crap, run and expect every thing to work out.  I realized my error, developed an ongoing nutrition plan and jump started my plan by running the 12 miles to work and back.  I was actually really fast.  I thought I would be a sloth because of my recent food choices but I ran 8:30miles on the way there, then my phone died so I don't know what my pace was for the return trip. Anyway I'm impressed with myself.  Alright, off to bed the early mornings return tomorrow when I go to Dookie Farms.  Get excited!

4/16/2012

I had a half productive day.  That's right half.  I alternated all day between work and reading.  I studied and took my Accounting final. Sent some email, sent some letters, took the dogs for a walk.  I actually got a good part of my to do list crossed off. Other than that I was lazy, enjoying the last day of my holiday.  Katie had been away all weekend so when she got home from work we had tea and exchanged stories.  She hadn't seen any of my pictures of Wilson's promontory or the great ocean road. She was a bit hyper this evening and I am in vacation mode so I think I was actually a little lame for her.  Ha.

Ok let me teach you some aboriginal Australian:
Kangaroo is an aboriginal word that means I don't understand
The main river in Melbourne is called the Yarra which is the aboriginal word for running water, what they call it is Berrern.
The Moomba festival is a big river festival in Melbourne.  Moomba is the aboriginal word for ass hole but the stuck up politicians that fund the festival don't know that.
Gala is aboriginal word for idiot.  It also describes large parties and this bird. 
If you can't tell the Australians of european descent have a long history of rudely asking the aboriginals to name items and the aboriginals respond by calling the politicians dumb.

4/15/2012

Today was another slow day. I was quite exhausted so I spent the majority of the day trying to sleep: I did have a trip to the bakery and a trip to the beach. Otherwise it's just been getting ready to go back to studying tomorrow.

4/14/2012

My day wasn't all that exiting.  Katie's daughter Hannah turned 24 on thursday.

Since I was away I needed to make it up to her so I made her a cheesecake.  She wanted a strawberry cheesecake and I ended up making a chocolate covered strawberry cheese cake.  It was a long process with several steps so I started it this morning and finished this evening.  In between I went to work.  My teams did pretty well but did not win.  One was a loss and the other was a draw.  After work I assembled some more of the cheesecake and went out for pizza as it cooled.  Hannah and her dad came over for cake and to walk the dogs.  Hannah didn't have plans for the evening so we sat around and talked for a while......much to my dismay as I desperately wanted to read. It was fun it's good for me to hang out every once in a while.  Tomorrow I'm to productivity. Yay!

4/12/2012-4/13/2012

Sorry about not posting yesterday I had absolutely no signal.  I have spent the past two days on the great ocean road.  I was a little bit less intense this time and did not bike the trip but took a tour.  It was fantastic in every way.  The tour guide was wonderful, the people on the tour were wonderful, and we had the best weather imaginable.
We started the tour out with a three hour drive through Melbourne traffic.  After that was over we began on a route that allowed us to drive the Great ocean road backwards from end to start.  The great ocean road is three sections of a highway that hugs the coast and has a large amount of breath taking scenery.
Logan's beach was beautiful and the water was a toasty 18 degrees

Tower hill is a sunken volcano that has become home to a large diversity of wild life.

We saw a Wallaby
,
emus
,
and Koalas
.
Sarah(one of my tour mates) found a wallaby under a tree.  We all took our picture with it before realizing that it was actually dead.  oops.
 
The bay of islands

The bay of Martyrs

London bridge

The grotto

The twelve apostles.  They sound really cool but the name is a complete marketing ploy.  The original name for these limestone stacks was the sow and the piglets.

We spent the night in a hostel in port campbell. We made a fantastic barbaque for dinner and talked late into the night.  In the morning we went to the Loch Ard Gorge and cave named for a ship that hit shore and sunk there.  The only two survivors took shelter in the cave while in the process of being rescued.

The 12 apostles are also beautiful in the day time.

We went down the Gibson's steps to see the smallest two parts of the 12 apostles called the Rockettes from beach level.

We then took a walk through the rain forest.

This is the light house from the TV show "Round the bend" I've never seen it but I hear that it's worth a look on Youtube.

We passed the entrance to the great ocean road where there is a monument created by the soulders who built the road.

Our last stop was Bell's beach, one of the most famous surfing beaches in Australia, there wasn't much surfing but there were a ton of Kangaroos.  We even saw two fighting.

It was a fantastic trip that I really enjoyed.  It was absolutely beautiful and we have even more pictures on facebook.