i've had an absolutely amazing yet exhuasting day today. scratch that. it's been an amazing and exhausting WEEK!
classes start at 8am sharp. it's early but that's the way things roll here in brisbane. the sun is out by 5am and away by 7pm. it really forces you to be a morning person.
everyday classes run til about 3 or 5pm. sometimes without any breaks. yesterday i had 7 straight hours of classes. SEVEN. i was so hungry!
one thing that i don't like about school so far is that the libraries close by 8pm on weekdays, 5pm on saturdays and are CLOSED on sundays! we are technically still on the summer term (the med students start almost a full month before the rest of the uni). i can't wait for the regular semester hours to kick in. still... i have yet to find a library that is open til midnight let alone 24 hours.
i did have a very entertaining day today though. we had our first anatomy lab. there weren't any dissections today but there were plenty of prosected specimens.... right leg, heart, thoracic cavity. it was interestingto say the least. i've dissecting plenty of things before but an actual person is a completely different story. i definitely felt a little queasy from the smell and the sight. it's a good thing i went in there on an empty stomach. i'm not so sure that i could've kept my food down!
i also had my first clinical session today. it has barely been a week and they let us loose in the hospital wards to chat with the patients! i love PBL!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
firsts...
yesterday was a day of firsts.
i met my pbl group yesterday for the first time. they all seem nice enough. there's even a canadian in my group! he's from mcgill.
yesterday was the first time it really rained since i arrived here in brisbane. it flippin' poured cats and dogs. of course i had left my umbrella at home. fortunately i was "smart" enough to take down my laundry from the lines before the rain started coming down.
and lastly, yesterday was the first time (since arriving in brisbane of course) that i just got completely plastered drunk. the uqms (university of queensland medical society) was holding a welcome back keg. $15 at the door. unlimited drinks. bad, BAD idea. who knew med students could party so hard! i definitely had my $15 worth of beer. it was a good time. good friends. good laughs. i woke up with a headache and a hangover this morning but otherwise i was very happy with myself. nothing broken. nothing lost. in my druken state i still remembered to take my contacts off AND fold the laundry that was sitting on my bed!!! amazing!
i met my pbl group yesterday for the first time. they all seem nice enough. there's even a canadian in my group! he's from mcgill.
yesterday was the first time it really rained since i arrived here in brisbane. it flippin' poured cats and dogs. of course i had left my umbrella at home. fortunately i was "smart" enough to take down my laundry from the lines before the rain started coming down.
and lastly, yesterday was the first time (since arriving in brisbane of course) that i just got completely plastered drunk. the uqms (university of queensland medical society) was holding a welcome back keg. $15 at the door. unlimited drinks. bad, BAD idea. who knew med students could party so hard! i definitely had my $15 worth of beer. it was a good time. good friends. good laughs. i woke up with a headache and a hangover this morning but otherwise i was very happy with myself. nothing broken. nothing lost. in my druken state i still remembered to take my contacts off AND fold the laundry that was sitting on my bed!!! amazing!
Monday, January 22, 2007
let it begin!
so classes finally started today.
well sort of... it was just orientation babble. i think this whole week will be pretty easy going.
before i get shoved into nose-high plies of work, let me put up one more pictorial journal.
so last saturday, some newly-made friends and i took a day trip (that's right a DAY TRIP! that's how close it is!) to the gold coast.
it's unbelievably close. i think it took less than an hour to get there.
here we go!
so we went to surfers paradise. it is quite famous for it's huge waves and its popularity with surfers. it actually reminded me a lot of south beach in miami.... except less crowded.
the water was so unbelievably salty and the waves were so strong! i was thrown around a couple of times. it was crazy!
now THIS is a condo. future home perhaps???
this is bryan. he is a kiwi (a new zealander). he is undecided as to whether he prefers to be a domestic or interntational student. he considers himself a domestic student when he has to pay his tuition. but considers himself to be an international when the school gives us free bbq's.
this is jon. we call him aj. don't ask. it's a long story. he's a canuck. a west-coaster though. man thought he was immune to sun burns. silly vancourites!
this is joey. (no, not the one in the skimpy red little swimsuit!) he's from darwin (northern australia). he was our chauffeur for the day. for some reason, he reminds me of joel madden.
well sort of... it was just orientation babble. i think this whole week will be pretty easy going.
before i get shoved into nose-high plies of work, let me put up one more pictorial journal.
so last saturday, some newly-made friends and i took a day trip (that's right a DAY TRIP! that's how close it is!) to the gold coast.
it's unbelievably close. i think it took less than an hour to get there.
here we go!
so we went to surfers paradise. it is quite famous for it's huge waves and its popularity with surfers. it actually reminded me a lot of south beach in miami.... except less crowded.
the water was so unbelievably salty and the waves were so strong! i was thrown around a couple of times. it was crazy!
now THIS is a condo. future home perhaps???
this is bryan. he is a kiwi (a new zealander). he is undecided as to whether he prefers to be a domestic or interntational student. he considers himself a domestic student when he has to pay his tuition. but considers himself to be an international when the school gives us free bbq's.
this is jon. we call him aj. don't ask. it's a long story. he's a canuck. a west-coaster though. man thought he was immune to sun burns. silly vancourites!
this is joey. (no, not the one in the skimpy red little swimsuit!) he's from darwin (northern australia). he was our chauffeur for the day. for some reason, he reminds me of joel madden.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
uq campus
classes start on monday and i'm so excited. i can't wait to get started. so what have i been up to? just hanging out with my new friends, getting some sun and exploring the city and campus.
i'm going to give you a short little pictorial tour of my new life around campus.
this is my house from the outside. the best thing about it is that it's only about a 7 minute walk to campus. there are 4 or 5 self-contained units in this buidling. so although i only share my bathroom & kitchen with 3 other people, there are about 15-20 people that live here.
the one thing i've noticed about UQ is that the campus is flipping beautiful. i'm talking gorgeous! case in point:
these are pictures of the "Great Court". essentially it's the equivalent of king's college circle at UofT. the buildings are made of sandstone and it's really quite neat.
isn't this a great picture?!?! shall i take up some photography instead? ;-)
in the back of the campus we have a little pond with a fountain. this is where all the animals are. i reckon it's quite romantic during sunrise and sunset.
we call this the "pizza hut" building. i dont' think i'll have any of my classes in there but it's always a good reference point.
this is the student village. it is about a 5-7 minute walk from campus but has almost everything you need... grocery store, travel agent, dry cleaner, post office, 10+ restuarants...
even a wine shop!
there are round-abouts EVERYWHERE! (just like europe.) and they're kind of annoying in that i still have to make a conscious effort to look RIGHT before i start crossing and not left. these round-abouts just really confuse me. i don't know which way the cars are coming/going!!!
i'm going to give you a short little pictorial tour of my new life around campus.
this is my house from the outside. the best thing about it is that it's only about a 7 minute walk to campus. there are 4 or 5 self-contained units in this buidling. so although i only share my bathroom & kitchen with 3 other people, there are about 15-20 people that live here.
the one thing i've noticed about UQ is that the campus is flipping beautiful. i'm talking gorgeous! case in point:
these are pictures of the "Great Court". essentially it's the equivalent of king's college circle at UofT. the buildings are made of sandstone and it's really quite neat.
isn't this a great picture?!?! shall i take up some photography instead? ;-)
in the back of the campus we have a little pond with a fountain. this is where all the animals are. i reckon it's quite romantic during sunrise and sunset.
we call this the "pizza hut" building. i dont' think i'll have any of my classes in there but it's always a good reference point.
this is the student village. it is about a 5-7 minute walk from campus but has almost everything you need... grocery store, travel agent, dry cleaner, post office, 10+ restuarants...
even a wine shop!
there are round-abouts EVERYWHERE! (just like europe.) and they're kind of annoying in that i still have to make a conscious effort to look RIGHT before i start crossing and not left. these round-abouts just really confuse me. i don't know which way the cars are coming/going!!!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
quick rundown of january 17...
ok... so what did i do yesterday???
i woke up, took a shower and had breakfast:
look how healthy it is! a tomato, a nectarine, a bowl of CHOCO frosted flakes! and a glass of o.j. yeah i found these frosted flakes but they're "frosted" not with white sugar but with chocolate! it's so good! i think i've seen them in korea before but never in canada! yum! now that i'm away from home it means that i can eat sugary cereals. no more of this extra fiber and oats stuff!! muhahaha!
then i did some laundry. hung them up on the clothes line.... how come you don't see 7 pairs of underwear? it's not because i haven't been changing my underwear. rather it's because i'm really getting used to this concept of boardshorts WITHOUT any underwear! it's great! (too much info??? hahaha)
and then took them down and folded them in the afternoon....
ahhh... my first basket of laundry that i washed COMPLETELY on my own! i'm so happy!
next week, i tackle the whites!
in the afternoon i took the bus out with some friends to the city. not too far. it's about 10 minutes. dropped by the bank and picked up a little umbrella. it's baby blue with flower patterns on it! i know! i'd kick my own butt for being such a pansy. but it was either this for $12 or a black one for $37! screw that! i'm more than comfortable with my sexuality. i can carry around a blue-flowery umbrella. [EDIT: the umbrella is actually light green. i lied.]
later that night, my roommate took me out to some korean bbq. it was a little pricey ($22 - with a student discount) but pretty good. it's like a self-serve buffet. i completely stuffed my face 10 times over.
the funny thing is that, during my stay in brisbane so far, i have yet to come across a whole lot of koreans. but this restaurant was packed with them. this confirms my theory. if you want to find the koreans. you have to follow the smell of the kim chee!
i woke up, took a shower and had breakfast:
look how healthy it is! a tomato, a nectarine, a bowl of CHOCO frosted flakes! and a glass of o.j. yeah i found these frosted flakes but they're "frosted" not with white sugar but with chocolate! it's so good! i think i've seen them in korea before but never in canada! yum! now that i'm away from home it means that i can eat sugary cereals. no more of this extra fiber and oats stuff!! muhahaha!
then i did some laundry. hung them up on the clothes line.... how come you don't see 7 pairs of underwear? it's not because i haven't been changing my underwear. rather it's because i'm really getting used to this concept of boardshorts WITHOUT any underwear! it's great! (too much info??? hahaha)
and then took them down and folded them in the afternoon....
ahhh... my first basket of laundry that i washed COMPLETELY on my own! i'm so happy!
next week, i tackle the whites!
in the afternoon i took the bus out with some friends to the city. not too far. it's about 10 minutes. dropped by the bank and picked up a little umbrella. it's baby blue with flower patterns on it! i know! i'd kick my own butt for being such a pansy. but it was either this for $12 or a black one for $37! screw that! i'm more than comfortable with my sexuality. i can carry around a blue-flowery umbrella. [EDIT: the umbrella is actually light green. i lied.]
later that night, my roommate took me out to some korean bbq. it was a little pricey ($22 - with a student discount) but pretty good. it's like a self-serve buffet. i completely stuffed my face 10 times over.
the funny thing is that, during my stay in brisbane so far, i have yet to come across a whole lot of koreans. but this restaurant was packed with them. this confirms my theory. if you want to find the koreans. you have to follow the smell of the kim chee!
Monday, January 15, 2007
wildlife...
so you know how in toronto we have squirrels and pigeons and seagulls and raccoons and skunks...
well in brisbane we have: (all of these pictures were taken ON campus. not at a zoo!)
weird looking birds with red beaks...
more birds...
lizards...
more birds...
parrots...
families of ducks...
more birds... i think these guys are called ibis.
more birds... check out this guy's tail!
more birds... doesn't this guy look like a pigeon but with better hair???
more lizards... there are also these little gekkos that run around everywhere. they are actually kind of cute once you get past the initial startle stage.
ducks... "i've lost a contact. do you see it anywhere???"
swans...
turkeys...
and crazy spiders!!! i think if i found something like this in my room, i'd pack up and go back home. *shudder*
i go to bed at night and it sounds like a jungle out there. there are other animals too... i've also seen snakes, bats and possums but haven't been able to capture them on film. australia is really not for the faint of heart.
well in brisbane we have: (all of these pictures were taken ON campus. not at a zoo!)
weird looking birds with red beaks...
more birds...
lizards...
more birds...
parrots...
families of ducks...
more birds... i think these guys are called ibis.
more birds... check out this guy's tail!
more birds... doesn't this guy look like a pigeon but with better hair???
more lizards... there are also these little gekkos that run around everywhere. they are actually kind of cute once you get past the initial startle stage.
ducks... "i've lost a contact. do you see it anywhere???"
swans...
turkeys...
and crazy spiders!!! i think if i found something like this in my room, i'd pack up and go back home. *shudder*
i go to bed at night and it sounds like a jungle out there. there are other animals too... i've also seen snakes, bats and possums but haven't been able to capture them on film. australia is really not for the faint of heart.
Friday, January 12, 2007
my new room.
here are some pictures of my new life in brisbane. sorry about the some of the pictures. i can't seem to get them upright for some reason.
can you see the photos that are already on my desk? thanks clara! it's the little things make it feel like home.
this picture basically sums up my life right now. some toiletries, some toilet paper, my multi-vitamins and my shoes. i know. sad.
my lounge chair. this room came with 4 chairs. 4 CHAIRS! what the heck am i going to do with 4 chairs??? i think my bathroom at home was bigger than this room. and my bathroom only had one place to sit. the toilet!
my naked cork board.
on my bed is the winter sleeping bag that i slept in during the first night. no wonder i was so flipping hot. that thing is made for camping outdoors in the great white north and is supposed to be good til like -15 degrees!!! not +22!
some of you have already asked the question: does the toilet really flush in the counter-clockwise direction? unfortunately i can neither confirm nor deny these rumours. my toilet in my house just flushes as a whole. there is no swirling whatsoever.
so i had mentioned that i had done a whole bunch of shopping. i bought a fan for a ridiculously cheap $15.99 at k-mart. (yes, they have k-mart here in australia). it didn't quite click as to why it was so darn cheap. only when i opened the box did i realize that...
the only thing that's assembled is the motor!
so how did i possibly put together a whole fan without even a screwdriver? the last 2 days have taught me that in order to survive on my own, i need to be resourceful (yes, i'm a quick learner). hurray for the butter knife!
TADA! aren't you proud?
i will post again in a few days. it is the summer term right now and libraries are not open during the weekends.
can you see the photos that are already on my desk? thanks clara! it's the little things make it feel like home.
this picture basically sums up my life right now. some toiletries, some toilet paper, my multi-vitamins and my shoes. i know. sad.
my lounge chair. this room came with 4 chairs. 4 CHAIRS! what the heck am i going to do with 4 chairs??? i think my bathroom at home was bigger than this room. and my bathroom only had one place to sit. the toilet!
my naked cork board.
on my bed is the winter sleeping bag that i slept in during the first night. no wonder i was so flipping hot. that thing is made for camping outdoors in the great white north and is supposed to be good til like -15 degrees!!! not +22!
some of you have already asked the question: does the toilet really flush in the counter-clockwise direction? unfortunately i can neither confirm nor deny these rumours. my toilet in my house just flushes as a whole. there is no swirling whatsoever.
so i had mentioned that i had done a whole bunch of shopping. i bought a fan for a ridiculously cheap $15.99 at k-mart. (yes, they have k-mart here in australia). it didn't quite click as to why it was so darn cheap. only when i opened the box did i realize that...
the only thing that's assembled is the motor!
so how did i possibly put together a whole fan without even a screwdriver? the last 2 days have taught me that in order to survive on my own, i need to be resourceful (yes, i'm a quick learner). hurray for the butter knife!
TADA! aren't you proud?
i will post again in a few days. it is the summer term right now and libraries are not open during the weekends.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
first few days in brisbane...
my first 2 days have been interesting.
i finally arrived at the brisbane airport at noon on wednesday. when i went into pearson it was monday. i came out of the brisbane airport on wednesday. i want my tuesday back!!!
the weather has been warm to say the least. wednesday was a "comfortable" 22 degrees. today is more like 32! it was hot. i was sweating buckets. so yesterday, after surviving my journey across the pacific ocean, i met up with a friend and ate some much needed food, i then picked up some groceries and finally went to my room (it doesn't quite feel like home yet... so i will address it as my "room" for now). after getting settled in, i went to bed around 10pm local time. i slept like a baby until about 4am when the heat hit me. i woke up and it was so unbearably hot. my room has no ac, no fan and not a whole lot of air flow. i laid in bed for about an hour trying to go back to sleep. but i just couldn't. and while i laid there, i wasn't thinking about how i missed home. i was thinking about how darn hot it was!
i did some shoppping today. bought a fan. bought some hangers, a laundry basket, my dissection kit, some bed sheets, a power bar, orange juice.
this picture was in honolulu. i'm smiling because it was only about 13 hours into the trip and i hadn't missed any planes up to that point. by the way, there is no window behind me. honolulu was a good laugh. they're so old-school there. case in point: as we're getting back on the plane, a flight attendant highlights our names off her 'master' list!
i finally arrived at the brisbane airport at noon on wednesday. when i went into pearson it was monday. i came out of the brisbane airport on wednesday. i want my tuesday back!!!
the weather has been warm to say the least. wednesday was a "comfortable" 22 degrees. today is more like 32! it was hot. i was sweating buckets. so yesterday, after surviving my journey across the pacific ocean, i met up with a friend and ate some much needed food, i then picked up some groceries and finally went to my room (it doesn't quite feel like home yet... so i will address it as my "room" for now). after getting settled in, i went to bed around 10pm local time. i slept like a baby until about 4am when the heat hit me. i woke up and it was so unbearably hot. my room has no ac, no fan and not a whole lot of air flow. i laid in bed for about an hour trying to go back to sleep. but i just couldn't. and while i laid there, i wasn't thinking about how i missed home. i was thinking about how darn hot it was!
i did some shoppping today. bought a fan. bought some hangers, a laundry basket, my dissection kit, some bed sheets, a power bar, orange juice.
this picture was in honolulu. i'm smiling because it was only about 13 hours into the trip and i hadn't missed any planes up to that point. by the way, there is no window behind me. honolulu was a good laugh. they're so old-school there. case in point: as we're getting back on the plane, a flight attendant highlights our names off her 'master' list!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
still in transit
after 28+ hours, i am still in transit.
i will save you the details for another time but i am stitting in the airport at sydney waiting for my connecting flight to brisbane. (i missed my scheduled connection!!!)
after all that time at 36,000 feet, the weight of my choices are starting to finally dawn on me. when will i see everyone again? what am i going to eat tonight? what if my roommates are smelly and dirty? did i pack my sunscreen?
oh! they're calling my flight! gotta run. will put up some pictures when i get a chance!
i will save you the details for another time but i am stitting in the airport at sydney waiting for my connecting flight to brisbane. (i missed my scheduled connection!!!)
after all that time at 36,000 feet, the weight of my choices are starting to finally dawn on me. when will i see everyone again? what am i going to eat tonight? what if my roommates are smelly and dirty? did i pack my sunscreen?
oh! they're calling my flight! gotta run. will put up some pictures when i get a chance!
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
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