Third day (23th of June)

Another early morning.
We headed north to Butterfly Bay (4).


We swam and snorkeled at Butterfly Bay but unfortunately, the visibility was quite poor.


We decided to go on a hike. During this hike we came across a pretty little waterfall…


And bumped into a couple of goats. Seriously.


Shower count since leaving Brisbane: 1.

second day - 22rd of june

We woke up early and took our last shower on solid ground.
We then had a 3.5 hour orientation and we were off!


Our first destination was a quick sail away at Nara Inlet (3).


It was wet and cold but we were just WAY too pumped up to let any of the poor weather get in our way.

When we go there, a parrot greeted us.


Eric coaxed it with some crackers.


By the time we anchored and had dinner, everyone was pretty pooped. Shannen had made seafood carbonara and everyone had a serious case of the ITIS. (don't know what ITIS means? check wiki!) We spent that first night getting used to the rocking and rolling of the boat as we slept.

Shower count since leaving Brisbane: 1.

back from the open seas...

i'm back! back from my sailing adventure.
oh man! i don't know where to start... i had such a great time.
the weather was a tad uncooperative to begin with (it was apparently the coldest that it's ever been since they started keeping records in 1860!!) but we got the sun we were looking for during the last couple of days.
we went with 7 people on board and came back with all 7. there was no mutiny on the seas. who were the players???

we had meera and shannen, 2 ladies to balance the testosterone on the trip.


we then had...
karsten aka "the crazy german"


bruno aka "free willy"


eric aka "big guns"


matt aka "old man yellow thumbs"


and your truly aka "skip"


and this was our everything for the last 8 days. our kitchen. our shelter. our toilet. our mode of transport.


first day (21st of june). you can track our process on this map.

we flew out of brisbane and into this little town called proserpine (1). the airport consists of a runway and a building that looks like a warehouse. the "baggage claim area" is just a driveway where they pull the baggage trolleys from straight off the plane. it was pretty neat.


we then took a shuttle to airlie beach. (2)

there we dropped off our luggage and then went grocery shopping! food for 7 people for 8 days ended up being quite a bit.


$744.39 to be exact.


after carefully squeezing all of our groceries into the fridge/freezer and different nooks and crannies of the boat, we called it a night and went to bed.

to be continued...

Possum anyone?

Went out to dinner last night with some friends to this place called tukka. It’s this quaint little place in a suburb of Brisbane called West End. Here they serve all sorts of exotic dishes. What kinds of dishes? I thought you’d never ask!

Well, I decided to go with the crocodile. And as I sort of expected, it looked and tasted like chicken. Really TOUGH chicken. So now that I’ve eaten a croc, does that make me the king of the swamps???

My friends ordered some other stuff and we passed it all around.

This is what my plate looked like mid-meal. It was an interesting meal to say the least. The waitress was telling us how crocs that are fed chickens (on a croc farm) tend to actually taste more like chicken than crocs that are fed fish. I guess the saying is true; you are what you eat!

Changing gears…
I’m just about to head off to the airport. My 9-day sailing adventure starts today! The forecast is calling for some rain but hopefully we won’t get too drenched. Won’t get much of a cellular signal in some parts, let alone an internet connection. So, take care. Will see you all in a few days. If you don’t hear from me in 10 days send out a search & rescue team. Ciao!

video...

as promised.

koalas, kangaroos and owls... OH MY!

yesterday some friends and i went to the lone pine koala sanctuary. it is the first and largest koala sanctuary in the world. we had a really good time. a quick little pictorial summary.

we started off with the koalas.

unsatisfied with just petting one we decided to shell out the extra coinage to HOLD one.

they were so cute.

i think the one that i was holding got a little too excited. so male koalas have these scent glands on their chest from which they secrete a special scent to attract other females. well... i got squirted.

eww...

we then headed off to see a "birds of prey" show. it was pretty cool. they had some eagles, a hawk and an owl. i volunteered to stick my arm out for the owl to fly to. i had, what looked like the intestines of a rat placed into my glove, i then held it out and the owl flew over. but apparently i was holding onto the treat a little too tightly. the owl started to dig it's claws into me and peck at my hand. it didn't hurt. but i could DEFINITELY feel it's talons.

i think my friend matt video-taped this. i'll post it up when i get it from him.

we then went to feed some lorikeets.

wow they were loud.


some of us weren't so lucky. yep. that's bird poop!

we then went over to play with the kangaroos. yup. KANGAROOS! it was so cool.
you could get right up to them...


to pet them...


and feed them.


the little joeys were just TOO cute!


we then went back to see the koalas. took WAY too many photos. this one is probably my favourite.

can you see the little guy at the bottom? he's just by the mom's left knee.

signed on the dotted line...

yes!
just signed my rental contract for next term.
after dozens of e-mails, even more phone calls, a half dozen house visits and a couple of places just slipping through my fingers, i finally found this great place.
it's for $10/week less than what i would be paying at my current place AND it's got everything i don't have now but want, like... a microwave... a television... a living room... a dining room... wireless internet connection... PLUS it's got this huge patio and a view of the river from the front porch! all that and a view to boot, imagine that!
it's in this suburb called west end. it's just a quick 5 minute ferry ride from UQ. it won't be quite as convenient as my current place in terms of a daily commute but i think the good far outweighs the (one) bad.

i will post up pics when i move-in in about 3 weeks or so.
can't wait!

now just need a sucker err... i mean... a good friend to help me move.
any volunteers?
pretty please???

pros & cons of being student...

went to see my first movie in oz last night. we ended up watching BREACH. the movie's based on the true story of robert hanssen the ex-FBI agent responsible for the "worst intelligence disaster in US history". I enjoyed it. chris cooper was eerily good in playing hanssen and ryan phillippe's role as a newbie-agent-wannabe was played to the tee. (my friends think phillippe is a lousy actor but i don't think he's that bad. especially with that baby face of his and in roles like this one and crash). if there was a downside to the movie, it'd be that it probably could've used a couple of plot twists here and there. but i guess that's what you get with a based-on-a-true-story movie.

where am i going with this and the title of this post?
well, the movie was $5.70. student fare is FIVE dollars and SEVENTY cents.
you don't believe me do you? i knew you wouldn't so here's proof.

ah... it's good to be a student.

on the other hand...
started my house hunting today. didn't go quite as well as i had hoped.
the two places that i looked at were - although cheaper than my current place - nowhere near as good as my current place. they were both further away. instead of the 7 minute walk it takes me now, it'd probably take closer to 15 or 20. the first place was a dump. there's really no other way to put it. 5 guys living in the house. kitchen was a mess, there were probably a dozen grocery carts in the garage and don't even get me started on the washroom.
the second place was small without much natural sunlight. and the first question i was greeted with when i knocked on the door was "where are you from?" WTF?!?!

i gotta make a few more calls tonight and hopefully check out a few more places tomorrow. i definitely don't think i'm being too picky. but perhaps my expectations are a tad high. it's true. you get what you pay for.
arg... it's sucks being a student.

trip down memory lane...

just some things that i've been reminiscing about:

1. septembers in toronto. the sun shining, blue skies and a cool breeze. it feels like fall here in brisbane. i guess that's because it IS fall. this weather reminds me of walking to the first day of classes. the excitement, the anticipation of seeing old friends and meeting new ones. know that feeling?

2. my study friends from uoft. and our study sessions. during exam season, we'd bunk out at st.mike's library to study, laugh, study, nap, study, sneak off to yummy's bbq for dinner, sneak in coffee/hot chocolate and of course study. i have such fond memories of those times. i'm not so sure why. it was mostly in 3rd year i think. harri, eric, jenn, jee and myself. sometimes there were others... christine, taylor, shawn, ivan. but that group of 5. i wouldn't say we were inseparable. but we sure did spend a lot of together. 1/2 the time we weren't even studying for the same exam. i'd be doing my psych thing, jee her IR thing, jenn her physio thing, eric his patho thing and harri his... his... what WAS he studying for??? haha. studying for my recent exam has made me realize how i much i miss these guys.

3. pagers. do you remember when pagers were the sh*t? anyone and everyone that was cool had a pager. if you didn't have a pager growing up you're either too young or too old or just plain not-so-cool to remember this. ;) this must've been what 8? 9? 10 year ago? it was all about how you wore it too. if you clipped it onto your belt, that was a no-no. guys would put it in their pockets with just the clip sticking out. girls would clip it to their waist with the pager on the INSIDE. why the sudden nostalgia about pagers? i was watching "house" the other day and the doctors' pagers went off. and i couldn't help but think how things always come full circle. (i know it's a tad premature but...) in just a few years i'll be wielding a pager just like the good ol' days of high school. but i guess this time i'll be groaning every time it rings instead of running to the phone in excitement.

good sleep...

Went to bed with a stomach full of steak and chocolate cake last night. i slept like a baby. probably the best sleep in a few days. i couldn't sleep on wednesday night (night before the exam). i don't know why. i was so nervous. got up in the morning and i had butterflies. i settled down a little bit after my shower... actually after my shower the nervousness was replaced with just a whole lot of energy and i was psyched.

ANYWAYS... let me tell you about dinner last night.
we went to this steak place called the norman hotel. it's reputed as being the worst vegetarian restuarant in the city. it was pretty good. the food was good. and the whole ordering and eating process was pretty interesting.

so you get seated and you order drinks.
when you're ready, you make your way to the counter. there you can actually pick and choose the slab of meat that you want cooked for you.

that juicy one in the middle had my name written all over it.


allan trying oh-so-hard not to drool.

so you pick your source of protein (rib fillet LARGE). you decide how you want it cooked (medium rare). and decide what sauce (mushroom, pepper or chili - i went with the pepper. on the side).
you pay at the cash and then they give you a little vibrating pager. when it rings, you come back up and pick up your steak on cafeteria trays. that's right. pay $26 for a steak dinner and you have to serve yourself. pfft!

but doesn't it look delish?


after devouring our steaks, we had matt's cake brought out. we gave him a horrible rendition of "happy birthday". we were way off pitch. hey! we're med students! not theatre majors!


and we devoured that too.


me and the birthday boy.

all in all another good night.

euphoria...

don't want to jinx myself but i feel like the exam went well.
We don’t get our marks back for another 4-6 weeks though. Bummer. All that I can really do at this point is enjoy my 3 week break. and THAT i plan on doing. i'm so happy. feels good to have that first one under my belt.

What am I going to do with my 3 weeks of sheer freedom? i actually feel like i don't know what to do with myself. i've spent the last several weeks studying ferociously. now without that constant need to study, i don't know where to go from here.

Well... there are a couple of non-med books that I’ve been itching to read. Philippe Legrain’s “Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them” and Douglas Coupland’s “Life After God” have been calling me from the edge of my desk begging to be read for the past couple of weeks.

I also need to find a new place to live for next term. To make a long story short, my current place requires that I sign another 6-month lease contract in the middle of July. That would take me into mid January. Since I don’t plan on being here for the months of November and December and ½ of January, I find it pointless to waste 2.5 months of rent.

Oh! And I almost forgot. I’m going to sail the seas! Haha! Some friends and I are heading up to Whitsundays during the last week of June. We’re going to rent a catamaran and sail around for about a week. I kid you not. I can’t wait!!

To kick things off we're going out for some steak tonight. STEAK! STEAK! STEAK!! to celebrate our first term of med school (we're one-eighth of the way there!) and celebrate our friend matt's birthday (which was yesterday).

A question only a mother would ask.

Whenever I talk with people from back home, different people ask different things.
Some people ask about school.
Some people ask about the weather.
Some people ask when I’m coming home.
Some people don’t ask about anything. They’re too busy telling me about themselves. You know who you are! ;) don’t worry, I like hearing about life back in the great white north.

But most of my questions come from my mom.
Are you sleeping well?
Eating well? What did you eat? Did you eat enough? Are you eating enough veggies? You’re eating wholegrain bread right?
How’s the weather? Are you cold? Are you hot? Did you put enough sunscreen on?
How’s school? Tough studying? Staying on top of your work?
Getting along with your friends? Make any new friends? Any pretty girls?
And I answer most of these questions with the standard 22 year-old male responses. Yes mom. No mom. I will mom. I’m fine mom.
Inevitably though, she’ll ask something that no one else ever asks. Did you go to the washroom today? You know what it means. Not for a shower. Not to brush my teeth. And not just for #1. Did I defecate. THAT is the question. It always brings a smile to my face.
My mom and I are pretty close. We’ll talk about just about anything. If I skipped class in high school, I’ll voluntarily tell her that I skipped. Went out drinking with my buddies to the wee hours of the morning? She already knows about it. But this question… I’m always just in a hurry to get it over with. “oh! Mom! Yes, I went POO today mom. Happy?!?” That’s something only a mother would ask. (I guess your family doc could and probably should).

So today, before my mom even asks, I’ll tell her. Yes mom, I went to the toilet this morning.
And in case any of YOU out there were wondering but were just too shy to ask… Yes. My bowel movements are regular and just fine. Thanks for your concern. ;)