I am in my new home, which feels great, and I am looking forward to getting everything set up.  I’m here for a little bit this weekend, and then I am headed back to the bush for another few weeks!  I won’t be setting everything up, because I won’t be needing it for another month, but at least it’s all here.  It feels good to have a place where you know it’s your home.  I have been wandering for a while now…  Just a little more wandering and I can be home again.

When I pick up things and get it kinda set up I’ll snap a few photos

Tags: Australia, Life by David Graff
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Believe it or not, at the last minute I decided to hop on a Greyhound bus, ride 16 hours through the outback over night and arrive back in Brisbane this weekend.  I am here for a couple reasons, including “Sports Day” which is the biggest cross-class get together of the year.  That’s on Friday, but today is the day that we actually get keys to our apartment.  So I am going to rent a car, grab my scrubs from storage, and then cruise up to the Sunny Coast to get keys and check out the new apartment.  I will also be able to move my stuff out of storage, which will save me the storage fee, which was pretty close to the cost of the bus!

Tags: Australia, Life by David Graff
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Here I am, sitting here in the middle of the outback, watching the start of the Vancouver Olympics.  I see the Canadiana on the TV, but when I look outside it’s a completely different vista.  I went for a walk today, just to get out of the house.  I walked for about 10 minutes north of where I’m staying, and was already out of town.  The town I’m in is maybe a kilometer across.  The crazy thing is that there were kangaroos just chilling in the grass out there.  It just highlights how different my experience is here today than it would be if I lived in Canada still.  Anyways, missing home big time today.

Tags: Australia, Canada, Life by David Graff
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Today something happened that is hard to get used to.  Someone used the phrase “because we’re doctors” to me.  Directly to me.  Now, usually when this happens I feel a real obligation to say, “Well, I’m still just a student.”  But there was literally nobody else around, and the speaker knew fully that I am a student.  It felt a bit odd, but I suppose it will be true eventually.

Tags: Australia, Life, Medicine by David Graff
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So the first week of rural is over, and it was a pretty neat experience.  As I mentioned earlier that on Monday we spent some time excising and chatting.  Tuesday and Wednesday were a mix of hospital and clinic (which Aussies call “surgery”, very confusing).  Thursday and Friday were spent in a smaller town 1.5 hours from here called Alpha.  I guess there’s a new mine getting set up in Alpha for coal or coal seam gas (nobody has told me for sure) and so the town is set to grow.  The hospital there reminded me of the old hopsital in Olds, where I was born… it was ll wooden walls and the age was about the same.  The only difference was that the hallways were half open on one side.

Getting back up to speed with med, if only in the sense that I am reading about it again.  This town is pretty fun, and it definitely feels small, as I am starting to see people I know already, only having been here for a few days.  Looking forward to getting to know it better.

Tags: Uncategorized by David Graff
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I am in Barcaldine, Qld, and it seems like it’s going to be great.  The town is tiny, as predicted and the people are very friendly.  It has rained nearly 140 mm over the last 36 hours, and the town is officially shut off from the outside by the police.  There is water covering the roads out of here.  The town was on the state news last night for the rain and flooding.  The humidity here is sickening and condensing on everything in sight.  The table top is wet.  My laptop is wet too.  I hope it’s ok.  I think the air conditioner is designed to pump water vapour into the house because it is usually so dry out here.

I don’t have internet here, I am currently borrowing from the student who is also here who has a wireless modem.  The school handed out modems to other students who they said had no internet, but said I would have it.  I don’t want to use it too much but I am happy to at least have a little bit of a link with the world, since my cell phone doesn’t work here.  I have made some changes that will let it work again in a little bit, but those are wheels that take a while to turn. (I need to change mobile carriers)

I had my first half day today with my preceptor, who seems like he’s going to be great.  All we did was cut out skin cancers (4) and talk about emergency procedures and food in Canada (two separate things).  It seems like it’s going to be great.  I really need to get up to speed on things though.  I know the world doesn’t revolve around me, and that means that not everyone knows this is the first day of my first rotation and I am barely out of second year.  So when someone expects more than I have ever done before I want to be ready.

Tags: Uncategorized by David Graff
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