I took a trip with a few second year students in the break.  One of the guys I went with is the older brother of a classmate of my younger brother.  I met his younger brother first, at UBC… Small world.  Anyway, it was great.  we decided to try get up Mount Beerwah in the Glasshouse mountains, which are really strange rock formations sticking out of the otherwise nearly flat surroundings.  They say that the mountains are the remnants of volcanic plugs, and the cinder cones have long disappeared.  Makes for some funny hills, anyways.  We drove to Mount Beerwah, but after parking and hiking up the path to the start of the mountain (despite the path being closed) we got to the base of the rock to find it a little slippery because it had been raining.  We didn’t know what it would be like to come down if we got up, so we decided not to risk it… we were told by some others on the path that a few people had to recently be airlifted off, and didn’t want to add our names to the list (apparently it happens often enough).

This is what Mount Beerwah looks like on a clear day… That day it wasn’t this clear though!

So we went to another mountain, the name of which always slips my mind.  We made the climb in a bit of rain and fog, but it made it feel pretty cool.  Despite being soaking wet, I was pretty happy to be there.

Tags: Australia, Life, Photos by David Graff
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I am, as they say, 12.5% finished med school, with my first exam and semester under my belt.  It feels great to have it out of my hands, and on the paper.  And not hanging over me, like it as seemed to be for the last three months, progressively getting more and more real/scary.

I think the exam went well, and I hope everyone did well.  We won’t find out for three to six weeks, depending on who you talk to, which is going to drive me a bit crazy.

Last night we had some friends over to celebrate a fellow Canadian’s birthday and the end of semester,  and it was a really good time.  Today we are just hanging out and I’m headed up to Noosa with a friend.  Should be fun.

Tags: Australia, Life, Medicine, UQ by David Graff
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It’s Monday night here and I’m just chugging along.  We have our exam coming up on Thursday and fortunately have these next few days off to prepare for it, which is pretty handy.  There isn’t much exciting going on and it’s raining like crazy.  It feels a little like Vancouver in the winter, but it seems fitting to be studying while the weather is terrible.  Hopefully it will clear up shortly and we will have some good weather for our post exam break.

Tags: Australia, Life, Medicine, UQ by David Graff
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Last week there was a big rugby game on in Sydney.  It is called State of Origin and is a yearly best of three playoff between the best players from Queensland and New South Wales, according to where they are originally from.  It was actually really exciting play and I look forward to seeing the next games, when I can watch the whole thing and relax.  NSW won, and so did I, since Brian and I had a $2 bet… I figured I needed to go with NSW, since I have actually lived there before Queensland, and have lived in NSW for longer as of yet.  But it’s best of three so we will see, Queensland’s still in it.

While watching the first bit of the game, a Coke ad came on that struck me as really funny.  I have found it on YouTube and stolen it.  It’s after the link if you’d like to watch it and laugh with me. [Read more →]

Tags: Australia, Life, Video by David Graff
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Life is pretty boring lately, just hanging out at the apartment and studying.  It will be like this for the next two and  a half weeks.  Last night I took a break to play footy again, which was fun, but our team keeps getting crushed.  I don’t care though, I have fun, and it’s good to run around a bit.  The weather has a had a few changes lately, there was a big rainstorm on Saturday that came out of nowhere.  I took a few photos of it, below.  Now it’s just cold and windy.  I closed my sliding glass door at night for the first time because I was cold.  It was bound to happen.  But it’s still clear and bright most of the time, which I’m really enjoying.

Tags: Australia, Life, Medicine, Photos by David Graff
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Never thought I’d say that!  I had sushi for lunch yesterday and it was terrible.  Typical Australian sushi is so different than I am used to.  It’s dry, not very tasteful and has weird things in it.  They really shy away from the raw stuff, but then have weird stuff instead.  They put tuna in their rolls.  Ok… sounds normal, but I’m talking mashed up cooked tuna and mayonnaise, like a tuna salad sandwich.  With tofu.  It comes in a roll about 5 inches long, uncut.  People just bite pieces off like it’s a churro or something.  To top it all off, they make it all in the morning and let it sit there for hours till you walk along and submit yourself to eating the crap they hand out since there’s nothing better.  🙁

Oh well… I’ll have some of the good stuff at the end of the year. 🙂

Tags: Australia, Life by David Graff
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This last weekend we had May Ball.  It’s basically Medicine’s excuse to get dressed up and party.  It was like a wedding, where nobody got married and we all knew each other.  I have a few shots from around the tables.

Tags: Australia, Life, Medicine, Photos, UQ by David Graff
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Our apartment is perfectly positioned, according to me. It runs east and west, with our bedrooms on the east side, with large windows and sliding glass doors and separate balconies. Then on the west side is our kitchen and living room, and another balcony. It’s here that we get to spend the evening and watch the sunset every night. Some are quite flashy, and some are just a little bit of hazy yellow in a perfectly clear sky before the sun drops away over the outback. The best of them make me wish I had captured them, so I have actually tried a couple times. It’s hard to know when they’re going to really light up, but this one is alright. It’s a lot longer than the sunset itself, but I thought the time lapse of the people running about was interesting too.

Tags: Australia, Life, UQ, Video by David Graff
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It’s a gorgeous Saturday afternoon here. It feels a lot like a summer day at the lake, it’s quite dry and sunny. You can smell the hot pine trees in the sun and the grass is a little dry and crunchy. The clouds are like cotton balls and constantly changing. I have a little taste of it for everyone below:

This was shot from my balcony today. I feel pretty fortunate to be living in a place like this, all the while there has been a mass exodus of my belongings at my house, with great thanks to my friends.

Tags: Australia, Video by David Graff
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It was my  last night with Mum and Dad in Australia tonight, they fly out on Friday morning. After taking some time to finish up my PBL question (a weekly investigation into part of the problems we work on) We headed down to Southbank, and walked around the lagoon. We walked all over, including the market streets and up and down the water in the park.

After the walk we headed to Ahmet’s, which is a Turkish restaurant in the area. The meal took a long time to arrive, which was good, as we were just looking to chat and be together a little bit more. They have been a real blessing to me here, and I am so glad they were able to come down. Thanks so much Mum and Dad!

Tags: Australia by David Graff
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