With the end of rotation coming up, I am starting to get a little frazzled… There has been a lot happen in the last few weeks, and it has been a trying but good experience.  I am looking forward to completing this whole thing and hopefully doing ok.  I have a few projects that I need to complete that are kinda weighing me down, but the work of the rotation has been good.

I also am getting antsy for being home.  I have been on the road for many months now and just want to have a place of my own.  I had a taste of it a few weeks ago when I moved in, and I think being so close to it has made me less patient with living without it.  Just over a week from now I’m writing my exam and will be in Maroochydore, but right now, I’m in the middle of the state, listening to the bugs and the fans.  There are a lot of both.  My preceptor and I went out for dinner tonight, at 2130h.  After finishing work.  There were bugs everywhere, crawling all over us.  I thought to myself… how can you even describe what it’s like to just have grasshoppers and beetles all over you at a restaurant, and just think it’s normal… cause that’s what it is out here.  Crazy place.  Anyways, time for bed, lots of things to do in a short amount of time coming up.

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On Thursday and Friday my preceptor and I drive 1.5 hours east to a small town called Alpha, to work at the hospital and clinic there.  We have done so for the last five weeks.  this time however, I sutured a lady’s leg.  The other day I did cut someone, but didn’t need to stitch up.  Anyways, it was pretty great to do something like that to help someone… I am looking forward to seeing the pathology results to see what it was that we ended up removing.  Since the first one I have done a few others, and am looking forward to doing more.

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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.

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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.

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This will be one of my longest chain of flights yet… I am still in Christchurch, NZ. I am on my way to Sydney, then LA and then finally Vancouver. It will be about 36 h in total. Dear Canada, see you soon.

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Sun rises early

Spring makes sleeping in tricky–

It is just as well.

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Ever notice that, in any group of students, of those who have their laptops out in class, at least 90 percent of them are Macs? Even tho they make up 10 percent of the computer market, they are absolutely dominating it when it comes to showing off.

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What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

I copied this from http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html It’s not my own work at all.

All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”… The G20 just decided to spend another trillion on supporting the falsehood that is the free market share system.

A billion dollars…

A hundred billion dollars…

Eight hundred billion dollars…

One TRILLION dollars…

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A few photos from our trip last week. We had the week off classes, following the end of a block.

We went out to North Stradbroke Island, which is directly east of Brisbane, about a 45 minute ferry ride from the coast, which is about an hour drive from where I live.

In the photos you can see who was there, Bec A, Bec M, Carol, Tim and myself. We squeezed all our stuff into Carol’s car and walked on to the ferry so it was cheaper! Then on the other side we shuttled back and forth to the campsite.

It was so good to get away, and get out there. The weather was perfect and the place more so. I bought some fishing gear, hoping to toss it in the water. I had so much fun doing it, and am really glad I did. We had some minor success as you can see in the photos. We ended up eating a little of our haul that night.

Also on the trip, we went to two lakes on the island, creatively named Brown Lake, and Blue Lake. They both lived up to their names. The water was warm enough to get in and stay in, and we ended up swimming all the way across Brown Lake and back, which was probably 1 km across. Blue Lake was at the end of a 1 hour bush walk. When we arrived we were able to surprise a middle aged couple of skinny dippers.

Tim had to go back earlier than the rest of us, so we stayed another day after dropping him off at the ferry. We ended up just relaxing, swimming and had a fire on the beach at night. Coming home was tough, after a few days away from all the realities of life, it was quite a downer to get home. I think that just speaks to how great it was to have gone.

You can see the photos in larger format by clicking the link.

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Samuel Xavier Kemp, my nephew in Vancouver is three years old today. (March 20 in Canada) I had a chat with him and he proudly told me he was three years old, even though he’s been saying he was three for quite some time now. He went to the Green Store and had some cake, and got to go to the Aquarium.

I love that guy so much. So sad I couldn’t be there!

I’m happy that at least we can catch up on the phone. I miss all of you at home. Hope you’re doing well. I am getting over the sickness already.

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