Nearing the end of September

I'm currently sitting in the Curtin business building, near the eastern stairwell... which I think is a cool name for a stairwell, and I figured I should post a quick update on what's going on with my life, because I've been too lazy to do it for a while.


School
I'm going to get this topic out of the way real fast, because I'm hating on it quite a bit right now (it's final project/exam season). I'm gonna break it down by my classes:

Immunology
Even though the exam has kicked my ass 16 more ways than I thought was possible, I'm still loving on it. I love the idea that an antibody is just a magic bullet which can go after anything we want... I can't believe that I've been dealing with this topic since high school and haven't appreciated it's awesomeness before.

That being said, I'm currently working on a Journal Article for Salivary IgA and stress levels. None of the data is correlating, in fact, it's the worst correlation I've ever seen in my life... but I've still got to write about it. This is probably the closest project I've done to a thesis in my undergraduate career... and I've left it to the last week... Thanks procrastination.

Pathology
It's beautiful and it's horrible. This week we did gallbladders and liver failure, so it wasn't bad at all... however the past 3 weeks have been spent studying pap smears... I literally carry around slides of pap smears in my backpack with me... I have a new hatred for vaginas and diagnostic cytology. I respect the people who do that, but I don't want to sit in front of a microscope all day... Couldn't imagine that.

Psychology
We've got a group project coming up (in a week) and we've just picked the topic today, even though we've known about it for months. It's not going to be too difficult I imagine though. I dislike working in groups though... I'm nearly 21 years old, I think that I know how to function as a member of society by now... besides, the only thing these projects teach you is to trust no one.

Performance Studies
I've got an essay that I'm procrastinating starting (which is going to be a nightmare) and we have our theatre performance piece (which basically involves me dressing up as a doctor, and talking to people with "scary" words like gel electrophoresis, perilobular, and immunofixation. We'll see how this goes.

All in all, class is pretty stressful right now, and then after that, there are exams... But it should be over soon.

Friends
There is an unnecessary amount of drama in my life right now, and I kind of feel like I'm back at high school, but that's alright, because it's all a part of life, and it's something that everyone has to work through now and again. I've been hanging out with more international students more often recently, instead of the Aussies that I usually hang out with, but I'm not neglecting anyone... more friends are good, right?

We're planning a trip to the aquarium soon, where we do an underwater walk thing, which is going to be awesome. We've also been going into the city and having tourist moments (taking pictures of ridiculous moving clock towers).

Summer
Just bought a one way ticket to Indonesia, and a one way ticket to Thailand; nuff said... I'll update y'all later in another blog, because my psych class is starting.

Peace out!

A Canadian's Guide to Driving in WA

Are you from North America? Have you wanted to drive in Australia? Well, I'll give you the tips based on my short, 20 minute - 50 km country road experience of doing so.

Steps:
1. Disregard anything you've known about driving in the past, it's completely different here.

2. Resist the urge to drive on the right side (the correct side) of the road, I know it's difficult, but it will avoid many accidents.

3. The speed limit is 110 on country roads, I'm insanely jealous, you should be too, enjoy it while you're here.

4. The turn signal lever will be on the wrong side of the steering wheel. On the side that you think it is on, will be the windshield wipers. Try not to confuse the two; other drivers give you dirty looks.

5. I have no idea what's up with the turn signals, I can't offer any advice, they're messed. Just go with it, and hope nobody hits you.

6. Bring a cloth for the sweat on your palms, because it's like learning to drive all over again.

The proper way to drive, avoiding eye contact with the road what-so-ever. 










IRL:
You can tell that my experience wasn't the most pleasant. It's totally freaky trying to drive here. There are so many things that we take advantage of once we've learned to drive (like the ability to keep the car in the centre of the lane just by looking forward). Just when you think you've got that down, you go to turn a corner, or shift a gear, and instead you've put on the windshield wiper, or rolled down the back windows.

All of that being said, it's definitely something I'd like to try again.

And for the record; if the 403 was in Australia, I wouldn't have gotten my speeding ticket. And yes, I'm still sore about it. Muchos bitterness.

I met a strange lady, she made me nervous...

G'Day Mates! Said nobody ever...
...seriously, the amount of times I hear it is far and few between.

Well I just got back from Camping in, well, basically the outback, and dear lord I am still tired, but also relaxed.

I was really hesitant to agree to it at first, because I wasn't sure how it would be compared to Canadian camping... It was quite different. We ended up driving 1032kms up North, to a small station south of Coral Bay, WA. Here is a summary of what went down:

Day 1
- We packed up and left Perth at about 6 in the morning.
- We drove for about 13 hours, and stopped numerous places for KFC, and other chicken products.
- We stopped unnecessarily long in a creepy town which looked like it had been hit by a tornado.
     - We almost died here, several times.
- We arrived at our camp site (finally) at 1 in the morning, and set up our tents on top of a dune.




Day 2 (Kind of)
- Still at night, after setting up our campsite, we decided to go for a hike down to the beach and look at the stars:

- Dear lord, I've never seen so many in my life - it was bloody beautiful. We also saw two(+) shooting stars, with like, streams that lasted at least a second after they had gone by.
- We were walking back to the campsite, with only a few torches, when we heard a rustling in the bush next to us. I was the closest on the path towards it, and I literally leapt 2 meters across the path, behind the other guys to get away from it... It was a kangaroo.

Days 3-5 (They were all basically the same)
- We went snorkelling in the Coral reefs, I saw lots of pretty fish, and sea urchins, and plenty of other things that could kill me
- I got caught in a rip tide, that was fun. Insert sarcasm here.
- We laid on the beach and all got sunburnt
- I spent quite a bit of time reading lord of the rings
- On Day 4 we went into the township of Coral bay, and got doughnuts, and went snorkelling

Day 6 / 7
We started going home on Day 6 early in the morning, and drove 8 hours to Geraldton where we stayed in a cabin for the night, with showers, and maccas. There is also a lot of these McCafe's here, which I do not understand, but when in rome, right?

The next morning we got up and drove back to Perth, in which I drove the car for a bit.

All together it was a pretty cool experience. I saw quite a few poisonous millipedes, spiders, and lots of snake tracks (which were probably poison). Over 2000kms driven, and lots of pictures taken. Oh, we also crossed the tropic of Capricorn, which was pretty cool!

I'll probably post some more pictures later, just stay tuned. I've been really bad at updating this lately, hopefully that improves.