It's not rocket science...

...but it is brain surgery! I again didn't do anything today (Dexter is just too addictive and I don't have anything to do except study for exams and write my final paper.) so I'm going to talk about brain tumours and my story. Today is the first day of International Brain Tumour Awareness Week. Many of you know the story from your experience as I've gone through it or read the blog my parents and oldest sister kept while I was recovering or I've just told you the story. I feel that because it is International Brain Tumour Awareness Week I should tell it again.

All through high school (and even part of middle school) I had suffered from headaches. They had been getting increasingly worse. I thought they were induced by hunger, so I made sure to carry around candies to help if I got too hungry. I also had an unquenchable thirst, so sometime freshman year I started to go to the doctor. I had my blood tested for things like diabetes, but nothing came back abnormal. 

Meanwhile, we moved and I had changed doctors as a result. I kept having these headaches and so I kept going to the doctor to try and find out what was wrong. She had my blood tested a few times and tried telling me different things like seeing a dietitian to talk about eating better. I even gave up pop at one point, but the headaches increased and I felt like I was going through withdrawal, only now I know why it didn't help. When that didn't work she just tried to tell me that it was normal teenage stress headaches and gave me some exercises/stretches to do to relax my neck and head muscles. At that point it was the beginning of my senior year and I was taking aspirin at least once a day, which is huge for me because I never take drugs or medicine of any kind unless absolutely needed. I was also having dizzy spells where I would temporarily (a few seconds) lose vision and have to hold onto the wall or crouch on the ground to avoid falling. For some inexplicable reason I also couldn't walk straight, but walked toward the right always.

During that year I was taking a class at my high school for people that wanted to work in the medical profession called Health Sciences Technology. The first semester we spent learning about the different diseases and body systems. The second semester we were placed in the hospitals, vet offices, or childcare places around town to get experience. In December we had been learning about the brain. I had learn some of it in Psychology the previous year, but wasn't interested until now. Our teacher talked about what the different parts do and I took particular interest in the cerebellum. While thinking about it, I even casually said to my mom, "What if there's something wrong with my brain, like I have a tumour or something?" I honestly didn't think much of it.

About a month passed and my dad took me up to Crystal Mountain to go skiing. We hadn't been up there in years and we hadn't really been skiing at all really. I'm the only one in the family that ever wanted to go. We were going to go up overnight. We skied for a while when we got there, then were going to ski the next day. I woke up with a terrible headache. My dad still skied for a while before we went home because I couldn't take the headache. That was about two weeks before I found out the cause of my headaches.

February 5, 2008 is a date that I will always remember. I had started my first clinicals for my Health Sciences class the day before in the hospital at the Pharmacy. That day I went in earlier for a much different reason. I had been having a hard time wanting to sleep all the time because of the pain of my headaches and my grades were even slipping as a result. That morning I woke up screaming with a headache. My dad came in my room and I tried to ask for him to get me aspirin because of my horrible headache. He then rushed me to the hospital. It was not until later that I understood why. He said that I was speaking in gibberish and he thought I may have had a stroke or something. My mom was in the shower, so he just rushed me there and then she came to meet us. I really only remember parts of that morning.

I remember waking up some time that afternoon. Both of my parents were there (my older sister and her husband were coming that night and my oldest sister and her husband were driving through the night to get there and arrived in the morning) and they delivered me the news. The doctors had run a CT scan and found a brain tumour. It was located in my cerebellum and they believed it to be a Pilocytic Astrocytoma. It also appeared to be about the size of a golf ball. They also performed a full body MRI to make sure that there were no other tumours. That was the only one. Most people probably would expect someone to fall apart upon hearing that they have a brain tumour, but I didn't. I'm not sure if it was all of the pain medication, the fact that I had already predicted this, relief of finding out the cause of my pain, or denial until the surgery when it was gone. No matter what it was I was calm throughout it. My mom also found out what blood type I was because I wanted to know. I was B positive, which I took as a message to 'be positive' throughout this ordeal.

The next day a Priest came in to perform the Anointing of the Sick on me and give my family ashes for Ash Wednesday. (Yes, I went in the hospital on Mardi Gras and had brain surgery on Ash Wednesday.) They then wheeled me into surgery some time after that. I remember going to another room then my family all saying goodbye to me before I went in to surgery. I then went to the OR where they put the sleeping gas mask on my face and I drifted off.

Taking me to surgery

My sisters and me with our
Ashes before I went to surgery

I don't remember waking up but I do remember bits and pieces of the next week that I spent in the hospital. I do remember my parents telling me that they thought they got it all. They were also almost positive that it was a benign Pilocytic Astrocytoma but had to send it to a pathologist to test. They also sent it to my dad's cousin who is a pathologist and they both confirmed that's what it is. It is also a type of tumour that grows slowly and I could have had it my whole life but it wasn't a problem until recently. The took another MRI and it looked like it was all clear. I had follow up MRIs every few months they have all been clear so they have gotten longer times in between them. I remember parts of my stay in the hospital, the visits from friends and family, gifts, and my parents and sisters spending long nights at the hospital with me so I was never alone. They don't know how much I appreciate that. (I also loved the gummy bears every time that I had to take gross medicine.)

Before and After surgery.
My ventricle was getting cut off
and causing much of the pain

Part of my awesome neurosurgeons at
Mott Children's Hospital

Not exactly what my parents wanted
for our first family picture with all of us

My sisters and me after surgery

After my week in the hospital, I was still out of school for a few more weeks. (well 2 and a break) My oldest sister and her husband stayed with us for a while because she works from home and could be anywhere and my brother-in-law had just gotten back from Iraq and was on leave. They helped take care of me with my parents so that they could alternate working and someone being home with me. At least for the first week or so. I had to have someone help me with stairs and just walking in general since the cerebellum controls balance. Another thing was that I couldn't properly wash my hair until my stitches came out, but that didn't really bother me because for the first time in a long time I wasn't having the headaches. Sure I still had pain from the surgery, but it was a fraction of the pain that I had on a daily basis before.

When I got back to school, I ended up dropping some classes and taking AP biology pass/fail. I only needed one more class to graduate, so I was extremely lucky to be able to do that. I was also taking my Health Sciences class, of course. It was hard at times because my second day back on clinicals I was at the Pharmacy again and she talked about making Chemotherapy drugs and took us through that area of the hospital. My neurosurgeon, Dr. Garton, had just talked to my parents about the possibility of chemotherapy if it ever came back. So far it hasn't, though, and it is looking like it won't. Over the next few months, I had physical therapy at Mott Children's Hospital. We worked on my balance and it was a lot of fun. At home I also worked on my Wii-habilitation by playing games on the Wii to help with balance, including Wii fit.

My first follow-up with Dr. Garton, my
Neurosurgeon. He is testing me on the
 finger-nose test.

Dr. Garton and me. The pigtails made it
easier for him to see my scar.

Life has been really good since all of this happened. All of the MRIs have come back clear, I did well in physical therapy, and I have not had a headache as bad as those since February 5, 2008. My doctors actually told me that they had performed this surgery many times and I was healing the fastest. I still think that sometimes I don't realize the magnitude of having a brain tumour because I was so fortunate and I sometimes miss the realisation that I had one. Never once in the process did I think I wouldn't make it out of surgery, but again that may have been the drugs talking. The scars are a constant reminder of my surgery, though. I have three scars. I'm not sure what one of them is, but one is a divot from the drainage tube in my brain and the other is a five inch scar along the back of my neck where the incision was. I was extremely lucky to be able to keep my hair since they just shaved parts of it where they needed too. I was growing mine out to donate again, though so they probably would have kept it. (I'm growing it again to donate for a third time) 

CCG's Army at Path to Progress

The experience has had a strong impact on who I am today. I feel that it has brought me closer to God and made me realise my purpose. I was meant to spread awareness of brain tumours. I hope to someday work for a non-profit brain tumour organisation like the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. That is why I am going into public health/ health education. I also feel that I appreciate life more now and try not to take it for granted. Life can be too short so you need to live it to its fullest. I have also participated in the Path to Progress walk in May 2010 in Chicago with my parents, older sister, and two of her friends from college that now live in Chicago. I feel that the reason that I was given a brain tumour was to share my story, spread awareness, and to help other people battling them. I am always willing to talk about it and share my experience if anyone has questions.

Also, for brain tumour awareness this week please wear gray to support, add a twibbon to your facebook or twitter profile, or just talk to people about it. I will also be posting facts about brain tumours on twitter, facebook, and my other blog posts. The amount of research funding on brain tumours is ridiculously low and we need help to raise awareness to get more funding and find cures.

*insert funny line about holidays here*

I just relaxed today and watched Dexter online. Since I didn't do anything, I decided to talk about the holidays in Australia as my mom requested. Of course they have things like Christmas and New Years. The Christmas decorations have been out in the stores for a few weeks now. Kmart has a display of artificial trees and stocking stuffers. It seems so funny to have Christmas in the summer, but I guess the first Christmas was in the heat of the Middle East.

They also have different holidays. One is Australia Day on 26 January. This celebrates when the first ships came in 1788 to Sydney. From the sounds of what goes on, it seems like the Fourth of July for Americans. They also have Anzac Day on 25 April. ANZAC means Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the day commemorates those that have fought in war. I guess it's kind of a combination of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Another holiday is Sorry Day. This is on 26 May, which is also my birthday. Sorry Day is for the remembrance of the Stolen Generations and the mistreatment of Aboriginal people. Another holiday is the Queen's Birthday. This is celebrated on the second Monday of June, except in WA because of the Perth Royal Show. The final holiday that wikipedia talks about that we don't celebrate is the Melbourne Cup, which is the first Tuesday of November. This is a big horse race.

You may have noticed that there is no mention of Halloween. It isn't really celebrated here. Sure there was a party in the village yesterday, but I think that it is more of an excuse to have a party. There is a lot of influence from America because of tv, movies, and the internet that I think it has been adopted. There is one store in Kardinya that sells costumes and they had a Halloween section, but other than that nothing is mentioned. I actually came across an interesting article while looking up information on this about protesters wanting it declared an official holiday in Australia. The article also talks about Valentine's Day being celebrated just because of the American influence.

Don't forget to comment if there is anything else that you want me to talk about.

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy

I could not sleep that night, and woke up at 3 and couldn't go back to bed. The sun started to rise before 5 and I couldn't fall asleep until 7:30 or something like that. I decided to just skip class and sleep. At 1:30, I went to the CIEE office because Paul was taking us to the aquarium. It was a lot of fun and I got to touch a few starfish! After we walked around, Paul bought us all ice cream at the cafe. 

Fright Nite

Since this weekend is Halloween, the village had a 'Fright Nite' at the pool deck. I dressed up as a nerd with my 'NErDy' periodic table shirt, lab coat, and pippet pen. It was fun and afterwards we decided to go out. We decided to go to Metro Freo. It had a $20 cover charge that also got you a free drink. Since I don't drink I gave mine to Carrie. We were having fun until the security decided to kick out someone from our group (who shall remain anonymous). Carrie and I decided to get Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King) and it was delicious. I was so hungry and haven't had a hamburger since being here. There was a whole bunch of commotion with security and stuff after that, but eventually we did get a taxi home and everything worked out fine.

Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight

I had no class today because I never have class on Thursdays. I woke up relatively early to shower and cook chicken before MCU common time. The chicken took forever to cook, though, so I didn't have time to eat before MCU. At MCU the speaker talked about what it means to be a mature Christian and the passage in the bible in Hebrews that talks about needing milk instead of solid food.

I came back and ate while watching some TV online. I also started watching Dexter, and I blame Sam for that because she was watching it when we went over there last Friday and started explaining it. It's really good, but I can't find it somewhere that isn't megavideo, which limits your usage before it makes you wait to watch again.

The next subject for my blog was requested by my sister about constellations in Australia. Now I am no star-gazer and can't find a constellation to save my life, but I do know that they have different ones from the northern hemisphere. (It's not that I don't like looking at the stars... in Denmark, WA, we saw a beautiful display of stars and even the Milky Way!) For starters they have the southern cross. This is depicted on their flag as well as New Zealand's flag. I did some looking online and found out that there is no 'pole star' in the south, like the North Star. There are also some constellations that can be seen at any time during the year and some that can only be seen during certain seasons. The picture shows the different constellations of the southern hemisphere in relation to each other. More information on constellations can be seen here.

Penny for your thoughts?

I didn't have class today because my lab ended last week. I woke up early and went to the library. My internet was still down so I wasn't able to check my mail or finalize my lab report until I got there. I made some final edits to my report (My last one ever, since I'm done with my Biology minor after this class!) and then went to the CIEE office to print my lab report and my documents II exercise for Aboriginal Colonised History that were both due today. I printed them, turned them in, and was back to my flat before 11:30. I was very proud of myself for not procrastinating too much and literally finishing about an hour before I had to turn it in like I did on my last report. I came back and watched Glee and Rocky Horror Picture Show. Since that was the theme on Glee this week and I had never seen it before, I wanted to watch it, but it was incredibly weird! I also saw that the class offerings for next semester at Hope are now online, so I played around making a schedule. I actually may only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays! Oh and I almost forgot about my crazy magpies experience. For those at Hope, I feel that Magpies are like black squirrels in the way that everyone has a story about them attacking them or scaring them. I went to get a popsicle from the kitchen today, and as I walked in a few of them, maybe 3, got up and flew out the door. Apparently one of my flatmates had left the sliding door open and they came in. I'm not sure what they were eating, but at least I know that I don't keep any food laying around in the kitchen. I then closed the door and they gave me an evil look and I could just sense that they were mad at me.


My next blog idea is about Australian currency. They use the Australian dollar, or AUD. The conversion is very similar to the USD. When I first came in July the exchange rate was around 91 AUD cents for every USD. Now, with the bad economy, the USD is going down and the AUD is going up so the exchange is 0.986. I try to see the positive in this that I won't lose as much money when I convert my additional money back to the US. The notes come in 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100. The coins are in 5, 10, 20 or 50 cents and 1 or 2 dollars. You may notice that the penny or one cent piece is missing. They don't have one. (The site where I got the pictures from said that the 1 and 2 cent pieces were phased out in 1990) Unless you pay with a credit card, they round your purchase. This could be either up or down, whatever is closer to the 5 cent rounding. I think it's usually less, though. Everything also includes the tax in the price on the price tag. This is an awesome thing. You know exactly what you are going to pay before you get up there. For more information on the money, see this link.

I would hate to be Amish!

I had class at 8:30 and then my second class had the same guest lecturer that we had in my class yesterday. We also had to answer some questions about readings in the tute and were given them during the lecture, so I was having a hard time concentrating on the lecturer because I wanted to find the answers to the questions. (it's open book) She got done lecturing when the 2 hour block was done, then Ken decided to give us some time to find the answers/take notes before giving us the hour to write them. We ended up being in class almost 40 minutes later that we were supposed to, which meant that I couldn't go to Paul's last class.

The internet kept going in and out because they were doing some maintenance during the day. Then at 5:30ish it decided to totally stop working. I was super annoyed because I was writing my lab report and wanted to check some things online. Luckily I had saved all of my references on my computer and didn't really need the internet. It still drove me insane to not be able to take breaks to check facebook and my email. I pretty much just wrote my lab report and edited my other assignment that were both due today. Also, this post is not up until today because the internet was down all last night and part of this morning.

db, fm,fs

I had class this morning and we had a guest speaker who works with Deaths in Custody and presented information to the UN. I then went back and made hot wings for lunch (they were very good, but not the same as home) and read for my class tomorrow before my tute. I then came back and read some more. Really exciting, I know... I also went to MCU today. Joel led the discussion as we talked about the last part of Colossians. We were talking about what one part of it meant when Matt said something about sending things like 'beloved brother' in texts. He then came up with the abbreviation in the title, which means 'dear brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant.' I'm sure it will catch on. :P Now I'm just eating some more wings as I write this, then I'll read before going to bed.

The next topic my dad requested that I talk about is Australian humour. I honestly haven't noticed that much of a difference. In Paul's ongoing orientation class we talk about differences in Australian culture from that of America, and people have said that they are more blunt and to the point here. They are also sarcastic. I guess that's kind of how I am, so I don't notice. This picture is of a billboard that I saw after our sailing trip on Saturday, and I guess it kind of shows some Aussie humour.


Also, I plan on writing a post debunking rumours about Australia, so if you have any let me know!

2000 mockingbirds = 2 kilo-mockingbird

My friends went to the beach today and I was planning on going, but I realized that I needed to stay home and do my homework. I have a lot of things due on Tuesday and Wednesday. Basically all I did today was read for my in class essays on Tuesday and watch a doco for my class tomorrow. The doco was really sad because it was about an Aboriginal that died in custody. He was arrested after a random breathalizer test while driving where his blood alcohol was 4x the legal limit. After being in jail overnight, they had him sent to another jail or something in the heat of day in the back of a metal truck that didn't have working air conditioning or windows. They didn't check on him either. The temperature inside where he was rose to 56 C, which is 132.8F. They eventually checked on him and took him to the hospital, but he had no pulse. He then died in the hospital. I can't really think many worse ways of dying than being cooked to death!

Since I didn't really do much today, I'll talk about another suggestion for my blog. My sister, Jacki, requested that I talk about the use of the metric system in Australia. Of course the US uses the English system, but having so many science classes in my life, I know some conversions. I do constantly have to convert some things, though. For example, I know that a kilometre is roughly 0.6 miles and a yard and a metre are about equal. I never know temperatures, because the conversions are a whole math formula. I do know that 40C is 104F from my health sciences class senior year of high school and 30C is about 86F and 25C is 78F. One conversion that I never thought about and didn't know was kilojoules to calories. I looked it up when I first got here and I think it was around 4 calories per kilojoule, but since I don't need to count calories I don't care. My phone has an application that allows me to convert things or I use www.convert-me.com. That website was one that my chemistry professor told us Freshman year at Hope and it's come in handy.

I got the title from yahoo answers when I searched google for metric system jokes. :P

I'm on a boat!

I woke up late because I was tired from Friday night. I worked a little on homework before going to Freo with Carrie and Katie to meet up with Paul and the CIEE students because Paul was taking us on a twilight sail on the Leeuwin II. We got to Freo at 3:30 and went to the boat area. At 4 we got to go on the boat and it sailed around until 7. It was a lot of fun, although the wind made it very chilly. The first picture is of the boat and the second one is a lot of the people from the trip helping to get the sails up. There was also a group on the other side. There was also food on the boat and the bread and fruit were delicious. Carrie loved the little meat pies and kept eating them. haha! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_on_a_Boat


After the boat, since we were in Freo anyway, we decided to stop at the Monk. It was Katie, Corin, Carrie, and me. They all got beers and I got a sprite. Carrie and Corin got the same one and said that it was nasty. They didn't have much choice for food, so we just got drinks. Sam texted Carrie while we were there saying to come to my flat, well Brendan's but it's mine too, because they were all going to go out at 10:30. They were going to go to Metro Freo, but then someone said it was a $25 cover charge, so we went to Newport. It was fun, but I had more fun last weekend. I kept getting beer spilled on me and one person even threw a glass or something when I got wet but some other people actually got cut from the glass! It wasn't anyone from our group, though. After that, we were going to go to The Clink, but we thought the cover charge was like $2, but it was $10 so we didn't end up going. Corin, Katie, and I got chips to share and Carrie and Mini both got Kebabs. (They aren't like Shish-kebabs in the States, they are like a wrap type thing.) We then took the night-rider bus back. It cost $5, which isn't too bad, especially when you consider the other choice was a taxi which would cost more and the line for a taxi was ridiculously long. You can tell that the bus is for drunk people, because below is the back of the ticket. We then came back and they all said they were going to hang out at Brendan and my flat, but I went to bed before they got there and I didn't hear them so I'm not sure what they did. (Somehow the font got messed up, so I tried to fix it, but didn't know how. This is the best I could do.)

There were so many good quotes, that I just can't remember!

I got up somewhat early today to go to the CIEE office to print off my paper to turn in before class. I was so glad to be able to finally turn my book review in after a 2 week extension! I then had my Wildlife Biology lecture where we had a guest lecturer come in and talk about eco-tourism and the dolphins at Shark Bay. After class, I went back to my flat and got ready to go to the beach. I was going to go with Carrie, Corin, Sam, and some other people, but Carrie texted me that it was too cold. We then ended up going shopping in Perth instead. I got a dress and some shoes to wear out and an little apple pie from a bakery.

We got back at around 6 and I ate some raspberries and watched Big Bang Theory before meeting Carrie and going to Sam's flat. She was watching an episode Dexter when we got there, and so she explained the show to us. A whole bunch of other people came to Sam's flat too and they played some drinking games and I'm not really sure what else was going on. Eventually we went over to Corin's flat and we were just hanging out with Corin, Jedd (her flatmate), Carrie, and Cass. We also ordered pizza. It was really good since I was so hungry and haven't had pizza here except the stuff with a whole bunch of toppings that I pick off.

So my grandma wants me to talk about the price ratio for groceries and such. (My sister also gave me some ideas for topics to talk about, but I'm going to stick to one a day so that I don't run out.) It seems that things cost more here, but I also never have to buy my own groceries at home. At school I have always been on a meal plan and my parents pay for groceries when they visit or I go home. I do know that chicken, which is pretty much all I buy as a picky eater, is 13.50 per kilogram. This is a lot and recently it has been on sale for 9.50 or 11 dollars per kilo. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds. I don't buy many of the other typical foods because I am so picky, but here is a link that is for the catalogue at Cole's. (the AUD is now about equivalent to the USD) http://catalogues.coles.com.au/portal/dynamiccatalogue?CatalogueID=12870086927368&pageview=thumbnail

"I'm trying to stuff frozen vegetables in my purse!"

Today was my day off, so it wasn't too exciting. Corin, Carrie, and I went to the store at 10 to buy food etc. As somebody asked about the grocery store checkouts, I'll talk about that. Where I shop is a shopping centre called Kardinya that is about a 15-20 minute walk from Uni. It has a quite a few different stores, like Kmart, Coles, a fruit/veggie store, clothing stores, a post office, etc. It isn't that big and there are maybe 5-6 checkouts. There aren't any self-check outs. They do have some 5 items or less check outs at Kmart and I think the ones at Coles are 12 items or less. They are all always open, though, and sometimes even the Customer Service area checks people out if there is a longer line. The cashiers are also all pretty nice. I don't recall ever having one that was rude to me. Today's title comes from Corin as she was trying to carry all of her groceries so that she didn't need to bring the cart back.

I then went to MCU common time at 12:30 where Frank Nicol, the husband of one of the MCU adult people and an MCU-alum, was the speaker. He talked about the passage Matthew 12:22-37. I then came home and watch my shows online and ate lunch. Today on Bush Court, was Stamp out stress day. I guess it was because finals are in a few weeks and they want us to relax, so they had some special stuff. They had a teacup ride, which is the first picture. They also had a massage tent and I think a few other things. Thursdays are also Market Day around Bush Court. There are tables/booths set up with things like Jewelry, Candles, Books, Fruit/Vegetables, and even printers! The second picture is of one side of the market.

Stamp Out Stress at Bush Court

Market Day

The other thing that I was asked about by my sister was TV. I haven't watch a lot of Australian tv, but I did watch it once or twice at the beginning of the semester with my flatmates. It's pretty similar to US tv. Actually, a lot of their shows are just American shows, but they have a delay for when it is shown. I remember in the first few weeks that I got here, I was at Corin's flat and they were advertising the finale of Law and Order: SVU, which was on in America probably 4 months before. Two and a Half Men and the Simpsons are also popular here. There are some shows that are different, such as a soap opera called Neighbours that my flatmate watches and Master Chef. There are also other shows that are just similar to the ones in America, but with Australian people and Australian themes, shows like a group of people talking about celebrity news and celebrity countdown type shows. The commercials are also similar. Subway even has the Australian version of five dollar footlong, but it is 7 AUD and they don't have the jingle. I also thought it was weird that they still referred to it as a footlong even though they use the metric system in Australia.

The grass is always greener

I woke up this morning and worked on my paper before I ate lunch. I then had lab at 1:30. It was my last biology lab ever!!! We did life tables, which were pretty boring, but a lot less complicated than they were a year ago in Biology 280. That data took hours upon hours to analyse! I got done early, at 4 instead of 5:30, and came back to write more of my paper. I finished writing it, but was taking a break before editing it. Then Carrie chatted with me on facebook to ask if I wanted to watch Vampires Suck again because she really wanted to see it. She came over and we talked to the people that were over here before they went out (basically all the people from Saturday) while the movie was buffering (not sure if that's the word). I just love that movie and Carrie really enjoyed it too.

 The thing I am going to talk about is how Australia is greener than the US. Next to every garbage can there is a recycling can. In the first picture the green one is for recycling and the red is for waste. Those are all of campus, but the ones on the right are what is in the village. The yellow lid indicates recycling. Not only do they recycle, but there is more of an emphasis on reusable bags. I have even been to a clothing store where they give you your purchase in a reusable bag. The Murdoch Uni book store does this too. You also get reusable plastic containers at restaurants instead of styrofoam containers. Finally public transportation is huge with the TransPerth system. You can easily travel to Perth or anywhere nearby with the buses or trains. They also run on natural gas. There are also just more places that emphasis sustainability and taking care of the land.

Also, please leave comments for what you want me to talk about. I'm going to run out of interesting things to say quickly without help!

In Australia, the Christmas tree is not a pine...

I had class today (and I got back my paper from Aboriginal Colonised History and got a distinction!) and after my Aboriginal colonised history tute we went on a field trip. Ken, the lecturer, also teaches an introduction to Nyungar (the Aborigine country around this area) culture class and they had a field trip. He let people from my class go if they wanted to. Sam, Portia, and Paige are all in his other class so we all were there together. It was about an hour away and we took a big bus to get there. We met at Kulbardi, the Aboriginal studies centre at Murdoch, and Ken gave us Kulbardi hats and braclets. (the rubber ones like the livestrong one)

It was a really good experience. Even though I'm not Aboriginal and don't believe the same belief systems that they had, I felt that connection to the land there. The guide first started off with going to the body of water. You are supposed to tell the water who you are through a ritual of throwing dirt in it, then rinsing your hands, touching your armpits, and rinsing your hands in the river again. We all had to do it out of respect and because they have a belief that if you do not, you will get sick. We continued on the guide and he showed us around and told us various aspects of their culture. Another thing we did was lay on these healing rocks. There were separate areas for guys and girls. As you lay on the rocks they are supposed to get more comfortable. He also told us stories about people that have been healed by laying on them, including a woman with Parkinson's who no longer shook after a half hour of laying there. He then took the guys to see something that is more sacred and girls are not allowed to see it. It always bothers me to not be able to do something because of gender, but I have to respect their beliefs.

We continued on the walk and when we were following the path, we suddenly had to walk around a shadow. The shadow was from an Australian Christmas Tree.  They believe that when their ancestors pass, they are in the trees and so passing through the shadow shows disrespect. The Christmas tree isn't flowering yet, which is why it looks so different from the wikipedia picture. He also talked about some of the things that they eat from the ground, including a root that is orange but turns your tongue blue and tastes spicy and a grass type plant that quenches thirst and tastes like lemon water. I didn't try either of them, though because I don't like eating things from the ground that aren't washed. We also stopped at a few places to look for artifacts from tools that the Aborigines used to use. It is so weird to think about the people that were here 38,000 years ago, but things like that remind you of it. At the end we all got in a circle thanked our guide and told him what the trip meant to us. It was definitely a unique experience that made me appreciate and understand the Aborigine's beliefs.

The water at the beginning of the tour

laying on the healing rocks

Australian Christmas tree. 

"...I look like a gay pirate"

I had class my contemporary indigenous issues class today and a guest lecturer came in from Curtin University in Perth to talk about the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) that Curtin has and her story. After lecture I went to my flat to each lunch before heading off to the library to read additional information for my book review. The two books that Michelle told me to read were in closed reserve, so I had to read them there. I stayed there and took notes for my paper until our tute. In the tute we were split into two groups and had to write an RAP for Murdoch.

On my way back from the tute I decided to take some pictures of Octavius in the path between where my class and the village are that I always walk along. I took a picture in the tall grass area and then decided to place him in a tree. He fell out of the tree and fell off of his stand. I went to pick him up, and he was right next to one of those giant lizard things! I did not expect it and it scared me, but luckily it didn't move and neither Octavius nor the stand hit it. I did end up taking a picture of Octavius with it, though.

At 7:30, I had village bible study. I almost forgot to go, but remembered at 7:23. Ha! Joel led the study as we went through the next part of Colossians. After bible study I was too lazy to leave and ended up talking to a bunch of people and we ended up staying until 11:30! (bible study is usually done at 9) We were talking about all sorts of random things, including the guys talking about facial hair. Matt was talking about how if he grows a moustache and a certain beard he looks like a gay pirate, which is where the title comes from.

I didn't really get around to doing any homework tonight, so I'm going to try and write some of my book review before going to bed since I've been having trouble sleeping at night anyway. G'night!

Also, sorry it's a bit boring but I can't think of anything else interesting to talk about so write a comment if you'd like me to write about something in particular.

Tastes like chicken!

Well, I told my parents that I was going to go to the library all day today, but that didn't happen. When I said that I wasn't anticipating going out and staying up until 5 in the morning. I had to sleep in later than I would have otherwise, and by the time I got dressed, ate lunch, and got to the library I wouldn't get much reading done before it closed at 5. I just stayed here and did some of my other homework. I also didn't get a chance to take Octavius anywhere to take a picture because I didn't leave my room.

My parents did want me to talk about some other stuff too, so I'll talk about everything being chicken flavoured here since I don't know what else to talk about. Almost everything that comes in multiple flavours here comes in a chicken flavour. The first experience with this is the Easy mac that CIEE had in the package of food etc that they gave us when we first got here. It  is chicken flavoured. I haven't had it, but now that I think about it, it is probably similar to chicken helper or something. They also have chicken chips and chicken shapes. I feel like there is probably more because I see chicken flavoured things all the time that shouldn't be chicken flavoured, but can't think of any now.

Not sure what else to talk about (no I still have not tried the Vegemite) so leave me a comment saying what you'd like for me to talk about.

All was well

Today(/yesterday since I wrote this over two days) was more of the usual with homework and stuff. My parents had sent me a message on facebook that my sister and her family had gotten there for the weekend last night/ my this morning. They came up because of the Michigan/Iowa football game and some other friends were coming to town. I was still sleeping when they sent the message, but I got to talk to them tonight/their morning. They told me that I need to stop writing about the boring things about my life (ie naps and studying) and write about other stuff. Also, when I was talking to my parents etc on skype, I saw a spider in my room. It wasn't huge, but I HATE SPIDERS! I couldn't kill it because it fell or something before I squashed it. My parents and Jillian were making fun of me and saying that I was going to eat it in my sleep. Right when I stopped talking to them, the spider came back and I got it! All I could think is 'All was well,' which is especially dorky because that's the last line of Harry Potter. :) Also, my sister told me that my Grandma said hi, so I want to say Hi back. :)

They told me to talk about the differences in Australia and to do something new each day and blog about that. So I'm going to try to do that. One of the things that they thought was interesting is that I said that almost everything here is actually made here. Unlike the US where almost everything is imported. The fruits and vegetables have the 'Australian grown' symbol below and other things say 'Australian made' or 'Australian owned.' Things also can have a different taste than what they do in America probably as a result of being grown somewhere else. The peanut butter tastes really different. I didn't realize this until my parents sent me a care package which included JIF peanut butter. I had finished my peanut butter from Australia and opened the JIF one. JIF has more of a roasted taste. I love both of them, but you shouldn't change peanut butter within a few days because I didn't like the second one I ate at first. I guess you have to get used to the flavour or something. The pop/ 'fizzy drink' also tastes different because they have sugar instead of High fructose corn syrup. (I prefer the high fructose corn syrup, but I'm getting used to the sprite here.) I also noticed a difference in the Snickers since the chocolate is again from Australia.  

My parents also wanted me to mention something about the drinking age (which is 18), but I had no idea what to say. My flatemate had some friends over and as I was in the middle of writing this, Carrie and Sam knocked on my door. They told me to go out with all of them. I told Carrie that I didn't have any 'going out' clothes, so she looked in my closet and picked something out for me. It's a good thing I bought that $5 jean skirt! It took a while to get everyone organized and we kept going to different flats, but eventually we got to Perth. The area is called Northbridge, and there are a ton of clubs there. To get to Perth from Murdoch, you have to take the bus to Murdoch Station and then the train into Perth. It seemed like we were waiting forever at both places. The club that we went to was Paramount. The  people that we were with were Carrie, Sam, Mini, Ria, Connor, Brendan, his sister Elanore, and Tracy (a girl from Curtin). 

When we got in line there, a huge fight broke out. I was kinda scared because everyone in security was involved and it was getting really close to us since we were in a line with metal guardrail things kind of like the ones at an amusement park. I couldn't really go anywhere, but I stayed toward the back of our section as people wanted to see and I wanted to be away from it. There were even two security people on horses that came. I guess they always have them walking around and they call them when needed. They eventually got all of those people kicked out and the security or police or what not took them away.

We then proceeded in line again. Every time I need my ID to get in somewhere I get nervous because I'm afraid they'll think it's fake because I 'can't possibly be 20.' We needed two IDs to get in, I used my passport and my Uni ID because the second one didn't have to be a government one. I got in fine, although the girl that was checking my passport after the guy that checked the two IDs and gave us the stamp looked at my passport longer than anyone else's ID. (Although that could have just been my imagination.) It was a lot of fun! They had a band downstairs and a DJ upstairs. We also met one guy (Jason) and his sister or friend that's like a sister (Sara) and they were with us for a lot of the night. On a few occasions he said to me that he doesn't understand how I do it sober and that it amazes him or something to that effect. (Yes, I didn't drink since well, I don't drink :P) 

We were supposed to leave before two because that's when the last train runs. It is really hard to get everyone together to leave and we ended up missing the last train. Jason was trying to convince us to walk back to Murdoch, but there was no way. According to google maps, it's about 16km from Perth to Murdoch, which is about 10 miles! No way that was happening! Since we missed the train, we were there for a longer. Then we kept trying to get everyone together so that we could leave. It ended up being a mess because when one person came another left. We did eventually all get together and Connor paid for the taxi back to Murdoch. He then decided that he was going to make chicken nuggets for everyone and so Connor and Brendan made them in our flat. Carrie went home, Sam, Mini, Heath (who was working when we left), Ria, Connor and Brendan (obviously) all came over. I didn't want any chicken nuggets but I stayed out there because I wouldn't have been able to go to sleep with them out there anyway, I was too lazy to get up off the couch, and as a sociology major drunk people are very amusing!

 I'm not sure what time we got back, but by the time I got into my bed it was almost 5. It was after 5 by the time I finally fell asleep. That's why this post is about a day late. haha. I'm still exhausted because I forced myself to get up at about 12 because I have so much work to do today. 

My parents also thought that I should talk about my stats for my blog. In the past week I have had viewers from the US, South Korea, Portugal, Australia, Slovenia, Congo, Israel, and Trinidad & Tobago. It got me wanting to know more about these people from all over the world, so please feel free to leave a comment. I'm interested in knowing who reads my blog. Also, if there is anything that you want me to talk about, leave it in the comments. 


(Also, figured out how to change the date stamp so this actually says the right date on it!)

I hate when I forget the title I thought of during the day!

I set my alarm for 7:30 this morning and after hitting the snooze a few times I woke up. I wanted to get up early to work on my outline for my book review. I went on LMS to get some ideas of what to write and read the book reviews also. I then had class at 10:30. That class is so boring and I don't remember a thing that he said. Well, besides that it was something about a case study for deer and one for lizards or frogs or something. I got out  of class at 11:30, but my meeting with Michelle wasn't until 12. I went to the vending machine to get a Sprite and a Snickers and sat outside the amenities building, where her office is located, and worked some more on my outline.

At about 12, I walked over to Michelle's office. I had my meeting about my book review with her. I waited for about 10 minutes then looked to see if she was somewhere else in the Kulbardi centre, the Aboriginal studies building, but I didn't see her. Then I decided to wait another 5 minutes. Right as I was about to leave, she walks up and apologized that she was late. I guess she tried to call people to leave me a sticky note that she would be late, but no one was answering their phones. We then talked about what goes in my book review and some resources to look at to answer one of the questions in the book review. She also is giving me until Friday to turn it in, but told me to finish it before that if I can. Hopefully I can get it done sooner rather than later so that I can work on my other assignments that have due dates approaching.

When I came back, I watched the Oprah interview with JK Rowling finally. I also watched the Big Bang Theory and Mythbusters. I was in the middle of watching Vampires Suck (which, btw is hilarious!) when Carrie knocked on my window. I had texted her earlier about going to the store and she wanted to go to. She had an issue with her camera, bought a new one, then her camera started working again! She wanted to return the new one then. I've pretty much just been watching movies all night. Oh and my computer randomly decided to turn off (it didn't get unplugged or anything) so I turned it back on. I selected to start normally and everything seems fine, so I hope that means that it is!

I wish I could remember a quote from today...

I wanted to wake up early today because I had a lot to do. I set my alarm for 8:30, then hit snooze. I thought I hit it again, but turns out I turned it off! I still woke up at 10, so it wasn't horrible, but later than I wanted. I then went to get my chicken out to start cooking and went to the office to get $1 coins for the laundry and turn in my village survey. I feel like I had a pretty productive morning because I cooked my chicken, did laundry, and read my book all at the same time! I also started to load my shows while I went to MCU.

MCU common time had Rory Shiner, a pastor from a church at UWA (University of Western Australia). He talked about Singleness, Marriage, and Decision making. He talked about the passage from 1 Corinthians 7:25-40 and it was interesting. Steve also talked about a Faith and Film event coming up where they are going to watch No Country for Old Men and discuss how it relates to morality and such afterwards. Not sure if I'll go yet, though. I then went back, got my laundry, and saw one of those big lizard things that I saw the other day right outside of our flat. I had my camera this time, so I took a picture. I then finished my lunch and folded my laundry while watching Modern Family, Survivor, and Law & Order: SVU. I then had a bit of a headache, so I took an hour nap. When I woke up I saw the hangers in my closet and realized that I could make a stand for Octavius that would stay, so I did that.

I then basically read for the rest of the night with breaks for dinner, showering, and general facebook/email checking. I had an adventure with the vending machines too. I really wanted a snickers, so I went to the vending machine a few flats over. For some reason the snickers thing wasn't working and when I typed in the number it said to make another selection. I then went to another vending machine, but they didn't have snickers or anything that looked good. I then went back to the first vending machine and got tim tam fingers. They were pretty good except they were almost frozen, which I didn't like. I finished reading my book about 1/2 hour ago and now I have to read some other reviews on the book and write an outline so before my meeting with her tomorrow.

"We're not here to think; we're here to learn."

I woke up this morning and read my prelab. I then watch Glee from yesterday. After I finished reading the second part of my prelab, I went to the CIEE office to print out the questions since they are not in the lab manual. On my way to the CIEE office, I saw a cute little marsupial rat/mouse looking thing. I should really learn to bring my camera everywhere. I also saw some butterflies. :)

Lab was extremely boring today! For the first two hours we were in the lab on the laptops. We were given a data set and had to figure out information about if the population was declining and if certain factors were related to the decline. At least we were working in groups, but we had no idea what we were doing. It was one of those times that my excel skills fail me. At the end of the two hours the tutors (they are like TAs except they either are in graduate school or have their PhD already but are still pretty young) explained what we should have found. I made a statement to my group that the instructions should have been in the handout, to which one of the members of my group said the title of this post. I thought it was funny because the whole point of school is that you learn to think for yourself! The second half of lab we went down to the computer lab and Hugh walked us through the linear regression for our field study report. We used a program called SPSS, which for the people that have taken stats at Hope it is the same as PASW. We did statistics for the whole four hours. It was the worst/most boring lab I've ever done. (Well, maybe not the worst since I took a year of general chemistry and part of Orgo.)

It was so cold on my walk back that I felt like it was fall in Michigan instead of spring in Australia! I also hate not having daylight savings time. I want it to be light later, not earlier! When I got back I didn't do much. I got distracted on a virtual makeover site and have been trying different hair styles and colours on my picture to try and decide what I'll do with my hair once I cut it. I think I still have quite a few months until I can finally donate it (maybe spring break in March?). I'm also thinking about dying my hair more of an auburn/lighter brown. Ever since I realized last year how much darker my hair has gotten since I was younger I've been thinking about it. Especially with the amount of time I've been looking at old pictures.

I can't think of a title!

I'm still having trouble sleeping at night, so I decided to sleep in this morning. I skipped my first class and just listened to lectopia this afternoon. I went to my other lecture and tute, though. We finally got our first assignment back for that class, our lecturer has been sick, and I got a distinction! He hasn't finished finalizing the grades for the other assignments, but he said those should be up within the week. On the way back from class I saw a cute duck family with probably 7 ducklings walk across the side walk. It was so cute, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera.

When I came back I took a much needed nap and then watched How I Met Your Mother. I also read some, had maggi noodles for dinner, and nothing else really exciting. I'm worried that I may be starting to get sick again because I've had a cough the last few days. Now I'm just writing this so I can turn off my computer before I shower so I won't be tempted to get back on tonight.

Frank makes life better

I was extremely tired this morning since I've been having trouble falling asleep. I decided that I wasn't going to go to the lecture this morning but just listen to it online. That ended up being a mistake since the microphone for lectopia didn't work properly and the lecture wasn't recorded. To make it worse, it was a guest lecturer, which means that it won't be re-recorded. She's taking some notes from students that were there and putting them online, though.

I ended up making fries for lunch and reading my book and the article that we were supposed to read for the tute until I had the tute at 3. I also spent the time working on designs for the Quidditch team at Hope, but that's another story. I think I get too easily distracted, but I really miss Quidditch and all of my nerdy friends! At the tute we talked about the health issues, which actually interested me since that's public health and what I want to do with my life. I also talked to Michelle afterwards about my book review and she said that we can have a meeting on Friday about what to write etc. Hopefully that means that I'll get a better grade on this than the last paper!

I don't remember what I did after tute until I went to MCU village bible study at 7:30.Steve gave me a little booklet thing to learn about two ways to live boards that they have at the stalls on the market day. (Thursday and there are booths set up around bush court of different things like stores etc) There is also about 2-3 lines for each board/symbol that I am supposed to memorize. Andrea led the discussion for bible study as we talked about the next part of Colossians. Afterward, Steve said that Melinda was sick, but gave Steve some squash to give us. It is called Sunburst squash and it's really cool looking, which is why I attached a link to google images. I'm not sure how I'm going to cook it since I don't have any oil or butter, but we'll see. Maybe they'll stay good long enough for me to go to the store and buy some butter. Otherwise Frank's hot sauce makes everything better, right?

It's gonna be E.P.I.C.

It worked last night with turning off my computer, although I did find a few other things to distract me. Overall I was more productive, though. I had a really hard time sleeping last night, though. I tried sleeping different ways and even on the floor, but nothing worked. I woke up this morning sleeping on my bed facing a direction that I don't remember laying after being on the floor. Not sure how that happened, lol. I was woken up by the sun at 6:30 again, but I was way too tired to get up and read. I ended up waking at 9:30 because I set my alarm. I then read for a little bit.

At 1:30, Steve picked up Katie and me to go to St. Matthew's church for a meeting on the NTE conference and bus trip. We got some more information about what is going on and itinerary. We also found out that our mission part is in Wentworth Falls. It is about 1 hour 40 minutes from Sydney and located in the blue mountains. There is a train that goes right to the airport, which is good for Katie and me. We also found out that there is about 10 more people that want to just go over and not come back on the bus. He said that they can't afford that, so hopefully something will change for the numbers otherwise they'll have to ask some people to fly over instead and they are starting at the bottom. I only registered for the bus trip on Thursday, so I'm nervous about that. I really want to go on the bus! (Also, according to orbitz it would cost more for a flight from Perth to Canberra than it would to go both ways on the bus!) The place where the conference is at is called Exhibition Park in Canberra, abbreviated EPIC, hence the title.

When we got back I felt a little sick, so I took a nap. I woke up feeling better, but now I have a big headache again! I think I may just be hungry because I haven't really eaten anything in the past two days. I'll probably go and heat up some chicken or something for dinner and read. I'm going to turn off my computer again so that I can read. :P

Do I really need a new title everyday?

I felt really sick today so all that I did was read my book and nap for a big part of the day. I hoped to read the whole day, but I ended up sleeping most of the day. Hopefully I'll be able to stay up later to read since I slept during the day. I didn't end up eating lunch even except for some peanut butter and candy. I did eat maggi noodles for dinner, though. I am feeling a little better, so hopefully I'll be better tomorrow to read a lot and go to my meeting for the bus trip/conference at the end of the semester. I am going to shower tonight and turn off my computer before I go so that I'm not tempted when I come back and instead will actually read until I go to bed. Haha! Hopefully it will work!

I tried to publish without a title to get it on posted on the right date, but I was too late :(

This morning seems to have been a long time ago like it's been a few day. I kept wanting to wake up at like 6:30 because it was really bright outside, despite my sheet still being up with my curtains. They don't have daylight savings time here, which means that it gets really bright really early. I guess they have it in other parts of Australia, and they keep placing it on the ballot here. It is never passes, though. I forced myself to sleep more, though because I was just too lazy to get up and I didn't want to get up and then be tired during class. When I got up for class I went to check my email and open my episodes so that they could load while I was in class. Class was so boring! I feel that we don't learn anything in that class. I did come to the conclusion that I have no idea why anyone would want to be a statistician, though.

When I came back, I watched Law and Order: SVU and The Big Bang Theory while cooking chicken for lunch. It was one of, if not the, best episodes of tBBT so far! I love Shamy! I then took a nap, read some, and got caught up online again. I tagged my old pictures on facebook and went through old pictures on flickr. I also put some on facebook because it's fun to share with other people group shots, like the one of my soccer team when I was little. I didn't realize it then, but I later went to middle school with about half of them! I also tried to tag a bunch of people in our class picture from high school. It was hard because I had to cross reference with the bigger version on flickr and I couldn't remember half of the people that I knew then's names.

(As for the title, I have since figured out how to change it, so the date is right :P )

I almost forgot to blog :O

I have no classes on Thursdays. I woke up because I wanted to read, but again I fail at life and didn't end up reading. I guess I probably should find a good quiet place to study, but I don't know where since the library is loud and I don't like to study outside. I ended up watching some of Modern Family and Survivor before going to MCU, but they were taking forever to load, so I had to watch the endings when I got back.

I went to MCU common time and a man named George gave his testimony. He is from Saudi Arabia and grew up Muslim. He talked of his conversion to Christianity and the difficulties with that in Saudi Arabia. After MCU, I came back to my flat and Carrie texted me to go to the store. We went at 2:30ish, so I just went online in the meantime. I went to the post office to mail back my absentee ballot and my postcards. Hopefully they will all make their way back to the states soon. I also went to Coles and Kmart to buy groceries.

When I came back I took a nap. Not sure why, but I felt like I needed one. Then it was time for dinner and I talked to my dad about getting my plane ticket home. I finally registered for the NTE conference and I sent my registration information for the bus trip to the person on the form. He hasn't emailed me back, though. We have a meeting about it on Sunday. My dad also got me a flight home on the 13th of December. (And because I'll be going backwards in time zones I'll get home that night) That's the Monday of exam week for Hope, so I guess I won't be visiting before they leave.

For some reason I was online for the rest of the night. I think it's because I showered after my dad and I finished with the tickets and then by the time I checked my email and stuff it was too late to get anything accomplished and I got sucked into the allure of the internet. It's way worse than it has ever been before and I think it's the not having a roommate thing. It's so much easier to be motivated to study when you see someone else studying. I also somehow go to optical illusions online and have been spending too much time looking at those. Like I said, I have a problem!