Hols in Melb - The First Few Days - Pt 1

Back blogging!! I know - it's been a long while... Am in Melb at the mo!! It's freezing over here, as winter usually is over in good ol' Melb... but been eating loads of hot and yummy food, and it's great! A friend invited TY and myself as well as another friend over to have potato and leek soup as well as this chocolate cake delight and it was fantastic! He grabbed the recipes off Masterchef and his version was really really yummy!! Like Christmas in July! Hee! I need to find the time to cook like that too! Haha! But it's now the hols - been feeling lazy and thinking about having lots of fun and rest time before sem 2 starts. The fun comes from playing games on TY's iPod Touch and he recently bought me Sims 3, so been madly downloading objects for it and playing it... Games are so addictive!!

Had some enjoyment time up in the Dandenongs (the mountains) where I began appetising on potato and leek soup. Haha! I ate so much while I was up there... Also surprised TY with his bday pressie of a stunt car driving course. He did 180 handbrake spins and 360 spins, car ramp jumps and experienced driving on 2-wheels. He really had lots of fun!! Contributed to his torch pressie too which he absolutely loves and has been testing it in dark places. Glad he loves it! =)

Today, had this email from the clinical coordinator mentioning to everyone in the course about the supplementary exam (to resit the clinical practicum exam), and it seemed really harsh - how they were marking it... She said that every component of the clinical exam we did had to be correct, and if we didn't get certain parts or even one small part right, we have to resit those parts in the sup exam. That sup exam's on the 27th and I really hope I don't have to resit it cause I'd be in Melb then... If I do resit it, I'd have to rebook my flights... One of my classmates already received an email saying he flunked 3 units of the course and cannot continue the course. When he told me, I became really anxious, cause for one of the units, we practiced together and he knew a lot then, so if he flunked it, I wonder what I got... I just need to hope and pray really hard that I don't have to resit the exam, or any exams for that matter!! I haven't received any bad news email yet, and I don't plan to... Always so stressful having to go into my uni mail, thinking there may be an email such as that... Results are out next week, and I am hoping it'd be okay, but it just gives me tummy rumbles just thinking about it.

I just received another email with my sem 2 timetable and class group members, which adds to more stress. I'm fortunate to have really good group members actually (well, they seem to be)... but the timetable is pretty scary - it's more intense than last sem's and I'm just dreading it... Now with only 24 of us (that I know of) within the course, from the 29 that we first had, there seems to be greater competition and it's quite scary... These emails are really making me feel guilty and I think I should start reading up for sem 2 soon...

I probably should try not to think about it and try and enjoy the hols while it lasts. Gonna try to catch up with Gossip Girl actually... I was watching it quite faithfully before I got to Melb and stopped for a while... When I think back on my life dramas and Gossip Girl, there are similar relations (not to the extent of the drama in Gossip Girl that makes you really frustrated), but it makes me think that perhaps one day, I'd write a Gossip Girl XOXO journal-type book. I think it'd be cool!

Tomorrow, TY's taking me on a date. Hee! *grin and shy smile* We haven't done something special in a while and thought it'd be nice to do something like that. It'd be really sweet - looking forward to it! Then on the weekend, it's out with a few peeps! =) Yum cha twice in a row!! Hee hee! But it's out in the burbs and should be good fun!

The Semester Coming to an End

So the main theory exams are over and I have one practical exam left on the Thurs. Don't really need to study it much because it's a pract. But I have to have the correct techniques etc to pass. So hopefully I do... It's a hurdle as well. If not, I have to be back on 27 Jul to sit a supplementary.

Back in Melb from 4 Jul - Independance Day... and then back to Syd on the 16th to work on the weekend, and then on 20th, back to Melb again till 31st. But of course, if I fail the pract exam, I'll need to head back after that. I wasn't nervous about that pract exam until now... And my first two exams, I was quite stressed, but surprisingly, I was quite calm about the paper during both theory exams. I think I did enough to pass - well, hopefully... but I had a little smile on my face after, which is usually rare after exams... So overall, it was good I guess. Just have to wait for final results. And right now, have to try to make use of the university simulators to practice for the exam...

Can't believe one semester is nearly over!! Am looking forward to semester two - sort of - because there are two units involving pediatrics and I quite like that specialty... but there are a lot more assignments... hmmm... doesn't always come with the best of both worlds... But after this semester, have to enjoy hols... hee!

A Slow and Stressful Studying Process...

It's been so crazy lately... everyone in my course is saying that this course has given you no life. We can't believe that for each unit this year, we had about 5 assignments due for each... and someone had a look at next semester, and it's doubled! I feel like I'm going insane.

I just completed two major assignments last week - one essay and one portfolio. In fact, I just handed them in yesterday. And am now starting to study for the exams. I actually have two papers next week - one on Wed and one on Sat. Not sure how much will stick in my brain, but hopefully, I can pull it off. There's so much to learn and so much to cram... and I haven't had lots of sleep... so yeah, the lifestyle right now is not at its best. I can't wait for the exams to be all over... but right now, there's not much time. Know the feeling when you have butterflies in your tummy and feel really kanjong? I'm kinda feeling that right now... but I know I just have to pray and try my best. Have to attempt those dreaded past exam papers too... Just trying to write and compile my exam notes for the two units - just want to finish it by this weekend if I can.

I was going to head to Singapore in June for my friend's wedding, but work says they might not approve my leave. That's one reason for foregoing my flights... Another reason is that my mum is kinda paranoid about the swine flu crisis, especially since she knows people being held up at the airport, that she reckons I just shouldn't go down. So right now, I have nothing planned for June except for work... Might have to catch up with social life then before semester 2 of uni starts. But right now, I need prayers for the exams and to be able to register all/most of the stuff that I'll be studying.

An Awesome Time in Melb

After my tiring placement up in Newcastle, it was a good change to be in Melb for about 1.5 weeks. My Melb trip made me miss Melb a lot and I didn't really feel like leaving. Despite the monstrous number of assignments I had to do while in Melb, I still had quite a bit of opportunity to hang with TY, relax, go out, eat nice food and mingle.

While TY was at work, used that time to work on my assignments, and rewarded myself later in the evening for relaxation and outings, and catch up with a few friends. Really miss all that... It was pretty tough though having my parents around, especially my mum who doesn't work and constantly wanted to meet up during the afternoons. But I had assignments and sometimes parents just don't understand why you need so much time to do them. My parents keep saying "can't I do it at night?", or "it's been two days, haven't you finished it yet?" For those still studying or have studied before, you guys know that two days for a 3000 word assignment is never enough... although I did manage to pull the 3000 word assignment in two days while I was in Melb, with all my research pre-done. Not sure how I'd go though... Just crossed my fingers and prayed as I put it through electronic submission.

Now back in Syd and having to tackle assignments. I have one due Mon and then Tues-Fri, on my second clinical placement. I also have a 1000 word clinical essay due Fri but probably can't do that while am on placement... Hopefully I get these two essays out of the way and done by the weekend... but working Sat. So the plan at the moment is to try and work on my Mon essay tomorrow morning (Sat) before work, work on it a bit after work, work on it on Sun after church. Then try to get my Fri essay finished by Mon... It's due at 9am on the Mon! This way, I can concentrate on preparing for my placement on the Tues.

Quite nervous about my 2nd placement, cause that's at my uni clinic. I have this thought that because it's the uni clinic, they would be more strict on you, because they know what you should be capable of. But all the more that I have to impress them... It's kinda good that I have a laid-back clinical e-d-u-c-a-t-o-r (everyone says he's real easy to work with)... but I still feel that I shouldn't have high hopes. What if he ends up to be really cranky that week? Just hoping it all goes well... And the worse bit is that my exam dates are out! 10th and 13th June! And my last assignment is due 5th June! They don't give you that much time to study, do they? Anyway, please pray for me!! And that I remember all that I can - everything that I will be studying prior to the exams!

So Little Time, So Much to do!!

7 assignments, 2 clinical assessment port folios, 3 exams! This is all due by mid June believe it or not!

Real people, real clients, real cases - haha, that's my little slogan for next week when going up to Newcastle. You might remember a similar phrase from Judge Judy: "The people are real, the cases are real, the court is real" - something like that anyway... Not that I watch Judge Judy, but sometimes it comes on when I'm having lunch, and I seem to remember the slogan. Hee hee!

I have to admit I am a little nervous, but really excited as well to be going to Newcastle for my clinical placement. It would be a nice change from the real Sydney life to a bit of surfer/bogan life... And hopefully it'd be a good experience. There is one food thing I'll be looking forward to almost every day and that's Cold Rock! It's awesome! And after TY and I made a little mesh with the ice-cream flavours, the flavour we made was the best!! Sorry guys, it's a secret ingredient... hee hee!

Straight after Newcastle, I'm onward-bound to Melbourne! Hopefully I won't have to embrace the cold wintry blast... I'd be there for a week, but will have to do the assignments while TY works... Maybe I'll put up at Melb uni's library cause I need to use a printer and scanner somehow... I wonder if the State Library has a printer and scanner.. hmmm... I might also be able to stay longer than 16 May... I initially planned 16 May cause I had a manual submission of an assignment on 18 May, but I think now I can just email it. So might be able to stay a few more days extra... and then have to be back for another placement!

Need to finish this assignment and start packing maybe, and then start on another assignment!

I'm Back!!

Am back blogging! Reason: It's just been insanely, absurdly, crazy, intense since I started uni. At week 5 of my course, I already felt like I had an information overload - the study workload I was handling was crammed into a few weeks and there was just so much. I've done a Masters coursework in E-d-i-t-i-n-g and P-u-b-l-i-s-h-i-n-g but it wasn't like this. This Masters is really tedious and tiring. It's a great course and it's really fun when you end up doing the practs, but it really drains you too.

I had an a-n-a-t-o-m-y and p-h-y-s-i-o-l-o-g-y quiz not long ago and I flunked it! Imagine! But quite a few did as well. I just felt really stupid after that. Then again, I've never done any a-n-a-t-o-m-y and p-h-y-s-i-o-l-o-g-y at all... closest would be bio in high school.

Today in the same subject, we had this a-c-o-u-s-t-i-c-s quiz and I feel I did a lot better - I definitely know I passed this one so hopefully it'd pull my mark up from the other one. I was more confident too which is good - hopefully... I did check my answers with others after and I already know I did a few careless calculations and using the wrong formulas, but both quizes are worth 10% each so I guess it's not too bad.

Tomorrow's the start of the long Easter weekend - it's not really gonna be a relaxing one, cause I have a clinic exam after Easter and a major essay due on the Tues. And on the Fri, I have a report and presentation due too. So it's church Fri morn and then essays. Then Sat working. And Sun, it'd be church and essays.

In fact, with the sem break, my course might be the few in uni who have classes next week and only have the long weekend off - everyone else in uni has next week off - their mid-sem break - and unfortunately we don't get the break. But I guess it makes up for it because when we are on placements, we don't actually have classes, only clinics. We each get 2.5 weeks worth of placements. I've got two placements - one in Newcastle (Aust) for a week and the other at the uni clinic... The placement in Newcastle is about 2 hrs drive from my home and I had to come up with quite a fair bit of $ for a decent accommodation because the cheap ones were all taken.

There's actually a whole month without classes before the exams, and only 2.5 weeks of placements, so I'll be heading down to Melb sometime in May to spend time with TY. I've still got assignments due during that period, so I'll definitely be working on them when TY is working during the day, then the night's free to do whatever. Might visit Melb Uni's library to do my assignments there... I dunno why, but I seem to be more productive in the lib nowadays... but looking forward to going to Melb again.

Pretty nervous about my placement because I need to write reports and be able to deal with clients and do the testings right so hopefully all goes well. And I definitely need work outfits before placements start... But my main worry now is to get through my clinical exam on the Tues. It'd be on a simulator, but please pray for me that I can do well in it and that I have His strength and focus. Thanks guys! Am going to have a relaxing and quiet night today especially after the a-c-o-u-s-t-i-c-s test, then tomorrow it's church and back to the study.

Finally a Day Off

I had a day off yesterday - finally - after a long week or rather, weeks of classes... but didn't end up doing anything productive. I was really wanting to finish this reflection report but didn't get my head around to it and started watching at least 2 episodes of Desperate Housewives. Then towards late afternoon, I managed to organise my folders and sorted out recent lecture notes. I thought that might get me started into the whole studying thing, but it didn't really - I saw that I had Smallville shows, and ended up watching at least 3 episodes. So yes, it was a very unproductive, unconstructive day. And then it was church time. I visited Hillsongs, it was the young adults service that I went to, and my verdict - overwhelming! Actually, it was too overwhelming, and in the beginning, it was a little scary because we were supposed to have a bbq in church and halfway during our trip to church, they said now it's at someone's house. And right after, we didn't know where our bus went, so everyone just said to get into any car that we could get into, to go to Hillsongs. So that was a bit strange. It was a Brazilian bbq, so it wasn't too bad though, and the people were nice. Everyone was just really noisy and you felt like you were back in high school. Haha! Well, we got to church and the service hadn't started yet, and there were all these young uni students in their early 20s who were bopping around and doing mosh pits. The music was ultra loud and it seemed like a clubbing scene. Plus some of the worship songs were just really club-like - lots of jumping and screaming... But I guess if that's the way they feel God and the way they will grow, then it's great. But for myself, I think the loud pumping hyper music might take a bit of the focus away. I don't mind some really happy "jumping" songs, but others are a bit much personally like the whole b-boy rap they were doing in the beginning on a Christian song. I think I still prefer my quiet reflective moments with God - just helps me focus on Him more. I wasn't expecting a few things, especially during worship and before and after the services, so it was a little of an eye-opener, but the message was really powerful and good. But if it were a non-Christian, I think they'd just say yes to God anyway, because of the fun and entertainment they had... and that can always be dangerous... So in my quest to look for a church, I think I need something in between Wesley and Hillsongs and I haven't quite found it yet... There was a shuttle from the church back to the shopping mall near my place, and I got back about 10.30pm. Good thing my morn class today was cancelled otherwise I'd have to get up really early and usually I sleep by 10:30.

Woke up today feeling really bad because I had such an unproductive day yesterday, but hopefully tonight will be better and I get to do a bit of my reflective assignment. I am attempting to finish it off tomorrow! Crossing fingers and toes!!

At least some time last week, I managed to catch Confessions of a Shopaholic with my coursemates. It was good, although it doesn't prevent you from shopping, it actually makes you want to shop. I do wish I had a lot of cash to shop though... And my coursemates and I, because we are Macq Uni students, we got upgraded to the Silverscreen for free! And we were the only ones in the cinema. It was pretty awesome. Also when TY was down, we managed to catch Watchmen. It was alright actually... a bit draggy I felt... and I was wanting something more light-hearted, but it was actually quite dramatic, so a little bit of a disappointment... I still wanna catch more movies, but there's just no time for anything with this course!!