Top End different from the Bottom End?

Okay, first off, I will be posting photos from the post-exam activities when I get the photos from the different people that were dangerous enough to have cameras that night.

It is Saturday of the weekend before uni starts up again, and I am not ready to get back to it. It feels as if the holidays has just started. Oh well, I knew that this is what I was getting myself into.

Like many other people that in my course, I had to leave Brisbane to get refocussed to remind myself that there is a world outside of medical school. So, I headed up to Darwin. Why Darwin? Well, why not? :) One of my goals (and I think that I've already mentioned it before in another posting) whilst in medical school is to have visited every state capital and Canberra. After this year, I will have been to all of them except Canberra and Hobart. Liam and I are thinking of doing a trip down to Canberra and Hobart, which would be too cool!

So, what to say about Darwin? Well, it's quite a small place, in fact, it's the smallest capital of all the states. It's a lively, modern place with a youthful, easy-going lifestyle. And at times, it can feel quite cosmopolitan. However, the city has its unique ways of making people realise that it was, and still is to some extent, a frontier town. To put Darwin in perspective, it is closer to Singapore and Jakarta, than it is to Sydney and Canberra, respectively.

Okay, enough of the geography lesson. I came up to Darwin to see some friends who are completing their medical rotations at the Royal Darwin Hospital; Ruth is there doing a portion of her paediatrics rotation. Also, I (along with Lou, Pat and Anna) am thinking of doing my internship at the Royal Darwin Hospital. It's probably the best place in the country to be doing tropical medicine/infectious disease due to the tropical climate, large indigenous and tourist population, high amount of trauma, catchement areas which covers the whole Top End of Australia and into South East Asia. After the Bali bombings in October 2002 and 2005, injured Australians were evacuated to the RDH. In fact, it was the sole initial receiving hospital for the Bali victims. The RDH acted as the advanced receiving hospital in Australia's largest-ever offshore disaster requiring urgent evacuation.

I still have a couple of years left before deciding on where I would like to do my internship and the visit to Darwin just made the Top End seem a little more real. :)

My time was really focussed on relaxing and enjoying the time with Ruth and friends (Mandivavarira, Sarah, Mel, Leah, Brett - thank you for such a great time!). The first day there was spent walking and seeing every (and I mean every) street in Darwin city. I bought a book called "Why Warriors Lie Down and Die" by Richard Trudgen. Trudgen goes into great detail describing the difficulties the Yolngu people (an indigenous group within the Arnhem Land) have in understanding the medical and health workers who support them.
This applies in reverse, as the doctors and nurses have difficulty in understanding the aboriginal attitude to health issues. It is in this area that the real work of this book becomes important. Reading it whilst being up there, really drove home a number of points regarding the interactions of health professionals with indigenous people and how language and social construct are crucial in trying to promote and empower the health status of these people. Okay, I digress. Here are some photos that I took within the city:


This is a photo of the Australian, Northern Territoriy, Aboriginal and the Torres Striat Islanders flags.













This is the State House, which looks like one of two things: 1. A house from New Orleans that has been given a huge amount of steroids and 2: a very large wedding cake (a la Ruth).











This is the remnant of the old Town Hall, which was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy. She built up over December 24, 1974 and by midnight her winds began to reach their full fury. At her peak wind speeds were as high as 280 km/hour! Of Darwin's 11,200 buildings, 50%-60% were destroyed. Only 400 survived relatively intact.







Here is an example of some of the artwork that one can find along the wharf, along a pathway called Traveller's Walk.











That night I cooked dinner for Ruth, Sarah, Mel and Mandivavarira and we drank lots of wine and scotch & dry. :) Yummy. The weekend was filled with walking through the Parap Village and Nightcliffemarkets during the day, all of them have great foods from all the different ethnic communities that have settled in Darwin; Ruth and I ate till our heart's desire. Ruth and I went to see one of her friend's play in a music concert that was held in Darwin city. It was the first day of the Sounds of New Music festival. The concert was held in three different places and each place had a different aspect of how indigenous and Western themes are incorporated. After that, we went to a fantastic little place called the Moorish Cafe. It was a littel pricey, as our meals consisted mainly of tapas and some beautiful wine. The next day, we met up with Brett for a cup of great coffee at the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. It was fantastic (both the coffee and the museum). After that we headed down to Mindil Beach market to eat some fantastic crepes and drink good fruit juice. Being full from the food and drinks, we waddled our way down towards to the city to the Deckchair Cinema to watch Veer-Zaara, a Bollywood film that was being shown as the opening for a weeklong Indian Culture festival. Ruth and I nearly died from the opening act, which was a god awful magic show that went on and on. There was a point that I could no longer watch and went to the back to get me some beer, Taj Mahal beer to be exact. The movie was good (I had seen it before) and it was nice to do a very familiar activity with Ruth, as we used to watch Bollywood films in Calgary. Ruth pointed out to me that I haven't put any photos of her on my blog, which is quite true! So, here are some photos of Ruth:
















Here's an old photo of the two of us. It was taken at a Christmas Party at my parents' house in Calgary.

















The weekend came to an end and I still had yet to see any of the things outside of Darwin. Many people use Darwin as a pit stop before heading out to some of the national parks like Kakadu and Litchfield. I booked myself for a day tour to Litchfield National Park and, boy, was I not disappointed! I was picked up early in the morning and met the other 9 people that were in the my group. We did introductions and had to say our name, where we are from, and what we do (working/studying/travelling/etc). So, I was the first one to go and gave them all my particulars. When it came to info about studying, I just told the group that I was studying at the University of Queensland. Then I was asked what I was studying and I told them 'health'. And they prodding some more and finally I told them that I was studying medicine. I really hate telling people that I do study medicine because it instantly changings their preceptions of me and proceed to ask me heaps of questions about things that their GP should be answering. Regardless, we headed down to the Adelaide River to see some river wildlife, namely the saltwater crocodiles.


Here, I'm holding a snake named Monty (he's a python, yes a clever name). I was also telling some people about a story that my Ba (grandmother) told me when I was young about how she had a worker how had tied a goat to his wrist. He fell asleep under a tree and when he awoke, the goat was gone but he was tied to a python!













As you can see, we were quite close to the crocs. However, we were still a safe distance that it wouldn't be able to launch itself into the vessel.








Hmm..no, crocs don't just out of the water to frolick with the sun. There was a person on the boat that had meat tied to a stick to entice the animals to jump out of the water. Apparently, crocs will jump out of the water to catch prey like brids who swoop down to the water's surface to catch fish.














After seeing the crocodiles and avaian life along the Adelaide River, we headed down to Litchfield National Park. Our first stop was to see these massive termite mounds. The one that is in the picture is an example of a cathedral termite mount. I should have stood beside this to give you all a perpsective of how tall this really is. If you can make out the three holes in the bottom middle of the structure, then that is how tall I am (170 cm). It takes 10 years for these to grow one metre. Brutal.










These termite mounds are very unique in that they are called magnetic terminte mounds because the terminte is buit in a north-south fashion, which aligns with the earth's magnetic field! So, in the morning, the sun hits the east face of the mount, warming it up. At midday, the sun is overhead and only shines light to the thin ridge exposed, keeping the structure cool. In the late afternoon and evening, the sun is shining on the west wall, warming up the structure for the night. If the mound is built misaligned, then the termites within perish. Brutal. Also, this was the place that I tasted green ants. I didn't eat them, but rubbed their green back body portion on my tongue. It tastes like lemon-lime. There were also honey ants that you could suck their honey as well! They were very tasty. The aboriginal community that lives in the national park (the Commonwealth has leased the park from them) uses them for antiseptic and to satiate their sweet tooth, respectively.

After the termite mounds, we headed off to Florence Falls, which is one of 4 waterfalls in the park. This is where my day went from exciting to OHMIGOD what the fuck am I doing to great again. :)










































I was about to head into the water for a quick swim, when I hear, "help!" I see this guy pull this girl out from the water and she looks like shit. Apparently, she got caught in the strong undercurrents, which pulled her under and she was drowning. Immediately, my brain went into DRABC (Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation). A person from my group beckoned me, I told the guy that I am a medical student. I told him to put his friend on a towel in an area that didn't have any sharp rocks or anything. Then I checked to see if she was responding, by tapping her on her clavicle and doing a sternal rub. There was no response...I felt as if I wsas going to shit my pants! I thrusted her head back to make sure that her airways are clear and then checked her breathing and her pulse. She wasn't breathing and her pulse was really weak - FUCK! I called out to our tour leader and told him to call on his satellite phone if there are any doctors in the near area. I started rescue breathing (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation). Finally, I heard this voice, "I'm a doctor, what's the situation". I told him what was going on, "teenage girl, non responding to external stimulus and not breathing and weak pulse; I've started rescue breathing". Instead of him taking over, he told me to keep continuing what I was doing. I was like, "are you fucking kidding me?!?!" Anyways, what seemed like an eternity, the girl finally started coughing and I put her up into a forward sitting position. Wow - the power that knowledge has on people. I stayed around a little bit to make sure that the girl was okay and I chatted with the doctor. He was on holidays with his family from Western Australia. He aksed me about where I was studying and in what year. He told me that if it weren't for me (and if there was no one else that knew how to do CPR), the girl would have died. Then and there, I felt revitalised about studying medicine and knowing that in the end, you are indeed saving lives.

After that, we headed on a little hike to another part of the partk and made our way back to our van. On the way back to Darwin, we stopped in this small little hamlet on the outskirts of the park. My group bought me some celebratory drinks and I knew that that was the first time that many of them saw a brown person blushing. We headed home after that and I spent my last evening with Ruth, Mandi, Sarah and Leah. It's absolutely incredible to know that everywhere you can go, you can always be sure to have good friends that treat you like family.

Darwin, anyone?

There was an exam last night?!

I'M DONE!
The exam finished at 8:56pm and I am so glad that that is over. I reckon that I passed; however, you can never be certain with the School of Medicine. There were questions that seemed to insult my intelligence and then there were some questions that came from left field, for example, a question on chocolate ice cream sundaes.

After that, some people headed back to Lou's place for some wine and sandwiches (I didn't have any dinner prior to the exam), got changed and headed down to M's LUDO. It was great night! Able to have awesome conversations that didn't cirrhosis or supraventricular arrhythmias as the subject. After LUDO, I went to a house party (god, it's been ages since I had been to a house party) and had some interesting coversations with people (granted alcohol was the source of this 'interesting'). After a little while, Leanne and I decided to go to the Casino. I hate casinos...I really don't see the point in it. However, I've never been to the Conrad Treasury before and thought to myself, "why the hell not". It wasn't any spectacular...looked like a 2nd tier casino that you would find in Vegas. I got home at 7am. The sun was out. I hate going to bed when it's light. Fortunately, I still have the night mask that QANTAS gives out on their TransPacific flights. :)

It's 1:30pm now and I've the whole day to chill and to catch up on all the things that I've wanted to do that I couldn't in the last little while. There are plans of people going out tonight. Perhaps there will be a continuation of the post-exam parties...

Exam? There's an exam?!

It's Monday morning and my midyear exam is tomorrow in approximately 31.5 hours. Yeah, I'm not counting down. This time last year, I was so stressed out. I remember having to go get some medication refilled and the GP wanted to take my bloodpressure (this is after him finding out that I am a med student and that my exam was coming up). My blood pressure was 150/90. For most people that is a set of numbers that mean really nothing. Usually, my BP is around 120/80 (usually lower). And this year, I've decided to screw the BP checks and make sure that I dont' drink as much coffee (only 1-2 cups per day and some days I'll even go without a cuppa), and not stress too much about things that I can't necessarily control.

So, where is the post going? Well, tomorrow is my midyear exam and even though I've looked at all the notes that I've made, gone through majority of the past exam papers, gone through the work that my study group has produced, I'm still not feeling satisfied about my knowledge base for the exam. If I fail (last year, 60% of the 2nd year cohort failed the exam), then I know that it's not the end of the world, because the midyear is an internal assessment. The end of year finals and MSAT are what the med school uses to determine whether you can go on to 3rd year. It's odd considering that the same thing happened in undergrad. There were some courses that I just do absolutely awful (read: organic chemistry) on the midterms but then pull something no less than a miracle on the finals.

So, about this exam...yeah. I'm over it. Here's to after the exam! There is an afterparty at M's lounge (LUDO). It will be nice to hang out with people and not feel guilty for doing so. I tell you, there is only so much guilt a person can handle. Also, I can finally do things that I've put off for such a long time - go out with mates, do some much needed shopping (i.e. to iPOD or not to iPOD) and have time to myself without having to worry about the mechanism of pathophysiology of pud's disease or something. :)

Off again!

WOO HOO!

I’ve just paid off my ticket to Europe! I’m going over for my brother’s wedding, at least that’s the main purpose of the trip. The main event will be held in my future sister-in-law’s home town of Uppsala, which is Sweden; a week later, there will be an Indianised reception in Leicester, UK. The UK reception will be unique because it will be the reception of two couples. One of my cousins in the UK (who is the same age as my brother) just got married last week and so instead of having a reception where only parts of the family can come, they thought that they could ‘tag-team’ it was my brother’s so that more of the family (if not all) will be able to make it.

I still have to get approval from the SOM. Regardless of what they say, I’m still coming – don’t you worry. They are being extremely particular about this whole process. Another friend of mine is going to Canada for two weddings and the SOM didn' t require any documentation from her. Meanwhile, I have to provide the kankotari (Indian wedding invitations) for proof that the wedding and receptions are indeed occurring on the dates that I’ve already indicated. The SOM has a policy, which states: “blah blah blah”. Yeah, it's really that important.

I’ll be arriving in Paris on August 17th (so for those of you in and around Paris, make sure to dust off the good shoes and wine glasses because Veevek is ready to paint the town red!). I’ll be in London for my 27th birthday and fly off to Stockholm that same day. I guess I will be able to say that I’ve been able to celebrate my birthday is two different countries! Now that's something that I can cross of the list of things to have done in my life.

I’ll be in Sweden near the end of August and then I’ll be off to the UK to partake in a massive immersion with the Thankey family. I can’t wait! The last time that everyone (and I mean everyone from my father's side) was together was when my grandfather passed away in 1991. At least this time, it will be for a much happier and joyous occasion. There have been two new additions to the family since 1991. On a completely different note, I hope that my two cousins from Germany are able to come. Since the Thankey Clan is quite spread out (37 people living in 4 countries, three continents), so it takes a pretty big occasion to bring everyone together. And as I wrote before, due to the fact that my brother and cousin are actually having a joint reception, there should be no reason for any family member to be absent.

After the celebrations and pomp in the UK, I’ll be heading off to Helsinki, Finland for the World Congress of the International Physician for the Prevention of Nuclear War (http://www.ippnw2006.org). One of my best friends, Ruth, will also be there. So, if there are any of you out there that have been to Finland before, then please do let me know what the hot spots in Helsinki are in terms of eating, drinking, shopping and nightlife.

hmmm...It's 6 June 2006. Whatever. My thoughts have been wound up tight over my upcoming midyear exam. It's only 3 hours (from 17h45 to 20h45) and covers the last 18 weeks, including whatever topics that might have been touched upon in first year. I'm not particularly worried about the exam - I just want to do well enough. Speaking of the devil, I need to get back to it. Today is all about respiratory pathology and then a subtle handover to gastrointestinal and metabolism will happen at some point today. Hmmm...there is also skin pathology that I do need to go over as well, not to mention ethics, population/public health and some past exam papers. Ahhh...what you can do in a week's time. :)

Medical Specialty Aptitude Test

A friend emailed me a Web site for the University of Virginia's Health System. More specifically, the link took me to where I can take a online test to see which medical specialty I am suited for. I've always been interested in paediatrics and infectious disease.

My top 5 were:
1. paediatrics
2. infectious disease
3. rheumatology
4. obstetrics & gynaecology
5. nephrology

Interesting...

Now, that I'm on this blog, I might as well give an update. :) Well, I've decided where I will be spending my week holiday. I'll be going to the tropical destination of Darwin! Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory. Some people might be asking, "why are you going there?!" Well, there are a few reasons. One of my goals whilst being in medical school is to have travelled to all the state capitals and Canberra. So, going to Darwin makes some progress in that area. Since I am interested in infectious disease, Darwin is one of the best places in Australia to go and learn about it, as it is quite close to Asia and the tropical climate that it is 'blessed' with. It would be an interesting place to do my internship there (and I've been told by a number of people that they would see me doing tropical medicine and being in Darwin). The most important reason is that one of my best friends, Ruth, will be there as well. She is completing her paediatrics rotation up at the Royal Darwin Hospital; also, a number of her friends, that I became friends with when I went to Adelaide last year, are also doing their clerkship up there. It will be a great reward for completing my exam, which will be finished in 1 week and 1 hour from now. So much stuff left to revise...slowly but surely (or at least that is what I keep telling myself).

Alright, back to the books. This time, I'm starting cardiovascular...anyone up for learning about arrhythmias? :)

Veevek. A member of the rural community?

This past weekend, a group of 30 or so allied health students (most of them which were medical students) went on a day trip to Toowoomba to visit Toowoomba Hospital and a local winery. The trip was hosted by an organisation called Towards Rural & Outback Health Professional in Queensland (TROHPIQ).


This is a photo of Rob and Leanne highlighting the entrance of Toowoomba Hospital's A&E.














When we got there, we had a couple of workshops. The first one was all about plastering, which was too cool! I know of friends that are in med school in Calgary were able to do this in their first year. I was quite envious of them but then I realised that I didn't sign up for this sort of workshops in first year (silly billy gilly I am).







After the plastering we were taken out to see the student accommodations. These accommodations are for the MBBS III and IV that come out to do their entire year's worth of rotations at Toowoomba. Students are eligible to do an entire year at a rural place, such as Toowoomba, Hervey Bay-Maryborough, Bundaberg, and Rockhamptom. The accommodations were quite basic, which isn't a bad thing. However, the bad thing about them what that the kitchen sucked! It was very simple, it had: a sink, small fridge and a microwave oven. The only thing that came close to a stove was a mobile hot plate. Shudder.


After that, we came back to the hospital to partake in the last workshop, which was on suturing. It was quite difficult to get the technique in the beginning but once you have a handle on it, it's pretty fun! Here's a picture of a pig hock with sutures a la Veevek. :)














After the suturing workshop, we headed to another very rural place called Oakey, which made Toowoomba look very large. We had a bbq at the house of one of the rural doctors who works with the Rural Clinical Schools. After that we headed to a quaint little winery. This was the first time that I've been to a winery in Australia. It was a good experience to taste all the different types of wine and know what you like and don't like. I ended up buying three bottles of their Classic Red. They were quite cheap and there is something to be said about supporting local wine industries as opposed to the very big names. This place also had herbal wines and were called IQ, White Satin, Buddy, Gee Spot, and Bedtime Bliss. Leanne bought a bottle of the IQ, and will be making its debut appearance at Claire's birthday, which is on Friday. They didn't taste bad at all; however, those wines would have been great as a conversation piece at a dinner party. I wasn't in the mood to do that, well at least not for the next 3 weeks.

Rob took this photo...I like it. See those cool sunnies that I 've on, yeah, they broke yesterday. Stupid big head.












So, here's the thing, I would love to go rural next year. Why? Because most international medical graduates end up getting slotted into rural internships and many of the already trained doctors that are coming into Australia are going to rural places. In 3rd and 4th year, UQ medical students are eligible to do one entire year in a rural location (Toowoomba, Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and Rockhampton). This programme is actually a federally funded programme, which means that international students get the shaft. The perks of going 'rural' is that accommodation is free and you are given a small amount of money for relocation. As international students you aren't given any of that. We can go but only if there are spots left. If it turns out that there are spots available, then we aren't able to stay in the student accommodations (which I sure wouldn't because I want a proper kitchen!), meaning that we would have to pay rent and we wouldn't get any funding towards relocation. This would also mean that the house that I've in Brisbane would have to be subletted or I would just not renew my lease, which would mean that I would have to look for a new place when I came to Brisbane. Ahhh...the decisions. But before embarking on those thoughts, I need to get back to revising for this blasted midyear exam.

Here's a photo that will hopefully tie you over until the next one...

Va, Vis et Deviens

Go, Live and Become...

That is the movie that I saw last night with Liam at the UQ Schneoll Theatre. The movie starts in the early 1980s in Sudan.

The movie begins in 1985 when Mossad, with considerable assistance from the United States, ran the clandestine Operation Moses to airlift thousands of starved and persecuted Ethiopian Jews to Israel from refugee camps across the border in Sudan. These dark-skinned 'indelible immigrants', to use a term coined by historian Daniel Boorstin, known as the Falasha, are still not fully assimilated into Israeli society. The nine-year-old hero and his widowed Christian mother, last survivors of a family destroyed by famine and war, are at the same camp. When the small son of a Falasha widow dies shortly after being accepted for transportation, she agrees to take the Gentile boy in his place and she gives him the name Solomon, or Schlomo.

His mother bids him farewell with the words that gives the film its title: 'Go. Live. Become.' 'Go' is the urgent instruction to find security in Israel. 'Live' is her counsel to seize a sudden chance to survive and prosper. 'Become' is more problematic, and the movie is constantly alert to what it means in a world of emigration and immigration, asylum seeking and economic migration, where identities are assumed, imposed, blurred and recreated.

The opening section is full of suspense and danger. Can Schlomo convince the Israeli authorities that he's a Jew? Immediately before his interrogation on Israeli soil, a boy a few years older has his cover blown and is roughly escorted from the reception hall, shoved into a car and driven away to be repatriated. Schlomo gets by, but his ailing surrogate mother dies. He's adopted by a kindly Sephardic Franco-Israeli couple, extremely well played by French actor Roschdy Zem and celebrated Israeli actress Yael Abecassis.

These foster-parents, left-wing, semi-secular Jews who initially think the newcomer has been raised in the orthodox faith, draw the boy out and encourage their son and daughter to make him welcome. They represent much of what is best in the state of Israel and protect him from the prejudice, some of it truly ferocious, to which the Falasha are exposed.

The years pass, Schlomo takes on a new identity, has a Romeo and Juliet-style love affair with a Jewish girl, works on a kibbutz, experiences the tensions engendered by the Gulf War and the intifadas and, as part of his journey of discovery, attempts to contact his mother. The years Schlomo spends studying medicine in Paris, when he becomes aware of how he might transcend his problems and give practical assistance to his native Ethiopia.

The last scene of the movie is that he is at the same refugee camp and whilst he was handing out pens to kids, he sees this face half-covered by a shawl. He drops whatever he was holding and walks towards the seated figure, gazing into her eyes. He recognises his mother's eyes, squats down and calls to her. They hug and his mother then lets out this haunting moan.

It was an awesome film...go and watch it.

Finally!

Finally, someone from outside my "med" world has visited me in Brisbane! My very good friend, Stephanie, came for a week and we had a blast! I've know Stephanie ever since I got back from doing an exchange at the University of Malta. We bonded over quite quickly and it seems as if we have been friends for ages.

S0, Stephanie came to Brisbane to start off her one month sojourn of Australia. Even though my midyear exam is only a few weeks away, I thought that I 'needed' another mini holiday in order to give the appropriate attention to Steph and also to recharge myself.

We did a number of things in the shortwhile that she was here. The first day she arrived, both her and I went to Mount Coot-tha (which in one of the Aboriginal languages means "place of honey"), which the highest point in Brisbane and you can see over the city and, if you are lucky, the islands off the coast.

The next day, we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which is one of the few places left in Australia that you can actually hold a koala. However you have to pay to get your photo taken with it and the time that it takes for one of the handlers to place the koala in your hand and then position it so that its face is facing the camera. CLICK. Koala goes back to the handler. Apparently, they don't like to be handled. Go figure.

And they are very cute. We saw so many of them - bachelors, breeding females, year olds, and those that were suited for retirement.
















We also saw other Australian animals such as kangaroos, wallabies and, our favourite, the southern hairy-nosed wombat.

































Steph and I also took a trip down to Byron Bay, which is considered of on the quintessential beaches in Australia. Not only that but it is the most easterly point on the Australian mainland. We stayed in one of the many backpacker's hostels and had a great time! We both concluded that Byron Bay was the Australian equivalent of Banff, Canada. It seemed like a hippy-esque/new age sort of place with a huge kick of surfing subculture. There were tourists everywhere; I reckon that if I were living there, I would get sick of things real fast.

My friend Lou gave us some great suggestions for eating and hiking down there. We went hiking in Broken Head Nature Reserve, which was absolutely breathtaking! Here's what I mean:





This is White's Beach. Steph and I climbed down some pretty steep terrain in the hopes of making it there. Alas, there was a large chasm between the rocks separating this beach and Craig's Beach, which was were we ended up.


























































This was taken at Craig's Beach. Here's a photo of our shadows. And in the sand I wrote, "Steph & Veevek, Broken Head '06"

















This is Mile Beach, and if you can imagine that White Beach is really really far down. Follow the beach towards to the back of the photo. Where the land stops, White Beach is right behind that point.












This is the most easterly point on mainland Australia.











The next morning, Steph and I got up at 5:30am (and it was cold as!) to go down to the beach and watch the sun rise. It was absolutely fantastic! Not only that, but we were able to see dolphins as well. It ws the perfect wasy to finish off the trip. We stayed in Byron till about noonish and headed back up to Brisbane via the Gold Coast. Spending good quality time with friends on the beach is a great thing!


I just hope that from seeing this, some other friends, hint hint, will want to come down. :)

Some more photos from New York

So, I've been collating photos from friends who have captured photos that I wished that I had taken. Here you go:

This is a photo in the main foyer of the UN, once you've cleared security and gone inside the building. These stairs lead up to the General Assembly Main Hall. Apparently, this art work is something that will be put around the around. Meaning that this is the very beginning of the design and this design will travel (on rocks, bridges, and other things) around the world and it will be as if there is a ring of this art work all around the world. I don't remember who the artist is, if anyone out there does, then please let me know!











This is the symbol that has come to represent the UN. Its backdrop is a massive golden slanted wall. This massive symbol 'hangs' above the main podium, where the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly sit. I remember when I saw this hall for the very first time in 1999, it literally blew my breath away. To make that trip even more memorable, Kofi Annan was the keynote speaker! I still remember meeting his wife, Nane Anna. Absolutely wonderful woman.





Okay, I know what you are thinking...yes, it looks dirty, but we were just trying to cool each other. Still, it's pretty hot! :)










This photo was taken at a restaurant called Swing 46 and you ask what I am wearing. Well, this was Monday night and it was the 3rd day where I didn't have any new clothes because American Airlines was too busy trying to worry about illegal immigrants than making sure that my luggage would get to its intended destination. Hence, I wore a sweater that belonged to Erin. It had a fuzzy orange neck piece. It was definitely a conversation piece.




And here I am pretending to be Irish. That neck piece was just so versatile! Yes, at this point jet lag had definitely set in and I was just being dazed and confused.
















Yes, my toe nails are painted...you've got a problem with that? Every time I go New York, Christine, myself and Peter (and whomever we've convinced to come with us) have gone to Bloomie's to get pedicures, sans colour for Peter and I. This time, Jill and I went to treat ourselves as the conference can get quite hectic and all. So, we found a place near the hotel and decided to get pedicures. Normally, I've never worn nail polish when I get pedicures done but I thought that this is my last time that I would be getting one in NYC for a very long time. So, I chose this colour and guess what the name of the colour was? UN BLUE!

I will try and add more photos from that trip as I get more. It seems that I've been updating this blog more and more. Perhaps it's because of my innate ability to procrastinate from doing some serious revising for my midyear exam. :) Speaking of which, pathophysiology of pulmonary disease is calling me.

Bronchoalveolar carcinoma and sunset drinks

This past weekend was a very unique combination of relaxation and studying. Lou, Leanne, Anna, and I went to up Noosa (Sunshine Beach, actually), which is on the Sunshine Coast, for the long weekend. The purpose of the trip was to partake in a study boot camp. There are 40 days left until our mid year examination (which is going to be held on Tuesday at 5:45pm; not very happy about the time). So, we thought that by getting away and focusing only on the study, we would jump start the brain and get the juices flowing for the weeks to come. The girls went up on the Friday night and I came up on Saturday afternoon, as I went to a friend's engagement party on Saturday arvo.

I drove up in Lou's car and arrived later in the evening to the beach house that we were staying at. It was awesome! It sense the ocean right next to you, to hear the waves crashing down and to be kissed by the salty mist coming from the water. I came just in time when the girls had finished dinner, which meant that there was an open bottle of red wine nearby. I had a couple of glasses and started the night of study, which was only for a couple of hours before watching some Sex and the City dvds (what do you expect?! you go away with some gals for the weekend and they want to do that sort of thing...as long as I get my work done and have a great time, I'm up for anything!).

The next morning, I saw the view from the balcony for the first time and it looked like this -

We had brekky and dived into the books. It was a great getaway. My mobile phone had very limited service and I forgot to bring my battery charger for my laptop, which meant that I did my studying the old fashion way - by way of pen and paper.

Sometimes it just feels as if you are accomplishing much more by that method as opposed to typing your notes out. After a full day's worth of studying (and grazing on snacks and other food stuff), we had sunset drinks in the spa on the roof, which overlooks the ocean. It was fantastic! Also, the rest of red wine that was brought up was finished. I tell you red wine and I are good friends. :)

The following morning, Lou, Leanne and I went up to Noosaheads for a swim (I didn't go for a swim instead I walked around the beach and soaked up some much needed sun) and then went for an awesome brekky. It was a bit surreal because we had to walked through a bit of the national park in order to get to the beach we went to. We headed back to the house and studied until lunch time. We ate lunch on the roof and saw dolphins frolicking in the ocean It was blissful. After lunch, we studied until 5:30pm and then headed home.

The weekend was restful and yet probably one of the most productive ones that I've had all year. I reckon that this was the jumpstart that my brain needed to get in 'exam' mode. To make things a bit tricky, one of my very good friends from Canada is coming next week. I'm hoping to get as much work done so that I can spend some quality time with her. We shall see how things go over the next few days.

Does violence breed violence?

Today was a really strange day.

Today was the first time I went back to PBL since coming back from holidays. It seemed that even though I missed more lectures and the actual PBL than my fellow colleagues, I was pretty much on the ball (if only I had more days like that!), apart from getting all the pathophysiological mechanisms down, which I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend I will have.

After PBL was finished, I walked down towards the bus stop in front of the Princess Alexandra Hospital. At the bus stop, this woman, who was quite dishevelled, smoking and seemed to have been drinking, asked me whether I could give her two dollars for the bus. I asked he what bus she was getting on and it turned out that her and I were catching the same bus. I told her that I wouldn't mind paying for her fare into the city. She refused and she wanted the cash. I told her again that I will pay for her fare once we got on the bus. I had my left hand outstretched, which is also the hand that I wear this multi-ringed thumb ring. She snatched and pulled off the ring and put it on. I was quite shocked and asked her to give it back. She said that it was hers and started shouting at me. I asked her again in a firm voice to give it back and she started swearing at me and saying that it was her ring. Mind you were there were a number of other people at the bus station that just stood there. I grabbed her hand and tried to pry my ring off of her finger. I realised at that point that she had a cigarette in the other hand. The thought of her burning me with her cigarette crossed my mind. At this point, the bus that I needed to catch already came and left. She started to walk off in the opposite direction of traffic. I grabbed her hand harder this time, and forced my ring off of her finger whilst she was cussed me out. I put my ring on my finger and started walking in the other direction. SMACK! This lady had all of a sudden smack me across my face, so hard in fact that I almost lost my balance and my sunnies flew off my face! I was shocked! I couldn't believe that someone would have resorted to violence over something like that; then again, to be under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs could have easily put someone in that mindset. After that moment, I walked away thinking that should I have retaliated in some way. No. Violence should not breed violence. It should stop at the very first instance; in fact, there should be none at all. I walked and sat at the bus stop. Meanwhile, the people that were around me were avoiding me. Finally a couple of people came up and asked whether I knew her. It seemed as if they were looking at me as if I were a trouble maker as well. The couple had asked me again whether I knew her and I told them no. They also asked whether I was coming from the hospital. I told them yes and that I was a medical student, in the hopes of clearing up any misconceptions they had about me. And apparently they did, because they were quite surprised, "OH! You are a medical student. I'm very sorry that that had to happen to you. You can never trust those sort of people." I felt dejected, I felt as if all the work done in the fight against stereotyping and prejudice went down the drain. I felt powerless because no matter what I could have said, it would have been all in vain. Do I want sympathy from people when they hear about things like this? No. Do I hope that these sort of things make people question their interactions with other? Yes. You know what...fuck it. I'm too tired to be thinking about this at the moment. Not only that but I'm sick and tired of knowing that the difference one person tries to make ends up being a drop in the ocean. I know that I won't stop doing what I do...but at times it's hard to keep it up.

A whirlwind of thoughts

Wow…it has been too long. I don’t have the words to express how sorry I am for all of you that read this blog to keep up with my so-called life.

Since the last entry, a few things have materialised that I thought that I should metion. Firstly, 2nd year medical school is a bitch. Yes. Done and done. As I said last year, learning medicine is like learning how to drink water from a fire hydrant. The volume of information that MBBS II students need to know is insurmountable. I’ve been doing the bare minimum – knowing what the basic pathophysiological mechanisms for the cases that we have had thus far. However, unlike some of close friends, I’m having some issues with knowing the bare minimum. I reckon that that amount of knowledge will be enough to pass the year; but more importantly, do I want to know enough to pass? Currently, a dichotomy has surfaced, and that is either to play the School of Medicine’s game of knowing the answers for the exams versus knowing and synthesising information for the sake of your future patient’s health. In reality, it should be the latter; however, in practice (at least at this stage of the year), it is the former. How does one make that transition from learning the basic stuff to learning things that will actually saves someone’s life. I’ve been told my a number of the upper years that the fine details will be learnt during the clerkship years (MBBS III and IV) and that at the moment, knowing Kumar & Clark’s Clinical Medicine (one of the best clinical medicine books around) and the basic pathology from Robbins (one of the best pathology books that medical students have access to) is key for making sure that you can go onto 3rd year. It feels as if I’m in first year all over again in that I’m getting a bit worried about whether I will know enough to pass the midyear and (more importantly) the finals.

Also, I recently came back from an NMUN conference in New York. I’ve been going back to this conference for a number of years now, and this time was the last one. I had a hellish time getting there (plane was on the tarmac for 3 hours, luggage was lost for 4 days, had some visa issues with respect to getting back to Australia, to name a few) and back. However, spending time with those that I love was priceless. It was a bit of a swan’s song really. I know that the majority of people that I have become friends with from the conference, I will ‘never’ see again. However, there are a select few (and you know who you are) that our paths are destined to cross again. Here are some photos from the trip (for those of you that are in the photo and you don’t want to be…then let me know I can take the photo down):


This is a photo of me wearing an ECOSOCool shirt that Christine bought for the department. A friend of mine has it and hopefully it is making its way back to my closet. :) And I'm a bit scared to see the resemblance I've to my older brother in this photo. That reminds me, I've to call QANTAS to get my glasses back.









Peter is one of my closest friends, and I met him at the 2003 conference. We got along like houses on fire. In the summer of 2003, I went to Germany and celebrated my birthday in Cologne (where he was living at the time) and Christine flew out to be with us as well. That trip was chock full of memories. Ahh... Now, Peter lives in Berlin and has recenlty finished his PhD in law. Yeah, he's one of those. :) However, I still don't know what happened to him on the Monday morning...









Amierah and I met in 1999 and we have been great friends ever since. Even though we live an ocean apart (and sometimes the ocean changes as she will often tell me "Hi, I'm in Egypt!"). She is extremely honest (which is a rare quality for people to have) and truly genuine. Amierah, I wish you all the best of luck for SG for NMUN 2007!








This is Jill. She is originally from Georgia, USA and now is living in Luxembourg. Jill is a lawyer and is very interested in the non-profit sector. She is consultant for Human Rights Watch and is working for the European Court of Justice and will soon be moving back to New York to work for quite a prestigous law firm. She was my cuddle buddy for the week. :) Lordy...I'm sooooo drunk!




This is a photo of me, Colleen, Rabia, and Sara. Each of us born in a different country (and having different passports) but bonded by 1-2-3 STRIKE-A-POSE! My pose is one that I used in an Indian folk dance that I was in a few years ago. [For those that are curious: Veevek - Canada, Colleen - USA, Rabia - UK, and Sara - Iran] Seriously though, all of us are intelligent (apart from when we get together). Colleen is doing her PhD in international relations, Rabia is a doing a MA in international economics and Sara just got accepted to do her MA in international security and disarmament and political economy.

No trip to New York could ever be complete without seeing my best friend, Christine, again. Seeing her makes my reality a better place. She has started her PhD programme in economics at the Univeristy of California, Los Angeles (she's the smart one). This was our last conference together; even though we won't be seeing each other next year around this time, I know that she is one of the few people that will be in my life irrespective of where we are. Heck, she's going to be the future godmother of my kids (hmm...perhaps I should talk to my spouse about this one. Better yet, perhaps I should get myself a girlfriend before that even happens...argh...too many things to do!).







This is a photo of Andres, myself and Peter (the location...I don't remember). I had to put this photo in because many of the NMUN girls have told me that this photo is "hot". I don't know why...but I'm just doing them a service. :) Andres recently moved to Quito, Ecuador (he used to live in Germany for the past 12 years). He goes by the name of Dr. G, as he recently got his PhD with his thesis being on corruption in Latin America. So, in about two years time...this photo will have Dr. G, Dr. T and Dr. G. :)




Rabia and I met in 2004 and ever since we've been laughing it up over things such as music, pop culture, fashion, politics, food and of course, South Asian folk dance. She had sent me a little sound byte (Itsy Bitsy Spider) by the Wolvesbrothers. When her and I got to NYC, we choreographed a little dance to the song and promised ourselves that we would perform this dance in the middle of Time Square. One day, we did a little practice run outside the lobby of the hotel and one of the hotel staff told us that if we put a hat on the ground beside us, the we would probably get some money! HAHAHAHA. On our last day in NYC, around 1pm, Rabia and I danced to the song in the middle of Time Square, not bearning any attention to the heaps of tourists walking around, the Naked Cowboy, and vehicles filled with people looking and taking photos.

Okay...enough of the walking down memory lane...back to reality, back to life...

Now that I’m back in Brisbane, I know that I need to crank up the volume in terms of sitting my ass down and revising for the midyear exam. Also, I need to get enough work done so that when my friend Stephanie (from Toronto) comes down to visit in May, I can devote some of my time to her and be a good host.

So, what's next on the V-man's agenda? Well, for the next 6 weeks I've gotta bustamove and get enough stuff into my head to pass my midyear exam. Apart from that, I'm going to be buying my ticket to Europe this week! My brother is getting married in August in Sweden (as his fiancee, who is the bestest future sister-in-law in the world, is from there). There is also going to be an Indian reception, which will be held a week later in Leicester, UK, as the majority of my dad's side of the family lives Europe-side. So, booking this ticket, who would have thought that flying into London Heathrow would be more expensive than, let's say, flying to Paris. So, what does Veevek do? He is going to be flying into Paris! This will be awesome, as I've never been and I have a few friends that are living there. Also, my friend Paramjot from Brisbane will be coming with me. After the wedding stuff is over, Paramjot and I are heading over to Helsinki (if you haven't seen the show "Little Britain" you are missing out) for the World Congress of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. YAYAYAYAYAYA...another trip! I can't wait. :)

But before I can get all happy about that, I need to get through the next 6 weeks. Alright, enough bitching about what is to come. I reckon that I should just get to it. On that note, I should revise last year's stuff on cystic fibrosis, as Leanne and I are tutoring that subject to our group of first year medical students that we tutor every Monday arvo. I've some news about the tutoring programme but I want to make sure that some key elements are in place before telling the world about it. Yes, I'm being cruel and making you all wait. Suck it up, buttercup.

Crazy Currylingus...

Alright, Currylingus is my cousin (our respective mothers are sisters) and she has got to be one of the coolest people I know (and believe-you-me, I know a lot of people). She's ultra hip, modern, classy, has a fantastic wit, and a charm that puts most people to shame! (You can thank me later, Currylingus). I've always thought of her as my younger sister; in fact, she is born 1 year minus 2 days later than I. We are both bonafide leos........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. :)

She dropped a tag on me, which essentially means that I have to do this. :)

4 Jobs: (most recent)
1. Researcher for one of my most favourite economic professors at University of Calgary. In fact, he is one of my mentors. I helped him to do some research on a paper that he was writing.

2. As a consultant for Health Canada, I had to create a complete document on all Canadian activity that was going on at the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bankok, Thailand. I was also in charge of putting together cross-cultural awareness information along with information that Canadian delegates would need regarding the city, Thai culture and norms, and the logistics of the conference.

3. HIV/AIDS Lecturer (Kibera's Women's Help Group) - while working on my internship, I was also given some work in Kibera (Africa's largest slum) and discuss issues regarding HIV/AIDS and its effect on one's livelihood and outlook.

4. HIV/AIDS Programme Officer in Kenya - this was through a Canadian government internship. It was absolutely amazing; mainly did work in the field of home-based care and stigma & discrimination.

4 Movies (off the top of my head)

-Indiana Jones & Raiders of the Lost Ark (saw it last night with Liam)
-Usual Suspects (a classic & favourite film of mine)
-Syriana (saw it last night! pretty good)
-Black Stallion Returns (hey...don't knock it!)

4 Places I’ve Lived:

-Brisbane, Australia
-Nairobi, Kenya,
-Lija, Malta
-Calgary, Canada

4 TV Shows:

-House
-PrisonBreak
-Amazing Race
-Grey's Anatomy (hmm...if it were to return at some point)

4 Vacations (the most recent ones):

Calgary, Canada
Porbandar & Ahmedabad India
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Colombo, Sri Lanka

4 Foods:

-Pad Thai (can always tell judge a Thai restaurant by their Pad Thai)
-dhokla (had some last night...but mum's are better!)
-spinach and ricotta lasagne
-dolmades (I am sucker for antipasto)

4 Places I’d Rather Be:

-Macchu Pichu
-Great Barrier Reef
-Crestanello (the best Italian cafe I have been to anywhere - it's right across the street from the New York Public Library...I can't wait to taste you again in a few weeks!)
-At the gym (but alas anaemias and multiple myelomas are shouting at me!)

4 Sites:

www.bbc.co.uk
www.desiwear.com
http://www.world66.com/myworld66
www.kumarandclark.com (yes...I'm being a nerd)


4 Bloggers with some meme-ingful work ahead:

Anita - you know that you are dying to do something like this...c'mon futafut!
Sheebykins - I want to hear about your HSMUN weekend!
Christine - yes, I know you are busy but consider this exercise a part of your commitment to your blog :)
Robo - yes...you have been chosen...


Okay...enough of the 'tagged' stuff. I do want to update this thing with regards to what happened this weekend and how life is going in general. The upcoming week is a hectic one and I do hope to provide myself with some therapy by typing away on this thing.

First week almost over already?!

The first week of MBBS II has finished and it seems that my brain can't get into it! Fortunately (maybe unfortunately as well), many of my friends and classmates are facing this as well.

Academically, this past week has been a bit of a blunder because the gap between Year I and Year II seems to be quite large and this year the School of Medicine has decided to change a number of things (surprise, surprise). The week runs from Tuesday to Monday (no uni on Saturday or Sunday) as opposed to last year, in which the week ran from Monday to Friday. I have PBL on Tuesday morning from 8 to 11, and then I have my clinical coaching sessions at Redland Hospital, which is at least 30 km outside of Brisbane. I'm not too happy about my placement (I'm not the only one, the 8 other members of my PBL are also stationed there). It takes almost 2 hours to get there from my house and more than 2.5 hours to get back to my house. I'll keep you posted on how that turns out, as I've emailed the Head of Year II and hoping that there will be some resolution to this issue. Wednesday and Thursday, we have lectures from 8 till whenever (normally never lasting more than 4.5 hours, at least that is according to the Master Timetable that we were given). Friday, there is usually a Clinical Large Group lecture from 8 to 9:30 and then I've a 2-hour PBL session from 9:30 to 11:30. Then I have two 1.5 hours pathology and anatomy practicals each week. PBL and clinical coaching are the only two things that we HAVE to go to; all other schedule lectures/clinical large groups/clinical reasoning lectures are optional. Also, this year will be about pathology. Year I is a year to learn about what's normal (with some level of pathology) and how that relates to the different body systems. In Year II, we learn about why things fuck up and how to fix it. The SOM has designed the year so that we have maximum time for self-directed learning and opportunities for clinical practice, as this year is considered to be the "systematic preparation for practice".

Okay, that was boring...on to the fun stuff. We had orientation on January 20th and apart from the administrative stuff (congratulations on passing first year, this year will be harder, blah blah blah, ra ra ra), it was so good to see people again! I knew that I missed my friends but once I saw them, I didn't realise how much I've missed them. Many hugs and kisses were flying about. I was able to meet new people (well, people that I didn't know last year), which is great because one of things that we were told to do by the Head of School of Medicine was to network and develop professional relationships with our peers. Good God! If that's the case, then I might as well just stop now because I don't think that my brain can handle the multiple number of Robs, Daves, Matts, Claires, Kims and the like. Friday night was great as I hung out with Leanne, Claire, Annabelle and Brownlie. We all talked about our electives, drank some good Australian alcohol and headed down to Ludo, a bar along Caxton Street. This bar is owned by a second year medical student in my year. Drinks were free until 7pm; needless to say, the four of us (and the other med students that were there) made sure that we got our free monies worth of drinks. :) After that, I met up with Param, her friend from Vancouver, Marlo and Melissa at Caxton Hotel for some more drinks and a little hip shakin' on the dance floor, until Annabelle's brother dropped me home (so nice that your friend's younger siblings can be the responsible ones and take your older siblings and their friends home). Saturday night was another long night as many of the Canadian students went out to a very posh vodka bar in West End called the Lychee Lounge. After having our tummies filled with many good things, we headed down to into the City and went dancing at a nightclub. We left when the bar closed (around 3:00am) and then I headed home, where I stayed up for a few more hours before going to bed.

The Sunday was a day of preparations for our (Dave, Suz and Veevek) housewarming. We spent a bit of money on getting the food prepared. Originally, we were only going to invite a small number of people but then that got out of hand; I reckon that at least a 100 invites went out. Fortunately, we didn't have that many people attend. The most number of people we had was 43, which was great! Lots of great food, drinks and conversations were had by all. The best part was is that Dave, Suz and I have set the standard for the higher quality of parties that can be done by 2nd year medical students. Most house parties are just sorry excuses to drink excessively and be surrounded by abrasive people. Here are a couple photos:




















The socialising aspect of the first week back was probably the biggest factor that made getting back into the academic side of things very difficult. But who is to blame us? Wednesday evening was the eve before Australia Day (akin to Canada Day or 4th of July for the Americans), so Annabelle and I went over to Claire's house to make sangria and get things ready for the party. The next morning, we were up and ready to go! Australia Day!! It was fun! I remember las t year, Cam and I didn't know anyone yet so we stayed at home watched tennis and cricket and enjoyed a couple of beers. This year, I had Australian flag tattooed on my cheek, partook in singing the Australian national anthem ("Advance Australia Fair"), even though it was grotesquely out of tune. Here are some photos:













(The brown stuff on Claire's toast is vegemite! mmm..mmm...good)

The next day was the first med keg of the year! Last year, it was a horrible display of how much I drank. This year was a whole other story! It was fun and not as packed as last year. I checked out the new talent that the MBBS I cohort brough...and I was quite impressed. I met a number of first year students and re-connected with some people in my year (oddly enough, that the re-connection happens in the presence of alcohol). I left at a decent time, only to come home to drink some ginger beer and then some vodka with Liam (Dave's friend from Canberra). Fun times were had all round!

The Saturday after the keg was a great day! Dave, Liam and I went to Burleigh Beach (which is along the Gold Coast) and I ended up getting a sunburn on the left side of my face...it's quite gross considering that it's starting to peel. That evening, I stayed on the couch watching Jurassic Park III, while the others went to see Brokeback Mountain (I had already seen it with a friend in Calgary). I was supposed to go out with my friend Leanne but that fell through. That being said, every cloud has a silver lining, in the sense that I needed an alcohol-free night. :) We have been taught that you should have at least two alcohol-free days a week. So far, so good!

It is now Thursday night, and I've just finished the week's work (this week's case is on eczema). I'll go over it in greater detail this weekend. I'm glad that my brain has been jumpstarted into it. I'm excited about this new year!

A dedication to some special people...

Well, the first week of uni has gone by without much incident (academically speaking I mean). But before I go into what has happened in Brisbane since my arrival, I wanted to touch upon some people that made my time in Calgary just a bit sweeter.

Coming back to Calgary always fills me with a mixed bag of emotions. Apart from the friends and family that are there, the city is only a shell that has been filled with the majority of my life's experiences. However, in the moment, the city does not hold that for me. As for some of the friends that I have, are still stuck inside a time-warp that exerts itself on some of the inhabitants of Calgary.

For the most part, majority of my friends do not fit that category. They are forward thinkers and willing to accept the uncertainty that the future holds, especially with regards to the dynamics of relationships (especially those people that have had to put up with uprooting and relocation every few years). This blog is a dedication to those people...


This is Trish. We met in a genetics lab that we had together. We sat beside each other and bitched about the 12 hour reporting we had to do with our fruit flies (I tell you, every time I see a fruit fly, I have chills running down my spine), amongst other things. We had many of the same classes together - organic chemistry, botany, genetics and biology. She recently finished her undergraduate degree in biological sciences and now wants to pursue what has been her dream of music (before it was medicine but her vocal talents would be wasted!). Trish has the voice of an angel (akin to Charlotte Church). She is one of those people that has grace, in the sense that she always has the disposition to be generous and helpful, and that she doesn't discriminate against anyone when it comes to that. Everytime I come back to Calgary (and if she is there as well), we have afternoons filled with chai and random snacks, and conversations that would include and involve everything from small talk to politics to medical science, and the like. She knows that she means the world to me - and now I can let you all know that as well. :)

The next group of people, I met through the University of Calgary International Student Centre (ISC). Vivian, Trinda, Ced and Brenda. Vivian, Trinda, Brenda and I used to all be volunteers and/or student staff together. It was great to be involved with an organisation that really did promote internationalisation of one's university education. Ced has come over from France and is a very good friend of Trinda's. Oddly enough, I dated Ced's cousin when she came to Calgary from France to do a semester abroad. Even though they are all at different places in their lives, they know what it feels like when your experiences are incongruent to others. They understand that the people that you care about will have lives that will progress at different rates. Vivian did an exchange to Ireland, and then a work term in France; Trinda taught English in France, and Brenda (who is of Gautemalan decent) works with Shell Oil, with most of her clients being from America.

Here is Anita. Anita and I got to know each other from the University of Calgary Amnesty International Association. We were co-executive directors at one point. She is Fijian of Indian ancestry. Unlike the many other Indian-esque people that I know, she is not doing business, engineering, law or medicine. No, she doesn't own a 7-11 or other convenient store, nor does she work at a liquor/Indian spice/Indian clothing and jewellery store. She is a graduate student in political science and will, hopefully, be going into a doctoral programme in political science as well. She is extremely cultured, can carry on a great conversation (in all the different fields...but you get her started on human rights and security issues...you're done!), and is a great soundboard for ideas and thoughts that you might be having. This photo was taken a few days before I left Calgary at a place called Cafe Mediterranean. It's one of the few places in Calgary that you can smoke a sheesha (no, that has nothing to do with marijuana or opium or anything other narcotic). She is thinking of coming down to Australia to visit Ruth and myself; so much fun is to be had!

Christine and Steve...what to say about these two? Well, I met Steve on this trip back to Calgary, as Christine and Steve started dating when I was in Australia. Christine and I met in 1999 as we were both going on exchange. She went to Mexico and I went to Malta. Upon our return, we both volunteered for the ISC. In fact, I had a little crush on Christine at that time. I told her about it and she turned me down as she already had a boyfriend. Even though she went on to complete a degree in international relations (and subsequently a Master's degree in global development in Latin America from University Collge of London in the UK), we are still able to about development, politics, health, economics and also the more small talk stuff of fashion, travel (which is very important to us both) and those sort of things. Even though she is working in Calgary in the area of international education at one of the polytechnic institutions, she desires go beyond her box and do something that she is passionate about, which is development. She's definitely a keeper!

Bijal - someone that I have known for many years but in a variety of ways. Bijal and I are members of the Gujarati community in Calgary. Our parents having set roots in Calgary and made family friends amongst those that shared the Gujarati culture, language and values. In the beginning, we knew each other as "so and so child". Then as we grew older we were involved in dances and saw each other at jamvanus (the Gujarati word for dinners), cultural and religious events. And for those people that know me, I've not been a mainstream member of the Gujarati community in Calgary because I never felt as if I belonged to the social/age group that I was supposedly a part of. The other kids that were in it had a very different idea of what was fun and cool. Also, I despise to the two-faced nature of many of them. Bijal is one of the few that isn't like that. What you see is what you get. Like Anita, she too is not doing medicine, engineering, business nor does she own the aforementioned service stores. She is doing a degree in French, with a minor in English. CRAZY! I love it! She does want to go on and complete a law degree. Unlike most people that I know within the community, Bijal is extremely well-spoken and can carry out a conversation on any topic. She is very rational (which I've realised that many people aren't) and when she speaks of an idea or thought process, it is clear and extremely articulate. At the same time, she can be ridiculously silly (but in a good way) and has an endearing childlike quality about her when it comes to having a good time. She is the real deal. As with the others, she too sees relationships as being dynamic and fluid.

Now, there are a number of people that I didn't take photos with but there are a couple that I need to mention. One is my dear friend Monica. Monica and I met in an organic chemistry lab (what's with me and meeting friends in a laboratory). She was doing the science then medicine route. However, after some soul searching, she finished up with a joint degree in economics and English. We had a couple economics classes together. She was in Fiji and New Zealand working for Commonwealth Learning, which provides internships to youth. These internships are partnered with the Canadian International Development Agency, Foreign Affairs Canada, and International Trade Canada. She is now at Queen's University in Canada doing a Master's in Public Administration and a law degree. Her and I met for coffee at what is probably the best cafe I've been to in Calgary. It's called Cafe Beano - for those of you in Calgary that are reading this. It's off of 17th Ave on the left hand side before getting to the lights at Mount Royal Village.
We talked about the issues that we both face when coming back home and how we don't really know where we are going to end up after we finish our respective degrees. Issues such as the transient status of relationships, the concept and ideals of home and what we can and cannot tolerate from our families. Like myself, she too will be heading back to Calgary every Christmas, so it will be nice to see someone, so to speak, that is cut from the same fabric.

And then there is Tim. A friend of mine from university - we took a course of infectious disease together. He works at a hospital in Calgary as an orderly and is hoping to get into the fast-track post-graduate nursing programme at the University of Calgary. There aren't many people that I would call "safe" and "solid". Tim is the epitome of how safe and solid a friend can be. He too has a horrible travel bug and his experiences in Africa (he travelled to Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi) only fuelled his desires to see and do more than what is offered at home. Even though he has bought himself a condo in the city, it doesn't stop him from dreaming about what lies ahead.

All in all, being in touch with people that have shared common experiences and have common future visions of where they see themselves in all spheres of their lives is a very reaffirming feeling to have. And even though I've only been living in Australia for one year and have become close friends with some absolutely amazing people...I only hope that I can only manage my spheres a bit better.