Wats In OZ

Love, Life and Medicine

2008-09-10T20:07:00.004+10:00

Hello dear friends and family!

I know it has been forever since we have updated...so much has happened in the last few months it seems like years have gone by! There have been many fun and exciting things that have happened...including the annual "Med Ball" where all 4 years of med students get together, celebrate and have some fun. This picture is of some of our closest friends after the med ball...it was a fabulous night!!

The theme of the ball was "high society" so we were all trying to be dressed up to the max for the night! It was a really nice change from our usual casual attire to see everyone looking so zooty!!

Enoch and I also celebrated our first year anniversary!!! I really can't believe how much has changed!
Remember this?? It is incredible to reflect on all the changes we have been through this year! We have moved to the other side of the world, started this incredible journey of medicine together, made new friends, found new jobs etc.... it really is a world away from where we were one year ago...but we do miss home and friends everyday.

Sadly, a few days after we celebrated our anniversary, Enoch had to make a trip back home to Canada to support his family and mom as she has had some health issues...but thankfully she is doing well and is feeling blessed by Enoch's presence.

I am here, doing well, spending my time with friends and at the hospital during this block. Learning more than I ever imagined about life and love and medicine....

I am returning to Toronto for about 10 days at the end of September, before coming back to Sydney to finish up my year.

I promise to update more frequently!
Until then, much love to you all!
xo
Steph

Hunter Valley - Day One!

2008-07-02T19:48:00.013+10:00

Day One in the Hunter!!! We arrive in our HUGE van (the IMAX) ready to have a fantastic weekend. The boys cooked us some dinner on our BBQ right outside of our little cabin and we had a great night relaxing, dancing and having tons of fun!!

The next morning we woke up to the BEAUTIFUL sunshine and a fabulous warm day. We headed out to our first destination, Tyrrell's Vineyard where we began our two day adventure of tasting fabulous wines and having one of the greatest weekends so far in Australia! The Vineyards here are absolutely beautiful with landscapes that are just breathtaking.

This is the view from our cabin early in the morning (thanks to VERY early riser, Kira :) Notice the Aussie Uggs :)

This is Enoch and I in front of the Tyrrell's Vineyard, taking in the gorgeous sunshine!!!

Tyrrell's offers wine tours where you get to learn all about how they make the wine we all enjoy so much - so we thought that we should take the tour before we go too much into our....ahem...tasting :)
This is our guide showing us where all the grapes go to get mushed up after then have been picked. This used to be done with people's feet, but now they use this contraption and there is essentially a filter that tries to filter out all of the skins (for white wine) and any twigs, grasshoppers etc.

These are the huge barrels that they hold the wine to ferment and also filter further.
They are absolutely huge and cost $15,000 each. The wine-makers then suck the wine out of the top of the barrels.

Next we went to Blue Tongue for some beer for the boys!! It was so much fun and the boys obviously enjoyed it :)

Since the day was coming to an end, we rushed to our final destination - the one, the only......

!!!!!!!!! Oh yes we did!! It was so much fun and believe it or not, Bin 65 Lindemans chardonnay was in the bargain bin!! Ha!!
We told the people working there how much our family LOVES Lindemans and it was just so much fun seeing the place where everything happens :)

It was getting dark, but we were told that if we drove up the road a little, we might FINALLY see some Kangaroos in the wild...and we were not disappointed!!!

We walked up really close and could even see the little Joey (baby kangaroo) in the pouch of the momma Kangaroo. It was seriously so exciting - and then, some crazy person (.....Enoch....) decided to CHASE the kangaroos!!!!! Sadly, for Enoch they were MUCH faster than him - sadly for all of you, we were all laughing so hard, we weren't able to catch it on film....ah...next time :)

As the day came to an end, we headed home to eat an amazing dinner on the BBQ alla Dean and Ez - a great end to a great day!

Stay tuned for day 2 in Hunter Valley :)

PS - Enoch decided to learn how to milk a cow while we were there - will the laughter ever end?? I hope not :)

Year one - half done!!

2008-06-26T17:16:00.005+10:00

Hi Everyone!!

Well, things have been great in Sydney the last few weeks. I have finished my orthopedics block and I am officially half way done my first year. I get a week off now which is definitely needed and will be nice to have some down-time. Enoch and I are off to Hunter Valley this weekend with two other couples that we have become good friends with. Erin and Dean are an Australian couple (Erin is in my class) and Kira and Garrett who are Canadian (Kira is in my class). Hunter Valley is renowned for its wineries so we are going to do some pretty incredible wine tasting and touring. We are even going to the Lindemans Vineyard!! Yes Pam and Richard...we know you are jealous :) We are staying in a cabin all six of us and will definitely be doing some cooking on the BBQ and relaxing over the weekend.
In other good news, Enoch has found a part-time job!! It's not glamorous, but it is taking the financial pressure off just a bit. Dean is the head chef in a restaurant in downtown Sydney and he referred Enoch to his boss for a serving position. Waiting tables is a new experience for Enoch and I think he enjoys the people and the challenge (and the amazing free food Dean cooks him :) ) We are still looking for something in his field and have had some good leads but nothing to report yet.

This is me a couple weeks ago learning how to plaster someone with a broken forearm! I'm plastering my clinical partner, Rob's arm....with a cast on my own arm!!! It was actually much more of a challenge than I thought but it was great fun and an important skill to learn :)

This is the group of first year med students that are in my clinical hospital at the end of the plastering session - so much fun!

Not much else to report - we will try to update again after Hunter Valley!!

We miss you and love you all!

xoxoxox

Steph

Thoughts from Oz

2008-05-11T19:28:00.008+10:00

So since I've been here I've only posted once... and been a part of one other post so I thought I should let everyone know that I am still O.K..
As Steph said, I still don't have a job but have had some good leads. (but we know how those ones turned out... unemployed still). It is more difficult to find work under a "Student Visa" than I thought it would be. The limit of 20 hrs/week is also proving to be difficult. On top of that, I'm coming back to Canada for my brother's wedding! I'm leaving on the 19th of May. It makes it hard to say to an employer... "so do you have any work?, I'll be here for another week... then I'm away for two".So, I decided to stop stressing out about it because I can't really do anything about it until I get back from the land of maple syrup.

Until then, I've only been to the beach 4 times since I've been here. Something that I've learned is that most Sydneysiders have their favourite national park and favourite beach. People base their opinion on various things. For example.... people don't like Bondi cause there are so many tourists... people like Bondi cause there is surf there and celebrities like it there. Here is a picture of the Iceberg at Bondi Beach... if you want better pictures you can look at your local celebrity smut mag... (If you don't know where to get them, I have a few sister-in-laws that have a source... a.k.a. coffee table)

Below that is just another angle of the beach. The surfers tend to stay on either the north side or the south side where the surf tends to build up.
We'll have a surf reading and rip spotting guide put up on a later date... if you don't know what a rip is... don't swim in the ocean.
Oh another bad thing is that people tend not too wear to much around these beaches... yes a lot of women tan topless but the fact that there are men in speedos going for jogs will never get me people watching at the beach.
So, Bondi... ok for surf... Maroubra apparently better... but haven't been there yet. Below is a picture of Gordon's bay... good for snorkeling but pretty open and can feel like you're in the middle of the ocean at times.

To the left of that little peninsula is Clovelly, a more sheltered swimming area that is very good for snorkeling and to the right past the next peninsula that you can't see is Coogee beach. Good dive spot and good for swimming cause the surf isn't very high there.
In Gordon's Bay there is a scuba trail that you can follow under water for about 45 min. They have sunk 2o something landmarks all connected by chain and sea life has clung to these things so people can see.

At the beach to the right of Gordon's Bay is Coogee... as I said earlier but it is also the location of the main training gym for Gracie Sydney run buy Professor Bruno Panno. I've started training at his Sydney CBD (Central Business District) gym. Nice to see Gracie schools all around the world.
SO... I've decided to trade these in:
For a snorkel set, body board, and hopefully in the future a surf board and a "wettie" (wetsuit)

Oh... last thing! Steph and I have found a church out here and it is the infamous Hillsongs Church. We've checked out a few churches but feel like this is the one for us... so we've gone maybe 4 times now. Let's just say that the Hillsongs' CD was the number one selling CD in all of Australia last year so you can bet that the worship music is pretty darn good. (If you really want you can you tube, "shout to the Lord" by the 8 American Idol finalists, the song was written by the worship pastor at Hillsongs) But today Steph and I had a conversation that isn't that typical. It all started off by us going to the 9:30 service instead of the 11:30 service cause we were going to meet our friend Evelyn Eng's parents for lunch. As we were walking in we were tying to get seats, as good seats are hard to get. Some 500 people attend this one of the eight services. Walking down a side aisle I said "Hey babe, that guy looks like Hugh Jackman...... Oh my.... Steph... IT IS Hugh Jackman!" That's right... Hugh Jackman goes to our church! (no Baun, he wasn't wearing his wolverine outfit under his shirt) he was there with his daughter. HAH... who would have thought... anyways. That's a story!
Oh... and you heard it hear first... this should get people reading this blog, Enoch bought curry for dinner tonight! (can't even bring myself to say I bought..)His choice... lamb rogan josh and butter chicken.... MORE TO COME!

SHARK ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-07T21:47:00.012+10:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! I am sure you have been wondering what has been up with Enoch and I...so here is an update!!!

I have just finished my first big exam and Enoch has been job-surfing and beach hunting! After much work, he still has not landed a job...but has scouted out the best beaches in Sydney!!

After my exam, I had a couple of days off so we tried to make the most of it by doing some touristy things....like having drinks at the Sydney Opera House Bar, and going to the Sydney Aquarium - which was definitely a highlight for us both.

It is safe to say that the waters in Australia are filled with some of the most exotic, dangerous and beautiful creatures in the world.

The shark above is one of many in the largest fish tank in the aquarium - and we got to go for a glass-bottomed boat ride in the shark-tank and FEED THE SHARKS for only $5!!!

Here are some other friends-favourites from our visit:

In the foreground here is another large shark and behind it is the BIGGEST stingray we had ever seen! Way bigger than the ones that Enoch swam with in the Caymen Islands. These things were huge - about one and a half times our wingspan!!!!

Ever wonder what calamari look like while still swimming??? Here's one swimming toward us - aren't they the funniest looking creatures you have ever seen??? Is your mouth watering Mallie??

This is obviously a crocodile that was at the aquarium - surrounded by a pretty thick piece of glass - but if you went upstairs, you could look down on the croc (which is the second picture) where there was a sign that said (if you can't read it) "If the fall does not kill you ,the crocodile will"!! We thought it was so funny.

There were many other cool fish - and jelly with seriously deadly toxins...but we didn't take pictures of them all. You will have to come to Sydney and see them for yourself!!

However, after walking around for a few hours, we did work up quite an appetite...so we dropped by our local fish market for some of the freshest sashimi grade fish you can find........

Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow we are off to the Sydney Opera House for a night of "Songs from the Movies" starring Anthony Callea! Hopefully more pictures and updates to follow!!

Much love!
xoxoxo
Steph and Enoch

Enoch's First Post

2008-03-30T19:54:00.001+11:00

"Say Hello To My Little Friend!" well, he's not that little. He's actually the size of Steph's cute pink cell phone. The thing looks like it has fangs... It was a bit scary to try and take this picture with a cell phone with no zoom. I know for sure Clare couldn't have taken this picture! Anyways, this is my first post and as many of you may know (esp. Jody and Goo Jai) I'm not good with keeping people updated via email and now blogs.
I would like to say that I am officially in Sydney now and we are just settling in. The big news is that we finally got our furniture... all at "Faaaaaaantastic Furniture"! Even cheaper than Ikea believe it or not... and they aren't a 30 min drive away. We got a queen sleigh bed with a double pillow top mattress, "click - clack" type futon sofa, coffee table, 2 beside tables, and 2 cube bookshelves all in one shipment.
All that being said we have enough room to host 2 people. (well, only if you don't mind sleeping in the same bed)
I hate reading long blogs so I'll be shorter... the most exciting thing is that I've met my relatives (my dad's cousin) Uncle Eddie, Aunte Anne, Lillian, Uncle Eddie's sister Amy and her husband Anthony last night. WHAT A BLAST... we had such laughs and great food... ie. fresh abalone that was still moving, shrimp, bbq pork and a whole chicken. It was amazing...
My next blog will talk about the markets and such here.

And....we're back online!!!

2008-03-26T19:35:00.000+11:00

It's true....after over a month of trying to get our Internet set up at home....it has finally arrived!!! So sorry to those who have emailed and I have not been able to write back...I am officially trying to catch up!

Well, other than getting our Internet, set up, Enoch and I have been really enjoying our first week together in Sydney. He arrived safely a week ago, and has been adjusting to life as only Enoch can. As you might have guessed, in the week that he has been here he has already found all the great grocery places, the cheapest places to buy furniture, all the best and cheapest places to buy beer, and the fastest ways to get downtown. By contrast, I have been here 7 weeks and only know how to get to school and the hospital - ah, but I have located one or two sushi places :) Ha!! And hence why we complement each other! :)

I am also glad to report that after a month of sleeping on the floor on a foamy we bought a bed on Tuesday and it arrives on Friday which will hopefully put an end to the terrible back pain and lack of sleep!!! Sheesh! We also bought a great pull-out couch for all our guests..... :) And are in the midst of getting some bookshelves....those are for me....let's be honest!

Other than that, we have been hanging out in the city and really getting to know what "living" here means. I have luckily had the week off from class - which was excellent timing - so we have really gotten to experience living here. We even went to Bondi beach on Monday where Enoch definitely got the great urge to start surfing...and while I was studying on the sand, he went off to the surf shop to inquire about which surf boards were the best etc. So, that appears to be our next big goal...learn to surf (while trying not to get eaten by sharks which I'm told only happens "occasionally". "We haven't had a shark attack in a while....like 10 months" a classmate tried to "reassure" me with - Sheesh! Luckily, that is one of the main jobs of the life guards on the beach - shark patrol - so don't worry mom, we are safe :) ). Unfortunately, it appears that on Enoch's journey to Australia, our camera broke....hence the lack of photos...but I promise to work on that...just as soon as we master surfing.

Love to you all!

Still Here!!!

2008-03-17T13:42:00.000+11:00

Oh hello friends and family!!!!

I know - where have I been and where have been the updates??? Well, the truth is that Australia is NOT the place to live if you want things done quickly....it takes about 4 weeks to set up the internet....and they have screwed up the time and day twice now....so I have given up! I have been visiting my local internet cafe and paying for my time just to check mail etc. but I know people are eager to hear what is going on...so I decided to bite the bullet and pay for time for an update too!

To be honest, not much has really been going on - sad but true! School lectures and studying have been taking up all my time - but the good news is that they are incredibly interesting. I really love my classes and labs and especially my clinical days. Each student at Usyd is assigned to various hospitals all around NSW. Once a week (on Wednesday) we go for the entire day, - see patients and try to put our lecture knowledge into a practical setting. At this stage of the game it is really more about trying to drink in as much as possible every time you are there because we really don't know enough to help anyone. But I have an excellent tutor ( who is an ICU specialist) and he is VERY eager and VERY good at motivating us!! We have been spending most of our time in the ICU - but it is a great place to learn since no two patients are ever the same. I know this sounds crazy - but I love the hospital. I will spend 12 hours there and I can't believe it's been that long. I think no matter what specialty I end up in - it will be in the hospital because that is where I feel most at home.

Besides school, I finally went to the beach for the first time on the weekend. Bondi beach is about a 25 minute commute away and it was absolutely glorious! One of the most picturesque places I have ever seen. There is a beautiful "sea wall" that runs between Bondi and another big beach called Coogee beach and inbetween those two beaches are the real surf beaches. Smaller numbers of people sun tanning (or sun baking as they call it) but a lot more surfers. I went for a long run on the sea wall and watched in amazement as people surfed the waves.

But, the BEST thing of all...is that Enoch FINALLY arrives tomorrow morning!!!!!!! I'm so excited....6 weeks is SO long - but the wait is over! 19.5 hours! (but who's keeping track??)

I promise to upload some pictures when Enoch brings our cameras!! In the meantime I will try to post some pictures of the beautiful campus here on my facebook.

Much love to you all!
xoxoxoxoxxo
Steph

I'm NOT homeless!!!!

2008-02-22T21:20:00.000+11:00

Oh! I am so relieved!!!

I finally found a place for Enoch and I to live....it's not the most glamorous place on earth...but it will do just fine.
I found it on Wednesday in the middle of the day (cause I had the day off) and there were only three other people there to see the apartment - and I basically sucked up to the real estate agent and got her to take my application to the owner and got it approved that day!
I sign my lease and pay my bond (the Australian version of "last months rent") tomorrow morning and then I get to move in!
The best part about it is that we have a nice big living room....so when we get visitors...hint hint, nudge nudge, they will have a nice pull-out to sleep on! (Ok, so a pull-out is not exactly the best - but the alternative thus far has been to have visitor staying with Enoch and I in the studio apartment I feared we would end up with!!!! Awkward!)
Our new place is in the Glebe suburb of Sydney - within walking distance to school which is perfect...and not far from the train station for the days I need to go to my clinical school. Glebe is a pretty trendy area with tons of small shops and cute restaurants that give it a very European feel.
So, all that to say, things are slowly but surly coming together - it still doesn't quite feel like home...but I'm sure before long it will :)

Miss you all!

G'Day Mate?

2008-02-16T16:50:00.000+11:00

Hello from donwnunda!

Contrary to popular belief, I have not fallen off the face of the earth....just fallen into a bit of a funk.... :( Trying to find a place for Enoch and I to live has proven to be VERY difficut - and I have only 10 more days to find a place and move - or else, I'm staying on someone's couch :(

I have a free day tomorrow so I'm going to bust my butt around town to look at places and try to suck up to every real estate agent showing the places...to hope for the best!

The really sad thing, is that I am absolutely LOVING school! My professors are amazing, I love my classes, I love my hospital placement and my classmates are wonderful....it's just that everything is being overshadowed by the fact that I'm homeless.

But despite my worries I have been learning a lot about Australia and the people that live here - and have found out some pretty interesting facts not commonly known to Canadians (or maybe just to me??)

1. No one says "G'Day Mate".....but everyone says "G'Day"!
2. Cockroaches are an accepted part of life here - no one thinks it is that big a deal to have tons of them in your house/apartment.
3. When you arrive in Australia you have to sit on the plane after you have landed while people come on and spray down the entire plane (people and luggage included) to kill any bugs/insects that we Canadians might be bringing with us!!
4. They don't have three-ringed binders....only TWO rings!!!
5. They don't drink regular coffee....only cappuccinos, lattes etc. And they don't have much variety in size - only regular and large (which are both much smaller than we would be accustomed to).
6. The spiders here really are huge!!! I'll try to take a picture of one for my next post :)
7. At night there are these creatures that fly around that Aussies call "Flying Foxes" - which are actually bats....the size of foxes!!!!!!!!!! (ok, they are more like the size of cats....but huge and they make loud noises and I don't want one anywhere NEAR me!!! :( )
8. You have to pay for EVERYTHING!!!! Even making a local call from a land line costs you 25 cents (after the monthly cost of the phone) and to make a cell phone call costs you 39 cents for 30 seconds!!!!
9. Internet here is MUCH slower.
10. Mardi Gras here (Gay pride day) would put Gay pride to SHAME in Toronto - THOUSANDS of people showed up - everyone with costumes etc. and there was an entire FAIR right across from my res. with rides, games, live singers, tones of "celebs" including the entire cast of Billy Elliot and Cindy Lauper singing live!!!!!!!
11. They call flip flop sandals - thongs :)
12. When they ask you if you want your sandwich toasted....they mean to Panini it like they do in Italy.
13. Someone told me "we handle skin cancer removal here like we do going to the dentist. In fact...I had some melanoma removed from my lip last week!" :( :( :(
14. They have NO idea what it's like to have so much snow....I opened up my computer today and my wallpaper is a picture of me outside Walmer road in the middle of winter surrounded with snow and someone exclaimed "Oh my gosh! Look at the snow! It's just like in the movies!!"
15. Australians LOVE Canadians....and welcome us with open arms.

The one thing that is definitely NOT different is the amount of studying for med students :)

I promise to write soon!
Much love to you all!!!!

Sushi!!

2008-02-09T19:01:00.001+11:00

OK, I know this is a cheesy picture - but I couldn't resist! Anyone who knows me, knows how much I LOVE sushi - and in Sydney, instead of selling sushi to go in those little plastic boxes - they sell them like a maki roll that hasn't been cut!! And the funniest part is that people walk around eating them like mini burritos! If you can't see the picture well, the item in my right hand is the soy sauce in a little bottle shaped like a fish - it made me laugh so I had to share it with you all!
Other than eat sushi today, I started the somewhat frustrating task of finding Enoch and I an apartment to live in. Even in the neighborhoods that are far from the University, the best thing I can find is a bachelor apartment for $1200/month!!! And the craziest thing is that the showing for this incredibly small bachelor I went to look at today had more than 30 other people looking at it too! So, it looks like Enoch and I will be living in a tiny bachelor in a shady neighborhood for the next four years....but I'll survive....I live in a country where for $2 you can eat sushi like a burrito!!!! :) ;)

I'm On the Other Side of the World!!

2008-02-08T21:05:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends and Family!!

It is true, I have finally arrived in Sydney! After a 21 hour plane ride (that caused some seriously swollen ankles and calves!!) I am now at my residence right across the street from the University of Sydney. My res is not the greatest place - but my room is bigger than I had at res at McGill - and so far I haven't seen any of the 3 inch cockroaches that other students have told me are in their rooms!!!
Sydney is beautiful! It is really warm here during the days and cools off nicely at night - there is no heating or air conditioning here - however, it has been raining the past two days.
I'm still feeling a little jet-lagged from the 16 hour time change but after sleeping for almost 13 hours last night I feel a little more like myself.
The campus is incredible - it feels more like being in Rome! The architecture of the buildings on campus is amazing and there are gorgeous statues all around the campus - it's quite surreal to be honest. We had our enrollment today for all the medical students which was really fun to meet some new people - everyone was really friendly and we ended off the day drinking some Australian wine! Not a bad first day eh?
The craziest thing so far has been getting used to traffic coming at you from the other direction - which apparently the university has had problems with from their international students since at every cross walk around campus there are big white letters painted into the road that read "LOOK RIGHT TO CROSS"! Ha! I've watched a few Canadians almost cut their stay here short by getting hit by a car!
I still can't believe I'm so far from home...but I know in no time Sydney will feel a little more like home too!
I miss you all already!!!
Much love!

Here we go!

2008-02-04T15:52:00.000+11:00

Wow! It is so hard to believe this day has finally come! I am leaving for Sydney in less than two days. It is the beginning of the fulfillment of a dream. Thank you to everyone who has believed in me and been so supportive of Enoch and I through all of this! The next time I write I will be in Sydney, Australia!!! So Excited!