It's Not Wrong, It's Just Different!

Gday! I've been in Brisbane one week and decided to give you a thorough update. I currently have two housemates and a cellphone but no house. Finding a home, is a slow process here. We are expecting to have a place any day now. House hunting is a great way to explore the near by neighbourhoods. So parts of brisbane are becoming much more familiar. Apparently, the drought and rains are ending. It's supposed to be getting even hotter! It was 33 today! Lookout. Of course, I'm sweating all through the day. It's good that I've come here though, because back home I'm the only one sweating, but here everyone sweats. Not classy, but there is nothing you can do. Profs do look quite funny speaking in a shirt and tie with huge sweat marks.....

On Friday night, I went out with a couple upper year med students. The connectiong is that my soon to be housemates are sleeping on their couches at the moment. On Saturday night, I went out with about 25 other internationals med students(mostly Canadians!). It’s fun meeting all the new people. Haven’t met too many Aussies though. The other programs don’t start for a month, so campus is rather empty. Speaking of which, the campus is amazing. I’ll have to find some pictures online and take some myself to show you. For now, I found this link, which shows a 360’ view of the centre of campus: http://www.uq.edu.au/about/images/great-court.mov (click and hold your mouse on the picture to move the view). There are trees everywhere, a lake, and it’s on the shore of the Brisbane River. The med school hosted all the internationals last week. The brought in a hilarious guy to give us a taste of Australian culture. It was themed “It’s not wrong, its just different”. For example, they don’t drive on the wrong side of the road, just a different one. Or eating spaghetti for breakfast, its not wrong, just different. The res I’m staying actually serves spaghetti for breakfast, which I ate before that talk and thought it was weird the whole time. And they put vegemite on toast, which might actually be wrong. I’ve been eating it every so often, but it can get tough! And today was the first day of orientation. Today, was exciting but got tedious. It consisted mostly of introductions and brief overviews and welcomming all the students to a special club! Here are some fast facts about the school. There are 37 000 students from 117 countries! It is a billion dollar operation. They receive 70% of the research funding in Queensland. And are getting additional money to setup more clinical schools in south east Queensland. The med school seems to put Canadian schools to shame. There are 421 first year students in med this year. 61 are from Canada – more than the Northern School of med accepted this year. They are continually finding more places for students AND winning awards as one of the best med schools in Aus. Including an award for best anatomy department, something that other schools seem to think is taught most effectively in small numbers. I don’t start any anatomy for a few months so they haven’t gone into much detail about how it will work. My first real lecture is tommorow in histology. Sounds boring already....just kidding. This week is filled with a few lectures, more intros and some fun. The med society (aka the student union/council, etc) is hosting a big BBQ on Thursday and various games and sessions on Friday. As well, they rented out the on campus bar for one of their 4 yearly parties. We were advised to consume a fair number of beverages now, before we have to actually get work in. But I’m sure it’s mostly just milk and cookies! And then Saturday, is Australia day! Which I hear involves another milk and cookie celebration!

The internet on campus is semi-limited. I’ll have to look into that. I’ll try and get back to all your emails! But without a house and the library not wanting me to go on hotmail, it is tricky. I can’t use skype in the library either, so that will have to wait until I get internet setup at my house. You can email me and wait (read: mom) or call me. You have to dial 011 61 405634417. Until then, the journey continues....