Tour de Swan

One thing that I sincerely miss is having a car and going for long drives. All my teammates back home now that I love driving, especially the long drives. When you're in the open road, driving is one of those things where you can just blast your music and just have time to think about anything and everything. You can get away from everyone and all distractions. When I get on my bike, riding along the empty bike paths, that's exactly how I feel. I can think and clear things up.

I got my bike fixed a few days ago, got brand new brakes on them and my back wheel fixed. It's such a smooth and sweet ride now. I got up Friday morning and all I could think about is going for an extremely long ride. The school was suppose to be calling everyone, between 1-3pm, who would did not pass their exams and thus were not allowed to start their clinics. It's such a nerve racking thing to go through, I had to get out of the house. So I decided to complete what I like to call The Tour de Swan. The Swan river, which is in the shape of a swan, is located in the middle of the city and there is a bike path that goes pretty much all the way around. Well I decided to complete it yesterday. I stopped at the beach for a lunch break but other than that I went non-stop. It took about 4-5 hours. It was awesome, except that my back and shoulders are so burnt right now. It hurts to even put on a bra. This is only the second time I've ever gotten burnt, both times here in Australia. The sun here is crazy strong.

I didn't get a call yesterday but I couldn't relax until I had checked my email for confirmation. You just never know with this school. Once you think you're in the clear they throw you a curve ball.

It didn't really sink in that I passed until an hour after I checked my email. It's kinda bittersweet because I also found out that a few of my friends did not get through. They've worked so hard for this and do not deserve this. This program does not reflect how much they actually know. Becks created a post about never seeing so many people cry before over this program. It's so true. These are students who were in the top of their class in high school or have successfully completed a prior degree and now they are constantly worried about just passing. There's something wrong with that statement. I've said this before but finishing exams is a relief but it's also the saddest and most depressing time. It's true that this program takes away your confidence and without it you're screwed.

The first semester I was here. It was tough getting use to the system and the little cultural differences. After the intro program I didn't think I could do this and it just got worst as the semester went on. It was one of the toughest times of my life because I have never experienced that much self doubt. Because of that, I didn't pass and had to write supps. Fortunately when I passed my supps, I somehow got my confidence back and never looked back. I think I'm very lucky that way and I seriously believe that playing competitive ball gives me that confidence. I wish I could help my friends gain that confidence in themselves. They'll all be great physios. I know it.

At the end of the day, no matter how much we annoy each other, all we have is each other here and are probably the only people who truly understand each other's situation. I just want to see everyone get pass the finish line together...which we will.

Eventful exam period

These past few weeks have been anything but boring. Everyday I would ride my bike to the library and study until I got tired and restless. Sounds uneventful but luck was definitely not on my side, hopefully this doesn’t translate into my results. For those of you who don’t know, I don’t print out lecture notes or take many notes in class. So during exam period, I depend going onto the school network to access the lecture notes. A few times during study week and on the day of my first exam, the lectures notes were unavailable for some weird reason. The person in charge of the notes did not understand why and this only happened to our class. It’s quite frustrating and somewhat stressful when that happens during crunch time.

On the first day of exams, I was riding my bike to school and all of a sudden this stupid bird comes out of no where and seems to swarm right at me. If you’ve read my blog enough you should realize that my fear of Australian birds is progressing into a serious phobia. Anyways this bird surprises me and of course I swerve to avoid it. BANG…I crash into a pole. Yes that’s right, a stationary pole…You can stop laughing now…If that wasn’t bad enough, one of my glasses lens fell out and I couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere on the ground but I couldn’t see it, probably because I had one good eye left. I also, somehow, seem to have hurt my hand but I didn’t think too much of it at the time. It was so frustrating because I was basically at school when this happened and it all happened because of the stupid birds. With no other choices, I rode back home and got my other pair of glasses. Luckily when I was riding back I saw my lens which was right where I was searching for it initially. At least I got it back and there were still a few more hours before my exam. As time went by I noticed my injured hand beginning to stiffen up, swell, and causing quite a bit of pain. Oh no this was my writing hand too. By exam time it was quite painful but at least holding a pen was still manageable. It’s been a week and my hand still hurts and it got quite swollen during my baseball game on the weekend, almost to the point of not being able to wear my batting glove.

That’s my exciting exam experience. Lesson to everyone, there’s a reason why you should always leave extra early for exams because you just never know what can happen.

Exams over, for now

I did my last two prac exams today and it feels good to be done another set of exams. I ran out of time on one of my prac exams but I think it was still enough to pass. I much prefer prac exams than writtens. Even though we’re done, it’s hard to completely feel relieved until you get the official word on whether or not you “pass” and can start clinics. That crucial day is this Friday, when the school will call and email everyone that will NOT be able to start clinics on Monday. I don’t really want to be sitting around hoping to not get a call but it’ll be worst if they left a message on our answering machine or one of my other housemates answered the call. It’s bad because there’s 3 of us who will be waiting for that non-call and if the phone rings between 1 and 3pm, it will be bad news for one of us.

The next few days will be full of running errands and cleaning my chaotic room. I think time will go by quite fast. It’s weird though how at times time can go by so fast and seem to last an eternity at other times. We were given 20 mins for each station during my prac exams and the neuro exam just flew by. It felt as though I had just assessed the patient and only 5 mins was remaining. Then when we’re in holding, time just seem to have froze. It’s interesting how time works. It’s such a constant thing but the perception of it is so varied. One thing’s for sure, I’ve come to appreciate the essence of time after these exams.

Exams

A lot of you have been asking what I have been up to the past few weeks and when I will be back. Also if I can work as a Physio immediately when I come back. Here it is, the answer to my situation:

For the past few weeks, I've been permanently glued in front a computer at school. I think I'm almost qualified as being semi-blind my vision is becoming so bad. Yup you've guessed it, I'm in the middle of exams. This could potentially be the LAST set of school written exams EVER, other than the professional competency exams next year. How awesome does that sound???? I just want to pass these writtens and prac exams any way possible. Last week I was quite a bit of stress on myself, thinking that I HAD to pass everything and not get a supplementary exam because that will postpone everything by a month. Doesn't seem like a big deal considering I've been here for 2 years and the end is so close. So what's an extra month? Well it means I won't be able to write the Canadian written exam here in May because I won't have all the requirements on time and have to wait till Sept to write it back at home.

That was last week and now that I'm done with the writtens, I've realized that I just want to finish the exams and whatever happens, happens. In the grand scheme of things, it really won't matter in the long run. By the end of next year I will finally be a qualified Physio. Obviously it would be better if things weren't delayed by a month but I'm pretty confident that I will pass this semester, supp or not, which means I can go home in May. As long as I don't have to come back and repeat the year, it's all good. If I have to wait till Sept to write the Canadian written exam then that just gives me an excuse to work a few months in either Quebec or Calgary where they don't require us to pass the written exam before working as a Physio.

Honestly I'm more sad that this whole experience here is coming close to an end than worried about getting a supp.