One week today I will be done school for the year! I can’t wait. I have one more day of school at the hospital, 4 days to study and then 2 more days of ‘practical’ exams. These exams consist of 12 stations (6 minutes each) where we have to perform a procedure (cannulation, ECG, etc), a history, or an examination (on a real patient with a doctor marking us). It can be a little stressful, but definitely requires less studying than our barrier exams. These are a few pictures of us learning how to suture (on pig feet) a few weeks ago!
This last month has gone by really fast. For Halloween, the North American Medical Students Association hosted a really great party (as usual)! Janice, Amy, Brooke, Mark and I decided to dress as the Incredibles, which I think turned out really well (and was surprisingly easy)!
It never seems to take much convincing to get the Australians to dress in costumes so there ended up being a really great turn out and heaps of funny costumes. I think my favourite was the 5 biggest guys in our class (they call themselves the tall man study group) dressed as the spice girls.
They had hilarious outfits, wigs and even choreographed dances. Heather and Mark went as Brittney Spears and K-Fed which was also pretty funny.
A couple weekends after Halloween, the girls (Janice, Heather, Amy and Brooke) threw me a surprise bachelorette party- which was SOOO nice of them. I’ve never had a surprise party thrown for me before and I was truly VERY surprised! There may have even been some tears. :( Anyway, it was a great night. They made us all matching T-shirts with a photo collage on the back, since they know how I love my photos!
They made a cake, some amazing salads and lots of my favourite fruity drinks (including home-made daiquiris).
In the evening we headed down to Darling Harbour for some amazing kangaroo steaks, red wine, and beer tasters! We also played some foosball, pool and Buck Hunter after dinner (very girly, I know…). :)
As for the wedding… the plans are coming along- slowly but surely! It is a much bigger job than I imagined, but has been a good distraction from studying. Last week the girls came down to Brides of Sydney with me for my final fitting and to pick up my dress. :)
Norma, Linda and Joan are meeting up this weekend to bake us our amazing cake and Brent has now sent off most of the invitations. The bridesmaids dresses are in and Brent and I have officially booked our honeymoon in Algonquin Park. Still lots more to do though!
Brent is having a little break from all the planning and is spending the week up north at Manitoulin Island hunting deer! He (unfortunately) got one on his first day out… and she’s apparently the biggest one yet.
Also, I think most of you will have seen this already- but there was a pretty funny article in the Globe and Mail last week about Brent and Mom’s court case against Flight Centre:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081112.woz12/BNStory/National/home . CFRB also got in touch with us (via facebook!) and we were interviewed on the Bill Carroll Morning Show and news talk radio. It was pretty embarassing, but luckily I don’t think anyone I know heard it! :)
Mom is in New Zealand right now and will be in Australia in a week. We plan to spend a day or two in Sydney (mostly packing and moving) and then head down to Tasmania for 4 days. I’m really looking forward to it. We stop in Sydney for one night on our way back to Canada and I’ve managed to get us some tickets to see Tim Freedman (lead singer of the Whitlams) at a small bar in Newtown that evening. Should be great!
Anyway, guess I should get going on some studying (and packing!). I probably won’t write again till I am HOME in December! Yay. I can’t believe the end of the year is finally here.
Miss you! and see you all soon! xox ... and thanks for the flowers, B.
We thought we’d post a few pictures on here, but there are lots more on facebook or on our picasa website: http://picasaweb.google.ca/january.3.09 Thanks to everyone who posted their pictures on the site! 
As for our honeymoon....It was just perfect! It was 5 days full of horseback riding, dog sledding, cross country skiing in Algonquin park, snowmobiling and snowshoeing! The resort was absolutely amazing. Four course dinners, breakfast in bed, chocolate wraps and massages (all included)! We also had free on-demand movies, our own outdoor hot tub, a fire place and a steam room in our bathroom. We can’t wait to go back there for some of our anniversaries. :)
My practical exams at the end of November last year went really well. Mom arrived in Australia on the day of my last exam and helped me move all my stuff from my apartment on campus to Penrith (50km west of the CBD).
Half-way up Mount Wellington.
Bruny Island Cruise into the Southern Ocean.
Post-cruise on Bruny Island.
Port Arthur, Tasmania.
Southeastern coastline of Tasmania.
Our view of the harbour from our hotel room.
We had a day or two back in Sydney before heading back to Canada at the end of our Tasmanian adventure, so we ended up going for a tour of the Opera house, for a kangaroo steak dinner in Darling Harbour with mom and some off my classmates, and even had a chance to go and see the Whitlams (my favourite Australian band) play in Newtown. 
The rest of the month of December was a bit of a blur. Christmas time, visiting family and friends, and wedding planning made for a very busy month. Our only bit of down-time was probably our weekend away at the “Engaged Encounter Weekend” in Mississauga. Brent and I weren’t expecting much of it- but were forced to do it if we wanted to be married in the Catholic Church. It ended up being a GREAT weekend tho… we met lots of people, got some good advice and got to spend some together.
