First Full Week Recap

This week started the first week where classes and interning began. Most people had their interviews and possibly their first day on site at their internship on Tuesday but my supervisor was in Queensland so I had another free day! A big group of us went down to Coogee beach and it was absolutely beautiful! It had this little lagoon with a cliff overhanging it with rocks to tan and jump off of and you could see the town jutting out into the water. I haven't been to manly yet but I like Coogee better than Bondi so far!

On Wednesday a lot of people had classes and work so I went out and found my internship. It's at Hornsby physiotherapy and it was a hike to get there. I left at 11 and didn't get home until 3:30! I took a bus a train and another bus to get there for an hour and a half and the same thing to get home for 2 hours. Luckily my supervisor is a really cool guy and picks up and drops off his employees from  the office. After I found my way home I just relaxed and accomplished a little bit of homework. Since both of my classes are on Monday we had online work for this week because of the public holiday.

Thursday morning I had my first class here in Australia! It is a "Learning Through Internship" class so that you apply your knowledge from your internship and reflect on the experience. We have a research paper to write and I'll probably do mine on the cultural differences within the workplace between America and Australia. This class only meets 3 times throughout the semester so most weeks I only have class on Mondays! After that Erika, Courtney and I headed back to Coogee to relax and lay out. Thursday night a bunch of us went to IVY because it's cover is usually $45 and it was free the night. It was an incredible club, a bunch of levels with a pool on the top. I guess I understand the need for the expensive cover.

Friday I had my first day at my internship site! I had to get up pretty early to make it there by 9am. From now on my supervisor will pick me up but it'll be at 6am so we can get there by 7. I'll be working 20-24 hours a week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday's, so I have a free day on Wednesdays (Happy Hump Day!) Friday's will always be long unfortunately because the office is open from 7-7 and drinks after work are pretty much the norm here... I didn't get home until almost 10pm! At my internship though, they kind of tossed me right in and I worked with patients and did stretches and heard about their diagnoses. I felt like I learned so much! It was really cool to actually be applying things I've learned in school and I felt like in that one day I learned a lot more than I do sitting in a classroom. It's also super interesting because my supervisor has students from all over the world intern with him for clinical hours. I worked with a girl from Switzerland, a girl from Norway, a boy from Hong Kong, an Australian boy and 2 American grad students, so you get a lot of different perspective and see how physio is practiced all over the world! After work we went out for drinks and appetizers and watched some cricket before heading home for the day.

Yesterday we had our first excursion through Phi Beta Dingo where we went to the Australian Walkabout Wildlife Park. We headed out at about 8:30 am and got there around 10:30. First thing you see when you walk in were... koalas! Super cute, super sleepy. Then you walked a little further and there were kangaroos just freely walking/ hopping around everywhere! There were also wallaby's and emu's that were a little more shy. Had to get the classic Australia picture with a kangaroo! Some of the park workers walked us around and told us about the aboriginal people of Australia and all of the plants and wildlife. They also provided us with lunch... at this point the emus were a lot less shy and came up and plucked a girl's hotdog right off her plate! After lunch we learned about and how to throw boomerangs... spoiler alert, it was not my strong suit. Then we got to pet and hang out with a koala for a little before heading home! I totally forgot to put sunscreen on but barely burned so I really lucked out! 80 degrees here is a lot different feeling than 80 degrees at home... we were boiling all day long. Later that day we went out to this bar called the Scary Canary. It had these jug drinks and a lot of techno music but an awesome atmosphere. We danced a ton with our group we went out with.

Tonight is a Chinese New Year festival/parade and a CAPA provided dinner so if I don't have to cook it, of course I'm going!

 Cheers!