Week 2/3

Australia Day happened to fall on the same day as Chinese New Year, January 26.  So there was no shortage of things to do on the holiday Monday.  Brady and I decided to take in the 26^th annual Cockroach Races at the Story Bridge Hotel.  Over and over we heard “AussieAussieAussie! OiOiOi!” and “Waltzing Matilda” as the increasingly inebriated crowd enjoyed the dunk tank, the races and of course, the beer.  The race consists of people “buying” a numbered roach, which are then all put in a big glass jar.  The steward shakes them up and lifts the jar off them in the middle of a sheet painted with a circle.  The 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd roach to cross the line of the circle are winners, and their “owner” is given a trophy by a scantily clad woman on a podium. Again, Youtube can bring you this action if you want to see for yourself.  It’s really so disgusting, it’s fun.  (while you’re on YouTube, type in Funky towel and watch the result!)

I then stopped over in Chinatown, 2 blocks from my place, and took in the Lion dance and pole routines for ushering in the Year of the Ox.  Lots of people, colour and firecrackers!!!  Last event was the fireworks, which were launched from a boat in the Brisbane River around SouthBank.  A pleasant day altogether.

It is still raining, but no one seems unhappy about it, as Brisbane has been in a drought for a decade already.  There has been enough rain to warrant flood warnings on the Gold Coast.  Most of the areas around the city have already relaxed their water restrictions. 

            This has been a week of practical classes, or “pracs” as we call them.  I had histology, anatomy, physiology and microbiology.  So I finally got to work with cadavers!!!! Those that know me know that I’ve been wanting to do this for years.  The other pracs were useful, but not near as interesting.  I always wondered what my reaction would be to my first Gross Anatomy lab.  Would I faint? Throw up? Or some gruesome combination of the two?  Instead, I found myself utterly FASCINATED and loved everything about it but the smell.  The formaldehyde seeps into anything porous, which is great for preserving tissue.  But it also gets in your skin, clothes, hair…and well, you get the picture.  It comes home with you.  Yum, yum!  So that was definitely a highlight for me.  It also makes this med school experience very real.  People don’t let you play with thoraces and fully muscled thighs of the very generous departed unless you are going to be a health professional.  Wow!  I must say though, how red meat looks like red meat, no matter the source.  I’m just sayin’….