July, the depths of winter (in Australia)

I am on the other side of crazy-time at the moment. I just finished a major assignment and did a critical-pass evaluation (i.e. you don't pass this, you don't pass the year. No Pressure...), and I 'm trying to catch up from the week- long convention I attended. So I am having a slightly more relaxed weekend. Still studying, just with less intensity.
The convention was the Australian Medical Student Association convention, the 50th anniversary, and in Brisbane this year, which made it convenient! We had a great line up of speakers for the academic program, including the authors of two different textbooks used all over the world. The photo is of me and Vinay Kumar, the author of Robbins Pathology.
We also heard from Lincoln Hall (who died on Everest and survived to tell the tale...weird), leaders in stem cell research, and Ian Frazer, the guy who developed Gardasil vaccine against cervical cancer caused by HPV. The social evenings were very alcohol fuelled (the Aussies can be very enthusiastic drinkers) and they all had a costume theme (another thing about the Aussies- they LOVE dressing up). I only went to the first and last nights. The last night was a gala ball at Movieworld, a cousin to Universal Studios theme park. They let us on all the freaky rides in our fancy get-ups, but stipulated only one drink per hour if you wanted to ride all the vomit inducing contraptions. Probably wise. It was a good time, and one of the good things was that I had to stay sober as a judge because I was driving....I can't think of a better excuse! The pics are on my Facebook, if you want the pictoral gory details.
In some ways I am glad Rob isn't around right at the moment. During each block, something related has happened to each of my friends (not just medical school syndrome, where you think you have what you're studying) During respiratory block, I had a raging chest infection. L's mom had a heart attack during cardio block. Another friend acquired an ascending bladder infection during urinary. So all us girls are nervous during reproduction block. Fortunately I had postive proof of infertility after Rob left. HAHA!! It's not gonna be meeeeeee!!!!!
Anyway, other than that, life's not too exciting..... reading and studying.... playing with knees and shoulders. My favourite(not) test so far is the "Apprehension test" where your hand manipulation threatens to dislocate a knee or shoulder, and you watch for the patient's reaction-- Cheez! Can you think of a meaner thing to do???? (Speaking as a 3 time knee dislocator!!)
Well, Anatomy beckons.....