Carbon footprints in the sand

This blog is so psycho, from angst to Idol to silly videos and back. Multipersonality disorder much!

I just realised what a hectic year there is ahead. Here's the plan:

• Oct 21 - Nov 16: last week of lectures, exam cramming & exams ie. hermitude for 4 weeks
  
• Nov 17 - 25: 1 week clear, maybe go to Melbourne or mini road trip
  
• Nov 26 - 30: Year 3 prep week
• Dec 1 - 7: 1 week clear
  
• Dec 8 - 30: possible trip to the Motherland via Malaysia via Gold Coast (budget Air Asia wot) with the steps... awkward galore.
  
• Dec 31 - Jan 23: 3.5 weeks clear, visit Melb if I don't go in Nov.
  
• Jan 24 - Feb 7: do the Dr Quinn John Flynn thang in Airlie Beach
• Feb 8 - 10: 3 days to prepare for Year 3 and move back into sharehouse
  
• Feb 11 - June 29: kill self in what's said to be the hardest academic semester to date (derm, opthalm, the REST OF MED that we haven't learnt yet) - with 2 weeks' midsem hols in April
• June 30 - Jul 13: midyear 2 week break, probably go to Melbourne and show Kezface around Syd
  
• Jul 14 - 20: GP week in some random rural town
• Jul 21 - Sept 7: jump into the deep end in first ever clinical term in Armidale for 7 weeks. Total 2.5-3 months of rurality.
• Sept 8 - 28: 3 weeks midsem holidays, prepare for Health Equity Selective
  
• Sept 29 - Oct 24: thrown into deep end again for HES in Mauritius? Vanuatu? Northern Territory? Mexico, Malawi?! Must get this organised soon.
  

Come to think of it, the last year has been Melb, Syd, Newie (lather rinse repeat) + Albury + Brisvegas, Gold Coast + Tahiti, NY, Niagara, Toronto, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec City, Boston, DC. The mind boggles. I've gotta plant a tree or something.

In fact why shouldn't I spit up some HES thoughts here and get ideas from the gallery. Criteria are:

1. Clinically challenging. HES isn't officially a clinical placement, but it's 8 weeks and there's only so much observation of health systems you can do! Don't just want to bum around on a beach all day either, which some people have done. But also don't want to go to a place where the only tools you have are...I dunno, a handsaw and sewing kit. Cos that would be a teensy bit scary.
   
2. Mind-blowing ie. somewhere out of my comfort zone, with a totally different perspective ie. somewhere un(der)developed. As with #1 I'm not sure how I'd cope - a mollycoddled burban girl alone! At this point backpacking Europe would already be challenging, let alone Malawi. But mebbe it'd do me good to go somewhere that scares me pantsless.
   
3. Something that makes the most of the "one chance to do whatever the hell you want to" aspect of HES. I imagine that the rest of my career will be pretty conservative - if I'm cautious now, I'll only be more reluctant to do something batshit after graduation with the added pressure of repaying my bond and HECS and mortgage and whatever grownups have to worry about. HES is different from travel cos you get to see the non-touristy side of things. With NT, this is our only real chance to go in the course. I'm ruling out VN cos my great-uncle has plenty of contacts there and I could go any time.
   
4. Reasonable rouble-wise. NT is government-funded, so far above the others. Vanuatu is cheapo, a hop skip jump from Syd. Mauritius is ok since there are often Air Mauritius deals. Latin America is the most rouble-unfriendly due to airfares. Pacific Islands or Asia would be alright.
   
5. Safe. The guy who talked to us about Peru got pulmonary oedema from altitude....errr. No rape, shooting, or flesh-eating bug infections either. That'd be nice.
   
6. Language. One of the reasons why Latin America was on the top of the list. Love Romance languages, always wanted to learn Spanish properly and when else am I going to? But as the calendar above shows, when am I going to have the time to cram Spanish beforehand? My one semester of Span 101 won't hack it. Another steep learning curve in addition to the meducation I have to survive. Ay caramba. Though my housemate is going to Madagascar with 8 hours of French under her belt! So anyway, some country that speaks English, French, or something easy to pick up, like pidgin. That sort of rules out Asia.
   

Ahhh tis exciting, so many possibilities. I think #1-#3 are the most important, though roubles and safety are preconditions. Educational, mindblowing, one-off.