Halfway Through Semester 1

After a horribly hectic week, which included a fifteen minute presentation, a gruelling anatomy exam and a report-style paper, we have finally finished the first half of our first semester! And one eighth of the way done our Masters! Students get a week off over Easter and ANZAC Day so we're taking full advantage. A well-deserved vacation is taking us to the gorgeous Gold Coast and then beautiful Byron Bay. Eight of us Canadians are piling into a van for an eight-day roadtrip up and down the eastern Australian coast. We're spending five days in and around Surfer's Paradise and three days in Byron. The weather is supposed to be perfect... we couldn't be more excited! So as you already may have presumed, I won't be posting anything for at least ten days. And unfortunately there wasn't much to write about this time because my life has recently consisted of homework and studying and more homework. Oh, and did I mention more studying? I've honestly never had to study for a subject so much in my entire life! I thought Statistics in my undergrad was bad, but it's not even comparable to Anatomy. Not only do you have to be able to identify each muscle, you have to know all of their functions as well as their attachment sites. There are more muscles than I ever could've imagined! Wes isn't having much trouble because he had to take Anatomy in his undergrad, but for someone who has never done it before, it's nuts! The only thing I can be thankful for is the fact that OT students only have to learn upper limbs, leaving all of the lower limb stuff to the Physios. They're lucky that they don't have to stare at cadavers with faces staring back. I mentioned in a previous post that I hadn't had a cadaver with a face on it yet, but I got one the following week and every week thereafter! I have to admit, it can be difficult to eat lunch after lab sometimes. One of the girls has even stopped eating meat! The smell isn't pleasant either, and when you walk in the lab there are big containers labelled Heads, Necks, Shoulders, Arms, Backs, etc. If anyone has ever been to a BodyWorld exhibit, you have an idea of the types of things we're looking at.

Cool but creepy

In clear cases they look more fake than real, but when you're up close and personal you can't help knowing that they're part of a human who donated their body to science. It's really quite honourable, and I've been a donor ever since I could. However, it's still unsettling to think of how people will be peeling your skin off and then poking and prodding at your muscles, ligaments, tendons, etc. without you even knowing. Anyway, I hope I haven't disturbed you all too much! I'm so glad I get to stop thinking about Anatomy for the next ten days, so why can't I? It must be the fact that the specimen's eyelids randomly open sometimes...