A kangaroo in Armidale!

Getting Ready to Leave Newcastle...

So this is my last full day in Newcastle.  I am getting a ride to Sydney tomorrow morning with the Dunkleys and will be there until I leave on Tuesday.  I am quite sad to leave - it has felt like home.  The time has gone much too fast!
It will be nice to get home though, to see my cats, see my friends and to eat a meal at home for a change!
I know I will be back here soon.

Good food!

Sticky toffee pudding is great in any country!

Thunder, lightning and pouring rain in Armidale!

There is a huge thunderstorm in Armidale right now.  I am loving it!  I miss thunder and lightning - we rarely see it in BC.  I can't believe how hard it is coming down!

I have really loved Armidale.  The people have been so nice.  I tried pavlova (delicious Aussie dessert), had some great meals, great conversations, saw kangaroos, wallabies, beautiful birds, beautiful gorges and met some fellow Canadians!

I will definitely be back.

Armidale, NSW, Australia

I have arrived in Armidale.  Far, far away from the ocean filled with scary sharks!
It's beautiful here so far - very green, lots of pastures, sheep, old cathedrals and beautiful buildings.  It's nice to see a bit more of Australia.  Looking forward to visiting the University of New England tomorrow.

Australia is forgiven for the vegemite

These are avaliable in stores with a tiny spoon to eat as a snack!  I may have to move here!

3rd fatal shark attack on the west coast of Australia in 6 weeks

Just saw this on the news:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-22/diver-killed-in-suspected-shark-attack/3595308/?site=perth&section=news

The ocean around here is scary!

Surfing in Australia...great white sharks...

I was going to go surfing today.  I was sure of it.  I leave tomorrow for Armidale to visit the University of New England, the distributed site of the University of Newcastle medical school.  So I figured I should try to get in the water while it's beautiful and I can.

Then I heard about and saw this:

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/10/21/3345298.htm?site=newcastle

And this:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/17/3166660.htm?site=newcastle

I don't think so...

Vegemite...

So I did it. I ate some vegemite. On toast with margarine. It was at 1 am after an evening of eating some great food and drinking some great wine. That may have played a role in my feelings about it.
It was overpowering and salty and VERY yeasty!
I worked for years with Drosophila (fruit flies) in genetic and evolutionary experiments and we cooked their food in the Zoology building at UBC. On those days, the entire building would smell like yeast and other things that were quite terrible.
Vegemite tastes exactly like the smell of that horrible hot room of fruit fly food.
We realized that we were living out some of the Men At Work song lyrics...
"...I come from the land down under..."
"...he just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich..."
Until I tried it, I thought I would fit right in here in Australia. Maybe not...

Great food!

I just had dinner around the corner from me at East End Enoteca - an Italian restaurant.  It was fantastic!  I had the beef with beet root chutney - wow!  Australian beef is delicious!  Almost as good as Argentinian...but not quite.  :)

Black Butt Animal Reserve

I just had to post a few quick photos of the koala that I was able to pet yesterday at Black Butt animal reserve here in Newcastle!  They feel just like little teddy bears!  :)  And Black Butt is a type of tree...in case you were wondering...

Me petting Bella!  A 6 year old female koala!

Bella eating gum leaves.

The Dunkleys, me and Bella.

My first week at the University of Newcastle

I've been here in Australia now for a week.  It has been great and I have learned so much.  I can't believe everything that I have learned and all of the people I have already met in the Joint Medical Program.  I have observed three PBL tutorials now - two 2nd year sessions and a 1st year session - a lecture, an anatomy lab and a skills training evening with the students.  I have met with PBL tutors, a Course Coordinator, all of the senior administrators from both locations of the Joint Medical Program, basic scientists in Medical Sciences and Biological Sciences, admissions experts, visited the Wollotuka Institute for Aboriginal activities at the University of Newcastle, participated in GP Club, attended a retreat for curriculum renewal in Scone and saw some old friends from Nepal.  Quite a week!

Next week is packed with lots to do as well and lots to learn.  I am meeting with a few groups of 1st and 2nd year students and I think that will be a great opportunity to find out a lot of information for my research and for their curriculum renewal process.  Looking forward to it!

Newcastle Beaches

A beautiful Saturday in Newcastle at the beaches.

A convict manned whaleboat...proud of their convict heritage...

Nobby's Beach

A chromosome!

Ocean Baths

A smoke shop...

Newcastle - my neighbourhood

These are some photos in my neighbourhood down by the water.  Beautiful!

Some Photos - Newcastle

I have been quite busy, so haven't been taking a lot of photos...weird...

Here are a few:

Beautiful view at Nelson Bay.

Petrified whale bone.

A kookaburra!

PBL at the Joint Medical Program at the University of Newcastle

Today was my first day at the University of Newcastle.  I sat in on a basic science lecture for the 1st year students and then observed a 3-hour 2nd year tutorial session in the Endocrine block.  They were wrapping up a case about diabetes after a 2-week holiday.  It was really interesting for me to see yet another example of PBL that differs from what we do at UBC in Canada and different as well from PAHS in Nepal.
There are many things that make this program different from UBC's. 
1.  Students can enter straight from high school - of the 8 students in this tutorial, 6 were ~20 years old and straight from high school. 
2.  There are international students enrolled here.  One of the students in this group was from Malaysia.
3.  They only work on a case in 2 tutorial sessions - they start (or open, as they call it) on Tuesday and close on Monday.  The Monday sessions are 3 hours and the Tuesday sessions are 2 hours.
4.  There is only 1 trigger for the whole case - there is no progression through a case.
5.  There appears to be a real emphasis on the basic sciences with little reference back to the clinical case or scenario.
6.  Students read straight from their notes and teach each other a lot of the learning targets.
7.  One student is responsible for each learning target - so there is very little discussion from the others.

I will have to see if this was just tutorial-specific or if this is just such a different PBL program.  I will observe another 2nd year tutorial tomorrow morning with a different tutor.  It was a great experience and I think that we can learn a lot from each other.

Hunter Valley and Nelson Bay

Yesterday was a beautiful and sunny Sunday and Graeme and his wife Paula and their 3 girls graciously took me out and about on a day trip from Newcastle.  We drove up to Nelson Bay and had tea overlooking a spectacular view and beautiful beaches.  We walked along the water and had lunch at a restaurant there before heading out to Hunter Valley for some wine-tasting!
Our first stop was a sparkling wine winery called Petersons.  Fantastic wines and a chocolate shop as well - heaven!
Then we moved on to Peppers with its great wines.
Lastly we visited Tower winery.
It was a lot of fun and I only wish that I could easily bring some of these wines home to Canada.  But I can't.

Sydney

I stayed my first night in Australia in Sydney with my friend Erin and her partner Dean.  We had such a great night - dinner at Wolfie's in the Rocks area and drinks later at a club that I have no idea what the name of it was.  All I do know was that it was such a fun night!  The people-watching was exceptional and I haven't laughed that hard in such a long time!  After a night of a few of the largest glasses of red wine I have ever seen, we got up in the morning and went out for a wonderful breakfast!  Just what we needed.  I made the train (with literally seconds to spare) and headed up to Newcastle.  Thanks for such a great visit!

Made it to Sydney

Well I made it!  A tiny flight followed by a LONG flight and I am sitting at Erin's place in Sydney now relaxing a bit before heading out for a walk.  I am in Wollstonecraft, a beautiful Sydney suburb.  I forgot how lush and beautiful and exotic the plant life is here.  And how amazing the birds sound!
I am taking the train to Newcastle tomorrow where I will settle in to my apartment on the beach.  Can't wait!  More later!

On my way!

I did it.  I managed to pack one month's worth of clothes, shoes, jackets and bags into one suitcase.  I am amazed.  I leave in a few hours to head to Vancouver and then at 11:40 pm I get on the LONG plane ride to Sydney.  15.5 hours.  Good thing I have a good book to read!  Thanks Audrey!
I arrive in Sydney on the 7th and will stay with Erin for the night.  Then I hop on a train for Newcastle.  I am looking forward to seeing the Dunkleys again.
My adventures in medical education research begin!

Packing again...

It's that time again.  I should be packing but I am procrastinating instead.  I am leaving in 4 days for Australia for 1 month.  I am a terrible packer.  I have left it all for the last minute.  Oh well.
I will be blogging about my adventures again and hopefully you'll follow me and find it interesting!

My schedule is filling up already and there are lots of great work and fun things for me to do.  I will see some old friends, some Nepali colleagues and meet some new friends while I am in Newcastle.  I also plan to do some surfing, some wine-drinking, some snorkelling and lots of exploring!