This week has flown by! I really haven't had the chance to string together a good 30 minutes to blog. I didn't expect to be this busy studying abroad. I imagined life at a much more leisurely Aussie pace. I guess I'm just one of those people, however, that can't help but fill up my schedule. Its so unintentional. I feel like I'm back at Tulane going to bed at 3 or 4 and waking up at 8 and running to the next thing. I like it; its a challenge. And its familiar.
Scruffy's has become my official Tuesday night extravaganza. I also like having nightlife routines so this is a good thing as well. I went to bed a bit after 3 Tuesday night and got up at 7:45 for the first day of my internship. The email I got asked the new interns to be at the office for 9 and then we would have an orientation lasting about 3 hours. Little did I know that this would actually be my first 9-5.
The Brain and Mind Research Institute is a very cool institute indeed. The office building is very chic sporting modern interior decor. The 4th floor is where all the shrinks' offices are that people come in to see and the rest of the building is mostly labs and offices and things. I spent the morning with Jen, our boss, and the other 3 interns learning about actigraphy and such. Basically, the research I'm going to be assisting with (far as I can tell anyway) is working with elderly populations who experience sleep disturbances. We give them these watch looking things which record their periods of rest, activity, light levels, etc. and a sleep diary in which they record their sleep/wake times and some other details. After two weeks we take all that stuff back and analyze it. They also come in for tests and spend the night twice in the sleep clinic to be hooked up to ECG machines and whatnot. Honestly, I don't really know what the point of it all is. I kind of asked Jen about it and I do know that its strictly for research purposes, not patient treatment, so these old folks who are our lab rats really get no compensation for helping us out. Jen pointed out though that they're retired and have nothing better to do. Ha. One of the coolest things that I will supposedly get to do is administer some psych tests to people. Jen gave me the pack to conduct and score them on myself and it was so exciting because a lot of the tests are ones that we studied last semester in Testing and Measurement back at Tulane like the BDI, Rey's Figure Drawing, etc. In the states you have to be trained and certified to administer tests to people. I started on the test battery after the other interns left for the day, turns out I would be staying.
So I was left in the actigraphy watch computer room all alone, for hours, doing like depression tests on myself. Cool. I didn't see anyone else except Tony the Asian guy until 2 when Jen popped in and asked if I wanted to get lunch. Chyea I wanna get lunch! She was going to the nursing school cafeteria next door to eat and I politely declined to spend my lunch hour there. I headed back to the apartments but couldn't find Amber or Helen so I resigned myself to eating along at Hoochies when I got a text message. It was perfect timing; my friend Noah invited me over and made me a delicious sandwich. I realized he was probably buttering me up so I would tell him the secret of all you can eat taco Wednesdays and called him out on it. Turns out he was buttering me up so I would be his nola tour guide when he comes to visit. Alright, I'll do that for a free (and tasty) lunch; especially after several boring hours with no human interaction to speak of. I'm such a people person, I need that stuff. Or I least need to feel like I'm doing something productive. I felt neither. After lunch I headed back to work. Ew.
Nothing much eventful happened the rest of the workday besides my getting to score an actigraph. Turns out that this particular actigraph was worn by a crazy lady. It was rather amusing yet very strange at the same time. The data the actigraph recorded in no way matched her sleep diary. And she wrote all over the entire sleep diary random details about her life and dreams and dog citing them as things that disturbed her sleep. Yea, coding that stupid thing was a stab in the dark... especially since it was my first time. To add a little excitement to my life, it was actually this lady's night to come in for her DLMO which means she sits in a chair for hours in one of the sleep rooms and while we take saliva samples every thirty minutes and administer loads of psych tests. So I was lucky enough to meet this lady and stand there awkwardly while Tony collected some of her saliva. Finally, an hour later, I got to bust out of there.
So on Wednesday I learned that 9 to 5's SUCK. Really, it was so draining to sit there and feel useless all day. When you do a 9 to 5 you have time to do NOTHING else. I really needed to do readings for other classes, my laundry, go to the gym, etc. but nooo. Yea, I left all in a huff and feeling particularly zombie-like. Luckily, Wednesday happened to be all you can eat taco night at Zanzibar for $8. So I went there and ate my stress away. It was one of the rare occasions I've been full since I've been here. All you can eat taco Wednesdays are marvelous.
I trekked to Coles in the dark after that to buy groceries in order that I wouldn't starve the next day. Then I went to Grace's birthday party and exercised discipline by leaving around 11:30 to take a crack at all the readings I had to do for my tutorials the next day. On Thursdays I have class from NINE am to SIX pm with a one hour break between 2 and 3. I was planning on doing the readings during the day Wednesday, but then the 9 to 5 happened and rah rah. (Aussies/Europeans say "rah rah" instead of "blah blah.") Back in my room I decide to take a small facebook break before reading and that turns into me getting on skype for an hour and a half or so before realizing its 1:45 and I haven't done anything. Yea, some things never change; like my studiousness. Then when I attempt to start to read for my Buddhist philosophy class, I realize I don't have the article. Naturally, I give up and go to bed.
The next morning I'm up at 7:30 again running like mad to get to the library to print off that article before my first class. Then I spend most of my first class reading that article and untangling a giant ball of yarn (don't ask). We got out of class a few minutes early so I ran to Manning house and made a brilliant discovery that they have $4.50 salads that are pretty legit. The legit salad and I are then racing to my next class again where I ate it while also trying to digest Buddhist philosophy. Oddly enough, I LOVE that class. I turned into one of those annoying kids that speaks up on multiple occasions during the lecture to ask questions or throw in my two cents. Oops, oh well. During my break following that class I found myself running once again, this time to my apartment to pack a gym bag and then back to campus where I attempted to wade through 3 big article on domestic violence for my social work tutorial. I did very well in the last 3 hours of class considering how prepared I was. But man, by my social work tut I was brain busted. I said like 1 meaningful thing and made 2 questionable contributions for the sake of getting participation points. Then I headed straight for the gym after class to make the 6:30 pump n' tone class since my 9 to 5 prevented me making it the day before.
After that crazy freakin' day I came home and felt super energized. I think that's why I keep myself so busy; I get some weird high from running around like a crazy person all day. I was determined to go out since I didn't have class the next day. Before I left though I went to Noah's apartment (still in my gym clothes) to bug the guys. I found them playing SPEED QUARTERS! I freakin' love speed quarters! So I ended up staying and playing more card games and such. I also had a really looong spiritual/philosophical conversation with Noah on his balcony which was engaging. Oh, and I beat all the boys at hearts. Anyway, before I knew it, it was 4am. Oops. At least I didn't have to get up early this morning.
Today I woke up before my alarm (which was set for noon) and did my laundry. Can I just say, that is my favorite way to blow $10, I mean, its so fun. Then I headed to the library to meet with my outdoor education class group to work on our project. This school is obsessed with presentations. I'm convinced its so they don't have to teach except for like 20min each class. I swear, I have so many presentations to do and a ton of my class time is spent listening to other people present stuff. I don't like it. I don't think I've done a single presentation since I've been in college. I guess I don't mind putting together one on my own, but group presentations are so annoying. I like the people in my group, Brett and Mahalia, but mercy! We spent the first hour trying to decide on a basic outline for the presentation. Mahalia would fight Brett and I on every little detail. I had to keep repeating in my mind, "Patience, Kathryn. Steady girl, stay cool," so I didn't get up and start yelling at her to chill out. And that's essentially how I spent my day.
Tonight I'm going to the movies with Amber and the handicapped girl that she looks after on Mondays and Fridays. I hope Ferero Rocher gelato gets involved. It will if I can help it. Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip to the Royal National Park and I am EXCITED! Can't wait to tell you all about it!
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