the Blue Mountains' Grand Canyon Tour

At first I have to give a short update on what has happened during the second half of the week... Since I have been too busy (and then to tired) to write up to now, even though some really exciting things did happen....

On Wednesday surgeries were over by 9pm, so that could be considered a short day...;) I once again was allowed to intubate most of the patients (not the first one, because I was still rounding with the other team, while that happened) and it is getting easier each time... I am so glad Sudeep is letting me do that! During the day an appearently very important Australian celebrety showed up to watch Charlie operate, because she is one of the public spokespeople of his foundation and wanted to have a closer look at what happenes in theater....
During rounds in the morning it came in handy that I am German! We have a patient with a very German name and someone noticed that and since she was not responding when they spoke to her in English, my registrar asked me to examen her in German... And it worked, she opened her eyes when spoken to in German!!!! She had suffered from a head bleed and was just waking up... For the next two days they had me examen her in German every morning even though she already responded to English, just to watch me I guess....

On Thursday I scrubbed in on a spine case. That was really cool. My registrar had a great day and let me do the skin incission and open the surgical wound all the way down to the muscle.... Really amazing. Since there was no other doctor scrubbed I was his assistant for the entire surgery and really got involved! Very cool!!!! Once the sugeries of the day were over I went back up on the ward and was allowed to take an extra ventricular drainage out (it is basically a tube stuck into the ventricles - the fluid filled spaces in the brain - to drain fluid that would otherwise build up and cause severe damage). I felt like I had really done something by the end of the day. In the afternoon Jörg, Katja and I then went to the AMP Tower to have enjoy the stunning view across Sydney. And it was stunning. I just can't get enough of that, I could have stayed there much longer than the other two and just keep walking around and soaking it all in..... For dinner we had initially planned to go out to the oldes Pub in Sydney, but Aneela (the American Fellow) had suggested to go to a brasilian Barbecue instead. That was amazing. I don't think I have ever eaten that much meat in my entire life during one meal! It was all you can eat and they kept comming up to the table with all kinds of different meats that had been grilled... There was so much to try and I wasn't hungry again until lunchtime on Friday!

Friday was again a little bit frustrating. The clinic I was supposed to go to didn't happen, but when I went up to the ward none of the doctors was there yet to start rounds - I had once again showed up way too early... (for Australian standards at least!) I took the oportunity to take care of my paper works and get all that organized... Later I wanted to go into surgery, but that one got canceled because the child had had some really strange EKG.... so they decided to wake him back up, instead of risking rescucitation with the skull open.
Back on the ward, rounds were finished, but there was nothing for me to do and in clinic they already had two other students, so I decided after having spend so many nights in the hospital over the past weeks, that I would just take the rest of the day off and enjoy some sunshine and the beach... I had a great afternoon on the beach. It wasn't too hot, the water was great.... and I finally got to just be lazy and enjoy doing nothing, but reading a book.....

And then today. I got up early and went on my last daytour...:*( It was wounderful. It was a group of only 11people and a guide. We went to the Mountains in a minivan and our first stop was in an area where one can usually see the grey kangaroos, but unfortunately not today.... It was still a nice tea break. The guide was a real nature person, he told us all kinds of really interesting things about plant and animals all throughout the day! If I had done the tour on my own, I would have missed so much! It was awesome! The next stop was a non touristy look out to see the three sisters. The guide wanted to make sure that we don't end up in the areas where all the tourist go, but actually get to enjoy the scenerie far away from the crowds. We had lunch on the bus - not a 1hour lunch break in a place with nothing to do but eat, like most of the day tours offer... I loved it! That was exactly what I wanted - get off the bus to do thing and see stuff and not eat. After lunch we got to the start of the grand canyon tour. There is just no way I can describe all of it satisfyingly. The track was narrow with lots of stone steps, steep parts, sand, wooden steps, some flat parts and extremely interesting. It was so much fun. We walked about 250m down into the canyon through bushland and rainforest land. It was amazing how the plants changed from one meter to the next. The guide described it as stepping through doors and that's what it was like. Absolutely great. He also took us to a termite hill, pointed out spide webs, showed us a special lizzard, a flesh eating plant and explained so much that it would take a few more hours to write it all down... As already said, I would not have been able to enjoy the stone formations, the different colors of the stones, the burned and newly growing trees and the animals and plants as much as I did without our guide. It was a wounderful tour, even though I did slip once and landed on my budd. It was kind of funny, because I was not the only one that slipped when we were walking along the river down in the Canyon. Falling wasn't funny (I admit that), but the other girl and me, we were the only ones to wear real hiking boots, everybody else just had normal sneakers and the two of us ended up falling.... (maybe the shoes are only made for European hiking.... - she was from the neatherland!) At the end we had to climb up again, it was a lot steeper than going down and there were hardly any flat parts along that part of the way, but the view up top across the seemingly never ending green bushland was stunning! It almost didn't feel real.... At the end of the day our guide took us to a tourist spot, just to be able to take a quick look at the three sisters from the post card point of view.... Then we headed back to Sydney with tons of great memories and things to tell. It was just like the kind of tour I had hoped it to be, except that I did not see any Koala (exstinct in that area) and not Kangaroos....
The group of people was also really nice. Mostly people my age and most of them were in Australia for work and travel. So they all enjoyed life and were a pretty easy going bunch of people. Just one girl from Germany was different... She had been in Brisbane for 6 month with EF for a language study year abroad (don't recall what that is really called), but it is similar to the three week summer courses except that the students stay for 10month just like au pairs and exchange students. She was really unhappy with how things had been going and was on her way back to Germany. And talking to her made me realize how much I really enjoy being here and having the opotrunity to see and do all the things that I have been doing and seeing.... Even though some things have not been running smoothly in the past and I have had quite a few frustrating moments as well, I still got so annoyed by her negative attitude after a while that I just couldn't talk to her any longer, because it felt as if it took away some of the excitement I felt about this whole trip.... And on the way back into Sydney I got a little bit sad.... It was the last big adventure, now I will still try to spend as much time as I can in the city to soak up some more of the Sydney feeling before going back, but coming back today made me realize that my adventure is almost over....