Check, Check, Check...

Those checks are the sounds of me ticking things off of my list.  I've been making all sorts of appointments and taking care of everything that needs taking care of before I leave.  I went into the bank yesterday to sort out money transfers and conversions and set up my hair appointment.  Today I picked up my white coat from the dry cleaning place in town before coming home to bake some very yummy smelling pumpkin bread.  The apartment has a very holiday-ish feel to it right now, due to the combination of smells wafting around and the sounds of Christmas music playing from my computer.

Speaking of Christmas, the entire city is getting ready for the holidays.  So many buildings and street posts are decorated for the holiday, so it's really fun to walk around and see everything.  The weather lately has also made it really seem like December; today is the first day of summer, but the high was 65 and it was windy and cold for most of the day.  Forecasts predict similar weather through the weekend so I guess I can't exactly pack up all my warm clothes just yet.  The nice thing about the colder weather is the excuse to go out and get a warm peppermint mocha ("Christmas in a cup").  I sat in Starbucks for an hour yesterday afternoon, doing nothing and not feeling guilty about it...something I haven't felt in a very, very long time.  I had no obligations or reasons to go back to my room:  no school, no gym, no appointments.  I have to say, after pushing hard for so many years, even that one little stress-free hour was amazing.

Tomorrow my roommate Sun moves out...sad day.  I really lucked out with my flatmates; we got along well as a group and I have to say that I'm glad I'll only be here for a couple of weeks after he leaves.  I'm sure the new tenants will be just fine, but things won't be the same.  *Sigh*

Time to hit the gym before I come back and cook up some dinner.  I'm so happy December is finally here...two weeks until my parents land in Melbourne :)

Share A Coke

Right now, the Aussies are running the "Share a Coke" campaign.  I can't really say that I know why they are doing it, but it sure is fun.  The bottles with names on them can only be found in one of the three big supermarket chains they have over here and there are a "limited" number of names that have been released.  Supposedly 50 new names will be added in at the beginning of next year, but unfortunately I won't be here at that point.  It's funny to see what some of the most popular names are...I've seen a lot of Fiona's, Rhys's, and Raechel's...yes, all with the weird spellings.  I was lucky enough to stumble upon my own name today; it was the only one on the shelf and I'm glad I rummaged through all the bottles because it was near the back.  I had almost given up, but then there it was and my efforts were rewarded.  I don't know what I'm going to do with it now that I have it, but it sure is fun to see my name on the bottle.  I posted this picture on Facebook and have already received comments from my friends at Stanford regarding the use of "Stephanie" as my name instead of "Carter."  I looked for Carter at the store, but didn't find it and I'm not going to hold my breath, though you never know!!  I'm definitely ready to be Carter again; these days I only hear it when I get the chance to talk to Alex or the '10s on Skype.

I finally finished off the pumpkin pie last night, so that just leaves a serving of mashed potatoes and some cranberry sauce left over from the Thanksgiving feast.  I need to go shopping again to stock up on sustenance...though I must say that I feel very tempted to make another feast for this week because I was so happy eating leftovers for the past few nights.

I've also been running errands and tying up loose ends now that I'm out of school.  I've made a reservation at a nice restaurant, Fenix, run by one of the chefs from MasterChef Australia (which I've been hooked to) for graduation dinner, packed up a bag, picked up my graduation hood, arranged my last phone bill, and talked to Allan about my prospective coaching job (okay, so I only left him a message, but we're getting closer).  I still need to take care of my bank account, make a booking to get a haircut, and maybe even pick up a Christmas present or two for some of my favorite people :)

Lastly, I received a random package in the mail the other day from someone in Illinois.  I have yet to track down the mysterious sender, but inside was a pair of gold sunglasses.  As of right now, these sunnies are just sitting on my desk, and I'm contemplating on what I should do with them.  If anyone has any leads or information about the package, please don't hesitate to let me know, haha!

My Big Fat Aussie Thanksgiving

Well, I did it; I have now successfully prepared a Thanksgiving feast.  Over the past two days, I have gone shopping and have spent a number of hours in the kitchen.  On Wednesday, I went to Victoria Market to get the necessary fruits and veggies, and then later in the day I made the trek to the grocery store for the rest of the ingredients.  Luckily I had some help from my roommate, otherwise I don't think I would have been able to carry it all in one go.

Once I got home, I cut up and prepared the vegetables so they would be ready to go when I needed them.  The first dish I tackled was the cranberry relish.  It was relatively easy, but just needed to get into the refrigerator to chill overnight.  The one hurdle came when I discovered that I was going to have to use dried cranberries because fresh/frozen ones were nowhere to be found.  After that was the pumpkin pie.  I had to make my own purée, but since I'd done it once already it wasn't too difficult.  There was a little mishap getting the mixture into the oven (aka the pie tin was flimsy and the mix was runny so some of it spilled over the side) but once that was taken care of, it was smooth sailing.  When that was finished, I called it a day.

This morning I got up and went straight into making the mashed potatoes, followed soon after by the stuffing.  This was probably the dish I couldn't wait to get my hands on because it smelled so good while it was baking.  After that was the green bean casserole, the turkey, and finally the yams.  I had to get creative because near the end we were running low on oven-safe dishes.  Luckily I'm an engineer so I was able to rig something up ;)  While I was waiting for the turkey to cook through, I decided to pack up some of my things.  I wanted to put together a donation bag for The Salvation Army ("The Salvos"), so I thought it would be a good time to pack up the things I won't be needing in the next month or so.  My desk is now cleaned out and half of my closet is packed away.  It's kind of surreal, but exciting at the same time.

There was a last minute push to get everything on the table, but I was successful and the feast started after Liz got home from work at around 7:15.  Liz, Sun, and I all took turns ceremoniously "carving" the turkey and overall, my roommates were very impressed.  They continued to ask questions about the food and the holiday in general throughout the meal.  It made me really happy to be eating this sort of "comfort food" and I felt just a little bit more connected to the ones I love at home.  It was really a great evening, even though now I'm super full (isn't stuffing yourself part of the protocol for this holiday?).  We have enough leftovers to feed ourselves for the next couple of days; I won't have to cook again until the beginning of next week, which is really nice to know.

I had a lot of fun with the whole experience, but hopefully next year I'll be surrounded by family.  I would love to help out in the kitchen more, so maybe my mom will relinquish some of the responsibilities.  For now, I think I'll just revel in the praise of my roommates and enjoy this feeling in my stomach.  I'm one full and very happy camper.

D-O-N-E...What Does That Spell? DONE!!!

When I started this blog, and even throughout the course of the year, I don't think I really understood the gravity of this moment.  I can't believe that after nine months of hard work, I'm finally finished.  Two semesters worth of labs, research papers, and final exams, but I made it.

Today was my last exam and I walked in feeling emotional and somewhat overwhelmed, but I came out with a sense of accomplishment.  I can't really put it into words, and in some ways it feels like I'll wake up tomorrow and this will turn out to have been a dream.  I know it's not, and I am more than ready to graduate and to embrace whatever it is that lies ahead.

Now that I have more time on my hands (hallelujah!) there are some things I need to check off my list.  First of all, I need to take care of little things like my phone and reservations for graduation dinner, etc.  Side note, my parents will be here in three weeks (can't believe it!) and I will be home in 50 days!!  On a scale of one to excited, I'm definitely EXCITED.  My roommate asked me what it is that I want to do first once I get home.  It really got me thinking and I couldn't just pick one thing.  There are so many items on my list, so many things to look forward to.  I settled on wanting to see/hug all my family and friends, but that was followed closely by driving :)

I've been living off of whatever scraps of food I have left in the refrigerator because I've put off shopping until after finals.  I decided at the beginning of the week that I wanted to attempt to cook some Thanksgiving dishes since I will be missing our traditional dinner at home.  That means tomorrow I need to put together a mega shopping list and make one or two trips to the grocery store.  I don't know if I'm going to be able to carry everything in one go, but it's nice to know that I have more than enough time to make multiple trips if I want to.

On that note, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends.  My Facebook news feed has been taken over by status updates from all of my friends who are traveling to the midwest or east coast for the holiday.  I'm kind of jealous, but I'll do the best I can to bring Thanksgiving to Australia.  Even though we don't have pretty leaves on the trees right now, it's not exactly warm and the forecast for Friday (which is Thanksgiving at home) is rain, so it will still feel holiday-ish.  I'll post pictures of everything if it turns out well...I'm planning on doing stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce.  You may be wondering about the turkey, but that's not a meat that's too popular here.  I think I'm going to have to settle with getting some turkey fillets and just cooking them on the stove.  My mom claims that it's all about the other dishes anyways.  By the way, here's a Thanksgiving card for your enjoyment (starring my family):  Jib Jab Card.

Big Game

Today is the annual meeting of the Cal and Stanford football teams.  It is a contest more commonly known as the Big Game, and it has quite a history.  The Cal-Stanford rivalry is pretty intense (in football at least, not so much in gymnastics) and it's been fun pitting myself against my dad over the past couple of years.  We went to three(?) games out of my four years at Stanford, and it's always fun bashing each other and making fun of the other team.  While my allegiance will forever and always be with Stanford (duh), I have to concede that the Cal band is superior.  That's the only nice thing I will say, as my dad can attest to.  

The entire campus is buzzed the whole week leading up to the game.  There are signs everywhere (including the one above, which hangs at Meyer Library), the band comes out for a rally (see video below), and there is absolutely no blue or gold in sight.  Everyone is gearing up to take back or defend The Axe, which is rightfully ours anyway (but is something that Cal has stolen on occasion).

I'm excited to have bragging rights for yet another year (I'm banking on a Cardinal win today) and hopefully next season and in the years to come my dad and I can attend more games together.  I also hope he's flying the "House Divided" flag I bought him for Father's Day a couple of years ago.  We're both proud of our allegiances and I think everyone should know about them  :)

Gunning For The 23rd

With another exam in the books, it's time to focus in one last time...buckle down and get through this last subject.  At 4:15pm on November 23rd (9:15pm on the 22nd at home), I will be the happiest girl in the world.  At least that's what I'm hoping for.  If the exam is terrible, I might not be as elated, but I'm still going to be pretty ecstatic given that I will be done with my degree.  In fact, I'll even be done with school for the foreseeable future!!

The exam I had yesterday was the one I was dreading.  It was the most difficult subject of the three, and the only exam that was three hours (instead of two).  I'm really glad it's over, though I'm not sure how I did.  I felt confident on many of the questions, but it was kind of all-or-nothing because on the other ones I just stared down at the paper, hoping something semi-intelligent sounding would pop into my head.  I took last night off of studying, but I was back at it today; I went through five lectures and have 14 more.  The whole left side of my body is in serious need of a massage...in fact, I think I'll make a booking for right after my exam is over.  It will my treat to myself for working so hard.

In more exciting news, it's 30 days until my parents get here, and 59 until I land in San Francisco.  Not that I'm excited at all...haha :)  I'm a bit nervous about what's going to happen once I get home; I'm so used to having everything planned that this "up in the air" business is kind of driving me crazy.  People keep telling me it will all work out and I'm doing my best to believe them.  In the mean time, I'm trying to put together a list of things to do after my exams and before my parents get here.  I'll have a good chunk of time to myself and I want to fill my days with fun excursions.  I only have 41 days left to explore this amazing country that I'm in.  As the end draws near, I'm more and more thankful that I took the trip up the coast over my break.  I really feel like I've taken advantage of being here and have seen and done so many cool things.

I'm staring straight at my pillow and blanket right now and both are calling my name.  I'm heading to bed and gearing up for another exciting day of studying.  It's been quite nice during the day, but it's currently raining again (we've had some crazy storms lately).  The rain makes for good study weather because it keeps me focused and indoors.  And it's also a nice sound to fall asleep to.  Night night :)

Life Of A Student In Finals

Cherish it while I still have it?

Finals, Round 2

I'm in a little bit of a dry spell at the moment, at least when it comes to interesting things to write about.  I've been a great student for the past week or so, studying throughout most of my days.  I take breaks to go to the gym, and at night I take my time eating dinner and sometimes even watch a little TV.  However, and rather unfortunately, there is a lot to do in not a lot of time.

I successfully completed my first exam on Monday and then turned in my final paper yesterday.  That means two of my classes are officially over, with two to go.  It's December 10th, so only 13 more days until I'm done!  So now I've put away all of my Anatomy notes and have pulled out a very large stack of Tissue Engineering ones.  I've chosen to go through all the notes and basically re-write them, trying to capture only the most important things.  Writing really helps to cement facts into my brain, but after 45 pages for Anatomy and 32 pages so far for TE, my hand/arm is getting tired and my neck hurts (curse of being left-handed).  I'm through seven of twelve TE topics, so at least I'm over half way...I should be done by Saturday.  Hopefully that's enough time for my hand to recuperate before the three-hour exam Monday morning.

The only semi-exciting thing going on is the major storm (I like to refer to it as a monsoon) passing through our state.  Last night was CRAZY...it was a storm like I've never seen before.  It stayed warm, but there were sheets of rain/hail stones the size of golf balls (literally) and an amazing light show put on by the weather gods (accompanied by the rumble of the thunder).  The lightening was so bright it almost seemed to flash in color.  Anyway, Victoria's weather never ceases to amaze me.  It's projected to clear up from here, but I've heard that a few times before and we've yet to have a long stint of nice weather, so I'm going to continue to carry my umbrella around with me for the time being.

Say What!?

Today I was informed by my roommates that I don't look like anyone in my family.  I'm pretty sure I met them with a blank stare because all my life I've been told how much I resemble both of my parents.  According to my mom, I walk exactly like my dad and I know he gave me all of his lengthy limbs (thanks!).  I also know that growing up, if you stood me by a picture of my mom at the same age, I look like a clone (minus some of the clothing/hairstyles...70s!!).  It's been noted by my friends that my brother and I used to look like twins (he was big, I was small...apparently a 3.5 year difference didn't do much), so either I've changed A LOT or my roommates are crazy.  I would like to think it's the latter because I am kind of fond of my connection to my family.

They also informed that I have really thin hair...also a shocker because every time I go to get my hair cut, the only thing the hairdresser comments on is how thick it is.  Hmmm, I'm confused...maybe it's just their Asian perception.

On another note, exam tomorrow (in 13 hours I'll be done)!  I *think* I'm prepared, but the course covered such a wide variety of topics that aren't really linked together, so I'm interested in what types of questions the professors will come up with.  I guess I'll find out soon enough.  Send your good luck my way!  :)

The Calm Before The Storm

After a week of cold weather, we finally had an AMAZING day today.  It got up to about 84 degrees and it was a day that was meant to be spent outside (especially because after today it's supposed to rain again until Thursday).  Liz and I decided to head out to the beach around 2 o'clock.  That gave me time to go to the gym in the morning, have breakfast, and catch up with some things before getting ready to go.  After spending the week in my room studying for finals, it was nice to get out and stretch my legs.  Once we got to the water, we stopped for a fruit and sorbet snack, perfect for the type of day we were having.

Afterwards we just strolled around, taking in the massive amount of people that made it out to enjoy the sun.  We took our time before heading back towards the city, where we picked up some wine, cheese, and dips from the grocery store on the way home.

Tomorrow it's back to the grind, reading all of the revision notes I've dedicated so much time to and trying to cement those last pieces of information into my brain before tomorrow.  Then after that exam, it starts all over again...Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials are still to come.  Even though it's stressful, there's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel and I'm getting closer and closer every day!