So yes, I am finished! degree: tick!

the "two tanned euro and white + freckle sandwich"

oh yes, thats US



chillin and drinking in the sun

the best flatmates, morning before our final exam

Hard to believe but I had my very last exam on Tuesday. I am a qualified physiotherapist. That is just crazy. I have to work on my introduction to patients so that I dont say "Im your physiostudent for today" Our motto was "Woodstock" so we all rocked up in our best hippie outfits to sit that exam. Everyone was more hyperexcited than nervousl. The exam went well, was not too hard. Couldnt study for it unless you wanted to revise the last four years...NOT! Ok here some Woodstock impressions....

Kirsten played half of the afternoon in her little pool :-P

wet bottoms - but soo refreshing

So cute how I wrote in my header of my website "and i have already finished my 2nd semester" well now I actually have completed 8 full semesters, 4 years full time uni in Australia. Crazy to think that I have been here for that long and not have been living at home for that long. Wow wow wow. Thats pretty much all im thinking at the moment.

The last few weeks

so that is what happens when anna gets busy ... clothes dont find their way into the cupboard....ohoh....now my room is all cleaned up again. i got really annoyed by the mess.

volleyball tourney last weekend

we had 4 british girls playing, they are here in australia to train for the olympics. oh my god, they were soooo good. it was a "queen of the beach-comp" so everyone swaps partners. it was so much fun to and also against them. they were just soo skilled, amazing skills, strength, speed, tactics...just everything. thats their job i guess but i was quite impressed and pointed out how much we "suck" if compared to them. thats why i play socially cos its my hobby!!

U gotta love the beach

Vicky, me and Mandy. We are all training and playing casually. Great to have training sessions with them when our busy schedules can fit it in. One season I want to train full time and see how much I can get out of my body :)

Alana (very ambitious player, training for a marathon atm and she also just openend her own clinic as a massage therapist and Claire (she is a machine, she does nothing but training and wants to play overseas for australia...)

Played one event last week and it was just soo much fun again. Beachvolleyball is the best sport in the world, hanging out at beach all day, have friends around, go for surf or swim, be on the beach, eat icecream....perfectemundo :) there was the coolangatta gold event on, so we had heaps of spectators. that was an "ironman" type comp with surf life saving, funny as and tough check it out http://www.coolangattagold.com.au/ they have to ski (standing on long board with paddel), swim and run on the beach for crazy distances. the sea was quite rough so they just got absolutely smashed when they tried to get out. must be so exhausting.

This saturday there is another queen of the beach event ie u swap partners and its within a festival
http://www.kirrasurfstock.com.au/ yay will be an awesome day again. cant wait.

Intensive care unit

In the last two weeks we were going to ICU for some physiotherapy with the critical patients. Very overwhelming I have to say. Not a big fan of seeing human beings being so sick, so "life less", out of control of their human instincts and most importantly relying on sooo many machines. It is crazy that so much equipment is needed to keep that body alive. So we had to learn to identify and analyse all those machines and know what all those traces on the numerous monitors mean, what all those lines are and all the time staying sane and not losing control if one of the alarms go off. And believe me, there is ALWAYS something beeping....

Our role is to look after the patient's chests ie lungs and respiratory system esp if they are intubated and ventilated or newly extubated because their lung function is very compromised after surgery for example, due to pain relief or just malfunction and disease. So if the patient is unconscious we can do manual baging ie take over the role of the ventilator and ventilate the patient with a bag (how crazy is that, if u dont squeeze the bag, they wont get any air....HUGE responsibility) and by doing that giving different sort of breaths with holds to prepare the lungs and sputum for suctioning ie mobilize the sputum off the chest wall and then suction it out with the machine by putting the tube down their throat until u reach lungs and then suction it out. OH WOW! If u lucky u trigger a cough by inserting the tube which makes the suctioning quite succesfull. So strange with a patient who doesnt respond and just lies there unconsciously not even being able to breath on their own.

We also look after their arms and legs and move them so they dont stiffen up. Also bit scarry because they have lines in every possible artery and you have to be SOO fr***** careful to not disconnect or dislodge anything. While you do all this you always have to keep the monitors in sight to see if something drops, if the heart goes outta control etc pp....not easy.

Quite an experience....esp the bagging and suctioning (click it)

Apart from that you can see all sorts of gory stuff, ie insertion of a ICC (intercostal cathether) where the put a tube into lungs between ribs to drain a pleural effusion ie liqiud for example. The one I watched was crazy, they drained like 1.6 litres of greeny water instantly....

i could ramble on forever of how much i learned in there but I think that gave you an impression of this particular role of a physiotherapist.

random pics from last few weeks...uhm....months...sorry, been so slack!

UQ muskulo skeletal clinic
wow we spent a fair bit of time on those chairs with that ridiculous amount of paperwork we had to do-thank god it's over!

eva, jo and glenn (flatmate and two mates from work)

must be love, loove, loooove

funny faces and "a few" drinks for uni and the fact that I paid my last lot of uni fees successfully...that needed to be celebrated!

little annamobil II loaded up with too much oktoberfest prep stuff

My money was well invested

check this out!

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=21907

Oktoberfest 2010

Jo and me, another girl from work,she is just a party girl, back ups 4 days in a row, drinks a LOT of rum and is just lots of fun altogether. hanging out with her a fair bit lately

the dance floor

Jenny, she is a chef from hotel and she is just so cute, broken english and so typical asian, lots of giggling and peace signs on photos...just soo cute. I fed her and her friend german sausages and beer, lol, extremely hilarious! they loved it! I dragged her along once, I didnt give her a choice, she was fairly shy cos she didnt know anyone and then the language barrier but now everyone knows her and she comes out with me every now and then *thumbs up*

low fiv, for some reason I tend to do that quite frequently....dont ask....

great picture. so funny, we actually went out clubbing in our outfits, it was sooo funny and ppl, especially the male gender, seemed overly excited about that?????? u guys are crazy!! so we didnt leave each other, didnt even dare to go to toilet alone. such a fun night. thanks girls!

haha so funny, some random portugese guys just wanted a photo with us??? as if we were a sight. in our state we didnt say no, we also got a drink out of it so....not debatable =)

Eva chopping up a million of potatoes, we made a LOT of very yummy Kartoffelsalat

best buy ever....a kilogramm of pretzels, they lasted all night long and even served as the first choice of hangover snach the next morning, well I wasnt actually hungover but everyone else ;)

our treasury corner

awesome =)

great outift and great BBQ skills, I got 100 Nuernberger sausages from a german butcher and they taste like at home. everyone loved them --> happy host

our ex-flatmate Niall (left) with his friends

Ange, me, Sal&Sean (volleyball peeps)

we dont have any big salad bowls so our Wok and a mini bucket had to help out

bit of a different "German" outfit

Richard & Ange from work

Hayley, me and Lucy (both Sara`s sisters aka the "Creamer" Crew)

criticial outfit, he wanted to be a "Nazi scientist". I did explain to him, though, that that is not really that funny, I think anyway, but I got over it

my favourites

my lovely Sara with giant Anna :( sometimes i feel kinda huge

In the end we had about 35 people attending and everyone was dancing, the keg was empty by 11 o clock and we partied till 4 am....it was a success!!!!

Holidays

Hi everyone

nur mal ein kleiner Vermerk, dass ich jetzt Ferien habe, sprich ich bin daheim um zu telefonieren, zu den meisten Tages- und Nachtzeiten.

Mein Laptop ist immer noch futsch, verscuh ich mal zu reparieren, aber das ist der Grund warum ich bissl von der Aussenwelt abgeschnitten bin.

Ich hoff es geht euch allen gut!

Ich hab jetzt also einen kompletten Block Ferien, 5 Wochen und dann noch mein letztes Prac in Ipswich fuer 5 Wochen- cardiothoracic physio- also viel post OP und Intensivstation Zeugs...und dann bin ich so gut wie fertischhhhh, eine Woche Uni mit einem Test, ein komplexer Fall, aber das wird einfach sein nach unserer Prac Erfahrung.

So und jetzt lege ich mich in meine Beanbag draussen auf Terasse in die Sonne im Bikini und les ein Buch, OHJA!

LAST time i had to pay uni !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I so should get absolutely smashed, I paid my last lot of fees...I hate to press that submitt button with that huge amount being displayed on top. Breathe in, breathe out.....CLICK....and it gooooooeeeessssssssss.

Eva and me are usually not in a very good mood on pay day. People that live at home and dont work and complain or winge on that day to us, wont have it easy, cos we most likely start a discussion.....and do NOT mention Macintosh computers around us....ARGG. Still cant believe uni had to pay, I dont even wanna know how much, to replace ALL computers on the ENTIRE campus with oh-so-nice macintosh` just to be the best uni with the best research and the best teachers and the best technology, nothing was wrong with ordinary (???) flatscreens especially considering we still use windows, anyhow, I have to let it go =)

Even people in Australia dont know how much we have to pay as internationals, and they ususally are like "WTF how on earth do u do that" " I dont even know myself...." Its all about budgeting, but a big part played my family who always supported me!!

Anyway, I wanted to say a

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE THANK YOU

to everyone who has helped me through those tough times around pay day because I was just saving money like a maniac and usually went a bit crazy worrying that i wont be able to finish the course!

DANKE DANKE DANKE

Kim, meine rettende Hand letzte Woche, fast haette ich es alleine geschafft. War aber schier unmoeglich. Nochmal Danke, ok?!

Und noch ein anderes

RIIIESENGROSSES DANKE

an euch, Oberstens! Irene + Dieter, ohne euer Vertrauen haette ich damals nicht weiter machen koennen und ich rechne euch das extrem hoch an was ihr fuer mich getan habt. AMAZING! Ihr habt beigetragen, dass ich meinen Traum weiterleben konnte, was in der damals schwierigen Zeit das bester fuer mich war, und auch abgesehen von der ganzen Sache, wirklich genau das ist, was ich machen will!!! Falls irgendwie meoglich, moechte ich mich revangieren, bis dahin, seid ihr jetzt meine Nummer Eins Investition, von jetzt an spare ich fuer euch, nicht mehr fuer UQ. Die haben mich ja bereits ausgesaugt. Also vielen lieben Dank nochmal!!

Cant believe it that I actually managed to pay the fees for this last year cos in my calculations, I was a fair bit short but it is done and i am STOKED! So proud of myself AND so proud of everyone who helped me, love my FAM! U ROCK! All this for little princess Anna, I appreciate it big times and I will proof to all of you that it was the right decision to support me in that crazy, Anna-will-study-in-Australia-project! U will never have any pain anywhere ever anymore, I`ll come and fix ya, haha ;)

Computer futsch

Hey everyone!
Just a quick note to let everyone know that my computer finally left me :( He fought for a while but didnt get out as the winner in the end. My apologies if I have been really slack with contacting you guys but first of all I dont have my own laptop and secondly, I am busy AS! In my fourth week of musculoskeletal prac at uni and it is just full on, I dont wanna winge because it is good in regards to that we learn sooooooo much but on the same token: we have to put in a LOT of work too. We get there at 7 every day and leave between 5 and 6, then I sometimes have to work straight after, or if I can I go to the gym to switch off and then at night there is usually more work and study to do for the next day and the huge amounts of paperwork and projects and presentations....so in a nutshell, placement is still good but I just dont have anytime beyond so dont be upset please, I miss talking to everyone as well but I had like 5 occasions now where I get ready for bed "early" with the intention to call someone but as soon as I'm horizontal, gravity acts on my eyelids and I cant be bothered. Two more weeks and I am all yours again because I will be on holidays, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Mein 24ter, erster Teil

Vodka mit Brause. Jenny, Koechin im Hotel wo ich arbeite, hat das zum ersten Mal probiert aehm oder eher probieren muessen ;)

Sara's moves,like the style, haha

knuddel

Pat and I