Anecdotes!

So several entertaining things have happened this past week, and I JUST had to share them with you. :)

On Wednesday, our Child Language Development class was talking about the prevalence of autism, and our prof told us that 1/165 people have autism. A colleague of mine raised her hand and asked what location that was based on; North American, Western Europe and NA, worldwide??? Our prof said that it's a NA and Western European figure; not much is known about autism elsewhere. Another person asked about autism in China and India, which still makes sense: they're very different culturally from us, and I believe that autism has some aspects of a social construct, since it's a wildly heterogeneous population. Then things got weird. The problem with being an academic (as much as I LOVE being student!!) is that we sometimes get a little disconnected from, oh say, reality. This became apparent when yet another peer inquired about the state of autism research in Africa. Ummm... somehow I don't think that autism is a really relevant issue in Africa right now. Your child behaves awkwardly in social situations? Autism, or the fact that he's starving, or she has AIDS? We live in the REAL WORLD people!! THINK! Use your COMMON SENSE. Megan and I just stared at each other... and now (in the vein of black humor) tend to kid each other about doing research on African Autism. *sigh*

Also, a friend of mine sent me an email about dating. He's not much of a writer, so I don't really expect his communications to be flawless, however... I totally bust a gut over this one. He was complaining about the traits he doesn't like in women, and was especially frustrated with those of the fairer sex who are cereal daters. No kidding! It drives me nuts when the guy I'm seeing insists on Fruit Loops every Friday night. ;)

Finally, I've already told you that Meg and I worked through the cadaver lab together on Friday. As we were checking out brainstem bits, Meg picked up a piece that was prosected (pre-dissected) to show us the thalamus and related structures. As she was slowly turning it to study it, it slipped from her fingers... and bounced onto the tray, splitting a bit! That dude's going to have trouble moderating his homeostasis! Uh oh ... The TA who was right there, got this shocked look on her face, which was beaten only by the look of pure horror on Meg's. "Oh dear, Meg," I said "guess you're going to have to replace that. Just lie down over here, and I'll get the scalpel...." :)

This weekend has been nutty so far. After my lab yesterday, I went to our department's research fair, where I heard about some of the other work going on. Nothing caught my attention more than my current plan for my thesis, so I'm taking the appropriate steps now to pursue that. Cool! Then it was off to the Doctor's for my annual thyroid check, and then to Safeway for groceries. Despite having a ton to carry home, I still managed to forget cucumber AND peppers. Crap! After dinner, I went over to Meg's to watch a movie... and we ended up watching both Rent and Narnia. She very kindly offered to drive me home, and I crawled into bed at 1!

Then it was up at 7.30 so I could get ready to go to the OASIS conference today. Melissa asked me "isn't it Saturday" while I was getting ready... I think she thought I was so on my school routine that I was getting ready for class! The sessions I attended were awesome. The first was a voice therapy class taught by a voice coach/actor, and it was phenomenal. If you want to learn some really good, relaxing ways to breathe, let me know. I'm hoping to get a group of us together... he said if we did, he'd be happy to come and teach us more! Then I went to a session on working with the hearing impaired (but not deaf) population. Despite being the largest disability group in Canada and North America, it isn't widely recognized as a real issue, and there's almost no funding available. Do you know that despite the fact that the average person with hearing loss has it in BOTH ears, most insurance companies will only give you $500 for ONE ear? And that the cost of ONE hearing aid starts at around $1500? So it costs you a minimum of $3000 for two, and your insurance will give you $500??? As the speaker said, how do you choose which ear gets to hear? Would you wear glasses with only one lens?? Clearly reform is desperately needed in this area.

Tonight I'm going to Al's house for a girly night of hanging out and playing of games. Yay! Then I'm coming home to crash. :) Tomorrow I'm either going to sleep waaaaaaay in (I need a little extra rest) or I'll go to church. My ride's out of town at the mo., and I know that God knows I love him, so maybe I'll sleep in. Then I'm thinking a long walk or rollerblade, and then homework for the afternoon. One of the 2nd years told us that this program is like "undergrad on crack" and she's totally right. You do twice as much stuff (if not more!) in the same amout of time. This morning it took a green tea, a coffee, and a diet Pepsi to get me through! I had to go the bathroom every 12 seconds, but I was awake, dagnabit!

And now I'm off. I need to finish my laundry before Al comes to get me. Later days, dudes!

Elizabeth

Wherein Elizabeth Sees her First Dead Guy (Well, part of him, anyway...)

Aloha my friends! Today is Friday, Sept. 29, 2006, and I know that some of you know why THAT'S a big deal. (Hint: the answer's in the title of today's post!) Yes folks, today was Cadaver Lab the First. Our group (minus one, not sure where she was) met in the hallway outside of the lab, and the mood was subdued. Out came Professor Cleary in his white lab coat; he provided us with a few insructions, and, like lambs to the slaughter, we followed him through the swinging double doors.

Inside was a large room, with 6 or 8 work stations arranged throughout it. On several of these tables were trays, white metal ones, with... stuff... on them. And by stuff, I mean human tissue from the central nervous system. A.K.A.: brains and spinal cords.

Our group started at one of the easier stations; all that was there were brains in various states of undress. That section's focus was the midbrain, so we got a good look at that, as well as the pons, cerebellum, and quite a few of the cranial nerves. Next up was the telencephalon - the stuff that most people think of when they think of brains. You know - the bumpy stuff on top. Then it was whole brains with some vasculature, and Megan and I managed to identify a whole lot of stuff we didn't think we really knew. We're such geeks that we actually high-fived when we finally figured out where the internal capsule was located!

The next station was hardest. Here was a head (just a head, nothing below the neck) saggitally dissected. It looked like this, only not an x-ray. I couldn't find a really good image of something similar to what we were looking at, which is probably just as well, since you probably don't really want to see it! Each half of the head was lying skin side down, and the face had been wrapped around with cheesecloth, so you couldn't really see it. This allowed us to focus on the internal structures, and dissociate what we were seing from a real person. Then I noticed the nose hair, which was totally distracting. And then, I accidentally saw the face. I whipped away, turning a bit white, but decided to suck it up, and look again. Our head is about 5 yrs old, so he's (or it might be a she... I call it a 'he' because his head his shaved, but I imagine they shave all the cadavers' heads) a little grey and rough looking. It wasn't so bad looking at his face - I couldn't really see clearly, since he was lying on it, and the cheesecloth was partially obscuring it. The weird part is that we're so used to symmetry, and you look for the other eye - and there's nothing there. Plus, his nose was kind of bent. I think the hyaline cartilage might have been damaged...

So no one puked. No one passed out. No one wept, no one panicked, no one flipped. I personally touched a few human brains, got to see some amazing stuff, and looked a dead guy half in the face. Then I went and had blood taken (thyroid check time!) and had to shut my eyes while the tech drew the blood. Hm.

Love,
Elizabeth

Life!

The slow-down on my posting lately is not due to a lack of subject matter, but rather due to a SERIOUS lack of time! Things are go go go in E's World these days, and I'm still loving every minute of it!

School
Classes continue to go well. I'm managing to keep on top of everything by spending every minute I'm at home (which isn't all that much...) locked in my room with notes, books and laptop, chugging through the material. I'm totally willing to admit that some of my reading has been skimming, but at least I'm looking over the material, and can contribute intelligently to discussions! (Minus my question about the astronauts... but that's another story.)

I met with Dr. B today to discuss doing my SPA 900 project with her. By the end of it... well... I believe that I may have decided today to do a thesis. I'm still going to check out what other profs are doing, just in case something lights me up even more... but I'm pretty pumped about this concept. A thesis means that it's going to take me 6 mos. to a year longer to complete my degree, and I won't be going to NZ in summer '08, but that's not the end of the world. I can still go to NZ, just later. And really - what's 6 or 12 months when I'm feeling so passionate about what I'm doing? So, I'll make my official decision Friday - but I'm already pretty confident that it's a thesis with Dr. B!

Life
This weekend was crazy busy, but so awesome. Friday night I went out with some friends to Cook County. We did a little line dancing, and then I spent the night at Allison's, which was fun. Her kitty Marv totally snuggled with us! On Saturday, I met up with a guy for coffee, which was nice. It also brings with it a funny story... (cue flashback music):

So I'm meeting... let's call him Elmo... for coffee. It's the first time we've met, and instead of sitting down and drinking coffee, we decide to walk up and down Whyte and enjoy the sun. Lovely! We pass the Timmie's (Tim Horton's), and I say I'm going to pop in and grab a juice, and Elmo says he's going to head into the bank and quickly grab some cash. I head into Timmie's, and see that there are 2 registers open. I proceed to line up at the one nearest the door I came in (I'm logical like that), which also has a shorter line. As the line moves forward, I also step forward, and MiddleAgedMan1 (MAM1) says politely "Excuse me, but there's only one line, and you're cutting into it." "I'm sorry, I thought that there were two lines" I replied, turning to move to the back of the line. You all know me. You know I hate it when people are stupid in customer service situations. I'm not about to cut in line, I just misunderstood what was happening. As I'm turning around to move, MiddleAgedMan2 (MAM2) says to me, rather brusquely "Yeah! You can't just cut in!" I turn to him and say "There's no need to be rude. I thought that there were two lines, and I'm moving." "NO ONE'S being rude," MAM2 replies completely snottily. "Yes, you are, " I say,"your tone of voice is very rude!" MAM1 cuts in with "yeah, she's moving, so calm down dude." But this point, I'm totally flustered and frustrated, because this guy is assuming I'm a total jerk who would cut in line, and I'm not, and he's being mean to me, and I don't know what to do, so I'm trying to get to the back of the line, but it's very crowded, and there isn't a lot of room, and I'm fighting back tears, and I'm mad... and there's Elmo. He looks at me, looks at the situation... and says "What'd you DO?! C'mon, let's get out of here," and hauls me out of Timmies.

So that's my story. I thought we had a good time, and he got to be my "knight in shining armour," but I haven't heard from him since, so maybe not. It was a good time nevertheless, so no worries. :)

Saturday night Jake came over for a sleepover, and we watched part of a movie, and played cards, and read stories. It was very nice. Then Sunday afternoon I went and saw Phantom with Chris! WOW! It was so great, and I can't thank Chris enough for taking me with him. I also got to meet his mum. She's very sweet, and very tiny! She can't be more than 5' tall, and I was wearing heels, so I towered over her!

Other Possible Commitments
I'm looking into volunteering a few hours a week at a women's shelter, teaching ESL. The guy that I was in touch with hasn't called me yet, so I'm not sure what's up with that. However, hopefully it'll all come together, and I can teach some women basic English that they can use to find an apartment, find a job, buy groceries, etc.

I also (finally!) had an interview with the UofA's Faculty of Extension. I felt like it went really well, and the man told me to drop them a line a week before Oct. 31 (when the new session starts), and they'd see if they had a class for me or not. It all depends on how many students sign up, so they're not 100% sure how many classes they'll have. I'm praying that if God wants me there, it'll work out, and that if it would just be too much for me, he'll just close that door.

Friends in General
I just have to throw a shout out to my Speechie friends in here. Allsion, Megan and Hannah are seriously a total gift from God. Megan and I have very similar stories about coming to back to Edmonton and our lives here when all we really wanted was to go somewhere brand new instead (in fact, one of her first choices was also Dal!). She had me over for dinner last night, and it was just amazing. We talked and talked (and roasted marshmallows over her burners to make s'mores!), and got to know each other just a little bit more. She's great. So great, that I even lent her my Adrian Plass book, which does not go out easily!

And now, that's a huge update, so I'm going to go. It's almost time to leave for skating!!

Love,
Elizabeth

That's just speechie!

I've already been informed that my whole "that's just speechie" comment is not very funny. But it is punny, and I love it, and Megan and I want to make shirts that say it with the above picture under the words. So you can keep your crabby "aren't YOU witty" comments to yourselves!

Today's classes were good. I got home, and attempted to work on my transcription homework. We have a bunch of soundclips of a little girl (I think) saying single words. She has some speech issues, though, so she doesn't say them how you or I would. My job? Write down how a typical person would say it, using the International Phonetic Alphabet (a series of letters and symbols representing speech sounds). Then I write down what she says, so that I can compare the two. Making all of this EVEN MORE FUN is the computer program we're learning to use. It's ghetto. It's old school. It's ancient, and user-unfriendly, and nasty. I have a very legitimate fear that it's going to eat my hours of work (it already tried to eat Megan's). And yes, I mean hours. You listen to each word a zillion times, trying to hear each of the little differences... and then find the symbols, and type them in, and line them up, and .... Well, let's just say I'm taking a LOOOOOOOOONG break at the moment!

Public skating starts tomorrow - yay! Liana, I made a mistake. It's on Tuesdays at Oliver, not Wednesdays. So I'll be heading to that. I imagine I'll need the stress relief. You know that whole above paragraph about the transcription? Well, a bunch of us are getting together to work on it tomorrow. It's going to be a gong show. Everyone'll hear something different, or want to use a different symbol... *sigh* I'm only staying as long as it's sane!!

But I should stick my nose back in my hearing science and audiology book. It's dry and dense, but I don't really know enough about the physics of sound, and I should be learning it. Then it's on to anatomy and physiology, since we have a quiz in a week, and I'm relatively confident that I know nothing. (I know nooooooooooooothing! -Manuel, from Fawlty Towers, episode "Communication Problems"... hey! We should watch that in class!)

Anyhoo, I'm off!

Elizabeth

Presidents, Hockey and Sheep Brains, Oh My!

It's been a zoo-ish week, mes amis! But a good one, nevertheless. We're jumping right into school with both feet, so sometimes it's a little overwhelming. But I'm handling it much better than I ever would have in the past, and mostly just really enjoying myself. :)

Today was our anatomy and physiology lab, and we got to begin dissecting a sheep brain. First you have to cut off the dura mater, which is a crinkly covering that reminded us of our latex gloves. It comes off fairly easily, but you have to be careful not to rip the pituitary gland off! Then you peel off the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater. This is much trickier, as they adhere tightly to the brain's surface. Peeling it off feels and sounds pretty neat. Kind of like pulling sticky tape off of your skin. Then we got to poke around in the sulci (inward grooves) and find all the cranial nerves and other topographical kind of stuff. Next week we're actually cutting it into pieces to get to see what's in there!

I've got a ton of homework and reading to do this weekend, but Hannah's coming over Sunday afternoon to do some of it together. And I think Megan's coming over tomorrow night to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (best. musical. ever). Chris might be coming, too... I'm not sure yet. And of course, Sunday morning's church!

Life is therefore busy, but good. And now I believe my turkey bean soup is bubbling merrily, and is ready for me to eat. Yummmmm...

Talk to you later!

Love,
me

Hockey? Hockey!

I ran into Anne this morning, the girl who's recruiting for the hockey team. Turns out that... Campus Rec provides the equipment! Ok, yeah, kind of gross to be sharing that, but it's a LOT cheaper than providing my own. So - I'm going to play hockey this winter!! Goooo me!

Speaking of skating, Oliver has public skating Wednesday, and the Uni has it on Fridays. And it's already started! I'm so excited to skate this fall. I love skating. And I'm looking into tennis lessons, too... just an hour a week.

Busy busy busy! Happy! Happy!

Love,
Elizabeth

New Link

You guys have to check out this blog. In it, guys put together elaborate improv/prank scenes with HUGE scope. I love it!!

Love,
e.

Wherein Elizabeth Demonstrates how Much She's Changed

So. I think we're all pretty aware that I'm not nearly the scaredy-pants that I used to be. My stint abroad taught me a lot about getting out of my comfort zone, meeting and making friends, and having fun! (Rule #1 - Have fun! Rule #2 - Have fun! Rule #3 - Have fun! Rule #4 - Don't take yourself so seriously!) And just to prove it....

Today I slapped my signature in a little box. Just totally walked up to that sheet of paper and did it. It's something I've wanted to do since high school, but always too afraid to try. I'm now the co-president of our students' association (Oasis, the link only works if you use internet explorer), and I'm thrilled. My partner in crime is my already good friend Hannah, so I imagine we're going to rock! My first suggestion as co-pres is to rename the position "Dictators Supreme." I wonder if Hannah and the class are up for it... :) So I'm super pumped, and looking forward to meeting more people, and doing some planning and organizing.

The other thing that I did today was... well, either brave or stupid. Maybe both? I expressed interest in our class' campus rec team... for ... coughcoughhockeycoughcough. Have I ever played hockey? No. Do I own hockey equipment? No. But I love skating, and I want to try something new. I'm not 100% sure about this yet. There are 2 things. 1) The team may prefer to have members that have, oh I don't know, played the game before. So I'm not sure that they'll want me. 2) IF I do it, I'll need gear. Gear = money. Money = something I don't really have right now. So this is going on the prayer list. If hockey's all good with God, I'm sure that he can provide me with some second hand equipment. Want to pray with me? Or know someone that might have some stuff I could use? Let me know, please!

Have I told you yet how much I love being a speechie? Because I do. I'm in love with it. It's busy, and demanding, and hard work, and I love it. The readings are mostly interesting (anatomy and the physics of sound being a li'l harder to get into), the assignments are cool, and the labs are awesome! On Tuesday we got to play around with oscilloscopes and microphones, and today we were introduced to software that we can use for transcription. (Lipp, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, Lipp. A pleasure to meet you. The pleasure's all mine.) Friday we're dissecting sheep brains!! Yay! (Alison tells me they bounce if you drop them. She was quick to assure me that she does NOT know this from firsthand experience. Yeah. Right.)

So life is AWESOME! Plus, I'm back at Knox (and loving it, and them!), and I'm joining an SLP Bible study. I need more guys in my life (the estrogen levels are stifling at the mo.), but they'll show up sooner or later. Or I'll gatecrash engineering events. You know. Whatever works.

Ok. I really need to read this audiology stuff. Maybe I'll make some popcorn. The physics of sound might be more interesting with popcorn.

Love,
me!!!!! (Who loves being me!)

PS - if you haven't, check out my brother's most recent post. It's awesome!

Dissection

So the first week is officially over and done with, including my first 'dissection.' Someone asked me how you dissect a potato. Well, first you have to make it a Mr. Potato.


I apologize for the bluriness of the photo; apparently I've had too much caffeine today trying to stay awake to do the boatload of readings that were assigned!

Anyhoo, once it's a Mr. Potato, then you do things like "make a midsaggital cut," meaning that you slice 'im in half right between the eyes, separating him into left and right sides. Stuff like that. It was pretty cool!

Last night Melissa and I went to the Druid. Some speechies (read: SLP students) were supposed to be there, but I didn't see them. :( We did, however, have the pleasure of watching the guys at the next table over subtly glance at the women walking past. And by 'subtly glance' I mean OVERTLY OGLE. Subtle. Like the bongos being played in my back alley, subtle.

Today I read. And did laundry. And read. And changed my sheets. And read. And made lunch. And read. You get the idea. But aside from anatomy and physiology, which is incredibly dense, full of new words, and difficult to absorb, I'm really interested in what I'm reading, so it went by pretty quickly. I've got 3 classes done, and 2 left to do tomorrow. Yay for me!

Tonight Kim's coming to get me, and we're going to Wal-Mart. She needs stuff for her place I'm guessing, and I never turn down the chance to visit Wally World! Should be good.

Now I'm off to paint some shelves for my living room. Later days!

Elizabeth

Shedule? or Skedule? You pick!

This is a 'quick note' post. Don't be grumpy - there's a BIG post, with PICTURES below, that I posted earlier today. Anyhoo, right underneath my 'Links' there is now a button for my Google calendar.

If you are also a gmail user, you can click on that, then 'add' my calendar, and then you can see when I'm busy, and when I'm not. You can use it to invite me to things, or I can invite you to things, and it's altogether lovely. I reccommend checking it out. :)

Loves you,
me.

My Flat

Hello everyone!

Well, I have a few minutes to spare, so I thought that I would take you on a tour around my flat/condo/apartment/home. It's bright and tidy today, so we'll take advantage of that fact. ;)

First you come into the hall. I don't have a picture of that, because I've got a bunch of empty boxes waiting to go out, and I was too lazy to move them. It looks like a hall, nothing too exciting!

Then there's the kitchen:



Next to the kitchen (on the left) is the living room:



Then you go down the hallway (sort of to the left of this picture), and you get to my room!:




Then, across the hall, there's my favourite room: the laundry room. I'm so lucky to have in-suite laundry, and a decently sized deep freeze (thanks mum and dad!!):



Finally, there's the bathroom/washroom/WC/whatever you want to call it. Note the pretty shower curtain (thanks Kathie and Brandon!):






So that's my place. I didn't show you my roomie's room, because it's currently empty, and because I don't know how she feels about it! She should be arriving tonight, and I'm looking forward to meeting her.

I imagine she's going to show up in this blog occasionally, as will school friends. I didn't like using initials this summer, because it got confusing (I worked with 3 K's!), so I'm taking a new approach this time around. I'm just going to change people's names. The names will always refer to the same person, but this way you can sort of get to know my friends, too.

Anyhoo, the new roomie, Melissa, has been driving for a day or two, and should get here this evening. I hope she had an Ok journey. I'm not particularly looking forward to hauling boxes up the stairs, but since mum and dad did ALL of mine for me, I can't really complain. :) It will be a teambuilding exercise!

I imagine that at least one or two of you is wondering how my week has been so far. Two words: totally overwhelming. However, I've learned how to deal with that emotion. You just let it be! I'm giving myself til tomorrow afternoon or Saturday morning to just be overwhelmed, and not do anything about it. Then, Saturday morning at the latest, I'm going to start with the to-do list, and get myself organized and on-top of things.

I've set 3 goals for this semester (and, if I can, for the whole program) and I'm going to share them with you here:

1) I will not have a nervous breakdown.
1a) I will keep organized and on-top of things
1b) I will not stress about things I can't control
1c) I will keep things balanced

2) I will not go out of my way to check my grades.
(Meaning that if a grade is written right on the assignment, I'll look at it. But I'm not going to look at grades posted online, or given in grade packets. I'm too addicted to being measured by my grades, and I want to get over that. What I learn is more important than what score I get)

3) I will be respectful, polite, kind and friendly to EVERY person in my class. I'd like, ideally, to have 39 friends this year. If I can't have that, I at least want to have a cheerful working relationship with all of my colleagues.

I realize that the last goal might sound a little weird, but this program is a bit like highschool. You've got all the same classes and breaks together, and I can already see cliques forming. And I don't mean groups, which is totally natural and Ok, but cliques, where some people aren't welcome to join. Personally, I think we're all a little too old for that bull, and I see no reason why we can't all be at least friendly, if not friends.

And speaking of friends, I've already made some. Prepare yourselves to hear a lot about Alison, Megan and Hannah - the 3 girls I've most hit it off with. We're doing our Audiology and Hearing Science project together, we're going to the beer gardens tomorrow, and I think we're having a movie night this weekend. Sweet!

So life is crazy but good. Several times this week I've been sitting in class and just been overwhelmed by a sense of accomplishment. I'm here. I'm doing my Masters. And like our dep't head said: "I just want to be a speech pathologist right now." It's too exciting to have a dream like this come true, and all the craziness is already worth it.

Love,
Elizabeth

Ubiquitous "More Later" Post

Hello mes amis!

Things are tres busy at Chez Moi, as I'm unpacking, organizing, and trying not to be terrified about starting my Masters tomorrow. A real post shall be forthcoming with photos of my flat in just a couple days.

All my love, and wish me luck!

Elizabeth