Toilet Spinning

While watching Master Chef (watched regularly by approximately 2 million Australians) we started discussing some of the differences between Australia and the US. One of the first things I'd noticed here was that the water doesn't spin in their toilets! Apparently in an effort to conserve water the Australians devised the "dual-flush" toilet with a smaller flush for going #1 and a larger flush for #2. Great, I'm all for conserving water; especially in a country that seems like its constantly in drought. My problem, all of the Aussie students thought it was a myth that toilet water spun! So for all of us Americans who were pumped to actually see the old tale in effect, we're simply s*** out of luck.

In other news, Thursday morning, Taylor knocked on my door and lo and behold my door now read "Katrina Philps". Similar, but definitely not me. We were summoned to the Dean of Students office and learned that apparently he wasn't keen on having guys on a gals floor. He listed a few other BS reasons (we know that they've had guys in the exact same rooms in the past) but we didn't really have a choice in the matter so we hauled our stuff across college to our new room. Maybe somebody above really didn't want us to live in our original rooms cuz man did we luck out. Taylor and I are now living in the same room but we have our OWN bathroom and shower! So we decided that in an effort to be accommodating we'd just smile and nod and make the best of our new surroundings. Don't want to feed the terrible American stereotype right? :)

Took part in a really cool study yesterday morning. Earlier in the week had been looking around for some simple employment to help me get by here when I stumbled upon a paid Deep Trunk (lower back) muscle study at the UQ and thought what the heck, why not! So yesterday morning I walked across the street to the Physiology building and learned what I was in for. Started out with a simple ultrasound of my back to make sure my muscles were in good shape (they were) and then they stuck me with 4 needles to implant 4 wires in different spots in the muscle. Then I was hooked up to a machine to record my muscle activity and then had a bunch of little 3d modeling thingers taped on me. If you've ever seen those cool suits that they use for 3d modeling in movies and video games then imagine that minus the suit.

So now that I looked like a christmas tree I got up on a treadmill with a bunch of cameras around me and a computer screen showing a little 3d me on the screen. Did some reeaaaally slow walking increasing in speed up to a light jog for about 30 minutes. Then did some more intense movements with resistance to really make my back muscles work. Oh and I forgot to mention throughout all this I had a neverending supply of gummy candies or lollies as they call them. I was getting paid but dang I would've done it just for all that candy I ended up eating! That about summed up everything, the wires and all the tape were pulled off and I was good to go. In retrospect I should've asked for some pictures cuz I must've looked pretty ridiculous. Now everybody has been asking why the heck I put myself through that for a small bit of money but the way I look at it, it wasn't about the money. Physical therapists and scientists have thought that these muscles might be the main source for many untreatable lower back pains and so far the results from the study have been positive that strengthening these muscles might be a way of alleviating that pain. So if I could be a part of the research that helps somebody and their pain then I'll count my time and very minimal discomfort well worth it.

Anyhoo, I was surprisingly pretty exhausted after that and laid low for the rest of the day with just a little bit of shopping for necessities. It looks like the majority of people are moving back into the college today and everyone has been eager to meet us "seppos" (google it yourself but don't worry its all in good fun). There was a rumor that Taylor and I might have to move again but we promptly went to the Dean and shut down that idea. The principal had gotten it in his head that we wouldn't meet people if we lived together but thankfully the dean agreed that we were doing just fine socialising with the Aussies and didn't need to move us AGAIN for us to get a good Aussie experience.

In other news, our group has been very bummed to find out that Cromwell's biggest party of the semester and coincidentally the biggest college party in the ENTIRE southern hemisphere is scheduled for the same weekend that our program will be going to Sydney. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. As of now its looking like we're going to make the responsible decision to go to Sydney but its oh so difficult for us. I'm sure the two people reading this will commiserate. So it goes though, can't have it all as much as we'd like. I just recently booked my flight to visit a couple friends from Dickinson in New Zealand for the following weekend. There's definitely going to be no shortage of adventures here!