Inspirational.

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing that a woman was running, race organizer Jock Semple went after Switzer shouting, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.” However, Switzer’s boyfriend and other male runners provided a protective shield during the entire marathon.The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon with a time of 3:07:29

Read her account of the race here.

Beautiful.

I've got an exam in a couple of hours, so I'm meant to be revising but one of the girls linked me to this video and it made my day. Aren't they beautiful!
Holidays and placement in a couple of weeks so I will update more about what I've been up to when I get some spare time.
Also, randomly booked flights to Melbourne next week so if you are down there and want to catch up just send me a facebook message because I have a new number and was too lazy to transfer my contacts when I got it :P.
Have a good morning!

Newfangle

New´fan`gle.
1. Eager for novelties; desirous of changing.

Over the last few weeks I was lucky enough to have been involved in the production of this incredibly cool short film. The girls who made it were absolutely fantastic, and I absolutely loved being a part of it. The music is by the beautiful and talented Elle Graham.

You can find out more about the production and see some more photos here.

Wanderlust.

You can always make more money, take up a job and pay back your debt. You can spend all the time you want catching up on work you missed. What you can't do, though, is turn back time and take up the opportunities that you let slip by the first time. It's one of my biggest fears, putting something off until 'later' only to never come back to it. If you want something, and there is any way in hell you can get it, then go for it, fight for it. You're never going to get to the end of your life and wish you had taken fewer chances, had pursued fewer dreams and had less adventures to look back on.

Hahaha look what I found.

An old attempt at a video diary from November, the morning of my last exam. Oh dear Lord.

The 100 most beautiful words in the English language.

Here is something really lovely that I came across today. It's a list of words that give me faith in the English language after coming to dislike it so much in comparison to the romantics I've heard on my travels. I have italicised my favourites, but please let me know if there are any amazing ones I have missed. Personally, I can never go past a good nemesis, but have always wondered if you can ever have more than one. Is there a plural? Anyway, hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Ailurophile A cat-lover.
Assemblage A gathering.
Becoming Attractive.
Beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.
Brood To think alone.
Bucolic In a lovely rural setting.
Bungalow A small, cozy cottage.
Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.
Comely Attractive.
Conflate To blend together.
Cynosure A focal point of admiration.
Dalliance A brief love affair.
Demesne Dominion, territory.
Demure Shy and reserved.
Denouement The resolution of a mystery.
Desuetude Disuse.
Desultory Slow, sluggish.
Diaphanous Filmy.
Dissemble Deceive.
Dulcet Sweet, sugary.
Ebullience Bubbling enthusiasm.
Effervescent Bubbly.
Efflorescence Flowering, blooming.
Elision Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
Elixir A good potion.
Eloquence Beauty and persuasion in speech.
Embrocation Rubbing on a lotion.
Emollient A softener.
Ephemeral Short-lived.
Epiphany A sudden revelation.
Erstwhile At one time, for a time.
Ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
Evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
Evocative Suggestive.
Fetching Pretty.
Felicity Pleasantness.
Forbearance Withholding response to provocation.
Fugacious Fleeting.
Furtive Shifty, sneaky.
Gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.
Glamour Beauty.
Gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
Halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.
Harbinger Messenger with news of the future.
Imbrication Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
Imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.
Imbue To infuse, instill.
Incipient Beginning, in an early stage.
Ineffable Unutterable, inexpressible.
Ingénue A naïve young woman.
Inglenook A cozy nook by the hearth.
Insouciance Blithe nonchalance.
Inure To become jaded.
Labyrinthine Twisting and turning.
Lagniappe A special kind of gift.
Lagoon A small gulf or inlet.
Languor Listlessness, inactivity.
Lassitude Weariness, listlessness.
Leisure Free time.
Lilt To move musically or lively.
Lissome Slender and graceful.
Lithe Slender and flexible.
Love Deep affection.
Mellifluous Sweet sounding.
Moiety One of two equal parts.
Mondegreen A slip of the ear.
Murmurous Murmuring.
Nemesis An unconquerable archenemy.
Offing The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
Onomatopoeia A word that sounds like its meaning.
Opulent Lush, luxuriant.
Palimpsest A manuscript written over earlier ones.
Panacea A solution for all problems
Panoply A complete set.
Pastiche An art work combining materials from various sources.
Penumbra A half-shadow.
Petrichor The smell of earth after rain.
Plethora A large quantity.
Propinquity An inclination.
Proximity; Nearness
Pyrrhic Successful with heavy losses.
Quintessential Most essential.
Ratatouille A spicy French stew.
Ravel To knit or unknit.
Redolent Fragrant.
Riparian By the bank of a stream.
Ripple A very small wave.
Scintilla A spark or very small thing.
Sempiternal Eternal.
Seraglio Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
Serendipity Finding something nice while looking for something else.
Summery Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
Sumptuous Lush, luxurious.
Surreptitious Secretive, sneaky.
Susquehanna A river in Pennsylvania.
Susurrous Whispering, hissing.
Talisman A good luck charm.
Tintinnabulation Tinkling.
Umbrella Protection from sun or rain.
Untoward Unseemly, inappropriate.
Vestigial In trace amounts.
Wafture Waving.
Wherewithal The means.
Woebegone Sorrowful, downcast.

NEW FILM!

charlottedurand's photostream on Flickr.

Just uploaded a few holga shots from Wellington. These ones turned out great! None of them have been edited, I got the film developed and rather than scan them all, I just took photos of them on my phone. Super lazy I know, but they look fine anyway. Enjoy!

Making the Cut.

This photo was taken on one of my last days at Sydney uni, where I have been for the last couple of weeks. If you look closely you can see me in the second row in what is the ultimate photobomb. Seriously. 

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend two weeks in the lab, participating in a part of the uni's 8 week whole body dissection elective which runs in the summer break. Everyone else in white is in their final year of a post grad med degree, and the people in green are either surgical registras or professors of anatomy. 

Before you ask, yes- it is weird to spend 2 weeks legitimately cutting up dead bodies- but you seriously don't even notice how creepy it should be because it's just so freaking cool. I can't tell you how fascinating the whole experience was, it's like nothing I have ever done before. And you learn so much! After spending the best part of your day painstakingly dissecting out a particular branch of the facial nerve there is no way in hell you are ever going to forget it.

Dissection is a completely different style of learning because you really learn about the anatomical relationships of different structures in the area where you're working. I spent most of my time with the two teams doing head and neck, and I learned so much in such a short amount of time. Because I've only just finished my first year and we haven't covered much neuroanatomy at all, I thought that I would be waaaay out of my depth and that everyone would think I was an absolute idiot. But it worked out great because I could follow along with everything they were saying and if I didn't fully understand, someone was always glad to talk me through it. 

Before I got there, I had this image in my head of a deathly silent lab crowded with nerdy freaks bent over bodies and talking in medical language so sophisticated that I wouldn't even be able to hold a conversation. What I found on the first day could not have been more reassuring. Yes, most of them are nerdy (you kind of have to be to get in here in the first place) but everyone I met was so chilled out, kind and genuine, I couldn't have asked for a better group. We worked together in teams of about 8, meeting in the morning for a debrief of the days goals and other relevant info. The clinical lectures were fantastic because they linked the things we were learning with situations and symptoms we might come across in practice.  

Most days we worked until 11am, which had become the unofficial break for a cup of tea and a sneaky game of table tennis in the common room. Back to work for a couple of hours before another lunch break outside in the sun, and then most people stayed around until about 4pm. 

It was a pretty similar schedule every day, and though we covered sooo much anatomy in each session it surprised me just how relaxing and how fun the environment was. We worked together, teaching and learning from other students as well as the professors and demonstrators. I got to know them all quite well that when it came time to leave I realised how easily I could have stayed on for the rest of the course. 

One of the best things for me was to get to know people who are at the opposite end of my degree, who are about to graduate and who still feel like they don't know enough (which is both reassuring and horribly scary.) People who are living real lives alongside their study and work, not just hanging out at college in their spare time. I met someone with a young daughter who I spoke to about balancing her time between being a doctor/surgeon and having a family as well. Hopefully all this kind of stuff is way in the future where I'm concerned, but it's nice to know that there are people out there doing what I want to do and that I'm not alone in my fears and worries. 

I am so grateful for having been given such an incredible opportunity, and I hope that I can keep on seizing every little thing that comes my way. Most importantly I hope that I continue to love what I do and to have fun in my work- whatever that may be. Most immediately, I think that this experience has made me reconsider applying to do the dissection elective at my own uni in Townsville this year. I think that if I am even considering surgery as a career path (which I am- I don't want to not do it) then it is definitely something that will help me. Who knows where I am headed or what I will do, as long as I enjoy it then I'm happy! 

beautiful.