i'm done!

2 years of assignments, classes, practicums, late nights and stress up the wazoo has finally come to an end! my reward? a piece of paper that gives me the ability to add more letters behind my name.

now all that's standing in my way of actually being an OT is passing the national exam. oh, and getting a job. :P

term 6, last term.

heading back to the classroom for our final academic term tomorrow.
term 5 was by far the worst and most stressful term ever,
but thankfully it's over, i made it through,
and i'm finally starting to see the light at the end of this tunnel.

let's end on a strong note, shall we?

snow day

today my school was closed, my off-campus meeting was cancelled, and i got to stay inside and not go to hamilton.

all in all, a good day. :)

term four academic, done.

i can finally exhale the breath i had been holding in the last two weeks of this term. honestly, this term has been nothing short of tough with having to deal with a whole bunch of stuff both related and unrelated to school. needless to say, it's been difficult. i'm so glad the academic portion of this term is over - now i just need to wait and see how i actually did. and get through my placement.

good grief. i never thought OT school would be this hard.

term four, no one likes you.

we were told, by the second years last year, that term 4 was the toughest term in the program with regards to the workload. well, turns out they were right.

i think this picture accurately depicts how everyone in my class is feeling right now:


good thing we only have to do term four once.

back to reality

school starts again tomorrow. ughh.
goodbye summer, you were fun while it lasted.
(p.s. august 2010, thanks for being the month ever.) :)

term three of six

today was the first day of term three.
oh me oh my, i think it's gonna be a doozy. o_O

OT practicum: term two

today i finished up the last day of my second term placement! it was a 5-week placement at a centre for geriatric care and it went by super quick. i have a week off and then it's back to hamilton for another couple months of school. ughh, i'm not ready.

here's to hoping my next placement will also be in toronto! *crosses fingers*

crunch time

for all of january i dreaded february...and now it's here. *sobs* everything for me this term is due sometime this month and things are going to be ugly. first up, my scholarly paper due monday (good lord, i wish i had more done by now.) i think the following picture depicts my present feelings beautifully:



you said it kid. ok, back to writing - wish me luck!

term one of six: done

i'm finished my first term of OT school! :D the exam itself was alright - 2 hours of non-stop writing, but my hand managed not to cramp up so that was good. fortunately i write pretty fast so i was able to get all my thoughts down on the paper, but i think that if you're a slow writer you would have be so screwed. or maybe i just had a lot to write.

either way i'm free until school starts up again next year and the break couldn't have come any sooner. sah-weeeet!

one more...

my exam tomorrow is the only thing standing in the way of me and my christmas vacation and as i sit here typing out this blog i can safely say i am screwed, haha.

i just want this term to be finished - generally i'm enjoying it, but right now i'm so over school. in fact, i think i'll go to bed now...g'nite!

OT practicum: term one, week four

as of today my first practicum experience as an OT student is finished! i still can't believe it's over...it went by so quick. all in all, i really enjoyed my time at the hospital despite the steep learning learning curve and feeling totally overwhelmed more often than not. it was a great experience and i definitely learned a lot. all that's left of term one is my exam next week and i'll be done!

it's too bad my motivation levels are at an all-time low. guess i'll crack out the books...tomorrow. :)

OT practicum: term one, week three

the bulk of my practicum is finished! the experience has been good, but tiring. everyday i roll out of bed at 6:30 to get to the hospital for 8 and by the end of the day i'm left feeling exhausted. i gotta say though, the 8-4 workday is pretty sweet (sans the having to get up early bit) in that you have more of the evening to relax. it's too bad i have a lot of work to do. and it's really too bad i haven't been doing any of it, haha.

only three more days of practicum left! let's do this.

occupational therapy: (y)

apparently OT is good to go in the US - it made it onto the best careers 2009 list. looks like i picked a good one. :)

december? really?

i can't believe it's december already, but all the signs are here: mittens and scarves, winter coats and boots, wool, fleece, and christmas decorations which have popped up all over the place! (i loooooove christmas!) is it just me or has this year has flown by ridiculously fast? i mean, two weeks from today my first term in OT school will officially be done!

don't get me wrong, i'm enjoying school but the break couldn't come soon enough. (i'm so exhausted when i come home every night that laziness and lack of motivation are really starting to set in. this is quite problematic for me right now with the work i'm supposed to do for my placement and the studying i should be doing for my final, ughh.)

so yes, not too long to wait for the start of my christmas break! until then, i'll try to keep swimming in the water that is slowly getting colder and turning into ice. 14 days, 14 days...

OT practicum: term one, week two

i'm just about halfway through my first placement and i've been learning tons as a result of the super steep learning curve. actually, everyday i leave the hospital excited but exhausted - and acutely aware of how little i actually know, haha. my preceptor is still just as cool as she was last week and i really appreciate how she encourages me to ask questions and actually do things as opposed to just standing around watching all the time. while it's nerve-wracking being 'thrown to the wolves' (as she so nicely put it at one point), i think i've learned a lot through being pushed to be more involved in patient care. thankfully, my preceptor recognizes that this is my first placement in my first term of OT school (read: she is fully aware that i have no idea what i'm doing, haha) so that helps to take off some of the pressure.

in any case it has been two weeks since i've started practicum and i'm still enjoying it so i think this is a good sign. :)

OT practicum: term one, week one

last night i had some major gi issues which is how i am blogging right now instead of being at the hospital for my practicum (since i need to be symptom-free for 48 hours before going back). i won't go into anymore detail on the gastrointestinal front because it is and was gross, haha.

what do i think of my practicum? so far, i'm loving it! i'm doing 3-weeks at an acute-care hospital on their in-patient rehabilitation floor, primarily working in geriatrics. my day starts at 8 and literally goes non-stop until 4 aside from a lunch break from 12-1. there's always something to do, patients to see, charts to read, assessments to review, and many things to observe and learn, so i never feel unsure of what to do even if i'm on my own while my preceptor does her documentation. it's weird, but good, in that i don't have any desire to check my e-mail or surf the internet during the day, haha. anyway, to date i feel like i've already learned a lot just going through patient charts with a medical dictionary to figure out what is going on in there, and observing my preceptor in the way she interacts with patients, so it's been a really good experience thus far. i've also learned a ton about wheelchairs, different foot rests that fit on different wheelchairs, elevated articulated foot rests, and the different types of wheelchair cushions and when you would use them. obviously i still have a long way to go in terms of the things i need/want to learn so sometimes it's overwhelming, but that's ok because i know that someday i'll get there.

bottom line is that i'm really liking my placement! it has been so cool.

so cool that last night when i realized i wouldn't be able to go in today, i was actually disappointed. imagine that, disappointed to not be able to go into work! i've never had that before - even throughout my music therapy internship, i was always kind of relieved to not have to go in.

this is just another reason why i think going back to school was one of my best decisions ever. :)

cooking corner: chili con carne

from monday to thursday, my housemates and i cook for each other and eat dinner together. it's nice to be able to eat, laugh, and chat with them after a long day at school plus it's convenient in that everyone only has to cook one day a week.

anyway, my housemates cook good food. i've never eaten so well at school before and as a result, i've felt the need to up my game a little. ok, a lot. gone are the days of instant noodles for dinner everyday (although i totally still have it for lunch sometimes, haha) and here are the days of cooking better and healthier food. yep, i've been slowly expanding my 'cooking repertoire' and have - so far - cooked things like curry chicken, pasta and soup, and shepherd's pie.

tonight was my night to cook again and this is what i made: chili con carne



it was my first time ever making chili, but my housemates said it tasted really good so everyone was happy tonight. i also made rice to go with it but the rice didn't make it into the picture. :P my goal is to hopefully cook as well as my mom one day...yah, i have a long way to go, but i feel like i'm slowly improving. slowly. :)

swamped, but almost out of the murkiness. kind of.

oh man, this past week and a half have been nothing short of crazy - i forgot how stressful being a student can be! i thought undergrad was stressful at times, but so far grad school has proved to be much worse. o_O

anyway, even though it's only tuesday, this week has been hectic. i had a big assignment due yesterday, another big assignment due today, and a presentation this morning in addition to all the other work i've had to do for classes and tutorials which, to some degree, has kind of gotten lost in the cracks. aghhhhh.

thankfully the craziness is slowly coming to a close. tomorrow we have our evaluated interviews where someone from the community comes in and we do initial interviews in front of groups of 6-7 (ahh!) and after that the big things will be out of the way for this month. although i still have something due next week. oh wait no, make that two things.

good grief, it just never ends. o_O

in the hammer: week three

time is flying by and i can't believe it's already the third week of school. the leaves seem to have gone into shock as well (re: flying time) and have been slowly dying and falling off trees in response.

ah fall, how i love you.

anyway, i came back from another weekend back in toronto all ready to crack open my books and get to my work for tomorrow morning (haha, yah i'm still a procrastinator at heart despite my best efforts to change bad habits). as i read through the reading list i realized that i never got around to buying the books needed to complete my homework (one of them is like a 50 page manual going for $60...umm, no thank you). so...yah, that was that. how anti-climactic. hope i'm not the only one going in with blank pages tomorrow.

oh and i got sick over the weekend so i'm currently drinking a cup of neo-citron before heading off to bed "early". tastes like gross. *shudders*