Results and Holidays

Exam results got released this afternoon! Happy dances all round, with a pass for my placement and both B grades for my nursing papers- professional development (law & ethics) and long-term adaptation.

These holidays I have spent a lot of time at home, but also back at my flat, where I have been doing a puzzle for a change! Here is the beginning of it... I have done quite a bit more since this photo.

Photos from walks

Tawharanui:

The beach

A panorama from near the end of the track

Just a random bunny/guinea pig shot

The bunny, the bunny, ooh we love the bunny... (Eloise and I made it up one day, we often call him the bunny instead of BamBam (his name))

Piha:

The waterfalls: you can only see the bottom '3' from the rocks where the lake is as see below: the top one is the one we walked up to.

A plane flew above us... was very clear (not so much by picture)

The top waterfall at the end of the extra not so much of an official track walk

Semester Break 2015!

Exams are finished (campus wide), and I have already been on holidays for a week!

Its funny when there is no Uni to do or even think about (unless I jump ahead into next semesters textbooks) and none of my flatmates are here... It has become very quiet and very cold as no one is constantly in the lounge resetting the heater when it turns off (every half an hour...)

Although I have spent the last 4 days at home (yesterday I came back down), and I'm going back tomorrow...  (so my car can get new brake pads and its oil leak fixed and so I can go and see Mum Friday).

Last Tuesday (16th June) I went to Piha with Caitlin as the others were going into the city, and we went for a walk/hike to the waterfall half an hour or so into the Waitakere Ranges.  It was beautiful! Once we got over the rocks around the waterfall we found a track of mud and used tree roots as footholds to climb up a further 15minutes above the waterfall and found a second one.  (We did have a little difficulty getting down though...)

After going to the waterfall we drove over to Piha beach to walk along it and make footprints in the sand... and ended up shin-deep in the ocean- boy was it cold!!!

Photos to come...

End of Semester One

With only one more exam to go, I am nearing the middle of my Nursing Degree.  I am taking a break from study because it seems to be all I have done for some time now.  My next exam is Monday so I do have five days left before it.

This semester apart from writing assignments and being out on placement I have done some extra uni and non-uni related things:

- Bungy jumping in Taupo with Bianca and Sarah (flatmates)

- I have done an 11km hike

- Been in a flight simulator 

- Been on flat outings with my flatmates (beach, dinner, pub quiz (we won!), JUMP)

- Had nursing class dinners

- Learn't all about Auckland traffic in the mornings and evenings (before/after placements)

Basically I have been a lot more social things than previously...

Throughout this semester I have also in a way conquered my fear of public speaking... well, gotten over it, as I have had to do two presentations! One marked and one not marked (just course work).

SUMMER

I have left my blog alone over the summer, but decided that I would write something today.  Following on from my last post- I completed all my exams from Semester Two, 2014 (passed them all) and then I have also just (yesterday) sat my exam for the summer school paper I talked about doing (Bioscience: Impaired Body Function).

Over the summer period, I worked a little, did quite a lot of study for my paper including spending ALOT of time writing assignments, but I also did some fun things with the family.  These included getting to go swimming heaps at the beach, and in our pool we set up on the lawn, going down the waterslide in the pouring rain, walking up Rangitoto and doing a walk at Wenderholm Regional Park, and I also had all of my wisdom teeth out! It was a rather eventful summer, and I am looking forward to getting back into study again next week as I start back for Semester One on Monday!

Oh, I also did a whole lot of Grey's Anatomy watching... when I could. I bought the first season when I had my break between exams and starting SummerSchool, and then I bought the second season once I was nearly finished the first so I had something to go on with, my plan is to buy the third in the coming weeks, and hopefully watch all Grey's before watching the most recent season which started in NZ last night (which we forgot about and didn't record).

Mangawhai Beach

Volcanic Rock on Rangitoto

Top of Rangitoto!

Going down into one of the caves

Eloise and Anna walking back to catch the ferry back to Auckland

Resting after we had walked back down, everyone was tired!

Waterslide!!! 7pm with rain and thunder (not that it looks like it).

Only Exams to go!

I have now completed all assessments that are internally assessed and just have three exams to go until the end of the semester! Very excited that my first year is coming to an end, to be able to celebrate the fact that I have done eight university level papers and am still going!

I will be doing one paper over the summer period- impaired body function (science); this is to get me ahead for next year, as in the first semester I will be doing purely nursing paper with out this science one meaning I can concentrate on my nursing, and placement without having impaired to do as well.  In second semester I will have four again, including my last science paper of the degree- pharmacology.

By science papers I mean the health sciences that come under their own category for paper numbers, as they are not part of the nursing department, and are used for more than one degree.  Most of my other papers are all nursing based.

Placement is over, and so are lectures (almost)

Last friday was my last day at the hospital on placement, it was an amazing experience and I can't wait for next years Nursing placements! I am nearing the end of my first year at university, I handed my last assignment in on Sunday night (due Monday 9am) and only have tomorrow's catch-up lecture and a lab, and then I'm on study leave for my exams!

I have one next Thursday which is a practical examination, And the a week a half break until my three written exams.

I will finish the Aussie posts at some point... but for now, I should study.