Australian Diaries.. Part 5

Hey everyone!
So continuing back from where we left.. After the Indian Party, we had few days left before the exam which was to be held on the last day of the course.

We all were totally engrossed in studies. My brain seemed to go crazy and was buzzing continuously as I read page after page and discussed technique after technique with my colleagues.

On the day of the exam everyone was nervous.. My brain anyway was overloaded till it stopped working I guess! :p

Everyone was hushed up till their turn came. We were called inside one by one to demonstrate the techniques we had learnt and to answer the theory questions asked by the professors.

Trust my luck, I was the last one to be called so till then I was a bunch of nerves even though everyone else who were done with the exam assured me that it would be fine.

Well my batch mates were right, my exam went just fine. Yes, I was asked quite a lot of questions but I answered them to the best of my ability and in the end they said I had done pretty well!!

Finally! It was over.. I was relieved…

But the course getting over also meant that I had to say goodbye… In the beginning of the course everyone was so aloof and hardly interacted with each other.. By the end of the course we all had gelled so well with each other!

You know, I hate goodbyes.. I really had a lovely course with all my international colleagues and each one of them was distinct and amazing in their own way!!

Also, all the professors who taught us during the course were phenomenal! I think I really was privileged to learn from top physiotherapists who came from all over the world and taught us. I think it was wonderful to attend the world’s best manual therapy course where each one who came in and taught us added something new to our knowledge. They all are amazing teachers with lots of knowledge and humility despite their stature…  Respect for all of them!

I would specially like to thank Dr. Toby Hall and Dr. Kim Robinson,, the founders of the Manual Concepts and the ones who have designed this course.

Me with Dr. Toby Hall and Kim Robinson

Me with Sam.. Amazing professor

Me with Michael Monaghan and Indian colleagues

I think this course gave me something more than practical knowledge. After meeting colleagues from all over the world from countries like Japan, Cambodia, Italy, England, Ireland, Canada, Romania, Korea and of course Australia and a few fellow Indian colleagues too,  I think my perspective towards life has changed. I think it’s great to meet people from different backgrounds and interact and learn with them..  It has made me more aware about how different life can be in different parts of the world..

group photo

Selfie

yes selfie mania continues!

Also I had the most crazy, funny and amazing roomates ever- four Italians and one Indian. A special mention to all 5 of them- Andrea Sgambati, Marilena Sfrecola, Sonia Lottini and Raffaele Caradini and yes Manshi Chheda..

It was too awesome meeting all of them and I enjoyed, fought, discussed and learnt a lot from them all during one month!!!  And yes, they played like the most silliest pranks on me during our stay!! It was a tough thing to say goodbye to all of them!
A shout out to my Indian colleagues and now friends Minakshi Fullara, Lakshya Sharma and Saurab Sharma!

I am so grateful to the Almighty and the people back at home without whom I wouldn’t be where I  am today..

So finally I get the certificate!!

I guess life is a journey in itself and I am glad that whomever I met on the course were a part of my life’s journey!
I wish all of you the very best in life!

Hope to meet you all somewhere, somehow once again!!!

Till then,

Dream. Imagine. Be Crazy. Be You.

Au revoir!

Australian Diaries.. Part 4

Hi folks.. My apologies for the delay in continuing the series…

So I and my colleagues visited the Hillary’s Harbour last saturday. The Harbor is a beautiful place and going there was a delight for me.

Hillary’s Harbour.

I saw various boats and ships anchored to the Harbor. I had never seen so many boats and ships all at once in my life! (Except the movies I guess)

Near the Harbor is a wonderful aquarium. We visited there and took a tour around..

I saw sharks, sting rays,  kite fish, small and huge jellyfish, sea dragons and also peculiar varieties of fish like the stone fish and some snakes too!

Stone fish.. Yes it’s a fish!! Look closely!

There was a pond which was accessible and inside were some variety of fish we could touch. I mustered some courage and touched some fish by dipping my hand inside the pond. I even touched some starfish! It was a unique experience!

By this time it was evening and I was eagerly waiting to watch the sunset at the harbor.

As I watched the sun rest a sense of unique calmness came over me.. It was a beautiful sight.

Sunset at the Harbor

Also the lights which light up at the harbor after sunset are a unique sight not to be missed!

After this I got a bit tired but on my friends’ insistence I tagged along with them to the city pubs.

Like I mentioned before I don’t drink. But I do dance!

We all danced like crazy in the pub that day. Actually everyone appears crazy at such pubs anyway!

We went back home at 3.30am and by that time I was quite exhausted and slept off immediately!

It was last week of the course remaining.. We had an exam to give on Friday the 19th of December and the pressure was slowly mounting up.

In the middle of all this we had an Indian party to throw for all the classmates!

Man it was tough! We were 5 Indians in the class so each of us decided to prepare something for the rest of the class.

Someone prepared starters, while someone prepared the main course while the task of desert making was left to me!

So for starters we had besan chilla cut into pieces with capsicum, barbeque sauce and mayo while for main course we had roti,  paneer ki sabzi and potatoes.. And of course biryani!

Besan chilla

Paneer and potato sabzi, anar raita and roti

Biryani

Desert.. Well I decided to prepare kheer made from vermicelli.. The traditional way with dry fruits and Cinnamon and all.

Kheer made by me

The evening of the Indian party arrived. My Indian friends had made sure that all th spice was kept to the minimum as the foreign colleagues wouldn’t be able to eat too much spicy food.

All my international colleagues arrived. We had so much fun serving food to them. They didn’t know how to eat with hands so that was a hilarious and cute sight to see them struggling to eat the roti and sabzi!

The main highlight of the party was the Bollywood dance! Some of my international colleagues wanted to learn the Bollywood dance from me. Now I do dance and have done quite a bit of dancing in my life so teaching them wasn’t that big a thing.

I taught them the traditional thumkas and jhatkas of Bollywood. They were amazingly quick learners and immediately picked it up and danced!

So much so, that we made a face-off between the boys and the girls! Round one we gals won and round two the boys won!

They all are such awesome people who picked up Bollywood dance quickly and had fun in the face off!

It was a night I will never forget!

Catch you all soon in the upcoming posts

Till then

Dream. Imagine. Be Crazy. Be You.

Au revoir!

Link to previous part: http://manasi23.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/australian-diaries-part-3.html?m=1

Australian Diaries.. Part 3

Hii everyone… I’m back again! Let me take you through my journey up till today!

Last Friday, after a tiring week I went to a place called Victoria Park Hotel. It is an amazing place with live music, singing and playing. I danced a bit to it!

victoria park hotel

On Saturday I visited Penguin Island. In India you don’t really get to see penguins.. So I was really curious to go and see those cute little creatures!

As soon as I reached the shore.. I thought we would take a ferry to go to the island. But then we came to know that we could actually walk to the island through the water since in the morning the tide was not too high and it was shallower.

So thanks to my super- enthusiastic friends I walked along the pacific ocean with the water upto my thighs and waded my way through to the penguin island. It took me almost 45 minutes to walk from the shore to the island!

penguin island. See the sand below the shallow waters.. walked through it.

Initially I was a bit scared as I saw the vast ocean around me and the slippery sand beneath my feet but later on I really started to enjoy the walk! It was super fun and exciting to cross to the island with my bag on my head (so that it won’t get wet) and me wading through the water to the island!
It will be an experience  I will always cherish!!

We reached the island. We watched a show where we viewed the penguins! The penguins were being fed and we got some pretty good information them too! The ones which we saw were called ‘little penguins’ and were small in size.. They were really so damn cute!!!!! I felt like picking them all and carrying them back with me! just lovely!

cute penguins!

We were on the island for quite some time, We explored some caves and saw a huge sea lion lurking in one of the caves. It was a bit grumpy so could have been dangerous to go too near him so I saw him from some distance inside the cave. It was really really huge!!!!

cave rocks

We came back from the island by the ferry ( boat) as the tide was high by that time and it was no longer possible to wade through the water…

me and the caves

The same day in the evening.. my Italian roommates ( and colleagues) had planned a pizza party for everybody!

So we had almost half of our class come to our house for the party! I was a little tired but the pizza made by my roomies was just too fabulous! the authentic pizza at its best! My roomie Marilena was the head chef here!

pizza pizza

pizza in the making

On sunday I visited a place called rooftop movies! I watched a movie on the rooftop! an open theatre.. another different experience I guess. I had unfortunately forgotten my jacket in a hurry and it got a bit too cold in the night but it was so much fun to watch a movie under the open sky!
It was an american movie called “This Is Where I Leave You” it is an okay okay type of film but was fun to watch it at a venue like that!

rooftop cinema

rooftop cinema

Monday and Tuesday passed while I was immersed in studies.. Yesterday (Wednesday) my Canadian Classmates invited us for dinner at their place. They live with some Brazilians so we had a mix of Canadian and Brazilian cuisine!! They were perfect hosts and had prepared each dish carefully!
so good!

italian and brazilian cuisine

Here I am, writing this today.. (Thursday) Time seems to fly and I have a few days of the course here left!

P.S. I met the super amazing Jenny McConnell. One of the world’s renowned physiotherapists. She has written many books on taping techniques among others. The world follows her techniques in physiotherapy. Feeling blessed to be among such personalities here.

Me with Jenny McConnell

Let’s see what else awaits me!

Catch up with you all soon!

Have a lovely weekend!

Till then

Dream. Imagine. Be Crazy, Be You.

Au Revoir!

The link to the Part 2 of the series is http://manasi23.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/australian-diaries-part-2.html

Australian Diaries.. Part 2

So the week continued to drag on.. there was a day when we had been attending lectures for 10 whole hours!! By the way in case I haven’t mentioned I am studying at Curtin University.

curtin university

 As soon as Friday arrived, the atmosphere here changed. Everyone around was much more relaxed and jovial. The shops shut even earlier than usual! 

There is a sort of custom here where everyone parties and chills out on every weekend with drinks and other stuff.

I don’t drink and I am a vegetarian. So when my classmates invited me to a pub in the university campus I just went along with them out of curiosity. I wanted to see how things work here in Australia. I took a good look around the pub called Tavern which is located inside the university.

 It’s really a good thing to see people so relaxed and happy on the weekends even though I am against drinking of any sort.

I left early from the pub and had a nice walk in the rain on the way back home,

So on saturday, me and my colleagues, all of us decided that we had enough of studies and it was time to do some sight- seeing.

We traveled to a beach called Cottlesloe Beach here in Perth.

cottlesloe beach

It was the first time I traveled in a train here in Australia. The platforms here are extraordinarily clean and the trains are fast and smooth.

As soon as we arrived at the beach, I saw seagulls around. We don’t get to see seagulls in India so I was really happy to see them.

seagull

The beach  is pristine and clear and the water is amazingly blue and lots of wind blew all over. It was a breathtaking sight and I just couldn’t get enough of it!

cottlesloe beach

We entered the water . It seemed cold at first but warm later. Even though we were sort of at the very edge of the coast inside the water, the waves were very strong! They carried us to and fro with them and we had to put all our energy so that we don’t go away with the waves and get drowned!

We spent a lot of time at the beach.. It made me feel peaceful, stress free and happy, Just looking at the surroundings made me feel calm. A feeling I am sure you all must have experienced whenever you have gone on the beach!

me

Add caption

After that we decided to visit a place called Kings Park which is located in the centre of Perth. It is a 4.06 km park and is one of the world’s largest inner city parks and a popular destination here. We went by the back gate and had to climb quite a few steps to reach the park at the top. Quite a good exercise it was!

As soon as we reached the top the view from there was totally beyond words. The park overlooks the swan river which runs from within the city and also some amazing buildings and contructions of the city can be viewed from there. It’s totally cool!

View from Kings Park

We stayed there until it became dark so that we could view the lights. The view after it’s dark too is amazing and should be experienced if one visits Perth.

view of perth city from kings park at night!

There was a party going on in Kings Park in the evening and so we saw everyone arriving in huge limousines and hummer limousines. They all wore such pretty dresses and suits. It was the first time I I saw a hummer limo and so I was totally awestruck!

hummer limousine

It was late by the time we all got back to our respective homes but it was a day well spent.

P.S.  I had a margarita pizza yesterday which I ordered because it is vegetarian and it wasn’t that good to be honest. Couldn’t finish more than half of it.

By the way I had some really nice Thai food on Friday which was a good dish for a vegetarian like me. Full of mushrooms, basil, brocolli and some other yummy stuff and sauce served with rice.

Thai Food

That’s all for now I guess..

Catch up with you all soon!

Till then

Dream. Imagine. Be Crazy. Be You,

Link to part 1 of this post:  http://manasi23.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/australian-diaries-part-1.html

Australian Diaries.. Part 1.

It was the month of September when my VISA for Australia was finalized.. I was finally getting a chance to visit and study for a month in another country..  couldn’t believe it then and still can’t believe even though I am already here.It goes like this,  after graduating this year as a physiotherapist, after spending days and nights on introspecting whether I should do a masters or not, whether I should do it in India or not, should I start working immediately or not I finally decided upon something.

I decided I didn’t want to do a masters.. But I definitely wanted to hone up my skills and add something more to my bachelor’r degree. So I started looking for courses which could help me do that.

I stumbled upon a course in Orthopedic Manual Therapy which was going to be conducted in Perth, Australia. After procrastinating a bit I decided to go for it.

I left for Australia on the 22nd of November.. and here I am!

It’s just been 5 days and I’ve  already had many experiences!!!

It’s the first time I have traveled abroad.. and that too alone.

So carrying 27 kgs of luggage from India to Australia was my very first challenge!!!

I landed in Perth and somehow managed to get to the place I am staying. I am sharing a house with 5 other people who are doing the same course as mine, 4 of them are Italian and 1 is an Indian like me.

On the very first day itself, we all gelled well with each other and became cordial roomies. They all are lovely people!

I immediately was and still am in awe of the wonderful house we are staying in! it really is so beautiful!

Corridor View of the house

The next question was how do I commute to and fro to the course venue which is Curtin University.

So after a discussion I finally got a bicycle along with my roomies to ride every day. By the way I was given a kid bicycle to ride on as it was the only one that suited my small height!! haha!! Australians are really very tall.. Gals n Guys alike!

Now I haven’t ridden a bicycle in the past 7 or 8 years so I am a bit out of practice here. Also I  am still having a bit of trouble finding my way from one place to another. All the roads look too similar and barring just a board there is nothing else to indicate which road is what!

Plus the population is so less that there is hardly ever anyone walking on the road to ask directions to and almost everything here closes early at 5 pm!

That apart, I think the weather here is quite pleasant though too cold sometimes and the nature here is so beautiful!! The people here are peaceful and polite and each corner of the city is well maintained!

and yes of course, I am having a wonderful time learning here that too with people all over the world from Japan, Italy, Cambodia, Canada, England and Korea and of course the Australians and the people from our India.

An Italian colleague wanted to learn the Indian Namaste! 🙂

So still here for 28 days more.. will catch up and let you all get a glimpse of the life here in my upcoming posts..

Till then,

Dream. Imagine. Be Crazy. Be You.

Au revoir!!

TO BE CONTINUED…………