I would first like to start off by wishing my best friend in the whole entire world, Maggie Penn, a happy 20th birthday! Wish we could celebrate together, but I know you Italy will treat you well.
Today, Kaitlyn, Lexi, and I started off our morning by waking up early to work out at the gym across the hostel. It made for another cultural experience--having to calculate everything to the metric system took a lot more effort than I imagined. While using the treadmill, I had to convert the speed and distance, but did not have to go from kJ to calories, and when using the free weights, I also had to convert the weights to pounds. Because the weights would convert to random amounts in pounds (not the usual 8, 10 or 12 lbs that I'm used to) I had to slightly alter my workout. But hey, it's all part of the study abroad experience.
For our morning lecture, we had the opportunity to meet and listen to Jenny McConnell speak about anterior knee pain. For those of you that may not know, she is somewhat of a celebrity in the athletic training world for developing the McConnell taping technique, which uses coverall and leukotape. She is a physio with a local clinic in Sydney. She was a great speaker and made me think more in depth not only about knee issues, but about the way we practice as athletic trainers. She emphasized that we are on the forefront of changing the way people think about sports medicine and the way it is practiced. Jenny also spoke to us about common causes of knee pain, different knee conditions, her research with the infrapatellar fat pad, and what to do when our athletes have anterior knee pain. Using Allie, a girl in our group, as an example since she has chronic knee issues, Jenny demonstrated what to observe and test for, different strengthening exercises and stretches to do, and taping techniques to alleviate pain and adjust for proper patellar tracking. Listening to her was a very educational experience. She was very set in her ways (she completely wrote off open chain exercises and kinesio taping), but also emphasized the importance of evidence based practice. Interestingly enough, she mentioned that had she lived in the US, she would have gone into athletic training because she feels that physical therapy is on the downhill because athletic training covers more areas of sports medicine. I found that to be extremely thought provoking because even though I am majoring in athletic training and planning on getting certified, I also plan on attending physical therapy school. Being on this trip has made me think about my future life plans and if physical therapy is truly something I want to pursue. Seeing the lack of athletic training here makes me realize the potential for growth that there is in the career of athletic training and I think it would be a great challenge to try to spread it to other countries around the world.
For lunch, we had wanted to go exploring around The Rocks, but the pouring down rain deterred us from choosing that route. Instead, Dana, Lexi, Kaitlyn, and I found a little cafe in an alley called, The Baker's Oven. I ordered a toasted Mediterranean sandwich, which was good, but did not compare to Lexi's bowl of muesli with apples and macadamias. Muesli is like a mix between oatmeal and granola and has been my breakfast every single day this trip--it's my new obsession.
After lunch, we had our second lecture with Dr. Courtney, a local osteopath. The topic of her lecture was dysfunctional breathing. Dr. Courtney's focus was on sharing with us the prevalence of dysfunctional breathing and how often it is misdiagnosed as exercise induced asthma. She shared with us the signs and symptoms of DB, as well as musculoskeletal issues that could be caused by it such as lower back pain. We also went through some exercises to improve breathing and make it more efficient. These included holding our breath and breathing through our nose instead of our mouth. Dr. Courtney also expanded specifically on hyperventilation as an example of DB. I had always thought that hyperventilation would appear as heavy breathing with minimal oxygen intake. What I learned was that it actually is a condition where you intake too much oxygen and your carbon dioxide levels drop significantly, causing multiple negative effects on your body.
Next on our plan for the day was to go to the markets in Chinatown. It took some time to try to figure out the transportation system, but a bus ride and a couple of train rides later, we finally found the markets. They are located in a massive building and are very similar to your average flea market with identical stands selling cheap souvenirs and other trinkets. I found all of the people and items for sale to be slightly claustrophobic and only lasted about ten minutes. While it would have been nice to purchase items there because of their extremely low prices, I also feared that they had the potential to break apart within seconds due to their low quality. After the markets, we used public transportation once again to go to Darling Harbour for dinner. By that time, the sun had set and the harbor was lit up by all of the boats and restaurants that bordered it. There were so many options for dinner, but we finally chose the Tokio Hotel, which surprisingly enough served Italian food, because it seemed to be the liveliest. We also wanted to be sitting outside because they were practicing a light show for Vivid Sydney, a music and light festival, where they create amazing light displays accompanied by music all around the city and it starts tomorrow. While ordering dinner, we overheard a group of Americans ordering drinks, so Lexi and I started talking to them. As it turns out, they actually went to Ohio State and were also studying abroad. After a couple of playful jokes about the rivalry (except we truly meant them), we actually found out that we had several mutual friends, which is always fun to find so far away from home.
After dinner, I was anxious to get back to the hostel because Leanne, one of my roommates last semester, is also studying in Sydney and was coming over to hang out! It was so great to see her and be able to experience a little bit of Sydney with her. That night us and a group of girls from my program went to The Ivy. We had heard from locals that it was a really nice, high end club with multiple stories and normally the cover charge was $20, but if you arrived before 10 pm, it was free. Taking full advantage of this offer, we got there early and hung out. We had pretty high expectations for The Ivy and they were surpassed. It was an amazing venue with beautiful views of the city and everything was over the top and extravagant. It had a partially open ceiling, so you had the comfort of being indoors with the adventure of being outdoors. It was a unique experience however because the age group there was a bit older than us and dressed quite professionally. In which case, we were dressed pretty casually, but I'm getting accustomed to pulling the American tourist card to defend my wardrobe choices. After hearing so much about the different floors of The Ivy, all we really wanted to do was explore the venue, but we were told that the other floors were closed off (which we later found out was incorrect), so we did not end up staying too long and left soon after arriving. The group of girls from my program returned back to the hostel, but Leanne and I chose to meet up with people from her program in Kings' Cross. When we arrived at the World Bar, where her friends were, they did not allow us in because Leanne was wearing thongs (flip flops), which I found entertaining. Instead, we chose to explore Sydney a little more before calling it an early night since we both had class in the morning. It was the perfect way to spend the night with Leanne though because we were able to catch up--which we had a lot to do since it had been about three weeks since I had last seen her!
No comments:
Post a Comment