WA State Special Olympics

I had the absolute privilege of being a volunteer carer at the WA State Special Olympics today at Fairbridge Village in Pinjarra The event officially begins with the opening ceremony held at 5pm tonight, and goes over the weekend. The Special Olympics held sporting games such as basketball, aquatics, equestrian, bocce, softball, cricket and ten pin bowling.

UWA reserved a few spots for students to volunteer and I was lucky enough to hear about it just in time to go along. We arrived in the morning and helped do a bit of setting up. When the athletes began to arrive, we showed some of the guys from the men's basketball team to their cabin and spent the day with them until their other carers came. 

I cannot begin to describe what an amazing day it was. I had so much fun hanging out with all the amazing athletes. They were so friendly and full of life! They were excited to be at the Olympics, and for a few of them it was their first time. I loved getting to know them and joking around with them. A lot of the guys that we spent the day with had an awesome sense of humour and the laughs were endless. 

One of the highlights of my day was the running of the Special Olympics torch. As we were driving home, we had to stop to let the runners pass. One of the guys we spent time with as holding the Special Olympics flag and was holding it up so proudly. When they came close, my fellow volunteers are I cheered his name and encouraged him on. You should have seen the look on his face :) He was SO happy! It was like pure joy. An absolutely gorgeous sight to see. It's moments like this that I feel so passionate about disability support and helping them do great things with their lives.

We were only volunteering for this afternoon rather than over the weekend, and it was actually quite sad to say farewell to the wonderful people we met. They have all left a special mark on my heart and I feel so lucky that I had the chance to be involved in such a great event. It's a shame I didn't get to see any of them participate in their events but I am hoping that next year I will be able to volunteer for the whole weekend :)

Look how happy he is :D The torch is being held by one of the girls in the basketball team :)

Black bean bollitos pelones at Spring Feast

This week is Multicultural Week and there have been lots of different events happening in and around UWA to celebrate. Tonight was the much loved Spring Feast held in the Guild Village.

There was a stage set up on Oak Lawn with live entertainers showcasing their talent, goodies up for sale and stalls and stalls of different types of food from all corners of the globe.

I went to Spring Feast last year, so going again this year was not my something new for today. Luckily for me, one of the first food stalls we went to actually had something vegan on the menu. Most stalls sold meat on skewers :P

The stall sold some Brazilian food and I got the black bean bollitos pelones (baked dumpling). Not only was it vegan, but it was also gluten free. The dumpling was made from corn/maize flour and had black beans in the centre. It was tasty and just one of them was enough to fill me up. 

 



It was a fun night walking around and checking out all the different stalls. There was one where they were cooking meat on a metal barrel which we thought looked cool.

The entertainment that we saw was brilliant. A very talented girl sang some covers with her guitar and accompanied by piano. She had a very nice dreamy voice. 

Spring Feast is always a bit of fun, so I highly recommend you check it out if haven't already. Make sure you bring lots of small change or lots of $5 notes because they don't always have change for anything over a $20 note. Get ready to wait in line for popular things like the spiral spuds on a stick and the takoyaki, and lastly, get used to the idea of being amongst big crowds because there are a lot of people!

We got some really delicious popsicles from here :) I got the strawberry mint. Very fresh :)

Hi Joanne! :)

UWA Catholic Society quiz night

Tonight I attended a quiz night run by the University of WA Catholic Society (UCS). The funds raised went entirely to the St Vincent de Paul Youth program. I've done a few of the Vinnies kids and teen camps and volunteered at the Homework Centre for a few semesters, so Vinnies is quite close to my heart. 

The quiz night was the first one held in about 10 years! It was such a good turn out, with about 60 people attending and about $400 was raised for the Vinnies camps. Such a good effort!

There were many laughs and I learnt a lot of new and random facts. One question that tricked us all was: "What was the highest mountain before Mount Everest was discovered?". We all answered things like Mount Fuji or Mount Kilimanjaro, but the answer was actually Mount Everest. Get it? Mount Everest was still the highest mountain even before it was discovered. Trick question!!

It was such a great night, and I encourage everyone to consider volunteering for the Vinnies camps. They're a great experience and you make so many good memories and friendships. 

On a quick side note, I came across this tumblr website, and when I saw this post (click on the link below), it made me pretty happy about taking this gap year :) 

http://whatshouldwecallmedschool.tumblr.com/post/54419230276/reflecting-on-my-decision-not-to-take-a-gap-year-before

UWA Claremont Campus

As I was driving back from Bishop Road Reserve along Princess Rd, my attention was drawn to a stunning building that looked like castle. I was so surprised when I saw a sign that read The University of Western Australia Claremont Campus. If only all universities looked like this one. 

The uni grounds was so empty. My car was the only one in the student car park and the only other people I saw were the two ground keepers who were busy at work maintaining the well trimmed hedges and perfectly cut lawn. It was so quite and so peaceful...nothing like actual uni life.

This is my fifth year at UWA and I have never once heard of the Claremont campus, let alone seen anything as stunning. I honestly just wanted to go in and explore the 'castle', but I'm sure there would be nothing but offices and lecture rooms. Besides, I think I'll let my imagination run wild and just believe that inside were stone walls, chandeliers, suit of armour statues, and probably a prince or two ;)

UniMentor #2

My last post about the UniMentor program at UWA was just me attending the training session. Today I was actually assigned my 'mentees'. So another mentor and I were assigned 15 freshers who we would take on a tour of the uni for their orientation week. There was a nice mix of international and mature age students and those who came straight out of high school. All the students were so nice and it was great getting to know them all in the short 2 hours that we took them around campus. 

I told a few of the students about this blog of mine, to which one of them replied that it would be challenging to try and do something new each day. Well, too right he was. It's only February, and there are some days where I struggle to think of something new to do. But I like the challenge. And at the end of the year I will have so much to look back on and I'll know that not a single day was wasted because I'll have proof that something was done each day. 

Doing this UniMentor program really made me reminisce about what it was like for me to be a first year. There was so much information which we needed to tell all of the students, and it just makes me wonder how on earth I got through my first week of uni.

I wonder how my past self would react if I told her about the next four years she'd have to go through in order to get to where I am now. Maybe it doesn't matter how she'd react. All that matters is that I have no regrets :)

 

 

 

I love this song from the musical Hairspray. The lyrics "I know we've come so far, but we've got so far to go" seem kind of bittersweet. However, I truly do like a challenge. I know that even though the path I took to get to where I am today was a difficult one, and what lies ahead won't be easy either, it'll still be a different path. And different is good. Different will lead to more challenges and experiences and these will help me to grow.

UWA centenary

My day was filled with a lot of 'firsts' and new experiences today. A couple of days ago I put out some green seedless grapes to dry in the sun and today they finally resembled raisins :) I'll make sure I use them in a vegan recipe for oat & raisin cookies. Watch this space.

I also tried a new dish at one of my favourite cheap restaurants called Takas in northbridge. It's a japanese restaurant and is great for uni students on a budget. I usually always get the teriyaki tofu which is so tasty, but today I decided to go for the agadashi tofu which is fried tofu in a ginger soya sauce. It was simple, but delicious. There was the right amount of ginger which suited my taste. 

 

I ended my evening at The University of Western Australia, where I've been studying for the past four years, and where I'll spend my four years of med. There were centenary celebrations going on, and it was beautiful. Some of the large buildings were lit up with light shows, as well as some of the trees around campus and the night ended with a fire and fireworks show. The weather was perfect for it. I've never really done much to celebrate UWA, but tonight I felt really proud of the university and to be a part of it.