Melbourne ACO

A day after I came back from New Zealand, it was off to Melbourne for placement at the Australian College of Optometry (ACO). Lots of flying in and out of airports, but I love planes.

Trust Jetstar to experience 'technical issues'. First time having a plane cancel on me, and freaked cause wasn't sure what to do. In the end, you pretty much wait on hold for 45mins-1hr, then they change you to the next flight. Ended up going on a Qantas flight, which meant I could finish the movie I didn't finish on the flight from NZ to Syd. It was 2hrs later, so if you were actually needing to be somewhere after, then you're screwed. Hence why I don't fly budget airlines for overseas cause do you really want added stress?

Thoughts on ACO:
- Really liked how it was 2 students per supervisor, whilst at uni clinic we have 4-5 students per supervisor, and save so much time.
- There are drops in every room, so you don't have to waste 10mins of your time finding which room the drops are.
- Nice how us UNSW kids were allowed to use the staffroom and had lockers.
- Equipment there is old, but most rooms had the same slit lamp which made it easier to adjust to a diff room.
- They use Apple computers! Although on the last day, I had a super old apple keyboard, unlike the nice thin ones so really had to use some finger muscles.
- Took a while to get used to Optomate, but it's pretty nice recording everything electronically rather than on paper. I think it'll take a while for us to ever use electronic records...
- They have quite a lot of imaging equipment surprisingly.
- Saw some interesting patients with conditions I haven't seen before, and most people here are old so generally have something different to see.
- So many optoms work there, but they sort of dismiss anterior eye stuff if patient's aren't complaining, whereas I feel like our uni is very big on dry eyes/contact lenses.
- Ended up getting a few unsats, one of which I won't be able to make up for it since didn't see enough patients to do that further testing. Guess I'll be getting a supp for that, unless during internals I have patients who have symptoms indicating further testing. So no thanks for all those U's which if I had a diff supervisor would've still passed me.

- Didn't get rained on for 2 weeks, apart from just one night for like 10mins.
- Left a rainy Sydney, then left a rainy Melb when I was on the plane.
- I find that Melbs has more heritage listed buildings compared to Sydney, and more taller apartments/skyscrapers.
- Melb has more cafes with nice and more 'hipster' decor.
- Our apartment was on the 47th floor, quite some nice views from the bedroom. I guess living in an apartment is cozy, with modern furnishings and appliances makes stuff easier. I just think if I live in an apartment, how the hell am I gonna store years of stuff I hoarded...Took us 4 days to figure out how the keypad to come into the apartment worked, and realised there was a dishwasher after the first week...
- Apartment was convenient, and could walk to ACO, but I got a pass for half the trip and just trammed it there.
- Took me 2-3 days to figure out the whole red tram zone thing.
- Feels like Melbs has more interesting museums/galleries compared to Syd.

Managed to visit 26 places to eat whilst in between 8am starts and 6pm finishes. I guess we had a public holiday in between and an arvo where I got to finish earlier, but some days didn't finish until 6:45pm, and then had to walk home. 

Must admit, wasn't really mindblown by any of the cafes. Melbs coffee is good, and definitely have better decor/building. Maybe Humble Ray was my fav cafe? but not by much though. Fav cake was the Yuzu Brownie from The Crux and Co, the Yuzu was so sour, but complemented the cake really well, and the bit of dark choc brownie. 

I really loved Lui Bar as my last stop, just to relax and enjoy the Melbroune views (even if the drink cost more than what I ate). Also liked Cumulus Inc and MoVida, pricier food but worth it. Probs not gonna have time to do reviews for them...hopefully I have time to post on my Insta, but let's be real, I'll post when I'm procrastinating for studying. Maybe I'll blog about all the food after I graduate lol. Special shoutout to BW for coming down to Melbs to visit me on the weekend (and also eaten 6 meals a day). 

List of place I ate at:

Humble Rays

Shujinko

Papa Gino's

Pidapipo

Luxbite

King Castella

Cumulus Inc

The Kettle Black

Dukes Coffee

Higher Ground

Chuckle Park

Little Ramen Bar

The Crux & Co

Auction Rooms

Mork Chocolate

Calia

Lune

White Mojo

Suda

Hopetoun Tea Rooms

Kyo Tea House

MoVida

Operator 25

Brother Baba Budan

Grainstore

Lui Bar