Things are getting srrrrious.

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All of my entries thus far have only documented my shenanigans traveling around and hosting handsome visitors. I promise that I am actually in Europe for academic purposes. If for no other reason than to give myself a bit of credibility, I'll write today about what I'm actually doing at KUL.

Final exams have begun and we will have completed all 5 by February first (after which I will hastily hop on a plane to spend 10 days in HB with my family!)

Last week: Classification of Paralympic Athletes, Disability Studies January 12th

This week: Biomechanics (wheelchair propulsion, gait analysis, aquatics and prosthetics), Physical Activity-Physical Fitness- Risk of Exercise, and Exercise Management in Chronic Disease and Disability January 17th

Next week: Statistics Applied for APA on the 24th (yikes)

The final week: Psychology of Sport, Sociocultural Theory on January 30th and International Perspectives in APA on the 1st of February.

Phew! Some courses were condensed to just 4 DAYS of classroom time (sometimes 7 hours of lecture in a day) because different professors from universities in Ireland, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Czech Republic, and USA have traveled to our campus and crammed our brains with a semester's worth of APA coursework. Other courses, like Chronic Disease & Disability and Biomechanics, were taught throughout the semester by multiple lecturers (All with different teaching styles, power points, and required articles to read) These Euro-folk are really running us down by requiring us to recall multiple courses within one exam period (like material from 5 lecturers this Tuesday!)

Needless to say, my appetite and my brain have shriveled. (Not complaining about the appetite thing, but I really should eat more than applesauce and baby bell cheese in a day.) I'm waking up in a cold sweat nightly thinking I misinterpreted a graph about amputee swimmer freestyle strokes or can't recall the phases of the gait cycle. WHY DID I GO BACK TO SCHOOL!?!?! Oh yeah, because I get to learn about incredible subject matter that makes my heart race from the most amazing people on the planet. In Belgium. The place with the chocolate. And the waffles. (Oh! The waffles!)

I very well wasn't going to include photos of Laura, Kathlynne, Catherine and myself studying - so attached are some shots throughout the semester of my classmates and I participating in some of the extra-curricular activities and programs together. See below for more!



Wish me luck! I need far more than I ever have before.

I leave you with some grad school humor:

YOU MIGHT BE A GRADUATE STUDENT IF...

…you start referring to things in Latin phrasing, as in "Snow White et al"

…you frequently wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy.

…you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.

…you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop.

...an exciting trip is when you run errands with your roommate.

...you consider cooking and cleaning your apartment leisurely breaks from real work.



Proost,

Whitney

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Photos

Big names in the Wheelchair Tennis World
Spain's Wheelchair Tennis coach, two KUL professors, and a former WCT world champion. Incredible amounts of experience and talent in one room. Really awesome day.

Training Demo
We were able to watch top former WCT athletes from Belgium and Austria demo agility and accuracy drills.

Tennis for the Intellectually Disabled
ID tennis is my favorite! Had so much fun learning and playing with these competitive athletes. They LOVED showing off and teaching us :)

The Spanish Head Coach
David Sanz is the head coach of Spain's WCT National Team. His insight about research and development of elite WCT athletes was really motivating and inspiring!

Cheese!
EMMAPA students, Flemish PE undergrads and Wheelchair Tennis Athletes from Belgium and Austria after the workshop.

Pedro Comes to Class
Our classmate Adelaide volunteered her 1 month old, Pedro, for a lesson on our natural reflexes.

Pedro and Yves
Our professor Yves Vanlandowyck sweet talking our new favorite guest-presenter, Pedro.

HE'S PERFECT!
Pedro passed all typical presentations of reflexes. Cutest lesson of the year, by far! :)

Comments

[Valerie Castro]

One step at a time
Hey Whitney: You know what you need to know to make it. You are passionate about this type of work. Quit trying to over think yourself and realize that you can do it, "One step at a time." Keep loving the life you're living and know that you need to take care of #1 because #1 can't take care of anyone else unless they take care of themselves.