On vocabulary, freezing toilets, and GP entrance exams

Well, that's all I've got for the exciting holiday updates!  I typed 'vacation' and then deleted it - yet another sign of my segregation (SEGREGATION WAS CLEARLY THE WRONG WORD, I BELIEVE I MEANT ASSIMILATION) into the Australian culture!  Australians think it's funny to say vacation - I'm not sure why.  I think vacation maybe means to go on a big trip, and holiday just means being off from work or school, but maybe they just don't say vacation at all...hmmm, an interesting thing to ponder.  Any Australians around who can clear this up?

I've been continuing to keep busy with work, volunteering, hockey, and social stuff.  Life is pretty good.  My friend Kim will be arriving this weekend and staying for four days.  Kim is one of my speechie classmates who now works for Education Queensland in Maryborough, about 4 hours north of Brisbane.  We have lots of fun things planned - an AFL game (which hopefully we're getting free tickets for!), dinner and dessert bar, driving around the Barossa Valley, Adelaide night markets, and who knows what else!  I think this will be her very first visit to Adelaide, actually.  I hope she doesn't freeze to death - the other night it went down to 3 degrees!!!  We have a 'reverse cycle' air conditioner in the living room, so we can program it to blow out warm air.  We left it on all night on the 3 degree night, with every other door closed besides the living room door and our bedroom door, so we managed to keep slightly warm.  You know what is NOT fun though??  Having the 'toilet' at the opposite end of the house, where there is no heat whatsoever.  Waking up in the middle of the night to use the unheated bathroom on a 3 degree night is not pleasant!  In addition, for some reason the window in the 'toilet' doesn't close...ever.  It's made out of these slats, which normally would be able to flip down and close, but these slats are fixed into the concrete and permanently open.  SO COLD!!!!
Jeremy has his exam for the general practitioner program this Saturday.  How he does on this exam will determine if he gets shortlisted.  Even if he is shortlisted, there is still no guarantee - the training provider that he's selected will review all of the shortlisted applicants and then offer positions to the people that they believe will fit best with their organization.  Whew!  So basically, even though med school is over, he still has to take exams and be stressed out, but now it's while he's also working a full time job.  I think they'd be crazy not to take him...watch this space.