I think is the part of that I hate the most–the planning.

I was online all day (and boy is my shoulder telling me so!) looking up tickets to South Africa to see if it’s feasible to visit shirerain and claidheamhmor while I’m in Kenya (I finally emailed the secretary–after all of my looking around, she said that she’ll arrange it all with the travel agency, so I think I’m set…. South Africa here I come!), looking for car rentals, trying to figure out if it’d be best if I drove the car from Iowa to Minnesota and back or if I just drive to Minnesota and then fly out from there, checking email every 5 minutes in hopes that I would hear from Wisconsin (I haven’t–it’s really making me worried that I haven’t heard anything) so that I could finalize my plans, discovering that I had applied to the wrong school in Iowa for internal medicine, applying to the right school (I hope. Or did I apply to the wrong neurology department to begin with?), etc, etc, etc.

And then Chris reminds me that I need to buy tickets to his wedding in May, because it’s a tourist destination and things fill up quickly. *sigh*

So as it stands, I have a plan ticket to Iowa on the 1st. No return ticket. No rental car yet because I’m not quite sure where I’m returning much less when. Minnesota wrote, and unlike the other programs, they don’t pay for motels, so I now I have to call and make reservations – rather than just telling the place I was at that I wanted to extend.

*sigh* It’s just getting to be overwhelming. I want it all figured out NOW. *stomps foot like Veruka Salt*

So I told my parents tonight of my plans to extend out my trip to Kenya by a week. My dad got a little quiet when I told him that I had met my friend from the internet. 😀 (and here he was worried about my younger sister moving to DC for a year!) But I did explain that we had met because of my Tolkien group, which I think calmed him down a little, and he’ll get over it. Visiting Donna (donnazita) and having her come out here relieved them of the worry that it was internet lunatics I was talking with. Actually my parents biggest concern is the 3 extra days that I’ll be spending in London. By myself. Which if I think about too much will freak me out too. Any tips for surviving on your own, Ali?

Well, I have to get off now. My shoulder has quite honestly taken me hostage and if I don’t behave, it’ll figure out a way to ruin everything for me.

It didn’t take me very long to completely convert back to my night owl routine. 🙂

So I have news.

I’m going to Kenya for a month in January!

I applied for this international rotation months ago, and didn’t it. There were 4 students picked, all of whom had had fantastic international experiences, and I was rather crushed when I didn’t get selected. I’ve been considering doing another international rotation, but that would have cost much much more money, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about going all by my lonesome to some random, 3rd world country.

Well, a couple of days ago, I got a call from the secretary organizing everything, stating that someone dropped out and there was a spot available and did I want it.

Suffice to say, I jumped on it.

I’m a little freaked out by the idea. I’ve been taking an international health class for the last eight (er, I only made it to six) weeks, where we’ve done nothing but talk about the nasty parasites, worms, fungi, viruses, etc. that you can contract at these foreign places. Almost made me swear off the idea entirely. *shudders* But I’m going to be brave and get all of my shots and bring lots of Cipro and just do it!

Ellie–I don’t know if you’ll be on at all today, but how would you feel about flying up to Kenya and maybe doing a safari type of thing for a few days? I’d be done with my stuff around the 11th of February and since we’d be on the same continent, it would be a fantastic time to meet. I have no idea how much it would cost or anything. I’m supposed to let the secretary know my plans by tomorrow night (she told me this afternoon. Sheesh), so that they can arrange tickets and everything. Will you be around to chat today? 2ish my time?

I start my interviews next week. I have been feeling nervous about them–more so about the dinner with the residents the next before, where I have to make charming, small talk with people I’ve never met before–until Chris’s comment today of “Everybody loves you, you’ll charm everybody.” Sometimes I forget why I keep him around–and then he reminds me. Why he has so much faith in me, I have no idea. Of course, this feeling of calm will probably only last until this weekend, but I’m enjoying it while I can. I have to go shopping for a suit tomorrow/Friday. Have completely outgrown (and not in the good way) the one I bought for medical school. Hopefully, this time, I’ll manage to remove all of the tags before the interview.

And I think that’s the quick and dirty update.