A Long and Painful Reign of Terror Will Come to An End

This has honestly made my day. I can’t recall ever getting better news!! (I’m ignoring that bit about the threat of a spinoff. Don’t bring down my good mood!)

(Sorry to the Arrested Development fans–I myself could never get into it, but I know it had a following.)

On the home front, I had my “Here’s What to Expect in Kenya” meeting on Thursday. I don’t know if it made me more excited or more terrified. 🙂 Probably both. I’ll have a lot of opportunity there to do tons of procedures (spinal taps, chest tubes and drains, abdominal fluid draining, blood gases, etc.) that I’m really looking forward to–it will really make things in intern year just a little better if I have some practical experience. I’ll see a lot of bizarre and interesting diseases that I’ll never see here, and I’ll have a lot of autonomy with my patients. But as thrilling as all of this sounds, there’s the downsides–such as not having residents and attendings around to be of help when I really need it, seeing a lot of death, not having a toilet in the hospital (!!! Apparently there’s a hole in the ground. They did build a new pediatric building next to the hospital, with running water and a toilet, so all isn’t lost, but … ) The living conditions in the student dorms leave something to be desired–no hot water, no toilets, bugs and mice (shudder), but I was willing to endure it, until I found out that nobody else is staying there. The other medical student and the residents are staying at the “Compound” where they have wireless internet and three meals a day, as well as all the basic necessities listed above (hopefully, minus the mice). So I think I’ll be upgrading. Maybe. The cost for the dorms is less than $100 dollars, that for the compound is over $400.

So I have to start getting my vaccinations next week (yellow fever, tetanus, typhoid, polio booster, meningococcal, pneumococcal – and the flu one, which I keep finding excuses to put it off. I know, I know, I was so sick last year and with the threat of bird flu, I should be doing my part as a health care worker, but I hate shots!). Then malaria medications, and antibiotics for the unavoidable “intestinal distress” that comes with traveling to a third world country. Permethrin to soak my cloths in. Etc.

Anybody been to Amsterdam? Any ideas of what to see? Where to stay? I did figure out my tickets so that I could afford to go down to South Africa, but it meant a two day layover in Amsterdam, rather than London. When I told Chris, his first response was that I was NOT to go out at night, or I’d be seeing things that I wouldn’t want to see. LOL! I had hoped that there would be time to take a train up to Denmark and see my extended family whom I’ve never met, but uh, Europe is a little bigger than I thought and it’d take me a day to get there. But I might pop over to Germany. We’ll see. In Europe, if you cross country borders, do you get a stamp on your passport, or do you have to fly into the country?

I have my third interview on Monday–but it’s my first internal medicine interview (the last two were neurology interviews). It’s here at my school, I know everybody well, so hopefully, it’ll be a better experience than Minnesota. I have dinner with the residents tomorrow night, the casual “get to know the program dinner”, where I get fed for free. NICE! Then on Wednesday, I fly to Wisconsin for two days of interviews. They are one of the four schools that have the combined program that I want–the five year Medicine/Neurology program–and theirs looks the best of them all–well organized curriculum, good patient mix, three hospitals, etc. I’ve been excited about their program for a long time, so I’m really praying that it goes well. Wish me luck, guys. I really could use it!

I saw Elizabethtown with Chris this week, and I gotta admit–I was horribly disappointed. I mean, I didn’t have grand expectations–I had read the reviews and realized that it wasn’t going to be more than mediocre. But I expected some attraction between the leads, and some plot and dialog! Instead it was 2 hours and 18 minutes of random music that didn’t really fit with anything. The last 1/2 was good, and if the rest had been like that, I don’t think I would have been so utterly disappointed. Orlando was cute, but I think that was it’s only redeeming quality.

My sister finally bought Firefly, so I’ve been slowly making my way through the series. Wow, what a fantastic show. It’s witty and brilliant and everything that everybody has been saying about it! 🙂 I LOVE IT! The more I watch though, the sadder I get at the thought of there only being 14 episodes! If there was ever was a show that needed to be resurrected, that would be it. !4 episodes, and we got ten years too many of 7th Heaven. It is an unfair world, my friends.

BTW, I got my fanfiction generator fixed (I keep forgetting how wonderful my web host is. I sent them my code and within 5 minutes they had fixed the problem – apparently I had some “windows only” code. If I had done that when I started having problems!). So, for the LOST fans, try it out here and for the Gilmore Girls fans, I made a special one just for you right here. I think that some of the minor characters might be a little too minor, but I’d like your opinion. Use it! Promote It! Be Inspired! Write a story that you never thought you would! Write Jess! Do It! You know you want to!