I'M 25% NURSE!

My how time has flown!  It's an overcast summer morning here in Baltimore, and despite the gloomy conditions, I am in quite a bright, cheery mood!  Amanda and I arrived back from NYC late last night, and are recovering from a quick, yet enjoyable 3-day jaunt up the coast.  For those who are not aware, Amanda moved out to Baltimore from Utah/California a couple weeks ago, and it has been so great having her here.  It's amazing how our friendship has grown over the years - from 8th grade until now, and I am so grateful to have that feeling of comfort from home and source of support out here.  She starts her program at the Johns Hopkins School of Education to get her Master's Degree in School Counseling at the end of the month -- what are the chances of us both getting into this school?!  What a blessing.  

Speaking of school... let's dive into that recap before anything else.  I AM DONE WITH MY FIRST SEMESTER OF NURSING SCHOOL!  As my classmates and I like to say, we are 25% nurses!  haha.  Last week was quite the ordeal... 5 finals in 5 days.  Granted, one was simply a seminar, but that class turned out to be just as stressful as one of our finals!  Let me explain... our section (half of my entire class) is very vocal about the politics of health care.  In other words, any mention of something that is not "PC" arouses an underlying tension in the classroom and fuels a heated discussion.  One topic for our final seminar was regarding health care for illegal immigrants, and those words alone invoked some choice words from our classmates -- "Can we please use the term UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS?" -- and that was only the beginning.  It's quite unfortunate actually... it makes it very difficult to be open with our own perspectives and opinions in fear of backlash from our classmates.  Our professor tried to be patient with us, but at one point she had to cut us off and move on... and I was glad that she did.  I think the stress and intensity of our 10 weeks of classes might have had something to do with it, so hopefully this 3-week break will help us all to center ourselves and refocus our attention on the idea that we're all in this for the same reason (hopefully): to serve our patients and our communities, even if we accomplish this from different standpoints.  As for the rest of the week and my final 3 tests, I managed to find the mental capacity to unload information on each subsequent exam, proving that I had actually learned something this summer!  I really did surprise myself, and I feel much more confident and capable for this upcoming semester.  But for now... I'm giving myself a bit of a mental break, not thinking about school until I start up again on August 31st!

In order to appropriately celebrate being done with school, Amanda and I decided to take off for one of our favorite places: NEW YORK CITY.  We traveled there for New Year's Eve 2007-08, and had a fantastic adventure exploring the maze of city streets.  This past weekend's trip was aimed at relaxation and decompression, and although we weren't able to do a few things that we had planned, it was definitely a success.  We stayed with one of Amanda's roommates from Utah, and met up with some friends for a few days of wandering the streets, shopping, and eating.  What more could we really ask for? haha. I love just being out amidst the diversity of people in the city and appreciating the breadth and depth of cultural history that encapsulates New York.  One of my favorite things to do is just sit and people watch... and I definitely made time for that!  We look forward to many more trips up to NYC this semester, as it is only $35 (ROUND-TRIP) on a decently comfortable coach bus, nonstop transportation from Baltimore.  How perfect is that?  I can't believe it, actually.  It's a bit of a temptation to travel up there more than I should actually... haha.  It's so convenient having friends up there to stay with too.  I love living on the east coast, I can't really express that enough!

But now it's back to reality... sort of.  I'm back in Baltimore for a few days, only to get ready for my trip across the Atlantic -- I'm heading to GREECE!  I can't adequately express how excited I am to travel there... it's one of my dream destinations, and it couldn't come at a more perfect time.  It will be wonderful to bask in the European sun and lounge on the beaches of the Mediterranean.  So... this will probably be my last post for a little while... I'll try to update while I'm in Greece, just depends on how accessible the internet is!  Until then... take care all!

xxL