Ponce

Hello friends!

Yesterday we had to be up at 7am to go to Ponce, a city on the south coast of the island. After listening to our tour guide lecture us for the ENTIRE hour and a half bus ride, we arrived. We were forced to go to an art museum and were lucky enough to take a guided tour. That pretty much solidified the fact that i really, truly hate art museums. I wish we could have gone to the Taino Indian museums or learned more about that instead. On top of the artwork being incredibly boring, the museum was freezing cold. I'm pretty sure i almost lost a few toes. After that, we had lunch at a beautiful restaurant in the middle of the city.  I had pork chops wrapped in bacon and some kind of yucca side-- both were delicious. I also treated myself to a cocktail that was only $10!! Haha.. so over priced, but at least i took the glass home as a souvenir, so it wasn't a total waste.

We had some free time to walk around the city, during which i came to the conclusion that Ponce is basically a smaller, shittier Old San Juan. The up side was that there were a few big souvenir shops with things that were way cheaper than in Old San Juan. For example, i got a few shot glasses for about $3, and in Old San Juan I would have had to pay $5 or $6. After doing a little shopping and getting some Gelato (I swear, since ice cream is so expensive down here, i'm having withdrawals!!), we were back on the bus.

We stopped at hot springs on the way home. I'm pretty sure everyone, including myself, thought they were going to be natural and in some secluded, wooded area but we couldn't have been more wrong. The place had two small pools. One was realllly hot.. about 115 degrees and the other was cooler, but still hot enough to be relaxing. I only lasted about five minutes in the really hot one, but was able to hang out in the other one for about a half an hour before we were loaded back on the bus.





As most people know, this was Halloween weekend, but i just couldnt bring myself to celebrate what is usually one of my favorite times of the year. First of all, it doesn't even feel like Halloween because it's so hot and muggy and the palm trees have yet to change colors (small joke). We went to a social at the UPR school of nursing, but it was super awkward.. there were about ten kids in small room. We didn't socialize with the other students and couldn't wait to leave. They did have a chocolate fountain, but even that was a fail. I was going to go out after that, but i was really tired and knew I'd have to be up early the next day for Ponce. The people who did go out said that nobody dressed up for Halloween! I thought Puerto Ricans celebrated everything! I have yet to see this be true. Oh well... I'll always have next year.

I keep hearing about Sandy and i hope everyone is prepared and stays safe! Paul is supposed to be flying down here Thursday morning, so i'm hoping and praying that everything will be cleared up by then. Hopefully you guys won't get another Irene or October snow storm. While you're all suffering without power, I'll be relaxing at the rooftop pool :) haha sorry, i couldn't resist.

Anyways, stay safe and I miss you all!! xoxo

Psych in PR

Our first week of psych has wrapped up! It was a relaxing week because nobody had any work to do. My textbook won’t be in till next week, which is a curse and a blessing because it means I can’t do any work this week and get to relax, but next week, I’ll have a lot of catching up to do.

Surprisingly, I don’t hate psych. We haven’t gotten too deep into the lecture material, but so far it’s been interesting. Even if I never go into psych, I will always have patients with psych disorders and issues so this material is really important. My first two days of clinical were great. The first day was at the Day Hospital, which is an intense outpatient program for people recently discharged from the inpatient unit. The group of up to 22 veterans meets Monday-Friday from 8-3. They have therapy with the RN and social worker and have activities during occupational therapy. OT was really cool to observe. I never realized that there was OTs who worked with mental health patients. The therapist interviews the patient and finds out what activities they loved to do before their mental illness took over their life and encourages the patients to participate in those activities again. Some of the things included painting, building a tool box, and drawing. The OT tweaks the environment so that if something goes wrong, it will happen in a controlled environment and she will help them deal with the problem. This whole concept was fascinating to me. Mental health problems are so serious and it’s comforting that there are such awesome people who devote their careers to help these people.

The next day, I was on the inpatient floor. I spent the morning passing meds with the RNs. That’s pretty much all they do here. After that, I visited OT again and then played dominos with some of the patients. It was so rewarding to make them smile and talk to them. Some of the patients were around my age, but the age ranged up to 85 years old. I am surprised by the set up of the unit. The patients don’t have a lot scheduled therapy or groups. It seems like the reason the patients are there is to basically simmer down until they are no longer a threat to themselves or others and they can be discharged to outpatient therapy. If I was on the unit, I’d go crazy! These patients need more of a schedule in their day, and we are going to hold group sessions for them throughout the semester. I’m really excited to talk to the patients more.

I hear that the foliage is at its peak right now and I’m so sad that I’m missing it! I will never take another day of cool weather for granted again. Today it’s 77 degrees and rainy and it’s so refreshing.

Back to psych for me! Hopefully I don’t catch any of the ailments … I’m already enough of a weirdo. Until next time! 

Past the halfway point!

Hello world! I'm sorry that i haven't written so long, but i was very busy with finals and then spending the weekend in paradise.

Other than Vieques, my life only consisted of finishing up the last week of med-surg clinical and studying my tan booty off for exams. I don't want to be cliche, but i can't believe we're finally done with med-surg. I passed! And i did a lot better than i probably would have done in Storrs because i was forced to go to every single class and  sit in a little room where we were under the close watch of our wonderful professor without being able to get distracted on my phone or laptop. (This unfortunatly meant that i didn't get to spend nearly as much time on tumblr, stumble upon, or pinterest as i normally would in a given semester. sad face.) This really encouraged me not to be hungover for class because i wouldn't have the opportunity to run down to the cafe in the bio building to get my usual hangover remedy- aka a ginger ale and cream cheese muffin or blueberry bagel. Oh well, i guess it was worth it! Anyways, we all did really well and it is such a relief to know that i never have to sit through another med-surg lecture again. I know med-surg is one of the toughest classes in nursing school, but after going through bio, anatomy and physiology, and neafsy, i didn't think it was that bad. I liked having it crammed into seven weeks instead of spread out over 14 because it kept everything really fresh in my mind.

Enough about school! Last night we got back from a magical getaway to the island of Vieques. After a not so smooth ferry ride, we couldn't wait to explore the island. On friday, we walked about ten minutes to a really nice beach and relaxed. While we were walking along the beach, we found a field of horses! It was amazing. There are so many wild horses around the island. That night, we had the amazing experience to go to the biobay. For those of you who don't know what that is, the little plankton that live in the bay glow when they are touched by anything that causes motion, whether it be the paddle of the kayak  your hand, or a fish swimming by. There are only a few of them in the world but i would suggest that anyone who has the chance should go see one. I wish i could have taken pictures, but we were told that they wouldn't have come out well. We were told to stay out of a certain part of the bay and not go swimming because there are shark nursery's!! Yikes!! Luckily we didn't see any, but i did see a pretty large fish swim by. Kayaking was also fun- i had never done that before. Overall, it was the highlight of the semester thus far.

On saturday, we rented "scooters." I put that in quotes because they were actually small motorcycles. I can't believe that after a short "training" period, the islanders who owned the little rental place let us go off around the island by ourselves. I had never been on any type of vehicle like that and it was so much fun driving. On straightaways, i would think i was going so fast and look down at the speedometer to find i was only going 35 mph. It was exhilarating and made me want to invest in a scooter one day when i grow up. All was going smoothly until we decided to go down a dirt road to find a beautiful beach. We found the beach and hung out there for a while, but long story short, one of the girls had a bad fall and wound up getting hurt :( She's such a trooper and said she would rent the scooters again anyways!! Looking back, the day was very dangerous and i would strongly recommend that if anyone rents scooters to stay on the paved roads.

That night, we had a delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had BBQ ribs which really brought me back to summer nights at home. After dinner, we hung out and ventured out to the bars near the restaurant. Island life is so relaxed and fun. I wouldn't want to live on such a small island, or any island for that matter, but i did enjoy my time there. The best part is that along with all the stray dogs, everyone brings their dogs out at night. I made some furry friends! I can't wait to adopt an island dog when i'm older. There are so many dogs here who need homes.



The island was supposed to get hit by a tropical storm, so there was a chance that we would get to stay an extra night! Unfortunately, our wishes didn't come true and we were forced to return to reality as originally planned. Before leaving though we got to see another amazing beach. The water was crystal clear and the bluest i have ever seen. I also got to try fish tacos at a local bar for the first time. Delish!

So now, here I am again, back in San Juan. In my mind, before arriving to Puerto Rico, i hadn't pictures my life to be the way it is now. I though the whole island would be like vieques or even old san juan. I didn't expect our neighborhood to be run down and, for lack of better words, crappy. Don't get me wrong, I like it here a lot and am so glad i decided to study abroad, but the area we live in is very inconvenient. We have a walgreens and supermarket nearby, but other than that, getting anywhere except the hospital is a process. Like i said in a previous blog post, it can take up to two hours just to get to the beach or old san juan. It would be so much easier if we had a car, but i know that's not allowed. Doing things in a big group is also a process. I love all the students that i'm down here with, but doing something as simple as going to the beach or going out for the night can take an incredible amount of time. It sucks to have to split up, but a lot of the time, that's the only way to keep things as stress free as possible.

Speaking of stress free, our new psych professor's goal is to keep our stress to a minimum for the rest of the semester. I like her already! We had our first lecture with her today and it's so nice to have a change of pace. I know that psych will be tough to get through for me because it's so abstract and the material is very heavy. I am interested in the topic though because no matter what kind of nurse you are, you'll always patients with psych problems. I'm just hoping and praying that this part of the semester will be a lot less work than the first part. I want to take advantage of the next two months and really explore the island, including jet skiing, paddle boarding, zip lining, and having tropical drinks on the beach.

As usual, i'm missing everything fall about home. I would kill to be able to have 45 degree weather! I know everyone back home thinks i'm crazy for complaining, but the hot weather is just annoying. It's nice to be able to sit up by the pool and read, but i'd be okay with just doing that in the summer instead of year round. This trip has solidified that i could never stray too far from a place that has four seasons.

Well, until next time!

This hot weather is really getting old real fast

Hello world! I don't want to sound cliche but I really can't believe how fast the first part of the semester has gone by. This is our last week of med-surg classes and clinical and I couldn't be happier. Last week, I was with the charge nurse one day which was actually pretty busy. I got to give some flu shots, help with discharges, and see a "carresto"!! (The patient in the room across from the nurses station needed a rapid response. I wasn't able to be in the room during it because there were literally 20-30 residents in there. At least I got to see the aftermath-- an intubated patient being sent to the ICU.) I was also in the cardiac ICU. That was extremely frustrating because the nurse assumed that I didn't know how to do anything and taught me how to do a head to toe assessment, including how to listen to lung sounds!!!! How fascinating! It's not like I wasn't doing that all summer. I don't want to sound like a brat, but I literally have not been challenged once this semester and it is very frustrating.Thank God I'll be done on Thursday.

Other than the lack of excitement at clinical, life has been pretty good. We have all been buckling down and getting our "end of semester" work done. Instead of going to the beach, we've been finishing our final care plans, putting together our case studies, and studying. It's absolutly crazy that next Thursday, we'll be doing celebratory shots and packing for Vieques, the island where we're going to spend the weekend of October 13. I cannot wait!!

Today, I reached old lady status once again. In addition to always having tissues in my pockets, going to bed early, and knitting (haha that one's a joke), I now have a humidifier at my bedside. Constantly being in the AC really got to my upper respiratory tract and has kept me up coughing for the past five nights. After too many sleepless nights and fear of waking my roommate (shout out to Katie!) I decided I had to do something. Hopefully it works! Our lives are a constant cycle of sweating our asses off in the heat to freezing our asses off in the AC. There is absolutely no in-between.

I really really really hate that I'm missing fall. I haven't seen any pictures of foliage yet, but I know they'll start popping up on instagram and facebook. I'm starting to see more and more pumpkin beer, had pumpkin pancakes over the weekend, and have (still) been enjoying my pumpkin coffee, but it's just not the same. All you New Englanders-- savor the moments of stepping on crunchy leaves and waking up to crisp fall mornings. I envy all of you. Well on that note, it's back to work I go. I just spend two hours watching the hills on netflix, so I should probably put some time into my studies. Hugs from PR yall! :)

Taken from my blog for uconn school of nursing

Today my wonderful roommates, Professor McNulty, and Javi set out to Camuy Caverns to explore. I had never been to a cave before so needless to say, I was very excited. After about an hour and a half bus ride, we arrived on the beautiful premises. We watched a quick film about the caverns and began our journey. Walking into the caves was absolutely breathtaking. It’s was amazing to be in a place that has been forming over millions and millions of years. We were lucky enough to see a few bats and even learned that their feces are used as fertilizer to help the ecosystem of the cave grow. Who knew!? Puerto Rico is very proud of their natural wonders, including Camuy and El Yunque, the rainforest that we went to a few weeks ago. I can see why they are so proud: the palm trees, huge bamboo stalks, soft moss, and not to mention the views of the gorgeous beaches are sites
that attract people from all over the world.

Isle Verde has turned out to be my favorite beach so far on the island. The water is turquoise and the sand is so soft and clean. Pictures can’t even do it justice. The beach is only about a ten minute bus ride from our apartment but more times than not, we don’t catch the bus at the right time and have to wait for over an hour. The lack of bus schedule has probably been the most difficult part of living in San Juan. I had heard that the pace of life is slow here, but I still cannot get used to it. Even going to the supermarket is an ordeal because the cashiers take their time and even take personal phone calls while in the middle of the transaction. I miss being able to hop in my car and make a quick trip to Target, but I do have to say that I don’t miss filling up my gas tank every week!

The food in Puerto Rico is very tasty, but I can see why diabetes and hypertension are leading diseases on the island. My favorite is without a doubt chicken Mofongo- a delicacy made with fried plantains. A few weeks
ago I ordered a thin fried food that was about the size of a Frisbee. I had no idea what is was, but it was amazing. The next day Javi told me it was a codfish fritter! Most of the food down here is fried and has a lot of carbohydrates. The cafeteria at the hospital serves fried chicken and French fries around the clock and believe it or not, it is the norm to see people eating it for breakfast. Although I miss my mom’s Keurig coffee maker, Puerto Rican coffee is very strong and gets the job done. It is often mixed with hot milk, which adds a nice touch.

Exploring the island has been great and there is so much to see here. I can’t wait for Vieques, Ponce, and Culebra this semester! I am so thankful that we get to stay for almost four months.

I miss everyone back home and I hope everybody is doing well!