BREAK please?--EDITED

EDITED..because i realize my unedited version wasn't detailed enough...

So, I FINALLY have some time & energy to blog about the week. This week has been so packed! But, I really enjoyed it because I gained experience here that I probably NEVER would have gotten back in the states.

This week was my week at Hospital Civil, a hospital for the uninsured. Since I wanted surgery, I had to be there at 7am and I had to wake up at 5:30 ish to shower ...ugh. So,basically, during the mornings, we would do rounds with the residents with patients which was really cool because I felt like one of them as well :) The patients we saw were basically patients who has had surgeries the days before. It was interesting because I was able to hear a lot of medical terminology in Spanish while doing rounds, but at the same time, it was extremely difficult to understand. After rounds, we would wait to scrub in for surgeries. I loved it because it was my first time seeing surgeries, and it's so great that I got to be so up close and personal about it too! I learned a lot at this hospital especially because all the people there are so willing to explain everything to us. For instance, I had a question on the "Hartmann bag" that I read on the patient's chart and I asked one of the residents. He ended up going into a WHOLE elaborate explanation with board drawings and everything! :D He then showed us patients with the Hartmann bag. Basically, it's when the intestines, due to scar tissue from possible surgeries before, doesn't heal properly. So what happens is blockage. Your poop can't get through basically. What they do is the cut the intestines in half where the scar tissue is, and then connect one half to the outside of the stomach...and the bottom half is sealed. So you see a hole when they lift up their shirts with the tip of the intestine visible and a bag connected to it where your feces will just end up traveling too. We saw TONS of surgeries from appendectomies, hernias to big surgeries such as stomach bypass surgery due to a tumor, orthopedic surgeries, etc. In fact, Ally, Maggie and I loved surgery so much, we would voluntarily at night. So, on Wed and Thurs night, we went back for a night shift! Unfortunately, there wasn't too much going on in surgery so we went to Ob/Gyn where we saw live births and C-sections! We ended up going home at like...1-1:30am ish those two nights. I was planning to go back on Friday night, but I was way too exhausted for anything by Friday especially since my flats gave me 0 back support.

On Friday though, we switched out of surgery since we were only there for 3 days. We wanted to give others a chance at surgery, so I switched to Ob/Gyn since my other option was Peds. God knows I don't really prefer kids. It was so emotional even though I had seen live births nights before. This one woman was giving birth to her first child, so her vagina was kinda tight still. It was really really difficult for her to get the baby out since every time she pushed, it seemed like the baby's head was retracting in...Finally, the baby came out, but the baby's head was so big, it ripped her vaginal wall. So they had to suture it back. I guess the pain of child birth was so strong that nothing else compared because when they stuck a HUGE HUGE needle inside her vagina, she barely winced. When the baby came out of her...I was so filled with emotion. It's seriously SO surreal seeing a human life pop out of someone else and especially through SUCH a small hole. LOL. Seeing how much she had to go through for her baby, and seeing the baby finally out, I couldn't help but tear up. Makes me appreciate LIFE and mothers! I saw a second case where another woman was giving birth for the first time. This time however, the chief attending had to come in and perform the birth since the woman's vagina was too small. I freaked out because he had to use metal clamps to pull the baby out! But still, they couldn't get the baby out so what he did really SCARED the beejies out of me! HE CUT HER VAGINA! SNIP SNIP SNIP! OMG. There was so much blood...more than surgery I felt! Omg...it was kind of traumatizing. I'm seriously so scared to have a baby now. Haha. C-sections are scary, but LIVE BIRTHS are SCARY too!! :( All I know is, this is the best form of birth control ever. Lol. It's also interesting because in Mexico, they do not let ANYONE in with the mother who is giving birth...no friends or family. So the women are FREAKING out since they are alone. I personally think it sucks that they need to be alone during such an important and terrifying moment in their lives. I also got to witness a hystorectomy which is when a women needs to remove her uterus due to something such as cancer, which my mom had. It was a stressful surgery and the surgeon sweated through his scrubs and through the surgery coat he was wearing. He was literally sweating bullets. Okay, not literally. Anyways, I got to see the uterus and cervix just sitting there. Reminds me so much of my mom's case. She had her uterus removed at like...36 or something.

Also, on Friday, we got to attend a hospital wide class too and I got to learn about HPV in Spanish! Haha! Anyhow, I LOVED Hospital Civil. This is by far the BEST clinical experience I've had ... EVER. Up close and personal with surgeons...I mean, HOW cool is THAT! Plus, just the residents I've met and the doctors that I've talked to made it SO hard for me to leave this hospital. Hopefully, my next rotation will be awesome, but I know it won't match up to this. This experience has made me even MORE pumped up for the future! I know that this is definitely what I wanna do...not surgery in particular..but medicine! I love it!!!!

that large mass was a tumor. it was so big it was crushing the pathway leading from the stomach to the intestines so this patient was having trouble eating...so instead, the docs did a bypass and just sewed the two organs together so that he could eat again. they couldn't remove the tumor because it was too advanced. this surgery was crazy because this patient's intestines were just hanging out....omg....it was crazy..

awesome doctors! some of them are my age!!! makes me impatient!

the two nicest docs ever! the guy (dr. paul) on my left is only 22!!!! the guy on my right, dr. Tairi Mejia, is 27 and married...but extremely good looking. ^_____^

the craziest surgery I saw besides the stomach tumor ... this patient had a dislocated elbow, but she waited 21 days before seeing the doctor so in order to fix this, they had to do surgery since there was already fibrosis. LOOK at the drill in her elbow!!!!!!! also present is the tricep.

Anyhow, those past three days were the best, but also the most tiring! My shoes were HORRIBLE for support..and standing for hours on made my back hurt! Plus, 3 hour sleep for 2 nights really wore me down. So, I'M EXHAUSTED! AND, it's Muertos weekend, which makes everything a whole lot more crazy! Since I have HORRIBLE stamina, it's been hard for me to recover...in fact, I'm STILL so tired. I am also 2 weeks behind in reading! :( BUT, tomorrow is the big day! I need to be at Dra. Adela's house at 6:30 am to set up for the altar at the panteon which is basically the cemetery. I'm pretty excited! I'll definitely update you guy on Muertos once all this craziness has passed. I'm also happy because there's only 35 more days until I get to see my family! I mean, I LOVE Oaxaca and all its festivities and food, but I also miss my friends and family.

OH YEAH. Apparently, I've been getting these weird bites all over my body. They are not mosquito bites because these bites itch, but when I scratch them, they bleed and form like a scab...and it HURTS. =( They've bitten me in places where they are not supposed to and it hurts and it's ugly because it leaves a LINE of scabs! So, I found out they were FLEAS!!!! Ugh. I do shower btw...but my homestay mom says it's probably the people in pueblos since I went to Mitla...or the taxis/buses. But I wonder why they are only biting me...I must taste good or something. Anyhow, I gotta go buy some meds for myself and pick up laundry...and sleep more.. haha.

Adios amigos!

SIGH

definitely how i feel today...i'm exhausted!!!!!! But, i guess that's my fault for going to surgery for so long in the worst shoes ever! :( AND i lost my phone today at Civil and now i gotta pay 500 pesos ($50usd) *super sigh..at least it wasn't my precious camera! i would cry. i love Civil though...i love surgery so far, but don't know if i can do it...but i love it! it's such a thrill everytime!

and it rained on my way home =(

i guess it's better than the sweltering HEAT here in Oaxaca.

i have so much to update, but i'm so tired...perhaps tomorrow? people are going to a strip club tomorrow, but i think i'll pass on that ... hahaha. i know i'm boring...Dia de Los Muertos is this weekend. i'm so behind on schoolwork because theres NO TIME! at least it will be fun this weekend! =) gotta conserve energy for it! ><>

alright. i'm off. hopefully my mood will be better.

i just want to go home when im in a bad mood. i just want to hug my dog.

just one more month! almost there linda!!!

Sunday Morning rain is falling

No..not really...it's from a Maroon 5 song! Duh! Haha, kidding =)

But seriously, yesterday was SO much fun! So a couple of us planned on Saturday to go to Hierve del Agua. It was a pretty suddenly planned trip thus we didn't have a chance to publicize this trip to everyone, and I'm kind of glad we didn't..you'll know why ;)

So, Sunday morning, I meet with Trieu, John & Judy (the couple on this trip), Joaquin, Ivan, and Andy to go to Hierve del Agua. It's s'posed to be one of those "you gotta visit places" here so I was pretty excited! But, since it's so far, we need to take a colectivo, which are like taxis that take you to specific places for a cheaper price because they take a lot of people at once, to Mitla, and then take another one to Hierve. So, we all wait at Mercado de Albastos to wait for these colectivos. But, it was taking a while to wait...and so finally, we find one car that can take us there, but there are 8 of us. The driver says he can take ALL 8 of us, so we decided to go since it took so long just for one to come. It was QUITE the experience fitting 8 people in a small car and may I remind you that there are 6 guys. John and Judy sit in the front, and so I'm stuck in the back with 5 guys! LOL! SO basically, 4 guys sat on the seat and I sat on Andy and then Ivan (who's NOT a small person), lies on top of us...including me and my RIGHT LEG. It was SO squished that Ivan's legs were sticking out the window and my head was stuck out the window because I couldn't get them to fit in...finally though, I was able to put my head inside. I felt bad because I was sitting on Andy's diaphragm so everytime he laughed, I thought he was going to pass out or something. Haha. It was a good 40 minute ride there and when we got out, all of us were limping. HAHA!! Anyways, then we took this truck thing that took us to Hierve and that was another good 50 minute ride. When we got there, the driver actually gave us a personal tour which was cool. Apparently, Hierve del Agua is like these rocks that are calcified that kind of look like a waterfall. There is water though spewing out FROM the inside of the rocks which is cool. It was beautiful though...the hills, the nature, just everything! Some of the guys went swimming. The walk was pretty dangerous I felt because it was so rocky. The steps were SO steep too. Climbing up was annoying! It was a good workout though. My thighs are sore! Actually, my whole BODY is sore, and it was so hard to stay awake in class today. Hehe. Anyways, here are some shots from yesterday!

yep. =)

Then, anoche (at night), there was a special dinner thing at John's house because his homestay brother or something is a chef or this pretty pricey restaurant. So a lot of us gathered at his house to eat tlayudas (a giant tortilla with frijoles, quesillo, and other stuff you can add), or garnachas (don't really know what that is..lol). It was a good mingling time except for the fact that my contacts were making my eyes hurt so bad :(

Anyways, good day yesterday! :)

This week is Dia de Los Muertos celebration and I'm SO excited for it!! :D YES!!!!!!!!!! I should have a good post for that too! We are apparently going to build an altar so that should be really fun! Then, it's one more week before PUERTO ESCONDIDO (aka paradise)!

I'm also going to be at Hospital Civil this week! YES!!! :)

Excited!!

Await for a good post and great pictures soon!

Midterm=DONE!

HELLO ALL! So, I'm actually going to be writing a REAL post/update since many things happened...sorta...hahah. For one, MIDTERM IS DONE AND OVER WITH! YAY!!!!! Sadly, I realized we have 3 more essays to write before this quarter is over! =( But I'm happy and PROUD of myself that I finished this essay. I personally think I did well on it and learned a lot (though it was super stressful) so I'm happy =) DEFINITELY keeping the essay for future use (ie. med school interviews!)

SO, on TUESDAY, instead of having class at our usual Hotal Anturium, we went to this place called Mitla to have class. The class was very interesting because it wasn't our usual lecture...it was a COOKING class! It was SO much fun! So basically, we were separated into groups to cook different foods using ingredients on the table. The ingredients were SO fresh! Some were literally picked from the fields! =) I really want to post pictures, but I have A TON of pictures just of ingredients alone so if you guys are interested, I already posted those pictures on my facebook! :) But, the foods we made were traditional black mole (with chocolate, a Oaxacan dish), arroz con leche (rice pudding), sopa de guia (pumpkin flower soup ... MMMM), sweetened pumpkin/squash thing, horchata, quesadillas, and empanadas!! It was so good!!! :D Here are some snapshots!

The horchata we made was interesting because we added tuna (cactus fruit), lime peels, nuts, and melon chunks! It was DELICIOUS though! :) I'm so glad we got the recipes too!! Hello Oaxacan food when I get back to Davis!

Afterwards, we went to the ruins of Mitla. It was alright...the shopping place in front of the ruins was pretty cool though. Got a tank top for 4 bucks USD, a fedora for around 10 bucks, and some other goodies ^_____^. LOVE shopping especially when it's CHEAP-O!

SO yeah, that was Tuesday...the rest of the week was basically furious flipping through pages and typing. Spending my time at Cafe Cuiles (my favorite cafe here) was basically how I spent my days. Yep. So yesterday, everyone decided to go out since midterms were over...but I was SO exhausted, I decided to skip out on Friday and sleep at home. I feel like I missed OUT on a lot though...but that's alright...I enjoyed a relaxing Friday night :)

OH YEAH! I have to talk about Dra. Margarita, the private doc I shadowed this week! She was the sweetest doctor I have ever met! She was a family doctor and normally, I'm not that into family medicine. I thought it would be REALLY boring...but it was actually okay! Better than Hector Tenorio at least...I saw some interesting things ie, pap smears (gross..), a fresh c-section stitch wound (made me nauseous...realized i might faint in surgery this week). She also taught me how to give shots on the butt even though I never got to try..but still at least I now KNOW where to stab the needle into! Haha! I had some nice talks with her too..and she's so cute! She would walk with me to the bus stop and on the last day which was Friday, she brought me food! =) BUT, I'm SUPER stoked for this week because I'm going to Hospital Civil and I'm going to see SURGERIES! Downside is surgery rotation starts at 7am x_x but it's cool. I'm definitely ready to see more intense stuff!

Today, went to my homestay brother's football game in the morning with Erica and Dana and ended up playing frisbee and kicking the ball around with them. It was fun, but when we got home, my homestay bro kept asking me to play with him and it was king of annoying. Kids...*sigh... Then, in the afternoon, went shopping with Judy, John, Trieu, and Andy. It was nice and relaxing just walking around. Decided to walk to Mercado de 20 de Noviembre. 4 of us got these cute embroidered purses (the guys got it for the girls) and got a sweet discount :) We saw a LOT of penises today. My eyes!!! Haha. First of all, we saw wooden penises in the form of alebrijes.. the wooden painted things...with the hair all painted on it and stuff. Then, we went to the market and we saw shot glasses with full on penises. Omg. -_-. There were also shot glasses with sex poses on it. Crazy. Haha.

Augustin...my 6 yr old homestay bro!

Pozole, what I had for dinner! Apparently, it's an Aztec dish! Yum!

Yep, tomorrow, we are planning to go to Hierve del Agua...a waterfall thing? Don't really know, but I'll update soon again! Puerto SOON! Dia de Los Muertos preparation this week! :) Excited!

wisdom from my mama

"The most precious thing about a person is when they are comfortable with themselves.."

I feel like this trip is helping me learn a lot about myself. Especially since Wayne and I broke up, it's caused me to love myself more...in a non-narcissistic way of course, but it's been a struggle dealing with myself. BUT, yeah...this is a weird post, but I'm a mission to FIND myself!

STRESS LEVEL ELEVATED

okay...so I'm kind of stressed FOR REALS now. i decided to ditch spanish class today only to find out no one in my class ditched. apparently, we have thursday off (our essays are due friday)..so i decide to go to Spanish only to find out that we were only watching a MOVIE THAT I SAW ALREADY ... and it's in ENGLISH which defeats the whole purpose of me going to Spanish. BUT, it was a good movie, so it was okay. haha. i would have liked to save those 3 hours for work though...grr..

anyhow, essays due Friday...so i probably won't be blogging too much until afterwards.

alright! adios my darlings!

STRESSED (kind of)

SO, the end of week 4 is upon us. It's pretty crazy how we've been here for a whole month now..and it's pretty crazy how we've ONLY been here for a whole month because it feels like so much longer! I've finished my rotation with Dr. Hector Tenorio and I'm really happy because it was BORING. But, I am thankful for the fact that I was able to get my reading done DURING clinic because he was either a)late or b)had no patients. On Friday, he only had 2 patients the whole morning. He ended up showing me pictures of his coffee plantation, and I learned that he had 2 kids who are both good at physical sciences (engineering and physics). I think I learned more about coffee than about medicine (ie. did you know that coffee fruit is actually a cherry? AND, it's actually very sweet? AND it comes in two colors: yellow and red?). Nevertheless, he's a very chill guy. I like him personally, but this rotation just SUCKED. Just WAIT till evals. I'm so excited for Hospital Civil which will be in 2 weeks for me! SURGERIES AND OB/GYN! SCAPELS AND POPPING BABIES! WOOT.

Thursday, it was Michelle and Mayra's birthday so all of us went to go eat at La Terraza. It's a really fancy shmancy place with fairly good priced food. The place was gorgeous, BUT no matter how gorgeous it was, it couldn't make up the HORRIBLE food and service we got. The only thing that was good was the cake Trieu and I got before the dinner (almond flavored deliciousness!) We were there at 7:30pm, but our food didn't arrive until 9:30pm. I had ordered a chicken salad, but I felt something hard and grainy when I ate it. It literally like hurt my teeth! I thought it was sand so I asked the waiter who told me it was pepper. NOW it was ALMOST 10pm, so I was like WHATEVER..and ate the nasty salad. I was already in a pissed off mood (when I'm hungry, and I don't get food, I'm pissy) so when I found out it was ACTUALLY sand afterwards, I was NOT happy. Before, I would just be like "oh well...I already ate it..." but I think I finally grew a backbone. I told the waiter "YOU TOLD ME IT WAS PEPPER, but it was SAND." He saw that I was really not happy and sad I didn't have to pay. I was happy afterwards. But yea the food was bad. My friend's spaghetti with butter had so much butter, it solidified. My other friend's chicken mole had a chicken head in it which was gross. Everything was just bad. In Oaxaca, DEFINITELY street food or small cheap places serve the best food, NOT the restaurants.

Last night, after studying, a few of us went clubbing at Elefante again. It was fun, but DUDE. I HATE CIGARETTE SMOKE. This morning, I woke up and my lungs were hurting and it was hard to breathe due to all the cigarette smoke last night. Even as I am typing now, it hurts so bad..=( I'm so weaksauce. My poor lungs :( But, it was fun and a good stress reliever.

Today, I basically wrote my paper..or part of it. Our midterm is two 5 page essays due on Friday. I'm pretty stressed out about it just because I think it's a bit hard. But the topic is interesting and it really makes you think. I think after writing this paper, I'll be able to really remember and understand what the heck I'm reading. BUT, I still hate essays. AND, the fact that I'm super wordy makes it even WORSE that we can only write 5 pages. :( SIGH. THEN, Judy, John, Andy, and I went to eat SUSHI! YES SUSHI IN MEXICO! It was ACTUALLY pretty LEGIT though the sushis were kind of small...BUT, nevertheless legit sushi! MY tummy is happy. Afterwards, we paid a visit to the famous hamburguesa man near Santo Domingo (famous church in Oaxaca), which I HAVE to try sometime. His burgers are famous in our program and I can see why. They literally MELT in your mouth. MMMM. I'll take a pic next time I eat it :)

Time is FLYING by. This Tuesday, we are having a cooking class on cooking healthy Mexican food! I'm super excited! THEN, we are going to Mitla, which is a market that also has ruins for us to visit! Then, the week after is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which is basically Halloween on steroids because it's like a week long or something. AND THEN, it's PUERTO ESCONDIDO (aka PARADISE) for 2 weeks! OH YEAHHHHH! 8)

alright pictures!

Happy birthday Michelle! Her and her baby blue. The pony with the deformed mouth (see fb pics)

baby blue in class

la terraza! (boo!)

clubbing at Elefante! (my fav pic of the night!)

yea i didn't really dress up :(

housemate Erica!

we love Oaxaca!

GOODNIGHT !

Meh..whatevs...

Meh. Whatevs...is how I felt about today. It was nothing spectacular. I'm kind of disappointed in my new rotation. It actually is 10xs more boring than my last rotation. Centro de Salud was boring, but I learned a lot about the culture through talking with the doctor. THIS rotation is just plain boring. I get there around 10, but I find out that the doctor doesn't start until 11..so I wait until 11..and he doesn't show up until 11:30. Then, I go see him and his patients. He's a pediatrician...which is not spectacular for me either since I shadowed a ped for the whole summer. I basically sat there for two hours. He saw like 5 patients and 3 drug reps and that was it. Lol. The only good thing was that this drug rep gave me a WHOLE BAG of chewy apple candy. I wanted to kiss him because I was STARVING. I don't know why but lately, my appetite has increased. I don't want it to because I FINALLY lost my belly from all the walking I'm doing...I don't want to gain my belly back -_-. Haha. Hey, who knew WALKING actually DOES tone your tummy =D

Then, attempted to study at Brujula, but just couldn't. Epically wasted like...3 hours -_-. Cafe Cuiles definitely is the place to be for me. I was kind of sad today too...it felt like everyone around me was sad which probably rubbed off on me. Anyways, I just called my mom and had a good cry. I feel a lot better now :) Learning to live in the present, striving for a better future, and not looking back to the past!

Anyways, I really wanted to upload some more beautiful pictures from last weekend..so here goes!

my current facebook pf pic! I LOVE the rolling hills, and scenery in the back! <3

look at the vivd colors! well mainly red..but STILL!

before and after mezcal. YUCK! HAHA

me with my bamboo cup!

okay. enough pictures of me. haha. GOODNIGHT!

Time is FLYING! O__O

Hellooo my lovely, loyal blog readers!

Man! I can't believe it's already week 4!!!!!! Time is seriously FLYING by like crazy now! O_O Tomorrow night, our midterm essay prompts will be uploaded and it will be due next week! CRAZY how it's already midterms! It's so funny because in the beginning, I was SOOO SO SO extremely homesick. I was counting down the days/weeks left here. I was so depressed all the time. DEFINITELY was culture-shocked. Now that I'm used to everything here, I am no longer homesick at all. In fact, I'm really loving it here! =) I also really love the people that are in the program with me ^_____^ I've gotten to know some great people here as well as many DIFFERENT people I probably would have never gotten a chance to meet if it weren't for this program! One thing I struggled with MOST personally in the beginning of this trip was learning to be comfortable in my own skin. I was never in a group with SO many different people and so many different backgrounds. I didn't know how to handle myself and I had so much fear of rejection within me. BUT, I'm proud to say that I got over that hurdle. I won't delve into TOO much, but my bf of 3.5 years and I just broke up recently. It was a very painful time for me especially since I wasn't home. However, I think that this really forced me to grow personally. Somehow, after the breakup, I am very comfortable with myself and I have developed a sense of self-confidence that wasn't there before. Even though it still hurts, but personally, I have grown a lot, AND it's only the 4th week! Who knows what else can happen in the next 6 weeks! :D

Oh dear, I have SO much to say! I think this will be a LONG LONG post! Bear with me folks! Or ... uh...skip to pictures? Haha.

SO, I had a FABULOUS weekend as well! It was a really simple weekend, but I just enjoyed it SO much! The weather is SO beautiful now that it has stopped raining. So let me give you guys a recap of this weekend...

Saturday-Profesora Adela and some people from the program (including me!) took a trip to a small pueblo called San Agustin de Etla for this art exhibition. It was so much fun! The place we went to was located on the top of a mountain so the scenery was absolutely breathtaking (in my opinion...)! But, the walk was tiring because it was so sloped. Anyways, the art exhibit was located in this church thing. Now, USUALLY, I'm not a big fan of art galleries, but Oaxacan art galleries are so much more fun and lively. It's not as structured as places like the Getty or something. There are so many different types of art and there are SO many colors, and it's just SO gorgeous! I enjoyed myself with all the Mexican art. Then, since it was the first day of the exhibition, there was FREE FOOD! SO much food in fact! HOWEVER, I did NOT know that there was an UNLIMITED amount! I thought that if the food was gone, it's gone, so I ate SO fast in order to eat as much as I can. So dumb...I ate my ice cream in like 3 minutes and got 2 brainfreezes during the chowing down. The food was so good! Traditional Mexican food. OMG. AND, they were giving out Mezcal in this bamboo cup thing. We all got the Mezcal just for the cup. I took a sip of my mezcal and gagged for the next 5 minutes. BLECH! We only stayed for like 1.5 hours, so it wasn't too long. We got back around 3pm and then I went to this market placed named Mercado de Alabastos with 2 of my program buddies--Lilia and Adriana. It was so much fun! I got to try cactus fruit (aka TUNA)! OMG. SOOO juicy and SWEET! I love it so much!!! And, I spend the rest of my money here, which wasn't that much..but yea. Ended up getting home around 7pm ish..and I was SO exhausted. Later that night, Ivan called me to ask me if I wanted to go see waterfalls. I was so tempted to! I even told Erica, my housemate, if I could borrow money for the ride! But, I decided not to go since I'm super behind on schoolwork, AND because I was super exhausted from that day. Overall, fun day!

Sunday-DEFINITELY glad I didn't go to see waterfalls because I got to sleep in until 10am! ^__^ Just spent the day chilling and studying at Cafe Cuiles, my NEW favorite hotspot<3>

TODAY- start of week 4. We talked about the US healthcare system which is actually something that I am VERY interested in. I'm so glad we spent time talking about the system and the problems because it is something I never really understood! I understand the need for reform and change, but how can I understand the reform laws if I don't even have a basic idea of the healthcare system? Actually, that's one problem WITH the US healthcare system. It's WAY too complex and most people, especially immigrants, do not know how to even ENTER into the system. Here are some points which I thought was super interesting:

• The US views healthcare as a market, not as a human right as in countries such as Mexico or countries that have implemented universal healthcare (which I am for).
• Hospitals serve as sites of primary through tertiary care. It's actually not good for hospitals to be sites of primary care because it is a big waste of money and resources of those who actually need specialty care. A big burden of public hospitals are the uninsured immigrant population who do not know how to access the healthcare system.
• Despite the fact that our healthcare system is CRAPPY, we have an EXCELLENT health research system through the NIH (National Institute of Health) due to the fact that the federal government made a COMMITMENT to research. If only they would do the same for healthcare....

Yep. Just thought that this was very interesting...I just kept sitting there and soaking everything in like a sponge! Definitely LOVE medicine--the anatomical and physiological aspects all the way down to the political...even though I don't agree with the US healthcare system. But whatever. I don't know enough to say anything anyways..

Alritey. That concludes my post for today! As usual...PICTURES!

handmade cloth/clothes. VERY intricate and beautiful!

me with the hanging clothes/cloths

clips of some art (i have more pics on my fbk)..these are all national artists =)

Okay. so uhm, blogger isn't letting me upload for some reason...so I'll try to upload the rest of the pictures later :)

Hope you enjoyed this long post! Haha!

1/4 of the way DONE with this trip!!!

Today was the last day of the first rotation at Centro de Salud Colonia America! :) I'm SO happy to be moving on to more exciting places (I hope!) because consultations can get kind of dry after seeing the same thing over and over again...I probably mentioned this in my previous post, but the new doctor I shadowed, Dr. Rogeilio, finished at 10:30am all 3 days I shadowed him. It was kind of annoying because my shift is supposed to end at 12! So I always end up leaving early after I shadow Dr. Francisco who ends not that much later..Haha. Life of a doc in Mexico...pretty chill...

Today was funny though because I brought my camera to take pictures of the clinic and with the doctors. I told Dr. Rogelio that I wanted to take pictures of the patients, but I was too shy too...so he accompanied me. Haha! He's so cute. He was like "Vamos mija." First, we took pictures of the doctors which was ALSO funny because the doctors pretended to be patients for pictures sake.

LOL.

Then I took a picture with Dr. Rogelio and Dr. Francisco

Dr. Rogelio...God my eyes are small..

With Dr. Francisco..he's so awesome! I learned so much from him!!

Another Doctor!

Patient waiting room...there's actually more patients waiting on the other side, but didn't get a picture of it. People are so open here. The women literally just breastfeed their baby while waiting...shirt open, boob hanging out and all.

btw, this is what they use to hear a baby's heartbeat inside the mother's womb. Old school style. In the US, I believe it is done by ultrasound.

Anyways, today, after shadowing Dr. Rogelio, I shadowed Dr. Francisco. I did the physical exam (throat, heart, respiration, etc.) as usual, but today he was like quizzing me like crazy. He kept asking me questions. One question that got me was when he asked me what I thought about the patient's weight, and I didn't know because the patient didn't LOOK overweight. Plus, the height was in centimeters and the weight in kilogram...lol, so I didn't really know what the norm was or anything...if only everyone else followed the US and used lbs instead of kg and inches instead of cm, everything would be easier HAHAH!!

I did learn a lot from this place despite the fact that it was very uneventful most of the time.

Some things that I learned:

• Despite the fact that many people in Mexico suffer from extreme poverty (I believe 75% in the state of Oaxaca), the diseases that are most prevalent is similar to a developed country's such as the US. The most common diseases seen were diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
• The doctors have a heavyload on them as they are the ones who are responsible to teach preventative care to the community as well as family planning. According to Dr. Francisco, though they tell the patients about family planning, it is not that effective since family planning is against their culture as well as their religion.
• Water and vegetables are not a stable part of the Mexican diet since most people who come in complain of stomach ache and constipation or urinary infections. However, water is more expensive than coke so many poor people cannot afford it.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. But, I'm definitely glad to move on. I cannot WAIT to go to Hospital Civil to see some surgeries! But, that's not until another 3 weeks AND I'm bummed that I'm only there for three days! :(

Ugh. Today's Friday, but I have class from 5-7pm tonight! =(

It seems the days are FLYING by!