So, with about 1.5 weeks left, I switched hospitals to the Maternity Institute, a public hospital in downtown hospital, obviously specializing in maternity. I'm with Dr. Mercado, who is a radiologist, working in the ultrasound room. I think he also used to be the director of a few hospitals and that he still teaches medical students. My first day, I was able to stay with the fifth year medical students and see a natural birth, the end of a c-section through the "gallery" = the window of the door outside the surgery wing, and another procedure after a miscarriage. The natural birth was pretty long, and they had to repair some damage done to the woman by the baby after. It was also really funny because there were 4 medical students, me, a 2 residents, a doctor, and a nurse, all crowded into this small birthing room. We were moving around and trying to see from any angle -- pobre mama, as my host mom said (poor mom). It was a little bit 'grosser' than I thought, but so interesting. I've seen a bunch of ultrasounds as well:
-pregnancy (a lot)
-baby's hips
-transvaginal
-thyroid
-kidneys
-ovarian cysts
We also saw a museum of preserved specimens of fetuses and miscarriages, which was interesting but really creepy, and kind of weird to think that they were once someone's baby or baby-to-be, and were inside a woman.
I also got the chance to see a C-section! In the actual room with the doctors! We ran to the pharmacy to buy a disposable gown, mask, cap, and booties, and then we rushed to get changed and go in the room! They were all really nice, and asked us about ourselves and where we were from, etc. All the doctors operating were residents, not yet specialized in OB. And there were 2 anesthesiologists in the room, who were really funny - typical, playing music, dancing, laughing with the doctors. They played us this song, really funny:
Anesthesiologist Song
It only took about 5-10 minutes to get the baby out, but then it took another hour to sew everything up! I was surprised at how long it took. I saw all the different layers of the abdomen and uterus, and the different types of needles they used and the sutures they were doing. It was so cool.
Anyway, I hope to see more this week! And I'll try to post again soon. I also want to post about medicine in general in Argentina, about my family, and about other general observations.
Peace,
Kelsey
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Medicina - Sierras Chicas
So, I've been at this one small private clinic in the town where I live for about 2 months, called Sierras Chicas. I worked mostly with Dr. Murqui, who seems to me like a general or family practitioner. He was in charge of all the hospitalized patients (we had ~20 beds), except for the ICU (7 beds), and the walk-in/on call clinic area called 'la Guardia'. We didn't have an emergency room of any sort. He and another doctor shared these duties. Mostly, I just followed him on rounds and observed him in the Guardia. Whenever he was charting, or didn't have any more patients to see, or just didn't have anything for me to see in general, I followed the nurses around. With them, I helped change patients, change the beds, and just watched them do stuff. And when they didn't have anything to do, I folded gauze, because they cut, fold, wrap, and sterilize their own gauze.
It was definitely interesting to see the range of patients that Dr. Murqui saw. A good portion of the hospitalized patients were older, and some were bedridden, either because of old age, or hip fractures, etc. So, I'm just going to make a list of some of the things I saw:
-pnemonia
-diabetes
-urinary infections
-bug bites
-gastroenteritis
-flu/cold/allergies
-laryngitis
-appendicitis
-hip fractures
-cystic fibrosis
-toenail removal
-putting in/taking out male/female catheters
-hernia
-colon cancer
-kidney stones
-putting in/taking out IV
-stroke
-car accident
-fell off horse
-work injuries
-sports injuries
-enema
-naso-gastric tube
-remove blood from catheter
-take blood pressure/pulse
-pinched nerve
-epilepsy
-pregnant woman with contractions
-bleeding during pregnancy
-various other small wounds
-dressing changes of wounds
-heart murmur
-bedsores, including removal of sore.
In general, it was a really good experience. I got to see all kinds of different patients, and the relationship between the doctors and the nurses. I got to actually interact with patients, whether it was helping the nurses change them, feeding them, taking their blood pressure/pulse, assisting the doctors with handing them gauze/saline/tape/syringes, and other random tasks. I got to listen to a heart murmur, and to hear the lung sounds of patients with pneumonia.
The doctors were really nice. Dr. Murqui spoke very clearly and slowly, so I could understand him, and was very willing to answer any of my questions. At first, I thought some of the nurses didn't like me, but it was sometimes hard to understand them and I often felt like a burden to them. However, in the end, I had a good relationship with them and really enjoyed my time there. I will definitely miss it!
It was definitely interesting to see the range of patients that Dr. Murqui saw. A good portion of the hospitalized patients were older, and some were bedridden, either because of old age, or hip fractures, etc. So, I'm just going to make a list of some of the things I saw:
-pnemonia
-diabetes
-urinary infections
-bug bites
-gastroenteritis
-flu/cold/allergies
-laryngitis
-appendicitis
-hip fractures
-cystic fibrosis
-toenail removal
-putting in/taking out male/female catheters
-hernia
-colon cancer
-kidney stones
-putting in/taking out IV
-stroke
-car accident
-fell off horse
-work injuries
-sports injuries
-enema
-naso-gastric tube
-remove blood from catheter
-take blood pressure/pulse
-pinched nerve
-epilepsy
-pregnant woman with contractions
-bleeding during pregnancy
-various other small wounds
-dressing changes of wounds
-heart murmur
-bedsores, including removal of sore.
In general, it was a really good experience. I got to see all kinds of different patients, and the relationship between the doctors and the nurses. I got to actually interact with patients, whether it was helping the nurses change them, feeding them, taking their blood pressure/pulse, assisting the doctors with handing them gauze/saline/tape/syringes, and other random tasks. I got to listen to a heart murmur, and to hear the lung sounds of patients with pneumonia.
The doctors were really nice. Dr. Murqui spoke very clearly and slowly, so I could understand him, and was very willing to answer any of my questions. At first, I thought some of the nurses didn't like me, but it was sometimes hard to understand them and I often felt like a burden to them. However, in the end, I had a good relationship with them and really enjoyed my time there. I will definitely miss it!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Mi casa, su casa
So, here are some pics from mi casa (my house) here in Unquillo, Córdoba, Argentina. It´s a pretty small house even for Argentina, but it works.
I live on Pasaje (Passage) San Lorenzo 90, which is actually on a dirt road, and I take a shortcut through this dirt path by this 'creek' (hardly), to get to the house.
The front:
This is the front door:
This is my room that I currently share with Liz, another girl from the States. It just has 2 beds and the small wardrobe, which only has 2 hangers, and a small side table which holds our space heater.
This is the kitchen - fridge, sink, stove, cupboards, table, microwave, and back door. It's pretty small, especially for 5 people sometimes, but from it comes pretty good food :)
El baño (bathroom). Yes, we do have hot water. Most days. They don't have gas pipes throughout the city, so they actually buy 10 kilo tanks of gas, and the water is cold when they run out of gas and need to buy more, about every week during the winter. (Yes, it is fall/winter here). As you can see, there is a bidet (the thing that looks like a small sink next to the toilet). My family doesn't use toilet paper, just the bidet, so I had to buy my own when I got here. And the flush for the toilet is that blue thing with the white button on the wall above the toilet.
This is our living room - it just has the TV on a small table and 2 older chairs. We usually watch Disney channel (In Spanish, of course), or a music video channel, although they do have a lot of other American shows from previous seasons with Spanish subtitles. All of these things have helped me learn Spanish!
This is our heater in the living room, which also runs off the gas. We have to light it and it heats up the area in the living room pretty decently, but it's not on all the time, and it actually gets pretty cold inside the house, sometimes colder than outside during the day. And all the floors except for our room are tile, but that makes it easy to clean with the broom/mop.
So this is my house. There are 2 other bedrooms, one for the parents and one for the kids, but they both just have beds and wardrobes too, and some toys in the kids' room. They have a very small backyard too, and I'll post pics of that later in another post. I do miss being able to take a bit longer shower with better water pressure, and definitely miss central heating. But it's comfy and works for the few weeks that I am here, and the host family is so nice! Hasta Luego! (See ya later!)
I live on Pasaje (Passage) San Lorenzo 90, which is actually on a dirt road, and I take a shortcut through this dirt path by this 'creek' (hardly), to get to the house.
The front:
This is the front door:
This is my room that I currently share with Liz, another girl from the States. It just has 2 beds and the small wardrobe, which only has 2 hangers, and a small side table which holds our space heater.
This is the kitchen - fridge, sink, stove, cupboards, table, microwave, and back door. It's pretty small, especially for 5 people sometimes, but from it comes pretty good food :)
El baño (bathroom). Yes, we do have hot water. Most days. They don't have gas pipes throughout the city, so they actually buy 10 kilo tanks of gas, and the water is cold when they run out of gas and need to buy more, about every week during the winter. (Yes, it is fall/winter here). As you can see, there is a bidet (the thing that looks like a small sink next to the toilet). My family doesn't use toilet paper, just the bidet, so I had to buy my own when I got here. And the flush for the toilet is that blue thing with the white button on the wall above the toilet.
This is our living room - it just has the TV on a small table and 2 older chairs. We usually watch Disney channel (In Spanish, of course), or a music video channel, although they do have a lot of other American shows from previous seasons with Spanish subtitles. All of these things have helped me learn Spanish!
This is our heater in the living room, which also runs off the gas. We have to light it and it heats up the area in the living room pretty decently, but it's not on all the time, and it actually gets pretty cold inside the house, sometimes colder than outside during the day. And all the floors except for our room are tile, but that makes it easy to clean with the broom/mop.
So this is my house. There are 2 other bedrooms, one for the parents and one for the kids, but they both just have beds and wardrobes too, and some toys in the kids' room. They have a very small backyard too, and I'll post pics of that later in another post. I do miss being able to take a bit longer shower with better water pressure, and definitely miss central heating. But it's comfy and works for the few weeks that I am here, and the host family is so nice! Hasta Luego! (See ya later!)
Friday, June 18, 2010
Futbol - the Copa Mundial!
So, for all you Americans who aren't aware, the World Cup for Futbol (futbol=soccer), is going on right now in South Africa. Apparently, the world cup only happens every 4 years, kind of like the Olympics! I think there are 32 teams (and therefore countries) competing, and will last about a month. I have learned a lot about futbol in just about a week since it started! First, the game is 90 minutes long, with a 15-minute half time at 45 minutes. Other than for halftime, the clock doesn't ever stop, and there are no commercials - so different than a football game! So the game is actually only less than 2 hours long. And the interesting thing is that they don't play until someone wins - quite often there is a tie, 1-1/2-2, or even 0-0. Argentina played last Saturday, and won, 1-0 against Nigeria, and played again on Thursday and won 4-1 against Korea! So we are doing well. And the US is doing reasonably well too!
But in general, people are really excited about the games, and even so much as not going to work and shutting down businesses, and everything is decorated in white and celeste (light blue), which is kind of nice to see all that country pride!
Gooooooooooool!
:)
But in general, people are really excited about the games, and even so much as not going to work and shutting down businesses, and everything is decorated in white and celeste (light blue), which is kind of nice to see all that country pride!
Gooooooooooool!
:)
Argentinan Spanish
Finally! After almost a month of being here my Spanish is starting to get noticeably better! It was touch-and-go for the first few weeks, the first week I couldn't hardly understand anything. But now, things are a lot easier, and I understand a lot more, and talking is definitely getting easier and more natural - not perfect yet, but hopefully after another month and a half!
So, for all you people who are curious about the Spanish here, this is a blog post for you!
Rules for Argentinian Spanish (castellano):
1. The ll/y sound is pronounced like a j. Ex: Me llamo = Me jamo. Very hard to understand even if you know what it is supposed to be! But I'm going to come home with this accent!
2. In between the formal Ud and the informal tu (both meaning you) is vos. Its actually a lot easier to use because I don't have to debate tu vs Ud! But also sometimes there are other verb forms just for this form, the most common being sos = (you) are. Ex. ?De donde sos vos? Second question people ask, and when I pause because of the different verb form, they just assume you don't speak any Spanish.
3. Aqui = aca'. They both mean 'right here, in this spot'. Ex: Veni aca.
4. Drop 's' from the end of any word that ends in s. At least partially. Ex: gracias -> gracia(s)
5. Mi amor, Mi vida (my love, my life) = baby, honey, sweetie, etc.
6. Apparently here in Cordoba, Argentina, they also kind of sing some of their words and the accent on the syllables isn't completely correct.
7. Some words for things are different: strawberries=frutillas (instead of frutas), butter = manteca. I'm sure there are other things too...
I'll post again later with all the stuff I can't remember now, but these are the major ones!
It has made it difficult, but I think I am getting the hang of it!
So, for all you people who are curious about the Spanish here, this is a blog post for you!
Rules for Argentinian Spanish (castellano):
1. The ll/y sound is pronounced like a j. Ex: Me llamo = Me jamo. Very hard to understand even if you know what it is supposed to be! But I'm going to come home with this accent!
2. In between the formal Ud and the informal tu (both meaning you) is vos. Its actually a lot easier to use because I don't have to debate tu vs Ud! But also sometimes there are other verb forms just for this form, the most common being sos = (you) are. Ex. ?De donde sos vos? Second question people ask, and when I pause because of the different verb form, they just assume you don't speak any Spanish.
3. Aqui = aca'. They both mean 'right here, in this spot'. Ex: Veni aca.
4. Drop 's' from the end of any word that ends in s. At least partially. Ex: gracias -> gracia(s)
5. Mi amor, Mi vida (my love, my life) = baby, honey, sweetie, etc.
6. Apparently here in Cordoba, Argentina, they also kind of sing some of their words and the accent on the syllables isn't completely correct.
7. Some words for things are different: strawberries=frutillas (instead of frutas), butter = manteca. I'm sure there are other things too...
I'll post again later with all the stuff I can't remember now, but these are the major ones!
It has made it difficult, but I think I am getting the hang of it!
Buses - driving in Argentina
You think driving in Pittsburgh is bad? Try driving here in Argentina!
General driving -
There are hardly any lane dividers here, and people form lanes as they want, often crossing into others and just in general doing whatever they want. Cars go really close to other cars, and to people too, and I don't think pedestrians (necessarily) have the right of way here. Additionally, all the cars are stick shift and are usually older models. My host family doesn't have a car, but the uncle and grandpa do, and you can get everywhere by walking anyway, so it's all good.
Now, about the buses - here, there are some pros and cons.
Cons first: The bus drivers are crazy! Passengers don't have to have exact change, and I never really understood why we need to in the states, but now I do! most of the time while the driver is driving, he is making change or putting bills into the wallet, all while driving stick shift without defined lanes.
Now, the US could learn some things from Argentinian buses, such as that you always exit at the rear door of the bus. This helps people move back and not block the door, and it is usually easier to leave. And, people waiting to get on aren't delayed by people getting off. Also, the seats, at least for my longer-route bus, are very comfy and there are drapes on the windows. And the windows open! (Good in the summer, but bad in the winter...). I think that's pretty much it. Just something I've been thinking about ... as I fall asleep on the bus.
However, I much prefer driving in the States and wouldn't want to even attempt it here :)
General driving -
There are hardly any lane dividers here, and people form lanes as they want, often crossing into others and just in general doing whatever they want. Cars go really close to other cars, and to people too, and I don't think pedestrians (necessarily) have the right of way here. Additionally, all the cars are stick shift and are usually older models. My host family doesn't have a car, but the uncle and grandpa do, and you can get everywhere by walking anyway, so it's all good.
Now, about the buses - here, there are some pros and cons.
Cons first: The bus drivers are crazy! Passengers don't have to have exact change, and I never really understood why we need to in the states, but now I do! most of the time while the driver is driving, he is making change or putting bills into the wallet, all while driving stick shift without defined lanes.
Now, the US could learn some things from Argentinian buses, such as that you always exit at the rear door of the bus. This helps people move back and not block the door, and it is usually easier to leave. And, people waiting to get on aren't delayed by people getting off. Also, the seats, at least for my longer-route bus, are very comfy and there are drapes on the windows. And the windows open! (Good in the summer, but bad in the winter...). I think that's pretty much it. Just something I've been thinking about ... as I fall asleep on the bus.
However, I much prefer driving in the States and wouldn't want to even attempt it here :)
Asado... aka Food in Argentina
What is asado? Pretty much, it is the Argentinian form of grilling, but way more awesome. There is an outdoor brick oven-type stove, where all the meat is cooked. Pretty much, it is just a ton of meat. and when I say a ton, I do mean a ton. The rule is, whenever you think there can't possibly be anymore meat, they bring in another plate!
So, it is typically served as a celebratory dinner (or sometimes lunch), as we have had on holidays, birthdays, and days when volunteers leave (or in some cases return for visits). And it is usually eaten as the typical Sunday dinner in some families. In our house, it is (always) served with potato salad and regular salad (lettuce plus carrots or tomatoes), and bread.
Ok, so types of meat, in the order they come off the grill:
1. ribs and other beef
2. pork and pork sausage (chorizo), and blood sausage (pork + beef, but not the tastiest thing).
3. Sometimes more beef
4. Chicken
They are all delicious (except the blood sausage), and are usually just seasoned with salt and cooked to perfection. At our volunteer social, we also had roasted vegetables, and other types of beef that weren't as good, and overall it wasn't as good as my family's asado.
In general, the food is very good here. For breakfast, we usually just have crackers or small pastries with butter, cheese, dulce de leche (really good caramel spread), ham-flavored cream cheese-type spread, honey, and/or dulce de batata (sweet potato gelatin-like thing that is also really good). They also have a tea or coffee.
Lunch and dinner are pretty much the same, with dinners usually being a little bit bigger. We have had noodles (fideos), breaded and fried chicken/steak (milanesas), other types of chicken and beef, tortas (kind of like a pie with meat and vegetables inside, almost like a pot pie-type thing), pizza (which always has a garnish of a whole green olive on each slice), a lot of rice with cream and cheese (very tasty), soups, stews, sandwiches (here, sandwichs and all the letters are pronounced - sand-witches), etc. I am really lucky in that my host mom, Ana Paula, cooks a lot and from scratch. They go to the grocery store before every meal and have almost nothing in their fridge except for leftovers and breakfast jams/spreads. They use a lot of vegetables, especially onions, and use some peppers, squash, tomatoes, and a lot of hard boiled eggs in the dishes. Additionally, they cook with a lot of salt, and a lot of vegetable oil (they often use it alone as a salad dressing). They also like mayonase a lot, and put it on almost anything. And we have bread with every meal (usually baguette style).
A big difference here is that in general they wake up later than in the US - shops usually open around 9:30, 10 am, so people get up around 9. Then, they eat lunch at about 1 (or sometimes in my house, 2) pm, depending on when they had breakfast. Next comes a snack + mate (pronounced ma-taey, emphasis on the e as in hey) sometime between 4-7 pm, which is usually more bread or possibly cookies or tarta (like sponge cake). Mate is a typical Argentinian drink, and is pretty much herbs, kind of like an herbal tea.
[see a picture here]
You drink it from a communal cup which has the tea strainer built into the straw. Typically, one person prepares the mate and drinks the first cup to make sure it is right. Usually, you put herbs and sometimes sugar, and then add hot water. Then, it is passed around to everyone else, usually in circle, and each person drinks the mate and passes it back to the server, who then adds more herbs/sugar/water and passes it to the next person. It can be drunk anytime, and is common whenever friends get together to chat (kind of like going out for coffee).
Anyway, sometimes there is a siesta after lunch and before the mid-afternoon snack, during which some people sleep or relax. In my small town, businesses are closed from about 1:30/2 until about 5:30/6 during this siesta time - everyone comes home from work for lunch and goes back later until about 9 or 10 pm. Then, after mate/tea/coffee/snack, dinner is usually about 10 pm (sometimes earlier, or in my house, usually later, around 10:30 and sometimes later, usually 11 or later on weekends. Then, people usually stay up till at least 2 am. If you are going out for dinner on the weekend, you might meet up with people for drinks at 10, go to dinner at 11 or 12, and then clubs open after 1:30 or 2 in the morning till about 6 or 7 am. It is not uncommon to get home at 3 am, or if you stay out for clubbing or something, to get home at 7 am, sleep a little bit, go to work, come back and take a siesta, and go back to work. I've had some trouble adjusting to this, since I like my sleep :) Since I work at 8:30, i usually go to bed soon after dinner, at about 11:30 - early! But I also work pretty early.
Anything else about food? They like to drink Pepsi/Coke + wine (red or white). Additionally, they like a lot of pop (soda, for you non-Cleveland-ers), usually Pepsi. What I find funny is that the only thing we have in metric measurements is 2-liters of pop, but here, they come in 2.25 liter bottles! And it tastes slightly different, I can't quite pinpoint it. Furthermore, they drink water with gas, basically carbonated water, quite a bit - you usually have to specify if you want 'regular' water.
Overall, the food has been very good, and I'm definitely eating well! I really like the food and the great cooks and asadors in my family! Can't wait for asado on Sunday with all the volunteers and the whole family :)
Chao y Besos!
So, it is typically served as a celebratory dinner (or sometimes lunch), as we have had on holidays, birthdays, and days when volunteers leave (or in some cases return for visits). And it is usually eaten as the typical Sunday dinner in some families. In our house, it is (always) served with potato salad and regular salad (lettuce plus carrots or tomatoes), and bread.
Ok, so types of meat, in the order they come off the grill:
1. ribs and other beef
2. pork and pork sausage (chorizo), and blood sausage (pork + beef, but not the tastiest thing).
3. Sometimes more beef
4. Chicken
They are all delicious (except the blood sausage), and are usually just seasoned with salt and cooked to perfection. At our volunteer social, we also had roasted vegetables, and other types of beef that weren't as good, and overall it wasn't as good as my family's asado.
In general, the food is very good here. For breakfast, we usually just have crackers or small pastries with butter, cheese, dulce de leche (really good caramel spread), ham-flavored cream cheese-type spread, honey, and/or dulce de batata (sweet potato gelatin-like thing that is also really good). They also have a tea or coffee.
Lunch and dinner are pretty much the same, with dinners usually being a little bit bigger. We have had noodles (fideos), breaded and fried chicken/steak (milanesas), other types of chicken and beef, tortas (kind of like a pie with meat and vegetables inside, almost like a pot pie-type thing), pizza (which always has a garnish of a whole green olive on each slice), a lot of rice with cream and cheese (very tasty), soups, stews, sandwiches (here, sandwichs and all the letters are pronounced - sand-witches), etc. I am really lucky in that my host mom, Ana Paula, cooks a lot and from scratch. They go to the grocery store before every meal and have almost nothing in their fridge except for leftovers and breakfast jams/spreads. They use a lot of vegetables, especially onions, and use some peppers, squash, tomatoes, and a lot of hard boiled eggs in the dishes. Additionally, they cook with a lot of salt, and a lot of vegetable oil (they often use it alone as a salad dressing). They also like mayonase a lot, and put it on almost anything. And we have bread with every meal (usually baguette style).
A big difference here is that in general they wake up later than in the US - shops usually open around 9:30, 10 am, so people get up around 9. Then, they eat lunch at about 1 (or sometimes in my house, 2) pm, depending on when they had breakfast. Next comes a snack + mate (pronounced ma-taey, emphasis on the e as in hey) sometime between 4-7 pm, which is usually more bread or possibly cookies or tarta (like sponge cake). Mate is a typical Argentinian drink, and is pretty much herbs, kind of like an herbal tea.
[see a picture here]
You drink it from a communal cup which has the tea strainer built into the straw. Typically, one person prepares the mate and drinks the first cup to make sure it is right. Usually, you put herbs and sometimes sugar, and then add hot water. Then, it is passed around to everyone else, usually in circle, and each person drinks the mate and passes it back to the server, who then adds more herbs/sugar/water and passes it to the next person. It can be drunk anytime, and is common whenever friends get together to chat (kind of like going out for coffee).
Anyway, sometimes there is a siesta after lunch and before the mid-afternoon snack, during which some people sleep or relax. In my small town, businesses are closed from about 1:30/2 until about 5:30/6 during this siesta time - everyone comes home from work for lunch and goes back later until about 9 or 10 pm. Then, after mate/tea/coffee/snack, dinner is usually about 10 pm (sometimes earlier, or in my house, usually later, around 10:30 and sometimes later, usually 11 or later on weekends. Then, people usually stay up till at least 2 am. If you are going out for dinner on the weekend, you might meet up with people for drinks at 10, go to dinner at 11 or 12, and then clubs open after 1:30 or 2 in the morning till about 6 or 7 am. It is not uncommon to get home at 3 am, or if you stay out for clubbing or something, to get home at 7 am, sleep a little bit, go to work, come back and take a siesta, and go back to work. I've had some trouble adjusting to this, since I like my sleep :) Since I work at 8:30, i usually go to bed soon after dinner, at about 11:30 - early! But I also work pretty early.
Anything else about food? They like to drink Pepsi/Coke + wine (red or white). Additionally, they like a lot of pop (soda, for you non-Cleveland-ers), usually Pepsi. What I find funny is that the only thing we have in metric measurements is 2-liters of pop, but here, they come in 2.25 liter bottles! And it tastes slightly different, I can't quite pinpoint it. Furthermore, they drink water with gas, basically carbonated water, quite a bit - you usually have to specify if you want 'regular' water.
Overall, the food has been very good, and I'm definitely eating well! I really like the food and the great cooks and asadors in my family! Can't wait for asado on Sunday with all the volunteers and the whole family :)
Chao y Besos!
Volunteers
I just wanted to share a little bit about the program, Projects Abroad, and give you a better idea of what I've been up to!
Projects Abroad has a website here, and some stats, such as that they have 13+ types of projects, including medicine, teaching, care (orphanage work), and sports, and are located in 24 different countries on 5 continents. Most people volunteer abroad, but you can also work abroad if you have professional experience, such as doing a rotation here if you are a doctor.
So right now in Argentina, they have about 40 volunteers, and most stay for a month or 2, although some only stay for 2 weeks and can stay as long as 4-5 months. Now, the majority are from the US because, as you know, it is summer there, and students are on holiday. In addition, there are some girls from England, a girl from Australia (usually more, and 2 people that left right when I got here), a guy from Ireland, a girl from France, and a girl from Norway, and I'm sure more will come. Usually, there are a good amount of people from Holland here, it's pretty popular for them and people in England to take a gap year before starting university. My room mate for the first 2 weeks was from Holland, but she was traveling almost that whole time, and we only shared a room for one night - she left 30 minutes after I got there!
In the grandma's house right now there is another medical volunteer from the States, Sebastian. He's pretty chill, and we work together in the clinic. Today a volunteer came back to her house to visit for about a week - He had stayed there for 5 months through Projects Abroad, traveled and worked in Peru for about 2 months, and is going back to Australia next week. And on Sunday, another volunteer is coming back to visit Bebe for I think a week. And, also on Sunday, we are getting another volunteer in my house, a girl, Liz, from the US. So we will have a full house on Sunday for dinner! I'm looking forward to it, it's always easier with more than 1 volunteer to not be the odd one out. I'm sure I'll have more updates to come, as volunteers cycle and the groups change, and new people are always arriving and others leaving.
That's all for now!
Chao and besos!
Projects Abroad has a website here, and some stats, such as that they have 13+ types of projects, including medicine, teaching, care (orphanage work), and sports, and are located in 24 different countries on 5 continents. Most people volunteer abroad, but you can also work abroad if you have professional experience, such as doing a rotation here if you are a doctor.
So right now in Argentina, they have about 40 volunteers, and most stay for a month or 2, although some only stay for 2 weeks and can stay as long as 4-5 months. Now, the majority are from the US because, as you know, it is summer there, and students are on holiday. In addition, there are some girls from England, a girl from Australia (usually more, and 2 people that left right when I got here), a guy from Ireland, a girl from France, and a girl from Norway, and I'm sure more will come. Usually, there are a good amount of people from Holland here, it's pretty popular for them and people in England to take a gap year before starting university. My room mate for the first 2 weeks was from Holland, but she was traveling almost that whole time, and we only shared a room for one night - she left 30 minutes after I got there!
In the grandma's house right now there is another medical volunteer from the States, Sebastian. He's pretty chill, and we work together in the clinic. Today a volunteer came back to her house to visit for about a week - He had stayed there for 5 months through Projects Abroad, traveled and worked in Peru for about 2 months, and is going back to Australia next week. And on Sunday, another volunteer is coming back to visit Bebe for I think a week. And, also on Sunday, we are getting another volunteer in my house, a girl, Liz, from the US. So we will have a full house on Sunday for dinner! I'm looking forward to it, it's always easier with more than 1 volunteer to not be the odd one out. I'm sure I'll have more updates to come, as volunteers cycle and the groups change, and new people are always arriving and others leaving.
That's all for now!
Chao and besos!
Ok, so...
Wow. So I've been here just over 3 weeks now!
First off, Argentina is quite different than USA (obviously!) but in a lot of ways the people here are similar. My host family is really nice: Ana Paula, mom; Nahuel, dad; Luca, boy, 5 years old; and Morena, girl, 2 years old. They live in a small house in the small town of Unquillo, Cordoba, Argentina. This town is about an hour away from downtown by bus, but the busses here are very nice and run frequently. Ana Paula's parents live about a 5-minute walk away, very close, and her brother also lives in Unquillo, about a 5-min car ride, and has a wife and 2 kids, 9 and 3. My family doesn't have a car, but the majority of families do even though they are older models, and all stick shifts. The whole family is really nice, and Bebe, Ana Paula's mom also hosts volunteers. However, the kids are a little bit annoying just because they scream a lot and are always getting into trouble, but when they are behaving, they are pretty cute.
I work Monday through Friday at a small clinic here in Unquillo, about a 15-min walk from my house. It has about 25 beds, most of the time about half occupied, a 7-bed ICU, about 4 rooms for consultations including x-rays and ultrasounds, and a 'Guardia,' which is like the walk-in consulting room. I am shadowing a doctor who is mainly in charge of the patients who are admitted into the general area, and in charge of the Guardia, whenever he is in the clinic. I also think he supervises most of the clinic and is one of the head doctors. To me, he seems to specialize in general or family medicine. We see a lot of patients who have flu-like symptoms, or breathing problems, including a good number of people with pneumonia/bronchitis. Additionally, most of the patients are older and have trouble getting around and have bedsores from laying in the same position too long. For most of them, the clinic is the first step to going somewhere where they can receive full-time care dedicated to people who are bedridden. Mostly, I've been helping out the nurses, which includes changing beds (including diapers), feeding some patients, assisting them in fetching their supplies, and folding gauze - they have to cut their own gauze here, and we fold it and put it in paper to be sterilized.
Overall, at the clinic it was kind of overwhelming at first, and hard to communicate because of all the new words in Spanish, and in general just not knowing how things were supposed to go. Sometimes it can be pretty boring if there aren't very many patients, or in the down times, and there isn't a whole lot of variety, and they really don't see any trauma other than someone who is just under observation after a car accident (i.e., no injuries). I was kind of hoping to see more and possibly be able to see surgeries and deliveries, but I think we do surgery but I don't know where! Also, most of the time spent with the doctor is just listening and observing, although now we get to take pulse and blood pressure and transport patients and fetch supplies, and have been spending more time with the doctor in the walk-in room.
It's definitely been tough because I don't have a lot to do outside of my work at the clinic. I'm studying for the MCAT, but can only do that so many hours a day. Additionally, because I am so far from Cordoba, it is hard to meet up with other volunteers, and I haven't really clicked with that many of them (because I didn't go clubbing with them the one night), so I don't know that many people. There is another volunteer in Unquillo, at Bebe's house (the grandma of my family) and he also works at the clinic with me. He's nice, but we don't really hang out outside of work and volunteer socials. But I do have plans to meet up with some girls on Tuesday for dinner!
It was also very hard at first because taking Spanish classes didn't really prepare me for actually talking to people and living with a family. I'm now at the point where I can understand more or less most of what my family is saying if they speak a little bit slower than usual. I've learned a lot of vocabulary and grammar in this month! One thing that is really different is the use of 'vos' instead of 'tu' (you), which is kind of confusing and they sometimes have different verb forms for this which we never learned. They also have a really heavy accent, pronouncing 'll' like 'j' instead of like 'y', and that is really hard to get used to. Mostly, it was just not knowing enough vocabulary, such as for items around the house or the clinic, and having trouble conjugating verbs on the spot in sentences. But it's getting a little bit easier, and I'm learning a lot. Although some people just don't understand that you aren't from Argentina, they don't slow their speech down at all, or just think I straight up don't speak spanish (or castellano, as it is referred to here). Hopefully I will be much more fluent in another month and a half!
Anyway, that's about it for now. I've been quite a bit homesick, for family and friends and just plain old American things. And I also have a bit of a cold - it's a lot colder here than I thought it would be because it doesn't snow here, and they don't have central heating, just a gas 'stove' heater that they turn on, and small electric space heaters for at night. But it's mostly just the changing seasons and the drastic changes in weather - warm and sunny during the day, but cold at night.
Oh, and I get another volunteer in my house on Sunday - Liz, from the States. More on volunteers (and our socials) later! And Busses! and Language! I promise to post more! te prometo!
Chao y Besos de Argentina!
(Bye and Kisses from Argentina - it's what everybody says because you always kiss people on the cheek hello and goodbye!)
First off, Argentina is quite different than USA (obviously!) but in a lot of ways the people here are similar. My host family is really nice: Ana Paula, mom; Nahuel, dad; Luca, boy, 5 years old; and Morena, girl, 2 years old. They live in a small house in the small town of Unquillo, Cordoba, Argentina. This town is about an hour away from downtown by bus, but the busses here are very nice and run frequently. Ana Paula's parents live about a 5-minute walk away, very close, and her brother also lives in Unquillo, about a 5-min car ride, and has a wife and 2 kids, 9 and 3. My family doesn't have a car, but the majority of families do even though they are older models, and all stick shifts. The whole family is really nice, and Bebe, Ana Paula's mom also hosts volunteers. However, the kids are a little bit annoying just because they scream a lot and are always getting into trouble, but when they are behaving, they are pretty cute.
I work Monday through Friday at a small clinic here in Unquillo, about a 15-min walk from my house. It has about 25 beds, most of the time about half occupied, a 7-bed ICU, about 4 rooms for consultations including x-rays and ultrasounds, and a 'Guardia,' which is like the walk-in consulting room. I am shadowing a doctor who is mainly in charge of the patients who are admitted into the general area, and in charge of the Guardia, whenever he is in the clinic. I also think he supervises most of the clinic and is one of the head doctors. To me, he seems to specialize in general or family medicine. We see a lot of patients who have flu-like symptoms, or breathing problems, including a good number of people with pneumonia/bronchitis. Additionally, most of the patients are older and have trouble getting around and have bedsores from laying in the same position too long. For most of them, the clinic is the first step to going somewhere where they can receive full-time care dedicated to people who are bedridden. Mostly, I've been helping out the nurses, which includes changing beds (including diapers), feeding some patients, assisting them in fetching their supplies, and folding gauze - they have to cut their own gauze here, and we fold it and put it in paper to be sterilized.
Overall, at the clinic it was kind of overwhelming at first, and hard to communicate because of all the new words in Spanish, and in general just not knowing how things were supposed to go. Sometimes it can be pretty boring if there aren't very many patients, or in the down times, and there isn't a whole lot of variety, and they really don't see any trauma other than someone who is just under observation after a car accident (i.e., no injuries). I was kind of hoping to see more and possibly be able to see surgeries and deliveries, but I think we do surgery but I don't know where! Also, most of the time spent with the doctor is just listening and observing, although now we get to take pulse and blood pressure and transport patients and fetch supplies, and have been spending more time with the doctor in the walk-in room.
It's definitely been tough because I don't have a lot to do outside of my work at the clinic. I'm studying for the MCAT, but can only do that so many hours a day. Additionally, because I am so far from Cordoba, it is hard to meet up with other volunteers, and I haven't really clicked with that many of them (because I didn't go clubbing with them the one night), so I don't know that many people. There is another volunteer in Unquillo, at Bebe's house (the grandma of my family) and he also works at the clinic with me. He's nice, but we don't really hang out outside of work and volunteer socials. But I do have plans to meet up with some girls on Tuesday for dinner!
It was also very hard at first because taking Spanish classes didn't really prepare me for actually talking to people and living with a family. I'm now at the point where I can understand more or less most of what my family is saying if they speak a little bit slower than usual. I've learned a lot of vocabulary and grammar in this month! One thing that is really different is the use of 'vos' instead of 'tu' (you), which is kind of confusing and they sometimes have different verb forms for this which we never learned. They also have a really heavy accent, pronouncing 'll' like 'j' instead of like 'y', and that is really hard to get used to. Mostly, it was just not knowing enough vocabulary, such as for items around the house or the clinic, and having trouble conjugating verbs on the spot in sentences. But it's getting a little bit easier, and I'm learning a lot. Although some people just don't understand that you aren't from Argentina, they don't slow their speech down at all, or just think I straight up don't speak spanish (or castellano, as it is referred to here). Hopefully I will be much more fluent in another month and a half!
Anyway, that's about it for now. I've been quite a bit homesick, for family and friends and just plain old American things. And I also have a bit of a cold - it's a lot colder here than I thought it would be because it doesn't snow here, and they don't have central heating, just a gas 'stove' heater that they turn on, and small electric space heaters for at night. But it's mostly just the changing seasons and the drastic changes in weather - warm and sunny during the day, but cold at night.
Oh, and I get another volunteer in my house on Sunday - Liz, from the States. More on volunteers (and our socials) later! And Busses! and Language! I promise to post more! te prometo!
Chao y Besos de Argentina!
(Bye and Kisses from Argentina - it's what everybody says because you always kiss people on the cheek hello and goodbye!)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Pre-trip Jitters!
So, I'm in the Cleveland Airport, waiting to get on the first leg of my trip! It's been a long, busy last few days, with birthdays and packing and planning! Also, this trip has been a long time coming, since before last summer! I can't believe it's finally here. Whoa. It doesn't seem real that this time tomorrow, I will be in Argentina! I've got a long trip there ahead of me, but right now, it seems like it just snuck up on me all of the sudden and that I will be there before I know it!
I'm kind of nervous about fitting into the family and at work, and about all the small details that i have no idea about or control over right now! I just don't want to stick out like a sore thumb, but I know I will! And I just hope to be competent enough to explain myself in simple situations!
On the other hand, I'm so excited to be in a Spanish-speaking country, and to learn all about the culture of Argentina! I can't wait to finally get better at Spanish, and to be working in a hospital! (Although I have no idea what I will be doing!)
I know I'm in for a big culture shock, but I don't really know too much about it and I don't want to have any expectations going in. I just want to keep an open mind and be able to adapt. And I know that while i will miss everyone at home and at school and am sooo thankful for your love and support, I can't wait to start my adventure! :D
... "Leavin' on a jet plane!" (however, I do know when I'll be back again -- 10 short weeks from now!)
Peace!
I'm kind of nervous about fitting into the family and at work, and about all the small details that i have no idea about or control over right now! I just don't want to stick out like a sore thumb, but I know I will! And I just hope to be competent enough to explain myself in simple situations!
On the other hand, I'm so excited to be in a Spanish-speaking country, and to learn all about the culture of Argentina! I can't wait to finally get better at Spanish, and to be working in a hospital! (Although I have no idea what I will be doing!)
I know I'm in for a big culture shock, but I don't really know too much about it and I don't want to have any expectations going in. I just want to keep an open mind and be able to adapt. And I know that while i will miss everyone at home and at school and am sooo thankful for your love and support, I can't wait to start my adventure! :D
... "Leavin' on a jet plane!" (however, I do know when I'll be back again -- 10 short weeks from now!)
Peace!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)