And we're off (for real)!

A day later, we're finally on a plane leaving LAX. And we got upgraded to 1st class! We spent the day cruising around LA. We had to drive to Koreatown to get the refund for the overbooked flight, which led to a trip to Scoops for some yummy icecream. Highlight of the LA trip: getting a nod of recognition from a redheaded man crossing the street in front of us. It went down something like this:
K and S: "J look a fellow redhead!" At this point the Gingerman glanced in our direction, looked at me, smiled and nodded. I responded with a "flame on" (international redhead greeting).

In the evening K and S (my travel buddies from med school) got a glimpse of my awesome roots at a family dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. "Now we understand why you're so... Special" they commented. Dinner was a hit. My little cousins were adorable (8 year old USC football-obsessed G: "USC has been to a lot of Rose Bowls but can't go now because of sanctions"). We watched the quality film "Blades of Glory." Sis-T and I did some Barn dancing (did you know I went to farm camp for 10 years? ha. Of course you did. I'm obsessed with it). Little cousin A's ridiculously cute teacup terrier, Lulu, won everybody over with her cute face and tiny tongue hanging out (just trust me on this one.... It's unbearably cute).

Ok. I've gtg. Time to fly to Honduras (via El Salvador). Did I mention we're in 1st class?

Minor Hiccup

Sooo... Our trip to Honduras has not quite started according to plans. Our flight to El Salvador was overbooked and we were left waiting in line at LAX. It's been about an hour since our flight took off (without us) and we're still waiting for some info. Looks like it'll be another day before we're able to get out of LA. :(

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Honduras!

Tonight I leave for a medical spanish program in La Ceiba, Honduras. So from here on out, I'll be blogging in Spanish. Oh wait. I know like zero Spanish. Sweet!! But hopefully that will change over the course of the next month :)

I've been prepping for the big trip all week by driving between MB and CdM a bunch of times, packing all of my toiletries in 3-ounce bottles, and buying a Kindle (AKA "my precious"). Last night, I saw "In the Heights" at the Pantages. Not only was this a great musical, but a good refresher for my Spanish vocab! Now, with about an hour to go before heading to the airport, I'm watching The Proposal. So... I'm pretty much good to go.

Oh yeah, I also got some great advice from Sis-T: "Don't go to the Mayan ruins. I've seen the movies. They're totally haunted! The plants will eat you!!" Thanks, little sister.

Anyway, I'll try to keep you all updated on the trip :)

summer!!

Hey guys! I finally finished my first year of med school! Now I have lots of free time to do a bunch of really important things. Like... umm... I changed the background on LAMe! Here are some other things I've done in my first few days of summer:

• laundry
• g-chatted with non med-students
• watched Julie and Julia
• napped
• pulled my back doing laundry (not sure how this was even possible... and then I tried to figure out which muscles are the culprit but this thinking was too strenuous for my fresh-into-summer mind)
• slept in

Okay fine. I'm a little bored. Already.

And fine... I'm kind of a liar. Here are some other (slightly more exciting things) I've done since school ended on Friday:

• attended a mustache party
• went to the beach (and got a sweet tan! oh wait, no.)
• hung out with the fam
• watched Jerseylicious with my friends from home (this was good, but sadly no table flipping... yet)

But really. I am a little bored. I guess I just don't know what to do with all of this free time. I have one more week of excitement/relaxation and then I'm off to Honduras for a month-long Medical Spanish program. yay!!

Pun Intended

Do you know what we don't hear enough of these days? Punny names. Okay, so we all know the classics like Pussy Galore from Goldfinger (and thus, from Austin Powers, Alotta Fagina), or Ben Dover from the Simpsons. Maybe these are too obvious for everyday life. Really though, with all of these crazy celebrity baby names, you would think there would be at least a couple clever puns involved!

Well today, I realized that my relatives had done their part to keep the world entertained through clever names.

I present to you: Granny Dot.

I know what you're thinking, "Oooh! Granny Dot! How clever! I totally see the pun here... or not." But wait! My great-grandmother's name was Dorothea Morse. She was related (somehow... and I just spent like 45 minutes searching genealogy sites online) to Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code (made up of dots and dashes for those of you who are unfamiliar with the code). And then my great-grandmother's parents decided to name their daughter Dorothea, or "Dot" for short. Get it?! Granny Dot?! OMG my family is amazing.

Aaand I just realized the punniness of my great-granny's name today while talking family history with my mom. It went something like this:

J: OMG mom, Granny Dot like the Morse Code! Because she was a Morse!! And he invented the Morse Code!!!

Mom: Yeah. You didn't put that together earlier?

J: No. Do you think they did it on purpose?

Mom: Oh, I don't know...

J: MOM!! Of course they did! How clever of them!

Seriously, though. These are the types of clever names we need more of. Less "Ben Dovers" and more "Dot Morses."

ps, this post was on track to being way more entertaining before I got sucked into Genealogy.com. Sorry.

News Alert: "How to Date a Med Student"

In case I haven't written enough about med school and dating, it looks like Fox News has jumped on the bandwagon with "How to Date a Med Student."

Sadly, I can identify with most (all) of these...

Also, which is a more reliable news source: LAMe! or Fox News?

Baby!!

Yesterday, something amazing happened: I had a baby! Wait. No. My UTEACH Mom had her baby!! Since February, I've been participating in a program called UTEACH, where I was paired with a pregnant woman and followed her to all of her doctor's appointments leading up to her delivery. Yesterday morning, I got the big call (okay, text) saying that she was in labor. Here are some highlights from the big day:

• When I got to L&D, the first thing my UTEACH Mom said to me was, "I got an epidural! I can't feel my legs!" At this point, she was only dilated 1cm and was having slightly irregular contractions (she had come into the hospital because her water broke at about 4am. They didn't call me until 9:30am... I'm glad they let me sleep in a bit).

• I spent about 4 hours just chilling in the laboring room with my UTEACH Mom, her mom, her step-mom, and her husband. Just the 5 of us... chilling.... for 4 hours. I had met her mom and husband and a few times at various doctor's visits, so at that point, I felt like part of the family! While we waited, the moms talked about their experiences with childbirth. It was probably one of the most feminine conversations I've ever been a part of.

• My UTEACH Mom and her husband had made various mixes of music to play for the big event. The mixes ranged from pop music, which played during parts of the labor, to soothing relaxation/spa music, for the delivery. They played it from their ipad (so cutting edge!).

• I love how being in labor is pretty much the only time you can order people around to help you and it is entirely acceptable. There were plenty of demands of "more ice!" (she could only eat ice chips), "rub my hand/back/belly!" "be quiet!" "change the music!" "Get this baby out!" from my UTEACH Mom. Overall, she was doing great, though.

• After hanging out for like 4 hours, I talked to the Residents (who were pretty much awesome) and they told me it was going to be a while until she went into active labor (the "pushing" part), since she's a first-time mom. "What's a while?" I asked. "Like tomorrow," they said, "We'll call you when she goes into active labor." So I went home. Like 20 minutes after getting home, I get a call from the hospital: "We're so sorry! We just checked and she's fully dilated! We were totally surprised! You should probably come back soon." So I drove back to the hospital.

• By the time I got back to the hospital, my UTEACH Mom was already pushing during her contractions. I'm pretty sure we were all pushing and breathing with her the whole time. The phrase: "Cleansing breath in and push 2, 3, 4... 10" became very familiar. To help her push, we would hold her legs or push against them. Watching a labor/delivery is difficult because you feel so helpless. For the most part, all we could do was help her breathe and cheer her on (at this point, we're almost beyond the "making her comfortable" phase). Many words of encouragement were given throughout: "Great pushing!" "Amazing job!" "You're so close!" "You're doing fantastic!"

• From my position (I was a leg holder), I had a perfect view of the baby making his way out. The last few contractions before the big moment were agonizing; we could all see the baby's head and so badly wanted to help get him out. When the time finally came, it was truly amazing. Suddenly, there was a baby! Relief and excitement filled the room. Honestly, I was entirely overcome with emotion (luckily, I held it together and though my eyes teared up a bit, no tears were actually shed). I can't even fully describe why. Seeing a new life emerge from his mother and begin was overwhelming and amazing.

• My UTEACH Mom's husband (my UTEACH Husband?) was such a trooper. But I think the final push sent him over the edge. As soon as the baby was out, he was like, "I've gotta get some fresh air" and left the room. I think he almost fainted! No wonder guys don't have babies; I don't think they can hang.

• One of the residents was beaming at me throughout the entire delivery. It's probably exciting and fun to share such "first-time" experiences with medical students. To be able to share, first-hand, why they love their jobs. Very inspiring.

• After the baby has come out, while they're still delivering the placenta, there was an odd, quiet moment. The baby had been swept away by NICU (he ended up totally healthy), the husband was catching his breath, the mom's were playing paparazzi with the baby, and my UTEACH Mom was kind of left alone on her bed. It went from everyone around her to nobody (except for the doctors delivering her placenta and getting everything in order) almost instantly. I was glad I was there to comfort her so that she didn't have to be alone, waiting for her baby (she hadn't even seen the little guy yet).

• Another great moment (I almost lost it again) was when mother and son met face-to-face for the first time. She let out a combination of a squeal of excitement mixed with a cry of relief as she held her baby for the first time. And then, "OMG, I can't believe this came out of me!!!" Classic. (I was thinking the same thing).

Overall, this was an amazing experience. To be able to follow a pregnancy all the way to the end was very special and rewarding. I also learned that 1) it would be pretty rad to deliver babies as your job and 2) I could probably have a baby, too (childbirth has been a major fear of mine for a really long time... but after seeing my UTEACH Mom get through it, I know I could too... not that this is happening anytime soon).

*Also, for the record, the pic above is of a random baby and not my UTEACH baby.