Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving went well. It's been far too long since someone posted here.

I would like to apologize for my belated post. We've been trying to keep this thread active and that's not helping too much. Thank you Soleq for making the posts that you did.

The day I started that Anatomy course my life took off. Every day is a new day filled with the better adventures than yesterday brought. It's amazing. After that course, I had the weekend off I was back in school scurrying to find the classes I needed and add them. Ever since it's been one day after another struggling to memorize every bit of what the certain body systems do in Physiology. Most of my studying gladly and sadly went to that. Gladly because I absolutely enjoyed almost every chapter in that class, especially neuro and cardiac physiology. Sadly, because it would have been nice to spend more time studying psychology and the theories they have. The psych class restored my faith in counselors and therapists and what they do in their field. However, that is theory and not the practical world. I loved the sensory psychology chapters too. Learning the different theories on the eyes, ears, and nose.

I took a yoga class too. That was awesome. It was a little more than I thought but it was definitely worth taking. A little more than I thought because the teacher sort of expected a lot for a one unit class. However, someone did tell me that kines majors take those classes so they can teach the course, it does make sense then. I would recommend that class to anyone. You learn so much about your body and what it can handle and what it can't, rather than I need to do 20 sit ups 20 push ups, etc. Aerobics is fun, harder than it looks, and intimidating. There's a 60 2 female male ratio.

As far as the past couple of months go I don't have all that much to say about it. Most of my days were filled by my relationship with my books. I could talk to you about all that if you want? I'll spare you. smile A lot of people had to go through a lot though. I neglected a lot of people that I should have spent a little more time with. Oh, I also got a 4.0. I was a little worried about my Psych and Yoga class, but I pulled it off.

After the semester was over, I gave a fake kiss to the ground because kissing the actual ground has to be all kinds of unsanitary. All the college kids walking in dirty everything and then I'm going to touch that, I'll pass. I was pretty happy though after my Psych final. Turned up the music and coasted home.

Worked a week and now I'm in the Philippines. Had a nice Christmas. It rained over here. How funny huh? It didn't seem like a Christmas because of that. But it was nice. Everyone in my house is over the age of knowing Santa and the great excitement from opening presents. So, we all started getting out of bed around 10 and then did presents. smile

Anyway, we're in Cebu right now and we're at a nice resort. The people here look like they come from a lot of money or they're on a honey moon. It's very awkward. The people open the seat at restaurants so I can sit down. I'm not used to it. I almost want to say that they don't have to and that I'll get it.

Before Cebu, we were in Boracay at a 5 star hotel. It was amazing. All the stores and restaurants are right near the shore, so if you walk in a line you can get to anything. Not too many of the beautiful sunsets right now because there are a lot of clouds but it's nice because then it's not too hot in the day. Very humid and hot here even when it's overcast.

We went diving in Boracay and we have some good pictures from it. Even Angel went and she was terrified. She doesn't like going under water and everything. But she did it and she did really well. At the end she was almost by herself. We were with a good group of people though. They really took care of us. I'm studying to get my certification right now. It's really interesting stuff, learning about equalization and nitrogen. It puts a real life example of the studying that I've been doing for the past couple of months. Scares me but I love going down so I gotta do it. I have 2 more dives tomorrow and then I should be done. Time stops when you're down there. We saw a blow fish the other day.

We spent a week in Manila, the capital of Boracay. There is so much poverty down there, it's very sad. My mom and I went into one of their hospitals and the beds don't even have wheels. Their AC unit are fans attached to the wall. It makes our hospitals look like 5 star hotels compared to a motel 6. We complain if the beds don't roll right. We did a lot of charity work in Tondo, one of the towns in Manila. We gave one of the schools, paper, crayons, chocolate, chalk board, uniforms, chairs, and more. Their supplies will last years for them. And the school isn't your normal school. It's a preschool/daycare that is 24 hours. Their families live right near the school. It's equivalent to one of our rooms on a two story building. Where you have to go up steps without a rail and the board to get up is about to fall over. We gave them money too just to fix the board so no one breaks their neck. Then we handed out clothes and people were going crazy for them. We also gave out little 50 bills of pesos. Equivalent to about a dollar 15 give or take on the exchange rate. And we got bombarded for about a half an hour of people trying to get their share. It was sad that we couldn't give to everyone. We were treated like celebrities down there. Everyone always looked at who we were, they always wanted our picture, or a picture taken of them, a lot of them wanted to marry us, etc.

Anyway, that's my bit for a while. Off to Japan in 3 days. I'm seriously considering medical school. Just a few more kinks to work out.

Hope everyone is doing well and having fun in whatever they're doing.

In the words of Ocean, See you when I see you.

Looks like you had a lot of fun Butters.

My life keeps spinning on. My boyfriend broke up with me, the cancer foundation cut my position and I lobbed off all my hair. That would be my life in a nutshell. Considering that the last three all happened in the span of a week, I'm doing remarkably well. Don't care that my boyfriend broke up with me, I'm still volunteering with the foundation and even if I don't like my hair, the general concensus is that it's hot. So yeah... Good times.

Yes, all four of us had a really great time. My brother won't admit it but I know he had just as much fun as we did. Everyone seemed pretty interested in knowing about the trip, what happened, and wanting to see pictures; surprising to me.

Kori, even though that's all happened I am positive you're doing fine. You always make it through.

Soleq, great job.

Angel and I are surprisingly doing much better. Overnight, we both changed and became more understanding. We'll see how it plays out.

Still strongly considering medicine. Managed to drop my cal state schedule and add two nursing pre-requisite courses. Microbiology is tough.

I was at the gym on Saturday doing the precor and decided I'm going to run the LA Marathon again.

thanks brian 4laugh

errones gone sighs

I am now officially working at Long Beach Memorial again for General Pediatrics.