Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Graduation Pictures

I'm done with school forever!!! (Or at least for a while.) It still doesn't seem real yet, but I know it'll start to sink in pretty soon.

I just want to share some pictures from my nursing pinning ceremony and my graduation ceremony. Both were very fun for me, and they represented the end of a long and difficult, but exciting, journey through college and nursing school!

PINNING CEREMONY ~ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010

Saying the nursing pledge

My clinical instructor, Prof Ronga

My study buddy, Kelsey

The South African nurses, Chelsea, Tony, and me

Some of our South Africa friends who came to support us

My closest friends, Sarah, Damaris, and Becky!


GRADUATION ~ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2010

Getting seated

President Wallace spoke and gave us our diplomas

I got to wear an international stole showing the countries I had been to




Becky and I got to graduate together! It was wonderful!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Too Busy!

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a long time. This semester has been the busiest I've ever had! Thankfully, once it's over in 2 weeks, I'll never have another semester of school again!!

Even though graduation is only 2 weeks away, it still doesn't seem real to me yet. I have so many end-of-the-semester projects and big presentations in every class that I have to get through before I can even begin to think about graduating.

Plus, I just went on a missions trip to Mexico over Thanksgiving weekend, and I can't stop thinking about it! It was incredible and I really miss the people I met and became friends with over there. I miss my teammates too!

I'll post pictures and tell a few stories about my trip once I find the time. But for now, I have to get back to my project for my leadership class...

Thursday, October 14, 2010

South Africa from A-Z

I had been planning on doing this post while I was still in South Africa, but I never got around to it.

Lately, I've been missing the country and the people who live there a whole lot, so it seemed like a good time to remember all the funny phrases that South Africans use.

You would think that because they speak English, it would be easy to communicate and understand what they're saying. But don't be fooled! They say a lot of funny phrases that I had never heard before, and a lot of times I had no idea what they were telling me!

For your enjoyment, and in case you ever travel to South Africa and want to be able to communicate, here is a list of South African-isms from A-Z...

Air con= abbreviation for air conditioner (instead of "AC" or just "air")

Braai, bakkie= Braai means "BBQ" (very popular meal), "bakkie" means "pick-up truck"

Chips, cutlery= Chips mean "French fries," cutlery means "silverware"

Drinks: cold drinks, appletiser= cold drinks mean "soda", appletiser is a type of delicious soda

Eish= used simililarly to "wow," but can mean anything you want it to mean

Flushing toilets= couldn't think of a phrase for F, but random fact about flushing toilets: the handle to flush the toilet is on the right side of the tank (and it's really hard to get used to!)

Granny= grandma (they refer to any and all grandmas as "granny")

Half past, howzit?= Half past seven means "7:30," howzit? means "how's it going?"

It's a pleasure= you're welcome

Just now= in a few minutes (the hardest phrase to get used to since it has a completely different meaning in the US)

Keen= who's keen on going? means who wants to go?

Lekker= cool or great

Matric= Senior year of high school (short for matriculation)

Now now= right now (the opposite of just now)

Oh shame= that's too bad

Petrol, packet= Petrol means gas (petrol station= gas station), packet means bag (like grocery bag)

Queue= line

Rubbish bin, robot= Rubbish bin means "trash can," robot means "traffic signal" (like you have to stop at the red robot)

Slip, SMS, sharp sharp= slip means "receipt," SMS means "text message," sharp sharp (sounds like shop shop with their accents) means "cool" or "I understand"

Toilet, take away= toilet means "restroom," take away means "to go" (like ordering to go at McDonalds)

Umgungundlovu= the name of the county we were living in (means Place of the Elephant in isiZulu)

Vervet= type of monkeys that terrorized us every day

Woza= Come (in isiZulu)

X click= they use a click for the letter x in isiZulu

Yebo, yoh= Yebo means "yes" (in isiZulu), yoh means the same thing as eish

Zed, zebra= Zed means the letter "Z" (they pronounce it zed instead of zee), so zebra is pronounced zeh-bra instead of zee-bra

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

ICU Lingo

I had a really busy day in clinical today. My nurse and I only had 2 patients, but we were busy going back and forth between them all day long!

When I thought back on all the things I did or saw today, I realized just how many abbreviations nurses use on a daily basis. And since learning about the ICU this semester, I've realized that ICU nurses use even more abbreviations than the average nurse!

Just to give you an idea of the crazy confusion that can ensue if you don't know your abbrevs, here's a list of things I did/saw today. See if you can figure out what they mean!

-IV monitoring and meds
-G tube meds
-NG tube reinsertion
-Chest tube removal
-ABG draws
-PT and INR draws
-A-line draws
-A-line removal
-Pacer wire isolation
-Rapid response
-Accu-chek
-Hemodynamic monitoring
-AVR patient
-New pulse ox
-VFib
-CT scan
-Vent monitors on SIMV with FiO2, PS, and PEEP

Does that mean anything to you? I'm proud to say that I understand all of it! But there's plenty more abbreviations out there that I don't know yet...

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Beginning of the End... of School!

My final semester of college began last Wednesday, and I'm now officially on my way to graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing!

I cannot believe that I've already finished four years of college. I truly can't comprehend it! I feel like I was just a little freshman last week, but somehow time has passed much faster than I ever thought imaginable, and I am now a super senior.

I always thought it would be fun to tell people that I'm a "super senior." I'm actually kind of glad that it's taking me 4 1/2 years to graduate just because I get this really cool title as a result!

I'm also having a lot more fun on campus this semester because I actually know people now! Thanks to studying abroad in South Africa, I now have 52 close friends on campus that I bump into all the time! It's great!

Even though I'm going to be reading constantly for my critical care nursing class and my American lit class (probably shouldn't have taken them together), this is still going to be a fun final semester! Plus, I get to do clinicals at this place again:


Huntington Hospital!

I was awestruck once again when my clinical group met in the lobby this morning. I seriously felt like I was in a hotel rather than in a hospital.

Of course, this feeling changed quickly once we toured the ER and heard about a really "exciting" trauma patient that had just been brought in with a fractured skull. Our professor says that this patient will be transferred to the ICU floor that we'll be working on, so it may be one of my patients next week!

It's going to be a challenging clinical, but hopefully I'll feel like a real nurse by the end of it!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Vacation

My favorite part of summer is usually a family vacation. This summer started off with one, and it was wonderful!

At the beginning of June, my parents and I flew to Niagara Falls, New York. We spent a couple hours admiring the falls from the American side.

Then we picked up my sister (who had flown in from Puerto Rico), and we all drove across the border to Canada! It was my first time ever going to Canada, and I was really excited!

We stayed in a hotel in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, and spent a couple days exploring the area and admiring the falls from that side.


Jen's friend, Laurie (who lives in Canada), joined us for those couple of days.

When we were done in Niagara Falls, we drove 8 hours to Nashua, New Hampshire to see my brother's new home! We stayed with him in his apartment for the rest of the week.


We had a lot of fun playing games and spending time with him.

We also drove into Boston twice to see the city.

I had always wanted to visit Boston, and now I finally got to! I loved it!


The trip was wonderful, but the best part about it was just getting our whole family together again. You can't beat that!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Baby Landon

Another wonderful thing I got to do this summer was meet Baby Landon!!!

My cousin Dana had a baby on May 31, but since she and her husband live in Virginia, I wasn't able to meet their son until he was 11 weeks old. Dana, Carl, and Landon flew back here for Carl's sister's wedding in August, so I was able to meet Baby Landon then.

Dana and Carl with their precious son

Me talking to Landon

My mom with Landon- he can already do "the eyebrow" that his mama is famous for!

Landon Kyle is absolutely adorable, and I enjoyed every moment that I got to spend with him! I only wish he lived closer so I could watch him grow up. Next time I see him, he'll probably be walking already. But for now, it was wonderful to get to meet him while he's still small and cuddly!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Universal Studios

Another thing I did this summer was go to Universal Studios! My cousin Felisha's boyfriend, Mike, turned 21 last week, and he wanted to go to a theme park to celebrate. It was only $20 more to buy year-long passes than a day-long ticket, so all 5 of us that went ended up buying passes! We weren't planning on doing that originally, but it seemed like the better value for our money.

I hadn't been to Universal Studios in many years, so it was all new and exciting to me. We've only gone once so far, but it was quite fun! It happened to be the same day that the Teen Choice Awards were being filmed, so we saw lots of celebrity limos driving past us. We never did see the stars that arrived in them, though.

It was great to just get to hang out with Tracie and Felisha again, since I haven't seen them as much lately.

And of course, their boyfriends are a lot of fun too. I look forward to using our passes again soon!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Weekend at Quaker Meadow

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent the weekend helping out at Quaker Meadow again. There was a Presbyterian family camp with about 120 people up there, and only 10 staff members instead of the regular 23.

I worked in the kitchen again, but I didn't burn myself at all! No cuts either! I was so proud.

And now, here's a couple pictures that represent an afternoon on staff:

Mikaela and me putting the meat slicer back together

Matt excited to do dishroom

Quincey and Missy dancing in the kitchen

Becky made me a ring out of foil

Group huddle to stay warm in the cold air

Once again it was another wonderful time spent in one of my favorite places on earth. I can't wait to do it all again next weekend!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Camp!

One of the things I got to do this summer was go up to Quaker Meadow!!! My church hosted a family camp over Fourth of July weekend, and I got to help run the children's program! It was so fun!

I went up later on for a week to help out the staff. I worked in the kitchen again, my home sweet home. Then I came home for a while, and then went back up for another week of helping out. Working at camp is what I love to do most. It makes me feel like I'm actually doing something productive with my summer!

I'm going back up to camp again today! I'm actually packing for the trip right this minute. I'll be leaving in less than an hour! I can't wait to be back up there!

Last time I was there, I got 3 new burns on my left arm. Hopefully I won't add to my burn collection this weekend!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

I'm Back!

I realized today that I haven't blogged in a very, very long time, and I've decided to change that.

Nothing super exciting is happening for me right now, at least compared to the excitement I experienced in South Africa, but I can at least tell you about the ordinary things happening in my life.

I start school in 2 weeks, and I can't believe that it's going to be my last and final semester of college!!! I'm a little scared, but also looking forward to graduating. My books came in the mail today, which brought me back to the reality that I'll be reading them and writing papers very soon, so I need to enjoy the last couple weeks of summer that I have left!

This summer has flown by way faster than I expected. I thought that it was kind of a boring summer, but when I looked back on it, I actually realized that a lot of things happened! I'll post pictures and tell you all about it tomorrow!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

New Blog

I told you I was going to make a new blog specifically for my time here in South Africa, and I have! I just made it a few minutes ago. It's called From South Africa with Love.

I won't be posting on here anymore for a while, so be sure to check my new blog to read all about my new home for the next few months!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

11 Hours

I can't believe I'm basically leaving tonight for South Africa! It doesn't seem real yet.

I'm still not packed at all yet. That's my goal for this afternoon and tonight-get everything packed. I guess I don't really have a choice!

Last night I went to a commissioning service that the School of Nursing held for the 6 of us nursing students that are going to SA. The dean of the school and a couple other important ladies held it for us. The students that just returned from studying in SA during the fall semester also came. We had a lot of question and answer time with them. It was really nice and very encouraging. It made me really excited to go!

This morning the entire SA group had a meeting. One of the things we had to do was tell them whether or not we want to go bungee jumping and trekking through an "adventure cave." I chose not to do either. But I am interested in going shark cage diving! Hopefully we'll get to do that in Cape Town!

Tonight there's another commissioning service for the entire group. Our family and friends are supposed to come, so my parents will be joining me. We're going to go out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant first! After that I can pack some more, and then it'll be time to meet at the school at 2:30am.

Please keep me and the rest of my group in your prayers as we travel for the next couple of days!


P.S. I'm going to start a new blog specifically about my time in SA. The nursing professors like to read what we're doing, so I'm going to start a blog for them. I'll post the link for it on here once I create it.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

4 Days

Today I decided to tackle the chore of sewing APU's nursing patch onto the left shoulder of each pair of scrubs I'll be taking to South Africa. Unlike most of my family, I was not blessed with the gifted seamstress gene, so although I enjoy sewing, it's usually a long, difficult process for me.

I rented the new Sandra Bullock movie, "All About Steve," and worked on sewing the patch while watching it. When the movie was over, I was only a little over halfway done with the patch, and my fingers were dying with pain, so I asked my wonderful mother if she could do the second patch for me.

I finally got the first one finished, and in half the time it took me, my mom finished the second one. But, after adding the final stitch, she realized that she had sewn it on the right arm instead of the left! Now she's going to see if it can be sewn on with the sewing machine to save her talented fingers from another hour of agony.

Here's my finished result!


It turned out crooked- I told you I don't have the seamstress gene!

And just now my mom finished the second patch on the sewing machine. It only took about 5 minutes! Why didn't we think of that before?!?!

Question of the Day: What's the most space-efficient way to pack clothes in a suitcase?

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Counting Down...

5 days until I leave for South Africa, and I have SO much to do between now and then! Ahhh!

Question of the day: Does anyone have any tips for surviving a 15-hour flight?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Pray for Haiti

In case you didn't already know, a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti this afternoon, and it's estimated that a few thousand of people have died. Many buildings in the capital and surrounding area collapsed, and injured people are lying on sidewalks waiting for help. The country needs A LOT of prayer right now.

The earthquake hit in western Haiti, but was felt across the entire country. As far as I can tell, though, the area that I was in this past summer is fine. Apparently my friends in eastern Dominican Republic didn't even feel the quake, so they're ok too. I'm so thankful for that! But many of their family members were in Port-Au-Prince (the capital of Haiti).

Please keep the country in your prayers as people try to find their family members and bring help to those who are suffering.