notes from europe

Here are finally some pictures from my European adventure!

Day 1/2: we traveled. A lot. Clear across the world in fact. After arriving at our hotel we basically ate and crashed.

This picture was taken in the airport in Rome. Apparently this area is reserved? Right in front of baggage claim? I don't know.

Day 3: Rome! We were able to explore Rome with our group as kind of a free day. It was fun, but without being completely current on my Roman history, day 4 turned out to be way more interesting.

An actual picture that I took of the Pantheon!

Day 4: Again, we toured around Rome. We saw various places such as the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, the Roman Forum, and the Coleseum. It was pretty much amazing! We took tons of pictures and had SOOO much fun!

The Coliseum!

Making our wishes at Fontana di Trevi

Day 5: More touring around Italy. This day we went to the Isle of Capri. It was BEAUTIFUL! We walked all around the whole island. I love the island environment. It actually reminded me of a more expensive, European version of Hawaii. Weird I know. haha.

The beautiful Island of Capri.

time zones

It is currently 6:20 in Chicago, which is where I spent the night. 

I have been awake since 4:30-ish. We are talking wide awake here.

In Athens, it is 2:30 in the afternoon. 

It would seem that I am going to have a fun time readjusting to the proper time zone.

Besides all that, I am once again stateside! The last two weeks were so much fun! I learned so much and was able to see so many things. Also, because my little excursion included a 3 day cruise, I am slightly tanner (only so much due to my amazingly white skin. haha.). I can't believe that we were gone for a full 2 weeks. It seems like it was so much longer, but at the same time it is really weird that life continued on without me here in Utah.  I am definitely excited to be home though. 

I have to go eat breakfast and catch my flight to Salt Lake, but I will post some pictures later and share the amazingness that is Italy and Greece with you! Maybe I'll do it in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow... (hopefully not though)

chicago o'hare

My European adventure has officially begun! We are currently hanging out in the Chicago O'Hare airport and have been for three full hours. In a short two and a half hours we head off to Munich, Germany then onto our connecting flight to ROME! Yay for becoming world travellers!

And, p.s., Sister and I created a joint blog to document all of our adventures now and in the future. The address for it is tiffandbritt.blogspot.com. If I am a slacker at posting on this blog, be sure to check that one out! You should probably check it out anyways.

welcome to hematology

Last week I started the last rotation of my internship! Hooray!

My last area happens to be hematology (which I am loving by the way). In hematology, the Med Techs assist the Pathologists with bone marrow biopsies. As a student, that means that I get to go along too. On Monday, I attended my first and second biopsies. Also on Monday, I came dangerously close to passing out for the first time ever. Allow me to explain.

Here is a quick run down on bone marrow biopsies: the Pathologist cuts into your skin above the superior inferior iliac crest (essentially the back of your hip bone). He/she then twists a big needle into your bone until they are the middle of it. At that point they pull out some bone marrow, then go back in with a bigger needle in order to get a piece of the bone to look at.

Bone marrow #1: Success. I watched with no problems and everything went smoothly.

Bone marrow #2: Not quite as successful. Getting the bone marrow was no problem, it was the piece of bone that was a little more difficult. During this biopsy, I was standing right next to the doctor helping to hold the patient stationary. I got to see EVERY twist and turn that he made. After about four times of going in to try and get a piece of the bone, I started to feel a little light headed. The fifth time, it got considerably worse. When he went in for a sixth time I couldn't take it anymore. I had to quickly leave the patient's side and walk to the stool at the back of the OR. It only kept getting worse after I sat down. I felt the blood drain from my face and started to get a cold sweat. Not a good sign if I wanted to remain conscious. I decided that I needed to lie down. I got up, walked to the OR doors so that I could lie down on the floor outside of the room. Naturally, since an OR is supposed to be sterile, opening and closing of the doors is regulated. I didn't think about that little fact. At this point, black started closing in on me. Luckily, one of the OR techs saw my plight and was able to open the door in time for me to make it out without passing out. A cold, hard hospital floor has never felt as good as it did in that moment.

I thought that I had a pretty tough stomach, but apparently some things can get to me (don't worry, I will spare you of any gruesome details).

Thankfully, I was able to avoid hitting my head or dropping to the floor. And, I can still say that I have never passed out - although, I was right on the brink this time.

I will probably never live this moment down so long as I work at Utah Valley Hospital.

vay-cay!

There are only 9 days left until I leave the country.

Soon I will be exploring the Italian and Greek country sides - learning, playing on beaches, and frolicking around with my sister for two full weeks! I get to do touristy things, take lots of pictures, and see all sorts of historical places.

It is going to be pretty much amazing. 

I can hardly even wait!

let the games begin

I have officially registered and everything for my half marathon. The papers have been mailed in and the fees paid. There is no turning back now!

August 8th here I come!

Since it is official and all, I have also officially begun my training. 

Let me give you a little background on my running experience. I have hated running my whole life - really hated it. I am slightly asthmatic and not terribly athletically inclined. Running was always hard for me and was a lot of work. One of my new year's resolutions this year was to become a runner. I started out slow, just like you are supposed to, and I have been constantly working up. 

They say the first 2 miles are the hardest to get, but after that it gets increasingly easier to add on more miles. I would have to agree.  After I got the first 2 miles down, 3 miles and even 4 miles came without too much more effort. 

I think the milestone that no one mentions anything about is 5 miles. I ran 5 miles today for the first time ever. I was expecting it to be just like the last two miles that I had added on - relatively easy and strenuous in a good way, only adding on more time. Boy was I wrong! I was panting and wheezing 2 miles in. I did finish, but it was way more hard work than I expected to be. 

Now that I have reached that milestone, hopefully the next big ones will come too. And next time, I won't be expecting it to be a simple 6 mile run! 

Luckily, I have been increasing my endurance over the last few months so I can happily report that I am not going to give up simply because I had a hard day's run. 

I will conquer!

i feel adventurous

Every weekday for the last 4 weeks I have been carpooling up to Salt Lake as part of my internship (only one more week left!). When the weather is good or at least decent, there are almost always paragliders at the point of the mountain. Every day I watch them glide from the top of the mountain to the bottom. This has inspired me to want to learn how to paraglide. I think that it would be the most amazing experience to just be floating in the air! Call me crazy, I know.

So, I have recently done some research into paragliding. Turns out that you can take lessons and have a full day of paragliding. The small problem is that it costs around $125. But, I will not let that not deter me from my paragliding dream. My brother who is WAAAAY more adventurous than I am (he is perhaps the reason that I am as adventurous as I am now...) is going to go with me, there is a good possibility that my sister will go with us too (depending on age restrictions). Sometime before the end of the summer I will go paragliding!

Another adventurous thing that I am getting myself into this summer is running a half marathon. Anyone who has known me anytime in my life has probably started laughing out loud at this point and thinking something along the lines of:

"Tiffany, a runner? What? You must be kidding me."

Well, friends, I am doing it for reals. The big event is in the middle of August. I have been doing some basic training for the last few months and I officially started my half marathon training this last week. And it is going great! I never thought that I would say this, but I honestly LOVE running! Who knew how much fun it could be?