Fall in New England and my goings on

It's hard to believe that it is almost November! I've got more than 2 months of nursing school under my belt and more knowledge, skills and experiences from those two months than I could ever have thought were possible!!! Admittedly, there have been some moments when I've wondered why it is exactly that I left teaching to learn about cell metabolism and to scrape liquid feces from a bed and into a specimen cup. But, then I take a walk through the maternity ward or begin to explain why I'm here to someone I've just met and I remember. This year - this bombardment of my senses and brain cells - is not everything. There is an end to this difficult journey.

So, I push my way through pharmacology, pathophysiology, medical/surgical nursing and anatomy. I strain to remember the drugs, doses, contraindications and best practices I'm presented with daily. I attempt to learn what I'm doing not only in English, but in Spanish as well. And, of course, I continue to look for ways in which I can impact not only people in my own country, but people around the world. What a tremendous challenge I've set for myself!

And just when I think my brain is about to burst, I look out my window and see splashes of red, orange and yellow. Fall in Connecticut is beautiful. I want to run outside and roll in the leaves. I will yet - of that you can be assured. I haven't taken pictures this week but here are a few I took about ten days ago. You can start to see the color. I'll try to get some more up soon - they are falling quickly!



This past week I joined with students from the other medical professional schools to help put on the play "the Doctor Stories". I worked (as the stage manager) with an awesome group of actors to portray several scenes from a book by the same name written by Dr. Richard Selzer (surgeon, writer and former professor at Yale Medical School). What a joy to meet such an amazing group of people with whom, through the adventure of putting on a show, I could connect with quickly. The show was a success and I was blessed with some new friends. Here is a picture of some of us from the cast party after the show. (I was in my Halloween costume).



And speaking of Halloween.... Saturday night saw a crazy costumed Halloween party at the graduate school pub. Some nursing friends and I went as "gang green" (i.e. Gangrene). Check us out:



Happy fall and Happy halloween!