Segovia

Saturday I took a trip to Segovia, a city about 2 hours away that is famous for its beautiful castle among other things. This is the Roman aqueduct, built by the romans (appropriately) when they had a city here long long ago. It was huge! Look at the tiny people below and you get an idea. I think it was 100 feet tall in some spots. And they built it all without mortar, just fitting the rocks together perfectly, and it is still standing there today.

This is the cathedral and plaza mayor in Segovia. Very beautiful!

This is the castle in Segovia call the Alcazar. It was very pretty like a fairy tale castle. There was a tower there that of course I had to go up also and take pictures. It was a very nice city and a fun trip.

As far as work goes, I am still working in the outpatient part of the pharmacy. There are lots of other pharmacy students working there, and every morning they go to the cafeteria once or twice to sit and talk, have coffee and breakfast, etc, and they invite me to go with them. It is a very relaxed atmosphere, as opposed to hopsitals in the US. I like it!

Ahh Spain...

Once again I refer you to my facebook page for more pictures of Salamanca. I find it alot more complicated to put pictures on here, so I'll just post a few along with some of my witty (or not) commentary :)

So these first are pictures of my room at the residence. It is very clean, and farily large.

People come by to clean the room every day and I get free breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Overall a very nice setup. The only bad part is there is no air conditioning, we are on the 3rd floor, and it is so HOT. Almost as hot as Utah... I had to buy a little room fan yesterday.

OK I just had to post this picture of the bathroom and the bidet- is that what you call it? It seems so European :) I must say I do not understand how you are supposed to use those things, or WHY you would, for that matter. I didn't include a picture of the shower but it is tiny... I can't really bend over in it, so it is quite an adventure to try to shave my legs.

This is the inside of the huge cathedral. I found out you can take a tour of the cathedral towers and for some reason I just love to climb to the top of things! I love to get the view over the city, so of course I had to do it. Part of the tour went across this stone balcony inside the cathedral, it was really cool to look down on everything.

This is looking from the top of the cathedral down towards the plaza mayor. It was so pretty!

Today I started working at the hospital pharmacy department. For the next week I will be in the outpatient department where they dispense medications for things like HIV, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, etc. The people there are very nice , and I certainly can't complain about the schedule (9 to 3). It is very interesting because they have socialized health care here, so people just come and pick up the medicine, there is no insurance or charges to worry about. It definitely has its positive and negatives sides, but I won't get into that :).

Salamanca!

Last night after a 2 hour bus ride I made it to Salamanca! This is a picture of the student housing, my home for the next month. It is quite nice. I am going to share a room with a girl from Germany who is also part of the pharmacy exchange program.

This morning I took a walk around the city. This is a typical street in this very clean and beautiful city.

I found out the old part of the city is not far at all from where I was staying. It was only about a 10 minute walk and I was in the midst of narrow mideval looking streets.

Here is the Plaza Mayor- did anyone see the movie Vantage Point? It was filmed there. Look out! There is an assasin in that window! :)

Stinky French Airport

Yesterday I made the four-part trip to my temporary home here in Spain. It was the longest trip EVER! But, I saved alot of money doing it this way. But I still want to complain about it! Early yesterday morning I flew to Houston, where I enjoyed a 7 hour layover (actually it wasn´t that bad), then I flew to Paris overnight.
The worst part of the trip was the Paris airport! It did not leave me with a good taste in my mouth for France, but I will try not to judge until I see the actual country. I really wished I could speak French, because everyone just speaks French to you and thinks you will understand. I had to transfer to another airline and my flight to Madrid was 5 hours later. I asked a lady at the information desk how to get to the check in for the other airline. She said something like¨"2B, go up" in a very annoyed tone of voice. I said "take the elevator up?" to which she nodded yes and then turned to continue looking at her computer. So I tried to get on the elevator but for some reason only down elevators kept coming! Finally I just got on one and figured I would take it down and then up. I selected the top possible floor and rode back up to find... I was back on the same floor where I started! Luckily after wandering around a bit then standing in line for 2 hours I was able to check in. I guess the French don´t believe in air conditioning... or fans... or any kind of deoderant... I was very relieved to get to Spain!

New York City!

Last week by a combination of luck and good timing I got to go with my friend Elizabeth to New York City!! It was a great trip. We stayed with Elizabeth's friend Sarah who lives in Manhattan and spent five days walking around the city and eating all kinds of delicious things. Basically I fell in love with New York, and I have never thought of myself as a big city person. But now I am seriously considering the city as an option to move after I graduate next year. Here I am in central park.

This is the view from the top of the Rockafeller Center.

We went to see this broadway show called Cry Baby. It was kind of like Grease, but set in the 1950's and really funny.

This is just one example of the delicious food we ate. New York has EVERYTHING! As you can imagine, this was one of my favorite things about New York :) This is a sundae I got at Serendipity (like in the movie!). It was fabulous.

Me and Elizabeth by the world. I'll put more pictures up on my facebook if you want to see!

My Work Without Pay

Behold, this is the Kolff Dialysis Center where I am doing my first rotation! I am working with a pharmacist here and basically we go to talk to the patients while they are having dialysis and go over their medications with them, then we make sure that there aren't any problems with the doses or if they need any additional medications, and we make notes of that in their chart. I also have to do research and read alot of scientific papers and do presentations. It is pretty fun though, I like it. It is fun to actually be doing something with all the information I've learned. The only bad part is that dialysis involves alot of blood and needles, and you know how I hate blood and needles!! (For anyone who doesn't know, I tend to pass out easily at the sight). The first time I talked to a patient hooked up to the machine it grossed me out... but luckily I haven't passed out yet.