No hablo quechua...

For two weeks at the beginning of June, I got to take a break from my CCLCM thesis research to take an elective in the Sacred Valley of Peru.  It was incredible, unforgettable!!  Except the Spanish I learned... That may prove forgettable.

We took a traveling group of about 25 med students, attendings, residents, nurses, and other medical professionals throughout tiny villages in the Andes.  We treated 150-250 patients a day in makeshift clinics set up in schools and community centers, with a couple of days spent at local medical clinics.  We saw everything from dry skin and the common cold to broken ankles to gastric cancer, and we made the most of our limited supply of ibuprofen, calcium, antihelminthics, toothbrushes, and Spanish.  We often worked through double translators - a local nurse translating from Quechua (Incan) to Spanish, and the medical student translating from Spanish to English for the doctor.  But despite our limitations, I really feel like we were able to make a difference for the people there.  At least, I know they made a difference for me.  I'll never make the same assumptions about medicine again.

On the weekends, we visited Cuzco and Machu Picchu.  Cuzco was fun, but oh my goodness, Machu Picchu was incredible.  Being up there in the mountains, it's like you can see forever.  And to think that an entire city lived there and then abandoned it - the stories are unbelievable.

So here's my advice if you're going to Peru.  Get out of the city and meet the people.  Do what it takes.  Go with a medical mission, or go build schools, or sell freaking braided bracelets in the markets as you backpack through the Andes.  Then, go to Machu Picchu.  Just go.  And hike Huayna Picchu (if you think your lungs can handle it).

Oh, and if you get a hankering to try the guinea pig, just don't spend too much on it.  There's not a lot of meat on those things.

Anniversary

"What in the world is that," you say?  That, my dears, is a very delicious wedding cake.  The incredibly tasty cake was made and decorated with delicate cherry blossoms by the exceptionally talented Linsey Rich, and was featured at our wedding one year ago today (and subsequently at a youth activity hosted by the friend that let us turn his house into wedding central).

For a year, this cake survived in my sister-in-law's freezer, miraculously safe despite 4 occasionally ravenous children.  Must not have looked edible - fondant will do that.  It will also, however, fend off freezer-burn.  Our carrot cake, which I had never gotten to try on our wedding day, was scrumptiously moist when we pigged out on it this year without proper cutlery in a fancy hotel in Portland.

The Happiest Girl in The World

White Paint

I know a man that paints.

Every day, all he does is paint the hospital white. It's his job. He goes around with cans of white paint, in all white clothes, and paints the walls Toby Cosgrove's favorite color. As long as there is a Clinic, he says, he will be painting it white.

This man keeps a sense of humor about things. As he paints the baseboards, he scoots around on a little wheeled board, zipping down the hallway at the level of your knees and smiling up at you. We've chatted many a time in the hallway about the changing weather, about where we're from, about our careers. I thanked him one day for painting the walls white. He thanked me for fixing bodies.

In the end, how much does it matter whether we are painting the walls or fixing bodies? Or serving french fries to patients' families, or fixing the phones when they break? In the end, we all work at the Cleveland Clinic, and the place wouldn't run too well without every one of those positions filled.

I wonder, though, if he ever wishes he painted at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital across the street.  :)

More dance

I've finally gotten back into dance competitions after a couple of years of being too busy!  The preparation for the cancelled February competition did not go to waste. I actually went to 3 comps this spring with my awesome, kind, wonderfully compatible partner Ian Wong. We competed USADance collegiate. It was relatively cheap and relaxed. I miss open competition, but the time will come for that.

But talk is cheap, so here's the photos:

Doc Opera Sneak Preview

The dance Will Fisher and I choreographed for Doc Opera was on the local news today!! Check it out!


*Edit: The link died of old age.  But it was a pretty sweet swing routine.  If you want to see it again, you'll have to borrow my Doc Opera DVD.

Ballet

Well, It's been a while since I've posted. I really should do some homework, but Thursday is my mini-weekend and I feel like I should look outside myself and write something for all my devoted blog readers.

*cricket chirp*

Whatever.

I'm taking a ballet class at Cleveland City Dance. It keeps me moving, works my brain in ways med school doesn't, and can be a little bit of an ego boost sometimes. Like when my teacher told me yesterday that my feet looked like I'd done pointe. At least I haven't lost everything since my pointe achievement. :) I'm back to always being told to tuck my tummy in and not let my back sway, though. Dang it. Maybe running more would help. Or crunches. *shivers*

Also, lest us graduates forget, NDCA NATIONALS ARE NEXT WEEK!!!! Woohoo! Sad to not be there.... This is my first year in five years that I haven't been out on that floor. Sad day. I'm sure lots of videos will pop up on FB, but it's simply not the same.