Long Time No Write…

VIETNAM?!?

I’ve been getting (and avoiding) quite a number of questions about my plans for the summer, so I thought it was about time I answered some!

As some of you may know, in July 2012 I will be spending two weeks in Vietnam. I’m going with a group called GSMDM, or Good Samaritan Medical and Dental Ministry, who have been going every summer since 2001. They are a Christian-based group, but don’t require those going on the mission to be Christian (somewhat of a relief for me). Essentially, they go to one or two remote areas in Vietnam and set up a temporary free clinic for the people there to get basic medical care. They provide medications, optometry/vision services, dental services, and even surgeries. I learned about GSMDM through an organization I’m part of at UC Davis, VN CARES (which I’ve written about before). I have been hoping to join them for about 3 years now, and in my second year of applying, I was accepted.

This year, we will be staying in and working near a city called Vinh, which is in the northern part of Vietnam. I personally am on what is called the “Reception Team,” on which I don’t have to speak Vietnamese (thank goodness!) The reception team is responsible for setting up and taking down the clinic every day, including assigning rooms to the other teams (dental, optometry, etc) and helping them set up the equipment they are going to need. We also find/hook up the electricity (including generators that we bring). During the clinic day, we take patients between the various stations and help keep everything running smoothly.

This trip is going to be a big challenge for me, but I’m looking forward to it. A little background: I’ve been really curious about Vietnam, since a fair number (most) of my friends at UC Davis are Vietnamese/Vietnamese-American. I’ve also wanted to go somewhere outside the US during university, but don’t like the idea of going as a tourist or on vacation. For me, this opportunity has a lot of the things that are important to me; seeing a country and a culture that are very, very different from the one I’ve grown up with, being able to do something useful with my time, and finding out what is involved with hands-on medicine.

I am hoping to learn some Vietnamese before I leave. Since my vocabulary currently consists of counting to ten and swearing, I have a long way to go! The grammar isn’t difficult, but unfortunately it’s a tonal language, so I’m having some trouble learning to even pronounce things, let alone remember them.

Like I mentioned earlier, the group who runs the mission is Christian, a religion I’m sometimes quite skeptical of. Part of their policy is that one doesn’t have to be Christian to participate, but it can still be a fairly overwhelming environment. I’m not exactly the most patient person when it comes to religion, either, so this is probably what I’m feeling most challenged by at the moment! In response, I’ve been spending a fair amount at the Davis Shambhala center and working on creating a regular meditation practice. One of the things that I find fascinating from the Shambhala center is  ‘basic goodness,’ the idea that all people are essentially good and that any person has the potential to recognize and express that. There are also a lot of parallels between that concept (which is Buddhist, as is the Center), and Christianity, so I’ve been trying to keep those in mind as a way to understand what is going on. Essentially, I’m hoping that will create some common ground and provide a better basis to work together. It’s also helping me deal with other people in general, though I still have a distinct tendency to be spiny and irritable. Just to clear up any confusion: I haven’t suddenly become Buddhist. I’m participating regularly in an organization that is, and I’m very interested in and comfortable with some of the ideas in Buddhism, but I don’t feel like I know the religion enough to say I’m officially part of it (partially because the branch, or ‘lineage’ that I’m encountering is very different from many of the other lineages).

I know this can be pretty big news (it took me long enough to convince my parents to let me apply!), so if there’s anything else you want to know, just let me know and I’ll give you my best explanation.  And in case you want to know more about:

GSMDM

http://www.gsmedicalministry.org/

or

Davis Shambhala Center:

http://davis.shambhala.org/

 

In Other News:

I’ve started classes again, still working Biomedical Engineering.  There’s a lot of math this quarter, so I’m somewhat apprehensive, but hopefully it will all go well. I still love what I’m learning about, even if the tests get a slightly different reaction.

Alex (my boyfriend, for those who haven’t heard about him in awhile) and I are still together. He was having a lot of trouble with school, financially and psychologically, and has decided to go into the military before finishing college. He will be joining the Marines, and we’re not sure quite yet when he’ll be leaving for boot camp or exactly what job he will be doing. I’m not too happy about his being so far away, but I’m glad that he’s found some sort of direction for the moment. This development is a bit difficult for me, though. I’ve never been a fan of the military, so it’s a little tricky for me to understand what’s going on and why. I’d be interested to hear from friends/relatives who’ve had different experiences with the military about their experiences with it, because I’d like to have a little more of an understanding. In any case, we’ll see how things go.

 

Hope everyone made it through! I know that was a lot of text after not hearing from me for awhile. Best wishes to everyone, and as always, I’d love to know what everyone is up to!

-Jesse

Kitchen

Kitchens should be clean.
The current state of the kitchen in this apartment: bread crumbs on floor. twice-washed dishes that still came out dirty because there were chunks of bread and crap-looking stuff (literally) in the dishwasher. Dirty dishes always filling the counter and/or sink. stains on the counter. crumbs on the counter. dirty dishtowel. Open coffee pot with 48-hour-old tea(?) touching unidentified paper bag. Moulding citrus.
Stuff done by Jesse (2midterms this week) today: emptied and loaded dishwasher(twice). cleaned multiple dishes left in sink. removed soggy chunks of bread from dishwasher. cleaned out full drying rack. made food (dishes used: one cutting board (wiped down), one knife (washed and returned to drawer), one pan (currently on stove pending end of dinner), one bowl (currently in use), one spoon (currently in use).
Clearly, this is not an equal distribution. Is it really THAT hard to keep the [censored] kitchen relatively clean?
I’m glad i’m not living with these people next year.

Aaaaaand we’re back

It’s been awhile, has it not?

School last quarter was incredibly hectic, and this quarter shows signs of being just as bad. I managed to pass all of my classes for fall quarter, something i hadn’t entirely expected. I ended up with a C in math: unpleasant but far better than i had feared. None of my grades were as good as they should have been, due mainly to two factors:

1. I had a math final. The course 22a, linear algebra, is listed as a 3-unit class. In a 4-unit class, the expectation is for about 10 hours of study/homework time a week outside of class (so, between 1-2 hours a day). For a three-unit class, the workload is (theoretically) more along the lines of 5 hours a week. Judging by the average amount of time and work put in by the members of the class, this particular one should have been 5 units. It was my first final, so i used all the time up until then to study for it…. and got 68/149. The class average? around 80/149. Because of the time spent studying for that final, i had to study for each of the others essentially the day before they happened. I would feel a lot more guilty about it if the effort put in for the math final hadn’t been quite clearly necessary.

2. I got sick. I went home over thanksgiving break to be a good kid and visit my family, and picked up a cold from my father. Since thanksgiving break occurs about a week before finals, you can imagine the effect this had on my ability to study.

end result: I passed.  My GPA dropped, but i’ll be working my butt off this quarter to try and salvage it.

 

I’m currently taking the continuations of last quarter’s courses (essentially, each is a year long, but split into three quarters):  MAT22b (differential equations), CHE118b (organic chemistry), PHY9B (general physics), BIS2B (general biology), and of course tae kwon do. Since my spleen is no longer in danger of exploding, i’ll be doing club tkd as well, so i expect chronically sore muscles. XD

So far, the most frustrating class promises to be chemistry. My teacher likes to run class in a Socratic seminar style, where problems are solved by discussion and only finished when the class as a whole has come up with an answer and agrees (he won’t give us the correct answers). This would work beautifully if it were not 1. a class with too much material and too little time to learn in the normal fashion, and 2. not a 422-person lecture class. His midterms are also reputedly impossible and far more difficult than any of the problems presented during class (unsurprising, since we only seem to get through one problem a lecture).

Physics has weekly quizzes, and hopefully won’t be too bad if i manage to stay on top of things.

Biology is a bit of a blind shot. So far, the teacher seems good and i’m not feeling overwhelmed with detail, but i’m not sure how the rest of the quarter will go.

Math….. well, it isn’t my strong point. I’ve been lost since the first day of class, but my textbook and solutions manual recently arrived in the mail, so hopefully once I’ve buried myself in those for a bit, it will start to make more sense. So far, the steps he’s taking to solve problems seem fairly logical and straightforward: no proofs, no ridiculous leaps of intuition comprehensible only to those who already understand, and no matrices. There is one little catch, though: he’s a graduate-level professor. The grade for the class comes 60% from the final and 40% from the single midterm. One midterm. No homework. No tests. So far, he seems to expect a very strong background, and a single-minded obsession with mathematics. I’m expecting really, really nasty midterm and final, with little or no leniency in grading. Interestingly enough, this is another “3-unit course.” Yeah right.

 

In order to try and do better with chemistry this quarter, i’ve started going to the free workshop offered by the tutoring center on-campus. It’s before my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This week, after i got out, i went to the lecture hall for my next class and walked in to find an anatomy class. The sheer amount of detail flying around in that single hour was incredibly frightening. I’m thinking of sitting in on it (well, standing: all the seats are filled and the back wall is lined with people) at least thursday and maybe tuesday and fridays if I”m not too busy. I’m not required to take it (*sigh of relief*) but it seems fascinating and i have a feeling that having at least heard it may be useful in the future.

 

The apartment is still working out, though things can be a little tense at times. I get along quite well with my roomate. We will probably be living together again next year, though we’re looking (ok, she’s looking, since she’s the one that actually talks to people) at a few different options. Personally, i’d really like to be closer to school, and closer to Alex. Right now, it’s a twenty-minute ride to either one (and the same in between). Since i get out late at least three days a week, and go in relatively early often, any lessening of the chilly ride would be lovely.

 

At taekwondo on Thursday, the club officers announced that there was a meet on Saturday, and anyone interested in learning how the new electronic scoring system worked should show up and learn. I thought it might be interesting, so i signed up as of 7pm friday evening (i had thought i was going to be busy, but something got cancelled), and showed up at the uncomfortable hour of 7:50am in front of the ARC (uncomfortable because it was probably around or under 30 degrees out, and everything opened at 8). When we arrived at the event (about 5 Davis people had come to learn the system, and we joined a couple other people, one of whom (from Berkely) stuck around), they began showing us how to use the system. It seemed pretty straightforward. Flip a little switch on the electronic box, open the program, type in the number on the box, type in the numbers of the judge controllers, plug it into the hogu (the chest protector: these ones are specially made so that they can register hits and automatically send that data to award points). Once everything is plugged in, type in thresholds (how hard someone needs to hit to score), and click the appropriate buttons. We watched the process, asked some questions, nodded wisely, and then got mentally punched in the gut by a very simple question: “So, which of you guys is running this thing?”

o.o *gulp*

Apparently, ‘learn the system’ meant ‘run the system.’ Since no one seemed to want to do the clicking, i volunteered myself. We divided up into teams of three (one to each ring): one person on the computer, two people finding people, hogus, and electronics, and putting them together. Immediately before the first match started, we got a crash course on the rules (no, we didn’t know them yet. Oh, and the judges? They give commands and penalties in korean). The first two matches were a little rough, but the head judge was fairly patient and i didn’t mess up too much. By the end of the day (nine matches), i was working pretty smoothly with the system. It was both nerve-wracking and a little exhilarating.

Overall, i’m very apprehensive about this quarter, mostly because of classes. The B set of classes is usually the hardest, at least for the ones i’m taking, and most people don’t take them all at the same time. Hopefully, with a lot of hard work and a lack of social life, i’ll make it through with my grades intact or (in case of miracles) improved.

As usual, i’d love to hear from all of you… is it as cold out there as it is around here (between 25 and 45 Farenheit generally) ?

No. Just no.

My facebook newsfeed is currently full of people expressing some sort of congratulatory or exulatory sentiment towards the Saratoga High football team for beating that of Los Gatos.

This is not supposed to happen.

I cannot approve.

@_@

Having spent yesterday sleeping in and hanging out at Alex’s apartment, today was dedicated to homework. At least, that was the plan. It ended up being a day full of sorting through the homework rather than actually doing it. I determined that:

math: one online assignment due weekly, one online assignment due three times a week, and one paper assignment due every two weeks. labs weekly

chemistry: no homework (?), lab/discussion

biology: highly confusing set of reading and online quizzes to be done before each lecture, quizzes in discussion

physics: homework, some semi-optional, in two different online locations. labs weekly.

My feelings on this so far: rather overwhelmed. There is  a LOT of work lurking in there, and i’m going to have a hard time keeping everything organized (which seems to be the hardest part so far). I know i can ask for a letter from Health Services to extend deadlines and suchlike if i need to, but this is still incredibly daunting. Having put it off to the day before classes really start (ie, falling asleep during all my classes on thursday and friday)  makes it an especially unpleasant pile. Hopefully it will get less complicated as the year goes on…

dun dun dun….

In my last post, i mentioned a small sore throat that had appeared before and after my bike accident. That sore throat decided to grow up into a raving monster pretty much overnight, meaning that i spent all of yesterday huddling miserably in my room and got no sleep last night. Kat and Chris drove me over to the student health center, where after a large amount of consultation my issue ended up going up the chain of command by about 3 people ( i seem to create these situations where additional higher-ups need to be called). The first lady i talked to peered inside my mouth, blinked, and said ‘well, your tonsils are really swollen.’ Indeed, they were swollen to the point that they almost touched the dangly thing (epiglottis), probably the reason i had trouble swallowing even a motrin yesterday afternoon. (Yesterday night, chris had to cut up a painkiller for me and niamh fed it to me in bits of yogurt so i could get it down at all).

She took two throat swabs (great pain) to eliminate strep, and sent me down for a blood test (which i kinda freaked out about, since i was already a bit upset and worried, not to mention in pain). As soon as it was over, i went back up and waited for a bit until the lady came back. She gave me something to numb out my throat, but it had to be gargled. I can’t gargle. Since there wasn’t exactly another option, i told her i’d give it a try (wrote it out, rather, on a notepad i’d brought with). I’m fairly certain most of it ended up on my lips, tongue, and maybe a few drops in the area of my throat, after a great deal of choking, gagging, and semi-spasming. There’s a reason i don’t do mouthwash for the dentist. It may have helped a tiny bit, but i think it would have been better if i could have gotten it in the right place. XD

The lady then walked me down to urgent care, where i saw an actual doctor (usually, going to student health services means talking to/working with a nurse-practitioner, which actually works out fine). Looking at my symptoms (sore throat, swollen tonsils, lack of other cold symptoms, mild fever) and the results from the blood test, he diagnosed mono.

Yes, mono. Commonly known as ‘the kissing disease’. This, for someone who has barely been in contact with more than 5 other human beings all summer. Who has not seen, let alone kissed, her boyfriend for weeks. Joy oh joy.

He walked me through the options, which were somewhat limited by the fact that i couldn’t swallow anything (to swallow water or even my own saliva, i had to force myself through the process manually). We ended up deciding on an anti-inflammatory med (which i get to grind up and stick in applesauce until i can swallow the damn thing) and a liquid-form painkiller. He and the lady assisting him gave me the dose of each while i was there, and was that a pathetic sight!  Jesse, hunched up, taking a tiny spoonful at a time of powderedpill/applesauce and wincing each time, and then trying to sip down two little cupfuls (3 teaspoons) of something that burned a bit if swallowed wrong, accompanied by involuntary little noises of pain. I did somehow manage to get all of it down, and the situation was declared the worst sore throat they had seen. The doctor wrote me two prescriptions, one for each, and i picked them up (one from the pharmacy at the student health center, the other from rite-aid, since student health center didn’t have it).

It still hurts to swallow anything, but i’m slowly eating a thing of yogurt (i started it with the painkillers last night, managed about two spoonfuls total this morning before giving up) and it’s going down ok. Tomorrow i’ll probably try to bike or walk over to Jamba Juice (about 15 minutes away by bike), to try and get some liquids/food into myself (i didn’t have anything to eat yesterday besides a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and half a tortilla; it hurt too much to swallow anything). I’m pretty dedicated to getting the liquids in (ie. water). They asked that if i couldn’t manage to swallow enough to get my liquids up a bit, that i come in tomorrow to get them by IV. I should be able to do it, especially since i now have painkillers that seem to actually work.

The other downside to this (besides what felt like 10 on a 1-to-10 scale of pain) is that i’m supposed to take it easy for awhile, and not do contact sports for 4-6 weeks. Ie, no taekwondo. I discussed it with the doctor, and he suggested that i should be able to do the non-contact portions after a week or so, but to leave off anything contact lest my spleen explode. He also said it would probably be safe after about 4 weeks rather than 6, since i’d had my bike accident and suffered no ill effects from that. In that regard, i guess i’m pretty lucky that i’ll be able to go back to doing those things sooner rather than later, and that i’ve still got basic mobility (biking is fine, my spleen DIDN’T burst).

All in all, not the best of first weeks. I guess this means the quarter can only get better, right? right? And it’s good to know what’s going on, at least, even if there’s not much i can do about it. Hope everyone elses’ lives are going significantly better than mine, and best wishes to all until next time!

Single-Handed Typing Master! (not)

Having in my possession a transcript and a deposit voucher, as well as some spare time, I decided this morning to go turn them in. I biked merrily along to the ARC (gym), where i found myself behind two people about to pull out of the bike racks (on bikes). Since i wasn’t interested in being stuck behind the couple, i moved to the left side of the path to go around them. Now, most people swerve outward a little as they move into the bike path, say into the middle-rightish area (this being the reason i had moved over, with plenty of room). This guy moved all the way over into the left hand side. I swerved left to avoid him, over the little inch-tall gap between the path and the gravel/dirt, then immediately right so as to return to the path before hitting a tree. On the way back on, my wheel hit the bump crooked, sending me face/hands-first into the pavement. I got up pretty quickly, made sure i could stand and was checking for normal mobility when the aformentioned guy decided to help me pick my bike up: while i was still standing over it. If you know me, you probably realize this is NOT a good idea. I dont react well to shock or pain, and having someone try to MOVE something im still slightly tangled in (or even get within range) is a wonderful way to get yourself hurt. Luckily for him, all he got was a firm “no” and backed off before any more forceful reaction set in. He and his ladyfriend did offer to help by helping me go inside to get a bandaid, but i declined (no surprise there), told them i was fine, and ignored them while i tried to find a parking spot. Getting into a scrape is never wonderful, but the thing that upsets me most is my reaction to it. I got up to the front desk, asked for a bandaid, and promptly burst into tears. Keep in mind, this is end of summer/beginning of the year and most of the staff were probably new. New, and confronted with this sobbing person with a lovely set of dirt on half of their face and a bloody knee that looked ready to drip on the floor.  They rallied, however, and the nice lady at the desk grabbed their first aid kit and went with me to the bathroom, where she supplied me with bandaids as i did an initial rinsse of all the scrapes i could find. She left, and i sat in one of the stalls for a couple minutes and kept crying. A little pathetic. At that point, i didn’t want to deal with stupid questions while trying to figure out the paperwork, so i went home. Very slowly. On the way home, i discovered that while i have full range of motion in all limbs, my right wrist hurt to bend backward. On a bike, if one needs to use only one brake, it HAS to be the right one (the back brake, to prevent from flipping over the handlebars).  Therefore, home slowly since braking required a bit of thought. Once i got home, i cleaned everything off thoroughly, applied gauze, bandaids, antibiotic, etc, went into my room and started crying again. One of my friends came over and gave me a hug, and he ended up making me laugh enough that all was better, if not well. We ended up walking over to the grocery store across the street to get some honey so i could put it in water or tea for my throat, which had been giving me issues since yesterday. Got back, played magic(a game), and now i just rather want to collapse and sleep. If, y’know, i could find some position that didn’t bother the scrapes. I’m keeping my wrist iced and trying to keep it relatively immobile for now, but oh man it is a pain. I feel like barbie; you know how the hands are in one position and you can USE them, but only when it works out with that position? That’s pretty much the deal right now. Hopefully, it’s just bruised and not sprained (i assume it would be more painful if it were), but for the moment i’m typing one-handed. -_- Fun, fun, fun.

List of funstuff:

scrapes on the heels of both hands (very small on the right)

large scrape on my right knee

small, shallow scrape on the inside of my left lower arm

something that barely qualifies on  the outside of my right lower arm

bruising on my knee

half a facefull of scrapes: actually, it’s rather fun on my face, because i appear to have stubble (the impression was even more so before i washed off the dirt). There’s a lovely line down the center of my chin, where the right half is normal and the left half is swollen out a bit less than a centimeter with this pretty blueblack halfmoon bruise. The scrapes are in the area that would be covered with a beard if for some strange reason i had one, so i’m actually pretty amused by that lot.

one highly uncomfortable wrist

other bruises i haven’t found yet.

To  add to the fun, i found that my housemate kat (usually the more sensible) had transferred my ice pack to the fridge “because it was frozen.”  Thanks?

In overview? ow….

Just a little disappointed…

At some point last year, due to a bit of a conflict between various athletic groups/organizations/coordinators, TKD (tae kwon do) practice got moved from 6-8ish to 8-10ish. At the end of last year, we were informed that we’d probably end up with the same (later) time this year. However, just this evening, i got an email: Practice is moving earlier. This news comes after both Pass 1 and Pass 2 (opportunities to sign up for classes) and in the middle of open registration (ie, when all class sections one might need are full). TKD practice now happens to fall smack on top of my physics discussion. (the one i picked so it WOULDN’T conflict). The only section that would work out with my schedule is closed (ie, i can’t switch into it without asking the professor and being very, very lucky). Needless to say, i’m not too happy about this. TKD is one of the few outlets i have, and makes an incredibly good counter to all the brain-work i am (and will be) drowning in the rest of the time.

In other, more neutral news, housemate #3, Edith, moved in today. We thought she was coming tomorrow, but she showed up at the door today, a complete surprise. So far, it seems to be going well. She and Kat figured out how to set up their room to have a LOT more free space (i’m considering stealing their floorplan, it was so amazing). Edith is the loud, cheerful one, so put together with my moody, sulking, silent disposition, it should be an interesting year.

Today: lots of surprises, some bad, some not so bad. May life get better and not worse….

Back to School

Yes, it’s been awhile. This is mainly intended to be a school-year blog, since there’s not much to say about summer: Umm… i went back to toga, i slept, i ate food….. not the most fascinating of subjects.

However, this isn’t Saratoga anymore. As of September 11th, i am officially residing in my apartment in Davis. One of my housemates moved in yesterday, the other housemate will be coming on the 17th, and my roomate will be here on the 18th. There’s four of us, all girls. Two bedroom, one bathroom (and may we not regret it). Moving in was a bit stressful; my parents and i don’t get along for extended periods of time in small spaces (ie a car filled with stuff). By the end of the day, i pretty much kicked them out the door and told them not to come back (sorry mum and dad… i’ve calmed down a bit now >.>).  I managed to cook for myself without lighting anything on fire or getting food poisoning (definitely a plus) and made black bean soup for myself, my housemate, her boyfriend Chris, and another friend of ours. It went over well, to my great relief.

The apartment itself is pretty nice. There are some issues with the management (particularly in terms of tracking down certain packages and getting repairs done), so i don’t think most of the group that decided to move here will be staying after this year, but for now it’s not bad. We’re right next to a lake, so i’m trying to find out how to get to it. I think one has to join the country club, which should be interesting; i’m not exactly the country club type!

Anyway, more later as more happens. Hope everyone is doing well and i’d love to hear from you all!

ps. Yes, i am dating the same guy. (His name is Alex). No, we’re not living together. I like my roomate too much. XD

Brownies? More like burnies…

Having a pan, a mixing bowl, measuring cup, oil, brownie mix, and access to an oven, I made brownies. usually, when i make brownies, they’re GOOD. Like, disappear within a couple days good (even if it’s not just my family’s opinion). This time there were a few complications.

1. I’m used to working with a temperamental oven; it heats unevenly back-to-front and almost always takes longer than one thinks it should(it’s probably not the temperature it claims). The oven in the dorms is much nicer; it has a display to tell you what the temperature is, it bakes evenly, and it actually heats up completely.

2. The pan. Reading the instructions this morning, i found “2. Set oven temperature 25 (F) 13(C) lower than specified in recipe or mix directions.

I preheated the oven to the recommended temperature, waited until it was ready, then put my brownies in for a time corresponding to the upper end of the suggested time. The result:

well, they’re brown. nothing lit on fire. they’re slowly disappearing, but mostly because they’re better  sucked on than chewed quickly and therefore good study snacks.

lesson learned: watch out for things that work.