Sunday Evening...

Well, it's Sunday evening and we had QUITE the day. It started off pretty early, we left around 9am for the Apartheid Museum and an amusement park called Gold Reef City (yes, I know...we went all the way to Africa to go to an amusement park...it's crazy)!!

The apartheid museum was unbelievable. They had a Nelson Mandela Exhibit, I could've spent hours in there. I don't even know how to describe it. I had goosebumps nearly the entire time! I journaled a bit how my favorite part had to do with sports and I guess that's just in my nature. Anywho, Mandela was elected president in 1994 and then South Africa won the rugby world cup in 1995. Before the game, Mandela arrived at the podium (for opening ceremony, whatever) wearing the jersey of the WHITE captain on the team. (This was all on a video that I watched.) The crowd, that was 95% white, was silent and then you heard the chant start..."Nel-son! Nel-son! Nel-son!" Oh geez, just amazing. I truly could've spent the whole day there. Then we went to a silly amusement park, haha who goes to Africa to go to an amusement park?! Oh well, we had fun...and I got some sun, finally!! Alison and I were real excited because a girl from the Wits Nursing Program came with us! Her name is Kerry and she was super sweet and a real help at the Apartheid Museum because she would tell us about different people and different events. Here are a couple of pictures I took....

This was just on a plaque randomly in the useum, and it's everywhere you go honestly...

This was the "sports event" I was talking about. I believe that sports can bring people together in ways that people can't quite understand...and this event truly speaks to that. Ahh, goosebumps again!

Oh you know, just another photo opp :) This was on our way out of the museum...I wanted you to see how incredibly large these words were on this wall!!! And they're great words in fact!

Well this is quite the disgusting picture of me. But we're on a ferris wheel and we had a GREAT view of Johannesburg...which is what the picture is of below!!

So yes, our first full weekend in Johannesburg was a great one. However, next weekend is going to be the best of them all because we'll be on our four day/three night safari in Kruger National Park!! Alison and I are SO super excited and can't wait to see all sorts of wildlife! We're driving the "panoramic route" which is supposed to be gorgeous. Here is the link for the website of the company that we're going through...

http://www.krugerparksafaris.za.net/wild.html

No worries, I'll take lots of great pictures and share them with everyone :)

We're back to work this week Monday, Tuesday Wednesday...and then off on our safari!! I'll keep everyone posted!!!

Gorgeous Saturday Afternoon :)

Well, today Alison and I woke up early and headed to the Market Theatre area which had a flea market so we got to do a little bit of shopping :) I did a lot of bargain talking and got a lot of great deals!! We also went to Museum Africa which covered everything from the beginning of Africa to the build up of Johannbesburg and then it had a visiting Croatian Drawing Gallery which was amazing! Honestly, it was just nice getting out and seeing a little bit of Jo'burg. We took a "safe taxi" and our driver's name is Preston...we've already arranged for him to take us to a place called Gold Reef City and then to the Apartheid Museum tomorrow.

Last night Alison and I begun our search for the safari trip to Kruger National Park. We're hoping for a four day/three night tour and we have to make sure we get picked up here in Jo'burg. A lot of students have been renting cars and just driving the park themselves, but we're far too scared to do that! Hopefully by this evening we'll have something arranged...

Here are a few photos...we'll see how many it'll let me post!

This is a photo of Johannesburg Hospital (from behind) where I am doing my clinical at in the Trauma ICU. This place is HUGE and there are always people everywhere!! But most of the other international students here for med school are at Baragwanath Hospital which is the largest hospital in the world....

Here we are standing on sort of the courtyard area of the medical school and straight ahead is are the residence halls on our campus, we're in the one on the far left called Reith Hall.

This is at the Museum Africa...it had an exhibit on the apartheid time here and I thought this little puzzle piece was interesting. It made me really excited for the Apartheid Museum tomorrow....

Anyways, I'll post again soon....I heard the Chiefs hired Todd Haley, yay!! I sure can't wait for next season :) Haha, I travel across the Atlantic and still all I can think about is Chiefs football!!

Hello!

Well I'm typing his fast because my computer is going to die and I have no way of charging it :( And we can't figure out how to hook Alison's computer to the internet!! Geez, for those of you going to Las Pintas or who have been before...I have used an abundant amount of flex powder!! It's quite hard to not get frustrated, because all I want to do is communicate back home!!

We had another good day at the hospital :) We talked with the manager and coordinator of the ward about the ways in which they do things here and then the ways we would do them back in the states. I can assure you things are quite different here, but overall they're the same...just trying to give the best patient care possible while being their number one advocate!

I can't seem to post pictures right now...which also sucks. I guess worst case scenario I can post pictures when I get back :)

I better get off this thing before it dies!!! Talk to you soon hopefully....

This morning...

Good news!!! We’ve found a way to get internet on the third floor of our residence hall!!! YAY!!! This guy name Peter from Sweden is an absolute saint and he helped up figure it all out. So hopefully I’ll be able to post more often and such 

Let’s see, yesterday was quite a bust for Alison and I. We were going to plan our trips to Kruger and Cape Town, but weren’t able to because we didn’t have the silly internet. (But now that we do I think we’ll plan those after we get done with work.) We went ahead and decided to go over the main campus via the bus that takes students. There is a planetarium over there and a museum called Human Origins. The planetarium was closed so we were bummed about that, but we did get to go to the museum. It was SUPER interesting. It’s basically a museum saying that humankind originated in Africa. I sent some links to my dad in hopes that he could use if for his class, but then realized the whole teaching evolution thing probably wasn’t going to go over to well!!

After I typed this I managed to nearly cut my charger cord in half for my computer! Geez, the computer God doesn't like me too much :( Oh well, I'll figure out something...hope all is going well!!

Miss you all!!!!

Kinda behind....

This is from yesterday morning......

Hey everyone!!
I’m pre-writing this silly thing again in hopes of sending it out sometime today. It’s early morning right now and I’m sitting in my room with the window open to the fresh smells of Johannesburg. It rains here quite frequently in the afternoons so the smell of fresh rain is going to be something that I associate with South Africa for sometime to come.

I am having just the greatest time I could have possibly imagined! Last night we went out with a lot of the international elective students (whom are all medical students, I think Alison and I are the only international nursing students here). I haven’t laughed so long nor so hard in forever! I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the guys better. We met some new people as well though. Rebecca is from the U.K. and Peter is from Sweden, and they both actually work at Jo’Burg General which is where I’m doing my clinicals at right now. Everyone else is at a hospital called the Baragawanath (I may have mentioned this in an earlier post), which is the largest hospital in the entire world, but it’s also a mad house! We met two guys from Australia, Isaac and Abe, who are at the Bara as well.

Guess what I found out!! I have another American football fan here with me, Jacob, and I’m so disappointed because he said he would’ve found some way to watch the Superbowl had be known I would’ve watched it with him! It was quite hilarious Jacob, whom is originally from India but now lives in London, was attempting to explain the game of American football to Peter who just had this incredibly confused look on his face the entire time! Jacob did quite well though, but he also lived in Cleveland for three years so he’s been to some games and wasn’t completely clueless 

Let’s see, yesterday we had tea with the Wits University Department of Nursing and it was SO wonderful. There were about eight faculty that joined us and four students. The questions just rolled, but Alison and I were thrilled to answer all of them. The students were especially curious about the states. Oh and I have I mentioned that EVERYONE asks us about Obama!! When we went to the ICU the first day, we were introduced as, “This is Cara and Alison, they are from the U.S….they’re Obama girls.” I love it though  It’s nice to know that people are just as excited as we are about Obama. So back to tea haha, the students invited us to a gathering of some sort on the main campus on Friday night so I think we’re going to do that. I’m so excited to get to hang out with some people that are actually FROM South Africa, and nursing students none the less!!!

Well, we’re about to head to breakfast over at a place called Mike’s Kitchen with the group! Then Alison and I are going to plan our trips to Kruger National Park for a safari and then to Cape Town as well!! We’re super excited for those two! I’ve already been having the time of my life so I can’t imagine how amazing it’s going to be when I’m on a safari and then when I’m on the southern most point of Africa!!!

I’ll post again…hopefully soon!!!!

Above is a picture of the entrance to our residence hall, I'm hangin out my window a bit :)

Well, still no internet access for this poor traveler L I’m in a woman named Maude’s office who works for the Department of Nursing at Wits University (the school that is accommodating us and treating us so well)! So this is another pre-written blog! We’re hoping for internet access very soon…so cross your fingers!!!!

I started on the Trauma Intensive Care Unit at Johannesburg General and I had SUCH a great experience the first day. My favorite part was the very beginning…the nurses (or sisters, as they are called here in South Africa) sing and pray every morning. They have the most beautiful voices and they dance around and clap, oh it’s just wonderful and so uplifting J The patients we get up there are incredibly sick & injured. The crime of Johannesburg truly shows I this ICU. Motor vehicle accidents (which also include pedestrian vehicle accidents, as my patient was the first day) and gun shot wounds are all we really see up there. I’ll spare most of the details since I know not all of you are reading this with a nursing mind like I have as I type this out! For those that are interested, I’ll tell lots of stories when I get back I promise!!! I already have a TON to tell and I’ve only worked two days!

Alison and I started planning our days in Johannesburg and are going to make reservations hopefully on Thursday for a trip to Kruger National Park for a safari and then a trip to Cape Town at the end of the month! Every person we’ve talked to says we HAVE to go to Cape Town before we leave. This weekend though we are going to Gold Reef City and the Apartheid Museum on Saturday. Then on Sunday we’ll be going to Museum Africa and Market Theatre which we’ve heard have amazing African art exhibits and then some great African music! So we’re excited to spend our first weekend in Johannesburg!

We’ve met a couple of other international students, all of which are studying medicine. Jason is from Australia and he has been such a help in getting us adjusted to Jo’Burg. We learned quickly that we couldn’t function here without a phone so we went and bought a “pay as you go” phone. There is also another Aussie name Catherine who is so nice, she actually asked us to join her for dinner the night we arrived which we were so grateful for because we were starving by then! Craig and Johnny are from the U.K. and are just hilarious. They’re like an old married couple honestly! Then there is Jacob who is from London who is just so sweet as well. The other guys make fun of him because he takes the security thing in Jo’Burg very seriously…but that’s a good thing we have learned!!! The bummer part is that those guys leave at the end of this week, so hopefully we’ll get to know some new international students as they arrive.

Tomorrow we are having tea with some faculty and students from Wits Nursing. I have a feeling that they are super excited that we are here, they have been SO good to us and I only want to learn as much as I can from them!

I hope I can get on here and blog again soon! I’m loving my time here so far, and especially loving the weather! There’s an occasional afternoon thunderstorm which I don’t mind so much J I’ll talk to you guys again here soon…miss you all!!!!!!

Below is a picture of Johannesburg from our campus...a little overcast :)

I'm HERE!!!!

Wow!!! So sorry it took so long to post but we haven't been able to get the internet!!! Here is something I typed up last night...

Wow!!! I’m writing this little blog entry ahead of time because it turns out I don’t have internet access where I am staying :( So here is my recap of the beginning of the trip to right now…this could be a bit long, sorry!!

I woke up at 4am to catch my 7am flight to Atlanta. We picked up Alison and I was just all full of excitement. We got to Atlanta and wandered all around that massive airport since we had a nearly six hour layover. I got real excited and child like when I heard my first South African accent. Granted it was in Atlanta at a ticket counter, but I was satisfied for the time being!

The flight from Atlanta to Dakar was about 9 hours long and I filled it with two movies, a number of rounds of “in flight trivia,” and then I did an itty bitty amount of homework. We talked to a guy name Lowe who is from Dodge City and was visiting Jo’Burg because he had lived there back in the seventies for two years. He was super nice and gave us lots of advice and informed us we had to go to Cape Town.

We landed in Dakar and by this time it was midnight back home which made it 6am in Dakar. I had been up for twenty hours and I was getting sleepy and sick of being on a plane. The problem in Dakar is that we weren’t allowed to get off the plane, so we sat there and waited as new crews came on and maintenance checked the plane and refueled. I took two Dramamine and hoped that would knock me out for the flight but I because suddenly overcome with this pressure in my sinuses. It was weird, I can’t explain it…but it hurt, really bad. So I took two Tylenol PM and thankfully I was able to get some sleep and not concentrate on the pressure build up. The flight was filled with tosses and turns because I sure couldn’t get comfortable in that tiny economy seat. Let’s just say I’m super glad I don’t have to make that trip for another five weeks!

We were greeted by a guy named Michael who had our names on a sign  One quick thing about the airport, there was a HUGE crowd there so I asked Michael what was going on. Apparently, South Africa’s cricket team had just had a big win in Australia and came back and was greeted by a ton of fans! That warmed my little sports-loving heart! Oh and here’s a great one, when we went to get into the car I tried to get into the passenger seat until I realized it was the driver’s seat!!! Michael just laughed at me and asked me if I wanted to drive, but I declined! The drive to our residence hall was quick and we checked in without a glitch!

We were hungry and had no idea what to do for food though. Luckily we ran into a girl named Catherine who is from Australia and is doing a 6-week elective for medical school. We went to this AWESOME restaurant called Mike’s Kitchen, and it was super cheap so I think we’ll be frequenting that place quite often. We got home and showered and went to bed and then….

We were awoken at 5:30 in the morning!!! Apparently we live in an all girls freshman dorm and this is the weekend they moved in (they just got off summer break). They were running down the halls banging on doors to get people up. Obviously they missed the memo that the second floor is for international elective students!! This early and VERY loud wake up call did however cause us to meet a guy named Jason, whom is also from Australia and in medical school. There wasn’t much time for chit-chat though as we were all ready to go back to bed.

At about 9am then we decided to catch a bus to a place called Rosebank that we were told had a supermarket-like place and also internet cafes. Well, we ended up taking the wrong bus not once but twice so we decided to go lay down and try it again in the afternoon. This turned out to be a good idea because Alison wasn’t feeling well. So around 2pm we hopped on the bus (Alison was feeling much better), and headed to Rosebank. However, since it was a Sunday most all of the shops closed at three and therefore the last bus came at three. So we grabbed some snacks and stuff to do laundry, but didn’t have time for the Internet Café  When we got back we walked around the campus and crossed the street to the next campus (the business campus, we’re on the education campus) to go and eat at Mike’s because we still hadn’t eaten. Well, we busted again because Mike’s closed at 5pm and we walked up to the door at about 4:57pm.

We walked back to Reith Hall (our residence) and saw Jason sitting outside with a few other guys. We sat around and talked for about an hour and learned quite a bit! Jacob, who is a medical student, is from the U.K. and is working at Jo’Burg General which is where Alison and I will be starting tomorrow so he had a lot of good advice for us...including how to get there! Then there was Craig and John whom already knew each other and are from the U.K. as well. Those two and Jason are “at the Burrow.” I have no idea how to spell the name of the hospital but I can assure you I’m thrilled that I won’t be working there. I won’t even begin to tell you the stories they told us about this place. Let’s just say that in the two years I’ve been in nursing school I’ve never heard such horrific things happen. I’ll go into detail for those curious minds, but my jaw was on the floor for pretty much every story they had to tell. Jacob seemed to enjoy Jo’Burg General so I know I’ll still be getting a lot of good experience.

Well, the boys left for a movie and we kindly declined their offer to join them because we wanted to greet the three med students that were coming from KU. They were pretty exhausted when they got here, so they pretty much took a shower and went to bed. I don’t blame them, they have a full day ahead of them tomorrow while Alison and I had a day to adjust when we got here.

Okay, I think that’s it for now. I really really really hope that I can get this posted tomorrow (Monday 2/2), but we’ll see. Oh and I’m going to bed tonight very upset because I’m missing the freaking superbowl!!! Okay, sorry this was so long. Hopefully I’ll find a way to get to the internet more frequently. I miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!


TODAY....
This morning we did a little "orientation" to the hospital and the nursing department. They have just treated us like royalty today, you can tell that the nursing department has been really excited to have us come. Alison and I both will be in an ICU and will get an opportunity to do a shift or two in Trauma/ER and then also in a community setting (yay!!) so I am beyond thrilled!!!

I will try and get on again here soon...we'll see :) LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU!!!!