Day 1 - en los médicos clases de español.

              WOW....It was an extremely exhausting day. I guess I didn't understand what this course truly entailed and I should have taken the words "intensive" learning to heart!! The day consisted of first taking a test to see what level of grammatical Spanish we would be in. Then we entered the grammatical class with students that had started the course a couple of weeks prior. Then we went onto medical Spanish class where we learned all of the exterior body parts and how to write up a patient assessment. Then we had to rush down and get our pictures taken for our student cards. Then we rushed back to make it to our practical where we took what we had learned in the class prior and used a game to remember the body parts. Finally, our fourth class was cultural aspects. We learned about both formal and informal ways to show expression, such as, have a good day. My brain was on system overload by time three o'clock came. There was a lot of homework, but a mind break was definitely needed before we began. One thing that I always have to remember with nursing is, FLEXIBILITY!!

 Once classes had concluded my 2 colleagues and I walked home to our host family’s home. Our host family is extremely generous and accommodating. I have already learned so much about the Hispanic culture. I noticed that my host mother would begin dinner promptly when her nephew was hungry. Also she would serve food to him before serving us. I also learned that in Hispanic culture it is important to the woman of the house that you are not hungry and plates are overflowing with food. This is very hard for me to get used to because I do not typically eat 3 full meals in a day. My host mother is very sympathetic to my likes and dislikes of food and so I am very appreciative and grateful.

 The weather is a very interesting subject. When we first arrived, I thought that it was not really as humid as I was thinking it would be. But I was wrong. The sticky feeling is not something that you can get used to easily. In the evenings it cools down and it becomes wonderful to sit outside in. Then at about 2 am in the morning thunder and lightning begin to play their song. It was extremely loud and startling. In the morning, it was just fine, not a rain cloud in the sky.

Favorite spanish sentence of the day - La enfermera me tomó el pulso en la muñeca.