The beginning of a crazy adventure has officially begun. We headed out Saturday morning from a somewhat-warm Edmonds morning and quickly drove into a very warm Oregon and eventually stopped for the night in Redding, CA. Apparently Redding is THE place to be because we had to drive around to 5 hotels to try and find a hotel room and ended up back at the first hotel settling for a one bed, one hide-a-bed room. Life is so rough, right? We got to Lakeport on Sunday afternoon, 92 degree weather and a little bit of a culture shock. I thought Pullman was a small town-- I was WRONG. We stopped by my house and got to see the outside. It was like a dream come true until I looked in the lake and it was like a swamp full of algae-- rest assured they are in the process of killing the algae and according to my mother they scooped a lot of it out today. My phone has very minimal service there so I will be getting a new plan as soon as possible-- watch out for a possible new phone number for me!
After a quick visit to Safeway for lunch and a study session of medical terminology I was headed out to Rohnert Park for orientation check in. I ignored my Program Director's advice and went from Lakeport to Hopland which is 500 thousand times windier and cliffier than Olympic View Drive. I wanted to die. And there was a beat up old van behind me that was riding my bumper for half of the way down the hill, I said "sorry buddy, I'm not going faster than 20 mph." When the opportunity presented itself, the van found a long enough (in his opinion) straight patch in the road that he went ahead and passed me. He pushed a good 40 mph off the cliff and I never saw him again... A little farther dow the road I racked up another 3 or 4 cars behind me but found a little off patch that I was able to let them pass me. Eventually the road of death ended and I made it to the 101. We got checked in to Sonoma State's on-campus apartments -- I wish WSU had these things when I was there. The girls are all really nice and welcoming, most of them are in their 30's and married but it's nice to have them here with me! We went to a Mexican food market for dinner, HUGE hole in the wall place with DELICIOUS food. Since I'm trying this whole new living in a new state thing I also decided to try some new food (one bite, but still) and had some lengua (BEEF TONGUE) and it was actually alright, it just tasted like some pot roast. But for my main dinner I had chicken tostadas, just to clear the air on that one. We got back to the apartment and studied up on our medical terminology and went to bed!
Alright, so now we're finally at orientation! This morning we started with a ceremonial ribbon cutting which was really fun as the inagural class! Then we went through some housekeeping things, expectations of the internship and played a few games to study up on our medical terminology. For lunch my roommate Olivia and I went to Subway which was completely NOT filling... so we went to ColdStone also :) After lunch we sat through some really boring lectures on fire safety and knife safety, cultural competency and a case study- all stuff we have already learned. After that we practiced some Spanish-- I was able to recall frijoles and tomate -- super skilled, I know. We had a really long day today, but the group is REALLY nice, our directors couldn't be better and they really want to just see us succeed.
ALSO, they told us today that even though we are a new program, GGDI got 130 applicants and all ten of us were hand selected by Joan and Susan because we stood out and fit the program. It made me feel SUPER cool because I didn't apply to any other programs with that many applicants, I mainly applied to programs with 50 or less applicants. I guess it just made me feel like I actually deserve to be here and I actually am smart and I was chosen over 120 other people!!
We went to Target after we got out today and grabbed some groceries for the week. Mylena, one of the interns here at the apartment made us quesadillas, guacamole, beans and salad for dinner-- I kinda feel like I never left home with the special treatment! It won't last long though because we got frozen pizzas for tomorrow night.
Missing home a bit, I'm wondering what Otis is up to right now and also if Tessy is getting any love from anyone in the neighborhood. I am also just missing familiar stores other than Target and Safeway. Target won't last long because it is only down here in Santa Rosa, but I heard there is a Ross in Ukiah!
The crops around here are absolutely gorgeous, vineyards for as far as you can see. I saw some corn crops, onion patches, and orchards on my way to Rohnert Park. Today we learned that the "wine country" is actually beginning to be a problem in the area because they are not producing enough edible food for the communities around here. Also, with the amount of alcohol production, alcoholism is a large problem in this area as well.
Throughout the week we will get our schedules, electronic tablets, have a few more quizzes/exams and get FREE lunch on my birthday!
Miss you all so much already,
Lindsey
No comments:
Post a Comment