GlobeTrottin'

Did another "week" at clinical. Not too bad. I got to see "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and the Harlem Globetrotters, in Box Seats at GM place. Pretty fun, actually!

My parents were in town the next day, and since my mother had little to do, I took it upon myself to do some entertaining. Yesss. We started off at Sophie's Cosmic Cafe, which had a really funky retro atmosphere. The food was good (though pretty regular breakfast fare), but it was the stuff on the walls and on the window sills and all over the place that made the place so much fun! There were odd sculptures, vintage lunch boxes, a giant fish, bowling trophies, comemorative plates (one of which mom recognized as identical to something we already own), and just generally funky junk.

We hopped on the 44 after that and bussed downtown for some (window shopping) therapy. I took mom to that vintage shop from a few days ago, and we went to the Vancouver Art Gallery. We basically did lots of walking, and oogling (mostly at shoes we could never afford). I did buy a bag from the Betsy Johnson shop, though. Actually, it was on sale, and I'm pretty sure that it was originally designed as a small make-up bag, but it's totally useful as a clutch type purse. Lose it. It's checkered (B/W) with vinyl over top, with a pop-art design on top (big lips calling "TAXI!"). Lovesit.

After all that walking, I met up with the dad and the bunch of us (my brother in tow...) to another fun restaurant for dinner before they drove back to Kamloops. It was the Memphis Blues Barbeque house. Best pulled pork sandwiches ever. I brought some home to Mike and it disappeared pretty quick. But I'm pretty sure I don't need to eat for a while now. *shudder* (I can still hear my arteries clogging).

Knitwise: the grey/blue/white socks are coming along well. The grey scarf is about 3 feet long. I haven't touched the pink socks in a while. Takes too much concentration.

SHOPPING!

yes. Shopping on Robson street in downntown Vancouver. *sigh*. It was a really good day. AND, I got my clinical rotation schedule for the next several weeks which means I can go on planning my life. ah....I'm back in my comfort zone.

I started the day after Mike printed me out a map of the downtown (which turned out to be very useful) and I started the journey into the core of city-ville...alone. I actually don't mind shopping by myself because it means I don't have to worry about catering to the shopping needs of others and I can spend as much time as I like looking in the stores I want to.

First Shop. I won't say. I bought a birthday present for a boyfriend I won't name who might just be reading this blog. But I did buy the coolest pair of sunglasses of pretty much all time. They're plastic frames with circular lenses, and the sunglass part flips up. so great. Oh, and they're yellow and black.

Next, Tom Lee's Music store where I purchased a capo for my guitar. Now I can play MORE music and annoy (or not, considering my "skllz" at rockin' out) Mike's roommates. niceness.

Next, varying shops for which I can't remember the names. But I did come across a store selling "Flashoes" (as my mother and I lovingly call them) They're those black canvas mary-jane type shoes that look like they come from a little asian market somewhere. But they've got a nice little floral pattern on the toe.

Next, I wish I could remember the name of this shop, but it was in the basement of some building near Robson street. It was the most amazing vintage clothing shop. When I came out (after much parousing) I felt quite zen. *sigh* I tried on a few dresses, thinking about convocation coming up soon. Here are some of the lovelies:


YESSS. I picked out the first one saying "ooo, this looks like a fun sequined Gem sweater. It turned out to be a full dress. But I couldn't get the zipper done up all the way, but that's only because I couldn't get my arms that high. The Second one was so great, but I don't think I could have pulled that one off. That zipper didn't go nearly as high as it needed to. But it was so wicked, I didn't care.

But, alas, I had to leave.

My next shop involved a pretty embarrassing (yet comical) moment. While looking at shoes on the way out of a store, I walked head on into a plate glass door. face first. Everyone turned to look and I - laughing- explained. A woman in the store called out "Nobody saw you do it...leave while you still can!" Best thing I've done in a while. It was pretty funny, considering the fact that the door was open about 12 inches away.

I also decided today that I'm pretty "blah" about Lululemon. So many people are willing to buy grossly overpriced sweats that you can get at costco and walmart. I still can't believe that people are willing to pay so much for a sweatshirt just because it's got the logo on it. Of course, this applies to many fashion brands, but I think Lulu bugs me more because it's not that special, really. Like, a pair of haute couture shoes scream "I'm beautiful", whereas Lululemon says "I'm a sweatpant that you've over paid for." I'm not going to judge any of those who buy Lulu (simply because this type of thing has been happening forever and I need to keep friends), but I though that since I have this blog that I can write anything on, I may as well write this.

GO BLOG GO!

Had a fun Valentine's Day. We went to some restaurant in Gastown called "Guu." Good food, but I'd advise against a dish called "Salmon with seven friends," but only because of the raw egg sitting on top.

Went to a friend's place afterwards, and I won't go into much detail about that except to refer you to the picture at right.

Frankly, I'm still a little incapacitated. I didn't get to go for brunch or shopping with my friend while she was here, but I figured it was safer to stay home.

Hope you all had a great day!

Time for a nap. And some Tylenol.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nothing exciting to report thus far today. Just Gooey valentines wishes! Speaking of gooey-ness, I'm going out for a night on the town with some friends (some from Vancouver, some from Kamloops) to a restaurant downtown called "Guu." I think they do some sort of Asian cuisine. Should be great!

I'm thinking I'm going to wear the orange and gold above-the-knee strapless, ruffled cocktail dress that I made for my Nurse's ball and Mike's E-Week gala. That, or nice pants and a stain-ish stop. But that isn't as fun.

Wish me fun!

(T-Rod, this - below- is for you. Happy"non-denominational outward emotion towards others" day!)

Getting Edumacated!

Today was a pretty slow day, aside from the classes at UBC I snuck in on!

Mike took me to some sociology class about the theories of love partner selection. It was a pretty nice class (though I had to sit on the stairs in the lecture hall because the class was so full). Selected theories included Role Theory, Complimentary Theory, and Values Theory. I'm pretty sure that Mike and I fall into all of those theories of selection.

After a break in which Mike went to an actual class of his, he took me to some History-like class. But the purpose of this one was just to observe the prof, who like to take really long dramatic pauses. Fair enough, but I've sat in nursing classes three hours long that could have been done in one. zzzzzzzz.....

I liked the next class. Some sort of Anthropology course, but the prof plugged in a movie at the start of class. GREAT! So I sat back in the theatre seats and learned about early human species. Plus, the movie had clips from Planet of the Apes. Nice.

My day was pretty uneventful after that. Mike and I sought out campus sushi, and we found the office for the UBC dance club (I'm looking to take some ballet classes to keep my dance muscles from going soggy while I'm away). Aaaaaand I'm watching Donnie Darko. Really, a messed up movie.

Day One

I Survived! Yessss.

Wednesday, tired though excited, I ran to catch the 0610am bus to the Hospital.

I missed the 0610am bus.

BUT! Vancouver transit being as great as it is, I caught the next bus 10 minutes later. God I love this bus system.

I was still on time, and the day went pretty smoothly from there.

Below is a picture of my new best friend, the King Edward and Willow Street bus stop outside of the hospital.

My nurse preceptor is pretty cool. I was expecting her to be older, but I like her the way she is. She's pretty relaxed, too, which makes my life so much easier (My stress level dropped about 100 points). She gave me the prerequisite tour de ward, and I realized that I'm really going to like the Adolescent Mental Health ward. The patient acuity isn't has high as I had expected, for sure. They max 10 patients on the ward, and there are enough staff members that no nurse will have to care for more than 3 people at a time. It's quite informal there, and nurses will often eat meals with them (the nurses bring their own, bit sit at the tables with them). The day was pretty smooth. There really wasn't much for me to do, especially when 8 of the kids went bowling for three hours in the afternoon.

My precetor let me off early from my 12 hours shift. Sweetness.

I went back last night to put in another 4 hours (since my schedule right now is in limbo), and it was more of the same. Several of the kids had their parents come in. I'm liking that bit - I mean, it's nice to see that family still comes to see them (unlike what happens with adults admitted to the hospital).

But, "work" aside. I haven't done any knitting for a few days, but I think that's more to do with the fact that I've been rockin' out on my guitar! I've named her Alice. That's just because I want to. Plus, I think an Alice would play the kind of songs I've been playing (which is a lot of Dixie Chicks, Shania, and Taylor Swift, ha!)

I was thinking that I wanted to give her a tattoo, but I'm not sure about what to make that look like, or how best to do it without compromising sound. That, and I was also thinking about open mic night at the UBC pub. Now, of course I wouldn't do that alone - HA! but....I am trying to rope a friend in. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

It's the Little Things...

The day started when Cam phoned me and asked if I was awake. I told him "no."

But he invited me to go shopping with him, and I needed chicken and chocolate chip cookie fixings, so I agreed.

After a successful foray into grocery shopping (for me anyway. Cam was looking for green thread to sew his St. Patrick's Day vest.), which included non-wonder bread (Mike says he only buys wonderbread because it contains so many preservatives that it doesn't go mouldy as fast), I came back to the apartment to get Mike so we could take the trek to Children's Hospital.

So, apparently, I'm supposed to take Bus 25 tomorrow morning. It wasn't difficult to find, which is great, because I've never been relaxed when it comes to taking buses for the first time (read: I'm paranoid of somehow getting lost).

I took the quick tour of the Adolescent Mental Health Ward today. I was greeted at the door by a big guy named Charles who asked me to wait outside for a few minutes because there was a kid inside who was doing his best to get out. (thought I didn't find that out until later). I think I'm going to be OK to start tomorrow at 7am (ick), and everyone there seemed really friendly. I haven't done any "time" with youth and Mental Health, though I have been working at the Mental Health facility in Kamloops. We'll see how it goes!

But the highlight of my day happened on the bus on the way home from the hospital. A woman riding the bus - who appeared to have cognition defecits - stood up and clearly looked concrened. She tried to talk to the bus driver who inored her. Then, she started asking around to other bus riders. She was saying that she couldn't figure out where she was and couldn't remember where she lived and nobody would help her. I tried to help her, though I didn't know the area at all. She didn't appear to have any address information in her wallet. I couldn't help her because I barely knew where I was myself.

There was, however, one woman who decided she would help. She tried talking to the bus driver (who first told her to "step back of the Red Line", and ignored her for a while, too), and then decided to ride the bus and get this woman home. I'm quite sure that she went, literally, far out of her way in order to help this woman. She sat with her, and talked to her about what she might want to carry with her to help prevent her getting lost again. Then she got off the bus with her at UBC to try and start the journey over again. It was then that I stopped her and told her that I thought she was doing a really kind thing today. I told her that I thought it was important to recognize when people are doing good deeds. The lost woman gave me a hug. It was nice.

So, I made curry with rice tonight. Yum. Wish me luck tomorrow!

OK, So I've got a blog....

OK, so I decided that I would tread in the realm of geekdom and devise a blog. Mind you, plenty of my favourite knitting inspirations come from blogs, so I guess I'm OK.

My purpose in splatting this on the web is to describe, in excruciating detail, the events of my final nursing practicum at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver. I've opted to focus on adolescent mental health, which I'm sure is going to be nuts.

So, I moved to Vancouver on Friday. I don't really have a place to stay, though. I mean, I do, but I'm staying at Michael's (my boyfriend) dorm room at UBC. I like his room-mates and all, but it isn't exactly the most secure of living venues. Technically, he's only allowed to have visitors for 7 out of every 30 days, and I'm scheduled to be around town until April 9th. I plan on laying low.

Thus far, I've settled in pretty well. I'm sleeping on a padded futon mattress (Mike's single bed was ceremoniously placed on top of Mike's roommate's (Greg) bed. It's on there, with the posts sturdied with graphite reinforced dowling (read: pencils), like a bunk bed. The best part is that the bed is too heavy for Greg to take it down by himself, so Mike's bed has been sitting on top of Greg's for the last three days. Greg's girlfriend (Meghan) isn't too pleased.

Saturday night had me at the UBC E(ngineer's)-Week Ball at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. I wore the orange/gold cocktail dress I'd made for the Nurse's Ball in January with a gold leaf necklace. Mike told me once we got there that he wasn't sure if he knew of any other electrical engineers (like himself) that were going to be there. We knew one other engineering student (Joel), but other that that, we were pretty much alone. To out more salt in the wound, the tables were organized according to engineering specialization, and because of low turnout there was no electrical table! So, we scavenged for two seats...anywhere. And, as luck would have it, however, we picked seats next to another elec orphan (and a woman, too!). Dinner was great (I had butternut squash soup to start, then salmon with some sort of potato pie, and chocolate mousse with raspberries for dessert), and I even got Mike to dance with me! (huzzah!) Though, we nearly bailed on it when there was some sort of electrical glitch and the lights and sound went! (Mike thought that that was rather funny, seeing as we were in a room full of geeks)

Sunday night had us all at the UBC Golf Course Restaurant for the last night of Dine Out! Vancouver. By all of us, I mean me, Mike, the roommates (Greg, Cam and Dan) and Meghan and Sarvi (sp?, Dan's GF). That dinner was excellent, too. Lobster bisque with a shrimp skewer to start (and I was not amused when I dropped one of the shrimp...bah) followed by the meat trio (which was well presented on the plate so you ate it in: beef, potato, pork, potato, lamb, potato order.) And then I had cream puffs for dessert (except the cream was pumpkin flavoured.) Delish!

Today was less exciting. Got up late, then walked Mike to class and then spent an hour and a half just walking around campus and looking around. I'd say that the educational potrions of the campus is the same size as TRU. I mean, there's a lot of space devoted to living and parking and golf course. If you took that away, I bet you could fit a lot of it into the TRU space (though, yes, a little more corwded.)

And now I'm looking ahead. I'm supposed to start my first day at Children's on Wednesday. I'm hoping to get to ride the bus for practice tomorrow to find out where the hospital is and how to get around. I've got two mentors who sound really great (one of which was a grad of TRU from last year) so I'm sure that things are going to be fine, but that don't stop me from having the jitters!

Knitwise: working on grey checkered scarf. It's a couple of feet long right now.