This week has been relatively uneventful—but fun nonetheless.
Monday, as always, was a great day at the clinic. I learned and saw lots of interesting new things. After my shift, I visited the VG (Voluntario Global) house to eat a vegetarian lunch with Polly. Then I dragged her to my place in the other part of town. As a reward, I bought us some ice cream from a place down the street (which was pretty easy, because apparently Monday is 2×1 cone day!!!) Later, Charisse and Shani met us at my house. We spent the next few hours chatting, laughing, and eating ice cream and popcorn on my terrace. In the evening, we headed down to Centro to go out to dinner for Lisa’s birthday!
Tuesday I woke up at the crack of dawn (actually, technically a few minutes before) and went to the clinic for enfermería. The head nurse had left me her keys the day before so I could open the clinic Tuesday morning. When I arrived, I was the only clinic worker there. I felt nervous and even a little panicked being in the clinic by myself. All the patients were all looking at me and waiting for me to get the show on the road. I didn’t know what to do, since I have no authority to do anything in that clinic by myself. Luckily, that overwhelming situation only lasted about five minutes, at which point a couple other nurses arrived and took control. Once we got all set up, the patients started coming into the enfermería one by one, and I drew blood! Out of twelve patients, I drew blood from about seven! The nurse would have let me do more, but I asked her to take care of a few patients because I couldn’t find their veins and I didn’t want to hurt them.
After my shift, I came home and took at little nap. When I woke up, I had a bit of a stomachache, but I blew it off, since I have tummy aches on a regular basis. But as the day went on I felt worse and worse, until that evening when I was full-on sick. It sucks because I don’t get sick very often, but what can I do? I went to bed and slept for the next 30 or so hours. When I woke up Thursday morning I felt good as new. Turns out a few other volunteers were sick too, so I guess it kind of makes sense.
Thursday at the clinic was a little disappointing because all of the pediatricians were out of town. I kind of wish someone had warned me ahead of time. I only have permission to shadow the pediatricians, which left me with nothing to do. I stayed for a little bit to socialize with the staff, since they’re all very sweet and interesting, and then I headed home. In the afternoon I went to Shani’s house to hang out with her and Charisse. We went on a wild goose chase for a good lunch / dinner, but with no avail. We settled for mediocre salads and sandwiches at a café, which was still fun!
Friday, Shani and I met up with my new friend, Alex that I know from a mutual friend back home. We were stereotypical Americans and hung out at Starbucks for a little bit. Then we walked to Plaza Serrano, which I discovered is really close to my house! Plaza Serrano is a cute part of town that has cafés and crafts stands by day and popular nightlife by night. The neighborhood is also full of cute boutiques and shops. I’m excited to explore a little more. Anyway, I bought a few crafts and then the three of us went to a café for snacks. After walking for a bit, we went our separate ways.
In the evening, I went out to dinner with some of the volunteers: Polly, Marie, Shani, and Gemma, as well as Stephanie, a girl we met in Mendoza, and her friend, Felipe. We went to a cute, tasty restaurant in my neighborhood. After, we went to Carnal, a rooftop bar that comes highly recommended and that we’ve all wanted to go to for a while. The drinks were good and reasonably priced, the music was fun (Polly and I described it as “Latin Ska”), and the ambiance was cute. Best of all, we actually managed to grab a table and some benches to sit at, which was nice. Every once in awhile, a silly song would come on, which led to one of the funniest moments of the night—“Bad Boys” (yes, the theme song to Cops) came on and everyone sang along. Even the Argentinians around us were singing, despite their thick Spanish accents! It was hilarious! All in all it was a very fun night.
This week did bring some bad news, however :(. Fuzzy, my best friend, Sofía’s beautiful, handsome cat passed away on Monday. She gave him so much love in his long kitty life (he lived over sixteen years!). I know for a fact that he was as happy as a cat could ever be, and that did what he could to be with Sofía as long as possible. We will never forget the sweetheart that is Fuzzy <3
As always, here are my photos from the week:
Pretty tiles in Palermo
Crochet tree near Plaza Serrano
Colorful bench near Plaza Serrano
Bicycle plant holder near Plaza Serrano
Crochet cacti for sale at Plaza Serrano
We walked past a recent Med school graduate getting initiated! They attacked her with messy food.
Cheers! Wine and dinner on Friday evening
An advertisement for “Pelican Cigarettes” with my name in the upper-right hand corner!
At dinner: Felipe, Stephanie, Gemma, Shani, Polly, me, Marie
This was my lunch on Saturday: crunchy-coated peanuts, cucumber & olive salad, and coke (a very typical Virginia lunch)
RIP Fuzzy
I bet you knew the most words to bad boys as anybody else. ;) thanks for the beautiful shout out to my old man…
At the table I probably knew more than anyone else hahah. And you’re welcome, he deserves it <3
Latin Ska!? ¡Me Estas Cargando!