March 25th - April 1st part 1

This week has been pretty eventful. Dr. Moore has been in Israel all week, so we didn't Biomechanics classes or homework. Where on one hand this is pretty cool, on the other, I know when he gets back we're going to have to kick it into high gear and I'll be somewhat lost in where we were in the material. We haven't had any practice or lecture for a week! It should be okay though. The extra time gave me a chance to study physiology, practice my guitar and catch up on Dexter - such a good show by the way. If you haven't seen any episodes, I suggest not watching any of them until you can dedicate a good amount of time to it. You'll want to watch episode after episode after episode. It's addicting. But anyway, this week has been pretty good: Dr. Wasser canceled a few classes (which I've never experienced in my 4 years of college), we've had some nice meals at the house, Brittany and I's relationship is doing well (we got to talk a lot more since classes were cut this week), the weather has been awesome, and I even got to catch up on some much needed rest. Chibuzo and Vincent joined me and Anna for basketball on Tuesday which was a lot of fun. I've been a little short on cash though. Anna suggested that I donate blood because they usually give you 20-25 euro. I went to try it but ran into one critical issue: I don't speak/read/write German. I was trying to fill out a patient history form that was completely unreadable (to my eyes). I finally got through it with the help of a young German who knew a bit of English, but when I got to the point where they start taking blood pressure, they started asking me questions in German. I had no idea what they were saying or how to respond! This lady eventually comes up to me and asks "do you speak German?" to which I could only respond "umm, not really." She then told me that I wouldn't be able to give blood because I would have to read and sign a confidential statement after giving blood that nobody would be able to help me answer the question. I asked if they had an English version, or if I could bring a friend to translate it. She said verbatim "you must do it on your own." It was kind of a bummer. I checked on the website for the requirements for donating blood, and speaking German was definitely not one of them. I've given blood plenty of times back in the United States. I suppose it makes legal sense though, to have the patient understand what they're signing. Oh well...

Sorry, no pictures yet. Check part 2 for that! You'll definitely want to too. I've got a cool story.