dreaming over the ocean

Being back in Vancouver has been great... since I have arrived, things have pretty much been perfect.   TIme to do school work, catch up on sleep, spend time with my beloved, relax, and workout.  some of the highlights: Date nights:  On friday night, the boy and I went to a movie, and then out for a nice dessert on the water.  it was nice to be able to, after having spent the whole day inside writing my paper, and getting over tiredness, just to spend quality time together.  To communicate, to laugh, and to just enjoy the company.  Last night, we did our "make up for a lost valentines day" date.  We dressed up all fancy, and went to eat at an expensiveish resaturant, Nuba ; we then walked around gastown (and, when i say walked around, we walked all of two blocks) to find a place to grab a dessert and cocktail.  we were successful, and Pourhouse even had live music which included men with fedora's, playing a stand-up base.  shoppi...

Ohhhhhh… where to begin?!   I guess it is with the thought that being comfortable in “Africa” doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable to me.   And, I will get more to that in a bit.   I arrived in Blantyre (Malawi… if you haven’t read my recent posts) on Friday night.   School “officially” started last Thursday.   In those two days, I managed to register with the nurses council of Malawi and get my research proposal together to submission to the College of Medicine ethics review board.   And drive to Blantyre.   And. That. Is. All. One of the common things that people talk about when being in Africa, is the different concepts of time.   Time doesn’t necessarily run the same way here, but sometimes it does.   And, so, I tend to take the outlook of “be ready on time, but prepare to wait.”    Pretty much, that way of thought gets you by, and you are consistently reminded to be patient.   Moving to a new c...

first off, it is a recovery week . It means: more time for school work. More time to see friends. More time to sleep. More time to focus on good nutrition. All things i like. secondly, the forecast is amazing. that means lots of outside commuting, and sunshine to wake me up in the morning, and crisp nights. it means extra free energy. its not warm. but it is sunny and dry. thirdly, lots of things for school are wrapping up. i just had my last family nursing meeting. Tomorrow, I will do a final OSCE for my physical assessment class. I will have my last clinical rotation feedback class. all of this means papers are soon to be due, and presentations are to be had, but, in general, there is an end to this story of the semester. fourth, i ROCKED master's swimming last night. We had a 1000m warm up, then a pyramid, that included 50/100/200/400/200/100/50 sprint/fast bits, with recovery distances in between. Normally, my "go to" T-Time for 100m is 1:30, fairly co...