Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Friday, May 31, 2013
Cozumel
This was my first week back at work after our one-week vacation to Cozumel, Mexico. Yes, unfortunately we had to come back. I ran out of PTO.
May was a big month for us this year: Jon finished his first year of law school, it's been one year since I finished grad school, and the 15th marked our 3 year wedding anniversary. Worth celebrating! (On the beach!)
We went with four other couples, none of who we really knew very well. I'm good friends with one girl, (Kristina, the one in the blue dress), know 2 of the other girls from work, and the 5th couple are friends of friends. Don't mind my broken leg in this picture.
Jon and I were SPF power couple.
We had hot weather, went sailing, saw rays, sea turtles, and a shark while snorkeling, ate a lotttttt of guacamole, and watched some beautiful sunsets over the water.
After a week, we were ready to come home ... just maybe not ready to go back to work. Jon started his internship right after Memorial Day, which seems to be a welcome break from classes.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Heather Vroom, SPT
My first clinical rotation has been part vacation, part work. Lake Havasu City is hot during the day and at night usually cools off to somewhere in the 90's. I've been working at the hospital, which is close enough to walk to. Usually we're in the inpatient rehab section with patients who have had strokes or had joints replaced. It's been surprising to me to realize how much I've already learned in classes, and also how much I've already forgotten. Although things are a little tense with my supervising therapist, the whole experience makes me look forward to graduation and getting a job! No homework! No stress! Free time!
Regarding free time: if living in a hotel for three weeks sounds cool to you, let me burst your bubble. It's not that cool. Turns out that the pool gets hot from all the daytime sun, the exercise room is actually outdoors in a tent (did I mention it's usually around 110?) and all the machines are broken, and the meager continental breakfast begins after I leave for work. Furthermore, I am never eating another microwave meal as long as I live.
During my first two weeks here, another student from California (Mark) was with the same therapist as I was, so we hung out a lot. There are some cool places down by the lake, and of course the London Bridge. One day we rented a jetski, but I think my favorite was when we drove out of the city and around the south end of the lake. The water looks like it doesn't belong against the red desert surrounding it, and the lake just glittered with the sun going down over it. When it got dark, STARS! incredible.
Anyway, third week = drag. All of our patients went home, so they closed down the rehab unit. Mark is gone, so there's nobody to joke around with at work. And I have to walk everywhere. Sometimes at night I realize I haven't talked for a few hours. I feel compelled to leave the TV's turned on so there is noise. I went running a few times, which was no fun due to all the heat and no grass. I'm really looking forward to coming home :)Thursday, July 31, 2008
Life In Sydney
I'm here! Sydney is beautiful, even in the winter! I'm almost done with 2 of my 14 weeks of classes and am keeping busy running around the city, taking pictures, meeting new people, emailing home, eating, learning how to use public transportation, and volunteering at a mission. Also studying.
The list of things I've lost is so far very short -- I forgot my alarm clock in the van at the Omaha airport, my flash drive is currently MIA (but it will come back to me), and I left my wallet on the bus on Monday. Some man named Robert called and left a message that he has it for me, but the number he left for us to contact him is missing a digit somewhere, so we have to wait for him to call again. SO! Right now Robert has my name, phone number, drivers license, library card, $7 Australian, my debit card, my student ID card, my insurance card, my $473 dollar transportation pass, a photocopy of my passport, the address of the house where I'm staying, and the key to the front door.
It is a distinct possibility that I might spend tonight making little signs that say something to the effect of "HEY ROBERT!! CAN I HAVE YOUR NUMBER?" and posting them at every bus stop on my line.
Besides that, everything here is great! Sunny, friendly, accented, and surrounded by water. You may mail your expressions of undying love to my name at:
Wesley Institute -- ASC
PO Box 534
Drummoyne NSW 1470
AUSTRALIA
If you need to send something bigger than a letter, send it to my name at
Wesley Institute -- ASC
5 Mary Street
Drummoyne NSW 2047
AUSTRALIA
If you'd like to see more pictures, go tohttp://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011762&l=3c23e&id=148300472
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Chicagoland!
Roadtrip! We drove through severe thunderstorms, flash flood warnings, tornado watches, and "monsoon type rain," (and past our exit. exits.) But several hours and EL Fudge cookies later we made it!!
We swam, went to the zoo, danced at a wedding, ate amazing Italian food, had a fish fry (yes, I ate fish), climbed dunes, rode a tandem bike, and froze a little in lake Michigan. It was great :) ... and thanksgiving seems like a looooong time away.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
No. 5
5. Drink and un-frozen Mr. Freeze
It's gone from the list! I did it :)
Actually it was several weeks ago, and I have to say -- it wasn't that good. It didn't even provoke a picture.
Other than that, my summer is half over! I fly from Omaha to Los Angeles to Sydney on July 15. July 16 never happens because I cross the international dateline. I am avoiding imagining myself contained on a plane for that many hours ... 14 from LA to Sydney. Besides the sitting for so long part, I am getting PRETTY Excited for this semester! (Special thanks to VISA, who will let me spend all the money I do not have in countries all around the world.) I found out I'll be living with a mom and her daughters who are 22 and 24 as well as 2 other girls from the US who will be students at the Wesley Institute with me. Kindof like living at home since I'll have a mom and 2 sisters, and kindof like living at Dordt since I'll be with 4 other girls my age (ish). Just missing a Dad and one more roommate. Also all the boyfriends attached to roommates...
Pray that I don't miss my real family and other people I love too much.
It's gone from the list! I did it :)
Actually it was several weeks ago, and I have to say -- it wasn't that good. It didn't even provoke a picture.
Other than that, my summer is half over! I fly from Omaha to Los Angeles to Sydney on July 15. July 16 never happens because I cross the international dateline. I am avoiding imagining myself contained on a plane for that many hours ... 14 from LA to Sydney. Besides the sitting for so long part, I am getting PRETTY Excited for this semester! (Special thanks to VISA, who will let me spend all the money I do not have in countries all around the world.) I found out I'll be living with a mom and her daughters who are 22 and 24 as well as 2 other girls from the US who will be students at the Wesley Institute with me. Kindof like living at home since I'll have a mom and 2 sisters, and kindof like living at Dordt since I'll be with 4 other girls my age (ish). Just missing a Dad and one more roommate. Also all the boyfriends attached to roommates...
Pray that I don't miss my real family and other people I love too much.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Spring Break '08
Memorable events of the 2008 edition of spring break:
* Starting a hit list -- at the top is whoever invented the bus seat without considering that eventually, people will want to sleep on these
* Developing a superpower -- after walking around in NYC rain for a whole day, I was able to walk straight through puddles without FEELING anything!
* Explaining who Abraham Lincoln was to a few Canadians (he was a president, right?)
* Playing a runaway piano -- it was on wheels, and by the end of the song I could barely reach it
* Sara's mom made us pancakes!
* Visiting Washington DC
* Meeting Jon's parents... by myself...
* Spending Easter sleeping on the floor. I wasn't even medicated, just sick.
* Getting followed around the subway station by a freaky, spitting, un-talented rapper
* Singing!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Kansas City!
FUN! I finally had a weekend off, and I got to ride down to Kansas City with Melissa's parents. I stayed at her apartment (there's a picture of us outside of it) with the girl who actually rents it and a sick dog who got its hair all over everything I brought along.
Anyway, besides seeing friends, staying up late making up for how much we haven't talked this summer, we went to oceans of fun, met Brett's dad, ate chinese (KAY are you reading this????), played chess on the roof of a library (except I wasn't strong enough to make the knight jump...kindof killed my strategy), went to this amazing arboretum, AND met a lady who I had no idea who she was but she was apparently like best friends with my aunt in high school.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Reasons To Go Back To Oregon:
One of my favorite stops on spring break's orchestra/band tour was Salem. (I'll blog about my other favorite stop next, don't worry Hannah). I got to visit a friend who transferred back to college in Oregon at Christmas. It was great to hang out with her -- and her campus was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!
Exibit a) me smelling a tree. They had these all over the place!!
b) Angela wasn't there!! But apparently someone else loves her too, because they had already written up the beach before we got there. Next time, Ang.
c) The coast! It was sunny and warm (and march!) -- beautiful seems like too cheap of a word. We sat on a wall for a long time eating salt water taffy and letting the sun dry our jeans off... I got a little wet...and just staring at the water. I wanted to keep the colors.
d) This isn't really a reason to go back. Clam chowder? Not that good. Although we did get the best table in the restaurant and the rest of the girls got a kick out of my aversion to sea food.
I have so many more pictures!!! It will only let me post 4...
Friday, January 12, 2007
The Tundra Tour
It was great! Many hours on a bus, but it was all worth it. I'd never been to Manitoba before. Or Ontario. Or been sledding in a canoe down an ex-landfill at 1 in the morning. And the fish sign? was huge!! The fish was bigger than my head!! I laughed. partly from fear. Seriously, who advertises like that??
Friday, March 24, 2006
Spring Break Synopsis
Spring break this year meant Canada! Staying with Karla's family was so fun--her little sisters were fun fun and I even helped out with chores. (once). There were many highlights, including eating lots of botercook (not sure how to spell that one), listening to Karla's grandparents interrogate her about the guys she's met at Dordt, playing Dutch blitz and getting sworn at in French by a 9-year-old, getting stalked by the cinnamon-roll-selling man, and going to some place called Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
The biggest excitement, however, would hands down be the trip to British Colombia on which we went skiing!!! Aaah! I had never been skiing before, so we signed up to take lessons all day and ended up with some guy from London named Simon as our teacher. He had the cutest accent, and he called me "Heath-ah."
Anyway, there were some pretty quality moments skiing. I tried to put the ski boot on the wrong foot in the rental shop, so Mr. New Zealand worker had to put them on for me. Also, I was wearing THE RED COAT, which belongs to Karla's mom--she has only worn it twice, because it is so big and so hot. Hahaha.. so I looked pretty much like a little head coming out of this massive invincible red blob. And then there was the chairlift--a complicated device, apparently. I smacked my head on some part of it and got a nice little bruising action on my skull, but KARLA had issues getting off of the chairlift. It took a few rounds for her to get off with out falling... but eventually she mastered it. And at least she never got run over.
Simon took us to the stunt slope where "if we're lucky, we might see some idiots doing tricks." We did see some snowboarders smearing themselves across some pipes sticking out of the snow, and we met someone named Matt. "Matt is from Riverdale. Matt is Single. He likes to cuddle." ....Oooooookay hi Matt. Moving on.
Oh yes, also I had an interesting little debate with Simon-- he was telling us how we had earned our glass of the wine for the night, and then he was like, wait--what's the drinking age here? I don't know simon, it's 21 where I live.
Simon: so you never drink, right?
Me: right.
Simon: riiiiiiiiiiiiight
Me: ???? What?
Simon: you've never had alcohol?
Me: no...
Simon: (very confused) are you trying to make a fool of me?
Me: no! I'm not lying
Simon: (flabberghasted) a college girl who doesn't drink???
...yeah, in the flesh.
So I made it back without stabbing myself with a ski pole and only the mild collision with the chair lift. And several stellar bruises. Denver airport was pretty boring by myself, but I had a mocha frappe, and that pretty much took away all the pain. So now I'm back at Dordt... studying for chemistry and eating chocolate. Life has resumed.
Pictures will come--they're on my sister's computer... something demented happened that I have to figure out though. I think I have a pretty good one of Karla's toque tan hehehehe
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Silverware Statues
We made it back from Minneapolis!! These lovely pictures depict us at the Walker Statue Garden, enjoying the architecture. I would have to say that this part of the trip was my favorite, because we got to wander around with flocks of geese and see a massive silverware statue. Angela, you should have been there!! Look how close Geron is to that spoon and she is still smiling!! haha. And obviously, these pictures were taken before the bus ride home, because look how happy we are in the 60 degree climate! (perfection.) Anyway, I guess I am completely under the influence of this blogging stuff, because I never thought I would end up writing to... whoever reads this... instead of taking a nap. Karla is taking a nap right now. Oh, never mind she just got woken up because she has Western Civ in like 14 minutes. I think that should give her enough time to walk to class. Guess what!! I only slept 5 hours last night. And I have a chemistry lab like... right now! Wow I love college. Oh!! AND we are going to get new people on our floor! Except, apparently we must wait until AFTER Christmas, which is tragic... but basically they live in our room anyway, so we get to see plenty of them as it is. Next semester I guess we just won't get their LAUNDRY layed all over our room... haha just kidding KArla.
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