Reminiscing of Europe

This Spring Break has been a nice break from school, but not so much from the studying and homework. Even though I've been working my butt off REAL hard this entire semester, I am still so behind and have so much to catch up on in these last 5 weeks of school.

Yikes...5 weeks...

Anyway, today while I was working on some projects for school, I couldn't help but keep thinking about my study abroad in Spain. I think about it A LOT! I am still so grateful that I got the opportunity to go when and where I did. It was perfect timing. I met a great group of people and saw amazing things on a daily basis.

It's really a hard feeling to describe...feeling in awe and just SO happy to be where you are and doing what you're doing. Don't get me wrong, I consider myself a happy person and love where I'm taking my life...but being in the nursing school grind is not really an incredibly "awe inspiring" lifestyle.

Looking back, I realize how much happiness and gratefulness can really have a major effect on my life and health. My skin was flawless. My stomach problems were gone. No allergies. I know it's part of the "Spain thing" to eat healthy, but it was beyond that.

It's a great reminder for me to remember to take my life where I want to take it. Do what I want to do and what makes me happy. I worked SO HARD to get into this program, and have gotten to a point where I almost hate what it's doing to me because I am SO stressed and SO busy all the time. I feel like I've isolated myself from my friends and family...which I hate. But to remember how badly I wanted to get it, I keep the print out of the one TEAS test score that got me in. It gave me the 4 extra points to make the cut off from the previous year I didn't get it. I have it hanging on my bulletin board as an occasional remind that I WANT THIS!

2 more years and I am done. I can take a break and go back out and see the world! I can't wait to work per diem and take weeks off at the time to go explore the rest of the world.

I will REALLY need some soul feeding after this program.

I'm glad I have the memories of Spain to keep my head up and not get bogged down by the negative side effects that this program has on me.

Haha I'm a free spirit, I wasn't made for this prison! ;)

I miss you España!!

Casa de las Campanas

Last Wednesday, I had my first job interview in 5 years at a luxury retirement living community in Rancho Bernardo. My friend from my nursing program used to work there, and put a good word in for me and any other nursing students who were interested in the job. After I thought about it, I realized I really only had ONE formal and personal one-on-one interview before, and that is when I was 16 working retail! Everything else was a group interview or joke interviews created by the moms I used to nanny for. I didn't know what to expect or really what to say, but I just went for it! After these past 2 semesters in nursing school, I've learned I can talk about myself all day if I needed to! Especially in relation to my "nursing" skills.

My pre-interview, "wish me luck" face :/

The interview was surprisingly quick. It was my potential future manager and an RN I would be working with and they just asked me about my experience in nursing school and how to handle certain scenarios. I have tests almost weekly on things like this so that was cake for me! But because the interview was only 10 minutes or less, I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. She said she had a couple more interview and will let me know soon!

WELL!! Yesterday, a week later, I got a call saying that I was hired as their new Per Diem CNA!

YAY!!

I'm excited! This is going to be a great job for me! Because I will be working per diem, I will not have a strictly set schedule. She will send out a monthly calendar and I get to pick which days and shifts I want to work, as long as I work at least 2 days per month...PERFECT flexibility with school! I meet with HR tomorrow to go over some paperwork and start the process of background checking and getting exams done, and as soon as I finish that, I start my orientation in each of my 3 areas: independent living, dementia unit, and assisted living. Hopefully I'll have all of that done before the end of April so I can pick my shifts for May!

I'm planning a camping trip to the Yosemite area during my 2 weeks before I start summer semester! I gotta get dibs on the good shifts so I can make a little summer money before then! 

:D

Questhaven Hike

This weekend, Dalton and I went looking for a new hike in the area. My brother went on a bike ride the other day and ran into some trail in Elfin Forest, and I've heard of some pretty hikes in Questhaven, so we went to go attempt to find them. We ended up at a church (which all my friends used to be scared of) at the end of the road. We saw a gate to a trail, with nowhere to park, so I walked up the the church office and asked them about any trails in the area.  Turns out that that gated place wasn't just a church, but also a nature retreat, and they had A LOT of beautiful trail...really, the prettiest hike I've been on in California. The pictures don't do it justice.

The trail paths were kinda narrow and surrounded by tall trees or bushes, so you felt like you were in the middle of a forest! 

View from one of the peaks on the hill. You can't see it in this picture, but next to those little trees on top of the hills in the distance is the church's cross and it has it's most difficult hike leading up to it. We didn't have time to do that area over there before it got dark, but we'll be back!!

Yoga break in a little meadow on top of a hill.

Pretty bright green grassy trails!

There was this little rocky knoll that usually has a waterfall and creek...but we're a little too early for that, so we'll have to come back to see it again!

We took a detour on our way back to the church on a different trail and it had cute little bridges over the creek

By the invisible waterfall...

This is where the end of our last trail took us. You can see how tall and pretty the brush was. Where the grass gets really green in the picture is the trail path. I still can't get over how colorful it was over there!

Loved it! Can't wait to bring some more friends here!

:)

Easter

On Easter, my brother and I spent the morning with my mom and Kevin for Easter breakfast. Mmmmm :) My mom's the best because she makes sure everything is "Katie proof" if she can manage! GLuten free and dairy free! She even found me some organic turkey bacon! Yummaaay.

 Later, we went over to our Aunt Dale's house for Easter lunch and an egg hunt with the kids. They've recently moved into a huge beautiful house in the "ranches" of Vista. It's so pretty back there!

My Uncle Ed took us around the property showing us all their cool fruit trees in their orchard. This green spiky fruit is called a rambutan. And it HURTS! Haha, I stabbed myself too many times with that thing. I guess, when it's ready to eat, it turns deep pink/red and you can cut it open to a white egg-like shaped fruit that tastes kinda like a grape! Like this:

SO COOL, right?! 

They also had a bunch of cherimoya trees. I've heard of this fruit before, but never seen it. It's suppose to have anti-cancer, anti-malarial, anti-wormy (that's how I like to refer to anti-helminthes) properties.

 The only fruit they had that I actually tried was this sapote. And it was good! I guess it was used to sweeten food instead of cane sugar, before it became popular and accessible. But I'm sure they still use it. It's really sweet and it seems like foreign exotic areas like this usually have their nutrition figured out a little better than us fools up here in the US, haha.

Anyway, I just thought this was really cool! I think the rambutan is a south Asian thing and the sapote and cherimoya is from South America. I can't wait to start growing some exotic trees of my own! Delicious!! :)

After lunch, the kids did their Easter egg hunt...guerrilla style. We did this when I was we were kids too. They find an egg, take out the money, take it to the sidelines and we throw the empty eggs at them to freeze them. Haha, it kinda give the babies a chance to get ahead.

And like usual, the golden egg was lost. Even the golden egg hider couldn't find it, haha. Right as we were about to give up, Mikey found it in a bush no one even thought of looking in for some reason! 

This year, they set up a mini (and super hard) egg hunt for the "big kids" (age 35 and under) and between the 6 of us, we had to find 21 eggs. 2 off which were worth "big" money. Some of them were hard!! I found out at the end, that I looked under a statue and thought I saw nothing under it, and it ended up being the egg with the most money in it! Haha ugh, I've learned my lesson about not being thorough...

Afterwards, the kids went up to play in the pool, and I wish I brought my swimsuit, because I ended up getting just as wet! The kids made me go on the zip over the pool with my clothes on...and I didn't end up falling, but the splashing got me just as much!

I never realized how big their property was at this house, I'd only been inside the main living area before. They have a beautiful house! Definitely worth the move!

Carlsbad State Beach

The week before my Spring Break began was a little slower than usual at school, because we had our last test that Monday and then I just had to get through the week with normal assignments. So, after clinical last Tuesday, I went and stayed with the Millers and Brewers at their campsite at Carlsbad State Beach. Even though this is where I grew up, I still love visiting the campsites every now and then. There's just something about sleeping and waking up in a tent on a cliff by the ocean that makes me a little extra happy :)

It was surprisingly a warm day there, even though it had been cold and cloudy by the cost for the past couple days. We hung out and I watched them play beach games and Eric's dad made carne asada for dinner. MMMMM!!

Oh, and I got my first REAL tandem bike experience with Lindsey! Haha, now I want one! Even though it was a little sketchy...

I love it there. I'm strongly considering using the money to get a campground for a week over summer, even though I'll be in school. I'm definitely down for sleeping in a tent for 5 days and walking up with crazy hair and going to my OB clinical! 

Now I just gotta find some friends to join me! ;)

CINDY!! That means you!! :D

2 Day School-a-thon

I don't know whose idea it was to put me in 9.5 hours of lecture every Monday (8:30-6pm) and then 8.5 hours of clinical the next morning (6:30am-3pm). I am dyingggg over here!

This week I literally did over 36-hours of school, straight! As soon as we got out of lecture, I had to go home and write a journal about my clinical experience so far and create a rough care plan for my patient the next morning. I scrambled to make dinner and leftovers for the next days lunch and got just about 5.5 hours of sleep before my LONG day. Because we're assigned so many group projects this semester, (and of course they're all due around the same time), I had to get started on one of them. Tuesday afternoon was really the only day my partner and I had that was compatible because we aren't in the same clinical, so I worked on that until after 7 and got home by 8pm. 

8:00am Monday morning until 8:00pm Tuesday night. Wednesday is my school hangover day...even though I have NO TIME for that!! I have a night nutrition class on Thursday and an evening Psychiatric clinical rotation on Friday evenings. Unfortunately this make most of my study time on my weekend time :(

But for now, my life is like this:

AND this:

but mostly this:

I can't wait for my preciously sweet 2 weeks break of summer starting May 13th!! D;

Downtown San Diego

Thanks to my friend, Jayce, and his DJ expanding, this semester I've been able to escape away from the tortures of school by going downtown with my friends on random days I have off. If he weren't able to get me to these places for free and carpool with me, I definitely wouldn't be able to afford it. So I'm taking advantage of the opportunity while I can! :)

It's nice having an excuse to see all my friend in between my non-stop studying sessions!

Mardi Gras Tuesday

Gina, Lindsey and me at the Hard Rock 

End of the week trip to Mike's BBQ!