So starting from the present and going backwards, here is a recap of my life since I last blogged.
Last weekend, I went to Moab with my BFF Red and it was FABULOUS! It was 99 degrees (NOT HUMID!!!) and not too crowded. We drove down Friday afternoon and hiked to Delicate Arch as soon as we got to Arches. We sat there and watched the sunset and then walked back under the twinkling stars :). Then we drove around and happened to find a local high school football game, which of course, brought joy to my heart. By then it was about 9:30 and we figured we better find a place to camp. We decided to sleep under the stars, and it was absolutely lovely. The next morning we went back to Arches and hiked to Landscape Arch, and then to Sand Dune arch (where we laid in the sand underneath the arch and took a nap). Then we went back into Moab and got some lunch and ICE CREAM. At 4:00 we went on a ranger guided tour of Fiery Furnace -- LOVED IT! By the time we finished, it was 7:30, so we headed back for home! Fantastic road trip, but then they usually are when it is just me and Red.
I started school on August 24th, and it started off at a sprint! This is gonna be one crazy semester for me. I'm taking 18 credits, plus my doctoral project is due on October 21st.
The week before that, I went to Education Week down at BYU for one day and I loved it. Nothing better than taking classes on BYU campus again... Oh how I've missed it!!! :) GO COUGARS! The other days of the week, I spent A TON of time reading books FOR FUN! I didn't do a lick of reading for class, even though I know most of my classmates were feverishly working on their doctoral projects. I would start a book about 10 am, finish it around 3 or 4, then go on a hike or play soccer with Red or something like that.
The week before that was spent at the Utah Operation Smile Student Retreat in Deer Valley and preparing for it. That was another wonderful experience. It was a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday event and someone had donated two of his "cabins" that were actually mansions for us to stay in. We had several motivational speakers come, the Magees were there, and I felt like the breakout sessions that I led were successful (despite the fact that I'm a horrible public speaker/motivator). It was in a beautiful setting -- up in the mountains surrounded by trees and nice crisp air. One of the houses had huge windows that overlooked Jordanelle Reservoir, and both nights it rained and there were amazing lightning storms and rainbows just outside the windows. Plus, I got to interact with the Magees, MY HEROES, on a one-on-one basis. It doesn't happen very often that you have an Operation Smile brainstorming session with the Magees a part of it!
The Saturday before that was my last Saturday in D.C. Very sad. I'm glad to be back in Utah with my friends and family, and I really really love it here in Utah and am happy here, but it was VERY hard to leave D.C. But, my roommates were so sweet and threw me a going away party and a bunch of the people I was close to out in D.C. came to say good bye. It was a perfect way to end my time living there.
That week immediately preceding my move back, I was in Southern Virginia for the Operation Smile International Student Leadership conference. Another fantastic, motivational experience. There were 450 Operation Smile students from all over the world there. There was a huge group from Ireland, Honduras, Vietnam, and South Africa, among other places. I was SO HONORED because I got an award at the opening ceremonies for my work here in Utah. The conference was held on the BEAUTIFUL campus of Christopher Newport University and everyone stayed in the dorms there. Because I wasn't there as a student, and I wasn't really in charge, I got the best of both worlds -- I got to participate in the conference events that I wanted to, but I also got to hang out with the VIP's like the Magees, the speakers, Senator Tribble, etc. It made me feel like I was something special too :). I tell you what -- I have never felt so motivated and inspired as I did at this conference. There were some AMAZING speakers and break out sessions. If you ever get a chance to hear Robert Pruitt speak, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!! His lecture took my breath away -- I'm pretty sure every person in that assembly hall felt the same way too. Marci Shimoff also spoke, and that was especially cool for me because I was put in charge of being her handler -- basically making sure everything went smoothly for her, helping her in whatever way she needed, escorting her to the places she needed to be, etc. She is one of the writers behind the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and she recently wrote a book called Happy For No Reason, which she was kind enough to give me a free copy of, as well as the CD packet that goes along with the book. She was a fantastic speaker as well. There were numerous other speakers like Dallas Jessup (a 17 year old girl who has started an entire movement across the country and has been interviewed on shows like Larry King and Good Morning America, and has lectured for the FBI), one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, a presenter from Dale Carnegie, etc. We also got to go to Busch Gardens for one afternoon and ride the roller coasters. It was just a fantastic week.
The week before that was my last week at my internship. Tear. It really was sad for me to leave there too. I enjoyed it SO MUCH. I fit in very well there and I felt like they respected me as a physical therapist. I felt competent in what I was doing -- by the end, my clinical instructor would sit in the break room and make phone calls and just let me do my thing because she trusted me. I also felt very special because several patients brought in cards and gifts to say goodbye and thank you. The secretary also said that by week 6, I had patients actually requesting to be on my schedule!! That made me feel SO good!
Let's see... two weeks before that, I went to NYC for the first time for a weekend. I rode the Chinatown bus up for $46 roundtrip (a BARGAIN when you take into account gas and the insane amount of tolls on the way up there). It was about a 5 hour ride up, but after driving to and from Alaska, 5 hours ain't no thang anymore. I met one of my classmates up there, and in the 2 1/2 days we were there we squeezed a ton in. We went to Times Square twice, Central Park twice, the MET, Ground Zero, Greenwhich Village, Staten Island, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Catholic mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Mormon Church... I think that is everything. We stayed in a hostel by Central Park (I am a HUGE fan of staying at hostels). The whole trip was so much fun.
On July 4, I went down to the Mall with my roommate for all the celebrations. If you are gonna be anywhere for Independence Day, the Nation's Capitol is the place to be. We set up our blankets in between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument and went and watched the parade and wandered around. It was REALLY hot and humid, and I started to break out in a heat rash. By three o'clock things started to get really bad for me -- I RAN to a restroom in one of the Smithsonians, and ended up having to lie on the floor of the bathroom stall for about 5 minutes because I was about to pass out. Gross, I know, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So I ended up hopping back on the metro and taking it to my lovely friend Melissa's apartment, which isn't too far from the Pentagon, and taking a nap there. I ended up watching the fireworks from her rooftop (she lives in an 18 story high rise), which was really neat because it was still really close to the fireworks at the Mall, but I could also see literally hundreds of fireworks displays all over the area at the same time.
Now, part of the reason I gracefully passed out in one of the Smithsonian bathrooms was due to the humidity and heat, but most of the reason I did was because I got a PARASITE while I was in Mexico. One evening after a carnival that we put on for the little town, one of the ladies made us dinner. The options were soup or some variation of tortillas, tomatoes, lettuce, and meat (which we had been eating for almost every meal for 9 days). So I'm thinking, sweet I'll have the soup! WRONG!!! There were 3 of us that ate the soup: one guy who had been home from his Spanish-speaking mission for 6 months, me, and another guy. Me and this other guy end up getting REALLY sick. Let's just say if I was more than 30 seconds away from a bathroom, I was in serious trouble. I won't go into detail, but think of worst case scenario, and that is what it was like. I spent the last few days flat in bed, barely ate anything for days, had a fever, and was taking about 16 pills a day. One night was particularly bad. I got up to go the the bathroom 2 times and barely made it back to my bed before I felt like I was going to pass out. The third time, I didn't make it back. The last thing I remember is sitting on the toilet. I vaguely remember hitting my head on the sink counter, and then the next thing I know, I'm laying on the cold bathroom tile with my underwear still at my ankles. I was so exhausted that I laid there for probably 10 minutes before I made myself decent, and then I laid there another 10 minutes before I was able to get up and go back to my bed. I got a priesthood blessing the night before we left Ocotlan, and I know that is the only reason I made it back to Utah without any "interesting" experiences. We had a two hour bus ride to Guadalajara (no bathroom on the bus), stayed the night there, then got to the airport 3 hours early, then had a four hour flight back to SLC. I was supposed to have a 5 hour layover in SLC, but as soon as my parents picked me up at the airport, I was right back to how I was before the blessing. Luckily, my dad was able to change my flight to the next morning, and then luckily, my work didn't want me to come back in on Wednesday or Thursday and we had Friday off for the holiday. Thank goodness because I laid in bed that whole time except for when I went to the restroom.
This is the moment of my big mistake -- I knew it was gonna be a mistake, I just didn't realize how big of a mistake it was. But when a very poor person offers you food, what can you do??
Me at one of the places that we did physical therapy consults at. These were homemade parallel bars (for walking) for little kids.
A group of us went to Mormon church on Sunday.
They took us on tours of two different tequila factories one day, complete with complimentary drinks. I'm pretty sure there was a lot of underage drinking going on.
We did A TON of painting -- trees, buildings, playgrounds, etc. You name it, we painted it.
We did A TON of painting -- trees, buildings, playgrounds, etc. You name it, we painted it.Anyway, that is a VERY LONG update on what is going on in the life of Andrea Marie Burton.
Oh, my sister was in town (D.C.) for Memorial Day weekend. I, sadly, was not so I didn't get to spend much time with her, but we did squeeze an hour or so in after work and before I left for North Carolina. I met her and her friends at one of the Smithsonians, then we went and wandered around Georgetown and then went to one of the cupcake shops they have here. It must be an East Coast thing, but they have tons of shops that just sell cupcakes. That was a lot of fun and the cupcakes were heavenly. We each got one and then shared.
angry
surprised
