spring time mania

So much has been going on here in Anchorage. I have already sent a total of thirty boxes to Jason. It takes about a month for them to get to Rochester, and with him coming here for my internship graduation I need all the boxes to be gone the first week of June. The people here are so incredibly nice. I make a new friend every time I go to the post office.

 

My Alaska Psychiatric Institute Rotation is complete. It was a bit overwhelming. More because it was so short and they tried to fit everything in. I really loved working with the adolescents though. It is so amazing to hear what a teenager’s life is like in the villages compared to what my life was like as a teenager. At times I find it frustrating, but then I remember it’s what they know and I am making a judgment and most likely if I had grown up in a village I would do different things and enjoy much different things. There is also a Baptist Priest coming to anchorage soon to protest outside the native center because he is calling the natives heathens. It’s so upsetting. I can honestly say that my experience with anyone from a Native Alaskan background has been a positive one once they get to know me and I get to know them. Many of them are religious now, and they went through so many horrible events. I know many of my patients and colleagues plan to go protest against the priest and I am seriously considering it too.

 

Spring is here in anchorage though, and the sunlight is increasing drastically. It is now well after ten before it gets dark, and when I wake up at 5 am it is lightish. We gain about 5-7 minutes of sunlight a day. I am having some trouble falling asleep now. The mornings are great though. There is still snow on the mountains but for the most part the snow and ice ha melted in the valley.

 

As the internship year comes to a close I am no longer taking on new patients and instead working on transfer summaries for my patients to go to the new students coming in. It’s sad too. I mean I’ve worked with some of them all year long. I wish the best for them all. In more personal news Jason is also spending this time interviewing for his fellowship. His Alaska interview will be May 9^th and I am keeping my fingers crossed for that one. He has some good options though. They interview early for palliative care, so he won’t actually start until the summer of 2015. The places he has gone though have talked with him about helping me to find a job in the area if he chooses to come there. That is kind of awesome.

 

This week has also been kind of special for Jason and me. It was our first year anniversary. He sent me flowers and a stuffed animal. They were supposed to be delivered to my home, but ended up having to be delivered to work since the company doesn’t deliver after 3 PM. We also got to see each other after nine weeks. We went to Seattle and it was so amazing to see him after so long. I love traveling with him too. We always get a hotel with a full kitchen and do our grocery shopping and cook together. We also go to the gym every morning. I can run again! I am taking it slow, but I did three days back to back in Seattle. Plus we went on an amazing hike on a mountain to Bridal Falls. It was supposed to be easy, but we were jumping over streams and climbing up rocks. I was pretty sore after that. We also did some shopping, and I got some Kate Spade shoes for commencement. They are hot pink which I fitting since I defended my dissertation in a hot pink suit. Anyway just two weeks till I leave to go back for commencement. I am hoping the redwings are still in the playoffs, but they aren’t doing so hot. It would be great to go to a game though. Oh and I know what else is new. I have red hair again! Anyway, I hope all of you are doing fabulous and I look forward to seeing my Michigander friends in two weeks!!!!!

psych intern is tired

So I haven’t really been updating this recently. To be honest I have been just trying to count down the weeks. I think the lack of daylight was getting to me. We now have the sun up about 8 and it goes down after six, and I seem to be in much better spirits.

 

Jason and I were able to make it to Seattle for a weekend and that was helpful, but now is our longest stretch of not seeing each other. It will be Easter before I see him again.  It was nice being with him. We did our gym thing, went to a comedy show, made dinner, got me a new phone (this has to be done in the lower 48 since there isn’t a Verizon tower here, and if I try to transfer it can’t connect).

 

I also made a really bad mistake that kind of threw things off for me. We completed a survey of our internship experience. I marked things as I saw them and gave my feedback honestly. I then had to have a meeting with the supervisors at my site to explain myself. It turned out okay, and they understood my comments and I have gotten a much better experience since then, so I guess it turned out better than okay.

 

I am now working part time on the inpatient unit as needed which is kind of exciting. I also have more adolescent patients and pregnant women. I am really enjoying these new challenges.

 

Fur rondy was the past week and a half. I was going to spend some time there the first weekend, but I had a fall on ice and was very sore. It still hurts, but one of the faculty members is doing osteopathtic manipulations to help. I am upset though because running was going really really well. I went ahead and ran running of the reindeer this weekend, and it killed, but it was fun and a chance of a life time. My friend Jenna was going to run it with me but she ended up catching strep throat so she just took pictures for me.

 

So basically I am counting down the weeks 17 left total, but a week and a half will be traveling and spent in Detroit for commencement and that still leaves me with one vaca day and 5 sick days. My hope is to see the aurora within the next month since daylight will be much longer come april.

 

so the photos in order are my intern class, the iditarod start sign in anchorage, the beautiful view from my condo, a reindeer that chased me this weekend, me running in run with the reindeer, and a beautiful sunset on my way down from hillside