Bonjour!
Another week down and its feeling like grad school…so much
to do and so little time! But it’s awesome getting more involved and la vie
est absolutement belle! (life is absolutely good!)
First up, French - I must say that it feels really good to
have French at the forefront of my mind again! Yesterday I went to a French
conversation group that’s set up through the Masters International program to
help those who’d like to practice the language they’re going to use (or that
they used for the returned Peace Corps volunteers) in the Peace Corps (although
anyone’s welcome.) While I have a year until I need to apply and I can’t get a
guarantee that I’ll get to serve in a French speaking country, I’ve heard that
there are fewer speakers of fluent French applying so I do have a decent
chance! However, yesterday showed me that Madame Eschrish was quite correct
when she warned “if you don’t use it, you lose it!” My speech is most
definitely rusty; I can remember the words but when I go to pronounce some my
mouth stops working. Good thing this is a weekly gig so I’ll get to practice up
J
Health Literacy – Yesterday was the first time I volunteered
at a health center here teaching health literacy skills. I figured it’s a great
way to delve into gaining public health experience and getting a perspective of
what people need and what services are out there. I’m really glad I went, I met
some fantastic people (including an AmeriCorps member and a man from Ecuador
who both work there) and I think I got my message across to those I spoke with.
I’ll bother you all with my message too because it’s a really good resource! Next
time you go to look up drug side effects or the prognosis of a disease, check
out http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/!
A simple Google search of “medlineplus” will do the trick and the reason this
is such a good resource is because it’s a source of nonbiased, reliable health
information. There aren’t any ads trying to sell you anything and because it’s
not a .com or a company, it’s our taxpayer dollars being put to use, you can
rest assured that the website’s single interest is to provide you with
research-backed information and not try to get your money too. Also, know
someone who has a hard time understanding medical terminology? There’s a link
in the bottom right corner of the homepage which will take you to Easy to Read
documents that were made, well, easy to read. Annnd, if it’s easier to read in
another language (or like me you enjoy refreshing your French skills,) many
documents are made in multiple languages (see that same bottom right corner of
the Medlineplus homepage.)
Swim4Success – I applied to be a volunteer lifeguard through
a school org called Swim4Success. They teach swim lessons to underprivileged
kids at our rec center pool. It was actually competitive with a legit interview
because there were more applicants than positions but they accepted me! So
until the end of the semester I’ll get to splash around the pool with some kids
on Sundays as a fun way to volunteer and destress J
Carnival Season in New Orleans – I went to another parade
last weekend. It was…interesting in a raunchy, risqué manner. But there was a
Krewe de Seuss there! And after talking to people this week, it turns out I
happened upon a unique one early; this weekend I’m hoping to catch the Barkus
parade…bark as in dogs barking!!
Can I blame this
silly pic on studying all day? This is the souvenir I got from the Krewe de
Seuss!
In other news…
- I had my first test and two more are coming up next week. It’s beginning to look a lot like college!
- I’ve also been putting in some yards in at the pool. Like my French, I’m rusty…but the neat thing about sports is that if you put the work in, you get results. Already my 500 time has dropped a half a minute! (But we won’t talk about how my time is a couple of minutes slower than I could race in high-school…)
- Bug update: no sightings since last week! Fingers crossed the roaches stay out of my apartment (or even my line of vision…sometimes ignorance can be bliss!)
- Tonight I went to this cool global research event. Initially I was just interested in the types of projects that are going on (and the free food didn’t hurt…) but I got the chance to speak with a very interesting professor about his international experiences. I found out that not only has he just gotten out of being under an Ebola quarantine, he’s currently working on determining whether MMS (miracle mineral solution) is safe. If you haven’t heard of MMS, I hadn’t before tonight either. Just Google it and judge for yourself – seems too good to be true, yes? Anyways, it was quite fascinating, very real and I’m really happy I went.
Take care,
Holly
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