best week ever

janae went home this morning. it was sad to see her go, but it was really good to see her, so i'd say it's a great trade-off. we went to the coast, went around quito. swam in some ocean, ran on some beaches, ate some food, saw some sights, slept or didn't sleep on some overnight bus rides, got some wallet stolen (mine), climbed some mountains, played some soccer...it was a very full week that went by much too fast. a complete photo telling or word telling would be hard--it took me two hours to write it all in my journal today--so here's a list, and here's a sunset.

...paréntesis amoroso

janae arrives in quito friday, april 21st at 7:57 pm. she leaves a week later. those of you who check my blog every hour or so (or so i'm not only talking about myself, if you read my blog ever) should know that i'll probably be too preoccupied with happy happy happiness to think of a funny picture to go with a blog entry. so this next week figures to be a quiet one on the scene. so now you know--i'm not dead, and i'm not taking a secret trip to nebraska. i'm just a little busy, that's all.

f.a.q. vol 2

mystery interviewer: you've made quite a habit of actually soliciting comments in your blogs lately. can this be interpreted as an indication that you like getting these comments and perhaps receive some level of pathetic affirmation from knowing people are actually reading?
jeremy: ...yes.

m.i.: is this admission a similarly masked invitation for more comments?
j: hm. not sure i want to admit that one, mystery interviewer. let's hear from someone else. anyone?

aaron: how's the milk down there?
j: better than spain's, that's for sure. they have the boxed stuff that doesn't have to be refrigerated like the milk + sawdust combination that nearly had me give up breakfast in sevilla, but they also have real milk, which for some reason is sold in bags. i recently had my first successful opening and poring of one of these bags, wherein i only spilled lots of milk instead of all of it.

timmy: how long is it until the world cup?
j: well, timmy, it is 50 days. i know this because the newspaper puts a countdown to the world cup on the front page every day. which i think is incredibly awesome.

emily: do you guys have manzana sol or manzana lift down there?
j: i really don't know! i've never seen it, but good scientists like you and i know that doesn't conclusively prove it doesn't exist. as far as soft drinks go, say what you want about globalization and whatever evils you believe it brings, i'm glad there's coca cola everywhere in ecuador.

jeremy's mom: are you eating enough while you're there?
j: sorry mom, but probably not. i have moved my belt in to the last notch of my belt already. i haven't stepped on a scale lately, but i'm assuming this is a result in some form of loss of mass.

m.i.: broken hands, birthing babies, drilling holes in bones...do you ever get squeamish with all this amputation and stretching of body parts and blood?
j: i really had no idea when i got here how i'd feel about all of that. i hadn't really wondered, either, but at some point when i was looking at something impressively gross i realized i didn't mind at all and wondered if at some point i'd hit a limit. but on thursday i saw three testicles removed from their owners, and while i definitely felt sad for the rest of the day, i made it through without passing out or, you know, refusing to assist or jumping on the doctor to physically prevent him from continuing. so i think i can handle pretty much anything. although i do plan to observe black thursday annually.

m.i.: wow, that was too much information.
all (but timmy just stares at the floor and coughs): yeah! please shut up.

t: i think you're great, jeremy!
j: thanks, timmy. i think you're great, too. let's do this again sometime!

t: oh, i'd love that!!!
(others grumble. "suck up" and "brown noser" can be heard muttered in the shuffle to the door.)

elvis, ronaldinho, the beatles, radiohead, etc.

when i was studying in spain, i took a weekend to go to morocco. one night i went for a walk and came upon a group of kids. i only had about $2 on me, so i was pretty unconcerned about getting robbed, despite the fact that i was very outnumbered. we wanted to talk, but they didn't speak english, and my best attempts to pretend that i speak french weren't panning out. ultimately, we had a wonderful conversation by reciting real madrid's starting lineup to each other, like a race to think of the next player. after that, we named other famous players, and he pantomimed juggling the ball in the unmistakable style of one of the world's most famous players, and i shouted "ronaldinho!" and we all laughed and had a great moment. the scene made me very happy because of how little a language barrier can matter, and because of how little cultural barriers can matter, if both people are actually interested in making a connection. i don't know that kid's name, but we experienced an unexpected link that still makes me smile.

today a kid came in with a double fracture in his leg. he was named elvis. elvis! i asked if he liked elvis songs (at which mention the anesthesiologist and i broke into "suspicious minds"), but he said he didn't like elvis as much as the beatles, which led to he and i singing his favorites, including "i'm so tired" and "i'm only sleeping". there were a lot doctors in the room, and he was wearing his little hospital gown and laying on the surgery table, waiting for his anesthesia. it was a very similarly unexpected connection, and we both really enjoyed it. later i even found out he likes radiohead, which naturally delighted me.

oh, elvis. oh, music!

i ♥ lists

a chipotle steak burrito, with lettuce, sour cream, mild and hot tomatillo salsa, and guacamole.
a steak from my dad's grill
taco john's tacos and potato oles
prime rib
any pasta. with wine.
lamb vindaloo
lamb korma
garlic naan and mint chutney
(more indian food)
sake sashimi and about 200 other kinds of sushi
la mexicana
wings at the watering hole with real buffalo sauce and real blue cheese (NOT another country's best guess).
my mom's mashed potatoes and some meat dish.
the sandwich i always get at bisonwitches
a chocolate brownie and ice cream
coffee as i make it

...i'm hungry.

the circle of life

just as i was about to enter the men's dressing room after lunch today, i saw a doctor running my way. i asked if he was coming to the OR, and he said he was. i asked if he was late, not because i thought he was, but because i thought he wasn't--in my experience, late doctors walk just as slow as usual, unless knowing that they can be late because whatever will wait for them makes them walk just a little slower. he said "no--parto", which means he was going to do childbirth.

we discussed live births a little while we changed into scrubs, and i asked if i could watch. in my time here i've seen a couple caesarean-sections, but never a straight-up birth. so naturally i was pretty excited. the mother was already in there and ready to go, so things started pretty much once the doc was clean and gloved. after the first contraction, the doctor told me to help out by helping the mom sit up during the contractions.

it's hard to say whether the contractions were more evident on her face or stomach, or where they were evident first, but it was not hard to say when the contractions happened. as i moved my arm around her shoulders and held her into a sitting position, i first felt the heat flowing from her skin, and then felt her hospital gown damp with sweat. her hair, also damp and hot and smelly, fell across my arm. as the contraction intensified, i kept pushing her further into a sitting position until i had my arm all the way around her, and we were both leaning forward enough that i could see the baby's head crown, and then come out, and then the rest of the body follow.

relative to the husband nervously waiting outside, i have absolutely no qualifications that made my presence there more necessary than his. not that he wouldn't in some ways have been a liability, but it was a really unique event that i felt very privileged and blessed to watch. it was another moment i'll always remember when i remember why i'm glad i did this trip.

that where i am, there music snobbery may also be.

the operating rooms at work are hooked into a music system which, because God is good and His mercy is true, almost never plays muzak. it does, however, play a charming and diverse selection of music, including such hits as "all those things she said" by tatu (during the brain surgery! it was funny.), "karma chameleon" by culture club, "manic monday" AND "walk like an egyptian" by the bangals, lots of cumbia, and pretty much the entire reflections of passion album by yanni. one of the anesthesiologists really likes him. the ANESTHESIOLOGIST.

anyway, the other day i was singing caetano veloso (thanks, camilla!) and someone actually recognized it, which excited both of us. we had a very happy conversation about our favorite music (this is where i discovered who was responsible for the yanni), and i imagine each person's general enjoyment of the other skyrocketed.

these happenings have me brainstorming about a mix cd to bring in for the whole OR to enjoy. i was going to just make it, but then i decided not to rob my music-loving friends of the opportunity to contribute--this could be fun! any ideas?

i keep thinking songs like "cold brains" by beck would be really funny, especially since they're in english, and the irony would be totally, beautifully, deliciously lost on all, but then i considered making a mix of things that would actually go well in that setting. although it's a real shot to my indie pride to recommend sigur rós based on a fondness for yanni, i have to think someone having their tonsils removed to "olsen olsen" would be a really moving experience. (and if you played a video of the procedure in slow motion, you'd totally have their next music video. at the climax (when the choir comes in), the doc would triumphantly hold the tonsils over his head and the nurses would somberly and gracefully back away, bowing. the patient would stir, rise, and begin dancing. fade out.)

oops, i lost my train of thought. you can see my difficulty here. so everyone, go to town! help me out!

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

i'm home from work today, sick for the fourth time in the month i've been here. but this time i've graduated from just diarrhea to full on puking AND diarrhea. which is way cooler. (apologies for the picture, but that's funny! and cool!) i really hate throwing up, and to be honest, i think binge drinkers and people suffering from bulimia deserve extra respect, because i just couldn't do all that throwing up.

so today is a boring, crappy day. but friday was probably the best day i've had in ecuador. i thought i might tell you about it. the first good thing that happened was the discovery that i was working in recovery with maira (probably my favorite person in the OR), so we got to talk and whatever all day, which made me happy. maira's kind of like my friend betsy, which is definitely a good thing because while there's only one betsy, you can never have too many betsys. but that's not enough to make it the best day ever. to be the best day ever, you'd need some good video-clip style moments you could make into a highlight reel of the day. like the point at which dr. calderon the anesthesiologist decided to teach me to dance cumbia, so he, dr. cueva (another anesthesiologist), marta (a nurse), ximena (the boss of all the OR nurses), maira and i all danced in the OR. it was awesome. then ximena bought several of us lunch, which was obviously a bigger deal for the community happiness it created for me than for the $2-3 it saved me.

before the day was over, maira and i agreed to go get dinner that night, which marks the first time i've turned my work friendships into actual hanging out with ecuadoreans outside of work. which is obviously a good thing for me. they're real life ecuadoreans!!! i was having so much fun at work i stayed an extra hour, and then went home.

while i was there, i talked to janae (probably my favorite person ever) and we discussed when would be the best dates, and then she bought tickets to come out to ecuador. probably mostly to try the cuisine here, but i think partly also to see me. this took my already good day into the stellar-sphere (it was stellar, see). i went back to the hospital to meet maira, and as we were leaving we also asked fanny to come with us. TWO ECUADOREANS!!! i just doubled my productivity!

i had lots of fun at dinner, and afterwards we decided to go to a dance club. so i got to use my cumbia dance lessons and was also instructed in the finer points of salsa and regatón dancing. well, "instructed in the finer points" is probably a blatant falsehood. "was taught" might be an exaggeration. but maira DID shout in my ear what kind of music was being played each time a new song started, and then after awhile pointed at some guy doing a good job and said "DANCE LIKE HIM!!!" there was obviously lots of laughter and lots of good times. i think maira and fanny were both very impressed with my skills.

so that was my friday. it was good. in other good news, i made it through this whole story without having to go to the bathroom. i'm so happy!

f.a.q.

q: how's ecuador?
a: how's the united states? i don't know how to answer that question.

q: ok. um...let's start with basics. give me some cold hard facts about quito.
a: quito is a city of 1-2 million people, and can be found at an elevation of 2850 meters, or 1.7 miles.

q: how's the currency exchange?
a: the exchange rate continues to be 1:1, because the official currency of ecuador is the US dollar.

q: what time is it there? are you on pacific time?
a: actually, until today i was on eastern standard time, but due to your daylight savings time i'm central now, because ecuadoreans don't want to get up earlier, so they neither spring forward nor fall back.

q: eastern?!? aren't you west of us?
a: actually, no--if you look at a map you'll notice how far south america creeps out east. weird, huh?

q: boy, i'll say! i'm really learning a lot from you, jeremy! what a wise and interesting person you are! anyway, what do you do all day?
a: what a nice compliment! i appreciate being esteemed by you, mystery interviewer! i work in the OR at hospital vozandes quito in quito ecuador. i work from 7-3:30, and generally speaking i come home and lie around a little, read, write in my super awesome travel journal (if you're going to leave the country soon, become friends with millhouse first because he gives excellent journals as parting gifts), or do things like that. then i go for some kind of walk to some part of the city i haven't been to, or to some sight to see or something.

q: 7am?!? that sucks!
a: while technically not a question, i'm going to let it slide because it is so unquestionably and irrefutably true.

q: hey, missionaries can't say suck! so are you tired?
a: i didn't say it, you did! i'm pretty much tired all the time, yeah. except for when i go to bed for some reason. culture shock has failed to cure my mini-insomnia, it seems. this week i started running in the mornings (BEFORE work. which begins at 7am.) to tire myself out. pollution + elevation + asthma + i'm not in shape at all = i'm really glad no one's out at 5am, or my cross-country shame instincts would probably run me to my death.

q: hm. that's...fascinating. you overdramatic weirdo. so what are you reading lately?
a: what a good question!!! i'm actually in the middle of three books right now, but i just finished wuthering heights by emily brontë, and the one i am about to put most of my efforts into next is cien años de soledad, by my good friend gabriel garcía márquez. this will be a re-read, but this time i'm doing it in spanish. in some ways it's as much a vocab-building exercise as it is a celebration or savoring of probably one of the best books ever written.

q: so why haven't you responded to my email yet?
a: hey, that wasn't an approved question! stick to the script! weren't you going to ask me something about how awesome the people of ecuador think i am? something about all the female nurses in the OR?

q: no, i want to know why you haven't responded to my email, and by the looks of your inbox, i'm not the only one who's wondering.
a: sigh. ok. i'm sorry to you and everyone who has written me and not received anything back from me. i keep myself pretty busy here, and have just not had the time to sit down and write the emails i want to write. but i'd like you all to know i very much appreciate hearing from you, and it's a special treat to hear from my friends while i'm over here.

q: see, that wasn't so hard, was it? anyway, this has been fun. we should do it again sometime--maybe some other readers could submit some questions?
a: sure, that'd be great--they could put them in the comments section if there's something of general interest they've been wondering about.

q: sounds great. talk to you later!
a: bye!