November

            This month I began volunteering at the Ochsner Baptist Hospital. While it has been interesting so far and I’ve seen some things relevant to class material, it is not what I expected. As a volunteer in the emergency department, I haven’t really had the chance to contribute or help out much. My time has been spent following the ER doctors as they see patients and I was told on my first day that is basically the extent of volunteer involvement. Although this is useful learning and eye-opening experience for me personally, I was hoping to be involved more and have some kind of impact, even if minimal. I may have to look into switching to a different department where I can give my time more meaningfully or potentially add on some other type of volunteer work.

            The end of the semester is rapidly approaching, with less than 2 weeks of class remaining. With Thanksgiving break coming so soon after our previous exam, I haven’t spent very much time studying yet so I feel a bit behind schedule. The GI block isn’t very dense though so with only a few classes I should be able to get back on track.

            I’m really looking forward to the end of semester and Christmas break. It was the first time I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving so it feels like a long time since I’ve seen my family. Having a few weeks to visit with them (and eat a lot of home cooked food) and friends back home will be really nice. In other news outside of class, it’s been a pretty relaxing month. The weather has been comfortable for the most part, so much so that some classmates and I wanted to take advantage of it by going camping at Fountainbleau State Park for a night. Our IM soccer season came to end as we lost in the playoffs in a shootout. Our team was a few players short compared to usual but we played the best we could. Some of us are planning to continue with IM sports next semester with flag football. Maybe we’ll have better luck there.

Volunteer Hours:
Ochsner-  11/16/14, 4 hours
                11/30/14, 4 hours
Total                     = 8 hours