San Jose

So I'm a little out of order, but I wanted to write a little on San Jose. I don't actually live in the city. I live in a community called Curridabat which is east of San Jose. I live with a family of three. Marvin and Margarita are my tico parents (tico = costa rican) and Kevin is their 14 yold son. The three of them share a room and a bathroom! The other student, Anisa from OSU, and I have our own private rooms and we share a bathroom. Everyone is very nice and my tica mom has been very helpful. Apparently she likes to dance and has gone dancing with students in the past. Hopefully we will get the chance to take her out sometime.

Everyday we commute in to San Jose for school or clinic work. The first week was more for orientation and a quick medical spanish refresher...which was needed!! This week I started working at the Hospital Carit, which is the women's hospital. I work in the morning and return to school for Spanish classes in the afternoon. I'm the only student at the women's hospital because I'm the only one interested in Ob/Gyn (well the only US student...there are many costa rican "interns" who are in the last year of their school like me, but the system is a little different so they are called interns). So far it's been a really good experience. The doctors have all been very nice and welcoming. I understand most of the subject matter and about 50% of what the patients say. I'm hoping for some improvement. This week was Gynecology and I've been in the "consultorio" which is basically a clinic setting. It was a good mix of basic gyn, menopause clinic, colposcopy clinic, and infertility clinic. It's interesting to see the different approaches to physical exams and diagnoses with more limited resourses than what I'm used to at home. For example, I've seen many instruments reused that we throw away after a single use in the US (bovies used in LEEPs are sterilized and reused and the same grounding pad is used on every patient that walks in the door). I've been fortunate to work with a few doctors that are very good at explaining things to their patients in depth. This helps me learn too. :) Tomorrow I get to go to ambulatory surgery and next week is Obstetrics which includes a day on C-section service! Can't wait!

Outside of work and classes, we have had two soccer games and another scheduled for next week. I think my teacher/coordinator is very competitive and proud of Costa Rica and therefore enjoys putting together a team of costa ricans to dominate the US students. He boasts that they have only lost twice. The first game was last week. We were suppose to play at a field by my house, but at the last minute the location changed and I didn't get the chance to change into the proper atire. So, I played in my school clothes and chacos. We played on a small turf field that was enclosed with nets, so everyone was on top of each other. We lost, of course, 11-8 but had a great time. The second game was yesterday on a normal (big) field which meant lots of running!! We out-numbered them and still lost 12-5. Their team had 2 kids under 10- who kicked our butts, a man over 50, the bus driver, two teachers, and 2 host brothers (including mine) that play all the time! It was a lot of fun. I actually scored a goal! Maybe next week's game will be a little closer.

That's all for now. More to come...