At the hospital, I've been able to take a little more responsibility in working with the patients. Each day, I'm allowed to do a little more and more in providing care and learning the medical practice. Today, I was able to listen to the heart and lung sounds, and help a patient with frail legs move around the room. I try my best to ask questions about things I don't fully understand to the doctor or the other medical students who are there. The language barrier still proves to be a little bit of a hindrance at times, but I try my best to listen carefully and learn as much as possible. I will be changing stages later this week to emergency medicine (médicine d'accueil), but my hope is that before then, I will be able to present the patient and their background information to the attending physician.
As far as life outside the classroom and hospital, I haven't seemed to have had any trouble with making friends in the program. This past weekend, we spent a lot of time getting to know each other. It was nice to take a little break from our persistent usage of the French language, and speak English to each other for a while. On Friday night, we opened a few bottles of wine together on the beach and passed them around, while sharing stories about ourselves and our interests. After that, we went over to the distillery in the old part of the town, where I ordered (legally) my first cocktail. We laughed a lot and had fun that night. The next morning, my friend Sarah and I, as well as many others boarded a train for Monaco. Monaco is a sovereign city state that is recognized by many as its own country. It is a very small region and is well-known for being the home of many famous people. Just so you can picture it, I've never seen so many Ferrari's in one place! We spent the day there, eating lunch together, and touring the city streets. There was a beautiful cathedral in the city square that would have certainly put Dimnent Chapel to shame. I'd love to try to describe it to you more, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Altar of the Cathedral at Monaco
Yesterday afternoon, after attending church with my host family, we had a picnic on top of a very large hill overlooking the beautiful city of Nice. At church, I made sure to pick up my very first French Bible. I look forward to using it often and wearing down the pages. After the picnic in the beautiful garden of olive trees, we hosted a festival for many children in the area. Over 100 children and their parents showed up and moved around from station to station learning about farm animals and playing fun games. Afterwards, the pastor in the church addressed the children and presented the winning team with an award. He also sought out to promote the church, and help get children excited about going to church. Right there and then, I was witnessing evangelism in its purest sense.
Axel and Gilles (my host brother and dad) returned yesterday afternoon from their vacation in Bretagne. I was able to meet Rémi, Axel's actual brother. He was about 10 years older then me, but for the first time since I arrived, I felt as though I was able to have a long-lasting conversation with a native French speaker and articulate well the things I wanted to say. I know it's only been a week, but I already feel that I am becoming better adapted to the culture and the language. Yesterday evening, I had a real privilege when I was able to present my host family here in France back to my real family back in America over Skype. Since neither of them really spoke the other language very well, I served as the translator during the conversation. As it continues to blow my mind that I'm actually here and fully present, I continue to count my blessings and seek to take absolutely nothing for granted.
Visiting the principality of Monaco on a rainy, spring day.
Left to right: me, Becca, Sierra, Lacey
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