Hola familia y amigas!

Hola! Is a familiar word that I have been saying daily it seems. I am starting to pick up a little bit of Spanish working around the hospital, and my friend Adri is teaching me some words. A lot of the patient population is Spanish speaking out here (obviously) and it makes things a little bit tough when trying to communicate with families, BUT LUCKILY a lot of the nurses speak spanish on our floor so it's all good :) I'm going to take a Spanish class after the residency, I decided. I took care of a 9 year old girl the other day, who traveled here from Guatemala. Her mother and her were lucky to be a part of this "international faces foundation" group which takes children from countries that don't have the services/surgical care that we do here in America. She was born with facial deformities, and she was flown/housed here by this foundation to have a cranio-facial reconstructive surgery. When they got here they didn't know how to use a toilet/telephone/etc, etc. I guess they are from a super small underdeveloped village. It's really crazy but puts things into perspective a bit. It was quite funny because they only speak Spanish, but the little girl watched TV all day in English...I guess because she was so mesmerized by the idea of television. But anyways, she is healing well and will soon be headed back to her home country and able to lead a more normal life with a more normal face :)

On to other things, I went on the most beautiful hike last Thursday in Griffith Park (about a mile away from me). I went with my friends Adri & Afton (from work). It was nice to walk through nature and see trees, rocks, hills, and grass. The walk up was pretty much a complete incline, which took quite the toll on my out of shape body (ha). But when we got to the top (to the viewpoint) we could see EVERYTHING...and I mean the ENTIRE city. We were able to see the ocean, the hills, all of LA's buildings, and behind us into the valley. It was complete silence at the top and very peaceful. It was so beautiful and I can't wait to take friends and family when they get out here to visit. It took about 1 mile to get up to the top and 1 mile to get down.

On Friday I went to see Andrew Clore's band in Santa Monica. It was good to see a fellow Eldorado-an in the big city of LA. It was a good show and my roomate went with me. Aunt Missy had asked me in an email if Santa Monica was close (I haven't gotten replied yet) but the answer is yes, it's pretty much LA territory. I am actually headed there tonight to have dinner with Jason. They have really good shopping too.

I am very happy because one of my best guy friends from SLU moved to LA on Monday!! Micah is living with his brother and looking for a job in LA. We are meeting up and going out on Friday night, along with another guy from SLU (AJ) who is stationed out here. I'm really excited to seem them and catch up. I have the next 3 days off so I'll try to upload some new pics from my weekend on here soon. Hasta luego!