Another difference between Europe and the US. In Europe they actually give you portions that are the size for a normal human being. You can physically finish something you order in a restaurant. You can even order more than one course. It's so strange. For example. We went to a McDonalds in Budapest. My aunt and I both got a McFlurry, and they were quite a bit smaller than they are in the US. They probaby had one cup of ice cream, and candy. And that's reasonabe. Whereas in the US, you get probably 2 cups or more. Last night we went to a place called Brewsters for desert. It's alot like the Pittsburgh equivalent of a Dairy Queen. I got what was called a blast(blizzard). I got the smallest size you could, and got probably three cups worth of ice cream and candy. I couldn't believe it. I could hardly finish it, by putting half in the freezer and eating it tonight as well. It's crazy. I now understand why American has the weight problem it does. And I'm out.

I have to say, I am rather jealous of your poker night last night. I really wanted to go. And I didn't have the bright idea to call Abner's house after I talked to Lola on her cell phone, until this morning. So...I missed it. We're having one when i get back. I've missed far to many. I think I'm starting to get a bit homesick. I miss all you guys. The feeling is not completely mutual though. I talked to my brother on the phone yesterday, and I asked him if he realized he hadn't talked to me in close to a month. He went Whoa, when did you leave? Glad at least my family loves me. But he is only 13. I suppose he can be excused.
So wild day in the medical world today. We saw patients all morning, and I got the stack of charts I've been sorting since I got here done today. Woohoo! Then we went in at about 3pm for the emergency surgery, and they weren't ready, so we didn't get sarted until almost 3:45. I was about to sit down to observe, when my aunt says, "Patty (her nurse practitioner) why don't you take Amanda, and show her how to scrub up." Pretty sure my mouth dropped open. So I went out, and I was really confused for a while, because I don't quite understand all the sterility rules. So two gowns, and a pair of too small gloves later, I was scrubbed in. At first I was just observing, and I could actualy get close enough to see things. Then the ovarian cyst we were trying to remove exploded all over. This poor lady had a cyst the size of a grape fruit in her stomache. She thought she had been gaining weight, but it was all fluid. I ended up having to hold retractors, and clamps, and even helped to close the patient. Not many other high school students will do this. I'm still in awe that she let me help. If I was her, I wouldn't have let me help.
But that is my story of the day, I'm going to go have my supper, and then see if I can't actually talk to someone tonight. See you all in 3 days.

Woah, I skipped a day blogging, without realizing it, and while internet access was avaiable. Wierd. This is a new experience for me.
Today was a busy, but productive day. Yesterday I watched one surgery, and then did office work the rest of the day. Today I observed seeing patients for half the day, and did office work for the other half, with the occasional urine analysis thrown in. I think lab technician could be a cool job. I did always like labs in Cheistry. And I thing the urine analysis thing is pretty darn cool. And it would also give me more time with my prospective family.
Today one of my aunts patients was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain, and it turns out she has a mass in her abdomen about the size of an orange. So tomorrow they scheduled an emergency surgery, that one I think I'll observe. It could be quite interesting.
So get this, I've sarted diagnosing people with what I think they're sick with. How wierd am I. I diagnosed a guy at the airport with Parkinsens(I dont know how to spell it.) and one of the drug reps with an eating disorer. (you could see her muscle fibres through her skin. It was sick.)
But I have to get going, we're going on an evening outing, to get our drycleaning, ice cream, and to drop one of Dan's friends at home. Talk to you all later. Sorry I missed the "scholarship pageant" meeting last night. Oh wait I have no talent! Never mind. Love/Miss you all. See you in four days.

Alright, I should really be napping, but I can't sleep since I'm cafinated. So I'm going to finish the telling of my Ukrainian adventure.
On our last day of mission work, we had a picnic for lunch with the Pastors from both Methodist churches, and their families. It was really nice, and we had really good food. We got salad, vegetables, some kind of ethnic food, I don't remember the name, but they were seasoned rice rolled in cabbage leaves, and cooked in something. They were really good. And to finish, they made traditional Ukrainian barbeque. It was all really good. And we had a beautiful spot, right next to the river (well it was a stream). At this spot, we were less than a mile from the Slovakian border, so I could have visited another country, except for the armed gaurds. During the picnic I taught Ira how to use my camera, and she had alot of fun with it. I got my pictures back today, and she did a really good job. I think she could have potential as a photographer.
So one thing in the Ukraine that really bothered me was that I was dehydrated the whole time I was there. You can't drink the tap water, because it has bacteria in it that Ukrainians are immune to, but we feble Americans get very sick from. To solve this dilema you buy bottled water right? The only problem with this is that a lot of bottled water in Europe is carbonated, and alot like seltzer. So in otherwords, undrinkable. It's so disgusting. No matter how hard you try, since you can't read the bottles, you inevitably pick one out that has been carbonated.
On the flip side, their chocolate is amazing. We learned that when they are shipping the cocoa beans from South America, they send the highest quality ones to Europe, and send the next best to America. And you really don't realize how good thier chocolate is until you have ours again. I ate a kit kat bar on the plane on the way home and I couldn't belive how bad our chocolate is.
And for my last story from the Ukraine. On the way to Budapest our van driver Ivan decided to take us to a winery for lunch. I was a little wary of the idea, seeing as I'm not of age to drink, and I don't like wine. But I thought it would be fun to see nonetheless. So we get there, and the outside looks quiant enough. It's a little cottage, we walk in, and they hand us each a glass, and then take us down into the wine cellars. I don't know what wineries are like in the US, but this one was way cool. If you've ever read the story A Cask of Amontillado by E.A.Poe you will kind of understand how the cellars looked. If you haven't they we remeniscent of a medival dungeon. Way cool. The walls were covered in about 2 inches of mold, which was a little frightening with my mold allergy, but I did take my zyrtec that morning, so I didn't come out too badly. While we were there, they brought us tons of different kinds of wines to try. Overall I think I have less than half a glass. I couldn't drink it. I really don't like wine. It think my aunt had about four glasses, and Christine had possibly seven. Those two were pretty darn funny as we were leaving. My aunt was having trouble walking straight, and as she was having a conversation with Ivan her hand gestures were pretty wild. Christine on the other hand was pretty far gone, and she was walking funny, speaking really slowly (FYI when speech slows, volume increases), and developed a definite slur. She was explaining Mormanism to me in the car and I had such a hard time not laughing at her as she slurred the explanation.
Well this is really long. so I'm out for now. I'll talk more later. Miss you all.

So back to the European escapade. The next morning I had nothing to do, so one of our translators Ira (pronouced eara) took me shopping. It went pretty well. I found a few souveniers. The thing I was the most impressed with, was their jewelry. In thier version of a department store, they had a stand with tons of sparkly jewelry. It was so pretty, and almost everything was under $10. I didn't buy much the first day, but I wish I had, because I never got back. That night, we headed over to the same methodist church, and my aunt taught the second half of the Esther bible study. That night I watched the pastors two children, and one of the children from Comanitza(another methodist church is here, we visited it later.) They were adorable. Little Abigail was not quite 1, Martin was about 3, and Rubin was maybe 5-6. They played really well together, and really liked the toys I brought. (Martin loves hotwheels cars. He called them Malenchy Machencas which is spelled all wrong but means small car in Russian) When we were going home that night, we saw a motorcycle accident, and it was obviously recent, because there was a guy laying dead on the road, they hadn't even covered him yet. It was pretty disturbing.
In Ukraine the roads are aweful. The government doesn't have the money to fix them, so they don't. The cars are bad too, because no-one can afford nice ones, so they all have that horrible old car gas fume, and none of them have seat belts. To top it all off, Ukrainians are crazy drivers. Their highways are two lane, and they will pass cars even where there are cars coming the other way. It's pretty scary. I was very glad to get back to the US where I had my seatbelt.
Most of our days went like this, one day we visited Gypsy villages all day. The first one was crazy. As soon as we got there, we attracted a following, and my aunt gave me her camera to take some picutres while we were there. So I started doing that. Now in gypsy villages everyone is very poor, and none of them can afford cameras, so they ask anyone with a camera to take their picture. So after the adults went into their church, (which had a dirt floor, and a set on roof) I was mobbed by the younger people, and took more pictures than you would believe. Then we tried to get the children to play with us, and Christine was upset because at the beginning some of the toys dissapeared, which was to be expected, because in thier culture stealing is ok as long as you don't get caught. We had plannd for this, and only brought some of the toys we had to this village so we would have more for the next one. After our attempts at games failed they began pulling the grapes off of trees and throwing them at each other. We finally (with big help from Ira) got them to sit down, and sing. They really enjoyed this. I was surprised. It was really nice.
The second village was much more calm, it was a more suburban village, and we didn't have any children to take care of.
Another day we visited The boys and girls orphanages. These aren't technically orphanages, they are for children who were in orphanages, and were too old to stay, but not ready to be on thier own. So they set up these sort of transition homes, so that they don't end up begging, or in prostitution. The boys home as a little bit overwhelming. There were probably amlmost ten boys, and they were wild. But apparently they had settled down quite a bit from before. The girls house was really nice. They had a big house for them to live in, and then a gigantic yard, with farm animals, fileds, huge gardens, and a bunch or cherry trees, with some realy good cherries on them. We were there when they were ripe. Those were some of the best cherries I've ever had.
One of the girls at the girls house befriended me, and before we left she gave me her teddy bear. I couldn't belive it. That was probably one of the only things she had, and she gave it to me. I had a really hard time accepting it, but she would have been really insulted if I hadn't.
This is getting really long, and I'm tired of typing, so I'm going to wrap it up for now. I'll wirte more later. Miss you all.

And I'm back. It's currently very late, or very early. However you want to look at it. I had an aweful dream, and now I can't fall back asleep. So I thought I would confide in my blog and see if that calms me down.
We begin, it was the last day of school (11th grade again). But it was more like a last day of school in grade school, because we were all there, and we were all cleaning out our lockers. As I was cleaning out my locker, Leila came up, and we started talking. I'm not quite sure what all was said, but then I suddenly realized where the conversation was heading, and asked her, Did you move to Bismarck? She had. I couldn't believe it. I was super mad at her parents, and just didn't know what to do with myself. I mean it was bad enough that all the seniors were leaving at the end of the summer, but now she was gone already. So that put me down to a minute amount of friends for my senior year.
Then Leila had to leave to go somewhere else, before she headed back to Bismarck, and Mahinda (who was also in the conversation by the way) and I started to head to the parking lot to go home. As we were leaving we passed by Mrs. Soliegaard, and she asked us what was wrong, but neither of us answered, and we just kept walking in a daze.
Then I was suddenly home, and I was talking to Wonder Woman, I told her that Leila moved, and then I started bawling. And I cried for a long time. Then I woke up.
So first I have a query, if I can bawl in my dreams because of something that should make me bawl, does that remove some of the cold and soulless tendancies, or is it void because it was a dream?
Now a theory. I think this dream is because most of my friends are leaving end of the summer, and I'm really afraid the other ones will leave me too, and then I'll have no friends again. Because that has happened before. In grade school I had two years, where I had about 13 friends move. It was aweful. I had dreams like this when Marika moved as well. A few nights before she left, I dreamed that Leila was moving as well. Here ends the musing of Amanda. tune in next time for, why do the lids on pringles can pop up in the mountains? (this is especially for Mr. Chemistry man)
Ok, This is really long, and I'm running out of typing steam, so I'm going to try to go back to bed. So goodnight to all, and none of you are allowed to leave, unless you have completed your senior year of high school. Night Night.

Heelllloooo My friendly blog mates. I have returned from the great beyond, also known as the Ukraine. It's currently 8pm, I had 13 hours of sleep last night, woke up at 1pm this afternoon, and I'm exhausted. Time travel does a number on you. Although coming this way is much easier than going the other way. At least when you get here it's night time, and they don't expect you to start another day after 24 hours of traveling.
So when we first arrived, we actually flew into Budapest which is the only town I can spell that we visited. We had our van driver Ivan (when pronounced it ryhmes with Lavonne) pick us up, and he took us on the 6-9 hr drive to Mykatchevo(pretty sure that's spelled wrong, but this is the town we stayed in). On the way he took us out to supper, and ordered for us because we don't speak Hungarian, and couldn't read the menu. Ivan only spoke a little english, so we learned a little about the country, and the landscape looked just like home. Flat with alot of vegetation. So for supper we had what they called Ham, and then they told us it was from a cow. We're like okay whatever, we're just hungry, so they brought us out beef. We arrived in Mykatchevo at about midnight, and it was two days after had left I think. I still haven't figured out the time change thing. I never knew what day it was. Our hotel was awesome, we had three rooms in our room. We had a bedroom, with two beds, and a couch, then a bathroom, and a hallway, with a big closet. The only bad things was that in Ukraine, the sewer system is so poor that if you flush your toilet paper it would get really messed up, so you have to throw it in a garbage can, which is rather gross. And probably unsanitary.
The next day we woke up, and headed over to Dale and Janis's apartment for breakfast. We met everyone, and after breakfast we headed over to the Children's hospital for a meeting, because my church sent a donation. When we got there, they were very appreciative, and are using it towards their physical therapy room, which consits of a broken swimming pool, with dirt and rocks in it. And then they gave Christine who we traveled with (she was pretty much nuts) a really neat book about the hospital, in Russian of course. Then htey talked about different needs of the hospital etc. for probal 20-40 mins, and then the head man in the meeting asked me if I was American, and i responded yes, and he goes OH!, I'm sorry, I thought you were Ukrainian and gives me a book and his card and everything, which really didn't help me, because I can't read either of them lol. They then offered to fidn me a nice Ukrainian husband if I would like. That night we went to a Methodist church in Ooshgarad (don't know how to spell that one either but's that's how we're going to spell is from now on, it's phonetic) That night, my aunt taught a bible study about the book of Esther.
It think that's all I'm going to write for tonight, but I have two more lay low days to fill you in. And one of the days my aunt said she might take me to the Museum. How cool is that! And I have to say I've really enjoyed having comments and the chatter box while I"ve been gone. Keep it coming. Love you all.

Hello my friends, how are you all today? I'm alirght. I'm still here in the Ukraine, we have three days left. I'm getting United States sick. I miss being able to communicate with people, other than thank you, yes, and hand gestures. It is nice over here though, and I know I'm not going to want to go home when it comes time, because I've made good friends in the week I've been here.
What has been happening in our little hometown? Same as always? Not too much? I should really get going, we have to leave for Ooshgarad(I haven't learned how to spell in Ukrainian yet either, they have a different alphabet than us.) We're going for church, and my aunt is teaching. Love and miss you all. Talk to you soon.
~Amanda

Amanda here, coming to you live from the Ukraine. I'm just writing a quick post to say I got here safe, and we're having alot of fun. I can't talk long, because other people need the computer. I love oyu all, and I'll talk to you all later. Mwah!

And the last post before I leave for the Ukraine. It appears everyone is leaving for somewhere tomorrow. Mahinda, and Aden head of to Boys/Girls state, we're off to the Ukraine, my grandma and aunt from ND are heading home. Crazyness. And Mahinda I feel your pain about the duffle bag, I'm leaving a bunch of my stuff here, because people over there really only have three pairs of clothes, so you won't fit in well if you wear too many clothes. But all the supplies we have to bring over there. Wow! We have four big suitcase full, and then there's some stuff in my suitcase with my clothes, because I had extra room, and stuff we really can't afford to loose is going in carry on bags.
Tonight we had a really fancy dinner with my aunts ex-husband, his parents, and his sister's family, for Lenni's graduation. I got to wear my homecoming dress again, and that was exciting, because I love that drss. And I got to wear my new pair of "expensive" shoes. Holy cow was that a pricy reastaurant. My meal was $30 with out a tip. My aunt and her ex-husband split it, but I feel really bad, and I really want to pay them back for it, because both my aunt and my grandma have been buying me alot of stuff while I've been here, and I have money specifically for these things, but they won't let me use it. The dinner was nice though, and wasn't as tense as I thought it would be. Everyone was civil at least. It looked like it was really hard on my aunt though. We got in the car afterwards, and she started crying. I still don't quite understand why.
Oh man, it's getting late, and I need to get some sleep. If I can't blog again until I get back, I'll be keeping a journal, and I'll have a gigantic post then. I'll miss you all. I love you.

Hello Everyone (to borrow a line from Mahinda). Yesterday was anoher eventful day in the humid ciy of Pittsburgh. It was my cousins graduation. We went to the ceremony, but they hold their's in an autitorium, and it can't hold all the people for the ceremony, so each child gets four tickets for people to invite in the audiorium, and the rest of the people sit in the cafeteria, where they wire in audio, and video for us. My aunt from ND, my grandma and I sat out there. That as one of the longest graduations ever, it lasted 2 1/2 hours. The diploma presentation took 1hr and 15mins alone. I liked it though. I realy wish I went to their school. People are allowed to go beyond what the entire rest of the class wants to do. (which in our case is absolutely nothing, well except drugs and each other.)
Last night I had this crazy dream. I drempt that my cousin Xenith was taking me to my dad's seed plant, and for some reason he knew the way better than me. As we were entering the forest we had to go through, he changed into some sort of mouse (of rat size) and ran off into the forest. The kanagaroo I was riding couldn't keep up, and had a lot of trouble with the steep hills, so we lost him, and he ran off into a nearby field. When I looked to the side I had arrived at my dad's seed plant. Now if I couldn't figure out what the dream meant that I had two days ago. There is no possible way I'm going to figure this one out.
Today is the final of packing for the Ukraine, we leave tomorrow morning after church. I'm really looking foreward to it too. It takes 24 straight hours of traveling to get to the town we're staying in. After all the flights we had a 6 hour van ride from Budapest, and when crossing the border into Ukraine it's possible they'll try to take our stuff from us. They didn't get anything taken last time, but sometimes the guards have to be bribed to let us through with all our stuff. It's a little diferent than inter United States travel. I had best get going, we still have a lot of packing to do, but I will talk more later. I'm pretty sure at least. I don't know if I'll be able to blog over there, we'll see. Miss and Love you all.

Today, I got back some pictures with the worst developing I've ever seen. I'm exteremely underimpressed. Granted they were developd at Walmart's one hour photo, but still even they should be able to do better than this. It looked like they printed them off, and the printer was running out of ink. The color saturation was nowhere near what it should have been. They all have these lines running through them, and there is one line on each picture that is the saturation it should have been. So from now on, Walmart will take no part in developing my pictures. I got back some of the ones from when the EGS'ers were at Laura's house. I had two of those that looked decent. One of Uma, and one of Giles. But the rest are crap. My aunt from ND was trying to tell me that the focus was off, but it wasn't, you just couldn't see anthing because of the lack of color. I seem to be really upset about this. You wouldn't think it should matter so much. It's strange.
Well anyway. I met the other lady that is going with my aunt and I to the Ukraine. She's seems a little scatter brained. Although she did manage to find us almost 20 bibles in Ukrainian. We're going to be giving those to some of the orphans.
Right now I'm reading Main Street, and I'm so frightened by it. One of the farmers even has the same last name as one of my dad's emloyee's does. I really wish I had my own copy so I could hilight the parts that sound like home. Oh, i wish I had a hilighter too.
This entry really isn't going anywhere, so I think I will. I'll talk to you all later.

Aloha all. Another eventful day in the life of a Pittsburgher. They should make that at a Fast food resaurant. Aden, Abner, and Paco one of you bring that up to your boss. But I better not see a sign reading... "Introcuing, The New Pittsburger" until I get my royalty money.
Today was a busy day at the ofice, we had even less patients than yesterday, but they all had many things wrong, either physicaly, or emotionally. One little old lady came in today, and she has a bit of dimensia. The staff had been encouraging her for years to get a mammogram, and she never would. So today they found a lump in her breast, and they tried to get an appointment set up with the oncology doctors, she looked so scared. I felt awful for her. That will be one of the hardest parts of being a doctor. I think I'm realy going to have trouble not telling people about my cases too. I find this stuff really interesting, so I'm going to have to marry some one with a strong stomache. We also discovered a drug addiction in one of the post op patients. She was trying to get herself more pain pills than she should have had, and so the pharmacy did a background check on her, and it turns out she's had enough pain pills in the past few months to sedate a horse. Frightening isn't it? But on the brighter side of things, I learned how to do a urine test today. So I can help out with those in the Ukraine if needed. That's good.
I had the craziest dream last night. I drempt that Leila had become really good friends with one of the horniest guys at our highschool. If you knew me in Junior high, it's my seventh grade crush. And I was pretty uneasy about that, but I was like whatever, as long as nothing bad happens. But then they started tormenting me, and I ended up leaving them, and I found Wonder Woman and some of her friends and my ninth grade crush, hung out with them for a while, until they began to shun me as well. Then I headed into the gym, and found Mahinda, Abner, Aden, and Paco. They didn't shun me. And I really don't know what this dream means, because Leila and Wonder Woman wouldn't do that, unless they had some sort of conspiracy to gain my trust. They're probably just trying to get close enough to find out the secrects of the Universe! Well, here's their warning. I'l never tell!
So going to the office is done for this week. Now begins the manic packing so we're not staying up until 5 am Saturday, and skipping church to pack. Tomorrow we had a 6 am prayer meeting to get prayed over before we leave, and then we're sleeping and packing. Lenni's graduation is tomorrow as well. We're alo going out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate. And more good news, Xander got his drivers liscense today. He passed his test. So your's truly doesn't have to do any drving in the frightening city. Joy! Oh man, this is getting long. Sorry about that. Talk to you all later.

Hello Everyone. It's now storming here! Rejioce! Today was an easier day of work, there were less paients, and we had to leave early anyway to pick up my aunt, from ND, from the airport. My grandma came in for lunch today, and stayed the afternoon repacking sample pills to take to the Ukraine. It's so awesome, we bring diffle bags of pills, an medical supplies over. We also got a bunch of donations in the mail today. It's shaping up, no all we need to do is pack. It's really too bad that the girl my age can't go though. I'm rather sad.
Big news today, Wed. is the day all the sales reps come into my aunts office, and today they brought pens! I have two new ortho-trycyclene pens! And then they had this bucket full of old pens, and I got to take as many as I wanted of those too. I love the medical pens they're so mch fun. I'll have to show them to you when I get back. I love them. That was definitly the highlight of my day.
After the airport we went for a walk again. My aunt is trying to get us in shape for the Ukraine, because the cars are so bad over there, everone walks if the destination is within a few miles. So I need to bring comfy shoes. But walking is better on your feet than just standing there in my opinion, so I don't think it should be a problem.
I think my grandma is getting somewhat senile. She's really confused a lot. She's getting lost in my aunts house, and we have to watch her to make sure she comes back from the bathroom when we eat out. It's really sad. She can't move around very well either, she has to take a cane everywhere she goes now. And she looked exhausted as we left the airport, and I bet she didn't even walk a block while we were in there. So I decided I could definitly never go into geriatrics. It would make me so sad.
Well that's all for now. Oooh that was a good thunder! It's bedtime for this girl.
Miss and Love you all. Mwah

Good Evening. How are you all? I'm mucho tired. I did a full day of surgery today with my aunt. I saw three historectomies, and one D&C which I didn't completely understand what is was either, and i figure you gusy don't want me to recount in detail. We had to get up early today, the first surgery started at 7:30 this morning. So we had to leave the house by 6:45. Craziness.
After supper we decided to go to the mall for some last mintue shopping, and I found a cute yellow skirt. I like it. But it was really hard to shop with my grandma and Aunt who shop in the old ladies section. They pick out the big flower prints with matching pants and shirt, and it hurt even me. Man, if Wonder Woman had been there, her head probably would have exploded. I've never seen so many fashion violations. Sadly being as we were in a nice department store, Macy's style I found a ton of cute things, all out of my price range. Oh well, you can't win them all.
Leila, I don't know if you read this, but I started Main Street today, so far they are still in the cities so it doesn't remind me of our hometown yet, but I'm only in chapter two.
I need you guys to pray for our trip, my aunt's Nurse practitioner was sick today, and if she's sick tomorrow we won't be able to get everyone done very quickly, and the girl my age going has a knee injury and is on crutches right now, but we have alot of stuff we need. We jus need our health more, I'm not feeling to hot tonight either, granted I'm exahusted, but I think I have hives, either that or lots of bug bites. But hives are very possible, seeing as I forgot to take my Zyrtec this morning.
Otherwise things are going well. We leave Sunday, I'm getting really excited. But i have to get to bed. Love you all.

Hello my blog viewers. How is everything at home? everythig is pretty good here. I actually had a really good conversation with my Aunt today on the way to check on some of her patients about having medical anointing. (That's where when you pray for people you can actually feel the hol spirit going into that patient.) She's had this laot apparently, it's pretty cool. She also told me some interesting stories about my mom. There's alot of stuff she never told us.
The house has settled down now. Htis moning we went to my Aunt's church, which was really fun, it reminded me alot of Willow Creek, and it cracked me up, because they were projecting their powerpoint sutff on trampolines. It was neat. hen we came home and took a nap after I followed her on rounds. Naps rock. Then we took her dogs for a walk on a trail she has three houses down from her. That is the prettiest trail I have ever seen. I'm definitly getting ym camera down there asap.
I should get going though, we have to be at the ofice ealy tomorrow as my aunt's first surgery is at 7:30. I'll talk to you all later. Mwah!

Just kidding Mahinda, the chatterbox and everything else came back. My Bad.

Ahhh! What's happened to my chatter box and quote of the day?! I can't find them. Mahinda, help me! Sorry, I just had to have a minor freak out. I'm done now.
So Right now, I'm at my cousin, Lenni's, graduation reception. It's not exactly my kind of party. It's either all people over 40, or boys my age, who only know how communicte in video game language. I sat for a while watching them play thier X-box games, and I was thinking that had I put some bars around them, and gotten some peanuts, I could as well have been at the zoo. They even have thier own system of communication like animals. Oh well, I got my fair share of friends time before I left. I don't think I've ever been as social as I was at the end of June. I don't think I have much else to say. I think I might go read my book. Living the wild life now! Miss/Love you all. Talk more later.

What a busy day. I went to a nursing home consult, which as really sad. Ruled out Geriatrics. Then we figured out how to use a new machine in my aunt's office, and I followed the physician's assistant around for two patients after that, and learned more things about the female anatomy than I thought possible in two hours. I even got to use a microscope. Cool huh? Then we went to surgery, and I had to wear the whole sexy surgery ensemble with the hair cover and even shoe covers. Surgery actually went well,I couldn't see all that much, because I wasn't fully scrubed up, and couldn't touch anything that had been sterilized. But my aunt said I did really well, I didn't get dizzy or faint. Apparently I'm the first girl she's brought in that didn't get sick. So that just enforces the cold and soulless theory. Too bad. Well, we have to run to the grocery store to pick up supplies for my cousins graduation reception. Miss you all. talk later.

I have arrived. I don't believe my aunt has messenger though,so I am confined to blogging for a month. I wonder if I'll go through withdrawl? That could be interesting. So the flights over were pretty boring, no good turbulance even. Oh well, myrandma and I arrived safe and sounds here in Pittsurg. We got to see the Heinz fatory were al teh ketchup is made. Pretty col huh? Ad I saw mre sky scarapers today than i have seen in years. I saw them flying into Minneapolis, and we drove through downtown Pittsburg. eciting stuff. I was thinking on teh way over how wierd of a feeling it is to see the stuff come up and get closer and closer to you. They all look like toys until you touch down. Its pretty cool.
Mahinda I decided you would make a realy fun flight attendant. Now I'm not saying that's what you should go into or anything,I would just like to be on your flight. I can jsut see you starting off with "Well helo everyone. Welcome to flight [insert numer here] with non-stop serice to [insert city here]." and she would continue, and this sounded better in my head. but I still think you would be a good flight attendant. But I have to be getting to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow, I get to observe ovarian surgery. Exciting and frightening at the same time. Pry for me, and wish me luck. Mwah. Goodnight. Oh and ps. Mainda I finished Go ask Alice today. good book. Ill bring it back wel, in a month.

Ok I'm back again. I'd like to say Manda you're not a horrilbe person for missing stuff, you're just a busy person. and That's totally excusable. I wanted to say on behalf of my blog that it's feeling the lack of commments. Let's remedy that shall we? *phsycicly seeks non-commentors, and extract mace* jk.
So nervous/stressed symptoms in full swing? sure thing. can't sleep, got a tummy ache, and commence biting thumbs. (My nails dissapeared around finals time) T-H-U-M-B spells relief. but I really do have to get to bed now, I have to leave the house by 10 tomorrow. Have a Merry and a Braaaaaaaaa. Sorry Rent again. I really am going to be the wierd kid. Oh well, I"m used to it. Have a wonderful day.

Oh boy, frenzied packing ahoy. I am almost packed. But it's really nerve wracking. I'm so scared I'm going to forget something. And then people have entrusted me with well over $1000 for the orphanages and childrens hospital, and I so very frightnened that I will be lose it. And I'm gettgin nervous, because my stuff is already over the weight limit, and I'm not even done packing. I still have some shower stuff to pack. Augh! I even have to use hal of one of my grandma's suitacases, because the stuff for the Ukrainian people fills more than a suitcase. And it's heavy. Sorry I'm stressing all over my blog. *pets blog* That's not what blogs are for.
So Wonder Woman and I decided that I'm going to be the wierd girl in Pittsburg, because I'm going to sporatically burst into Rent songs. I really hope the girl my age who's going to the Ukraine has seen Rent. but that's unlikely.
So I was walking out of my last day of yearbook today, and I found a note on my car. It was very cute. Thank's Uma, from Wonder Woman as well.
So Wonder Woman and I were discussing today, as I was picking pictures out of my photo album to take with me, that I have a strange mental depletion. (I couldn't think of a better word than depletion) I have this problem that after a few weeks I can't recal faces of people. even people I know realy well. So that's why I bring pictures with me places. She just couldn't believe that. But that's how I am. But not to worry, i made sure I have pictures of all my blog readers, I'll never forget you. Lol I have to keep reminding myself that I'm only leaving for a month. Oh I'm getting emotional (well as emotional as a cold a soulless person can). Oh I'm done. and look at me babble.
Well I'm going to get going. Wish me luck with the packing dilemas. Mmmmwah! A big kiss to all my readers. Love you all. Have a wonderufl June even though I'll probably post again soon. Apparently I'll be in Pittsburg for 10 days befoer we leave, we leave for the Ukraine on the 13. Good thing some one told me. See you.

Another day another hemmorage. At least it's Mr. F's nad not mine. We have to have the yearbook done by tomorrow. Unlikely. I'm so glad I'm leaving, and don't have to deal with the completion. Yey! Next year however I will.
So 20 hours and counting until I leave for a month. Augh! there's so much to do, and so little time. And one more time. Augh! okay, I feel better. Oh wait, I"m still on the computer and haven't accomplished anything.
I have so much to do though, I'll try to write later, but I have to go to a reception now for a friend who's going back to Germany ( she was an exchange student) see you all later.

Hello everyone, I have just returned (well about an hour ago) from a church service and Nerraw, with Abner and Mahinda. I liked it, although the speakers really didn't have that much effect on me, because they talked about their drug addictions and drinking problems, and gang problems. But they did pray for my trip to the Ukraine, and Abner found out I was going to the Ukraine. I'm starting to get more nervous, I leave tomorrow, well since it's very early wed morning right now. But I leave for a month tomorrow! Frightening! I don't feel like I'm ready, I'm definitly going to need you guys to pray for me, pray that I don't forget anyhting. And that the flights go well, and that we stay safe. You guys rock.
Besides my freaking out, Abner succumbed to the world of blogging, and started his own. It is proudly displayed in my links. (we've trapped another one. only a few more and we will begin to dominate the world.) I would like to inform my readers that I think instead of e-mailing everyone while I'm gone, I'll just update my blog, because that is a heck of a lot easier than sending an e-mail to tons of people. And in conclusion, I have noticed a strange urge of mine lately, when I go to write if, I end up typing iff. Unless I think about it. As in shorthand notation for if an only if. There, I had to suppress it twice. I don't know if that goes along with the lack of spelling, or if (there it is again) I am just wierd. For the time being I would say the latter.

Well hello my blog viewers. Today was a landmark yearbook day. I spent 3 and 1/2 hours in yearbook today. I finished my pages for the most part, and parts of other peoples pages as well. I got a Rent quote in the yearbook! hooray! And I found out that I'm an editor next year, and my co-editor is Valencia. Which is who I was hoping for. A good day definitly. Oh, and I found the best picture of Mahinda for the Knowledge Bowl page. You'll all just have to wait to get your yearbooks to see what it is though. (hidden selling technique. Brilliant)
Exciting, I jsut ordered a spelling Bee trophy for my "brag table" at my gradutation reception next year. I'm so excited to make up my own awards. Yey! Someone gave me the idea to get awards with someone else's names on the m too, in something that isn't even offered here. And I'm going to make a macaroni medal. That's all for now. See-ya.

I have reached a conclusion on tennis, after a lot of babbling. I decided that I'm going to be indecisive about it anyway, but I'll end up signing up, because it's my senior year of tennis, and I don't want to miss that. So I'll hate it, but I might hate it more if I'm not in it.
I had something else to say last night, and I found it fascinating, i think it had something to do with Lola and Wonder Woman, but I can't remember now. So I'm off to work on the yearbook. Joyous. I'll be back.

Dudes! You gotta check out the party at Manda's house. Just kidding, it's over now. With a whoping total of three guests we decided the fate of the "mystery couple" from the graduating class. We decided it was going to be Giles and *sex voice* Ashely. We also watched the senior video, although we skipped "The Dream Season." Sadly enough. It was a good time though, and we did get rid of some more reception food. Strange I seemed to get enough of football during football season. Oh wait let's bring it back one more time. Oh Oh and once again. And for old time's sake, one more time. Sorry, I'm just so sick of football.
Today I went ot Great Spoons, a picked out alot of stuff to bring to the Ukraine, and found some clothes for when I'm job shadowing my aunt, and I'm feeling a little better about the trip, now that I'm that much closer to being ready. But I'm still rather nervous. I don't speak the language, because they speak Russian, now if it was Spanish I could communicate a little bit, at least enought to survive, but Russian, I'm screwed. And right now I have a social life, and friends, and I like it alot. I want to leave next september, when almost all my friends leave, that would be ideal. Next september, I will have a whopping total of 3 friends. And they're busy people, and I'll hardly see them. Although if I can make the cut for Drama which is probably not very realistic, I'll spend alot more time with them in the spring. But I want t spend time with my friends now. But I know it will be a good experience, and I really do want to go to Europe, and I really should get out of this stupid town, aside from yearbook camp this summer, maybe. And I do want to go, I'm just torn.
I am now debating whether I really want to be in tennis next year. I mean I hate tennis, and I hate doing Geff's poop work. (pardon my french) But I like being on the team with Leila, but then I suck, and Leila is good, and I won't ever see her next year. I didn't even get to sit by her at Paradiso teusday this year. I sat at the freshman table. And I hate tennis, and I hated last year, but I want to be in the pepfest, and I know I'll be so jealous whenever anything tennis related is happening, even though if I was going I'd give anything to stay. So how conflicted am I? Very very very conlficted, so I'm not going to think about it right now, because I have to go in for yearbook tomorrow, and I need to get to bed. Sorry this was a rant entry. I hate when I complain like that.