early mornings and lots of reading

School is back in full swing.

The first week of clinicals are finished.

There's a bonfire at the beach with our brother floor tomorrow night.

I've had a big cup of coffee today.

Life is good.

= )

Each day that I am here, I am falling more and more in love with the floor that I am blessed to be living on this year. These women are AMAZING. They are absolutely solid when it comes to their zest for life and desire to live in community with one another. I have been taken in and I feel as if I have known a lot of them for much longer than a couple weeks. There have been a few times that girls have told me how glad they are to have me on the floor, which has been such an encouragement for me since a lot of them have lived together for at least three years and have such deep roots.

I went back to my old dorm last weekend and spent a couple hours with my floor partner from last year, Hannah. Despite knowing most of that floor that she is an RA on, it's strange to enter the building that I called "home" for 3 years and not recognize each face. It will always be an important building for me because I grew so much while I was there and have great memories within its walls, but I cannot say that I wish that I lived there this year. I was ready for a change and am finding that it suits me well. One of my residents from last year visits here frequently and commented that she was glad I was here. She told me that I seemed much happier this year than I had last year. I thought about what she said later, realizing that she was 100% right. I wouldn't trade any experiences that I had last year, but it was tough and I am much happier where I am right now. There have been a lot of great conversations so far this semester and I couldn't be more convinced that I am right where I am supposed to be.

Nursing classes are going well so far. We are working at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood right now, about 30 minutes away when there's no traffic (but it's LA, after all). It's still very tied into it's Catholic roots and I can say that I gave my first intradermal injection (it was a TB test) with Sister Mary today. There are a few Sisters who work on each floor.

The hospital itself is a good sized facility with a trauma center. We were given a heads up that there would be a chance we'd see officers outside of patient rooms and have gunshot victims during our rotation. It's a far cry from City of Hope (last semester) with it's 3-1 patient-nurse ratio and crisp quiet hallways. I think I like this more, though, in some weird way. It makes all that I've heard about budget cuts and under-staffing in urban hospitals completely relevant to my life now. I'm done with this rotation September 26. We'll see how the rest of the experience goes.

Anyway, this is getting to be fairly long so I'll stop writing now. Love you all!

~ Lise