Yesterday was just a fantastic day altogether! At Veritas, the international students studying medicine held a Health Fair with different stands set up. At the stand run by the students in my Tropical Medicine course, we measured BMI, blood glucose levels, and blood pressure. It may sound boring, but I actually had a lot of fun during my shift! Dr. Abarca taught me how to properly prick a finger and use a blood glucose meter. Some people weren't so fond of being pricked, if you can imagine! Dr. Abarca told us to assume that every person is infected with HIV, so I had to be extra cautious with the blood samples and needle. I learned that a normal blood glucose level, after 8 hours of fasting, should be between 60 and 100.
After my shift, I grabbed a quick lunch with my friend Anne and headed to do my second and final patient simulation. Easy as pie! After my simulation, I headed down to check out the other stands at the health fair. To my benefit, the professor of the Alternative Medicine class was performing acupuncture at their stand. Of course I waited in line for about 30 minutes! It was worth it too! Not only did he give me acupuncture, but he popped my joints and gave me a massage as well. I felt great afterward!
I then headed back up to my Spanish class, and Ronulfo (my teacher) corrected a few grammatical mistakes that we had made as a whole. He then gave us some advice for practicing and improving our Spanish: watch Spanish-speaking movies with English subtitles, read libros de los niños (children's books) in Spanish, and talk in Spanish with each other via Facebook or whatever method we use to keep in touch. Although our class was significantly more difficult than the others, I'm really glad that Ronulfo challenged us. I realized yesterday that I have learned so much! I struggled a lot with verb tenses, and he helped me a ton! Although the class was for 5 hours Monday through Thursday, it didn't feel like it because we were always doing different activities to practice our Spanish. In my Spanish courses in the States, I could write in Spanish easily. Speaking, not so much. In Costa Rica, the main focus of my Spanish class was conversation. I'm so grateful!
Last night, all of the ISA students went to Café Britt for a farewell dinner (this week is Summer 4's last week, because they are only taking Spanish). We got a coffee tour, and then they served us dinner! They gave us free samples of chocolate-covered coffee beans...let's just say it was a little difficult for me to fall asleep last night :)
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