Sjuksköterskestudenter utomlands

Week 2 started out good. I found to a barn and some horses. It is hard to be away from my animal-friend, a horse namend Lovely who lives in Sweden. Happily Jennie (one of my roommates) helped me to find a place called ”Horse Dreams” which is really close to where I live. At Horse Dreams they work with having 2 horse-camps for children in the summer – all for free! For children an families that can’t efford their children to ride. So during the rest of the year the 18 horses that Mrs. Paula owns have to be feed and exercised. At it is here she has a lot of college-students helping here with that in exchange for riding.

And than Walmart. Again. I love Walmart – the big store that has everything! In this picture you can see crazy scrubs that the nurses have to buy by themselves. I learned during the last week that the nurses here have to wash their own scrubs. I also learned that the nurses don’t use aprons, only if their patient having diseases that their know about. I have even seen nurses not wearing anything besides their scrubs when helping a mother giving birth to her child. I also learned that Georgia is a State where forbidden by law to teach anything else than abstinence from sex as contraceptive, which means that people can’t have sex if they don’t want a baby. Or at least it means that the schools don’t teach about condoms or other contraceptives.

In this picture you can see what it takes to buy a weapon in Georgia. You have to be of a certain age and you have to show a by government issued identification, preferable the drivers license. That means that everybody in the State of Georgia can buy a gun. I know though from my roommates that you need a certain license to be able to carry a gun with you. But it is easy to get that from what I have heard. One night there was a shooting near our house. I still do not know why, but my roommates told me that there are gang-issues and have been all summer long.

 

Of course I had to bake a “kladdkaka” or as I call it in english “mudcake” for my kind and always helping roommates! I am actually allowed to borrow their cars sometimes which makes it easy for me to get to the barn, the gym and, of course, Walmart! I am pretty proud of myself to find myself through the jungle of streets here. But it helps that the streets are so big, it makes it easier to drive and see the traffic.

One of my days at the university I was allowed to spend with eldery people who where bicycle-racing. Not so harmless I have to say… One broke his wrist, one crashed is bike and probably his hip too and one made it as only male in 90+ to the gold-medal. The 90+ man you can see in this picture. He said he didn’t think it was so hard though he hadn’t any competition, but he waits for the next year for someone to claim his prize.

 

This travel has so far been a cultural challenge for me. There are many things I’m not always sure about. But sometimes signs help me to know how I should behave or dress. For instance this sign which explains the dress-code for the gym. I was by the way able to buy a membership for the gym for the time being in Milledgeville. The gym is really nice and modern. It has 2 swimming-pools, 2 big sports halls, a big gym and is all green, which means they don’t have any emissions. E.g. they use the energy the students make by riding bicycles and running on the thread-mill.

There are a lot of interesting animals here! I have not been able to catch all on camera, but they will always be there in my memory. Or at least as long my memory works as it should. In the first picture you can see a Mantis, in the second you can see a cockroach. The worst thing with cockroaches is that they can fly too… And one night one ran over my foot when I opened the door just for one second… I washed off my foot afterwards. I’ve seen big spiders and caterpillars too, but also a lot of birds, e.g. the big white Egret, such a beautiful bird!

 

 

Everything in the U.S. is possible to get by car, even medications, coffee and money from the bank – drive-thru! In this picture you can see a drive-thru pharmacy. Medication here is not the same as in Sweden. There are some painkillers, stomach-medication, antibiotics (for the skin) and even some sleeping-pills you can get easily without any prescription. In the next picture you can see all the medications I just described below, all for under 1 Dollar at Walmart. Even ointment for smoother muscles.

Between the days at the university I am able to take a swim in a outside pool as well. The day I took this picture was unfortunately one of the last days I saw the sun. The weather is still humid, but it is starting to get more cold though fall is due here too.

The clinical rotation in the community at Georgia College also means that I have to gain knowledge from different activities in the community. One of my days with my fellow nursing students I spend at the Ocmulgee National Monument Park where Indians from all over the U.S. had a big meeting. In the first picture you can see how different the food is from the Indians usual food compared to our modern food-rations. At the park we students had to be in a first-aid tent waiting for people in need of first-aid. (Un-) Fortunately there where no people in need of care when I was at the station so I was able to go and see all the fun stuff the festival had to offer. In the second picture you can se an Indian mound, a hill build with clay by Indians. I was able to walk inside it and it is believed that the mound functioned as a place for rituals. In the third picture you can see the typical lunch here. As we where volunteers we got food for free. As a poor student I do not complain about free food, but I wanted to show you the picture of it because a lot of food over here looks just like that. I do actually cook a lot of food by myself, just because I like to know what’s in the food. In comparison here a picture of the food I made with food from a farmers market. I used potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash pumpkin and Ocra. Ocra is a vegetable which is typical for the South of America. I really enjoyed my Ocra as my supervisor/teacher Sallie Coke (who got me to Georgia) recommended me to taste it. I think I liked it most as a raw vegetable, crunchy! In the 5st picture you can see me in front of the ambulance they had at the festival. Actually they did leave to motor on, because they’re otherwise afraid of the engine not to start again. It is still a car that need a lot of energy to work properly. The last picture here shows my little key-chain I bought at the market from a really, really nice and pretty dressed woman at a tent. Such a magnificent handcraft!

Later in the week the students had to give each other and all people who came in and wanted, a flue-shoot. It is a vaccine against the influenza and is offered all students for free, but is mandatory for all nursing-students. Other people from different places in Milly can choose to stop buy and pay 20 Dollars for the vaccine as well. This gives the students a great opportunity to practice a intramuscular injection in the deltoid muscle.

And than of course more horses again… I bought this wonderful leggings with horses, of course, at Walmart. And I rode in them, because it was to humid and warm to wear my usual riding-pants. You can also se Mrs. Paula driving here golf-cart on the trail. It was interesting to see how far the car could go, but there are so much stronger than I ever thought! It went a lot up- and downhill!

The nature around here is also very beautiful. Here you can se the hibiscus, one of my favorite flowers when painted. 

On of my days at the students clinic I spent learning a lot about pediatrics and I also learned how to intubate a baby. Even if neither the nurses in the USA nor in Sweden are allowed to intubate patients if they aren’t an anesthesia-nurse, it is always good to have the knowledge of it!

Georgia is known as the State where a lot of movies are recorded. One of them is “Fried Green Tomatoes”. I had the pleasure to borrow the movie from my roommate and I loved it! But of course I hade to try real fried tomatoes to and I loved them too! Here you can see how the look like for real.

As a lot of my friends at home know I am a nurse to be involved in a lot of discussions about the future salary for nurses. Here at Georgia College there is a organization called “Start Smart”. They had a workshop about how to start smart with a good salary, because there is a huge gap between man and woman. During a lifetime a man can earn 1 miljon Dollar more than the woman…

I don’t know why, but I didn’t believe that all the things I have seen on TV from America where for real. One example is here: they do play beer-pong at parties and there are people producing a spirituous called “Moonshine”. Moonshine is known as alcohol that is made outside of the borders of the law, it is forbidden do make your own alcohol in the U.S, just as it is in Sweden. But there are people (yes, in Sweden too) who make Moonshine. And then there is Moonshine that is sold legally. In the picture you can see Moonshine at a liquor-store.

And here one last special picture. Buy wine at the pharmacy. You could buy all that is needed for the evening there: pills, DVD’s, toys for kids, candies, body-products… And of course wine…