IFMSA-USA

I have been National Vice-President of the International Federation of Medical Students Association for a couple years now. It is an awesome organization and I am planning on attending the General Assembly in March of 2008 in Monterrey, Mexico. Over 700 students from 90 countries assemble for a week to catch up on this Global Organization (which occurs twice a year March and August).

Here is a link with a little more info:

http://www.mm08.org/

I went with a group in 2006 to Pucon, Chile for a GA here are some photos from that trip:

I have been hearing stories of my family members (one of my favorite Aunts ) Google-ing my name to see what I’m up to and if you do, IFMSA is what comes up. So just a bit of inside info.

Much love!!!

Home Sweet Upstate

Goodness, it has been awhile. So, um… where to start? Dennis has been back for about a month now, and it has been wonderful! Watertown is a small place, about 30,000 folks, and it feels like quite a small place.

We are about 30 miles from Canada.

We are 8 miles from a little place called Sacket’s Harbor, it is a cute little village that was a major site during the war of 1812. It also has a great little coffee shop named Chrissy Beanz. It is right on Lake Ontario and beautiful. It also has the best restaurants in the entire area… Sacket’s Brewing Co. and Good Fellos (wine and pizza bar) owned by the same family.

We are about 18 miles from another cute little village Clayton which is part of the 1000 Islands region… the islands in the area are so cool! There are castles on some of them, ferrys, houses, it’s beautiful…it’s right on the St. Lawrence River. There is also a coffee shop here that I LOVE to go to called the Lyric Coffee House. It is an old vaudeville theatre so there is a balcony with seats inside, it is open late, there are sandwiches, gelato, coffee drinks galore.

Hmmm…Watertown proper? Well, there’s a Panera (our second home), a Borders, a tiny organic store called the Mustard Seed and plenty of Dunkin Donuts. You also have your run of the mill drive thru fast food, Applebees, Red Lobster, etc. There is a small ski hill only a few minutes down the road (literally) Dry Hill which is cheap and looks like fun.

We are an hour north of Syracuse, been there a few times, mainly for a coffee shop, Recess Coffee House, a lot of the SUNY Upstate students hang out…oh look, there’s a student now! It had started to rain, and I was looking out the window when D snapped this photo.

.

There are more…

This is how exciting it is being a third year med student studying… I am much more alive in the hospital, I promise all you patients out there

So about 2 hours from Ithaca…which is where the Moosewood Restaurant is (like in the cookbook).

The Adirondacks are only about an hour away, and the beautiful Catskills about 4 hours away!

But enough about where we live…how are we? Well,

1. Dennis cut his hair.

2. Dennis got a job.

3. Dennis is registering for an EMT course in the spring.

4. Dennis is going home to Colorado for Christmas.

5. Gretchen is almost done with her ICU rotation.

6. Gretchen has not cut her hair.

7. Gretchen has set up 2 rotations for next fall (whoooopiee!!!)

— Emergency Med Tulsa Oklahoma

— Emergency Med Warwick Rhode Island

8. Gretchen is going home to Arizona for Christmas.

We leave you with pictures of one of the most beautiful spots on the planet….the Grand Canyon. D took these when he was visiting me in AZ in September.

~~~~~~~~~~~Much love y’all~~~~~~~~~