Travel Plans

Just a quick update-- I finally just bought my plane tickets to go visit my friend Haley over spring break while she's off studying abroad in Chambery, France.  Plans are under way to see other parts of Europe while I'm there, which is very exciting.  So far my only experience with Europe has been a crazy 12 hours in London, and I'm itching to try out my French on native speakers.  Here's a link to Haley's blog about her travels in France, to give you an idea of where I'm headed (but also to plug her blog-- I know she loves having more followers).

Spring Schedule

I'm fairly certain of my schedule at this point, so here it is for all of you who are interested.

BIOG 1110: Intro to Biology, MWF 9:05-9:55 and T 2:00-4:30

LING 2218: History of the English Language, MWF 10:10-11:00

FREN 3050: French through Film, MWF 11:15-12:05

ENGL 2060: Cornelian Authors, M 2:55-4:10 and W 7:30-8:45

PSYCH 2150: Psychology of Language, TR 10:10-11:25

Bio is a chore, mostly to fulfill a science lab requirement.  But it focuses on human biology, biomedical technology and ethics, and forensic sciences, so it could be interesting.  I'm reserving judgement.  History of the English Language is also largely for a requirement, but it's definitely the best history class I could imagine-- explaining the whys behind the stupidity of the English language, and the complex factors that came together to make the language so vast.  Although I was fairly disturbed that French through Film has no books, it seems like it will be a good class for improving conversational/grammatical skills.  I really like my professor for the Cornelian Authors course, which I think might make up for it being not a very advanced course.  Psychology of Language also seems to have a good professor-- he literally wrote the book.  All in all, I'm optimistic.

The Hockey Spirit

Friday, January 22nd and Saturday, January 23rd, 2009

Lynah Rink, Ithaca, NY

While at Hillary's place over break, I made an excellent new hat for hockey games-- my big red bear hat.  Yes, I'm aware that it looks very silly.  I used a regular hat pattern with hairy yarn and added ears of my own invention, with the result earning me many comments.  Hillary's hat was also knit by the wearer, and in spite of being a little too classy to be next to the bear hat, is awesome nevertheless.

Our zamboni driver at the first game, wearing another amazing costume.

We played against North Dakota two nights in a row, winning the first night and losing the second.  The Friday night game, we're pretty sure they won because is was Hillary's birthday.  The second game was a bummer-- North Dakota scored within the first 20 seconds, and we were forced to play catch up through the rest of the game.  Although we scored right at the end by pulling our goalie, North Dakota ruined it by immediately scoring an open net goal with only a few seconds left to go.  But, to quote another Lynah Faithful, "look at it this way, at the end of the day, THEY still have to go back to North Dakota."  Good way to put things in perspective.

At the second game-- we had amazing seats, right on the ice.  It's impossible not to love watching the players slam into the glass right in front of your face.

Our team saluting their loyal fans-- win or lose, they do this at the end of every game, and we always stay to cheer right back.

Wilderness First Responder

January 5th-13th, 2009

Ithaca, NY

Leave it to COE to make 70 hours of intensive first aid education actually fun.  In spite of the fact that each of the 8 days of class started at 8 am and went straight through til 6pm, and in spite of spending much of that time in a basement, the class was hands on, interactive, and very engaging.  We performed CPR, created our own improvised litters from equipment we had in the basement, cleaned out wounds on pigs feet, actually injected each other with saline, and spent a lot of time in "simulations."

A spinally stable improvised carry

Using a tarp and ropes to create a litter

A piggy back style carry using a mountaineering rope

The small scale simulations used some very realistic makeup and some improvisational acting skills to create one-on-one situations between a patient and a rescuer.  These let us practice patient assessment and deciding on treatment plans for everything from common problems, to "once in a blue moon" problems, to "hope this never, ever happens" problems.  The full-blown simulations created larger accident scenarios where rescuers had to work together, organize triage, allocate resources, and safely evacuate patients.

A beautiful winter afternoon at the Challenge Course

The class after finishing Simulation 2-- 1 dislocated shoulder reduced, 1 ankle injury stabilized, 1 anaphylactic reaction stopped, and 1 possible spinal injury carried out through 20 inches of snow.

With this new WFR certification, I'm cleared to give CPR, use an AED and supplemental oxygen, give injections of epinephrin for anaphylaxis and severe asthma attacks, and give spinal assessments.  This is the level of first aid necessary for me to hopefully teach the Costa Rica tree climbing class next winter.

But, intense as the class was, we did get one free day and a little extra curricular play time-- we spent an afternoon building an igloo, an evening rock climbing, and a morning winter tree climbing.

Igloo building process-- after sleeping in and a hearty pancake breakfast on our day off, everyone was ready for a day of fun in the snow.

Starting to dig out the igloo.  We ended up with all 9 of us fitting comfortably inside.

Bouldering on the Lindseth wall-- most of our WFR class stayed late one night, and we ended up climbing until midnight.  I discovered that bouldering is really just twister for grown ups.

Dusting some snow off the platform for a little winter tree climbing.  Julien (one of my co-instructors for tree climbing, who also took WFR) and I took a bunch of our classmates out to try it for the first time.  It was a little chilly, but beautiful.