Room Rearranging, Ride-Alongs, and Other Randomosity that Begins with the Letter R

The past week has actually been quite nice. After a relaxing Monday off followed by an intense class on Tuesday, Wednesday went well as well. After a discussion about the current book we're reading for our internship, Mike, Eli and I had a study group. Jon popped in a few times to share answers, and Jeff even stopped by to give us a bunch of information about aspects that we were struggling with. The quiz was on Thursday, and although I didn't do as well as I had on previous quizzes, it must have been a fairly difficult quiz, because the only four that passed happened to be the four of us that studied together! Since our study group proved to be so effective, we moved it to first thing on Wednesday mornings so that others from the class can join us. Friday was preparation for the winter camp. Saturday was pretty dull, but I taught myself how to make tortillas! On Sunday after church, Eli picked me up and took me to his brothers' house in Omaha. I ended up playing this crazy video game called Dead Island, which is basically about trying to slay zombies and help the few survivors on a vacation island. Unfortunately, I wound up playing this well past midnight, even though my ride-along was the next day at 7:30am!

The good news is that I DID make it to the fire station at 7:30 awake and ready for action. I saw the ambulance leave the station as I was coming in (turns out they were just getting food, which explains the absence of lights and sirens), so one of the firefighters gave me a tour of the place. Now, before I continue, I've got to mention that just about everyone else was stuck in the station's classroom alone and without TV, and they couldn't even eat meals with the firefighters and paramedics. The firefighter that was giving me the tour said he would take me to the classroom, which I would probably like because I would be able to use the TV. But when we got in there, a firefighter was relaxing in there, saying it was where he hang out, but "she can stay in here if she wants, she's cute enough." That's when I realized "Oh yeah, I am the girl. That might just get me royal treatment here." And boy, did it! :)

I ended sitting at the kitchen table, which was WAY better than the classroom. For one, I wasn't alone. I'm pretty sure everyone chatted with me at least a little. For another, I got to watch TV. I was also trying to study, but there was some pretty interesting news on that day, and later in the day they even let me have control of the remote, which is something that they rarely let students do from what I've heard in class.

We got one call mid-morning. Of course, for security and privacy purposes, I won't give out details, it wasn't a very serious incident that involved a whole lot. However, it was great to see how the things I've learned play out in real life, because there are some things that you just can't practice in class. Some things I had always wondered was why the firetruck almost always follows the ambulance (in case a patient is too heavy for the two EMT/Paramedics to lift on their own, or just in case another trained professional is needed in a severe emergency), do you have to knock to enter a patient's house (a family member was waiting at the door for us, probably instructed to do so by 911), does lack of lights/sirens mean that there is no patient in the ambulance (no, they'll sometimes just drive normally between picking up the patient and transporting to the hospital, depending on the case), and what's it like once we get to the hospital (park in a garage, take the patient inside, go to the room as instructed by the receptionist, and inform the person in the room of all the info that you gathered). I also got to glean other information like how to take care of the monitor, ambulance maintenance, and the importance of communication and "detective" work.

After we left the hospital, we took the ambulance to a grocery store to get some food for the station's lunch and snacks, and then we went back to the station. Some people started to prepare lunch, which included turkey bacon clubs, salad, and fries among other things. And yes, unlike my classmates, I actually got to eat with the paramedics and firefighters!

The rest of the day was pretty slow. I got a lot of studying done, and even got permission to get ice cream or whatever I wanted from the fridge (which was stated in our class' station rules as something we were not allowed to do, but since they told me I could, I guess it was okay in that instance!). Mid-afternoon everyone was relaxing. I was sitting close to the scanner, and all morning long I had heard all the calls for other stations in Omaha. But in the mid-afternoon, there were hardly any calls for any stations! I started to get really tired at this point in time and could easily have taken a nap right then and there since everyone else was relaxing, but I knew that, as a student, I wasn't supposed to do that, so I decided to do what was right: take some ice cream from the freezer and hope that the sugar rush would give me a second wind. The good news is that I did do quite a bit of studying, so class should be at least a little easier!

Eli picked me up around 4:30 with his backseat full of stuff. I guess it was his real move-to-camp day, even though he still has stuff to bring. Last week I had realized that he really didn't have a place to live. The boys' room is really messy and full. Even though Kristjun no longer lives/works here as of Thursday, he hasn't moved any of his things out yet. Since my bedroom has a door that goes directly to the main room, I told Eli that he could have my bedroom and I'd move my bed to my personal living room. It was mostly a nice gesture, but, after moving everything around last night, it turned out to be a blessing for me too. I mean, take a look at this:

Ever since Erin moved out, I had no idea what to do with this wall of the living room!  As you can see, it turned into a tv and burn box storage space, and the walls were pretty drab (except for the pineapples).

The bedroom looked pretty drab as well. An empty bed, and only a few bulls eyes decorating the walls

But with all my stuff moved into one room, it looks like this:

Oh, and here are a few requested aspects of my room that I have forgotten to show on my blog until now:

The "Lippe" wall

...And this is my kitchen, made complete with the presents I got for Christmas! On Wednesday, I also received a SodaStream soda maker to review, which is the device in the left corner. Yes, between the soda, baked goods, and willingness to study with people, my room has become quite the popular hangout!

Now, I should really get back to studying. It was a hard day at school and I zoned out a little, but Eli and I did some online work for an hour, and then I took a break to write this blog post. Now for some personal study time! (I really want to get a good grade on Thursday's test!)