Overview of Events from July to the Present–Part I

So, I am officially sixteen (and five days) old, have my (provisional) license, as well as a car. And a new phone to match! I should be driving myself to school starting on Tuesday (since I do not have school on Monday, huzzah). I’m contemplating on whether to buy a parking permit because, apparently, the guy who checks all the cars for the permits is supah-lazy. I’ll probably end up getting one, anyway. But I am going out of order, and that should not be . . .
So, shall we start with NYLF? That would probably be the best thing to do, after all, that is where I a week after I finished the Blinn dual credit class (first semester). Luckily, I went to the one in Houston, so I didn’t have much traveling to do. All the NYLF students stayed in one a Renaissance hotel (Plaza 6?); I think we numbered at around four hundred juniors and seniors, although there was one sophomore. Just one. Yeah, I think one of the elevators broke or something, probably on account of us trying to fit as many people as we can on an elevator that should only be holding ten. The food at the hotel was mediocre, not like I ate much at the hotel, anyway. I’m sure if I had gotten room service, my attitude about the food would be better, but I’m stingy and don’t like buying things I don’t necessarily need. I cannot believe my stinginess can overcome my love of food. It’s amazing, I know.

Over the course of ten days, we took trips to various places of Houston. Some medical-related sites, hospitals, and med schools in the Houston area. The rest of the time, we were at the hotel, listening to speakers, doing activities in our MED groups (all the students were separated into, I think, ten or twelve groups with around 25 people in each; each MED group is named for someone famous who made a major contribution to medicine), or participating in the (basically) mandatory fun activities that had been planned for the night.
The first site I went to was the Ronald McDonald House of Houston, where the group I was with (since we didn’t travel with our MED groups for site visits) had a brief tour of the place, and then made lunches for the parents who were staying there at the time. For those of you who do not know, the Ronald McDonald House of Houston houses the families of children who have cancer. It’s close to the hospital where their child is most likely being treated so that the parents don’t have to travel far or pay ridiculous prices to stay close to their children.
The second site I went to was the Spring Branch Hospital (I think. Not too sure about this one.) The group I was with this time was separated into groups of four, and then, once in the hospital, we did hospital rounds. My small group went to the ER first, and since it was morning, there weren’t any patients at the time. Next we went to the OR. I was allowed to watch part of a knee replacement surgery, before we had to change rounds again. All we did the next round was sit in the waiting room, since everyone who was there was off for lunch. Our last round was the radiology department. I would say that round was the highlight of the day, for my group got to have MRI scans of our heads. Yes, I still have mine. Bwuhaha.
For the medical schools, everyone traveled with their MED groups, and I think maybe three or four MED groups went to each med school. My MED group went to Baylor. The first few hours were lectures from some professors, but I kept falling asleep. Dark rooms + tired teens = everyone asleep. Honestly, I tried to stay awake, but I couldn’t do much to keep myself from falling asleep. I remember resorting to making paper shuriken for the rest of the lectures to keep myself awake, haha. I gave those to various people in my MED group.

I believe the funniest part of the whole ten days was me taking the stairs up to the twentieth floor for my MED group. If you try to take the elevators ten to fifteen minutes before the MED sessions start, you’ll end up waiting for a while, because that’s when everyone else heads to theirs as well. The MED sessions were held in separate rooms on the Plaza (twentieth floor) and the Concourse level (level below lobby). My room was on the eighth floor. I’m surprised I never got sore from taking those stairs up all the time.

Sadly, I’ve grown tired of typing at the moment, so I have split this summary into two parts. Maybe you’ll get the other half of the entry in a couple of weeks, at the rate I’m going.