Week 15

On the first session of this last complete week we worked on our presentation about short American stories due next class. It was really easy to create the presentation because it wasn't really needed. So we only copied a bunch of images and we were done. On Wednesday I wanted to present first because I was afraid that if we were the last ones we will eventually end with nothing new to say. We presented at the middle of the hour. Everything went just fine, neither good nor bad. 

Even though we haven't officially finished our curses I'm already dealing with final exams. My first final exam was last Thursday, so I decided to call that class absent since I'm not short on those. Ir wen very well, I only got three wrong from fifty. That same afternoon I had another exam, this was a partial test of human physiology that I needed to present for my technical degree at Red Cross. It also went well, but I finished the test in 5 minutes because I didn't want to waste time of potential study for my final clinical semiology exam. That night I had my dinner celebration for my 21th birthday at the Arcos, a seafood restaurant in Morones Prieto. It is a good establishment, but I would have enjoyed it better if it wasn't for the intestinal intoxication I got that same afternoon for eating rotten vegetables at the cafeteria of San José Hospital. I will think of it twice after eating there again, even though the complete plate is only $40. After eating there I slept a while and woke up with fever, chills and intestinal colic. That Friday I woke up sicker and I was fortunately able to recover myself from that Saturday morning, so I went with friends to a quinta. 

That Sunday I arrived early to my ambulance and had some free minutes to read and sleep on the back stretcher, I'm already starting to get tired of waking up six out of seven days a week early. I waked up with the sound of the GPS and my partner saying we have a service in the river. I got excited although it didn't turned out to be a service. We arrived to the Santa Catarina River from out base at the Fire department. The partner I had to work with didn't seemed to like a lot sports, so it was going to be difficult to reach the river for her. We arrived and the police was already there, we followed them on foot down the side of the river and crossed to the other side. There was a young man no older than me laying down on the side of the river. He was dead. We got the call just to make sure he was actually dead, he had no vital signs. The cadaver was not in rigor mortis, that means that he had kicked the bucket that same night, few hours ago. His skin was so cold.  It was a mysterious case, this man came from Veracruz and even thought he had a line of blood in his left cheek, we were not sure if it was his. He had no traumatic injury, the river's water was too shallow for drowning, he had no torture marks, and we found it laying down perfectly straight, so there were no indications of a suicidal fall from the street running above the river. The distance of the fall will have damaged his body notably, perhaps it was a simple hipothermal death. We couldn't smell any alcohol or any other drug that could have made him end the night in the river. The work of a paramedic doesn't really include diagnosing the cause of dead, that's a work for a forensic doctor, in this case the SEMEFO, but there is no one out there to do the work so they usually call us. That was a good start, but from there on we were called to attend an event. It was the American Football Pumas Club that was having a game. This only involved the children category so they didn't get hurt. We got bored that evening but I was able to read a lot. We had very few other services during the day, and 15 min before the 12 hour guard finished, we got a call and finished one hour late. 

Week 14

This was a light week, we watched a complete movie on the first two session. That Monday I had only slept 30 min that night to finish studying for the class I was giving that morning to three campus of ITESM about renal physiology. Therefore, I was afraid I might just knock out and sleep through the whole movie so I was deciding weather I should sleep at the library or go to class. At last I drank a soda (because I had already drank too much coffee), and hoping not to sleep I went to class. For my surprise the movie was so interesting I didn't sleep; at the most I yawn a pair of times. So this movie was called The Power of One and talked about racial issues in Africa. During our last session we had a little quiz/activity of the movie and I got a good grade, it was long but not difficult. 

That same week I had received a message notifying me that I was going to assist to an event that Sunday on my guard. This event turned out to be the race "Correkaminis" by Soriana that took place in "Parque Fundidora". Basically this was a race for children with their parents and I covered the medical service. To make things short non of this kids had anything wrong with their bodies. The other private paramedics seemed worried when a kid had a high pulse rate or difficulty to breathe, but come on they had just finished a race. Some of the kids were overreacting after a little abrasion that only needed cleaning. This let me remember when I was a kid and was always running and climbing trees or jumping with my bike until the wheels ripped apart. I usually fell and got injured but I only got up and continued with my life; bleeding, cutting, loosing my breath after falling from the tree were the day to day normal experiences, but perhaps the new generations are not used to playing outside because of all the technological options we've got today. 

Week 13

This Monday we had our quiz on English speaking countries, I think it was a little too specific. I didn't studied enough (only one hour), and if the teacher hadn't changed the amount of points that each wrong answer worth I would've failed the test. On Wednesday we had a small task about plagiarism that was easy, but for homework we had to read three short stories that were difficult to understand so it took me about an hour of reading. This Sunday was a little busy one. The first service was a man that had crushed and fell off his motorcycle. When we arrived he had already received first aid from "Protección Civil", they did almost everything right. He had an exposed bone fracture of his left tibia. That same day it seemed that the population wanted to traumatize; at the end of the day IMSS's #21 Trauma Hospital was fool of patients, only ourselves were responsible of transporting 4 patients there. We also receive a call from a lady that was going to abort her baby, she was in paint and starting labor work after only 6 months of gestation. Finally, that day we attended a call inside a Walmart of a lady that fell down and injured her hip. After the physical exploration we knew she was completely faking, perhaps she was tired of working there and wanted some vacations. We realized that because she said that different parts of her body hurt and the trauma kinematics didn't match quite well. When we were transporting her to the hospital we discovered with our interrogation questions that she was taking antidepressants and anxiolytics. Just 5 minutes before my 12 hour guard was going to finish the GPS got a notification from a call, we were really tired and thanks god we got covered by the new guard. A service can entertain us even 3 hours, and I needed to read enough to be able to respond to any question my physiology teacher would like to ask next day in the morning while a give the class, so I decided not to sleep. 

Week 12

For this first week after our short but worthy spring break we worked on our country cultural presentations. It was an easy and entertaining task as it was getting to present it to the class. This was a relaxed week for me because I still felt as in vacations in most of my classes, even though my last partial exam approached quickly enough. Last Saturday I took my pharmacology test, and it wasn't as difficult as I imagine; I really studied hard for that one. Now all my courses' grades are safe, but that doesn't mean I should relax. Sunday was a nice day, the climate was perfect for the ambulance guard, when the climate is too hot it become an oven. I attended that morning a patient that lived near ITESM in the street Rio Nasas. He wasn't a part of a high sociocultural class, he had had a kind of fight last night while he ran from someone who eventually got to him and stab him in the back; the wound was big but not that deep. He didn't wanted to get hospital attention even though we told him he obviously needed to be check, he was still bleeding while drinking from his "caguama" beer s bit drunk. We cleaned his wound and applied a bandage and leave, there is nothing else we can do if someone refuses to get free health attention.  It is somehow disappointing to know there are this kind of people who are used to be in trouble and don't seem to be worried about their future and health. People like this end up with a chronic diseases of infections that are really disturbing and difficult to treat. On another service I attended a hypoglycemic diabetic patient, he had injected his insulin and forgot to eat last night. He was just laying down with his eyes opened and without any other response; his glycemia was 30mg/dL which totally explained his symptoms. We canalized him with a a solution of 5% glucose and in five minutes he was already standing up and talking, This type of emergencies are really common in Mexico. 

Week 11

This week seemed eternal because it was the last before our spring break week off. We started the week working in teams and trying to give our analysis or interpretation about a short poem and a painting. I shall thank the effects of coffee to the accomplishment of that task. I really enjoy art and culture but never dedicated enough time to it, so observing paintings, and going to museums is something I enjoy. 

On Wednesday we worked on a country powerpoint presentation due on April. The task included choosing an English speaking country and we chose Fiji. In part it was a bad idea because that is the happiest country of the world and the beach seemed just beautiful, Monterrey seemed a bit depressing just by comparing the landscapes. Now I really need to visit Fiji before dying. Next day we decided to do our final project on the influence of Shakespeare in English language. 

On Sunday I went to the guard on ambulance and the day included three services of broken hips of geriatric patients, it seem that everyone had chosen that day to fall. We had a pair of other services, and we were not able to arrive to a scene on time, so there was nothing we could do to save a patients life after his heart attack.

Week 10

This week we had a long weekend to study for our partial tests. We had on Wednesday a quiz about the book we read, it was more or less difficult, I forgot a pair of facts and end getting a 90. On Thursday we had the option to work on our own without going to the classroom. I text a friend to pair up for the homework, I preferred to stay in the library studying for the pharmacology test that I was going to have that Saturday. That Sunday I was sent to an event on Cintermex where I went as a Red Cross paramedic to show what we do and the ambulances we work with. That way we can promote our work and make it easier to gain more donations. It was a lazy day, but I had a restroom just five meters away which feels relaxing (as there's no restroom in the ambulance were we spend the day). We took several pictures with children wearing our helmets. There were a lot of children since the Chicharines came to the event to give their show. 

Week 9

In this week we had a graded translation activity. I forgot to look for a dictionary and the ones in the library are not lend to take out of the building so they are kind of useless. Even though, the translation didn't went that bad. The story was written by Rulfo and it contained a lot of popular words that make a translation difficult. We saw a video about history of English and I preferred to see it at my home and do the task because I needed to study for my immunology test that I took on Saturday. It went regular. Ont he third session we made a summary of all the presentations about the book we are reading and with that we finished the book. This Sunday was a little more interesting that last one; I attended a crash, nothing serious. I got excited because I had the opportunity to get on the "libra" which is an automobile with all the hydraulic tools to destroy cars and opened them to extract people after a crush, but the service got canceled on our way to the site of the accident. This accidents are really common on rainy days like this one. I was able to attend another drunk fallen guy on the mud, its incredible the amount of people that end up seriously harmed just because of drinking excessively.  

Week 8

Translation is more complicated than what it seems. We practice translating a museum text and I constantly looked for words on google. On our second session of the week we made a summary about the book for this month, it was an easy task and a way to save us a lot of reading time. We were able to finish everything on time. My Sunday was a lazy one because I had only one service in all the day. In part it is boring not to have any patients, but on the other hand that is the goal of medicine and any health science. If we don't have patients that means that everyone is taking care for themselves and living safely. So even though I was all 12 hours just waiting inside the ambulance I had plenty of time to do homework. The only service I attended was a crush between a taxi and a motorcycle, there were no injured people.

Week 8 translation reflection

For us, museums are a place visited by many people, and within that population we can find individuals who are interested in art, culture and knowledge; so, it is very sad to encounter situations in which public documents contain many translation and syntax mistakes. This reflects a lack of interest and motivation in learning the proper way to express ideas on another language, and a part from that it gives us the impression of laziness because the person in charge of that task didn't even took the trouble to find someone competent enough to make the translation. 

Week 7

This last Sunday I had a lot of spare time to read while waiting in the ambulance to attend an in-calling service. Our first service was almost at mid day and the call involved a classical accident: a geriatric patient fell from her bed and fractured her left hip and ipsilateral knee. This kind of services are usually quite easy, we only need to transport her to the hospital using a ferule to prevent any other damage to her inferior extremity. During the transport time we usually take her vital signs and data. After this we ate inside the ambulance waiting for any notification on the GPS. Late that afternoon I attended my first "14" which is the code for corpse. Arriving to the residence we met the police who described the look of the patient, as we entered the whole family was gathered in the lobby of the first floor, they didn't quite know what had happened with their relative. As I entered the bedroom I nearly stepped on blood from the corpse. This lady was about 50 years old, she used to be a nurse who got paranoid and depressed after she broke her leg. She committed suicide by trying to cut her body, after what she used the backrest of her bed to hang herself. After determining her dead  being careful not to move any evidence to prevent us from getting into any trouble and getting the corpse's data we left. There's not much we can do in this cases, dead people belong to another department. That night the last patient was a drunk adult who was selling hot dogs at the corner of the street fell and hit his occipital bone with the sidewalk. We treated his injury and transported him to the Metropolitan Hospital of Monterrey. Drunk people usually have hypoglycemia because of the metabolic effects of the alcohol on the body's enzymes, so after being sure he had not neurological damage we decided to canalize him with a crystalloid sollution composed of 5% glucose. He was a difficult patient, he wasn't very cooperative. Basically this summarizes my Sunday.

Week 6

This was an interesting but tiring week. This past week was the last one of the first partial. I took my pharmacology test yesterday and everything went just fine. In our English class I handed in our last project from the monthly grade. My nervousness grew with each day that approached to this Sunday, this dew to my first day at service in an ambulance. I woke up really early, earlier than the sun itself, and with my uniform I prepared for my first and special 12 hour guard of my city. First hour was just for me to get to know all the equipment of the ambulance, counting everything and making sure personally that every gadget worked just fine for any emergency. We got the notification on our GPS of the first service, my heart started beating faster and adrenaline flowed thought my arteries while all what I had learned the past year in the Red Cross about street medicine came to my mind hoping to be able to apply all my knowledge. We were called to attend a Christian church to try to reanimate a 4 year old girl who fainted, but when we arrived their parents had already take her to the hospital by their own. Before arriving to our "Bravo" or base, we received another call of a medical case at a nearby house. My partner and I got prepared and entered the house full of family members of the sick person. He was a geriatric patient who had emphysema, diabetes and started the day with aphasia. His breathing rate was altered, his pupils were not reacting fast enough to reach the standards. He was contious but couldn't move his arms and the right half of his forehead was stretched and the other half's muscles were contracted. We diagnosed stroke. We transported his immediately to the San Vicente Hospital making sure his hemoglobin oxygen saturation was enough. We also canalized him with saline solution, and made sure all his vital signals were just fine. 10 minuted after we arrived to the hospital with him. I was able to auscultated the lungs of a patient with tuberculosis, and attend a drunk Honduran young man who got hit with a bat. This were some of the calls we received today. It was an interesting but tiring day.

Week 5

This first session we watched a movie through the honesty point of view. This was entitled The Wolf of Wall Street, the one where young Charlie Sheen acted. It was a nice and relaxing day although I know nothing about the bank and the topic. It was a little difficult to watch because of the space, next time I rather watch it from one side instead of from the center tables. We were able to watch only about the first half of the movie skipping some parts. Wednesday was another short day because we had a small quiz writing activity about the two articles we read for homework. I personally didn't like that much the one title "Keeping Your Colleagues Honest" I think of it as a bit unnecessary to read; the other article, even though a bit longer, was more interesting and less dramatic. Last class got a bit awkward. We were told to gather in new teams and start writing a presentation comparing two different cultures; almost everyone chose Ireland and South Africa which was unexpected by me. We could've focused on any characteristics about a country, but instead we chose the social characteristics of them and that was kind of boring. This past Valentine's Day I had a partial test of physiology and everything went just fine with the normal regrets, doubts and correct answers. All this tests are completely closed questions. I didn't have an actual Valentine on Saturday but instead I enjoyed a roast with friends until late night. I even remembered my school time were I used to give and receive small letters because I actually got one. 

Week 4

This was a short week because we didn't have class on Monday, instead we had to prepare the interview I talked about in my last post. It was actually easier than what we expected, but because we were in a hurry we just didn't read the rubric and forgot one or two details. Even though, this small amount of time was good for us to let to know us, we hadn't worked together ever. On Wednesday we presented and graded the videos, this was a short class. On Thursday, the last class of the week we did a web quest of Dickens' life, answering some easy questions in partners. This took all class long and was interesting to know about the author we are reading of. The teacher told us to start thinking of our partial project for which we are able to do what ever we want about the story; in part this is good because we are able to use our abilities to reflect some of the ideas of the novel; nevertheless, it is more tedious and difficult to plan what to do about these ideas. This weekend I had my first partial exam, I can't believe how fast is everything going on this semester. We are having three long weeks of partial exams, and somehow we are going to be more time on partials than on normal classes. 

Week 3

For this Monday we were asked to gather in working partners, and write about fifteen thesis statements. Even though our teacher said this gas going to be a long working day I personally didn´t believe so because writing thesis statements is a task we learned at high school. Time passed and after one hour we weren't finished. My partner started down up and I started viscerally with the first themes to write about. Suddenly, we were running out of time; moreover, this task was due on Monday, just he worst day to actually work. We were definitely out of time and inspiration to write all those thesis statements, the first 5 were just too easy, but I ran out of stamina. Everything went well at last. For Wednesday our homework was to write a letter with the purpose of researching another university we wanted information about. This letter should be addressed to someone real in the university's staff team, and properly written. I'm not usually in a writing mood, and I didn't think I was going to be writing everyday, but here we are. Nevertheless, I finished the homework with the three required paragraphs each one with less words than the previous. 

I don't know almost anyone on my class, we are all from different careers. Even though we were assigned teams and I got to know to girls from my class and different careers which I have some friends in common. With this team I'm supposed to do and record a formal job interview. We are three and we made a draft in which I was chosen to play the role of the job interviewer, I really prefer that from doing the edition of the video. We are going to meet this Tuesday night to finish the task that should be handed in for Wednesday.

Week 2 January

This week was the shortest of all, we had three classes and the three of them were dismissed earlier than they suppose to. I loved that. I had one homework due on Monday: read  the two prefaces of the Language and Culture ebook. Its been a while since the last time I read a novel type book and I was somehow surprised of the fast that I can read know after two college years compared to my reading skills on high school, and all of this because of the practice and the time I have dedicated on this skill. Like any other skill, practice is the secret for mastery. I finished reading about ten minutes after I started and the best of this is that I got 100 on my quiz which I really thought had turned out to be different because of the small amount of time I invested on studying. I like when we are able to get out of class early and not because I hate the class or want to have leisure time, but because I usually get to use every left time I have on homework from other subjects. For that Wednesday I had to handle in a 500 word essay on Doping Affairs In Sports, it was quite a piece of cake and I was able to finish it on time, I got 96 because I haven´t master the English grammar and spelling. For this same day we were asked to prepare a 4 min speech on the same subject we researched, I was really nervous because I´m not used to speaking English in public since a long time ago so I was wondering how awful my accent was going to be. Fortunately everything turned to be all right, the teacher and a classmate told me I did a good job and that made me recover some of my confidence on my pronunciation. On this task I got also about 97 which was much more than I expected. On Wednesday I only invest about 10 minutes before the class to the speech because the professor said it was just a light speech, 15 minutes before class everything seemed horrible when I saw a pair of classmates reviewing out loud what they were going to say reading from about one page of written speech. Fortunately I am on the second half of the list and I was able to evade this speech and prepared a bit more for next day. On Thursday I was much more confident and I asked to pass next. That class was also dismissed after about 30 minutes and it felt great after I got over it, those are one of the best sensations of life: getting done with stuff. We had no homework due on Monday and that made my day.

English Thesis

This activity seemed to be quite easy at first, but it ended up being challenging. The first thesis statements were easy and my ideas flew over the machine, but the last three of them were difficult, I got out of inspiration and started to make more and more mistakes. This is a skill we all learned since we were at high school and its always fun to review, but for me 15 thesis statements was just to much for a single classwork.

School Uniforms

Uniforms reflect order, equality and an institute´s prestige because of the elements such as colors and ornaments it includes, making the students feel proud about their academy.

Your Parents and Trust

As university students we live a phase of our life that involves much more activity that we used to have as children, this leads to have more activities which can get to worry parents and constantly wonder what their children are doing tending to weak trustworthiness and bonds within the family so students need to be constantly in contact with their parents to prevent this from happening.

Drinking and Driving

Driving while being drunk is one of the most reckless habits someone could acquire because it´s one of the main causes of death among populations of big cities and in many cases the drunk individual doesn´t harm himself as much as other responsible drivers.

Legalization of marihuana

As many other drugs that come from nature, marihuana contains tetrahidrocannabinol, a substance that has incredible analgesic properties that can relieve the incredible pain that some cancer patients feel so it should be legalized for medical uses, also the fact that this drug gets legalize will have a positive effect on the drug dealing market making it unnecessary and will eventually disappear.

Animal testing

Animal testing is an incredible tool that has been used since the existence of science to prove theories, practice procedures, and  develop new knowledge used to cure and save  millions of lives through time; even though it should continue to be practiced it should be regulated by associations to protect the ethical issues involved in science.

Changing university

Getting installed on a new university is an opportunity for the student to get involved with a different point of view of knowledge, this leads to globalization and is an incredible way in which students can acquire a more integral academic formation because of the amount of bonds and transference of ideas that can be made at the new university.

Endangered species protection

Humans are not by far the owners of the Earth, we don't have the right to irrupt in the homeostasis of ecology and nature with our pollution, pawning, and overpopulation , so we need to be more considerate with all the flora and fauna that surround us by protecting their habitat and providing the appropriate conditions for these species to continue existing even though this means to make sacrifices on our coziness.

Life on other planets

It is really naive for us to think that there´s no life out of Earth because the universe has infinite magnitudes, and the conditions for the creation of life can exist as they existed when the big bang created the Earth because as the universe, the probabilities for this are infinite.

Art Museums

Art museums depict the psychology of many artists, this is so because art is a reflect of a human´s souls, ideas, emotions, attitudes and skills, so we are able to learn a lot about many people just through getting to appreciate art on museums exhibitions.

Nutritious foods

Eating well doesn't mean to eat less than what we are used to, it involves choose wisely the type of food we ingest to provide our body with the correct balance of energy, vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and amino acid; the correct balance of this bio-molecules is the key factor to improving one´s health.

Living on campus

Living on campus is said to make college life easier because it involves the student with the laboratories, computers, secure environment, getting to know people and opportunity for development.

Gambling

Gambling is the practice of playing at a game of chance for money which is either a risk taking in the sense of speculation or an investment which involves the hope of gaining an advantage or benefit.

The use of technology in language education

The use of technology has become an integral part of students daily lives, since they have tasks and duties like homework and research that need to be done in the moment and in a simpler way, which are the best advantages that makes technology indispensable.

Cosmetic Surgery

The cosmetic surgery is a type of surgery used to change a person's appearance in order to achieve what they perceive is close to "perfection" for having a desirable look and self confidence.

The English Language

The English language has been in the momentum in the recent years but it rose by passing over difficult times like the Industrial Revolution and the Norman Conquest which is the cause of the spoken English today.

First Week

I decided to enroll on this English curse to improve and pull my English since I´m out of practice and as a medicine student I am sure I´ll encounter circumstances in which this skill will definitely come out handy. First day of class was a bit short and we practically did nothing as in any other curse. Our professor came in and started punctually 15 min. after 1:30 to let everyone to sit down and get ready. He talked to us about the course and some of the objectives of this. Finally, before we left, he asked us to answer a few questions using monkey survey with the purpose of getting to know us better and also realize how are we on our English spelling and grammar skills. The first time I completed the task I pressed submit and the web site cracked, so I needed to start over again, nevertheless I finished the classwork on time. For our class on Wednesday we had practically no homework other than buying the ebooks for the course, the procedure was way easier and more practical than trying to buy something from ITESM´s ebook editorial. On Wednesday we had to write about 400 words on anything we chose, before this activity we went through some of the group´s spelling or grammar mistakes on our last activity; I was glad I couldn´t recognize any of my work on the screen: or that´s what I thought. This was a nice class because I had the opportunity of meeting with an old friend who just changed from the UANL and only buy aleatory chances was I able to enroll the exact same course with her; the only bad thing is that she isn´t really into writing so she changed to "Videos and Literature" or something like that... Finally on Thursday we got our fist formal assignment: an short essay and a shorter speech. I was completely out of inspiration but at the end of the class I was able to write almost half of it, the bad new about that is that as I´m used to writing long research papers I did half the words only in the introduction paragraph.