Day 73: The Stranded Subway Experience

Today the cool weather persisted, along with the rain. So I bundled up in the warmest clothes that I brought with me (which are not that warm).

There was only one class today, on Parkinson's, with the doctor that I followed yesterday in the ER, Dr. Vega. After the class, during our little break, I went down to the bottom floor (underground) where there was the hospital cafeteria that essentially had coffee, tea, pastries, candies, and yogurt. Oh, and water. But if you were looking for anything substantial, you were out of luck. But there is where the other students in the class hang out, so I got to know a few of them, and I also got the opportunity to forget a lot more Spanish names. There was a Pablo, a Brenda (!!), a Ferdando, a Malina (I think). Anyway, it was nice to talk to them, even though it is hard to relate completely to their situation; they are all 5th year medical students (5 out of 7 total), and so are in their mid- to late-twenties. Still, they were curious about my situation and all, and it was good practice trying to understand them since they all talked super quickly.

After our break, that was only about 15 minutes long, we had a short practical observation where we split up and followed one of the neurological doctors, I followed Dra. Santoro. We went into the ER again (I was wearing pants today) and all huddled around the foot of one of the patient's bed. The patient had a pretty complicated and serious condition, that involved facial paralysis and brain issues, atrophy was visible on a scan, but that stuff is not as interesting for a blog. Two other students went into a different room and saw the same electromyogram machine that I saw before. There were no more neuro-patients today, so they dismissed us just a bit before 11.00 and so I went home.

I stayed in my room, not wanting to do a lot for the rain that was constant, yet not very strong all day today. In the afternoon, at about 4.00p I met up with a fairly new friend called Martin and a friend of his called Marcelo. After eating a bit we went to where Marcelo works, which is a hardware supply store, and sat in the staff area and talked for a while. Later we went out for a bite to eat again. It was kind of nice just to hang out with a couple of Argentinean guys, and I have made mostly female friends so it was nice to just talk with other guys. The conversation topics are different. Not better or worse, but definitely different.

We were up in the Recoleta neighborhood which is north and a bit east of where I am staying and Martin was going to take the subway with me since he needed to go in the same direction initially as me, but we were talking and accidentally got on the wrong direction and when we got off at a stop that had a platform in the middle (so we could change directions without paying again) the last train for the night had passed. The city-bound trains stop promptly at 10.30p whereas the outwards-bound trains continue a little bit longer. It was not too bad for me, because a taxi could go fairly directly to my house, so we split a cab fair to my house where Martin was able to catch a bus to the microcenter from which he is now taking a van out to his house in the suburbs.

Now I am very excited to go to bed (however oxymoronic that seems) because I love being warm in bed when it is cold outside. It is only bad when I have to get up in the morning...

Chao.