Maria Theresa Hospital

Hello, greetings from vientiane province of laos!
Today was my 3rd/4th day in laos and prob the best yet, despite having a killer headache/cold. I am making friends with the nurses and drs and can almost order my own food in the cantina. ;) in the mornings I usually observe and help minimally in a dept of the hospital, and in the afternoon hold an informal english class for the staff. They can basically speak but conjugating and specific words are difficult which is totallyunderstandable since english doesn't follow simple patterns! So far I've been in the ANC (ante natal care) OPD (out patient dept) and lab. I also visited the provincial hospital in kasi where nonglak (Bea, the woman I've been emailing) is working now. I went with the hospital director, dr virack. He calls me his oldest daughter. Lol. He has 3 real daughters, the oldest is 16 and just started college--dif school sys I think. I met a lot of cuban drs as well. Dr. Virack told me they have a health care exchange program w cuba. Pretty cool. So drs from here go there, and there come here usually for 8 months. I have been reading the vientiane times (english version of course) and really like reading what they print. Great way to learn about laos, southeast asia and really the whole world! New perspective.
On a new note, though I'm having a great experience over here, I've decided to cut my trip short and head back to cali after my hospital work around aug 20th. I've realized that I need to spend some quality family and friend time before the rush of fall quarter. This was a Difficult decision for me to make bc it felt like I was giving up on the experiences I would have here, but I've come to the conclusion that enjoying the company of friends and family is not a part of life that should be sacrificed. I can always come back to thailand and take care of elephants! Hell I'm only 20 that's like a fifth or quarter of my life :)
Sorry if this blog sucks. I'm on my phone and its hard to type! Damn touch screen!
I'm going to visit vientiane (the city) this weekend. Check out a temple or
2, rent a bike, eat baguette sandwiches (french influence), be a farang (nickname for foreign...means guava fruit I think).
Love love love to u all!
Sabrina