Well, the title of this post says it all. Today was the first day shadowing at the hospital, and it was breathtaking. But before I go into the details, let me start at the beginning.

We woke up early (around 6:30) and took the bus to Hospital Universitario Río Hortega. The hospital is not built like a typical hospital: it has 4 separate buildings that are connected through bridges, with multiple specialties and 608 beds. Each pair of fellows was assigned a different weekly specialty, and I was assigned Urology. I’m not one to complain, but this honestly sounded a little boring. I kept a positive attitude though, and as Carla ushered me and Saman into the urology department, I was suddenly surrounded by about 15 different Spanish physicians in lab coats sitting at a conference table, looking at a projector screen at the front of the room. The head of the urology department, an older man of tall stature with dark gray hair, welcomed us and allowed us to sit in the back of the room and observe.

One thing I have begun to notice about Spaniards is that they talk very fast, very loud, and they talk over each other with no regard to what the other person is saying. This is how this meeting went: 15 doctors talking at full speed about each patient’s consultations, diagnoses, and treatment options. I tried my best to keep up with the rapid-fire Spanish, but I usually only caught about 60% of each sentence. But I loved it. The atmosphere of intelligent physicians and residents, young and old, all grouped together to find a solution for each patient’s diagnosis. I felt like I was watching a particularly spicy episode of Gray’s Anatomy, in Spanish.

The urologists informed us that they were performing a very important surgery today: the removal of an enlarged prostate gland. And they would be using the Da Vinci medical robot!!! For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the Da Vinci robot is probably the most advanced medical device on the market currently. Only a few hospitals in the WORLD have one, and most hospitals in the United States don’t. I can’t take pictures while I’m in the hospital, but here is a picture from the internet so you know what it looks like:

Saman and I changed into scrubs and entered the operating room, where the patient was already anesthetized on the table. The surgeons made 4 entrance points in the patient’s abdomen, using 4 trocars. A trocar is a surgical instrument with a three-sided cutting point enclosed in a tube. The way it works is the surgeons will enter the trocar with the cutting edge, and once it has penetrated the patient’s skin, they remove the sharp section leaving a tube acting as a “tunnel” into the abdomen. The surgeons then filled the abdominal cavity with air, and inserted the camera. The camera broadcasted to several TVs in the operating room, we watched intensely as the surgeons dissected out the seminal vesicles and the vas deferns.

The leading surgeon made 2 incisions during the surgery: one to clip the seminal vesicles and the vas deferns, and a second to remove the prostate. After the prostate was removed, the bladder had to be rejoined with the urethra by suture. The whole surgery took about 5 hours, but it was worth every second. The residents were incredibly nice and answered all our questions throughout the procedure. Who knew prostate surgery could be so incredible!

After changing back into our lab coats, we headed to the cafeteria where we would be participating in “English tutoring”: each fellow is assigned a physician at the hospital that has signed up to practice their English, and we get coffee with them and chat. My physician, Dr. Moya, greeted me in the lobby. She’s a pretty, thin woman of about 45 with dark wavy hair and a nice smile.

She was very shy when we started talking, but she soon opened up about her husband, 2 boys, and emergency medicine specialization. I asked her what it was like balancing family and her career: “Some years, you are a bad doctor,” she admitted. “Sometimes there is not enough time to keep up with the latest research, AND spend time with your kids.” But she mentioned that it was totally worth it to have a family anyway, because it “gets easier” as they grow older. We then turned to more serious subjects. When I asked her what it was like when her first patient passed away, she said: “Everyone has a ghost in their locker. But you should always leave your ghost in your locker with your lab coat at the end of the day, and go home to enjoy your life and family.”

At the end of the conversation, she asked if I would like to see the emergency department, and offer I gladly accepted. She suddenly had a skip in her step, like a captive gazelle just released into her natural habitat. She was excitedly pointing at different patient rooms and medical equipment, explaining in slightly broken English what each was used for. Each word she didn’t know she would type into Google Translate on her phone and show me. By the end of the tour, both of us were giddy with excitement for our next tutoring session. “See you on Wednesday?” she asked. I replied yes, I already knew this was going to be an amazing month.

I know I’m a day behind, but don’t worry, I’ll fill you in. Yesterday morning we all woke up around 8:30 to eat breakfast at 9:00. Then we went out on a great tour of Valladolid. The first place we visited is Plaza de San Pablo, the plaza located right next to our dorms. La Iglesia de San Pablo is located in the center of the square, and it has a great big facade with numerous sculptures and designs. Our tour guide explained to us that the facade actually has 3 different layers that were created at separate times in history. The background of the middle piece of the facade has a geometric pattern, a small piece of Muslim culture left over from when they controlled the city in the year 712. They call this culturally “mixed” style Isabelline, after Queen Isabella I.

Back in the medieval/renaissance ages, Spain was not a united country. Instead, each city was a kingdom, with its own royal family. Plaza de San Pablo was the royal square of this kingdom, and it is adjacent to 2 famous palaces that are still standing. The palace on the right of the church once belonged to Charles I of Spain, and our tour guide told us a funny story about the king. Back in 16th century Valladolid, you were only allowed to go to the church that was in your district, and your district was determined by the direction your door was facing. Charles I was planning the baptism of his children, and his district church was the Presbyterian church down the road called “San Martin of the Poors”. Because of the name, he did not want his royal children to be baptized in that church. He wanted them to be baptized in the magnificent, Catholic San Pablo church next door. So, to solve the issue, he began to enter and exit out of his window instead of using his front door so that San Pablo was in his district!

We continued to tour the city, admiring the Spanish building style: very uniform and “serious”. We went to the National Sculpture Museum, and saw the sculptures used each year in the Easter Procession. The Easter Procession is where the monks belonging to different brotherhoods of the city dress in face-conceling pointy hats and march to the beat of a drum, carrying sculptures that representing stations of the cross. These sculptures were crafted by famous 16th century artists including Gregorio Fernandez.

At the National Sculpture Museum we got to see more art by Alonso Berruguete, a follower of Michelangelo.

We then went to the nearby park where there was a large fountain and wild peacocks!

After the park, we ate a wonderful 3-course lunch at a traditional Spanish resturant. I got a traditional plate for dessert called cuajada, which is sheeps milk that has been heated and curdled in rennet.

At night, we went to a restaurant/bar that served tapas and mixed drinks. I got vodka with orange in a fishbowl. It was very tasty!

Overall, another great day in Valladolid!

Hello everyone! As I gradually get used to the time-change, I can feel my Spanish comprehension slowly getting better as well. This morning, I woke up and at breakfast at my hotel, then checked out and got a taxi to the university housing that I will be staying at during the Fellowship. Carla, the site manager, was there to greet me. She gave me a welcome package and showed me to my dorm.

Three fellows showed up at the same time as me: Saman, Kirsten, and Kyle. Saman is from California, Kirsten is from Missouri, and Kyle is originally from Boulder but he is going to school in Ohio. We went to a small cafe and chatted about skiing, our excitement for the trip, and the Spanish language. Kyle and I knew more Spanish than the other two girls, so we translated most of the communications with the waiter.

We ran into the owner of the university building (he didn’t speak a lick of English) but I chatted him up about where I was from and what I thought about Spain so far. “Arizona!” he exclaimed. “Cerca de la frontera de Mexico, sí?” (Close to the Mexican border, right?) I told him yes and he got excited and complimented me on my Spanish. He also recognized the state of Colorado where Kyle was from, but he was disappointed the Californian and Missourian couldn’t understand the conversation.

Shortly after we were returning from the cafe, four more fellows showed up. Sean from Iowa, Lily from California, De’Ryonne from California, and Caroline from… (I don’t remember). The only person who is missing now is Ethan from Florida. We walked around the city and stopped for some gelato, then we went down to the “beach”, which was really a sandy area next to a river. There were tons of locals participating in a beach volleyball tournament down by the shore.

We went to the grocery store and picked up a few items and then walked back to the housing. Kyle and a couple of the others looked ready to pass out, so they went into their rooms to take a nap. I went back into the dorm to unpack and write this blog post! I’m still trying to overcome jetlag, so I’m forcing myself to stay up late. But tomorrow is our very first excursion! I’ll be sure to update about how it goes! Adios!

I can tell the jetlag has hit me – I woke up at noon to the hustle and bustle of the city around me. I decided to make a plan to go explore the city. I would download a map and then follow it to the hospital that I would be shadowing at, paying attention to street signs and other parts of the city along the way.

The first thing I noticed when I left the hotel was a little church in front of me. It looked pretty old and worn, and it wasn’t glamorous by any means. Compared to the pictures Steve had shown me of the cathedrals in Italy, it seemed like it was built more for utility than splendor. There was one grand watchtower and the windows were tiny slits. The front of the cathedral had a statue of a cross out front, with a plaque that had the name of the building on it: La Iglesia de Santa María de la Antigua. The church was thought to be founded during the middle ages in 1095, 200-300 years before any of the famous cathedrals in Italy were built.

I noticed that across the street there was another cathedral, so I wandered over to check it out. This was a true cathedral: large stone walls and an inner courtyard, with one large tower in one corner. It was called La Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, and it was built in 1668, much later than the first building. Apparently the cathedral was meant to be the largest cathedral in all of Europe when Valladolid was the capital of Spain, but when they moved the capital to Madrid the funds got cut and only 45% of the original design was constructed.

This is when I found ANOTHER cathedral across the street so I wandered over, and this ended up being a university building that was constructed in 1716. It was like I was walking through history just by walking down the street.

I then remembered that my original plan was to find the hospital that I would be shadowing at, and at this point I had no idea where I was or what street I was on. After wandering around for another 10 minutes I realized that there were no street signs, instead all the names of the streets were on the sides of the buildings.

By the time I started heading back to my hotel, it was 2:00pm. In Spain, people take a 3 hour break at this time to eat and take a nap (siesta). There were tons of little kids running around in school uniforms, and as I passed by the school I noticed an interesting mural of birds with a long description that I have translated below.

I got back to the hotel and ordered a salad and a glass of wine, which I am eating now as I write this. Maybe I’ll take a siesta like a real Spaniard! Adios!

Welcome to my second blog post! Right now I am showered and cozy, snuggled into my hotel bed with my laptop. But it has definitely been a crazy travel day!

The flight to Madrid was 11 whole hours and the seats weren’t very comfortable, but I sat next to a nice lady named Bethany. Bethany was about 26 years old and worked for Teach for America, and she was taking a two week European vacation with her friends from high school. She told me that she was going to watch 3 FIFA Women’s World Cup games for only 50 Euro. “Perk’s of no-one caring about women’s sports.” she said, chuckling.

I slept and read The DOs: Osteopathic Medicine in America by Norman Gevitz on my Kindle, and eventually the plane landed and I began my next challenge of navigating through the Madrid airport. Before going to baggage claim, we were funneled into two lines — Europeans and Non-Europeans — before handing our passports to the security guards and getting a nice little stamp in our booklets. The security guard who stamped my passport was deep in conversation with the guard next to him, I don’t think he even looked at me or the passport before stamping and sending me on my way. I wanted to know what they were discussing, but they were talking way to fast for me to eavesdrop.

I made it to baggage claim and found my bag, and then decided to go ask the information desk about where to find my bus to get to Valladolid. Using the best Spanish accent I could managed, I walked up confidently and said: Tengo una reservación por este autobús, pointing to a piece of paper showing my reservation information. I must have sounded like a real Spaniard because the information guy started spewing syllables faster than I could register the words he was saying. The good thing was that he used hand gestures while he was talking so I understood the general direction that he was pointing me in.

I found my bus and rode it for another 2 hours as we drove north. This is when I discovered that Madrid looks a lot like Phoenix. The sky was bright blue and clear with the outlines of small rocky mountains in the distance, the ground was brown and dusty, and the plants consisted of small shrub-looking desert trees. The only difference was the lack of Saguaro cacti. As we continued to drive, the scenery changed and we were surrounded by fields of wheat and the occasional orchard. I must have fallen asleep again because the next thing I knew, we were in a bustling city with hundreds honking cars and pedestrians. The bus stopped and I got a taxi to my hotel.

The hotel is impressive, they even have one of those weird European butt-fountains in the bathroom. Plus they have a whole wine bar downstairs with frequent wine tastings for customers. After relaxing for a bit in my room and Facetiming my sister and my dog, I called room service to bring me dinner. In Spain, dinner is eaten around 9:00pm, which is around the time I called. I got a delicious chicken sandwich with tomatoes, cheese, onions, and egg on a ciabatta bun. I then decided it was time to shower and hit the sack, and that’s where I am now! It’s getting late though, I will be sure to update tomorrow about what I decide to explore! Buenas noches!

Traveling is hard, especially when you’re completely alone. Yet, I’ve managed so far! I said a tearful goodbye to Stevo at the Bag Check and then headed down to the Currency Exchange to get some Euros. The line through security at the Denver Airport was pretty short (thank goodness!) but there was no dogs which was a disappointment. My bag got pulled from the belt and the first thing the security guy said to me was: “Nurse or doctor?” as he pulled my Netter’s Guide to Human Anatomy out of my bag. I just laughed and then I lied and told him I was a doctor.

The flight to LAX was pretty uneventful, I sat at a window seat and read “The Rosie Project”, a book my friend Aspen has lent to me. The woman next to me seemed to be a LOT more stressed than I was, she ordered two mini bottles of wine and drank them before I had the chance to put my tray-table down. We arrived in LA and I realized the airport was MUCH more confusing than I thought it would be, I took a bus from terminal 5 to terminal 4 and then walked to terminal B. My mom was on the phone with me pretty much the whole time so that helped me to find my way. I finally stopped for some food at a sushi place before finding my gate: 135.

I’m about to board my 11 hour flight, but I’ll be sure to post an update as soon as I find WiFi again! Hasta luego!