Cakes & Camping

Michelle decorated her first cake at her Wilton class this week. Here you'll see a picture of it next to one of the cake she made two years ago when she
first got her decorating tips. See if you can guess which cake is which. She has wanted to take a cake decorating class since she was an
undergraduate student, but had to wait until she completed her last degree before she could take a "fun" class (not that Advanced Lipid Metabolism wasn't fun . . .).

On Wenesday camped overnight at the Louisville State Recreation Area on the Platte River, a quick 30 min drive away on Nebraska country roads. One thing nice about going on a weekday is that it's just you and and a few perma-campers in their land yaughts. There was a nice hiking trail along the river and we were watched over by a pair of formidable Canada Geese. There were a few small fishing ponds scattered around the park, and Michelle, The Turtle Hunter guided us to some fine specimens. See some of the award winning footage below. Little did we know that the train tracks 50 yards away from our campsite would be in use every half hour around the clock - those train engineers make sure that everyone knows where they are regardless of the time. Now we know that this is a day visit only park.

Bellevue or Bust

In order to understand the excitement of this week, I think that everyone should know that Ryan loves to drive and decided a long time ago that if medical school didn't work out he would learn to drive 18-wheelers across the country and "Keep America Moving." This week he got as close to driving a big-rig as he has ever been. In fact, he even got to rub elbows with fellow truckers at the CAT weight stations where he weighed the truck before and after we filled it with our furniture. I have to admit though that both Ryan and our moving truck were much smaller than the real trucks and truckers. Keep reading below for highlights from my exclusive interview with Ryan about his 2 day trucking experience.

Michelle: "Thank you for joining us Ryan, we know your schedule is very busy. How did you feel driving the truck across the US?"

Ryan: "It was like living a dream: sitting high above the other cars, going zero to 40 in 2 minutes off a red light, and singing On the Road Again as I ignored cars merging onto the highway. It was beautiful."

Michelle: "Were there any challenges that you did not anticipate that you had to overcome?"

Ryan: "Yes, the wind moves a big truck around a lot more than a car. I had to learn to keep a good grip on the steering wheel and not to over-correct when a strong gust of wind tried to push me out of my lane. I'm a fast learner though, and by the time we were in Iowa I was down to running only 1 car off the road an hour."

Michelle: "Do you feel that you fit into the trucking world?"

Ryan: "I'm not sure, but I got a lot of headlight flashes from other truckers to let me know I was clear to switch lanes after passing them. I think that's their way of slowly inviting me into their circle."

Michelle: "Are you ready to do it again?"

Ryan: "No, but I will be when our next move comes up in 3 years. I need to take my skills up a notch, and I figure if I start spending Saturdays at the auto parts store and subscribe to Truckers Monthly I should be ready."

Michelle: "Thank you Ryan for your time and good luck with your future plans."

We also got to visit Emily and her family half way to Omaha/Bellevue. It sure was nice to have a day to rest after packing and before unloading. Here are some fun pictures that you can click to see more.

Final Friday in Ohio

On Friday we a great time when the "Pittsburgh Express" made a stop in Columbus, bringing with it Celeste, Phil, Grandma, Royce, and two huge boxes of Orem's donuts. We had a lot of fun in just a few hours - lunch, box packing, shelf unassembling, travel picture viewing, frisbee golf for the guys, and a walk under a sunny sky for the ladies. Phil just barely beat Royce in our frisbee game, and I had a score too high to put into writing. Click on the photos to link to more action shots and family scenes. Mom, Nate and Regan had some

flight trouble and couldn't make it as they'd planned. We missed them, and we hope that we can get together again once the baby arrives.

Friday also marked the end of my medical school days at Ohio State. I took my Emergency Medicine exam in the morning, and that means we now have two unofficial doctors in the house. Michelle claims to be the "senior" partner since she finished a week ago, but I say our official graduation is on June 8th and that makes us equal partners (but if she wants to push the issue, I am 3 months older and clearly that makes me the senior). Regardless, we're both relieved to be through with school and looking forward to the changes just around the corner. Tomorrow we will pack up the moving truck with the help of many friends here, and Tuesday we drive to Omaha by way of the Hancock's home in Peoria.

One doctor down, one to go

This week I finished the changes on my dissertation and turned it in after a successful defense last Friday. I think that Ryan is pretty jealous that I got to be a doctor first, but I started at OSU a year before he did so I think that it is only fair. Besides, he only has one more week working in the emergency room and then he is done too.

How many 5 year olds could you take in a fight?

A shout goes out to Andrea W. for introducing us to this fine calculator. I think that it is good to know how many Sunbeams you could handle if they rushed at you.
Michelle's Results:
10
Ryan: Nice, Michelle. Keep working on your ninja skills and don't be afraid to use the swinging child move to up your count. I won't tell you how many 5 year olds I could take on. There might be a five year old reading this and such info could really give him the advantage. I will tell you my chances a zombie apocalypse.
57%
I'd better keep working on my ninja skills too.

Loose ends

This week's excitement was playing with Amber's kids and listening to Michelle practice her dissertation presentation. She did a beautiful job in the real presentation on Friday. She kept her cool with some tough questions, and as usual made everyone laugh a few times.

I noticed a while back that I had two video clips from Guatemala that never got posted. Click on the pictures on the side here and you'll link to the videos. In the first you'll see a Mayan lady making chocolate pretty much the way her family has for generations. In the second you'll see another Mayan lady from Lake Atitlan wrapping her head in her traditional headress. Enjoy!

The Great Midwest Adventure

This week we drove out to Omaha to find ourselves a place to rent for the next three years while Ryan is doing his family medicine residency. It was good to get reaquainted with the Midwest, but I have to be honest, this is not the most picturesque time of year. Luckily my sister Emily and her family live about half way there so we got to stop and play with them twice. Zach and Quinn are a lot of fun to play with, even when they are upside-down.

The place we decided to rent in Omaha is right behind the clinic that Ryan will be working at for a good portion of our time there. He says the Air Force generally frowns upon jumping barbed-wire fences, so he will have to walk around the block to the front gate. We saw a lot of really great places with a lot of charactor during our search (i.e. dark orange carpet, purple bedrooms, orange varigated carpeting on stairs, metallic wallpaper). Unfortunately they were all to big for us and we settled for this cute little duplex. If you want a little tour, you can view some video footage at http://youtube.com/watch?v=jPSkY0ljllk .

The Finch family came to Columbus to visit us for the Easter weekend. We started off strong by visiting the ice cream factory and giant ice cream playground. We have since played with all the toys in the toy box, read books from the library and played fruit stand. I got a great apron in Guatemala that all the vendors use, and now the kids can use to sell their fake produce. We also have leftover Colombian pesos that the kids can use for buying and selling. It has turned out to be a lot of fun.

It is good to be back in Columbus, I hope that we can stay put for at least a month.

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And if you haven't had enough yet, here is the video from Lidia's ice cream shop in Medellin where Ryan learned to make a Colombian-style fruit salad. The version below has English captions. For Spanish, use this link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_0qB6MqPn9Y .

Whirlwind week in Colombia

Our week in Colombia was wrought with adventure and intrigue. Well, we took care of the adventure and the South American governments took care of the intrigue. I took Ryan around town to see all of my haunts in Medellin. He was really impressed with the size, organization and cleanliness of Colombia and has taken it upon himself to tell everyone about it. I think that he is ruining my image of being a brave world travelor taking my very life into my own hands every time I go to Colombia. I have to admit with the world events surrounding this trip, we were probably the closest to real danger that I have ever been in.

Ryan tried the Bandeja Paisa, the traditional lunch dish of this region which features a 1" thick 10" long piece of bacon aka chorizo. He really enjoyed this high calorie density treat. We also went out to the Pueblito Paisa, a recreated traditional Colombian village, with my friend and her husband and he bought us some nice ponchos to keep us warm. I think that they are going to make great shepard costumes for the Christmas Nativity this year.

Ryan is working on a couple more videos for the blog. 1. Making hogao to go on arepas and 2. Creating a Colombian fruit salad. Stay tuned...

Last days in Cuilapa

Our last two weeks in Guatemala really flew by, and we did our best to enjoy every last minute of it. On our last Saturday the Perez family drove us to a famous local bridge known as “Los Esclavos” or “The Slaves” because it was built by slaves under Spanish rule a few hundred years ago. It’s an incredibly thick and sturdy construction of solid stone that’s lasted centuries of hurricane-induced flooding. The locals told us that when Hurricane Mitch hit ten years back, all the other modern steel bridges for miles and miles around were destroyed by the force of the boulders and trees carried in the raging river. This bridge withstood the beating though and is still around to face the next disaster.

If you look closely you’ll see a chunk of stones that’s fallen from the bridge support in one spot. The local legend is that the Spaniard in charge of building the bridge centuries ago made a deal with the devil in order to get it done on time. They say the Spaniard went back on the promise though and refused to hand over his soul when he died. That sure made the devil mad and he subsequently gave the bridge a big kick to try and destroy it. They say his kick knocked those few rocks off, but even the devil couldn’t topple the sturdy bridge.

Here’s a picture of Michelle honing her pupusa making skills with Marisol and Haley. Pupusas are like soft thick corn tortillas stuffed with cheese and/or beans and they’re the typical meal of El Salvador. Marisol served her mission in El Salvador, and Michelle had been itching to make pupusas with her since we arrived. What better time to do it than a mere 2 hours before we left Cuilapa to catch our plane in the capital?

Here’s a peak into the valley of Guatemala City that includes the temple. From Cuilapa we drove down the mountainside to enter the valley and stopped halfway down to take some pictures.

This last weekend we touched US soil in Miami for a few hours and then made our flight to Medellin, Colombia, without any problems. I will tell you that Michelle’s biggest concern during the flight wasn’t the threat of losing oxygen in the cabin or a devastating crash into the ocean. Her panic was about her jump drive and the dissertation file it contained. Rest assured that we dug it out of her backpack and safely secured it in a well-zipped plastic sandwich bag deep in her pocket until we landed. Michelle did an excellent job with her presentation at the University of Antioquia on Monday and now she’s finishing up some work with her papers to be published. With the rest of our time we’re visiting all of Michelle’s friends and seeing all of Medellin’s interesting sights.

Center of the Americas

Here in Cuilapa, we are lucky enough to walk past the precise geographical center of North, South, and Central Americas at least twice a day. It makes you feel like you are a part of something important. Really, we are probably keeping the entire Western hemisphere from spinning out of control towards Africa.

This week we had no running water for three days. When I say running water, I mean water that runs for an hour in the morning that you use to fill up the sink and 55 gallon barrel so you can wash dishes and take a bucket shower. Luckily the family that we live with has six 55 gallon barrels that they keep filled up for just such emergencies. It sure makes you appreciate water for bathing, flushing the toilet, washing dishes and preparing meals. It kind of feels like camping. On Saturday Ryan filled up all the barrels with water while the Perez’s were at the temple. He had a great time and here are the fruits of his work.

Another exciting part of life in Guatemala is Valentines Day. They start the celebration the night before with a throw-down party downtown with live Durango music (which to the untrained ear might sound like Banda music). The next day everyone gives each other gifts like Christmas. If that weren’t enough the day after Valentine’s Day we celebrated again, by beating a heart piñata with a stick at the institute. It’s like the holiday that keeps giving.Cooking American food in Guatemala has proved to be a fun challenge. I have been doing a lot of recipe adjusting and ingredient replacement. Probably the most traumatizing experience was when I bought a pound of chicken and brought it home to take the skin off and there were also feather stubs for me to take off as well. That’s when I go to my happy place. Ryan says that we live too far removed from our food sources and the real world; I told him that he could pluck the chicken next time

The Circus comes to Cuilapa

Michelle: We had a serious cultural experience this week- we attended our first Latin American circus. We bought bleacher seats which turned out to be 2x6 inch boards lashed together. I thought that was a little sketchy but there were only 40 of us in attendance as opposed to 300. When I saw that the more expensive seats were right under the net I decided that I would rather be in the bleachers. While we waited for the performance to start Ryan reviewed with me the “emergency exits” we would use if the tent started on fire. I thought that he was being ridiculous and just making conversation until giant sparks started flying from one of the sound system wires and all the circus workers ran to throw dirt from the dirt floor on hot wires. The other exciting part of the circus was when they asked for a volunteer to help hold the giant anaconda; Ryan volunteered me. I guess that he had decided the snake was drugged enough to be harmless. I was afraid I was going to have to do something else while in the center ring but I just had to hold it long enough for Ryan to take a picture.

Ryan: Last week I started my rotation at the Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, which serves the entire state of Santa Rosa and two smaller bordering states as well. It’s the only hospital around for miles and miles with a full team of surgeons, CT scanner, and MRI. They are still pretty limited as though as far as lab work and newer medications. I worked with the internal medicine team the first week and now I’m in the emergency room where there’s a lot more going on. There’re aren’t very many nurses and that means I get to draw blood for labs, put in IV’s and run my own EKG’s – good practice that’s hard to get as a medical student in the US. My medical Spanish has improved a ton, and I can usually get through a patient interview without asking them to repeat themselves more than once or twice.

Temples, ancient and modern

This week I decided that participating in the Amazing Race would not be nearly as fun or glamorous as they make it out to be on TV. On Thursday we left Xela at 4am and didn’t reach Copan Ruinas in Honduras until 12 hours later, after taking 5 separate buses. The most exciting of which was the 15 passenger van like Natalie and Josh had in Costa Rica that was actually filled with 28 people- two of which were hanging outside the open sliding door. There is nothing quite like watching the ground race past you and thinking, “If I fall there is nothing to stop me from flying right outside the van to a certain death (we were in the mountains)”. But, it was worth it.

The following day we went to the Copan Ruins which were impressive. They weren’t as tall as other ruins that we have been to, but they had a great museum with a life-size replica of a temple they found underneath two other temples. Ryan has gotten really good at discovering “undiscovered” ruins from what might seem to be big piles of rocks. I think that he found enough covered ruins to keep a whole herd of archeologists busy for years. He even started preparing his speech for when National Geographic contacts him for a press conference. Another fun part of Copan is that they keep a flock of scarlet macaws near the entrance, much to the delight of tourists like us.

That afternoon we got back into a bus for Guatemala City and stayed overnight in the hotel for temple patrons by the Guatemala Temple. We were warned to go to the temple early because it fills up. I have to admit that I was doubtful that there would be people at the temple before we got there at 4:40, but the waiting room was packed with people overflowing to the outside. We managed to get into the second session at 5:30, but I think that they filled at least four the sessions with the people that were waiting with us. Incredible.

After the session we walked ourselves and our luggage up the hill to the bus stop to catch a ride to Cuilapa, where we would spend the next month. I went ahead and wore my brightest shirt because I knew that people would be looking at crazy Americans walking their luggage along a busy street anyway. We caught the suped-up school bus when it was already full, so Ryan got to sit on the transmission by the driver facing all the passengers. He assured me that everyone was looking at him, and I thought that it would be a great time to preach the gospel. Nothing like a captive audience. I got a “seat” between the two benches. I was actually what you might call the “keystone” that doesn’t need to be supported beneath by anything to stay mid-air because there is enough pressure from both sides. We were six people across and I basically floated for 1.5 hours.