Yangming Mountain National Park

Huddled as a group trying to stay warm before we went into the rain with nurses from the ED

Hot springs

So today really reminded me of weather back in Seattle, or rather in the Cascades. The last couple days we have been spoiled with nice weather in Taipei, unfortunately we have been inside the hospital during most of it (trying to keep warm with the AC on max!). We rode up to the top of the mountain, which the road reminded me of the Road to Hana on Maui. On our way up to the top, the weather got increasingly worse... Once we got outside of the car, all of us were fully decked out in as much rain gear as possible. Some people were in bright yellow ponchos, some with umbrellas, and others with great rain gear (or some had a combination of all of the above). Thankfully my wonderful sister, Erica, let me borrow her excellent Helly Hansen jacket and I stayed perfectly dry. The park was beautiful and had Cherry Blossums blooming throughout along with a lot of other flower varieties. On our way back down the mountain we stopped at hot springs. We weren't able to get very close to these hot springs, which is a good thing because the sulfur smell was VERY strong!! It was also very evident seeing where the sulfur had left large sections of yellow rock near the hot springs. There are other places throughout the national park where you can rent the hot springs or go into a group sort of hot spring, but those were different ones than we went to.

Our nature walk was followed with a 10 course lunch! The beginning of the lunch started out a little rough because I wasn't able to feel my hands due to the numbness still residing from being out in the cold earlier that morning. We were served such a large variety of foods. My favorite was ginger and sweet potato soup, which I will be looking up a similar recipe when I get back to the states.

Once we returned back to our dorms, I instantly took a hot shower to try to take away the chill that was still inside me. Tomorrow will be the beginning of my last week here, so crazy how fast time is flying!

Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel Group

Riding on the MRT

Today was my last day in the hospital for the week. It's been a long week with 4 back to back clinical days but it's been exciting seeing the progression I have made during my time in the hospital. My confidence levels have been improved since my first day in the ICU. Being in the hospital here can be intimidating because not only have I never worked in an ICU, but everything is in an entirely different language. I can tell that my nurse is becoming more confident and trusting in my abilities to do nursing tasks. She has given me more assigned things to do with a lot more freedom than in the past couple days with her in the medical ICU.

Tonight we went on a tour of the Grand Hotel in Taipei. The architecture was amazing and very intricute inside and out of the hotel. Two of the guides that went with us are highschoolers who attend Taipei American School. We had a fun time talking to them about which colleges they want to apply to in the US. I encouraged one of them to apply to WSU because she was really interested in UW too:) go cougs!


Architecture of the ceiling in the Grand Hotel



Pho is my favorite

Pho is by far my favorite food since coming to Taiwan. I think I have ate it about 3-4 times in the past week. It's also a great way to clear up my sinuses! We found this amazing Pho place that's within walking distance from our dorms. Our server was so sweet and we got a photo with her!

Pho dinner withour serveer in the middle

Today in the ICU was such a great learning day. My nurse has been amazing and has found lots of things for me to observe and try out on my patients. I did another blood draw on my first attempt! I also put in an NG tube (first one) and opened glass ampules successfully without slicing my finger open. I'm getting a lot better at the skills I first learned on Monday, my preceptor has been a great teacher. I watched an MRI and a colonoscopy-- let me tell you, those do not look like they feel very good!

Cardiac Surgery

Dinner Group at a Jimmy Chazz French Restaurant

Dr. Wei and I

I'm loving my experience at Cheng Hsin hospital in the Medical ICU! I've been given a lot of learing opportunities here because the doctors and nurses are so open to teaching to me. We might not be able to talk a lot in English but they're able to point and use diagrahms to explain what they are doing. Today we watched a cardiac surgery on a 36 year old who had an aneurysm on his aorta. We were not in the OR but were watching the surgery on a large screen. Dr. Wei, a world famous heart surgeon, was performing the surgery and explained things to us as he went along. It was so cool to see the patient's beating heart right there on the screen. Later in the surgery he bypassed the heart and we saw it completely stop beating, what an intersting part of the body.

Later that day we went out to dinner with Dr. Wei at a fancy french restaurant. I had a delicious steak (which actually made me full!)

Kristin and I with our table partners

Chinese Lantern Festival

Our team with the students from the National Defense Nursing School



Women we met at the National Defense Nursing School

Today was my first day in the Medical ICU, which is where I'll be placed for the of the time in Taiwan. I was with a cardiac patient and a patient with sepsis/abdominal mass. I got to do some exciting new things here that I haven't been able to do in the US (well I think they're exciting, but everyone else might think they're gros...) I was able to watch a new PICC line (meaning an IV that can last 7 days and has 3 ports to insert meds and other things through) inserted into the jugular vein and also learned how to suction a trach. My preceptor was a very good teacher and helped me through the suctioning. Getting a PICC line into the neck vein does look like it hurts a lot though:(

After the hospital we went for a visit to the National Defense Medicine College. This is where the military trains healthcare workers and trades payment for school for the student agreeing to work for ten years after in the Taiwanese military. We met some pretty fun young women and learned more about their program. They were very interested in learning more about us and what our nursing school is like. They also loved hearing more about our lives and what we like to do for fun. It was fun being able to spend time and connect with people similiar to our age.

Rose and I at the lantern festival

When we first arrived in Tawian we were here for Chinese New Year's Celebration for the start of the Year of the Snake. Yesterday was the beginning of the Chinese Lantern festival, which continues for the festivities of the Chinese New Year. I never realized it was such a long celebration that consisted of so many different festivals. There is a large park in Taipei that's covered with lights and blow up structures that represent various Chinese traditions, Angry Birds, and other popular movies in Taiwan. (The structures were kind of similar to the big blow up Christmas decorations people have in their front yards). We walked and walked throughout this festival for two hours because it's so large. It was hard to keep an eye on the group we walked with because there were so many other people there. Marlaina, Kyleigh, and I ate something that resembled a hot dog on a stick that tasted like cinnamon and sugar (our teachers referred to it as mystery meat). I guess it remains a mystery what we actually ate, which I'm not sure I really want to know.


Lantern Festival

Wow. Another long and exhausting day. These days are hard when we go from the hospital, to a tour, to a night festival and are gone for 15 hours. My feet hurt from walking and my body hurts from sleeping on my box spring (what I call my mattress).

Handicraft Market

Outside of the Handicraft Market

Today we went to the Taipei Handicraft Market. This market was 4 levels and was full of things like jewelry to pottery to nunchucks. This is also the only place in Taiwan I have been able to find shot glasses to add to my collection, they're not common here. I think I finished all of my gift shopping for friends back home and bought a couple things for myself too:)

Things I'm looking forward to about going home-- Half and half to add to my black americanos and drip coffees

Danshui Bike Ride

Biking group



Good thing I grew up riding a bike, especially since today we went on a bike ride through some crowded city streets and I had to dodge mopeds and people. We went to North of Taipei to Danshui. Some of the  nurses and doctors from Cheng Hsin went with us on the bike ride. One of the top doctors in Taiwan invited us over to his condo and we had a picnic outside. Unfortunately the wind was super strong (like Orondo wind!) and so we moved the picnic indoors. After the picnic we continued on with our bike ride until we reached the boardwalk (below in the pictures). We took two ferries to get to the place we were having dinner because the tide was out so far our original ferry couldn't dock because it was too shallow. Dinner was outside in cabanas with lots of pretty LED lights and heaters:) After it got dark, there was a pedestrian bridge that had a ton of pretty colors on it. 

Rose and I doing handstands



Kyleigh and I



The tide was out so far our ferry
couldn't even pick us up



Busy week!!

Well this post is to make up for not posting for the past several days! I'm going to try to summarize what I've been up to since last Tuesday:)

On Wednesday I was on the Surgical Intensive Care unit. The unit had a variety of diagnoses, some from one patient with buccal (cheek) cancer who had to get part of his cheek removed and his calf muscle transplanted, to another patient who had a crushed pelvis after a rock climbing incident. The patient I was assigned to had a heart attack the night before and was on a ventilator until his lungs cleared up from pulmonary edema. Being with this patient taught me how important it is to listen to your doctors and take care of your body! This patient had a 10 year history of hyperlipidemia (high fat in blood), hypercholesteremia (high cholesterol), hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. All of these condtions are preventable and are warning signs to something potentially more dangerous that happen to your body in the future.

Thursday was a rest and study day. Our team was able to finish several group projects and were very productive:)


The cat that lives at ORTV

Friday-- we visited ORTV again (the same place we went on Monday). I got to record several things that'll be on the radio over here to help teach English! Tonight we went to "Friday Night Life" which is for people who want to learn more about Christ and learn English at the same time. There are many different levels of English interpretation for people of all levels. This was an amazing organization and people are so eager to learn English and learn more about Christianity.

Day 12.

We have officially been in Taiwan for 12 days. The streets around our dorms are becoming more familiar as we return to places we have gone to and we go to places that friends have recommended for us to visit. Since being here I have ate a lot of gluten and dairy (both of which I don't eat a lot of back home) and I don't think my body loves me for that. So for the rest of the time I'm here I am going to try to be more cautious about that. Tonight I had an amazing beef salad with lots of veggies on top!

This morning we toured five units of the hospital that we haven't been able to see at Cheng Hsin. They were all very different from units in the states. There was one unit called the International Nursing Unit which cost 9500NT/night to stay in ($400-$500 USD) and was huge! We were able to meet with one of the cardiac doctors and play around with a tele-ECG monitoring system that patients can use while they're at home. The patients with cardiac issues are able to bring this device home and hold it with their hand to their chest when they feel palpitations, then this ECG rhythm is sent over the phone to their doctor. The doctor is able to interpret it when the rhythm arrives in their email. Its a very cool system. Heart disease is one of the major health issues in Taiwan so this system is very important for them to have established. After our tours we had another Mandarin lesson...Let's just say that this language is very hard to learn!

Our team with our Mandarin teacher, Helen

ORTV

Our team on one of the TV station sets

Pretending like we have a radio show

We took a break from our normal routine of clinical days in the hospital to spend our day at the Overseas Radio and Television (ORTV) organization in Taiwan. This is a Christian based organization that teaches English to people living in Taiwan through radio and tv programs. We were given a tour thorughout the studio to see the recording rooms they use for radio and TV programs. It was fun to see the inside of the studios and pretend like we were on a tv show!


Sunday. Rest Day.

Thank goodness for rest days. Most of our days have been go go go so today was a nice change of pace. Today we began the morning by waking up to sunshine filling our room and opened up the curtains to a very warm morning. Today's high was 75 degrees, which felt amazing!! This afternoon a couple of us watched "A Walk to Remember" and made beaded wrap bracelets with the beads we bought yesterday afternoon. I tried out a dumpling place for dinner and it was delicious, so we will be going back there! I also found a Pho place I want to try out this week.


Bracelets we made with beads from the Jade Market

National Palace Musuem and Jade Market

Taiwan group at the National Palace Museum in Taipei

Handstands in Taiwan

 Today was a very busy and eventful day. Some of the nursing staff at Cheng Hsin took their day off to take us on tours for the entire day! We are very thankful for them to be so generous with their time they gave to us. First we went to the National Palace Musuem which houses a lot of Taiwan's ancient history. This was a fun tour to take but was overwhelming with the amount of people that come to see it (which must mean that it's very intersting if a lot of people want to see it)! Afterwards we had lunch then headed to the Jade market. The Jade Market was a large building filled with rows of tables with vendors selling Jade. Marlaina, Rose, Kyleigh and I bought loose beads to make wrap bracelets out of so they could literally be "Made in Taiwan."

TGIF

Statue outside of Mackay Memorial Hospital

today
 



I have officially been in Taiwan for a week! It's crazy how fast this week has gone by and how many things I've had the opportunity to do in just 7 days. 3 weeks from right now I'll be boarding a plane on my way back to Seattle. 

This morning we an a Nosocomial Infection Control meeting with representatives of the hospital. So many of the infection precautions are similar here to back in the states. Even though the precautions are similar, some of the infectious diseases are different. After the meeting, we had a break so we were able to get some coffee and talk with each other:) Then I had chicken curry for lunch, it was delicious! After lunch we took the MRT train to Mackay Memorial Hospital. The hospital was named after a Canadian missionary who was a dentist and began this hospital in the 1800s. The staff at this hospital were so open and inviting us to tour their hospital and learn more about it. They gave us a tour of one of the general pediatric floors and then in the NICU. I haven't been in a NICU before so this was a first time for me. One of the babies was born at only 650 grams (1.43lbs). He is the smallest baby I have ever seen before. The nurses there were great at explaining each of the baby's conditions to our entire group. All of the staff there showed so much compassion for their patients and also to be employed as a nurse at this hospital. Compassion isn't something that can be taught throughout nursing school but it's rather a gift that you're born with and is an important characteristic for nurses to have.

Old fashioned dental chair where they would pull teeth out in open air. OUCH

One of my favorite things about Taiwan is the shopping. I should probably cut down on the amount of things I'm buying to make sure I can get it all back in the same suitcases I brought my stuff here in, but the deals are so great and I can't pass up all the unique items! On our way to the pediatric hospital today we stopped by a vendor in the transit station. They had a ton of shoes for only 200NT ($6 USD). The purchase of the day today were these little gems in the picture below. They are cream colored with glitter flats.

New shoes!

Tomorrow's an exciting day! We are going to the National Palace Museum and the Jade Market at night. Hoping to find some loose Jade to bring home and make some bracelets out of:)

Happy Valentine's day!

Happy Valentine's day! Today I woke up to a pleasant surprise outside of my dorm room. My professors woke up extra early to put Valentine's day cards and bags of lavendar outside of our rooms. I also ate my Sweetheart candies my mom slipped in my bag before I left Maple Valley.

Today a couple of us observed in the Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic. We were able to several people get acupunture for various diagnoses. It was cool to see how every point on the body has a specific meaning in accupuncture. We were even able to practice accupuncture on each other which felt really weird lol. We practiced on a point on the hand which is supposed to help improve the immune system. I wouldn't say that it hurt, but it was definitely a weird feeling having a needle inserted into a pressure point. The point we used was the webbed piece of skin between your thumb and first finger, and you press into that about 1/2 inch and insert it on the top of the hand.

Tonight I went out on my hot Valentine's Day date with Marlaina and Kyleigh. We went to a very romantic place called Subway haha. I would say it's similar to the ones in the US but it tastes a little bit different. There has been a lot of vendors in the park the last couple days forming something like a swap meet. I bought a red purse tonight for 200NT (~$6 USD) and I love it! Every night someone in our group has been sharing devotions and it's such an amazing experience to see where everyone comes from and how their past has helped shape who they are today.

Sending lots of love to friends and family back home today!! Missing everyone <3

Mandarin is a tough language

Nursing Preceptor with Kyleigh and I on the Psych ward

I was blessed with the opportunity of being able to spend clinicals today in the psychiatric ward of Cheng Hsin General Hospital. Kyleigh and I were both paired with a nurse preceptor who went out of her way to give us many teaching opportunities about the psych department. I was amazed at how similar the psych ward is in Taiwan compared to my psych rotation at Fairfax back in Washington. I got to speak Spanish to a patient today who was from Equador! It felt good to be able to use my Spanish skills even though I am in Taiwan haha. We had a Mandarin language lesson today after our clinicals. All I can say is that Mandarin is a very very tough language and I don't think my jaw is wired correctly to make some of the sounds needed. But we have another lesson next week so hopefully I can keep practicing and be able to say some phrases!

Tonight I went out to dinner with a group of students and my professors. The food was so good!! Best meal I've had in awhile:) It was a great spending time in a small group getting to know the other girls and our professors even better than before. Our group is becoming so close as everyone is sharing their testiomonies and getting to know each other better. I am so glad I got to come to Taiwan with such a great group of women:)

Tomorrow I'll be in the Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic with a couple other students.

Good night!

Eventful Day in the ED

Welcome back fellow blog readers...

Today I had the opportunity to work in the Emergency Department with Kyleigh. I had the chance to do several IM injections (The shots that go into the muscle of your arm) and was able to discontinue an IV. Some of the techniques here are different than what I am taught in Taiwan, which will be important for me to remember how I was taught in the US when I return. I have taken more CPR classes in my life than I can count but I have never seen CPR performed on anyone until today. A lady came into the ED unresponsive and cyanotic (bluish feet, hands, and lips). Cardiac emergency protocol was iniated with oxygen, AED shocks, and CPR for 30 minutes. Unfortunately after this time, she had passed. Throughout the entire situation I admired how well the doctors and nurses worked together as a team to help this patient. Even though it was a stressful situation, all of the nurses and doctors were able to remain calm and work together. It also showed me for future nursing situations how important it is to make sure I know what to do in an emergency and to know where all of the necessary supplies are located. Our preceptors were so helpful and were able to teach us so much more than we have had exposure to in the US. I'm so thankful for having the opportunity to work with these nurses and doctors at Cheng Hsin Hospital.

Shilin Night Market



Shilin Night Market

Today was my first day at Cheng Hsin General Hospital. I was on the OB floor with another girl in my group. Today was a lot slower than a lot of other days because of the Chinese New Year. A lot of women will plan to have inductions to have their babies during the Year of the Dragon so before the new year started to the Year of the Snake. The year of the dragon is considered to be very prestigious and a lot of families will want their children to be born during that year. OB here was very different than back home but there are also a lot of similarities. Here there are a lot of different rooms for sep of the labor process. This culture is very pro-breastfeeding which is very good for their babies, and I know back in the US this is something that is continued to be worked upon!  We experienced the asian culture regarding childbirth and it was very different from back home. In Chinese culture, women take 1-2 months off after childbirth and stay home from work. It's called "doing the month" and typically another family member helps take care of the baby.

So many scarves at the Night Market. I'm in love.

Tonight I was served dinner in a toilet. Haha, we went out to eat at place called The Modern Toilet and nearly everything in the entire place was somehow related to toilets. All of our seats were toilets with various toilet seat covers, mine had fish on it. I ordered a vegetarian "hot pot" which was served in a toilet and was made of broth, vegetables, and rice. Then we were served ice cream in a "squaty potty". After dinner Marlaina, Sarah and I went with our hosts Peter and Aiko and they showed us around the night market. the shopping at the night market is so great that I am already planning what I am going to buy next time:) The clothes are very cheap and when you have hosts with you that speak Chinese, they're able to help you barter. We walked through the food court and there was a wide array of smells. One of our hosts bought a freshly squeeze orange and lemon juice and it tasted really good (I want to buy one next time). Some of the smells I had never smelt before, look up "Stinky Tofu" and that's one of the scents at the night market.


My toilet dinner experience

Our group at Shilin Night market

Tomorrow I am going to be in the ED (Emergency Department) at Cheng Hsin Hospital and I am on the same unit with Kyleigh.

Today began by our group attending an American church (it was nice to hear English!) named Taiwan International Church. We all introduced ourselves and said where we were from and so did other newcomers in the service. It was fun to hear where other people were from in the states. Afterwards we walked to a mall and looked for somewhere to eat in the food court. I bought a fruit jucie, which was amazing and freshly squeezed! (BTW the fruit is delicious here). I also bought a large meal for Marlaina and I to share because there was no way I could finish it all on my own. Then we got my favorite, we bought frozen yogut. My favorite flavor was Tutti Frutti.




Frozen yogut!

After lunch small group of us went to an orchid display that was being put on at the grounds of a past President of Taiwan. The grounds were very large and there were beautiful flower displays throughout them. All of the orchids were so pretty to look at. They're much larger here than in the United States. 


Beautiful orchids

Lady walking a pig..



Kyleigh and I at the orchid display





Chinese New Year

I meant to blog last night but yesterday was so eventful and busy that by the time I got home at 10p I was beyond exhausted. I'm beginning to adjust to the time difference, but still am not completely adjusted since I woke up at 530a completely awake this morning.

Yesterday a couple of us walked to Starbucks. I got a drip coffee with the Pikes place blend,  had the same blends thousands of miles away from Seattle! Afterwards we walked back to our dorms. We went on another, much longer walk for a couple of hours. On the walk went to an indoor market place which had meat stands that reminded me a lot of the open air meat markets in Mexico. Some of the ways the meat is prepared and sold are very different than in the US. All of the smells, foods, and people are such a new experience here. One of the seafood markets had crabs that were at least 3 feet wide from the tips of the legs, they were huge! We kept going along on our walk, and the more I see of this town the more I am amazed by it. Each building has it's own unique characteristics. A lot of the buildings have very intricate balcony railings and gated entrances, they're beautiful.

Last night was such a unique experience. Kyleigh, Kristin, and I were invited to a midwive's home in Central Taipei. Our hosptial dorm is located in another district, so she drove us about 30 minutes into more central (downtown) Taipei. We met her husband, daughter, and two sons. They were each so inviting us into their home. The host's brother and his two children came over too. They explained to us that Chinese New Year is a big celebration centered around family and it's important to have family all together. We were served dinner and I have never seen so many dishes on one table! A lot of the dishes had specific meanings to being served at Chinese New Year and the host read them to us (In English!). I tried almost all of the foods on the table, they were very traditional Taiwanese foods and most of them were various seafoods. The shrimp still had eyes on it and it's full shell (had to learn how to take it off on my own), the full lobster also sat next to me with his eyes still there too. There was a "hot pot" in the middle that had a lot of things thrown into it including duck eggs, crab legs, dumplings (i think...), and other things I'm not sure what they were. There were also listtle fish (the entire thing) was breaded and you were supposed to eat them whole. I ate a lot of rice, fruit, and pork to fill myself up but I'm proud of myself for trying more than I thought I could! My hand didn't cramp this time during dinner while using chopsticks which is good but the kids were making fun of us for our lack of chopstick skills.

I added lots of new photos to my Taiwan album on Facebook! Check them out:) I added a link to them in my "about me" section here. Today we are going to church and then going to an Orchid display.

Xin Dian kuai le! (Happy New Year!)

Chinese Lantern

Chinese Temple

Meat Market

Day 1: Culture shock.

View from Kyleigh and my dorm room

The alleyways are VERY narrow

 

Well today has been an extremely long day. It's currently 7:32p in Taipei (3:32a in Seattle). I am exhausted and have been up since 230a Taipei time. Fortunately my flight went by very quickly. I have very bad luck when it comes to sleeping on planes, but thanks to the help of some Melatonin I was able to sleep for about 6 hours. Jet lag is beginning to have a new definition after today.

Being in Taipei is amazing, but it is definitely a culture shock. I am the only person with blonde hair I have seen since I arrived today, which is definitely not what I'm used to when being in Seattle nearly half the women around me have blonde highlights. Another thing I am not used to, are pedestrians not having the right of way at crosswalks. You have to be care at every crosswalk making sure mopeds or cars don't run you over. Speaking of mopeds, I have never seen so many mopeds in my life. There are rows upon rows of mopeds on every street. And it's amazing how much people can carry while they're riding one of those things!  Even though I am in such a large city, there is so much green around me. I love it. There are amazing orchids, cherry blossums, and tons of trees within the city.

We were kept busy all day to help avoid the jet lag we knew we were all experiencing. We went on a couple of walks to various places throughout Taipei. It's an amazing city and I'm so excited to see more of it as the days go on. Tonight we went to a dinner at Cheng Hsin hospital with doctors and nurses that welcomed us. It was such a blessing to see how greatful and thankful they are for us to be visiting their hospital. I now have my own official set of nice chopsticks too:)

Valuable lessons learned today: 1) there's a such thing called a "squatty potty", 2) going to a grocery store with everything in Chinese is frustrating, and 3) crosswalks aren't always a safe place

That's all for tonight! I am so excited to see where the rest of the trip takes me and the adventures I will be going on. I'll have another blog post tomorrow and will upload some pictures <3