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