Sandersconnection

Yesterday at work, there was a patient on my side who was demented but apparently had been really nice all day.  The nurse went in to take out his IV and he kissed her hand bc he liked her so much.  Then, she went to pull off the tape taping down the IV and he went crazy.  He hit her and I heard her call for help so I went in along with another nurse.I tried to hold him down, and he grabbed my arms and started digging his fingernails in.  The other nurse was helping me pry him off when he kicked me in the chest.  That pushed me back and kind of knocked out my breath, and while I was standing back he grabbed the nurse and started doing the same to her arm and then tried to bite her.  I went back to help her pry him off and he kicked me in the shoulder.  Eventually we got him calmed down, put a diaper on (he was naked…thankfully he didn’t pee on me!), and got him changed and out the door.

An 84 year old man beat up 3 girls and his son at once.  Impressive.

I’m heading to the gym…

A day off + being in Athens = accomplishing lots of little tasks (like posting/adding some pics to our blog!)

So I’ve been everywhere but I’m mostly done traveling now (except for Raleigh this weekend).  I’ve been home, Raleigh, Maryland, and Chicago, and the one weekend I was in Athens it was because I had to work on Sunday.  I went to my church in Athens yesterday for the first time since I was baptized (in like August).  It was great to be back.  I also was FINALLY able to go to a community group, and I LOVE the one I went to.  I knew 3 of the couples in it (an older couple, a couple with like middle school kids, and a couple with little kids), but I didn’t know the others and they were all great.  I’m so excited about being in that group and can’t wait to go back.

I’m loving this in-between year God has given me.  I like my job, it’s nice to be able to support myself, and I have no responsibilities besides showing up for work and doing my laundry in between.  I’m so glad I’ve been able to travel and I would love to go more places like Boston and New York while I have the chance this year.  It was hard at first to find the balance between still living in Athens with my roommates but realizing that that isn’t my life anymore.  Now I’m able to enjoy my life more and enjoy the time that my roommates get to spend with each other…I’m so glad they’re loving each other and this year and the house, and it doesn’t bother me that I’m usually not a part of that.  However, it is fun when I am around and we can all spend time together.

I’ll try to add a few pictures.  I used my mixer recently and made like 40 pumpkin cookies, 120 chocolate chip cookies, and honey wheat rolls, along with some other things i didn’t use my mixer for (like hummus and pumpkin ravioli that I used pumpkin I STILL have from last year’s experimenting for).  I love my mixer!  I do think it needs a name though, so I’m taking suggestions.

So, I definitely know how blessed I am to even be in Europe, and over and over again I`ve gotten to do and see great things, but wow…I`ve totally been blessed again!

We left Friedrichshafen yesterday, where we stayed for free with one of Kate`s friends and her family, who fed us, took us places, and totally went above and beyond for us.  We went on to Zurich (or somewhere in the country outside of Zurich) where we are staying with someone Kate`s friend Emily`s family knows sort of…it was quite random and we were a little worried about it how awkward it would be.

We got to the train station and the husband was waiting to pick us up with a guy from Florida who is staying with him for 3 weeks.  He took us to his awesome house in the country looking over the swiss alps, where he showed us around and to our room, the pool, sauna, and more.  Then we sat down at the table while he went outside to pick fresh lettuce from his garden, while his wife came home and made homemade salad dressing for it. We ate that first, then they brought us seared pork tenderloin, some kind of awesome grain, broiled potatoes, and a sauce he made for the meat while we were sitting at the table.  Then she brought us apple pie she made.  Then they brought us swiss chocolate.  Then they asked if it would be OK if they took us to the alps tomorrow (today) and we could hike around.  Then they asked if we are OK with having fresh bread from the bakery down the street for breakfast.  We just stared all night long with our mouths open wide.  It was crazy!

Today they woke us up at 7 and we got ready, ate the breakfast of fresh bread and homemade jellies, and took off into the alps where we walked around a glacier and into a gorge.  I can`t even explain how great it all was on here…I`ll tell yall all about it when I get home, which will be soon!  I think we`ll stay here the rest of our nights, and they have something else planned for us in the alps tomorrow then I think we`re going to a glass factory.

I love yall!  See you soon!

Happy father’s day, Dad

I’m in Vienna now and will spend tonight and tomorrow night here before taking a train to Salzburg…our trip is almost over.

We had an interesting experience on a night train with no sleep, then we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and spent the day around Vienna, and now we’re going to sleep for a while!  Vienna is nice but there isn’t really a lot to see and do here, but we’ll do some things tomorrow and hopefully take it easy…today was our 25th day here I think and we need a slow day.

I’m sure this is too much information, but can I explain how unfortunate it is, especially for someone without lots of money who would rather spend it on food, to get diarrhea in a train station that charges 0.50 euros each time you use the bathroom?  Just so you know, it’s not fun.  I’d appreciate prayers too…I still don’t feel well.  Hopefully some sleep will help with that, but we’ll see how I feel in the morning.

I love yall!

I’m in Berlin now and will leave in a little over an hour for Prague!

Berlin has been great.  It’s so much cheaper than everywhere else we’ve been, has great food, gives you bigger portions, and we even got FREE water with a piece of ice in it! Yay!  It also has a ton of things I wanted to see, since WW2 is the part of history I really love.  We went to the Reichstag, Jewish memorial and museum, German History museum, Checkpoint charlie and the museum there, and saw the east side gallery which is where the largest segment of the wall still stands.  We all learned tons we didn’t know, but there are still some things we don’t quite understand about the wall that we’ll have to research when we get back.

The first night here we walked around our hostel to find food, and there was cheap food everywhere!  We finally just sat down at a place, and they had some MExican food!  Just what we’ve been wanting.  It wasn’t like our mexican food back home exactly, but we shared chicken nachos and I had a burrito!  We’ve also had bockwurst which I guess is similar to bratwurst? And we’re going to get a curryworst before we leave in a bit.

I’m excited about Prague because it’s my favorite from last trip.  We’ll stay there 2 nights then take a night train out to Vienna.

I’m praying for Aaron and Rachel and Liam today as yall travel down to GA.

I love you all!  See you in a few weeks.