we are true kharkivites

May 18, 2010

Katie worked yesterday and I was on night shift so I spent the day just exploring a little on my own. I slept in until about 11 which was much needed! Then I decided to just go for a walk and wander around the city until I found somewhere I wanted to chill out and read my book. I ended up walking back to where all the old churches are and found a spot near the gorgeous fountains overlooking some churches. I pretty much just spent the afternoon reading and doing some intense people watching in the beautiful weather. There are always so many people around here. You can tell it is definitely not normal to just sit at home. Everyone is always walking around and looks like just enjoying life. Sitting in near the park you could smell the bread that was being made at the monastery nearby. Smells yummy…I'll have to try it before we leave. After relaxing at the hotel and getting ready for work, Caroline and I walked down the street and got a bite to eat at La Strada which is one of the italian restaurants I went to last week. It was very good and the service there is better than anywhere we have been. You can definitely tell the service industry is a lot different than at home. Going out to eat is not meant to be a quick thing. They just bring the food out as it's ready and they don't check on your table regularly. You have to sort of flag the waiter down if you are wanting anything. And if you are ready for the bill you have to tell them, otherwise you would sit there for hours. And forgot about free refills. All the drinks are sold in bottles, even water. The US is the only place that has fountain drinks I think, haha, and free water!

Work last night was pretty good. Camilla, the BT shunt from last Thursday, is still there and doing pretty well. Just monitoring her still because she has had an iffy couple of days and may possibly need a couple more days of milrinone. She looked good throughout our shift though and will hopefully be going to the ward tomorrow or thursday. Katie already mentioned a few of the other patients. There was one adorable little girl named Tatiana, who is 4 years old and had her PDA ligated. She has these big blue eyes that just melt your heart! I have a softspot for the name because the main character in my favorite book, The Bronze Horsemen, is named Tatiana. She was sorta whiney, but you didn't really care because she was so cute. Another new patient was a little 5 month old TET who they planned on doing a BT shunt, then got in there and realized her PDA is pretty large, so they just closed her back up. I guess she had a rocky first few hours postop, but we extubated her around 9pm and she flew the rest of the night. There was also a little boy who was going to be a complete TET repair, but ended up only closing his VSD. He has a pretty chronic history of hydrocephalus and recently being in the ICU at the Children's Hospital for pneumonia. He was doing well when we left this morning, but we just talked to Chris, the surgeon, and he told us that he aspirated and arrested this afternoon. Apparently he had about a 15 minute downtime. Poor guy :( Like he hasn't had a rough enough time already! I'm anxious to see how he is doing in the morning.

Worked with Alex and Svetlana last night….Alex and Scottie bonded over Michael Jackson and grape Ukranian gum, haha. Scottie also spent a little time being a nurse last night while he was a gentleman and let Caroline and I take a nap, haha. That's right people…I said it, a nap at work. Apparently in UK and all over Europe it is common practice to take short naps at work. Caroline told us there are actually studies that say people working night shift do their best when they can get a little sleep. It was a little weird for me to actually fall asleep while working!! But I won't lie…it was kinda nice.

This morning we came back to the hotel and as soon as I knocked on the door for Katie to let me in she threw the door open and was already ready with her suit on. This meant that we were for sure going to the natural spring haha. So after having a little breakfast we made the trek over to the botanical garden. Katie, Scottie and Caroline were all very adventurous and dunked themselves in the spring. I on the other hand chose not to torture myself in freezing cold water. So I documented this little adventure by videoing Katie and trying to capture the painful faces everyone was making as soon as they hit the water!

Slept for a couple hours, not too long though because we only have a few days left here :( Then Scottie, Katie and I spent the day being true Kharkivites! We basically just got on the metro and went to the farthest away and some random stops and got out and explored. We ended up at a train station….in the probably ghetto…and then at a ginormous futbol stadium! At the stadium we had a nice lunch. While at lunch we glanced at the map we had with us and saw a little clipart of this seal holding a ball on its nose. We thought it might stand for the circus (keep in mind we can't really read the map because it's in Russian). This sounded interesting so we hopped on the Metro and went in search of Ukraine's version of the Ringling Brothers :) We ended up back in the Old City and near the flea market. We found a really nice old couple to ask directions to. Bless their hearts, the tried so hard to tell us how to get there and for such a huge language barrier they did a good job. After wandering around for awhile and stopping at an egg to check directions (no joke) we saw the circus in the distance. Even though when we got there we discovered that there wasn't a show until Saturday after we are gone, the satisfaction of actually finding the circus was enough for us. And along the way we pretty much saw the entire city!! After patting ourselves on the back for our superior navigation skills we walked to the park to get a drink and hang out. On the way we saw some kids goofing off at a skate park, breakdancers, and get ready for this…..Ukranian Karoake. I have been asking people all week if there is a karaoke bar and no one knew of any. And here we are walking through the park and just happen across a guy with a karaoke machine, charging 10 gryffindors per song. So you better believe we took advantage of it. Scottie did a smashing version of Great Balls of Fire and everyone loved him. People were dancing clapping and having a good old time. This old lady was loving him. Keep in mind that she had performed about 3 songs herself before we took the spotlight. Since Scottie was so brave and went first, Katie and I decided we couldn't pass up the change to do karaoke in a park in Ukraine. So we dragged Scottie up there with us for Sweet Caroline. Basically we are both awful singers and didn't have near as much crowd support as Scottie :( It was the most hilarious experience ever!! We were starting to get hungry so went in search of the Ukranian restaurant a lot of people went to last week, but Scottie and I missed out on cause we were at work. Katie was our navigator and after a few wrong turns we found it!! It was the best restaurant!!! We ordered soooooo much food and just all shared stuff. It was all authentic Ukrainian cuisine and our waiter helped us order. They had these outdoor tables and they even gave you blankets to wrap around yourselves if you got cold!! We all had appetizers, soup, salad, entrees, wine, and dessert and the whole bill came out to a total of an equivalent to $58. I mean this meal was so nice that it probably would have been at least $250 at home, no joke. Now our bellies are full and we are hanging out in the lobby of the hotel before we get some shuteye before our shift tomorrow. Scottie, Katie and I are all on the same shift…watch out :)