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June 2009

Instead of taking the summer off like I probably should have, I ended up scheduling things to keep myself busy for most of the summer break. For the first week, I was a camp counselor for Camp Tiger which is a class project for the first year medical students. We host a summer camp for disabled children who would otherwise be unable to participate in a summer camp because of their special physical or mental needs. They paired 2-3 medical students per camper and we still had our hands full! I got the okay to bring Kaira along with me, and she was our 'assistant counselor' for the week. Our camper, Nikki, was one of the most physically disabled children at the camp, being wheelchair bound and having only the most limited use of hands and feet. So it was a challenge to find ways for her to participate in the activities planned such as Chuck E Cheese and bowling. We went to a lot of cool places, like to SciPort and a tour of the Air Force base, as well as to Gators & Friends, but I was so busy that I forgot to take pictures at most of them. Kaira was a great sport and a wonderful helper, and we had a good time that week. After Camp Tiger was over, I took off to Baton Rouge where I had signed up for a 4 week summer internship shadowing a doctor in a small clinic in one of the rural areas surrounding Baton Rouge. It gave me the chance to gain some extra experience (which will also look good on the resume' when it comes time to apply for residencies) and also gave Kaira the chance to spend some extra time with her dad and her best friend, Lokei.

Camp Tiger
Kaira playing air hockey with Nikki... Me and one of my fellow counselors with our camper... Kaira riding a ride at Chuck E Cheese with Nikki...

Gators & Friends
Gators & Friends has both a petting zoo where you can feed and pet a variety of different animals, as well as a gator pond where you can watch feedings of the gators. Was a BIG hit with all the kids. Kaira had a blast feeding the animals.


We were warned ahead of time about the camels, so waited til the end when our feed cups were almost empty to feed them - if you held your feed cup to to them, instead of eating out of it, they took the cup from you and dumped the whole thing into their mouths! It was pretty funny to watch.

And then of course there were the gator feedings. They didn't feed them meat, like I pictured they would. They threw in a big bucket of stuff that looked like dog food and the gators all chomped at the water to catch floating pieces of it. Not as exciting as I had pictured, but still fun to watch. They also had a baby gator (with its mouth taped shut, just in case) that the kids could pet and hold.


Kaira & Lokei
We set up a little kiddie pool in the backyard for the girls to play around in to help keep cool in the summer heat. They had a good time splashing around and throwing water on each other.


They were being awful quiet one day back in Lokei's bedroom, so I snuck back there to make sure they weren't getting into mischief (which is often the case with quiet children!), and instead found them snuggled up in bed reading a book to each other. Very cute.

Happy Birthday

Birthday bear and flowers from my mom (thanks Mom!!)... I got not one, but two birthday cakes! - a cookie cake picked out by Kaira and a brownie cake picked out by Lokei...

The weekend after my birthday, my friend Jacqueline and I headed to New Orleans to celebrate. A kid-free weekend is a rare treat... and I didn't even have to study!! We did a lot of sleeping in late, window shopping, eating good food... and, of course, a little drinking too (what's a celebration without a few drinks?). Oh yeah, I also rode the mechanical bull. I was even joined one night by some other friends from Shreveport who just happened to also be down in New Orleans for the weekend. Jacq and I had a great time and the weekend flew by all to fast.