Day 2: The lake/pool

As day two of the preceptorship comes to a close I must say it was a very relaxing, very enjoyable day. It was really just another half day for us as we all woke up around 10 or 11 feeling oh so refreshed after a long day of traveling yesterday. We didn't have anything planned for the morning, but this afternoon we took a trip up these beautiful mountains that are completely surrounding us right now.

 In these mountains we found this random little town with the most incredible community center ever. It had multiple tennis courts, racket ball courts, basketball courts, volley ball, baseball, soccer...you name it, they had it. But that wasn't the best part. The best part about this community center was their "pool."

This pool is like nothing I have ever seen before. It's like half lake/half pool. But in reality its just a lake. The story behind this lake is fantastic too. Its basically located on the San Andreas fault line and is fed from an underground stream that is formed when the snow/ice on the mountains begins to melt. Its like a natural habitat too as there are plants and aquatic animals like fish and frogs swimming around in this lake.

Several of us decided to go on a decent hike down the mountain to this little town where apparently they were having some sort of festival or something as all the shops and other people were out in tents selling their products or homemade items while different events and activities were going on all throughout the main road. unfortunately (or maybe not) we didn't have any money with us so all we could do was look around, but after a while it was time to head back and eat. We had a great cookout here with just the pre-pros, as we like to call ourselves, and we had a lot of time to just hang out and get to know each other with questions about our "guilty pleasure tv shows/movies", our favorite movies, books, career plans, etc. Afterwards we went to this amazing ice cream place called A La Minute.

Here, they make their ice-cream with liquid nitrogen and local ingredients. Their menu is a little odd with choices such as orange honey, chocolate lavender, olive oil vanilla bean, strawberry balsamic, and a few other less interesting choices, but no matter what we got (and believe me in a group of about 32 people, we got them all) everything tasted so good! Again we had more time to bond and tell stories about broken bones, school dances (of which my knowledge and experience is next to nothing), wheelchair races, and towed cars. At one point during these stories Jan (one of the pre-pro students) and I realized that our group had parked in a 20 minute parking space.....about an hour and a half ago. So we rush down the stairs and out to the side walk to find that our car...was still there. At this point everyone had followed us to the sidewalk and we decided we might as well head back as it was getting late.

Today was geared more towards brining the pre-pros closer together, and it definitely worked. I feel even closer to the people I met yesterday and feel like i'm actually starting to make solid relationships with people. Tomorrow we start with a full day of activities starting at 7:30am and lasting until 8:30-9:00 that night, so i'm glad to have had time to strengthen some friendships today as we obviously won't be having much time over the next 5 days to really spend time with everyone.

I do ask that you continue to pray that God will continue to work on me this week, whether we are meeting with patients, sitting in lectures, or just hanging out with friends. Every moment is a growing opportunity, and my prayer is that He will open my eyes to those opportunities and that I would have the courage to not just see them, but to utilize them.

James 2:19 (NLT) Do you still think it's enough to just believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror!