Land of the Living!

The past year has been such a mix of experiences that it defies adjectives. Ultimately though, at the end of the long, hard, unexpected road, it has been a year of renewal. As such, this is the beginning rather than the end. I'm hoping this blog will help me keep in touch with friends and family a little better, and that it can help me keep track of what it's like to discover the world again. First, here's a whirlwind summary of what I've been up to for the past year or so. (It's even in pseudo-chronological order. Gold stars.)

Early Fall 2008:

Camping near the Mississippi River, just as the leaves started to turn.

Late Fall 2008: I decided to specialize in ophthalmology. (This beat Emergency Medicine by a landslide. It also narrowly edged out being a dog-walker, astronaut, ballerina, or major league baseball player.) My first exposure to ophtho was on a trip to the Dominican Republic, and a major part of my love for the specialty is because of its capacity for having an impact on people in developing countries. By winter 2008, I had started working with Unite for Sight and I was beginning to collect used eyeglasses (maybe hoarde is a better word than collect...I ended up with over 1200 pairs) to clean, analyze, and donate to clinics in Ghana, Africa.

The funny thing about used glasses is that some of them just radiate the character of their former owners. I called this pair the "Stella." Check out all the sassy charm of 1958!

There was also this unforgettable pair of matching military-issued BCG's (BCG = Birth Control Glasses; named because of their uncanny power to keep the wearer single. Very, very single.) Beyond limiting the world's population growth, the truly awesome part is that if you look really closely at the pair in front in this picture, the owner (understandably unwilling to part with such an eyewear masterpiece just because they were broken) has fixed a crack in the nose bridge with a piece of steel and two screws so that he could keep on wearing them.

Winter 2008:

I spent Christmas with my sister and brother-in-law, Bonnie and Eric, and their adorable kiddos.

We drove down to Round Valley together for New Year's. Bonnie and Eric went home early after deciding they'd had all the Eagar fun they could handle. Consequently, I was left in Round Valley without a car in the dead of winter, and a plane to catch from the Phoenix airport. So Mom and Dad willingly drove me to Phoenix. (Okay, I may have coerced them. I may have initially let them think we were just going on a wee 5 minute jaunt to the gas station. I may have bribed them with promises of Taco Bell burritos. However, these issues are merely details, right? There are two morals to the story: First, never get involved in a land war in Asia. Second, an $0.89 burrito goes a long way in the Jacobs economy.)

We stopped at the bottom of Salt River Canyon to take this picture, which might be one of my all time favorites of them.

In Phoenix, I stayed with my sister, Beth. Here she is at the grand opening of the Phoenix light rail train system. She's holding her neighbors' beautiful miracle baby who was born at about 23 weeks gestation to a couple who didn't know they were pregnant. Beth has a pretty bad cat allergy, but loves them anyway. I barely fought to urge to smuggle one of her adorable kittens home with me. I wondered if she would notice. Let's play Count Beth's Cats, shall we? (Hint: Three or four of them aren't even in the shot.)

In Phoenix, I also learned an important lesson about Spanish verb conjugation from a 40-foot pink and lime billboard proclaiming "Pimpeando." Indeed, pimpeo mucho.

Spring 2009:

My medical school class threw a Homecoming Week for itself, complete with Sports Day, Up North Day, and an 80's Prom night.

April-May 2009:

I went to Ghana, Africa, with Unite for Sight. I kept a daily journal while I was there, but that would be way too much to put into a blog entry.

Highlights: 8000+ patients screened, 650+ cataract operations,

14 loads of laundry washed by hand in a bucket,

I also hiked the rainforest near Ghana's southern coast,

They have a series of rope bridges suspended above the rainforest canopy, about 100 feet above the ground.

Speaking of things that seem like a bad idea, I sat on a live crocodile. There's a place called Paga Pond where, for the price of a live chicken, two guides will lead visitors out along the water's edge to meet the crocodiles. The guides then feed the chickens to the beastie, which calms it into a stupor. At that point, one guide lets you sit on the croc, while the other guide chases away the other hungry monsters (you can see that happening in the background of this shot).

In a further act of questionable adventuring, I ate unrecognizable goat giblets purchased at a yard stand run by William the Goat Guy. You can buy goat from him by the price ("I'd like $4 of goat, please.") or by the part ("I'll have the trachea and spleen, today.") or by the daily special ("Mmmm. Random, vaguely organ-like meaty bits.") In *probably* unrelated news, I was hospitalized for bloody dysentery a week after this picture.

At then end of most outreach clinic days, I usually had an hour or so to play with a gaggles of hilarious little kids while our group waited for the bus to navigate the dirt roads and backland trails to come pick us up.

Our group of volunteers spent two very short, but very restorative hours, at a little restaurant on a quiet stretch of beach where I danced in the ocean just for the joy of it.

I even met a mysterious, dark, and handsome man in Africa. Behold:

It was a running joke among the volunteers that I had a crush on the wooden carved dude at the front door of our homestay. On my last day in Ghana, I finally made my move so that carved dude would know my true feelings. Sadly, just after this picture was taken, his cracked wooden head fell completely off. I will live with the guilt for the rest of my life.

Summer 2009:

I went to the Netherlands with my fantastic classmate Kristi to present a pathology education research project. It was my first time in Europe (beyond the hallowed confines of Schipol airport), and it was great. I loved the statues, architecture, and all the random people. Admittedly, we were some of the random people.

We saw Michael Franti live in Rotterdam at an outdoor stage on the waterfront.

We went to a park with miniature replicas of all of Holland's tourist attractions.

I breakdanced in an alley in Amsterdam.

We wound up scandalously close to the Red Light District and met Michael Jackson. ...ish.

Oh...and we attended the conference, which was very nice.

So that brings you up to the present.

Life currently finds me in Wisconsin for a month of ophtho training. My applications for residency have been submitted, so the fall and winter will be spent interviewing all across the country to find out where the next 4 years of my life will be spent.

Sorry the entry was so long. If you've hung in there reading this all the way to here, the gold stars are hereby reassigned to you. Hopefully it won't take another year before this blog gets updated again. Tune in for more action soon... ish.