Brain surgery and travels

Hey everyone!

I can hardly believe that this is my last week in Quito. On saturday, Katie, Ashleigh, Maureen, and I are heading to Puerto Lopez, a city on the coast of Ecuador. We are planning on spending the week at various cities along the coast to sunbathe and do some whale watching and snorkeling. Then Asheigh and I head to Peru! My time in Quito has been great, and I´m going to miss it here I´m sure, but I´m excited to move on too.

This week my clinical rotation is in Emergency Surgery, and I got to see a brain surgery today! It was so cool! I took about 20 pictures I think =) This guy had a huge subdural hematoma in his right temporal lobe so that it was compressing his lateral ventricle to the point that you couldn´t even see it on the MRI. So I got to watch the surgeon literally take a drill to the skull and then saw through parts of it. It was absolutely incredible! It was so unreal.

Last weekend a bunch of us went to Otavalo, which is the largest artisan market in South American I am told. It was really cool, but of course I spent way too much money on souvenirs =) Yesterday, Katie, Ashleigh, and I cooked dinner with our host mom. She always makes such wonderful food so we wanted to learn some of her dishes. Well she decided to show us how to deep fry everything! It was hysterical, because she always cooks us really tasty healthy meals, but the deep frying was really fun. We made this batter with all of these great spices and then rolled everything from Tilapia to graded carrots in it and stuck it in the oil. Then we made crepes! It was a fun afternoon. I think I´m going to miss my host mom here the most out of everything in Quito.

I need to be off soon, sorry this is short. Like I said before, it´s hard to capture Ecuador in words and I have TONS of pictures, so when I get back I can give you a better idea of what I´ve been up to.

Michael if you read this before your big day, I want to send you a huge CONGRATULATIONS! I wish you and Katy the best! I hope your honeymoon in Argentina is great, and I´m so sorry I´m missing your wedding, but I will be thinking of you both. =)

I miss you all!
Katie