C3(PO)F

Yesterday was my first day on a new ward, Central 3rd Floor: Orthopedics, aka C3PO.
Ihara san, the head nurse, is really something else. She is so friendly and jokes around with everyone, always laughing and playing and sticking her tongue out at them. Her and I have already had our share of dance offs in the hallways as well :) :) Did I mention she has purple highlights? The woman is amazing.

Work here has been very interesting so far considering my passion for orthopedics. I've spent a fair amount of time looking at some pretty incredible before/after x-rays already and I'm really excited to watch some orthopedic surgeries!
The nursing staff are always shy at first, but I've been joking around so they've been loosening up a bit. The patients here are very well humored despite entire limbs bandaged and immobile. They are very grateful towards me when I help to do anything, they're very sweet. A patient's husband told me he hopes that I marry a Japanese man and another patient accidentally hit his leg on the bedside and said "Itai!" (Japanese "ouch")....*looks at me* "oh my goodness!" the whole room laughed, especially me. Another woman tried to force food on myself and a nurse after her daughter had brought it for her. "Please eat!! Please!!" I try to make as much non-verbal fun as I can in hopes that they'll remember me as the goofy Canadian girl that they loved so much.

Tonight, Yano san, Samantha, Ken and I were invited to the welcome party for the Japan Open Wheelchair Tennis Tournament that's held in Iizuka City! It's one of the biggest in Asia bringing in athletes from multiple countries around the world. Tonight's welcome party included an intro speech from the Mayor of Iizuka, delicious food, meeting and greeting with the tennis players and singing and drum playing by a class of the cutest Japanese children in the world. Check out the short video I took of them - amazing! They also sang a few songs together and shouted A-ri-ga-tou-go-zai-ma-shi-ta!! They were unbelievably adorable.

At the end of the party, it seemed like we'd barely touched the food they brought out for us! So...I pulled an Olivia Shea and asked if we could bring home the leftover food. They were more than happy to bring out containers and bags for us to pack it up. They even said we could fill up from other tables as well! So I took the opportunity, ran with it, and left the joint looking like this. Don't mind if I do!

No shame.

Weather status: Here comes the humidity...

Running status update: 35/100. 19 days until the marathon relay race. All of the shin pain.
Birthday shout outs to my brother (May 28) and to my dad (May 29). Happy Birthday!! Miss and love you both so much! I hope you both have wonderful days and that the Toronto sun will show is shiny face and warm things up a bit! xo