Friday, March 26

MEFLOQUINE:

This medication may cause stomach upset, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, hair loss, ringing in the ears, dizziness, drowsiness, headache, insomnia, strange dreams, or lightheadedness. If these symptoms persist or become severe, contact your doctor or pharmacist promptly. Tell your doctor immediately if any of these side effects occur: fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat, seizures, muscle pain, loss of coordination, numbness and tingling of hands or feet, vision changes. If any of the following occur; call your doctor immediately; you may need to stop using mefloquine and start another medication for malaria prevention: unexplained anxiety, mood changes, depression (sometimes severe, including rare thoughts of suicide), hallucinations, restlessness, confusion. A serious allergic reaction to this drug is unlikely, but seek immediate medical attention if it occurs. Symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include: rash, itching, swelling, severe dizziness, trouble breathing. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor or pharmacist.

Y'know, I might just take my chances with malaria...

Friday, Mar 19

Spring break is about over, so much for cleaning the garage. I've been looking for a map of Mérida - it doesn't look like something that has been widely published . So far this is all I've found, & it's been out of print for quite awhile. I guess I can keep looking. I did find this, though. Click on the calle link, the school is about 3 blocks South of the airport.

I think all the paperwork is complete now. Well, current anyway - there'll probably be more as things get closer. I also finished my entrance essay for Luther Seminary, but I'll have to wait a couple weeks before sending it. If everything falls perfectly into place I'll wrap things up at UMM Fall '10 semester - but only if everything lines up perfectly & that's with the maximum credit load the university allows. Otherwise it'll be a little over a year from now (but with a much more manageable load). The entrance essay is sent with the candidacy application, but without knowing when I would be starting, I can't quite complete it. Details...

Thursday, Feb 25

No big updates at this point, still shuffling through paperwork (if it hasn't become obvious by this time, I'll just point out that paperwork really really isn't my thing).

I did find the newspaper from Mérida, the Frontera. Well, duh - of course it's in Spanish. If you'd like to take a peek in English, try here (Google comes in handy for things like that). Interesting, not quite ready to commit to ordering a subscription though...

Friday, Feb 12

OK, finished the next batch of paperwork & got it sent off. I've been out of the country a few times before, but the amount of paperwork for a school trip is ridiculous!

½ a pound of paperwork to the Twin Cities campus, another ¼ pound to somewhere in Florida, & another smaller pile to somewhere else in Florida.

It was supposed to be at all of those places by the fifteenth - cutting it close, but I didn't even know about it until a few days ago, so the USPS got a few extra bucks since things had to go priority.

And no, that isn't my own picture, just something I found through Google (the actual pile was much bigger).

Saturday, Feb 6

About a week ago my trip to Mérida, Venezuela (last Monday, actually) was approved, and since I'm not too bad about taking pictures, but not too good about sharing them or writing letters, I thought I'd give this a shot.

This is a study abroad trip for school. I am currently a Philosophy major at the U of M, Morris campus. You don't have to click on every link - I just put them in in case any explanations are wanted - & not everybody will want them.

Last year I tried to get into three different trips, the first two were canceled & the third was full by the time I had applied. I'd had enough pointless paperwork & wasn't about to try for #4. I was looking into a few this year (school year), but when I started looking at what was offered at other U of M campuses, this opportunity really stood out. It runs about 3 months, & in that time I can get in an entire year of college level Spanish (in addition to the immersion of living there) as well as finishing off my science requirements.

How is it possible to have an AAS in CVN with 80+ science credits & still have more needed? I don't know - still scratching my head on that one, but as it turns out I'll be taking Tropical Ecology (in a rain-forest) and Field Botany in the Andes (do I need to point out that this is in The Andes?). I'm really not too upset about getting in a little more science, especially considering the circumstances.

Anyway, since it looks like things will work out, I've got quite a bit more paperwork to fill out & most of it needs to be completed this weekend so I better get to it...