Casper: more than just a friendly ghost

Week one in Casper, Wyoming is finished and though it's not the same kind of tired as being in school and studying hours on end, I'm exhausted. Hands on learning is awesome but it also requires you to be on your toes constantly and really tests how well you really know your stuff!

Casper is a pretty interesting town. I don't have internet in my apartment so whenever I have stuff that I need to do I have to go find free internet somewhere. Thankfully McDonalds has free internet and they don't close early... I think the workers at McDonalds are starting to wonder why in the world I keep showing up with my computer every night and leave at about the same time.

I've asked all the locals what kind of stuff I should do while I'm in Casper and almost without fail their response is "well there's not much to do." I had a couple people recommend going to the rodeo or on fly fishing trips. Although these things sound interesting to me, I can't help but say "I don't think I'm in Southern California anymore." I'm planning on going to Yellowstone with a couple of my classmates in the next couple weekends but apart from that weekends will be kind of interesting to see how creative I can be. I even volunteered to go into the hospital tomorrow to help with a couple patients and everyone made fun of me for being an over achiever. When I told them that I really don't know anyone in town and have nothing else to do they gave me the benefit of the doubt, however.

If anyone knows of things to do in Casper let me know!

It's about time.

There have been many times in the last few months that I've thought to come on here and give everyone an update but then busyness gets in the way and lets face it, this isn't my top priority. 

I'm done with my first full year of PT school and am definitely relieved that this past year is done. It's amazing how much information professors can throw at you in a short amount of time and also amazing that I feel like I've actually retained most of it. I've had classes that I've loved and classes that I've hated but overall I'm very happy with the field that I'm in. 

I'm moving up to Casper, Wyoming tomorrow for my first clinical experience at Wyoming Medical Center. It's going to be an awesome learning experience and I'm very excited to not be in a classroom for those 6 weeks. I was told that I'll get to sit in on a couple surgeries (both spinal and orthopedic) which should be very exciting and interesting. I've spent hundreds of hours in clinics but this is the first time as a student and with that title comes a lot more opportunities! 

I love living in Colorado and though I haven't spent as much time in the great outdoors as I would like, I've been able to go on a few hikes this summer and spend some time in the mountains camping. After summer semester finished, I packed my car and drove into the mountains and spent 2 nights away from people. It was a great time to recharge and read. All I can say is that God's creativity cannot be matched. 

I'll just let this short post suffice for now. I'll try to be better at updating this with pictures of trips and lessons that I'm learning. Thank you all for being a part of my life!