heading to Alicante

---

Hi everyone!

It has been a few days since I have posted. I am still enjoying my stay here in Spain. It is 1:15am Saturday morning here in Toledo. Darlene, Karen, and I are leaving at 6am on the bus for Madrid, to catch the train there for Alicante and the beach! Alicante is about a 4 hour train ride from Madrid and is located on the Mediterranean Sea. The roundtrip train tickets cost about 79 US dollars (61 Euros). The hotel is about 18 euros per night for a triple room (3 single beds). We will return to Madrid on Monday evening to take in the Flamenco dancers and dinner. Darlene and Karen fly out on Tuesday morning and Deanna, Mary and I fly out on Wednesday morning. I leave at 4:30am CST and will not get back to Fargo until 4am on Thursday morning. I think I see patients at noon on Thursday.... what the heck was I thinking!!!!

Our week has been packed with hospital tours, presentations, and a day trip. We have visited three hospitals here and a primary care clinic. The primary care clinic was a very busy place. It reminded me of Indian Health Clinics with many people waiting to see the doctors, as well as having a dental clinic, pharmacy, and lab all in the same building. Speciality clinics were in an attached building. There were twelve doctor/nurse teams at the primary care clinic. That is one thing that is different here from the States is that nurses and doctors see themselves as equals and true partners.

I will write more later about the hospitals. Basically the care is very similar than what we see in the States. Unfortunately I was unable to see the psychiatric hospital. It is a stand alone facility and there apparently was one person who didn't give permission for visitors. That is the best understanding I could gather through translation.

I did expand my horizons the past two days. I ate a thin slice of turkey the other night that tasted ok. At noon today I ate roasted chicken... I actually thought that tasted pretty good as it was cooked in garlic sauce. Tonight, Karen had "pork knuckles" which is a leg of a what we know back home as a feeder pig. They are called suckling pigs here. The dish comes with the actual hoof intact. I had a couple of bites just to say I had tried it..and.. actually it was very tender and had good flavor. I know.. my family and close friends who know what a fussy meat eater I am are falling off the chair as they read this! Evelyn.... take note here... I tried my best to appreciate a delicacy of another culture.

And with that... I will bid you all a good night. We will have internet access through our stay here in Spain, so I will try to add another entry soon. By the way... the nude beach... just kidding! Although... Karen says she is sunbathing without a top on... that will be a negative on my end of the deal!!!

It was good to talk to Emily and Taylor tonight when I called my Mom's house! Here are the jokes they shared with me...

Taylor's joke is this... where do cows go to have fun?
(to the MOOOOOvies)

Emily's joke is this... why did the skeleton go to the movie by himself?
(because he had no BODY to go with him)

Taylor is 6 and Emily is 8 for those of you who don't know.. and they are my neices!

Cody it was fun to talk to you too! Here is Cody's joke.... what is the smartest state in the Union?
(Alabama... it has four As and one B)

Hasta luego! (See you soon).

Love,

Lori

Love,

Lori

---