Some of the Many Things I am Thankful For

Sitting on the flight from Athens to London I began reflecting on my trip and I became overcome with gratitude. There are so many people and so many things for which I feel thankful. This is a list of just a few of the many:

1. The generous donors and the Center of Humanities and Ethics who selected me to have this experience and supported me throughout it.

2. My India travel companions - Claire, Dinesh, Vida, Anne, Cristina, Chris, Swamy, and Kevin - who kept the trip fun and intersting and who I feel a tremendous bond with after our experiences together, especially the crash

3. Everyone coming out of the crash alive and without serious injury - The thanks here really goes to God. I know he must have been watching over us. (I'm actually tearing up just thinking about it)

4. Dr. Jones and Dr. Berggren who both called India to check on us after the accident, Dr. Jones calling and emailing several times to make sure that everyone truly was ok.

5. The doctors and nurses at Christian Medical College - especially in the SICU and CHAD - who made me feel welcomed and comfortable while I obserfed and learned from them and their patients.

6. The villagers who invited me into their homes during visits with CHAD, alsays happy to see us and sometimes offering food or sweets while they have so little for themselves.

7. Dr. Dilip Mathai who monitored my platelets at CMC and met us all in the ER after the accident.

8. Swamy for getting me in contact with Dr. Mathai.

9. Dinesh and his friends in various regions of India (Kerala, Banglore, and Mumbai) who were wonderful hosts and helped us to see India through a local's eyes.

10. Jab We Met - a Hindi film that provided hours of entertainment

11. Claire - the best travel companion I can imagine: enthusiastic, adventuresome, interested and eager to explore/experience, yet laid back, consciencous, and understanding. She really is an all around amazing person, plus she is excellent with directions and loves ice cream and shopping. :)

12. Random decision to spend a few days in Istanbul on the way to Greece - absolutely wonderful and one of the highlights of my trip!

13. Joey, my best friend and roommate who has been keeping my life together back in Texas while I've been gone - She's always taking car of me...a truly wonderful friend!

14. All my great friend that have been there from me over the years - I don't know what I would do or where I would be with out you!

15. Dustin - I love you, you make me incredibly happy, and I can't believe how lucky I am to have you in my life.

16. My family - this is a big one - Mom, Dad, Matt, Greta, Trent, Laura, Grandma Doris, Grandma Jean and Grandpa Morris, and Mary (yes you too): I feel encredibly fortunate to have each and every one of you in my life. I can not possibly thank you enough for the endless love and support you have given me throughout my life. As I reflect now, one week before graduating from medical school, it strikes me that I would not have been able to achieve any of this without all of you. You gave me the tolls and the confidence along with the love and the encouragement I needed to accomplish my goals. (Here I go tearing up again) I really feel that this degree (MD) belongs just as much to you as it does to me. In short, I jsut hope you all know how much I love you, respect you, and appreciate you!

My list could go on and on, and Im sure that there are big things that I have neglected to mention, but I'm running low on time. I will see you all soon back in the US. :)

Headed home

Yesterday we took a ferry from Mykonos back to Athens, enjoyed our last Greek salad and packed up our bags to come home. This morning we flew from Athens to London and are currently waiting for our flight to Chicago. Hopefully things will go smoothly and we will get in to DFW at 11pm tonight (Monday).

It is kind of funny to think about but we have been going to increasingly more expensive places with each stop: from the Indian Rupee, to the Turkish Lira, then the Euro, and now the darn Pound. Its really expensive here in London! Anyway soon we will be back to the good old dollar. I can't wait!

Our night out in Mykonos

Claire, Me, and Leandro - our Argentinian friend

Crazy pelican hanging out at one of the restraunts

The waiter holding his beak so we can get a picture

Action shot of Leandro getting bitten :)

Really tall guy from Florida that everyone at the bar was taking pictures with....we didn't want to get left out - unfortunately he was too big for the picture!

Diving in Santorini :)

Paradise Beach/Paradise Point: the sites of the two dives

Our first morning in Mykonos, after a brief refresher course, I finally used my PADI certification and had mty first experience with ocean diving. It was amazing! At first I was completely freaking out, wonderfing why on earth I was trying to do this - I have forgotten A LOT in the four years since I was certified! But with the help of my

patient instructor/guide, Tasos, I eventually began to feel more comfortable, and I ended up really enjoying the dive. Since it was a shore dive it was not the most impressive scenery, but for someone who had never dove in the ocean, it was incredible! we saw schools of fish, bright orange starfish, various types and colors of coarl, etc. It was beautiful. After we finished the dive I relaxed on the beach and enjoyed a saganaki shrimp appetizer for lunch before preparing for another dive, this time from a boat.

For the afternoon dive I was with Nadia, a German tourist who had obtained an intermediate SCUBA certification earlier in the week, and two instructors, Tasos and Matt. We loaded our gear into the boat and drove to Paradise Point - about 5 minutes from the dive center. There I did my first "boat entry" - basically just falling backwards off the boat with full SCUBA gear on. I doubt it was graceful, but it was fun! We descended along the anchor line then started off along the reef. It was utterly amazing and utterly terrifying at the same time. A few minutes into the dive I became anxious, suddently aware that I was in a foreign country with 3 strangers and I had twelve meters of ocean above me. Needless to say I felt a little trapped. evedntually I was able to calm the hyperventilation and get myself to relax and enjoy the scenery. - I think Matt could tell that both Nadia and I were a little nervous because he stopped us in a sandy area and signaled for us to breath slowly, kick our fins slowly, and enjoy the scenery ( which was fantastic!) - that really helped to calm me down.

Coasting through the reef I felt like I was in a 3D National Geographic move, only it was way better! The water was several incredible shades of blue (different at each depth), the coral was abundant, the rocks created interesting formations with cliffs, coves, and fissures, and schools of fish of various types were all around. As the water warms more and more fish come out. I was fortunate because the guides said that was the most fish they had seen out this season. It was a phenominal experience! I wish I had an underwater camera so I could share it with you all!!!!

Mykonos

Yesterday we took a ferry from Santorini to Mykonos. after settling into our hotel we walked to Ornosbeach, lay down our towels, and enjoyed a nap in the lat afternoon sun. then we went back to the roomto change before walking to Mykonos village- which was a little farther than we anticipated. Once in the villagewe wound our way through the narrow walkways until we arrived atthe shore, in an areacalled "little venice." We found a seafood restraunt and enjoyed dinner while watchingthe sun set. While we were finishing our dinner we were suprised to see the familiar face of an Argentinian chemical engineer that had been staying at our hosel in Santorini. We invited him to join us, then the three of us wandered the streets of Mykonos village.

Yummy red snapper!

Beautiful sunset

Background info and pictures from Santorini

-The central mound of volcanic ash

Around 1600-1500 BC the volcano erupted causing the center of the island to collapse into the , splitting the land into three separate islands, and creating a central mound of volcanic ash in the middle of the ring of islands. This eruption caused a tsunami that wiped out the Minoan civilization on Crete. The most recent eruption was in the 1950's, and the volcano is still considered active.

- Akrotiri is an archaelogical wonder that can be found here on Santorini. However, due to a collapse in the roof i 2005 the site is currently closed and we were unable to visit is. The town was destroyed by a volcano eruption, but was miraculously preserved under layers of lava.

- Ancient Thira is the ruins of a city that trived during Greek, Roman, and Byzantine times. It is situated atop a high promontory, overlooking a black lava beach. this is located on the same end of the island as akrotiri and requires a bus ride from Fira ( where we were staying). We had inten ded to hike up to Ancient THira on the morning of our full day in Santorini but rainy/cool weather kept us from venturing out. when the weather cleared we had already started out walk to Skaros from which we continued on to Oia.

- Skaros is a point where the administrative palace for the island was located until an earthquake in the 19th century caused the destuction of the palace.

Me with one of the many churches on the island - supposedly you can build a bigger house if you build a church on your land....the result is LOTS of churches!

A summary of our walk....from the white atop the mountain to where I stand.

White washed houses.

Look Grandma, I'm riding a donkey! :)

This morning we met up with the group of UTHSCSA students that are also currently traveling in Greece. They all had different plans for the day, so Claire, Megan, and I decided to take a walk from Fira (where we are staying) to Oia (a city at the end of the island...about 6 miles away). It was a gorgeous walk!!! Near the ocean, up and down hills...it was really nice. On the way we stopped at a place called Skaro where there had been a castle prior to an earthquake way back. --- Santorini has a volcano just off shore that has been active since before 1500BC. An eruption around that time caused the island to break into 3 islands. All curve around the central caldera. It really is beautiful.

When we got to Oia we had a late lunch and enjoyed the views before catching a bus back to Fira. Then we took a trek down to the "old port" (Skalao) where we boarded donkeys to bring us back up to the calderra rim. It was awesome!!! Grandma, you would have been proud!

After our donkey ride we met up with the other 15 UTHSCSA students for dinner. It was fun to see some familiar faces and catch up!!!!