The Nitty-Gritty of Omaha

I'll take a break from writing, and start this off with pictures-- wahoo! 

The campus really was beautiful.  We stayed at the dorms which was about a 10-20 minute walk to where classes were held.  These pics were what we saw on the walk. 

Taken from the campus--to show how close it is to downtown, only a mile or so from the dorms, just not a great neighborhood inbetween so we couldn't walk.

packing capsules--official looking huh?

hurry, let's take some more pictures while we have pill containers on the desks and we look official

 Most other students were older, and married, and many had children (I think two women have 6 and 8 kids!)  So I felt very comfortable with everyone, and I know that all of my classmates will be facing the same challenges as me with balancing family life.  (In dental school, Sam was the only one in his class to start out with a child.)  There were a handful of students who are straight out of undergrad and then several older students, I would say I fell right in the middle.

 

This building is the student center where we would eat lunch

Taken on the last day as we were waiting for cabs to the airport--sooo excited to be done!!!

Here are some pictures of the dorms where we stayed--it was apartment style dorms (a studio)  so they were bigger than standard dorm...not as big as a real apartment.

Thankfully each room has its own bathroom.

Here is the little niche off to the side where our beds were. They were exactly what you would expect--plastic covered cheap mattresses.  Thankfully I took the advice of bringing my own pillow. 

Here is my roomie-and a shot of our couch and coffee table

We had a "Boston" kitchen  aka--a mini oven and mini fridge.  There was one microwave downstairs for the entire building. Also downstairs, there was a nice big tv room with a big tv and a small workout room.  We spent many nights all sitting in front of the tv--each with our laptops open, watching whatever was on.

There were some really fun restaurants in this part of town, lots of outdoor cafes etc.

Okay--random photo but I took this because it captures how much fun we actually had hanging out together. We all were a little nervous that everyone would be lame--I mean for all we knew everyone else could have turned out to be science nerds ha ha!   but this night at happy hour we got laughing so hard we were crying--even the guys-ha ha :) so that proves we really had a good time.  It is nice to know that I have seeing friends like this to look forward to next summer when I will have to go for another few weeks.


I haven't really writen about what we were doing and how I was doing being away from home for so long.  So for those of you interested in those details--enjoy!

I'm lazy so I am going to copy the text from an email I sent to a friend who emailed me at just the right time (practically my breaking point) and got an ear full about what it was like in Omaha:

I have been in Omaha for a week and a half, and yesterday I hit my capacity and I am ready to be home.  The first week was pretty boring, it was orientation so we did a lot of meeting people from every department etc, then we got our computers and had many technology sessions about how to use them, the software that was included, and all of the school websites we will need to use.  Somewhat helpful, but basically all day powerpoints ha ha  The highlight was hanging out with classmates afterwards--since during last week we didn't have any assignments.  I have met some really fun people and it is really fun to have classmates from all over that I will be talking to, my roommate is from Maine (originally from Puerto Rico--and yes I said roommate--we have been staying in the dorms), my other close friends are from seattle, south dakota, colorado, alabama, texas, chicago  and other classmates are from all over as well: alaska, hawaii, tennessee, NY, CA, and even Delaware!  I was so excited to finally meet someone from Delaware :) ha ha    This week we started labs and it was a big change, we were thrown into doing pharmacy stuff...even though we have had no classes yet--our classes don't start until Aug 22nd.  So they seem to just want us to practice anyway and hopefully remember the things we do when we are learning about them in class--so hopefully even though we aren't doing that great we aren't going to Fail.  (it is a pass/fail lab class).  I feel like they are throwing all of these things at us all at ones.  For example they taught us how to enter new prescriptions into the computer and I was thinking "I got this" and then they sent us over to this simulation area and they set the timers for 7 minutes and we had to roate through 5 stations and do stuff at each one.  Only instead of the scripts being nice and typed, they were photo copies of handwritten scripts with abbreviations that we had never even seen before -let alone they weren't even legible since those doctors write in chicken scratch. ha ha.  So I was supposed to type 2 scripts into the computer in 7 minutes...and the timer buzzed and I had zero lol! I couldn't read the instructions, I couldn't read the drug name--since I don't know many to begin with so I couldn't just guess and think "oh, I think they meant _____"  So it was pretty nerve wracking, but again, just trying to remember that they just wanted us to try.  

One last story--because it is comical, but also explains why I am ready to go home.  I guess to clarify--Rachel's school is modified year round so she actually started school the same day I did so I wasn't even there when she started her first day in a new school.  And since sam just started he can't take time off to drive/pickup and he works 10 hr days so I have friends dropping her off and Sam's mom picking her up after and kepping her until 7pm.  It's going okay, but obviously I wish I could have been there.  I talked to Rachel last night and she started to get very sad and made me cry.  She said she missed me, but also that she misses her old school, and doesn't like her new school, and wishes she could ride her bike to school.  The new school also jumped right into homework, so she was feeling kinda overwhelmed  (poor little 3rd grader...but she is coming from the rez so I don't doubt they are moving much faster along).   

Anyway, I tried to keep from crying while talking to her but after I hung up I just decided to let it out.  So picture me--downstairs in the dorms --I had hunted out a room where I thought no one would be so I could make the call to begin with.  It was about 10:00pm, my roommate was asleep already so I go to this room where no one had been all week. Anyway, I hang up the phone, and since I am all alone I just cry for a little bit and then I try to compose myself and clean up my face before I go out to the lobby area where I might actually see people.  A minute later a girl walks in--total stranger, (thankfully not in my class) and asks if I mind if she uses the room for something.  I say no problem, but she notices I was crying and I'm all embarassed.  I say I am fine and decide to get out of there, but better go to the bathroom first and make sure my makeup isn't horrible.  I see myself in the mirror--WOW! scary! lol! so I rinse off my face bust decide my face is still all red etc so I decide to just hang out in there until I feel a bit more composed before leaving.  Then the same girl walks in to use the bathroom ha ha  "Hi Again"  AWKWARD! lol! so then i'm like, ok gotta go...so I head back up to my dorm, but now my roommate is awake studying again so I don't want to go in there till I am even more composed  (because I texted Sam to treat Rachel really good etc and that kinda made me sad again) so now I am sitting out in the hallway texting sam and just trying to relax and just hoping no one I know comes by.   So not only was I homesick - I couldn't find anywhere in the dorm where I could just have some privacy.    

So that is me.  Just keeping it real :)