My first week and weekend in Tucuman went by really fast and well. I'm getting more comfortable with working at the hospital and I know more doctors and nurses. I usually work every morning by myself so when I have down time I take this chance to talk to different doctors and nurses. I learn new things about how the hospital works, practice my Spanish, and make new friends. Although sometime it's lonely working by myself this forces me to practice my Spanish more and make new friends so I think it's a good thing. Also sometimes I follow the Argentinian med students around and I get to learn what they are learning about as well. Also Dr. Saleme took me through the neonatology unit and show me some very interesting malformation cases with babies as well as let me sit in on one of his patient visits. Meaning I'm getting to see what it's like being a peds doc, obstetrician, and neonatologist. It no longer grosses me out to see a live birth and its pretty cool to get to see the minute old babies. O also everyone here thinks it pretty impressive that I already have a degree in engineering. I have to explain this a lot because they always ask me what year in medicine I am and I usually say 4th and then have to explain that in the US you need a degree in something else before you can study medicine. Here they just study medicine for 7 years right after high school.

My first weekend here was a lot of fun except for the rain we had all weekend. On Saturday the golf games were canceled and the tennis tournament that I was going to watch my madre and older sister play in. Which was ok because I got to sleep in until 1 in the afternoon since I was our until 6 am the night before. Their nightlife here is a lot like Spain where they don't go out until 10 or 11 and their bars stay open until 4 am. However, my first Friday here I went to the house of one of the lab technitions that I work with. Her son is studying nursing and him and all the nursing students in his class after their exam on Friday. I was invited to tag along and we sang some Kareoke (I was allowed to sing Shakira in English) I got to see some traditional Argentinian dancing, and I learned a little bit of salsa. It was a ton of fun and at 5 am I was the first one to leave the party while the rest kept dancing the night away and drinking their Fernet and coke (their version of rum and coke).

Saturday I spent the day playing with the grandchildren (who are 2 years old and 8 days old) and helping my older sister cook food for our asado (bbq). She invited 11 of her friends over to meet me and cook their traditional asado (check out the pics to see the outdoor grill and the meet) Their carne, chorizo, and pork were all amazing! Not to mention the homemade desserts my sister made with dulce de leche and coconut!

I promised the next asado that we have I'll be cooking my word famous coconut cream pie! And maybe I'll even cook a brunch for them sometime because they are all amazed by this brunch concept.

Hope all is well in the States!

Amor y Besos! (Love and kisses)

Ciao!