Dear friends,
Let me preface this by saying that I am fine, although it appears this being clumsy thing is a new lifestyle choice rather than a once in a while occurrence. Let me follow that by saying it really has been a month (and a few days) since my last post so probably don't believe me when I say I'm going to post more often or not let a full month go by without a post. And let me follow that by saying that this is as good of a time as any to write at least a little bit so here goes.
I'm sitting at home on our couch with my foot elevated and covered in an ice pack. I was planning to be at work this afternoon after a lovely bike ride to church. The lovely bike ride stopped short when I took a tumble between a bridge railing and a "Sidewalk Closed" sign. I know, I know...what was I doing riding past a sidewalk closed sign? Well, I thought I was being smart by avoiding all the pedestrians on the other side of the bridge. Harumph. So much for that.
Anyways, long story kind of short, my hand/handlebar hit the railing, I put my foot down to stop, my foot decided it wanted to be unbalanced and I fell over, my bike fell over on me, I hit my head (but I was wearing a helmet!!) and I laid there for a few minutes not really knowing what to do and maybe saying a few *colorful* words. Like goshdarnit and skiddlderink.
Or others.
And then some nice people stopped to help me. But it turns out my foot was more painful than I expected and upon trying to stand up, I noted some massive light-headedness, started making my way to the ground and found the ground quicker than I wanted to because next thing I knew I was waking up in a very confused state and being told that I had passed out. Gosh darn it, body. You knew you were hurt and just didn't want to face that fact. So you passed out, had a super weird dream full of electroswing music and woke me up nice and gently to the knowledge that an ambulance was coming for me. Great.
The ambulance did come. As did a firetruck. And a police car. The latter two were sent away quickly (thank goodness!) and the paramedics stayed with me long enough to make sure I was no longer light headed, my blood pressure was fine (quite good, in fact! for having just passed out) and my ankle is mainly swollen and likely twisted a bit. But besides that I was fine. So I refused (nicely) to go to the hospital, I signed the necessary forms, and the ambulance left and I hobbled away with my bike. Thanks to good advice from family and help from good friends, I made it home and am now recovering. Man, it wasn't exactly the way I pictured this day would happen. But, like I told the nice paramedic that was helping me, there could have been worse ways for us to meet.
On to bigger and more exciting things, the school year is wrapping up. I cannot believe it. Without wanting to speak too soon, I will say that in 3 weeks I will have *probably* made it through my first year in graduate school. I can't even begin to describe how much I've learned and how glad I am that I am here.
As soon as the school year finishes...well, technically before it finishes, I will be off to Europe for "Michael and Rachel's Epic European Adventure!" Yeeeeaaaahhh, that was as catchy of a title as I could come up with. Let me know if you have any better ideas. It's currently the title for my itinerary, my planner and my special European playlist. We've got all the necessary items planned (except for my train tickets....I really hope those come in the mail soon) and I've even started packing a bit. I'll be toting a rad hiking backpack and another over-the-shoulder bag. Really hoping I can fit 2 1/2 weeks worth of clothes in there. Guess this means I can't bring any textbooks ;) Actually, to my great fortune, my mom is letting me borrow her iPad so I'll sometimes have internet access and I can pre-load some maps and useful apps on there. I can even put papers for work on there so I can read on the plane and train. But I'll just admit it, I will not be reading those while on the beach :)
Here is our official schedule in case you are interested.....
--May 16th fly to Copenhagen and stay with Danish host families (this is literally the part I'm excited for the most-- I miss my host family so much!!)
-- May 20 fly to Innsbruck, Austria
--May 23 train to Florence, Italy (we are staying at an Olive farm...an Olive grove?..an Olive...I don't know what to call it but it's going to be awesome!)
--May 26 train to Cinque Terre (five beautiful little cities along the Italian riviera)
--May 29 train to Nice, France
--June 1 fly to Barcelona
--June 4 I fly back to the US and Michael continues his trip in Barcelona for another day and then to Paris about the time that I'll be back at work
I suppose I better wrap this up so I can get at least a fraction of the work done that I had planned for today. Hope this finds you enjoying the beautiful weather. Happy Iowa spring...finally!!
Vi ses!
Rachel
