Man these kids are amazing!!!!!

And the teacher did such a great job with them!!!!!!!!!! If you watch the videos you’ll see how much the kids get into the songs.

Watch their expressions!!!

You don’ t need to watch the whole thing to appreciate them.

Saturday, September 12 2009, was Day of Dignity in Detroit.

Want to learn more?

Just click here.

The end.

Okay I’m lying. I do have stuff to write about it. Day of Dignity (formerly known as Humanitarian Day) is an annual project headed by Islamic Relief  USA (a charity org).

Several different organizations team up with Islamic Relief to help the underserved population of America.

It happens every year during the month of Ramadan (a month of the Islamic calendar, in which Muslims fast from dawn till dusk).

This year, the event was/will be held in 19 cities including Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Dallas.

During the event in Detroit, free food, hygiene packs, sweatshirts, hats,school supplies, gloves, toys, and even medical checkups was offered to nearly 1000 homeless people (not counting their children).

I was blessed enough to be a part of this amazing event for a third time in Detroit.

It took place at the Muslim Center of Detroit. A masjid (analogous to a church) that holds weekly soup kitchens, and other such beneficial events.

Huda clinic, the organization that provided the free medical checkups, is also located within the Muslim Center of Detroit. It runs every Saturday providing medical care to uninsured individuals through a team of volunteers.

So this year, for the most part, I served as a greeter.

Basically, I said hi, asked questions, and gave people tickets…only if they were nice to me

Everyone kept asking what the tickets where for. And quite honestly I only kinda understood the purpose of them.

1. So we could count how many people attended.

2. So the people at the door knew that they were standing in line

3. So the volunteers in the hall knew how many items to give them.

In conclusion I gave everyone that was there a ticket, even the guy who started yelling at me and my friend because we refused to give him two tickets for his two sons that were not there.

We were following orders, and for a good reason too.

People were like stocking  up and we ended up running out of things.

Anyways so this guy is yelling at us, and we’re all like sorry you can only get a ticket for yourself, but then he walks over to us, and this guy is HUGE, and demands that we walk “over to his car” and check his sons ourselves, but I’m like, “Uh no, they need to be here Sir. If you don’t mind getting them” and he was getting all mad.

I even turned around to see what “security” was doing, you know for backup , just in case,  and the brothers were like talking and laughing to each other, probably about some stupid game.

So in my head I think, Ugh like I really expected guys to be of some use. Growing up with three brothers should have squashed that expectation a long time ago.

I didn’t have time to go into a monologue about it because the guy in front of me was scaring my two friends, which got me angry.

So I took ONE ticket, and I said, “You know what sir, HERE you go. Thank you”

I don’t know why I thanked him.

But he left all grumbling. There was more to the conversation that I didn’t include, like when he started getting the lady next to him to start agreeing with him.

And she was all like, “I Knowwww” to him.

Anywho, it wasn’t all grumpy people. A LOT MORE people thanked us, and many of them yelled out “GOD BLESS YOU”.

I especially loved the people that genuinely asked me how I was doing. They made my day.

It felt good that someone cared about me. Which is kinda what we wanted them to feel. To feel cared for and to feel good and to know that we were willing to take the time out to ask them how they are, whether they want some water, and give them things they could really use. A lot of them smiled as we took pictures. It was really great.

If they felt better, then our mission was accomplished.

There were a couple people that I met that day that I still remember till today, and pray that they are able to escape from the circumstances they are in, especially the children.

At the end of the day, despite running around, giving people water and popcorn, talking to them, keeping the line in check, keeping people patient, asking questions, trying to count as fast as possible, feeling like the rest of the event people forgot about us and chasing after a volunteer that kept disappearing (she felt awkard and claimed that she had no social skills), I was TIRED.

But it was a good tired.

The kind of tired in which you would be willing to go through things all over again.

Which I had to do everytime I saw another bus full of people pull up.

Anyways I didn’t take pictures, but I found some from THIS website.

People getting off the bus

The school bus that kept bringing people and my reaction every time-   :O

A picture of the line me and my volunteer friends were working with. You can see one of my friends with her back to the camera. This is where we did our work. The line was much longer, trust me.

I remember talking to the elder person on the right hand side of the picture. Here they are eating popcorn …Yumm. I wanted some so badly, but we were fasting.

Of course that didn’t stop me and my friends from being idiots, and offering some of the disadvantaged Muslims standing in line, water and popcorn, only to be told that they were fasting. Duh.

I just like this picture  

Some more people that were standing in line with us.

Okaayyy SO the line wasn’t as great as it could have been….Did I mention that I also handed out balloons?? I was like super balloon girl. Almost.

Volunteers that were inside the hall waiting for the people that were standing outside(with us) to come in. You can see that everything and everyone is lined up and ready to go, and I think the line was actually making its way through the hall at this point. You could feel everyone’s excitement and anticipation.

5….4….3….2….1!

BAM!!!!

THE PLACE IS CROWDED!!!!!!!!

People quickly handing out supplies and re-stocking on whatever they finished.

Moving on.

Then came the clinic.

Finally the KIDS’ JUNGLE GYM!!

YAYYY!!!!!!

And that was Day of Dignity (Personally I liked Humanitarian Day better, it was easier on the mouth)

I’m annoyed.

Hello. So annoying.

Anyways, let’s talk about my first day back to campus since the start of the new semester.

I took pictures everywhere. So it’s gonna be like a picture journal. Kinda.

So it was my first day back on campus last week tuesday. And as expected, the place was packed. Parking structures full, confused freshman trying to make turns that they don’t realize are illegal, cars and students everywhere.

I kinda like the feeling, of the start of the new semester, when the campus is in full bloom. But I hate it too. It’s horrible finding parking.

So after driving around in a circle three times, I went to the lot I’ve never parked in before.

The Law School Parking Structure.

And oh my god. I felt like the biggest freshman on campus.

(no offense freshies)

So I’m in my car, following the car in front of me, with no idea on how the structure works.

And in my head, I’m wondering WHY THE EFFINGHAM (read two posts below…it’s the name of a city) is every structure built differently. Why can’t they all be simple, and have one simple way of going up and down???

So people like me don’t look like idiots while driving.

I follow the car to a parking spot, and got out of my car in a hurry, so I could follow the person in front of me.

I didn’t know how to exit and I wasn’t about to waste time aimlessly wandering around.

But lucky me, SOMEHOW I missed the person that came out of the car I was following. And just stood there by my car. AND wandered around for good five minutes looking for the exit stairs.

But YAYY another car!!

OH I can follow that person!!!

I’m casually standing around, waiting for the girl, from the car that just pulled up, to come out.

And of course I don’t look like a creeper while I’m standing there staring at a cement pillar, in a quiet parking lot.

Anywhosie, the girl leaves, and I like jog after her (I’m surprised she didn’t pepper spray me). And lo ! The stairs exit was like in plain sight.

Genius. I. Am.

So I’m following her down the stairs and for some reason stopped to see a funny drawing on the wall.

I don’t know what college student has the time to stand around drawing this. But apparently they did. I don’t get it. Maybe I’ll do a paper analyzing the drawing one day.

After my random pause, I exited from the stairs, only to enter a backyard that looked like some random yard.

I was so confused that I just stood there, wondering where the heck I was.

Let’s summarize. I went down the stairs, and left the structure. The girl left way before me so I have no idea where she went. I don’ t know where I am.

SO I went back up the stairs. And went to the second floor. Got confused again. Went down the stairs again. Opened the door to the outside. Stood there. Then tried going to the left. Then saw it was a dead end.

So I went back in. Went up the stairs (I did a lot of repetition that day) got off the second floor. Went down the car ramp. And took another set of stairs down.

Now I knew where I was.

I will never make fun of freshmen again.

I think it was rainy that day. Not bad though. It was nice enough. I walked through the law school building and the courtyard like area where people were standing around.

I’m almost at my destination when i see some guy (freshman..he was holding a paper that was probably his schedule or his map…psshhh such a freshie) staring at one of those big Wayne State Map thingys.

Aw. poor guy. He’s never going to figure anything out like that.

So I’m staring at the guy while walking by. Stopped. Felt bad for him. And thinking of my role as WSU’s blogger, I walked back over to him.

“Do you need help?”

“Um..Yeah..I’m looking for DeRoy Auditorium”

Woah. Dude is a long way from where he should be

“Um You need to go way back. Do you know where State Hall is yet?”

“Yes”

That sounded like a no.

“Ok well walk back that way to the UGL. And the building on the other side of the courtyard is DeRoy…etc etc”

I came across another guy that day that was also staring at the map. And feeling all cool, I walked up to him asking if he needed help.

Turns out that he was just wasting time.

Whoops.

Rest of the day was pretty fun. Other than Pipeline going down. I have never seen pipeline giving me an error message because of too many users.

The only other problem besides that was when I returned to the parking structure. I get on the elevator and go to what I thought was the fourth floor. I didn’t realize the fourth floor was broken into parts. So when I climbed up the ramp, I couldn’t find my car.

First thing.

Panic.

Second thing.

WHERE did it go?

Third thing.

What floor am I on?

Oh huh.

I took the stairs, and found my friend, the weird drawing.

Yay. My floor!

YaY my car!!!

The view was really nice from the structure. The picture was a fail.

p.s. I realize this is late advice for freshmen or anybody else, but who knows, it could help you out. Use this website to find buildings: http://www.campusmap.wayne.edu/

And the Undergraduate Library (UGL) has maps on the first floor, on the information desk (on your left hand side when you enter)

B.S. (Before script…I know it’s not an actual thing…but  it is for this blog) I told my teacher friend (from last post) that I would not send my kids to her and she had a spazz attack over it.

Moving on this week’s post.

I’ve been shadowing a doctor these past couple weeks. He’s a D.O. physician and works like crazy. The only time he takes a breath is when everyone else is running behind, and there are no patients in the rooms.

He works in a clinic at Children’s hospital of michigan.

And apparently he works at a couple other locations every weekday. And you can’t help but really admire the way he works. Especially how he never seems to tire. And still stays enthusiastic down to the last patient.

It really is amazing.

But I’m not here to talk about him.

So last week, I was shadowing him in the O.R. (operation room for all you medical challenged folks ). The last time I was in the O.R.was when I shadowing a surgeon. And it wasn’t too great of an experience. I felt like a chair stool, that just kept coming in everyone’s way.  Only a chair stool would have been more useful.

So i was nervous about that. But it turned out to be a much better experience.

I even felt like I looked better in my O.R. room gear.

Ok so i don’t look great. But I felt like i looked better. I’m not sure why. And I wore these blue shoe coverings, which got me super excited.

Once again I’m not too sure why.

I took this picture after I had changed out of my scrubs, so you can see my black dress pants.

So I made friends with a bunch of new people, mostly medical students, and talked to an an anesthesiologist who was trying to convince me to go into anesthesiology.

Being in the O.R. is such a different experience from being in the clinics. For anyone shadowing a doctor, I would really recommend trying it out.

And if you have really cool, friendly, funny people around you, like I did last week, you will have a great experience.

It might be weird, but you I got attached to a lot of the people around me. The students, residents etc. Well, at least to the friendly ones. They treat you informally, and are so  helpful that you can’t help not getting attached.

The day before the O.R. I was shadowing my physician in the clinics. And it was there where I met a couple of the medical students that I saw the next day. And when I left the O.R. the next day, I was sad because I knew I probably wouldn’t be seeing them ever again.

But then this past Wednesday, one of them was still around. And all was great. Then I left. And I was kinda sad again.

In conclusion, if you’ve shadowed a doctor once or twice and really didn’t like it. Try it out for a while longer, and try and get in different types of shadowing experience. And then make a decision.

The medical field holds a large variety of things and situations. It may surprise you.