Bacon Lung & Spunky SEAttle

[I'm a month late on this one...]

Some of you may recall that I have been working toward certification as a Child Life Specialist. (See blogs about applying/interviewing for internship in Spring '08, interning at a children's hospital in Idaho in Fall '08, and intense daily studying this semester.) Because of this, I'd spent the first part of the semester acquiring student membership in the Child Life Council, and applying to sit for the national certification exam in Seattle. By the time November rolled around, I had read several complete books in hopes of refreshing my memory and acquiring a much new information as possible.

In the days leading up to my trip to Seattle, I was extremely stressed because I had several major projects due for school and, thus, had not been able to set aside exam studying time for more than a week. As it turns out, God works in mysterious ways. Randomly, I happened to contract the flu (so-says) only two days before I left for the exam in Seattle.

At first, I was really upset and freaked out about it--who wouldn't be--but it also meant that I was able to stay home from work and class for almost an entire week. Tamiflu, The Miracle Drug, helped me to feel better almost instantly, but because of the fever, I was still confined to my apartment right up until leaving for the airport. In my time at home, however, I was able to finish up most of my assignments with enough time to pack and prepare for the exam/trip, as well.

November 6, 2009
Jess, my Yankee friend (heh, she's from Pennsylvania), brought me to the airport for an eeeearly flight. I felt pretty guilty about asking her to do that, but then again, she and her Aunt who had flown in from Montana, were driving up to PA for the weekend, so she would have been up early, anyway. My flights to Minneapolis and Seattle were pretty uneventful; I even got to watch a movie on the long one (though I should have been studying, lol).

Nathan was waiting at the airport when I arrived. We went to his house to drop my stuff off and I met some of his roommates (who are pretty cool, btw). Then, we went out to explore the city. Our first stop was at the Fremont Troll, which is a huge sculpted troll that lives under a major bridge. I heard about the troll through an MSN article that I read on online a few weeks before the trip, so I asked Nathan to bring me. Plus, he hadn't seen it either, so I thought it was a good idea. We also explored Gas Works Park, which was this interesting little area right along the Puget Sound, with paths, a huge hill, and some crazy graffiti artwork. I took lots of fun pictures there. We walked arond in this touristy area, afterwards. There, Nathan took me to Ivar's, a seafood-stand-type food place. We shared some clam chowder, since I had never eaten that before and was still kind of avoiding food, as I hadn't eaten full meals in the previous few days from being sick. The chowder was interesting...not too bad, but I'm not sure that I'd eat it often.

That evening, we watched a movie; it was incredibly difficult for me to make it through the whole thing, with the time change and lingering feeverish feelings. Basically, I ended up falling asleep at 7pm PST and Nathan respectfully entertained himself through movies and online as I passed out like a loser. lol.

November 7, 2009
It was a fairly early morning, since I had to be at the testing center (at Washington State University) by 8 a.m. The test didn't start til 8:30 a.m., but it was good to be there early, as they moved the test location from one building to another. Way to test our flexibility, Child Life Council! lol. Anyway, I met some nice people at the test, one of which was from Idaho, and another who had done her internship at WakeMed here in Raleigh. (It's definitely a small world.) The test was intense, but not nearly as hard as it could have been. ...That, or I knew my stuff? Either way, I felt content with how I had done, so that was good.

After the test, we explored the city a bit more. We had lunch at a little restaurant on the way down a huge hill to Pike's Place, the famous Seattle market. The market was cool to see, but it wasn't any more outstanding than markets I have seen in New Orleans, Little Rock, Raleigh, or other cities I've visted. There were lots of shops in the basement area of the market, and we walked around in the neighborhood a bit too. There, I saw the original Starbucks (reminded me of New Orleans, with people singing outside of it, and lots of tourists...), and we looked out admiring the harbor area. Nathan also took me to a cute, bougie donut shop; it was the fanciest donut shop I've ever seen, lol. The hot chocolate was amazing, and I guess the donuts were okay too. :-p

That evening, I made it through not one, but two movies before passing out fairly early. Seriously, I was still on East coast time, which was fine by me. I never did like Pacific Standard Time, anyway. Hahaha.

November 8, 2009
My flight back East departed at 6 a.m., so it was yet another earlyyyyyyyy morning. Honestly, I didn't mind so much because 6 a.m. was essientially 9 a.m. my body's time, so it didn't bother me to wake up at 4 a.m., haha. Nathan, on the other hand, wasn't thrilled about it...but hey, he had to be at work by 6 anyway, so I don't get what the big deal was. :-p Again, my travels were fairly uneventful, and my wonderful North Carolinian taxi driver, Lendy, was there to greet me when I arrived back in Raleigh.

In the end, my body healed itself quite quickly, and everything worked out for the weekend in Seattle. It was a fun time, and I'm glad I made it out for the test, as well as to explore the city and visit a good friend.

Good times.
-Lauren

PS: I should note that 11 days later, I receieved official notification that I PASSED MY EXAM, which means that I AM officially a CERTIFIED CHILD lIFE SPECIALIST! Yayyy! :-D