Blog Archives

Whitewater Kayaking

Posted by | Posted on April 30, 2012
Reply

This past weekend, I had the chance to go whitewater kayaking with Johns Hopkins Outdoor Pursuits. The trip cost me only $10 which is really cheap and probably didn’t even cover the amount of gasoline needed to transport me and my kayak. Needless to say, it was a really great experience.

I actually went on the trip not knowing anyone else in my group besides one of the excellent leaders, and the trip proved a great way to meet new people from many different grades. We were actually an excellent sample of all the different Hopkins departments and interests– freshman, sophomores, seniors and graduate students majoring in arts and science as well as engineering.

One of the calmer stretches we kayaked. This is actually Burnside's Bridge, a site of very heavy combat during the civil war.

 

The trip left relatively early, at about 730 am, and returned to campus about 10 hours later. It truly was a perfect day for me because I had a blast on the trip, and was back on campus in time to attend the JHU_Sirens a-capella concert and get some work done before going out to a party.

Washing off the kayaks post-trip!

We actually went kayaking in Western Maryland, outside Boonsboro in a waterway known as Antietam Creek. Along the creek is actually where the bloodiest battle of all time in America was fought, so we passed numerous historical landmarks of the civil war. Attending two sessions in the pool where we learned how to roll the kayaks (basically how to survive and not drown when you get flipped upsidedown) proved to be quite useful when many of us flipped over in the more turbulent rapids.

That didn’t matter, however, because we were all wearing wetsuits and lots of protective gear to ensure we stay both comfortable and safe. I would definitely recommend going on an OP trip, regardless of whether or not you are a full-time student at Johns Hopkins or not.

Kayaking is great!!!

Why Hopkins: Sounds of Home(wood)

Posted by | Posted on April 23, 2012
4

It’s an understatement to say that the Hopkins campus is nice. It really is an oasis in the middle of a city and, although you should  not choose your college based solely upon location, I am going to attempt to convince you to choose Homewood as your home based upon various sounds around the campus.

 

Gilman Hall

Liquid nitrogen tank being refilled outside a lab

Research is a pivotal part of education here at JHU. Whether you are a freshman or a senior, an arts and sciences major or an engineer, you will have the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research here at Hopkins. About 80% of undergraduates participate in research before they graduate,

Hopkins was actually the first research university in the USA and research continues to be an essential part of an education here. Research topics are incredibly diverse, here are just a few examples of great stuff

  • Sociology: Juvenile delinquency and patterns of recidivism, particularly related to factors such as severity of first offense, learning disabilities and socioeconomic status
  • BME and Biology: actors causing stem cell differentiation and how tissue engineering can be used to cause them to specialize
  • Public Health: Epidemiological impacts of glomerular diseases in HIV/AIDS patients
  • Anthropology: Women’s rights movements and the impact they have had on reproductive health in rural India
  • Neuroscience: In-vitro creation of synthetic drugs to treat post-ictal neurons
  • Art History: “Visions of the Virgin”: how the depiction of the Virgin has varied throughout the first decade of the 18th century in the views of various artists
  • Materials Science and Engineering: The effects of engineered nanofiber nerve guides on nerve regeneration

Birds Chirping on the Keyser Quad

As I mentioned above, the JHU campus really is an oasis in the middle of a city. Most students who go to schools in a city cannot say they have heard birds chirping outside their window at 2am (yes, it actually happens)!

There are also squirrels everywhere here on campus. I was not really used to seeing squirrels back in Italy so I am always quite amused to see them running around campus chasing dropped chips or spilled cups of soda outside the FFC. My friends can testify that sometimes I get so distracted by the crazy squirrels that I forget what I am talking about mid-sentence.

A-capella Concerts (watch it!!!)

What always amazes me here is how talented the student body is. Everyone was admitted not only because they were intelligent, but also because they had some other talent such as a performing art. A-capella on campus is really popular and a concert can draw crows of well over 600 students. This year the group featured above, the JHU Octopodes, actually won the National Quarterfinals for our region because of their incredible set above.

Distant Indian Music

The diversity on campus is another factor that makes JHU a great place to be. Above, you can hear Indian music playing in the distance. There was a large dance/color party on the Hopkins Beach to celebrate the Hindu festival Holi.

Professor Talking


Hopkins is littered with brilliant professors. Professor Adam Reiss was recently awarded the nobel prize for his research in astrophysics and dark matter. A professor for an anthropology class I took conducted a lot of the research we examined in class.

 

Orange Juice Machine


That is the sound of oranges being freshly squeezed by a machine in the Fresh Food Cafe’, the primary freshman dining hall. The unlimited meal plan is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me, I eat 4-5 times a day.

 

Spring Fair Crowds

Spring fair is one of the greatest traditions of the Hopkins Homewood campus. Every spring semester, for one weekend, the campus is overrun by food trucks, local vendors and amusement park rides. People from all over Baltimore come to  see campus during spring fair, and it is truly one of the greatest times here on campus.

 

Construction: The Brody Commons and more

The Brody Learning Commons and the new biology labs are just 2 examples of the brand new buildings that you will have access to here if you come to JHU. The Brody Learning Commons was actually designed by current students as an “ideal study space” with ample natural light.

To figure out what chairs to put in the Brody commons, they actually put all sorts of different chairs in the library here and asked people to rate which chair was the comfiest. The chair that was rated the comfiest was the one they chose to populate the Brody Commons with.

Students behind the library signing a beam that will be used in the Brody Learning Commons!

Lacrosse Game


Lacrosse season here is really fun. We actually have homecoming in the spring instead of the fall so that it matches with Lacrosse season. The audio clip above is from the recent JHU-Albany game in which we beat them 17-6. We want more!

 

For those of you who may not know me personally, I am actually quite far from my hometown of Milan, Italy. Many people ask me why I chose Hopkins, and those are only a few of the reasons. I have never regretted my decision to come here, even for a minute. I was very undecided whilst applying to college and actually applied to 16 schools in 2 different continents. If you gained nothing from reading the above blog, I want to drive home the reasons I chose Hopkins one last time: the wonderful people, the cutting-edge research, the diversity of the student body, the excellent professors and the beautiful campus all combine to make Hopkins a great place to learn.

SOHOP

Posted by | Posted on April 12, 2012
Reply

This is a post for admitted students. For those of you who did not get a chance to see the various posts by Admissions_Daniel, be sure to look at the following links:

Congratulations to all of those of you who were admitted! I will be posting my “Why Hopkins” blog in the next few days, so be sure to keep a look out for it.To those of you who did not hear as good news– keep in mind that college will be what you make of it, and I’m sure you can do well wherever you ultimately go.

SOHOP is the backronym for the open house program during the spring for admitted students here at JHU. For those of you who, like me when I was a pre-freshman, are not going to have the opportunity to be involved in this great program, I will post briefly about what it was like this year.

The initial arrival is much like freshman orientation: students are removed from cars along with their luggage and the parents drive the car to a parking lot. They are then taken to check in, and the events begin from there.

The actual day is jam-packed with campus tours, housing tours and panels of current professors, students and student groups all helping explain to you why JHU is genuinely one of the best places in the world to be a student. There is a student activities fair in which many of the prominent student activities on campus advertise what they do, and students who are definitely going to come to Hopkins can begin thinking about which they want to join from this early on.

Hopefully this great place will be your new home

There are also panels related to study abroad, internships and careers as well as one for pre-professional advising.

The newest and most fun part of SOHOP, however, is actually a night carnival that is organized on the freshman quad. Current students get to mingle with prospective admitted students and bond through a series of carnival games. There are even performances by some of Hopkins’ most prominent a-capella groups including the Vocal Chords, the Sirens and the Octopodes.

Following the carnival is one of the defining parts of SOHOP: the overnight stay with a current student. I had the privilege of hosting two very bright prospective engineers and it was a great experience for all of us. They are fairly certain after SOHOP that they will be attending Hopkins so I am extremely happy to see the success of the program and feel as though they have really gotten an understanding of what it is like to be a student here. Do not turn down the opportunity to come to SOHOP– choose Hopkins!!!

 

Traveling from Baltimore on a Budget

Posted by | Posted on March 21, 2012
2

It has been a pseudo-theme so far in my blog to write about my travels and how they have related to my experience as a freshman undergraduate, so I will keep doing so.

Right now, all of JHU is on spring break and all of my friends have scattered throughout the U.S. and the world to catch up on some much-needed sleep. I have made my way to Boston to visit some of my friends from back home who go to school here, and will later make my way down to Philadelphia to visit another friend from home before returning to Hopkins.

 

How to Travel the East Coast on a Budget

Step 1: Ride a bus

I, being a college student on a limited budget, decided to save money and take a bus up to Boston from Baltimore. The ride was a little bit long (about 8h or so), but I didn’t mind because I got to sleep and do some work. It also only cost me around $25, which was not bad at all. Most bus lines and Amtrak give discounts for students, so be sure to ask if there are discounts every time you travel.

 

Step 2: Crash with people you know

Hotels are usually the most expensive part of a trip. By eliminating this cost and staying with friends, you get to have more fun and save money simultaneously. Make sure, however, that you do not overstay your welcome anywhere. My friends have been so generous to me throughout my spring break, I’m really grateful for this traveling opportunity they have given me.

My friend Sara and I on St. Patrick's Day

Step 3: Eat on a Budget

By establishing a set amount of money to spend each day beforehand, you will save on food expenses. I’ve been quite surprised how well I have eaten here in Boston and spent relatively little money.

 

Step 4: Be Flexible

There is so much to do in any city on the East Coast that there is bound to be a special event every day of the week. The Boston Museum of Fine Art has a 4-hour period once a week where entrance is free. The Boston Children’s Museum charges half price admission after 4pm. Certain restaurants have specials one night a week. By maintaining a flexible schedule, you can have a lot of fun for almost no money.

St. Patrick's day in Boston is wild

 

Step 5: Enjoy the outdoors

I really like spending time outside when it is sunny. Last night, instead of going out to a dinner at a restaurant, my friends and I brought dinner from home onto The Esplanade on the river. It was a great experience to eat outside as the sun was setting and is something I will definitely do in the Baltimore Inner Harbor when I get back to campus.

Esplanade dinner

 

 

 

Highlights of 2012 at JHU so far

Posted by | Posted on March 10, 2012
3

Even though it is only March and we have been in classes for a mere 6 weeks or so (which unfortunately means it’s midterm time), my spring semester has already had some pretty great moments. Here are some random highlights of my semester so far:

 

Ice Skating 

The residential advisory board of Hopkins organized a trip for students to go ice skating in the Inner Harbor. We rented out the entire ice rink for our school. It was a blast to have all of my friends and fellow students there. As anyone would anticipate, there were plenty of crazy moments throughout the night on the ice.

My friends, immediately after crashing into each other

Ice skating champs

 

Studying Outside

As spring has begun to peek its head around the corner, the weather has gotten considerably nicer. This means that many more students can study outside and play on the quads. JHU_Erica and I took advantage of this and went to study in one of my favorite places on campus (near Wyman Park).

Best campus ever!

 

Sunsets over campus

No need to really explain this one.

Last week in front of Mason Hall

 

Taken 3 weeks ago

 

Stargazing through a high-power space telescope

Every Friday evening, if weather conditions permit, the observatory on top of the Bloomberg physics building is open to the public. My mom, who came to visit me all the way from Italy, and I got to gaze through a telescope that is probably worth several million dollars at the stars, the moon, various nebulas and galaxies further away than any distance our minds could even begin to fathom.

The Maryland Space Grant Observatory is actually right on top of our very own physics building

 

Animal Therapy

It is midterm period and thus a time when many students are stressed out. To help relax students during this challenging time (trust me, it has been a very difficult week), one of the on-campus organizations had the animal shelters bring puppies and kittens from an animal shelter.

Puppies at Hopkins!

 

Becoming a Tour Guide

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of tours that I have given so far, but I am now a full-time tour guide! Meeting with prospective parents and students has been quite fun. If you have a chance to visit Hopkins, you should come to my tour on Fridays at 2!

 

Secret Week

JHU_Sydney was my big in our secret underground coed nerd fraternity.  She had been serenading me all week, so it came as no surprise to me that she was my big all along.

Also, we are the only members.

Sydney was not happy when she found out I was her little...

Chairing Hopkins Model United Nations: An Unforgettable Experience

Posted by | Posted on February 18, 2012
3

It’s hard to believe how much four days of fun can completely offset your regular routine.

Last week, for the first time, I got a chance to Chair a Model United Nations conference- an honor for me seeing as I am still a freshman. The Johns Hopkins University Model United Nations Conference (JHUMUNC) draws around 1,600 high schoolers from all around the U.S. and the globe annually, including schools from nations like Sri Lanka and Kuwait. It was, to say the least, some of the best fun I have had in a while. The JHUMUNC organization actually put me and 150 other motivated Hopkins students up for free for 4 days in a beautiful, 4 star hotel in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore where the conference was being held. From the most intellectual of debates between opposing countries to the lower-brow delegate pick-up lines (I suggest googling them, some are too crude to include here), Model UN really does have a lot to offer to every student.

The UNDP Logo

I had been involved in Model UN in high school, but no conferences I attended were quite as big as JHUMUNC. For those of you who are not familiar with what the UN is all about, it is a place for every nation in the world to get together and solve contemporary global issues cooperatively. The most pressing issues include poverty and famine, human rights and development in general. The UN is divided into many different committees, each of which is ‘headed’ by a chair who controls the debate.

A view of our hotel which we almost entirely rented out, The Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel

At JHUMUNC, I was the chair of a committee in the Economic and Social Council known as the United Nations Development Programme, the UNDP. My committee had approximately 120 high school ‘delegates’ in it, each representing a different nation around the world.

During the course of the 4 days, we debated solutions to two pressing world issues in my committee:

  1. The economics of poverty
  2. The issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment
In the evening, delegates got the chance to relax and explore the inner harbor a little. They also were offered a wide array of entertainment activities including performances from some of Hopkins’ most talented a-capella groups and the coveted delegate dance.

The Staff Operations Room continues working well past 2am every night!

The staff evenings, however, were quite different to those of the delegates. We were required to run ‘security’ in the hotel, ensuring visiting students not rack up noise complaints from the other patrons staying in the hotel. This proved to be quite fun and patrolling the halls after delegate curfew always was amusing.

Some of my delegates and I after the last committee session!

The last great element about it was getting to meet some interesting, motivated high school students from all around the US. They were all eager to get to know me (cue the crude jokes) and it was nice to see how motivated they were for something that was an elective.
On the last day of committee session, my delegates wrote me a love poem in the form of a resolution and asked me to read it out loud. When I first started reading it, it followed the correct formatting of a real UN resolution so I had no reason to suspect that it was going to be a love poem… Little did I know.

How the vote tallies for real UN resolutions are displayed. This one specifically is the recent UN resolution to help resolve the situation in Syria.

For those of you who do not know, UN resolutions follow a very particular format; they are actually only a single sentence long (even though they can be multiple pages) and have key words each line has to start with.
Here is me reading out the ‘love resolution’ the delegates of Cyprus and Croatia wrote me:

Even if politics is not likely to be the field that you will enter as a career (as is the case for me), I highly recommend experiencing Model UN- you learn to think like a global citizen while simultaneously meeting new, interesting friends from backgrounds very different from your own.

How to Excel your First Semester of Freshman Year

Posted by | Posted on February 5, 2012
2

It’s pretty hard to believe, sitting in my dorm room, that the first semester (1/8th of college, ah!) has already come to an end. The coveted covered grades of freshman fall at Hopkins are a thing of the past, and my 18 credit spring semester has already hit me in the face pretty hard.

Sunset over Gilman Hall

… but I made it here, and this second semester has a lot to live up to after the amazing fall one!

Being a freshman at college is an experience that will change your life completely. The academic, social and general opportunities you are given instantly submerge you into a world vastly different from anything you could have possibly imagined in high school.

So how do you wind up on top of the crazy mix of new friendships, increased workload and responsibility that are thrown at you when you first get to college? I’d like to share a few tips from my experiences here at JHU:

  • Realize, right from the start, that everyone is in the same transition state you are in. Whether they are students from 10 miles away or 1,000 miles overseas, everyone is the “new kid on the block”. Take advantage of this and get to know as many people as you can. Freshman housing is the perfect place for this, as are all of the orientation events organized for you (make sure you attend those). I met many of my current friends at orientation events and my experience would have been considerably less fun had I stayed in my room and been antisocial.
  • Study hard first, then party. It is really easy to get carried away by partying too hard (there are parties and opportunities to go out literally every night), so make sure you do not lose track of your academics among all the socializing.
  • Attend every class! This is the simplest piece of advice I can offer and it makes a world of difference. I know more than one person who has skipped classes regularly and their grades suffered because of that. Professors give hints as to what will be on midterms and such in lectures, and if you are not there then you lose the chance to learn that.
  • Go to your professors’ office hours. It was hard for me to be in a class of 300+ students for the first time (in high school my classes were around 15), so office hours are your chance to get to know your professors. They like to see students take initiative and attending office hours definitely shows that.
  • Be involved on campus. By joining a bunch of different student groups and clubs, I kept myself so busy and having so much fun that there was no time for me to look back or be homesick. It works really well and it allows you to meet a lot of new people and do some very cool work.
  • Not to sound cliché, but have fun! This past semester has brought so many great experiences to me, do not pass up the chances you get to relax or do something unusual.
Good luck to everyone waiting to hear back from colleges, enjoy the rest of high school!

If you do things right, you do not have to follow this diagram.

Intersession in Milan & Paris

Posted by | Posted on January 15, 2012
4

While many of my classmates have elected to return to Hopkins for the entire period of Intersession (here at JHU we have optional 1 or 3 week classes during January), I have chosen to stay in Europe (my home) for the first two weeks and return only for the last week to do a B’more Intersession program on child health in Baltimore.

As I wrote in my last blog, returning home to Milan has been great. I have had the chance to see many of my friends and my family again, and enjoyed the relaxation that comes with any vacation.

Some of my good friends from Milano

Recently, this past week, I traveled to Paris to visit 3 of my closest friends from Hopkins who happen to be Parisian. When I told people I was going to Paris to visit friends I’d made at JHU, many people reacted with pleasant surprise and asked me: “you have made friends who are that close to you so quickly?”

View from Violette's apartment in Paris. Note the Eiffel Tower in the background!

My answer is always: yes, absolutely. Although it’s hard to be separated from your friends from highschool, the college environment provides an easy way to bond with people very quickly. We were actually laughing one night on my friend Vio’s balcony at the fact that it seems like we’ve known each other forever when  in reality it has only been a few months.

My friends on a bridge just outside Place de la Concorde

When I first arrived in Paris, I was greeted warmly by my three friends (Violette, Vincent and Lauren) and got the chance to meet all of their interesting, friendly families throughout my stay. Having been to Paris before, they didn’t have to take me to all the touristy places but we wound up going to a few nonetheless. The Musée du Louvre was easily the largest museum I have ever been to and probably one of my favorites: you can tour the artistic history of any continent at almost any time period there. It is so huge that we decided to only focus on one area: ancient Egypt. The objects there alone were enough to focus on for 4+ hours of our time.

The palace of Versailles is right near Vincent's house

We also went to go see Dianne Arbus‘ photography exhibit at the Jeu de Paume museum. Arbus has a lot of up-close portrait-style photography that leaves the viewer wondering about the subjects and the nature of how the photograph itself was taken. If you ever get the opportunity to see any of her work, I would highly recommend going.

The Parisian sunset

The Louvre Museum

Overall, the most fun part of the trip was definitely seeing my friends. I even got the chance to spend time with another JHU friend of mine, Callie, who happened to be doing a language immersion course for her intersession in Paris.

No trip to Paris would be complete without a picture of the iconic Eiffel Tower

And, of course, let’s not forget to mention the nightlife. Music bars and clubs provide entertainment virtually every night of the week from somewhere around 8pm until 7am.

Dancing with my new friend Eve!

Notre Dame Cathedral at night

My intersession and break so far have been incredible, but I am nevertheless excited to head back to Hopkins later this week and return to the bustling campus life.

Now that I am back in Milan, I could not complete my post without gloating over the recent victory of my favorite soccer team, F.C. Inter. Italians take soccer very seriously, and I have literally been refused service at a restaurant or bar before for wearing the ‘wrong’ soccer jersey. If you ever get a chance to come to Milan and do decide to buy a soccer jersey, remember that blue and black is the way to go!

Forza Inter!

 

 

 

 

How to Return Home for the First Time, How to Fake-speak German and More: Holiday Adventures in Europe

Posted by | Posted on December 23, 2011
7

Returning home to Europe for the first time since college began was weird. Do not get me wrong, I am ecstatic to be back, but it almost feels as though I never left. Reunited with my old friends, family and even teachers, I feel as though tomorrow I am going to have to board the bus to school and go prepare for my IB exams. The feeling actually caught me quite off guard.

Being weird with some of my old friends

Another feeling I was not prepared for was the feeling of being like a stranger in my own home city.

One of my favorite objects in Milan, Maurizio Cattelan's sculpture is a literal middle finger pointing at the Milano Stock Exchange.

So much seems to have changed in Milano since I left. One of our old hangout spots, Bar Magia (literally meaning ‘Magic Bar’), has undergone a total rennovation. The tram ticket prices have gone up 50 cents. A new terrace lounge has been built in the Piazza Del Duomo, Milan’s central square.  And the tiles on the crotch of the famous Torino Bull  that people spin on for good luck in the galleria have been replaced.

The weirdness that gripped me initially upon returning home has now faded, as has the nagging grogginess that was jetlag. I have learned a few lessons from my first trip home so far, and they are as follows:

  • Do not expect everything to have remained the same since your departure. Change is a natural process and can occur rapidly, especially in large cities. On the other hand, do not expect everything to have changed as radically as your life has since college started.
  • Be ready to get parented. Your parents will still want to watch over you as they did before you left despite your newly-acquired independence.
  • Expect your friends from home to not have changed too much. I had this notion in my head that my old friends would be completely-different people since starting college but, much like myself, their personalities and good traits are essentially the same as they were since I last saw them.
All-in-all, it is great to be back. The initial challenges and surprises were nothing insurmountable, and Milano is still a city I feel very much at home in.

A Massive Christmas Tree in Piazza del Duomo, Milan

Right now, however, I am actually on a skiing trip in Austria with my family and having a blast. I am staying in a ski/party town called Ischgl. I am a pretty avid skiier and the ~300km of ski slopes  here keep me busy all day.

The Captivating Views too...

Since Austria is a German-speaking country and I do not speak German (besides phrases like “I do not speak German” and “Where is the bathroom?”), I have invented a way to fake speaking German.

How to Pretend You Speak German in Five Easy Steps

  1. Use words from any other Latin-based language and mix them together.
  2. Add “ein”, “en”, or “er” to the end of your words when you don’t know how to say something.
  3. When a consonant sounds too heavy, change it to an “s”. Also, change “e” letters to “a” randomly.
  4. Replace “the” with “die”, and throw some “f” and “t” letters in wherever you feel needed.
  5. Merge words together as often as possible.

Now let’s put this into practice.

The German word for water is actually “wasser”. The word for millions is “millionen”.  If I wanted to order water and was totally clueless on what to say, I would ask for “ein wasser pleasen”. If I want  to ask where the train station is, I say “wheren ist die trainstationen?”. Most of the time the message gets across and, more importantly, I amuse myself in the process.

Representing JHU on the Ski Slopes

Now that you speak German, it is time to order some Austrian food. My personal favorite is Kaiserschmarren, the Emperor’s Pancake.

How could anyone not like this?

It is a simple, sweet dish that can be eaten for lunch or dessert and consists mostly of egg. I cannot describe exactly what it is like because it is a very unique dish, but imagine a softer, better version of a pancake and you are about halfway there. Add cranberry, apple or blueberry sauce and you are pretty much set. You can never go wrong by ordering this.

Another great one is the local Tiroler Speckknödelsuppe. It is a type of soup with a dumpling in the middle speckled with bacon bits.

After a long day of skiing, this really hits the spot

So there you have it. Now you can travel home without surprises, speak German and eat good Austrian food. What more could you possibly need?

A day in the life of an Emergency First Responder

Posted by | Posted on December 9, 2011
7

Today, I had the chance to spend a day with a paramedic running emergency medical calls in a county outside of Baltimore with my friend Liana.  For anonymity’s sake, I will not disclose the exact location of the county.

As certified Emergency First Responders in MD, we can do almost everything EMT-Bs can with a few exceptions. Below is what it was like to assist a paramedic (who we will call JP) on an 18-hour shift.

 

11:40am: Wake up. Shower. Brush teeth.

1:02pm: Our paramedic friend JP will be here in 20 minutes to pick us up. Panic, I’m running late.

1:20pm: All ready. I jog over to McCoy to meet up with Liana and the paramedic.

1:23pm: Liana and I climb into JPs car and we begin the drive to the county. We chat mostly about emergency medical services, future career aspirations and what we hope to see during our shift.

2:35pm: We arrive at the firehouse. After unloading all of our stuff, we go to the Advanced Life Support Medical Unit car and perform preliminary inspections to make sure all of the supplies we may need are present.

3:00pm: Inspection is done and the car is in working order. Liana radios in that  the “Medical Unit is now in service”.

3:07pm: Just as we are about to sit down in the station, the radio crackles and the “ALS” (advanced life support) unit is dispatched. We rush out to the car and get on the road to head over. With sirens blaring and lights flashing, we power through almost every intersection and manage to get all green lights because of an onboard computer that changes the traffic grid.

Dispatch: Called to the security office of a large industrial complex. 54 year old male complaining of chest pains and trouble breathing, no history of heart disease.

The intricate dashboard of an ALS Vehicle

3:11pm: JP sighs, fearing that the call will not be an actual heart attack but merely someone who is exhausted.

3:15pm: We arrive on-scene.  I’m really nervous for my first call. A Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance is already there. I grab the medical bag and defibrillator and climb into the ambulance with JP and Liana. The man is already being given oxygen so we hook up a cardiac monitor to his chest and begin heading towards the hospital in the ambulance.

3:17pm: His sinus rhythm and blood pressure look normal, signs that he may not be having a heart attack. JP performs some tests and determines that the man is probably not having a heart attack at the moment, but we continue to take him to the ER to be safe and make sure he didn’t just catch one early.

A normal sinus rhythm reading

3:34pm: We arrive at the local hospital. I help an EMT wheel the stretcher into the ER and we pass him off to the hospital. JP fills out some paperwork. Our medic unit goes back into service.

Liana outside of the ER after a call

3:57pm: Liana, JP and I decide to head to the beach to relax and wait for our next call. We start driving towards the beach but the radio cackles almost immediately.

Dispatch: Called to a private residence. 58 year old female suspected intentional overdose (suicide).

4:08pm: We arrive on scene again and the BLS ambulance is already there, along with numerous police cars and a fire truck as is protocol for suspected suicides. We rush into the building with medical supplies and a defibrillator again. A woman is laying on the couch and is almost unresponsive to verbal stimuli. An empty bottle of Ambien is next to her and a firefighter is examining it. We bundle her up and rush off to the hospital.

The ever-important defibrillator/ 12-lead ECG monitor

4:11pm: The woman starts coming to a little bit. We ask her if she had the ambien and she says yes. She has also consumed a large amount of alcohol and it was a suicide attempt. JP calls the poison control center and they advise him to administer something. I am not paying attention to what it is, but he sticks in an IV line and we continue to the ER.

4:29pm: We wheel the woman into the ER. The doctor signs off and takes her into a room. I take off my gloves and get a new pair. I talk to JP about the call and he thinks the woman may have been faking because she was very responsive to pain when he put in the IV line, inconsistent with an ambien overdose. He leaves it ultimately up to the doctors to decide that, however.

5:50pm:  We are back in service. Hoping for some time to breathe after the first two calls.

After each call, we have to pack up and clean all the medical equipment we used. Some of it is disposable

6:05pm: Or not. The radio cackles again and we get our next dispatch.

Dispatch: Called to a private residence. A 6 year old female is having an asthma attack and her medication has not helped.

6:45pm: After navigating towards the residence for about 10 minutes, we get a call saying “Cancel ALS Unit”. We sigh because this means we drove almost all the way there for no reason, the BLS unit could handle the call on their own. As soon as the call was cancelled, we get a new dispatch. Lights and sirens, on.

Driving the vehicle at night is a completely differnent experience than during the day

Dispatch: Called to a private residence. 34 year old male with a history of anxiety experiencing chest and back pain.

7:01pm: We meet the ambulance on the road because they have already had time to ‘package’ up the patient and put him on oxygen. We climb aboard the ambulance and JP takes over (the person with the highest certification automatically commands an ambulance).

7:05pm: The ambulance keeps driving towards the hospital but his vitals all look normal as does his skin tone. The call is downgraded to a non-emergency and we turn off lights and sirens and drive to the hospital like a regular car. JP thinks it was just an anxiety attack.

7:16pm: We drop the patient off at the hospital. He does not have a high priority so he does not get a room right away, but a doctor signs off and we can leave again. *BEEP*, the radio calls us into action before we can even start to take a break.

Me standing outside one of the ambulances after a call

Dispatch: Called to a private residence. 38 year old male actively having convulsive seizures, no history of epilepsy.

7:33pm: We get to the household and the BLS ambulance is already there as usual. The man is slightly photophobic because of the seizure he just had but he is awake. We dim the cabin lights to add comfort, and JP starts an IV drip. It was quite impressive how he put the needle in despite the ambulance experiencing slight turbulence. The man has abnormally high blood pressure and is quite disoriented, so we take him as a high-priority patient.

7:50pm: We arrive at the hospital again and drop the man off. He gets a bed in the ER almost immediately and several nurses come to check in on him. The doctor signs off for us, so we leave. We hope that this time we will actually get a chance to have a break. “Medic Unit is ready”. We head to a gas station

8:12pm: This is the sketchiest gas station I have ever seen. It is right behind a prison, but luckily the police use it to refuel so cops pass by regularly.

Scary prison in the background

8:23pm: We have just finished filling our tank and are on our way to the lounge so we can relax. Wait, nevermind, the radio crackles again.

Dispatch: Called to a Church. 19 year old female had a seizure lasting approximately 30 seconds. No history of epilepsy.

8:26pm: Luckily the Church is right nearby where we were, so we reach there within a few minutes. The BLS ambulance is there and the front of the Church is very crowded with people standing around the girl worried about her. It turns out she was playing the piano for the Church and had an absence seizure, fell backwards and hit her head. She has a large hematoma on her forehead and we decide she is at risk for a serious neck injury.

8:28pm: Since she is a patient with a neck injury, we have to immobilize her spine and strap her to a backboard. I assist the people in strapping her down.

A patient being backboarded

8:36pm: She is ready for transport so we put the backboard onto a stretcher and wheel her to the ambulance outside. Off to the hospital again. She is not really responsive to any verbal stimulus, so we keep her as a very high priority patient.

8:39pm: As we are driving in the ambulance towards the hospital, she begins to wake up. As with many people who have just had a seizure (aka who are post-ictal), she has no idea what happened or where she is. She begins to panic but her mom calms her down. She also complains of nausea so JP administers an anti-nausea drug. Her oxygen mask and the collar on her are bugging her as well, but we ask her to keep them on and she complies.

8:44pm: We arrive at the hospital and she is admitted right away. The doctor signs our papers, and we stay afterwards to do a bit of paperwork and restock on some ambulance supplies we are running low on.

9:22pm: Done with the paperwork and back in service. We head off to Wendy’s to get some food hoping that we do not get interrupted.

10:20pm: Wow, no calls for a whole hour. We are relieved, and go to the drive-through window at Wendy’s.

10:30pm: Finally getting a chance to sit down in the lounge! Liana, JP and I eat our Wendy’s and chat relaxedly.

This was actually the fist time I ever ate at Wendy's

11:17pm: Still no calls, wohoo. We decide to head to one of the firehouses to socialize with some of JPs firefighter friends.

12:04am: Still sitting in the firehouse. A Hazardous Materials truck gets dispatched to a house because of a smell of gasoline so we get ready in case they call for ALS.

12:24am: They did not call ALS, the monitors did not pick up any toxic chemicals. Relief. Dealing with HazMat emergencies is outside of my protocol so I would not have been able to help. We are still relaxing in the firehouse. Liana is falling asleep on one of the chairs.

Firehouse party

1:17am: Still no calls, such a relief. We decide to take a late-night trip to the beach that was interrupted last time.

1:24am: We pull out on the highway but get a new call. Sirens and lights, on.

Dispatch: Called to a private residence. 35 year old male with a history of asthma having difficulty breathing.

1:35am: We arrive on-scene and the man is already in the ambulance. We attach a pulse oximeter and monitor his oxygen levels closely. We give him a mask with pure oxygen to help him breathe. JP decides to administer a vasodilator to help him breathe because his oxygen levels were dangerously low. The ambulance begins heading towards the hospital.

1:52am: Slide the stretcher out, wheel him into the ER. I am starting to get used to this. I have been there so many times at this point that the admitting nurse recognizes me and says hello. A doctor signs our paper and we head off. We are all hungry so we head to WaWa to grab some food.

The Christmas tree in the ER is decorated with catheters, facemasks and other medical equipment

2:35am: I buy some candy (healthy, I know) at WaWa to satisfy my sugar cravings.

2:53am: We get back to the EMT lounge and relax by watching some TV. It’s some cooking show called Chopped.

Relaxation at its finest

3:35am: I look around and realize I am the only one awake. I have too much adrenaline to sleep so I watch more TV.

4:30am: Urgh, still can’t sleep. I listen to some music and channel surf.

5:01am: My memory gets fuzzy here and I think I passed out. Finally, some rest.

5:32am: Never mind. The siren goes off inside the lounge and we are dispatched yet again. We drag ourselves out of bed to listen to the call.

The ER late at night as seen from the ambulance

Dispatch: Called to a private residence. One and a half year old baby boy is in respiratory arrest.

5:34am: We put the pedal to the metal. This is a very critical call because the child is not breathing, so we rush as fast as we can to the scene.

5:39am: We meet the ambulance on the highway and climb aboard. The baby has begun breathing on his own, but his oxygen saturation levels are still a little low. We are relieved to see him cry and kick a little because he is breathing on his own. JP administers a vasodilator and some oxygen.

5:50am: We arrive in the ER and a large number of nurses are already waiting outside to accept the high-priority patient. JP carries him into the hospital and puts him down. I carry the portable oxygen tank with me so the baby can continue breathing as we carry him in.

Ambulance ready for the holidays

6:40am: We are still in the ER restocking supplies and waiting for the doctor to sign off on our sheet. He signs it so we finally get ready to leave. We are all feeling pretty exhausted. We head back to the firehouse to try and sleep on the couch.

7:35am: We stop at Panera to get some breakfast. The food brings me immense joy.

8:02am: We get back to the firehouse. Sweet, sweet sleep.

8:30am: Wait, never mind. We get dispatched to a nursing home.

Dispatch: Called to a nursing home. 84 year old male actively seizing.

8:45am: We are about to pull up when they cancel us over the radio. The BLS unit could handle the call by themselves and did not need us. We drive back to the fire house.

9:02am: We hit the couch again. This time I fall asleep almost immediately, but JP stays up to type up some medic reports.

9:50am: The next paramedic starts his shift slightly early. I wake up and we go to the car to begin getting ready to hand it over to the next paramedic.

Me looking up who is on call after us

10:30am: The car is fully-stocked with supplies and we park it back in the firehouse. Our shift is over, and we are relieved. We get in the car and head back to Hopkins. I fall asleep against the window, smushing my face attractively.

11:30am: We get back to JHU and I thank JP for this great experience. I really enjoyed helping him out. Liana and I head back to our dorms.

12:30am: Finally get to sleep. Relief. The shift was completely worth the sleep deprivation. I am glad to have done the Hopkins Emergency Response Unit class to become an Emergency First Responder so I could have this experience.

 

Although I am not pre-med, this experience was great for me and I  plan on being a volunteer EMT-B or paramedic when I am older.