this is a pic i took while watching a surgery. (if you are wondering, it is a guys abdomen cut from the bottom of the ribs to the belly button {technical term} to remove a part of his intestine that had a tumor in it (proximal colon)) i've been in surgery for the last two weeks and have now moved on to pediatrics. i met one of the pediatric doctors because her boyfriend was one of the surgeons that i worked with, i asked to be put in her pediatric ward having no idea what type of stuff they had there. turns out it is the leukemia ward which means there are a lot of bald little chinese kids hanging out watching small black and white t.v.s that their parents have brought in for them. it's not as sad as the t.v. commercials always make it seem, but i think that's because when i ask the doctors about their condition and prognosis they seem to make it out like they aren't that bad. it's really fun being with the kids because even though i can't talk to them, i can make faces at them and shoot at them with my imaginary guns. plus i'm an instant celebrity because i look different. today i got my first chance to really pitch in and get hands on since i got here; it wasn't really in the most pleasant way though: i got to hold an 11-month old girl down for about 15 minutes while they did a spinal tap on her. for those of you who are only familiar with the movie a spinal tap involves shoving a huge needle into your lower back and draining out some fluid from your spine (c.s.f.) anywho, the doctors took their sweet time and i had to hold this baby down so that she couldn't move at all, which means i had a death grip on her and she was absolutely screaming the whole time..ha, anyways, i was about to start crying if they hadn't finished when they did..the poor mom was outside the room crying just from listening to the whole thing. tomorrow i get to visit the preemie ward so that should be cool. i was taking the stairs today and stopped one floor early only to emerge to see the ''family planning ward'' which i can only assume means the abortion ward. since that is so much more accepted over here because of all of the population control efforts i guess they have it in the same hospital as the wards that are trying desperately to save the lives of babies who are born at the same stage that others are aborted, (without doubt the most illogical and ridiculous abominable practice in the civilized world.) ok, anyways..not to end on a downer...but...that's all i've got...until next time, keep it really real.