Water Wars!

As it is the weekend, all we did during MHS was watch a movie. Monte decided to show us "The New Medicine" hosted by Dana Reeve, about four months before she died from complications due to her lung cancer. The movie was trying to convince the audience that there is more to treating a disease than just prescribing medicine, which follows the theme of the last two weeks. It suggests that hypnotism, meditation and visualization all can reduce stress and help to heal, and defends itself from accusations of being rooted in popular culture, without any scientific evidence. They try to show how much control the mind has over the body by showing Buddhist monks that wrap themselves in cold, wet sheets, and since the monks are so in control of their body, they can raise their internal temperature and cause steam to rise. The film focuses on a few different patients that have benefited from this holistic view of medicine. One is a teenager with cerebral palsy that learns how to gain control of his pain. Another is a pregant woman that had her water break three months too early, and the baby would be in danger if an infection set in before it was ready to be delivered. Yet another example was an older man who had multiple bypasses throughout his life, but he was still unhealthy. It endorses forming a partnership with your doctor, and being comfortable every step of the way, which I think is simply common sense. I feel like since the movies that we have been watching in class have such a common theme, I might want to see a different perspective on the matter so that we can discuss it in class.  

We finished the movie shortly before lunch, and as lunch ended, the MHS students gathered to have "TA Time" For our "TA Time" with Zach, we played "The Thirsty Games" where pairs of people were stationed at trees equidistant from a pile of water guns and soaker balls, and a bucket of water. The last person to get wet wins the game. After one round of that everyone just sort of went on a free for all, with no alliances. We had a plan to ambush the class playing Ultimate Frisbee on the other side of the trees, but they retreated inside of the commons. Eventually, one of the people in the class, MJ, dumped the bucket over Zach's head. While we dried off, we took a trip to Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's. I didn't get anything, but I did manage to snag a sip of Katherine's smoothie on the way back.

When we got back, SOFT time had already started, and I went to Lucky Belly with a few of the girls from my proctor group. Taylor, Lizet, Kate, Julianne and I all made our way to the restaurant as quickly as possible since we didn't want to find out the consequences of coming back late from a SOFT night.

There were four weekend activities available to us today. We could have gone mini golfing, rock climbing, swing dancing or rollerblading. I chose rollerblading since I had never done it before, I was not exactly a roller balding prodigy, but I only fell once. My legs flew forwards, the rest of my body went backwards, and apparently if I had used my wrists to catch myself, I would have broken at least one of them. When the attendant came over to help me up he said "Wow, that must have hurt...I felt that for you!" So, I sat out for a few songs to nurse my wounded ego, but eventually Kate and Julianne managed to grab my hand and skate around, while I periodically shrieked, I was pretty proud of myself for trying something so different, and I even talked to a few new people on the bus ride back after complimenting them on their Open Mic performances.