Alzheimer?s Disease (July 23)

Today in psychology, we focused on Alzheimer’s Disease and discussed it for all of class. It’s what we’ll be studying for the next few days. Alzheimer’s is so feared because it involves losing a person’s memory- virtually who they are, and there is no cure. I’ve always been interested in it, so I’m really glad we’re studying it right now. We’re learning all about the research that has been done so far, and ways to push back the age of onset. It’s different because there really isn’t any concrete proof for anything, which is so rare in this day and age, especially with the amount of research done. It’s almost frustrating, but at the same time it makes a cure so much more desirable. We watched some films of lives of people at different stages and how their memories function. And the research- yes, there are plaques, but the plaques don’t always correlate to Alzheimer’s or no Alzheimer’s—many people with plaques show no sign of the disease. It’s all so unknown still!

I was able to eat kind of normal meals today…very bland ones, but that’s better than I’ve been doing! I did my laundry today—desperate times call for desperate measures. I wore a sundress today. Why did I wear a sundress today? Because it was the only thing left that was clean! So when I say I did laundry, now you get it a little more. It took FOREVER and there was laundry…EVERYWHERE…ALL OVER…in our room. I found hanging spots in more places than you can imagine- I was hanging clothes from wall lights, curtains, our big picture frame on the wall…had them spread on towels and plastic bags all over my bed and the floor…and that didn’t even include the bathroom. I hung things from the clothesline, from the shower frame, from the shower head, the curtain. Starting to get the idea? And in our rooms, clothes do not dry quickly. Unfortunately, the clothes had to stay there for a couple of days.

At night, I went to a photography seminar that was really interesting. Karyn Planett has given a few of thesse lectures that I’ve gone to, and they’re great. Because we are both travelers and photographers right now, we need to find a balance. We don’t want to focus too much on the photography such that we miss out on the purity of the moments, but we don’t want to miss a great shot! She told us to view ourselves as travelers with cameras. When possible, take the perfect shot. But when the scene isn’t perfect, or it isn’t appropriate to take pictures, just take the moment in because the memory will be just as amazing, most of the time better. I found her seminar really helpful and loved seeing some of the pictures she’s taken around the world!

We had Bulgaria preport and learned a little bit about the country. We even learned some Bulgarian words that would give us the basic foundations for communicating. After preport I went to a Women’s Bible Study and we studied Ruth. We were going to paint nails after that, but we were all exhausted and went straight to bed!

Happy 23rd birthday Rob!! :)