Farewell to Guadalajara! (for a little while at least.)

I can't believe its my last day with Kyle before I go. Everytime I walk by him (even if he's in the middle of talking, whining, or studying) I have been giving him a hug and kiss. He thinks I've lost my mind, but really I'm just missing him in advance. I remember the last time we were separated for an extended period of time. I believe my exact words were, "Nothing will ever be worth doing that again." And here we are, doing it again. I think I said the same thing about flying solo with three little kids. Everyone has my permission to roll their eyes the next time I make the same type of vow. I guess you just can't underestimate the roller coaster that is foreign medical school.

We had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl. Its actually a funny story. A classmate of Kyle's asked him a week or so ago if we were having a party. Kyle informed him that we weren't really planning on it. This classmate then says, "Well, you should. Otherwise, I won't get to watch it." (He's the bishop of a different ward and they don't have television.) In a 'what the heck, why not?' moment, Kyle agreed to have some people over. A few days later, I was talking to this classmate's wife and asked if they were still planning on coming on Sunday. Her response? "We're still thinking about it. (husband) really wants to come, but you know. . .its Sunday." My response: "Are you serious? It was *his* idea!!!" Wife is shocked. I think she actually said, "(husband) said that Kyle invited us and he felt like we should go." LOL! So then I start to wonder if maybe it really was *Kyle's* idea and the story just got twisted. . .which is possible, but seems unlikely as I usually agree to party-type arrangements so there wouldn't be much of a need to twist it. And unfortunately, we all know my Sunday scruples aren't what they could be. (Hey, here in Mexico, EVERY friend is like family to me. . .and isn't that what Sundays are for? family??)

When I got home, I made Kyle re-tell the story to me. When I related the other side of the story, we got a chuckle. We placed bets on their attendance. I bet they wouldn't come. I underestimated the appeal of the Super Bowl to a former football player. :p It ended up being a really fun party.

While talking to Melanie (HI Melanie :) ) and others at the party, the subject of the licensing problems and 5th pathway came up. [Background: The problem with 5th pathway is that the AMA recently issued a statement basically dissolving their support for the program as an accredited route to a U.S. residency program. They are now requiring us to enter the U.S. as *actual* foreign medical graduates which would require us to complete the 6(!!!!)-year program at UAG. Our other option is to transfer to another school and start again at the beginning of clinicals; in essence, having wasted the time and money$$$ that we've invested in this last year. The AMA initially set a deadline of June 2009 to end their approval. All students who complete the program by the deadline will still be allowed to enter a U.S. residency. We were set to START the 5th pathway program in June 2009; so we're left high and dry.] From Melanie we learned that somehow, the AMA was convinced to extend the deadline by 6 more months, ending the program in December of 2009 instead. This allowed those students who are currently in 7th semester (one semester ahead of us) to pass through the problems, but again we're left out. While this is very good news for 7th semester, I think its pretty bleak for the rest of us. If it was so easy for the AMA to extend the deadline, why wouldn't they have extended it to include the rest of us in the latter half of the program? (This is what the student association is trying to accomplish, but so far it seems the AMA is avoiding any meeting or phone call that could lead to that end.) Yikes. Other than all that, the SuperBowl party was a lot of fun :p

Yesterday, we took the kids' teachers a little present and card. I was able to pick up the rest of their supplies and a letter certifying that Guthrie has been enrolled in school here. I don't know for sure, but I wondered if I would need something like that to enroll him in KinderG in the states.

Today, I've got laundry and packing on my to-do list. I can't believe that by tomorrow afternoon I'll be in Arizona. :o