A very low-key second-to-last week here in San Jose. We had a weekend filled with yummy eats and good company, and a week full of beds (camas) at Hospital San Juan de Dios.
Group shot w/ gelato!
We celebrated Raniyah’s birthday with a walk around Multiplaza Escazu (the largest mall in Costa Rica) and dinner at El Mestizo. El Mestizo and Amor de Barrio, two places we tried this weekend, were both food-hall style with multiple restaurants packed into a space with lots of tables all around. This meant lots and lots and lots of options (and indecision), but also some delicious meals. Our desserts are also not to be forgotten, including: Tredlo (a cinnamon rolled pastry with ice cream filling), Ferrero Rocher cake, a blueberry cinnamon roll, Torta Chilena, lots of gelato, and a brownie with ice cream! Lots of fun treats as we soaked in our last week all together.
Look back @ Jhalak @ Hospital Coronado
In terms of work, Jhalak and I stayed local but got to check out a new hospital: Hospital San Juan de Dios. This is another national hospital (aka one of the three largest hospitals in the country) in San Jose. We went to lots of areas to check the smart beds and do preventative maintenance, including in Men’s and Women’s Surgery, Orthopedics, and Intensive Care. While some of the beds were empty, we often had to displace patients able to sit in a chair for a couple minutes as we checked the controls and cleaned their beds, which felt slightly insensitive as they were obviously in the hospital for a reason and shouldn’t have to get moved around. We also went to a couple clinics, Acosta and Moreno Canas, to check their vital monitors, and over to Coronado Hospital for some anesthesia machines. Two machines meant Jhalak and I each went with an engineer into an operation room to finish the work in the most efficient way. In my room we (I) did everything possible that can be done to the machine. I did the initial testing to confirm everything was in order, took off the parts and cleaned, took off the back panel to confirm the motherboard was working properly, took off the top panel to clean inside the machine, rechecked for leaks, and tested the vital functions with the simulators we brought. It was a lot! I had a couple questions as I went through it all, but for the most part Kevin gave me the experience of being a field engineer off by myself, doing it all without a partner (or supervisor in my case haha).
Movie day feat. Crazy Rich Asians, Raniyah, and Jhalak!
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make it into work on Friday due to quarantining after a COVID-19 contact, but we made the most of it with a movie marathon and bonding over the tragedy of Raniyah’s packing. Had a chicken empanada for dinner and am gearing up for the next movie of the night! We did have to cancel our trip to the beach this weekend due to the covid scare, however, with the long weekend (Monday off for Annexation de Guanacaste) we hope to take a day trip somewhere nearby after negative tests. Looking forward to our final week here and hoping we are just being abundantly cautious but are able to return to work for our last week with our Meditek crew!
Adios!
Brownie + Torta Chilena (famous Costa Rican dessert with dulce de leche)!!