Placement

I have been at my placement for over a week now and so far it has been pretty interesting. I've been at Vandeburg Psychiatric Hospital working with an organization called "The Friends of Vandeburg". The organizations acts as sort of a support system for the hospitals patients and staff. They run various activities weekly for the patients just as; a store, hair salon, and cooking classes. They also hold events throughout the year to celebrate holidays and show some appreciation for the staff.

The hospital is actually pretty scary looking. It looks like one of those old hospitals from the 1960's (which it is). There's about 13 wards that house patients with varying ailments ranging from voluntary admissions to the forensic wards for the criminally insane. So far I have worked in the salon, the store, the clothing depot and the beauty class ( doing nails and makeup). It has been a pretty interesting experience and I'm enjoying spending time with the patients.

The patients say that I "talk funny" and ask me a lot of questions about "the states". Some of them make up stories about having been here before. This one guy told me that he was in the U.S. Navy and I could register in my head if I wanted to be apart of it lol. I've made a lot of interesting new friends ( like Navy guy) who I'm starting to enjoy working with and actually look forward to seeing every day.

One friend is the Dragon Man. I met Andy the first day of my placement. I was in the van driving towards my placement when we saw a man in a red cape walking down the street. Another person joked that he must have been walking to where I was going. Five minutes after I get to my placement, who walks in but the Dragon Man. Every since then, I have seen the Dragon man almost every day. He's very polite, always speaks when he sees me. Asks me for things like green socks and sometimes just randomly screams. I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship....