Passed!

I passed all my finals and officially passed my first sequence of medical school! Yay! Now it's time to enjoy a long weekend of football and friends! If only it wasn't 91º and humid! Go Stanford and Go Blue! 

The wrong way play

It's only night one of the 2012 college football season and already I am in love. Bad calls have already cost teams a chance at a huge upset win (Vandy-South Carolina), the Pac-12 has already had some wins, and best of all has been the Kent State Wrong Way Play! ESPN showed the clip and I later watched it again online. I can NOT stop laughing! Basically what happened is a Towson player accidentally hit the ball while deep to receive a punt which made it a live ball. The defender for Kent State picked up the ball and proceeded to run over 50 yards the WRONG WAY. Literally towards the wrong endzone. I still cannot stop laughing while writing this. Even better is that the Towson players tackled him when their team would have scored two points if they had just let him go!! Everyone was ridiculous in this case. Then, when the returner was walking off the field you could see the exact moment he realized that he had gone the wrong direction and almost scored for the other team. Best moment ever, and its never going to happen again! Please watch the clip and laugh along with me. Gotta feel for the guy, but his team won by a lot so it wasn't a game changer! Hey, Andre Parker, at least your famous now haha.

UPDATE: So I just saw last weeks Not Top 10 play. Even though it is embarrasing for my SF Giants, it too is ridiculously hilarious! Barry Zito didn't even get his pitch to home plate! How can a major league pitcher do that? I think the Not Top 10 is my new favorite part of Sports Center! Couldn't find the clip, but if I do I'll post it!

Finals

It's officially the beginning of many finals weekends over the next few years. This weekend I have three tests in Pathology, Medical Decision Making, and Medical Genetics. Already finished and passed the first two today so only have one left to take tomorrow! Flex time testing is the best thing ever! Can't wait for the weekend and some college football!!!

Another long day

Today was the last official class day of our first sequence, but it was a long one! I was at school from 9am until 6pm and now I'm beat. It's tiring to listen to people talk all day haha. Anyways, nothing too exciting happened. Tomorrow we have some review sessions to recap the sequence and then the final opens tomorrow night! So basically I'll be studying until I take that. On the plus side, college football officially kicks off tomorrow woooo!!!

I almost forgot!!

The most important thing today: Maxy man turned 13 today! My pup is officially a teenager! Can't believe we got him when I was thirteen. He's the best and I love him and miss him! So, happy birthday Max!! Hope Mom, Dad, and Molly gave you extra love today! Sending my love and hugs from Michigan!

Max as a puppy in 1999 (second from left)

Max with his son Koa sleeping on my bed

Max looking at the camera (my only recent photo of him not sleeping haha)

Happiness

Enjoy this video of cute babies that are utterly happy. I just found this on YouTube and it's too cute not to share!

Getting things DONE

Today was a pretty chill day at school. We only had one lecture and after the first 15 minutes the lecturer said we didn't need to know anything more that it was just for background and interest which was awesome (mostly because it means there wasn't much work load added for the final in a few days!). We had small group for about an hour and a half after and then a student activities fair after that where we could check out most of the interest groups and service groups at the med school.

I was planning on going straight home after the fair, but I got talked into going to Angelo's (a restaurant near school) for lunch with some classmates, and finally made it home around 2-ish (which just autocorrected to fish by the way, haha). I chilled for a bit and then decided I needed to get some things done today! I called my friend who doesn't have a car and told her I was going to the grocery store and we headed south. I picked up my football tickets (wooot, they're in the 3rd row of the end zone by the way) and then went to my beloved Whole Foods, where I got some much needed produce as well as some other much needed items for my kitchen so I can eat better meals. When I got home I did laundry, ran the dishwasher, took out the trash, cleaned my room, picked up miscellaneous things, FINALLY broke down the box from my desk chair and took it down, and had a nice long chat with my awesome grandma! Basically I got a lot of stuff done this afternoon (except the assignment that's due tomorrow, that's up next).

Tomorrow is the last official day of class for this sequence and Thursday we have 4 hours of review sessions. This sequence went quite fast, but it hasn't been too bad. I'm thinking I'm going to have a lot less free time once Cells and Tissues starts next week, so I'm just going to have to enjoy myself now! 

Accidental Naps

Today I took yet another med school accidental afternoon nap. Apparently the days that go from 9am-3pm tire me out a lot because today's nap was almost two hours long! Hopefully it doesn't mean I have trouble falling asleep tonight. Anyways, it's the beginning of the last week of the Patients and Populations sequence which means I only have two more days of class, a review day, and a final! Crazy how fast everything has gone; I can't believe I've almost been here for a month! So basically nothing exciting happened today, especially since my oopsie nap made me miss the things I was planning on doing.We did have a cool patient presentation today, but sadly I cannot talk about it outside of class due to HIPPA. Tomorrow is a short day so I will hopefully go grocery shopping and do laundry woo hoo!!

Community Service Day

Today Michigan Medical School had a day of community service. It began with some lunch for all the volunteers and then we had an amazing speaker named John Bacon. He gave a great speech about not loosing our humanity during medical school and when we practice in the future. We then divided up into our groups and went to the various sites. I went to Detroit to help paint the outside of a building that had been covered in graffiti. We worked with an organization in the neighborhood we were working in and had some of the neighborhood kids helping us out. We had fun painting and then had some yummy hotdogs and watermelon!! All in all it was a pretty fun and very tiring day. Back to the grind tomorrow and our first sequence final is at the end of the week! (I also attached a YouTube video we watched between lunch and the speaker that was hilarious!)

The group before picture

The building after our lovely paint job. No more graffiti!

Germanfest

Today was great because I was already done with my quiz! I watched some tv, took a nap, ran an errand, and then went to Germanfest with a bunch of my classmates. I had bratwurst and knockwurst and spatzen and it was fabulous! I just love German food! I had a great time, mostly because I have an awesome class! Still have another day of weekend and I am stoked!

Finally the weekend!

I took my quiz tonight around 11:30pm and now I am free for the whole weekend!! So happy I was able to get it done already and I don't have to worry about getting up tomorrow to study more and take it. It's really amazing how much stress can be alleviated by getting one thing off your back. Next thing looming is our final that opens on Thursday night. Thanks to my two good quiz scores I have some serious leeway on that, so I am looking good to pass my first sequence of medical school!! Now it's time for a little late night TV and then a good sleep!

Longest day yet

Yesterday was the longest day we have had in med school so far (and I'm hoping it stays the longest for a while!). We started with lecture from 9am-12pm, then had a career talk from 12pm-1pm, then more lecture from 1pm-2pm, then an introduction to our Family Centered Experience (FCE) from 2pm-3pm, then FCE small groups from 3pm-5pm, then a short break to get dressed and drive to a different part of Ann Arbor, and finally our FCE kick off reception where we met our patient volunteer families from 6pm-8:30pm. All is all we basically had a twelve hour day and I was throughly exhausted. I am still exhausted today and it's making me very agitated. I still have weird head buzzing which also is not fun. Typing actually makes it worse (the resonance of the noise of the keyboard in conjunction with the noise of the computer electronics). I hope this goes away soon. I'm tired.

Nothing interesting happened today :(

Basically went to class until 2 (got out an hour early whoop!), did my assignment that's due tomorrow, turned that in early (yeah!), ran some errands, unsuccessfully made dinner (forgot to actually read the recipe and missed a ton of steps and ingredients so it was totally wrong but nonetheless still edible and tasty enough), and somehow killed some time until bed. Nothing exciting.

I do hear that Chris goes back to Scotland tomorrow. Have a great and safe flight girl. Miss you and can't wait to see you and the rest of the fam at Christmas! Enjoy the cows! I except to hear and read a lot about them, especially since its so easy to jot something on your iPhone in one minute from bed ;)

Second full week begins

Today was the start of the second full week of med school (the first week was half orientation, so it's really the third week of stuff and basically after this sequence ends I will have to stop counting haha). Anyways, today was a really long day. We had lecture from 9-12, then a student group lunch meeting, then more lecture from 1-3, followed by some working in Fursty (our student lounge). I finally left school around 5:45. That's more than a full time work day and it was only day 8 of class (more counting). Tomorrow I dont end until three again, but the afternoon is small groups which always goes by quicker than lecture and doesnt introduce any new information!! While I'm on the topic of counting here are some numbers I've been thinking about recently. There are just four days until my next quiz opens. My first final opens in ten days. When I say "opens" by the way, it means it's the beginning of the period I can take it. We have usually from Friday at 5pm until Sunday at 11pm to begin the quiz, and that time begins on Thursday at 5pm for the finals. Moving on. There are just 11 days until Stanford kicks off the 2012 football season against San Jose State (and I better fingure out the Pac 12 Network by then!), and there are just 12 days until Michigan kicks off the 2012 football season again Alamaba in Texas Stadium. So basically I am aiming to take that final before Stanford kicks off and then I can enjoy a full memorial day weekend full of college football games, aka my favorite time of the year returns!! Great timing to be done with a sequence so I can enjoy opening weekend even though most games aren't great at the beginning of the year.

So that got a little long winded, sorry. I'm really not that concerned with having fabulous writing. I'm not trying to write a book here! Hope everyone is having a good night. I going to get another good nights sleep! Sleep is something I've actually been really good about thus far in school, getting at least eight hours a night!

Ok, now good night for real!

A quick thought....

Just a quick thought before I go to bed...

I love Michigan so far. The people, the places, its really a great place to live. Ann Arbor is a cool town and I think it's a great place for me right now. What I do NOT love however, are the bugs. More specifically I detest the spiders here. They are large and they are literally everywhere. NYC had no bugs, I swear, and that is what I miss most about living on the 26th and 12th floors of a building. In Walnut Creek we had a few spiders that particularly enjoyed living in my bathroom, but they were incredibly tiny and never moved, so as long as they were still there I knew they weren't creeping in my room. The spiders here are not so considerate and I tend to find them in random places. Near the door frame and window frames seem to be their favorite places in the apartment (I saw a huge one descend from the balcony above mine and land right on my railing today eww), and outside the apartment they absolutely love to sit right above my parking space and on my freaking side view mirror. It is so distracting to see a huge spider that is double because it is reflected while trying to drive. They also covered the windows at the lake yesterday, and the webs are all over the bridge I cross to get to school. Thank god the really big one hide during the day so I don't have to see them 100% of the time. Anyways, not that exciting, but nonetheless I cannot wait until it's too cold for spiders and they all go away! (The benefit of freezing temps and snow I think.)

New chair

I finally put together my new desk chair! Major thanks to my parents for picking it out and having it sent to me :) Here's a few pics of the process:

All the pieces in the box

Dave was my assistant

The finished product!

First quiz done!

I finished my first med school quiz today and it went great! After the quiz I went to the Paul's lake house and had a fantastic day. We went tubing, played corn hole, had a great dinner, got ice cream, watched the sunset, and played cards. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening.

After hanging out for a while I drove home, showered, got ready and went to meet my classmates at the last stop of the class bar crawl. It was also really fun, mostly because my class is awesome!

I love having good days!

The Paul's lake house

Wamplers Lake

Sunset over Wamplers Lake

Assignments

This feels like the week of assignments. I know it's just the beginning, but today I turned in a Medical Decision Making assignment, tomorrow I am turning in a Medical Genetics assignment, and I also have to turn in an essay about experiencing illness tomorrow. I don't even want to think about the fact the the first quiz of medical school opens tomorrow! Thank goodness for Michigan flex time quizzing!! I have from 5pm tomorrow until 11:59pm on Sunday to take the quiz, but I'd rather take it sooner than later. I have a lot of studying to get done before I will feel ready for it though, so I better get cracking. I also need to do another grocery store run to get more food for lunches and dinners and some healthy snack food (I definitely did some stress eating today and unfortunately that was taken out on some Cheddar Beer Kettle chips).

Anyways, school in general is great. We had a crazy lecturer today in pathology but I definitely know the steps of the acute inflammatory response now! I will feel much better once this quiz is under my belt (and really once this first sequence is under my belt). Thats all for now! And thanks for all your copious commentary on SYTYCD :( I was looking forward to your thoughts...

So You Think You Can Dance

So I finally saw my first full episode of the season of So You Think You Can Dance tonight! It was so hard to pick up when I missed the entire beginning while I was in Europe, but since it's one of my favorite shows I of course fell right back into it.

Tonight was a tribute to Mia Michaels, which was awesome! They did seven of her routines from all the previous seasons. For the most part people were decent, but I had a hard time not comparing the dancers tonight to the original dancers from the past seasons since all of the numbers were pretty iconic in the scope of the show. I mean, most of the numbers have won Emmys for crying out loud, they are that amazing! The last two performances totally blew me away and were by far my favorites. Can't wait until my family see's it on the west coast (best coast!) so they can let me know what they think! (And you better let me know what you think, if you agree, disagree, whatever).

Anyways, I got my assignment for tomorrow done and much of the assignments for Friday done as well. I still need to get myself back on that studying bandwagon, but it's just going to take a little getting used to again. We had my favorite lecture so far this morning on collagen and collagen mutation diseases which was pretty cool. For now its off to bed for a long day tomorrow!

Yummy Korean Food

A bunch of the M1 class went out for Korean food last night and it was really fun. Major props to Dan who organized everything, including ordering in advance and collecting all the money from people so everything was fast and smooth! Hopefully we will have more of these outings throughout the year!

M1s at Seoul Garden in Ann Arbor

Ahh homework!

I already have a ton of assignments and it's so crazy! I forgot what its like to do homework, and I even have to write an essay! I thought I was avoiding that by going to medical school. For the most part it is manageable thus far, but who knows. I guess I will find out how well I have managed this first week after my quiz this weekend. For now it's all about getting what I need to get done done and not letting myself get too behind or lose myself to studying. Tonight about 50 of us (M1's) are going out for Korean food, so that should be fun!! 

Happy Shark Week!

The Olympics may be coming to a close tonight (I heard the Spice Girls will be in the closing ceremonies tonight woo hoo), but as we close the greatest two weeks in sports we are blessed with the greatest annual event on television, SHARK WEEK! I cannot wait to watch sharks jumping and thrashing and see the people who have lived to tell their crazy shark encounter stories. Don't worry mom and dad, I will not let it distract me from my studies, that's what the DVR is for! So happy Shark week. Enjoy the gloriousness!

Final Medal Count

Go USA! The USA has come out on top of every olympic medal count this summer and I could not be more proud of the athletes representing my country. I am, of course, most proud of my friends repping the USA on the women's water polo team for finally winning that elusive gold medal! Congrats! I love the Olympics so much and can't wait for another great event in Rio 2016! 

Happy birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday yay! I started off my day with three hours of lecture, which was followed by a lunch talk on wellness. Needless to say on the fun scale it could only go up from there, especially since it was also raining.

After class I headed home and opened my birthday packages (yay for Nothing Bundt Cakes!), watched some TV (Here Comes Honey Boo Boo guilty pleasure-ness), took a nap sort of on accident, picked up the packages that FedEx needed a signature for, and got ready to go out.

Matt and Chelsea came over to meet me and then we drove downtown for dinner. Around 15-20 people from my class all ate together at Marnee Thai on Main Street and I got a free entree because it was my birthday!! It was definitely a good time. After dinner we went out to a few places that in my opinion were a little too loud and the second place was way too crowded for my taste, but it was still fun to hang out with people.

This morning I slept in and had a lazy-ish day, probably my last one for a whole since I need to start studying tomorrow I think. I went to the farmers market and whole foods and web chatted with the fam a bit. I also finally transferred my photos to the new computer which took forever! Next up is transferring my music!

I contemplated going to a class party tonight, but I think I'm just going to enjoy the Olympics and take it easy, mostly because I don't want to get dressed or put in makeup haha.

Back to School

Today was our first day of class, so I am now officially in school. It was a really long day, and I am definitely not used to that yet, but I dont think there are too many days that are this long. We started at 9am and had three lectures that lasted until noon when we had a lunch mini lecture from our class counselor. In the afternoon we learned a little about trisomy 21 and then had a presentation from a family which was really awesome!

After school I got home just in time to watch the second half of the US Women's Water Polo gold medal win against Spain! So so happy for them, and wish I could've been in London cheering them on! Guess I'll just have to settle for congratulating them on Facebook for now. Right after the polo game ended the US Women's Soccer match ended and they won gold too!! There are eight Stanford athletes between the two teams and they all won golds within about 10 minutes of each other! Yay! The US is also now ahead of China in both the overall medal count and the medal counts for each medal type! GO USA!! 

Oriented

My class is now officially oriented! Today we had a huge cooking competition Top Chef style. It was a bit overwhelming since there were like 50 people per team, but it was still fun. After the competition we all ate the food we made for lunch and it was pretty good! It also meant I got a day break from mayonnaise covered sandwiches an could actually eat the main part of the meal. 

We also met our small groups today that we will be with for the next three years. My group seems pretty great and our facilitator is awesome. We clearly have the best one :). Anyways, tonight I plan on resting up a bit before class officially starts tomorrow. I'm also going to watch more Olympics and watch the premiere of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo while I still have time to watch TV! Check out the trailer if you haven't heard of this glorious show yet. Its going to be awkward and epic.

M1 Orientation Begins

I'm finally all settled in and live in a clean apartment! So exciting! Mom, Dad, Molly, Grandma, and Grandpa were in town for the weekend for my white coat ceremony which was really nice, but they all left this morning so I am on my own in Michigan now. 

Today we began our three day orientation, and it began bright an early around 7:45am. Getting up before 7am is not my idea of a good time, and thankfully we wont usually start until around 9 once classes actually begin. We basically had a lot of introductions today. Intros to the web stuff we need to know, to the people we need to know, to each other, etc. I must admit I was struggling to stay awake for much of the day, but tonight I will hopefully get a better nights sleep! It's been fun to get to know the people I will spend the next few years of my life with. I got a little lost trying to get out of school, but I am pretty sure I know my way around the main part of school now. Learning names is going to take forever too, but hopefully I'll get it sooner rather than later. There are a lot of people in my class (177)! Anyways, I'm going to rest now and watch some Olympics and then go to a BBQ near my apartment. 

Making progress

Things in condo-land and getting cleaner and more organized! We picked up some thing from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Ikea today to help finish things off. I can't wait to have everything spotless and I think that can be tomorrow!!

Mom, Dad, and I also went to inner with two of my friends and their parents tonight which was really fun. I think everyone got along really well and we all had a great time!

Tomorrow gram and gramp and Molly all arrive and I any wait for then to see everything we've done this week so far! I'm also hoping for my stuffy nose to disappear! Finger crossed! Pics will come when everything is clean!

Oh and I forgot! Last night I had super delicious mac and cheese with pulled pork at Blue Tractor! So so yummy! Had to post a pic :)

Still unpacking

So I'm still unpacking. It's really hard to get a lot done with the Olympics on. They are really much more interesting!

My friend Shana came over this morning and helped me mount my television in the living room so now I can multitask and watch the Olympics WHILE unpacking, woo!

In the middle of the day I went to the Med Inn building to get my M Card so dad can play golf this weekend ha. I was pretty stoked that I navigated my way through the hospitals and made it to the ID card office with no troubles.

After my ID card adventure I did more unpacking and broke down a bunch of boxes to make my living room less manageable. Fun times. I still hate unpacking.

I got a fun break tonight when I me up with some other incoming M1's for dinner. I think my class is going to be a fun group and I'm really excited. After hanging out for a while it was back to unpacking again yay. Sorry mom and dad, we still have a significant amount of work to do when you get here in the morning!

Closets are IN!

The people from California Closets came today to instal some of my closets, and I was immediately surprised to find out they would do all of the closets today! Yay! They look really good I think, so that is nice. The electrician also came today to add a few outlets in the entertainment center, and because there were people working through much of the middle of the day I didn't get as much unpacking done as I would have liked. Unpacking is really overwhelming, though I'm sure I have mentioned that already! I did have the chance to get a lot of my kitchen stuff unpacked so I was able to cook. Most of it is still really clean since I packed in clean two years ago, so I only threw some of the stuff in the dishwasher (all the cutlery, some cups, etc.). I had to take a trip to Kroger to get some laundry detergent  (just in time for my laundry day to be over, oh well) and dishwasher soap and guess what? The damn spider was STILL there. I tried to be brave and get it off, but it hid inside my mirror and I couldn't get to it. I did a little more work at home and had dinner while watching Jeopardy and then went to meet up with a friend. This time when I got to my car I finally got the spider off, but when I got back it had made a huge web above my parking space which led me to discover a plethora of its buddies also living in my covered parking. Having a covered parking spot sounded a lot better before I considered that it is a perfect spider habitat, eww. Anways, it's bedtime (way past it actually) so I'm out!

Oh wait, before I go today I obviously have to comment on today's Olympic action! I watched the women's gymnastics, men's water polo, and a lot of swimming. Everything was great and the USA did really well! So excited for the women's gymnastics team for winning the gold for the first time since 1996 and the Magnificent Seven. Way to go Fab Five! Most exciting I think though was Michael Phelps breaking the record for most medals in an Olympic career with 19 medals (15 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze). That is crazy to even try to imagine being that excellent at your sport that you can accomplish so much. It also makes me think about just how many more opportunities swimmers have to win Olympic medals when you compare it to any other sport. I think it could be interesting to have a swimming team medal like in collegiate swimming where there is a point total. I will stop babbling now and go to sleep. Lots to do tomorrow!