Exploring Kyoto

This morning began my first full day in Japan. We woke up pretty early since we had fallen asleep by 9:30pm, so we had a slow morning before we had our breakfast come at 8am. Dad had a traditional Japanese breakfast and my mom and I had a western style breakfast that was pretty delicious! After breakfast we met out tour guide Kazue at the Ryokan. Since it was raining we took a taxi to the Kiyomizu Temple to begin our day. Apparently it is one of the most famous and popular temples in all of Japan, and is generally very crowded. Due to the rain we lucked out and we didn't have a bad crowd at all! The special Moon Garden was also open today, and it is only open twice per year for ten days at a time so we lucked out! The garden was quite beautiful, but there were no pictures allowed. We did spend the equivalent of just under $3 to buy some pictures of the garden to take home, which was nice. We spent a good amount of time at the temple area and saw the many shrines and temples on the grounds. It was a really beautiful place, despite the rainy weather.

After the temple we set off to walk around part of Kyoto. We did a little shopping and a LOT of taste testing as we walked by many shops. There were candies, soups, drinks, and so many little things to taste and try along the way. I purchased some tea-bag like soup broth and some spices to make when I get home, as well as some really cool jelly soap and some mango-honey syrup that you can mix with water as a drink or use on desserts! There was so much more I wanted to buy even! We saw some beautiful houses and shops, and even women dressed in traditional kimonos complete with the full white make-up, granted the three girls we saw in full make-up were not Japanese, but from Thailand and Germany! It was a really great walk and I really loved the area. I also discovered this really awesome Kyoto artist that has done a lot of paintings for temples and shops around the city. He has some shops of his own as well, and I was really close to buying a backpack with some beautiful red, black, and gold koi pattern, but as usual I couldn't commit.

Out next stop was lunch, and we went to a noodle place that was really good. We started off with some tea, as we have become very accustomed to here and ordered some tempmusubi, which was basically rice around a tempura shrimp wrapped in a piece of seaweed. It was exactly like Spam musubi, but with tempura shrimp instead of Spam. It was amazing! I then had beef soba for lunch and that was also quite excellent. We chatted for a bit about Japan, and life in general and had a wonderful time.

After lunch we walked down a main street with lots of little shops to the subway station where we took a shuttle to see the Fushimi-Inari Shrine. The shrine is made up of ton of gates and it is so cool and interesting. We had a great time walking around and seeing all the beautiful gates juxtaposed with the bright green foliage. It was quite amazing. Kazume also said a little prayer to at the study shrine for my Step 1 exam, so hope it worked! Kazume left us here as our 6 hours were up, so we explored a bit more and then took the train back to the Ryokan where we rested for a bit. Everytime we get back I swear they have tea and some kind of small treat. It is pretty awesome.

After resting we set out to Gion to find some dinner. It was still pouring, so we all got pretty wet, but we had a nice walk along the river to get there. Oh, and I forgot to say that we did get a reprieve from the rain for much of the middle of the day. Anyways, we ended up eating at a place called Junidanya and I had some of the best tempura I have ever eaten! It was so delicious! All of us liked out respective meals and enjoyed having a real seat and table instead of sitting on the floor. We deeded to take a taxi home from dinner since we didn't feel like getting wet more, and through the language barrier managed to get back to the right place. It helped that we weren't very far away and it was basically a straight shot back!

When we got back I took a lovely shower and now we're just relaxing before getting some sleep. Tomorrow we are taking a trip out to Nara to see some more wonderful things!

Eating breakfast in the room

At the temple looking out at the scenery

The main hall of the temple

A small pagoda on the temple grounds (see in the distance in a pic above)

This Buddha was made from wood collected from the ocean after the tsunami as a tribute to those fallen 

Beef soba noodle lunch

Mom and Dad at the shrine

Me at the shrine

The room at the Ryokan transformed for sleeping

Step 1 DONE and Off to Japan!

I have finally  completed the long and awful test that is the USMLE Step 1. Thankfully I have a few weeks before I have to know how I did on the exam, but it is over, and for that I am thankful.

Now that my endless studying days are behind me I am officially on VACATION!! This morning (or yesterday morning since I crossed the date line, it's confusing) I got up and went to SFO to begin my week trip in Japan. I traveled alone since my parents left the day before me, but everything went smoothly. The plane had a ton of extra seats, so I ended up moving to an empty row where I got to lay down across all three seats! That is an international flight dream come true! Besides sleeping I ate, watched last weeks episode of Glee, and watched four movies (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Cars 2, The Lego Movie, and Cool Runnings. The flight went by quickly and was not bad at all. I got through immigration and customs without any delays or problems at all and met my shuttle from Osaka to Kyoto. The shuttle ride was about two hours and there was plenty of space, but I started getting antsy from sitting so long. I eventually arrived at the Seikoro Ryokan in Kyoto around 5:45pm and met my parents.

Our room at the Ryokan is very traditional and quite adorable. There are no beds, but they set the room up for sleeping at night. We also eat meals in the room on cushions on the floor. It is the full Japanese experience. After arriving we sat for a bit and then my mom and I walked by the river for a few minutes to just get moving after the long flight. We then had Sukiyaki in the room (Japanese hot pot) with miso soup, rice, some various appetizers, and a small dessert of melon and macha green tea and red bean jelly. The jelly wasn't my favorite, but the rest was delicious, especially the hot pot! We are now getting ready to sleep and we have our walking tour of Kyoto tomorrow, most likely in the rain. Hopefully the weather isn't too awful!

Ready to go!

Mom and Dad ready to get some Sukiyaki in the room at the Ryokan

Dad mixing his egg for Saori who was cooking the Sukiyaki

The sukiyaki! So delicious! 

Studying

So for the past four and a half weeks I have pretty much been studying non-stop for Step 1. I had a few days off during the month, but no more than one per week. Boy, did I ever need those for my sanity! Now the test has creeped up on me in a big way and I only have two more study days left. It is both awesome and terrifying. I do not feel that I am ready to do as well as I would like, which is really disappointing. I am pretty confident I can pass, but thats about it. Hopefully things fall into place over the next few days or the test just happens to cover only things I've really gotten down. Either way, I just really hope some miracle happens really. I generally feel good one day and awful the next. Luckily with that pattern test day should be a good one. Fingers crossed!! 

Home!

I made it home to Walnut Creek without any problems! I got some studying done on the plane and got to go straight to In-N-Out with mom upon arrival in San Francisco. Great times. Now it is raining but I am warm and it's not snow, so woo hoo! I also get to play with Max and Koa so that's great. Not sick from allergies yet, so here's to hoping all the precautions taken will work this time :)

Today is biochem day 1 of 2, so I'm pretty bored already. I know it's important though so pushing through! Back to First Aid now!

Study buddy Koa wanted some love

Done with M2 year!

Over the weekend I took my Reproduction sequence finals and officially finished my second year of medical school! It's crazy to think that I will never again have a week of my life solely dedicated to lecture, studying, and taking exams. I will have all three components, but mixed in with seeing patients and being in the hospital. Both of my finals went well and I passed everything in my preclinical years, yay!

Now I get to spend the next five weeks studying for arguably the biggest test I have taken or ever will take in my life. The score I get on this test is not do or die, but largely determines which specialties I will be competitive in applying to residencies in. Here's to hoping it goes well! I'm not too overwhelmed yet, so that's a start! I go to California tomorrow for the rest of my study time, which is great because its the end of March and was absolutely freezing here today. How is it almost April and Michigan is still having days with temperatures below 20º?!

In other news, the NCAA basketball tournament began over the weekend and both Stanford and Michigan made it to the Sweet 16!! Michigan was dominant and expected to move on, but for Stanford to move on they had to upset both New Mexico and Kansas, so it was really exciting! I'm hoping to building in a little study break to watch some of the games next week.

So off I go into the abyss of Step 1 studying. I likely won't be able to blog much, but then again I won't be doing much other than study, eat, study, eat, sleep, repeat!

Last Water Polo Tournament

This past weekend was my last water polo tournament of the season since I am headed home next week for Step 1 study period. The tournament was at Miami University in Ohio and was a really fun weekend. We woke up bright and early at 5:45am on Saturday morning and made the 4 hour drive to Oxford, Ohio. I never get sleep in these van rides, but I actually fell asleep for once and then the driver pulled over and asked me to drive ten minutes later. So much for that.

When we got there we pretty quickly had our first game against Lindenwood, which we won. I then played a half of goalie for the B team against Miami and I wasn't super awesome, but I also got dealt a lot of hard situations that weren't all that blockable since the defense had a few early lapses. Anyways, after that game A team played Grand Valley and we won't that game too. After all our games were over we went to one of my teammate's Aunt and Uncle's home for dinner and then drove the 45 minutes to our hotel. At the hotel we watched Frozen and then I went to bed pretty early which was quite nice. It was also dark in the room for once, something I do not get in Ann Arbor.

Sunday we got to wake up early again, around 6:45am, to eat breakfast and drive back to the pool. We played Miami first and won and then three of us played down on the B team against Lindenwood since it was a better match up for us and we knew we wouldn't have an amazing game against Ohio University since they aren't quite as strong of a team (so three of the B team girls switched with us and played up where they would get more playing time). We ended up tying Lindenwood with a pseudo mixed team and I played quite well, scoring 4 goals. I then played 2nd quarter goalie against Ohio University and had a shut out quarter. Fun times.

Now my season is over and it's back to 100% focus on school, and catching up on the massive sleep debt I have accrued in the last week. Only three more days of Repro lectures and the final and then M2 year will be complete. It's so weird!

On to Endocrine

Here we are into the second week of Endocrine already. Molly is back in California for spring break being all warm and I am here once again braving the sub zero temperatures. Thankfully they are over for the time being as of this afternoon, though I will not rule out their return quite yet. I just keep thinking to myself, in just three weeks I will be back in California and the winter for me this year will officially be over since I won't be back here until the first week of May! I may have to study for the longest and most awful test of my life thus far (Step 1, ugh), but at least I will be warm while doing so and I will no longer see ice and snow!! Lets just hope winter doesn't decide to extend into May just to let me see snow one more time like it did in Minnesota last year.

Besides winter I am getting through the end of M2 year. It is amazing to think that I am almost halfway through medical school. The first two years are definitely shorter than the second two years, but since fourth year includes a lot of vacation it really doesn't sound all that bad. The twelve months beginning in May, however, will definitely not be a cake walk. I get to look forward to very long hours with very little time off. I hope I can handle it. Before I get there I have three more days of Endrocine plus those finals followed by two weeks of Reproduction and those finals (regular final plus pathology final for both sequences). Thats it! Then it's back to CA for five super fun weeks of studying and then JAPAN! I can't wait. I haven't really thought about it much at all lately (see mom it's not distracting me haha), but when it does pop into my mind I get very excited. Speaking of which, I have to remember to add passport pages so I can get into the country. Fun stuff.

Also, here is a picture of my finished quilt on my bed! Its been there a while, but I thought Ann might especially enjoy seeing it in it final place. My bedding doesn't match it well, but I don't really care. Too much work to find matching stuff :)

GI Studying Fun Times

The past week has been utterly un-eventful. I went to class and went to the library and studied for my GI final. Then come the weekend I did nothing but study all day long. Then Monday and studied, took a break to go to the airport to finish my Global Entry application process (TSA Precheck and special customs lanes for the next 5 years woot!), and then went to the library and studied even more! This morning I woke and and guess what! I studied! I have finished going through all the lectures now and just need to go over the notes I took during my first pass studying and then I'll hopefully take the test sometime before 5pm. I then get to study for the pathology test. Isn't life just so exciting?! Only 4 more weeks of M2 year before Step 1 study period. Terrifying.

Flu

This last week hasn't been the best, as I'm sure you gathered by reading the title of this post. I went to practice on Monday night and felt a little weaker than usual, which I just read off as being tired from having two tournaments on two consecutive weekends. Tuesday we didn't have pool time and by Wednesday night I felt terrible. I ended up spiking a fever up to 103.4º which really sucked. Fevers always give me bizarre dreams and I just remember thinking about ski jumping literally all night which kept me half awake and really out of it most of the night. On Thursday I saw the doctor and she said that she thought I had the flu. Luckily I got a flu shot and its not too severe for me because of that. Just a really bad headache, fatigue, some sore throat, and a fever. It's getting better now which is good, but I had to miss my tournament at Purdue this weekend. At least the games are streamed live online so I get to watch my team play. They won both games today against Indiana and Ohio State! Go Blue!

If you hadn't noticed based on my bizarre fever thoughts, I am also majorly obsessed with the Olympics happening over in Sochi right now. The Olympics plus class is never a good combination. I just wish they happened at the end of January when I had a lot more free time. So needless to say between being sick and watching some Olympic coverage I am more behind than I would prefer to be going into this last week of the GI sequence. Hopefully this week gets everything back on track!

Way too busy!

Life has been insanely busy recently. Lots of class, freezing cold temperatures (actually WAY below freezing getting down to -30 with the windchill), water polo, etc. I took a big exam of physical exam and patient encounter skills on Friday and had my first water polo tournament of the season this weekend. We won all our games which was great, but I was so exhausted that I forgot I was meant to shadow this morning, ugh. Oh well. I have to finish my open book written exam and have one more low key chill day before starting up with the GI sequence. Only three sequences left of M2 year! I can't even believe it.