Blocks (week 7) were intense and I'm so glad they're over so that I can relax again, and also so that now I know how better to study and prepare for them next time (BLOCK 2 -- November 6, 9-10). ALSO because after blocks, CMA (the California Medical Association -- which I am a member of :)) paid for me to fly home for a conference! Read: CMA paid for me to go home and visit the fam, and all I had to do was sit through a semi-boring 9-5 conference as repayment! So that was a GREAT break...watching "The Biggest Loser" with Mumsy, happy hour food at Dukes at Huntington, and of course, Aunt Diane's AMAZING tacos!!! And even better, I didn't have to spend any time studying or stressing about school! And when I got home after my ONE HOUR FLIGHT (so weird!), I got to hang out with Aunt Carol and Uncle Michael who were in town and show them my house and the island and get lunch with them! All around it was an amazing weekend!
This week has been good but getting back into the groove of classes has been an adjustment. Especially Monday -- class from 8-5!! Our lectures this week have been focused on pharmacology and the cell, which is mostly interesting but can be a little dry/overwhelming at times. The nice thing is that I feel like our Fundamentals (basic science) professors are really focused on helping us learn and understand and succeed...not trying to trick us or trip us up. So thats been really great too!
Tuesday, since we go to a Jewish school and its the start of the new year, we got apples with honey and honey cakes "for a sweet new year" :)
Wednesday and Thursday we didn't start class until 10 so Wednesday morning I woke up, intending to run about 4 miles for my half-marathon training...and ended up going 7.5 miles! I felt like Forrest Gump...I just kept running. It was a really nice run though, and I even ran by one of my teachers who was biking to school! Also on Wednesday, in our doctoring lab, we got to put to use our medical equipment that we got last week after blocks! So we practiced looking in each others ears and eyes, taking pulses, blood pressures, listening to the heart, and checking for knee reflexes! It was way interesting and its starting to feel like we're real doctors!!
Thursday we didn't start class until 10 again, but after my big run, I decided to just sleep in :) Thursday afternoon, however, Angela and I went to a presentation on the global health trips that students went on this summer: Israel, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Taiwan, and Tanzania! They all sound SO neat and each is really unique and offers different things, but I think I really want to go to Tanzania :) Angela wants to go to Taiwan and Nourah to Bolivia....so it looks like the girls of 432 Kirkland are all going to be on different continents this summer!
Today we got out of class at noon so Caitlin, Angela, and I ran some errands (I got a library card!! :)) and then went to the movies to see "Love Happens" which had a lot less smiling and a lot more crying than any of us expected. We still had fun though. :)
Tomorrow I think Angela, Caitlin, Aaron (Caitlin's boyfriend) and I are all going to Chinatown in San Francisco so that should be way fun! And Monday since it's Yom Kippur we don't have class, then Thursday night I fly to DC to visit Megan!!! So excited! As soon as I land on Friday, we're going to visit Margaret (the admissions counselor who accepted me and counseled me at Saint Peter's) and her husband Paul and daughter, Marie, in LOUISVILLE, Kentucky! And we're running a 5K and going apple and pumpkin picking there! I'm very excited! :)
A few pictures from my week:
Oh I forgot to write about how the night before blocks WE HAD A FROG IN OUR HOUSE!!!
Getting the frog out was quite an event resulting in about equal numbers of giggles and screams (as you can well imagine)
Our recently-purchased purple(yes, purple :)) OMM table and study nook area ;)
Please note the definitive theme of our kitchen table. Fall is my favorite season :)
We were very excited about our movie break :)In closing, I thought I would share a little excerpt from a book I just read from my favorite author, Donald Miller. (Unka, he's the one I was telling you about -- you should read "Blue Like Jazz"). This is from his newest book, "A Million Miles in A Thousand Years." There's two parts I really like, but I'll save the second one for my next entry ;) This part is actually a quote from Robert McKee, in a workshop on how to be a good writer (the theme of the book is that the elements that it takes to write a good story are the same ones that it takes to make a meaningful life):
Writing a story isn't about making your peaceful fantasies come true. The whole point of the story is the character arc. You didn't think joy could change a person did you? Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over. But it's the conflict that changes a person.
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