happy friday ramble

Alright, so I wasn't totally being honest before about anatomy. Today I went (voluntarily mind you) for 3 and a half hours to go over specimens, models, bones and skeletons. I think I'm a lot closer now to being ready for the practical exam and that feels pretty good. I swear I think that 3 hours of anatomy room study was like doing 6 hours of regular study. Non-stop and the time just flew by. I only had to stop finally cuz I couldn't ignore the rumbling of my tummy telling me it was lunch time. I love not having to go to lectures. Lectures are for sissys I say. How much more do I get out of moving around and holding stuff in my hands. I sooo want to be a surgeon at the moment. Oh, and I don't want to do anything involved with knowing intimate details of the brain that's for sure. I have 4 months till my next lecture and that feels great. Great on my back too. I always get a sore back sitting in those chairs for 6-8 hours a day. Now its either the couch or bed for me. I love that too. Oh, or in the grass at the park. My favorite place to run and do my working out since it's been so much nicer outside. I'm back to studying now and I think it will be the same routine tonight (a late night run shower, dinner (spaghetti as usual), and little bit of a movie that I can fall asleep to in my too-big-for me oh-so-comfy bed) but, well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Gettin closer

Today was the official last day of classes for my first year.  Quite an incredible accomplishment. In some way though, I feel like I've just begun considering what I have ahead of me.  Its a little bit overwhelming to have 3 weeks of finals to plow through.  Sorta what I think running a few marathons would feel like.  I really didn't get into my study groove until about 6ish tonight and then at 9 (since its still light out until about 10) I knew that I had to go on my run.  Only ran about 2 miles at the park and did my other working out stuff too but it felt really good and I'm glad I took the break.  The only problem is when I got back, showered, made and ate dinner it was 11 and thats about the time I'm just too tired for neuroanatomy stuff to have any chance of sinking in.  Greg and I decided to watch a bit of the Neverending Story and before it was over I was falling faster and faster into the couch. I really hope I have dreams about Falcore the flying puppy-dog dragon and not about the differences between upper and lower motor nerve lesions. Oh, but I do want to say a special thank you to Cintia for explaining why we test superior oblique and inferior oblique muscles in the eye the way that we do.  That was so awesome and now I totally get it.  How did I get so lucky to have my very own Brazilian Japanese pediatric ophthalmologist and eye muscle surgeon with time to spare to help me? 

Where I wish I was instead of the anatomy room today

The amazing thing is that today was my last official anatomy class! Well that is until the exam on Monday and then it will officially be over. Greg says its sorta sad. I'm just excited to get to see live patients more often then dead ones for the rest of my life. How awesome is that!?!

a little insight

Yesterday at rock climbing Kathryn told me that I climb just like my personality. I decide on a way, take a look at the hold and then just all out go for it, no messing around, not too much thinking, and I don't let go either.

I think she's probably right.

The madness begins

The quiz of the month is out of the way. I passed which is good but its not worth that much so there wasn't that much stress around it. Any nerves I have at the moment are due to my anatomy room final next Monday. It is the sole reason I am missing Ben's wedding and as it is an oral exam and I get really nervous being quizzed orally this is probably my most stressful final. The one good thing about this test, and this will make sense to those of you who know my diving meet strategy and know how I like to get gainers out of the way first, I am thankful it is first and I can get it out of the way. Unfortunately, unlike gainers (that I'll never have to do another one ever again if I don't want to), I'll be having oral quizzes for the rest of my life so I know I better get used to this stress. Let's hope that my stomach is as strong as I think it is and I won't be getting any ulcers in the coming years (great. another thing to worry about.)

Dublin has its surprises

Just when you think the sun has forgotten all about this little city, it decides to surprise us all and make an appearance. Yesterday was warm, hot even! I could barely believe I was actually going outside in shorts and a tank top to the park where I could lay in the sun to read and people watch and not be cold at all. The wind even left us all alone for a while too. It was fabulous, a truly magical experience. Great day in fact. Studies in the morning, sun at midday, home to make dinner for friends, exciting hockey game with my 4 favorite Canadian girls (also big hockey fans), falling asleep watching a good movie. Loved every second of yesterday.

The sun is still out today but the wind is too and its back to being chilly. Oh well, at least I made the most of it. Back to studying too which is not the most fun. Friends were going to the ocean but I have a lot to do before cardsigning tomorrow and I wanted to go climbing tonight with Robyn so I had to pass.

Last night we were all talking, and I found out that I'm not the only one that has lost motivation to study like I used to. It seems like everyone is making summer plans and getting more and more distracted as the days go by instead of more and more focused like we know we should. I'm doing my best but its really hard. Really really hard.

Me and Maeve at the Ball

I really like this picture of Maeve and I :) Maeve was on the team (of 3) as the style coordinator for the ball as well as did my makeup too. Not only did she do all this, but she also saved the day when she filled in for the cigarette/chocolate girl at the pre-reception who hurt her back the night of the ball!

2008 Med Ball---check

Just to, for some strange reason, prove that I can chair a ball for 600 of my classmates and get myself all dolled up too.
Me and my housemates, Greg, Andrew and Maeve, RCSI Med Ball. Oh and the theme was old hollywood!

Today I learned...

How to take blood from a person and then, fortunately enough, how to sew them back up when it goes terribly horribly wrong. Awesome right?

It could be just a coincidence but for some reason these two clinical skills are grouped together in one 2 hour session...and now I'm apparently all set to go! ha!

Marilyn or Dorothy?

So the med school ball I'm helping chair is just 3 days away! The theme is classic Hollywood and its gonna be great. I'm really getting excited about it. People are dressing up to the theme and everyone is really happy with it. Oh, and we also had dancing lessons all this week to learn the fox trot and swing (since we are having a Frank Sinatra impersonator and a 17 piece swing band!)

My spring break to Holland and Czech Republic was incredible. I had so much fun and can't wait to share pictures. Besides the awesome amount of hockey I got to watch all cozily wrapped up in the Mexican blanket, thanks to Chris :), some of the highlights were was staying with Johan and Melanie, our Dutch home-stay couple who 'made' us stay out at the bars until we got kicked out two nights in a row and who had an amazing 'magazine quality' house filled with all the things 2 kids on spring break need, the 2Am 'Easter' snowball fight in Holland, being undefeated in the Zoetermeer mugs, learning Czech from Sam (our 10 year old tutor and no 1 fan of the Tournament, 9 of us eating '10 delicious' chinese takeaways in the foyer outside of the elevator on our floor of our 5 star hotel, experiencing rain and snow...at the same time, seeing the real Iron Curtain, loosing the group in Karlovy vary and drinking mineral water from cool little sippy mugs, learning Czech from Sam (our 10 year old tutor and biggest fan of the American team) during the world championships in Klasterec, ordering and eating the best dumplings ever, trying to get Chris' goals on video and getting starred at every time I cheered like the crazy American fan they all thought I was, our very own 1930's convertible Scoda tour of Prague finishing at the Castle during the changing of the guards, running into my classmate Adam in Prague Castle during which we were both supposed to be in class, and trying to find and stop in as many cathedrals and then bars in Czech as we could as we traversed the entire city. Worst part: saying goodbye to Chris and all my new San Diego hockey buddies!

That's about all I can muster for now. I got a perfect score on my last anatomy quiz even with the whole break which I was excited about and today I watched endoscopies (yay fun!) at the hospital. I hope to write more soon and let you know when pictures will be up. Oh, I will be putting up pictures from the road trip with Richie and Seamus around Ireland and on St. Paddy's Day very soon.

Miss you!

distraction

i just wanted to let you know that i put up pictures from snowboarding in france on myspace and facebook so if you want a distraction then you should go ahead and take a look. speaking of which, i better get back to studying for my anatomy quiz tomorrow. we're doing the heart now!!!

i never

last night i learned how to do a proper breaststroke and immediately i felt faster...then i practiced flip turns.

i'm glad i decided to give this whole real swimmer idea a try. we will see how cut out i am for it at the meet next weekend. it feels great being in the water and challenging myself again in this way. and ya know what, as much as i miss diving i never would have put myself up to this challenge if there were diving boards here so there's one more reason to be smiling tonight. :)

just to share

im going to see Jimmy Eat World tonight which i'm quite excited about. it's my first show in a long while and im going with beechwood roomie Andrew who's a huge Jimmy fan. i can't wait!

on a school related note...the other day i was picked by the instructor to take a patient (actor) history in front of my entire class. this was quite ironic because i had just been chatting with Greg before class how i might die if i had to do a history with everyone watching me and that if i did get picked he should trip me on the way up so i could hold me 'broken' nose and run out of the room. well all i have to say is that it must have been payback or something but with all eyes of the class on me i walked up (without being tripped), was handed a microphone and my first thought was just don't faint, seriously. i hate public speaking and have a real phobia of microphones (do not ask me to do karaoke!). somehow I did pretty well and even got a few compliments from classmates. apparently the microphone must have hide the shakiness in my voice and friends said i didn't even look nervous! woah, maybe all this really is sinking in. maybe now taking any real patient history, without 50 people staring at me, is going to seem like a piece of cake!

do i really...

need a 2 hour lecture on professionalism? hmmm

1/8th of the way done!

update and pictures coming soon from my 2 week break in france.

also, just quickly, i passed all my first semester exams and had a meeting with the directors of the program when i got back from break. all they wanted to talk to me about what how i was liking living in Dublin compared to San Diego...exactly how the perfect post exam meeting should go.

looks like i'm on my way!

so far so good

Just two more exams left everyone! I've just finished the 2 hardest ones (histology and immunity and molecular medicine) and I think they actually went pretty well, somewhat surprisingly. I'm beat and there are still 2 more left. Lucky for us they actually gave us a day off in between our tests this week unlike last week. You do not want to know what cramming in medical school is like and if you already know then now I can understand the pain and suffering you've felt. I don't want to go through it again because its terrible. I think I just got lucky with my one test today and on the short notes section (page long written questions) they pretty much asked me all the stuff I knew really well (ah ha!) and I left feeling great, exhausted, but great. The roommates and I are going out to dinner to celebrate almost being done, because well, its important to celebrate the little things and what I've been finding out when you're learning entire books on subjects you know absolutely nothing about to begin with...rewards are the best way to keep on trucking. On the morning of the exam today in molecular medicine Maeve said it best: "and I haven't even started on cancer yet!" (luckily, cancer...all of cancer...didn't play much of a part of the exam)
:)

well...

I'm almost done with probably what I will forever refer to as the worst week of my life, hmm, so far. Exam number 4 finishes tomorrow. Right now I feel as if my hand is about to fall off and my eyes are going to pop out of my head. And this is all before I have my histology and immune system exam tomorrow. ahhhhh! I hope I make it and don't have to repeat any of this because all of this studying is slowing killing me. Today was a good day because I could actually write essays on all of the subjects without having to make anything up on any of it. Amazing. I hope tomorrow goes as well. I'm definitely looking forward to my break after all of this (yay for snowboarding!) and looking forward to this weekend. Even though it will be filled with studying I will also be filling the rest of the time with much needed sleep!

What!?!

My 7 finals in 14 days starts on Monday. ahhhhhh! Please think all the good thoughts you can for me. I will need all the help I can get.

The good news is immediately after I'm done on Feb. 2nd I'm leaving for snowboarding in France and a trip to Paris. Two weeks of total immersion in two of my favorite things. Snow and museums. I cant wait. Sometimes I think its all that keeps me going.

life lessons

"tangents are what life is all about." -roomie andrew

whew! the break is over...

You would think that means that its time to get back to school, start the studies, crack open the books and laptops once again, but that's not what that means at all. This break I studied and studied hard. Harder than I have ever studied over a break before. When I wasn't studying, I was thinking about studying, and when I wasn't thinking about studying, I was contemplating whether what I was doing was enough fun to warrant not thinking about or actually studying! Whew! Exhausting. Anyhow, now the break is over. You know why? Because yesterday I went on a 6 k run in the bitter Ireland wind and i made it. It was a good day. Back to my working out and being myself. Back into a routine that makes me feel good about my days of learning all sorts of crazy things in med school. Its nice sometimes to be in a routine. I'm sure I will get sick of it soon enough but for now it feels good. Oh, I almost forgot to mention...my studies paid off as well. I felt great after my first anatomy room final practical! well, great to be done too but also that I think I did great and, well, I know I passed, which is the most important thing! :)

Let me know how your new years was as I'm sure it probably was better than mine!