Pants

What happened here?

I’m in the middle of a four week review course here in chilly Florida. I’m definitely learning stuff and improving my test taking skills, but my factual knowledge isn’t really increasing. We learn how to organize ideas and arrive at the right answer, but I’m really learning factual knowledge on my own. I’m getting to the point where I need a break. Not super productive these last few days.

I’ve been loosely following an online plan to run a 5k in a month. I want to run a half marathon with Janelle in Berlin in May, so this is the first phase. My lungs and legs are doing fine, but I am worried about my left knee. I can’t go more than a mile and a half before I start feeling a pressure. It doesn’t hurt, but I know it will if I push it. I strained it lifting years ago, and I always take it easy so I don’t make it worse. So here’s to figuring out how to train!

It comes up in conversation that Janelle speaks Spanish and Mom took some Spanish classes awhile back. Looking to build bridges, I say, “Mom, say something in Spanish.” Mom: “Aloha!”

Another day while returning from Costco and Stater Brothers…
Me: Thanks for the groceries and other stuff Mom.
Mom: You’re welcome. You also owe me your life. I owe my parents my life.

Things are wrapping here on the island for me. My last exam is Tuesday, and it’s a doozy. 8-4pm. After that I am finished with my basic science obligations. I got a email from the ECFMG prematurely calling me Dr. Lee. It felt good, but I am not there yet!

The AMSA regional conference I worked hard to bring to Sint Maarten has collapsed. So that’s sad, but it is a relief. I was pretty revved up trying to dozens of people come to agreement. In the end, we ran out of time.

I’m flying to NY soon. I can’t wait to see Janelle and her family. I’ve never been anywhere else but California for Christmas. I am pretty excited. Here’s to new beginnings!

All right, I started posting so I wouldn’t have to study, but I really have to hit the books.

After 5 semesters of fundraising, we finally did it… We held our fifth semester party. My class is leaving the island in a month and it’s our going away party. On to bigger and better things! For me and Janelle, London! :D

When I have a moment to think about it, it’s a little surreal. I’ve been here for two years now and a lot has happened. My dad went to the Lord, I learned a lot about medicine, I met Janelle and I learned how to scuba dive. It’s amazing. I will definitely miss the place, though I probably won’t need to vacation in the Caribbean any time soon. I think returning for graduation will be a good idea. I always say this place is fantastic if you’re on vacation.

This has been a fun weekend with the party, plus on ICAN Saturday and then a lazy Sunday today. Lazy is a relative term, because I did organize and run our honor society beach clean up and study some pathology, but all in all that’s an easy day here.

I’ll be headed to NY to have Christmas with Janelle’s family straight from SXM. Then we’ll drive to Boston the day after Christmas to see my immediate family. I’m not looking forward to being cold.

I knew I was doing something wrong. White Ninja to the rescue.

This semester has been a good one. It’s funny, the happier I am, the less productive I am. I do my best academic work when I’m deeply unhappy. Thus my grades have been slipping every semester I’ve been here. Which is a bad and good thing, I suppose.

I’ve been studying for the Step with a group of three classmates twice a week. I got the inspiration for group study from a test prep book. I picked three people smarter and nicer than me, and it’s worked out really well. We really learn a lot. It seems inefficienct as we go slowly through the material, but I retain so much more than I would alone. It’s been a real blessing.

I try to make meaningful posts here, but now that my audience has probably dwindled to zero, who cares? :D

I have my pharm shelf tomorrow. It’s a national standardized test of just pharmacology. We use it as a final exam for pharm II. I am not prepared, but I’ll do the best I can. This whole semester has been one of doing the best I can with the limited time that I have. I’m learning but it’s just so much stuff to go through.

I haven’t decided how to study for the Step. Plan A right now is to study on island for as long as I can, go to the East coast for Christmas (I’ll probably do questions everyday) and then off to a review course. I’m thinking about PASS or Falcon. PASS is 4 weeks and taught by one excellent teacher, and Falcon is 7 weeks taught by a number of MD/Phds. I’ve heard good things about both, but I gotta start deciding. In fact I haven’t even bought a plane ticket to JFK yet. I’m spending Christmas with Janelle’s family in NY. Because I have always had Christmas in California with my family, it’s my first White white christmas. :D Janelle laughed when I said this, so hopefully you’re not offended (she’s Polish).

Wow. It has been so long that I forgot my password to update this place. Sadly, I have too much pharm to study to write more! Things have been crazy here at AUC. Test after test after test. Clearly, the best way to keep tabs on what I’m doing is through my flickr site.

In honor of my Dad, I took my friends to McDonald’s and bought them all apple pie. Similar celebrations were held in Boston and Orange County. There are more photos of my Dad on my flickr.

My friends’ visit to Joshua Tree made me revisit the photos I took last spring. I posted this picture before, but this time I redid the HDR algorithm and tweaked it in Picasa.

I came here to take pictures of wildflowers a week after my dad passed away. He always loved plants of all kinds. I set up my tripod at this spot an hour before sunset and waited until the light disappeared. Getting lost in the desert on a dark, moonless night is a good way to give yourself time to think. It’s is also a good way to remind yourself of the importance of a good FLASHLIGHT.

It’s busy season around here. AUC divides the semester into thirds and holds exams in all the classes after each block. We then get one week to study after the third block before we take our final exams. This last week I’m hoping to study about 11-12 hours a day, not including breaks. I’d say that’s around average or maybe just a little below average compared to my classmates. My brain refuses to work if I get too tired or stressed, so I try not to push myself. At this pace, even if they gave us two weeks to study, it’s not enough time to comprehensively go through all the material.

It has been difficult to start writing again. I got in a habit of letting my flickr site do all my life updating for me. I’ve also wanted to write about my dad before I did any other posts. When I was home for 2007 taking care of him, I avoided any meaningful posts about him. There are various drafts that I’ve typed out but haven’t uploaded, and there’s a few more in my head. I can’t express with words how important he was to me, how much I loved him and how much I miss him now. So I concede. I won’t force it. I said a lot at the memorial, and in my heart, that’s enough. When it comes to me, I’ll write it down. Probably in draft form.

The timing of retaking one semester is guaranteeing that I will be a resident in 2012. I was hoping to hustle and get in for 2011, but that’s pretty impossible now. I want to take all my basic science courses in a row to stay with my classmates, so that’ll mean I have roughly ten months of vacation during my clinical rotations. I’ve been scheming (daydreaming is way better than studying) about what to do with my time. My first idea is to motorcycle across America. 300 miles a day gets me from LA to Boston in ten days. I’d definitely take more time to poke about, but that’s one plan. Another is to backpack across Europe. There’s an option of doing clinical rotations in England and Ireland. Before I started rotations, I’d hop on a cheap flight anywhere and start working the rail system. There’s plenty of logistic issues, namely how to pay for all this traveling, but who knows? I’m a single guy with no real responsibilities. Time to dream big before I wear scrubs for the rest of my life.

I hauled my tripod up to campus for this shot. This particular HDR algorithm makes it look dramatic and cartoonish, and it’s growing on me. I just think that this effect is going to get tired soon. Well, not for another few tries anyway! Then I’ll move on to something else.

I made some friends this week. This med school thing might be working out.

I’ve had exactly one day of classes and I already feel like I need to study more. I dropped by the library Saturday to study a few hours and I saw a couple of my classmates who had already been studying for 6 or 7 hours. I felt jealous of their resolve.

Today was church, which meant going to lecture hall 1 to watch a dvd of last weeks service from Peachtree Presbyterian in Georgia. There was me and my future Immuno professor. It was a little unsettling. There’s also another non-denomination church service in lecture hall 1, so I’ll give that one a go next week. This afternoon the Christian club had a picnic with deliciously free Subway sandwiches. Attendance, as one would expect, was high. It began to rain and we all scooted home. Rain here is peculiar in that it will rain hard for 10 minutes, stop and won’t return all day.