Thanks to realizing clinical rotations were starting and I pretty much owned *no* nice clothes save for a kind of weird patterned go go dress I got at Goodwill for three dollars, I had to engage in a two day estrogen-fest at the local mall for a day of clothes shopping, including *finally* buying a couple nice dresses so I don't have to beg clothes off people for social events, and a day of shoe shopping, while looking longingly at Spencer's Gifts.
Shoe shopping and I... ergh. My shoe shopping expeditions used to consist of going to Payless and picking out keds, wearing them out, and repeating. I tried for hipper shoes, but I was a pennyless teenager, so I occasionally was able to score cooler stuff from thrift stores. Then I got converted to running shoes, which I'd long associated with being part of the consumerist establishment, but like portable electronic devices, that was before I discovered how freaking awesome they are.
So my pattern until today: Go to New Balance store. Tell them exactly what I want. Have them bring out three pairs of shoes, from which I generally choose one, not particularly mindful of what it looks like, leave store within twenty minutes. Wear shoes for 1-2 years until I have destroyed them. Repeat. Expanded slightly for Grenada because I needed two pairs of shoes prior to going.
The last two days; however, I feel I've finally lived the "girl" experience of having to hunt down sales because nice clothes are frigging expensive, and then having to spend another day hopping from shoe store to shoe store in an attempt to find a nice, hospital appropriate shoe that remotely matches the crap I had to buy the previous day, isn't 80 dollars, and doesn't leave leather-strap induced ulcers all over my feet.
This is no easy task.
Being a former ice skater (I know), I was also confident in my strength of ankles, thus my ability to walk in heels without snapping off part of my fibula, until I fell off a half inch path at Aquarium for no particular reason and turned one of my ankles into a bloated Christmas tree first term, and now I'm all paranoid.
Shoe shopping seems to spark a very teenage sense of rebellion in me as I'm looking at my 17th pair of 'why the hell do we have to be going into summer and there are NO close-toed shoes' and as I'm passing the hipster shoe stores, I get a nearly overwhelming urge to just throw caution to the wind and buy a pair of stiletto heels that appear to be made of pink care bear fur, largely because they were probably the most hideous things I've ever seen, which made me want them. And, by the letter of the law, conformed to most hospital dress code policies, but would have likely netted me a nasty write-up about professionalism.
This is why I buy running shoes. And then run in them. But after a ridiculously long mall trip, and a ridiculous number of stores and sales, I have shoes for work and shoes for play. Oh, and shoes for *real* play, which are my beloved trail runners that I've had to shower cow/horse/goat crap off of on no less than three occasions. If my new nice shoes and clothes can survive a hash as well, I may change my tune.
Addendum, for those wondering why I'm shopping for clothes and shoes in Modesto when I'm going to be living in NYC, it's because in one of the three episodes of Sex and the City that I have ever seen, one of the sociopaths/main characters is having some sort of Sophie's Choice moment over a pair of 400 dollar shoes, so I became instantly convinced that to buy work shoes in New York, I'd need to supplement my student loans. And yes, I believe everything I see on television.
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
May 14, 2009
May 6, 2009
Brooklyn!!
Or so they say!
Yesterday, got an email saying I was good for Brooklyn, which makes me really happy.
Today, went Monterey diving for the first time in nearly 3 years, though camera-less so I wouldn't be task loaded, but I still felt really comfortable in the cold water, though towards the end of the dives, on the chilly end of comfortable, but the big thing is...
Sea lions! And harbor seals!
Grenada: eels, wrecks, sharks that are big enough to be awesome but lack the interest or size potential to eat you, significantly lower hypothermia potential.
Monterey: Rocks encrusted with life, giant anenomes; furry marine mammals that periodically dive bomb you, kelp forests, opportunity to wear giant dive knife strapped to leg which looks really badass even though it's just used for kelp.
So hard to choose; why not do both? Grenada had a ton of things I absolutely loved, but there is nothing quite like having a sea lion loop you. Granted, they have the same bite potential as a bear, but they are extremely freaking cute.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Well, technically now, Seis de Mayo.
Yesterday, got an email saying I was good for Brooklyn, which makes me really happy.
Today, went Monterey diving for the first time in nearly 3 years, though camera-less so I wouldn't be task loaded, but I still felt really comfortable in the cold water, though towards the end of the dives, on the chilly end of comfortable, but the big thing is...
Sea lions! And harbor seals!
Grenada: eels, wrecks, sharks that are big enough to be awesome but lack the interest or size potential to eat you, significantly lower hypothermia potential.
Monterey: Rocks encrusted with life, giant anenomes; furry marine mammals that periodically dive bomb you, kelp forests, opportunity to wear giant dive knife strapped to leg which looks really badass even though it's just used for kelp.
So hard to choose; why not do both? Grenada had a ton of things I absolutely loved, but there is nothing quite like having a sea lion loop you. Granted, they have the same bite potential as a bear, but they are extremely freaking cute.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Well, technically now, Seis de Mayo.
May 3, 2009
Still in the in between...
Not for blog abandonment; just for lack of things to say, really. Though I'm sure I'll remedy that with some rambling!
I got an email today saying I had US health clearance and that was being sent to the clinicals, which means, crossing my fingers, I may get my final placement soon! Woot!
It also means that someone at SGU was working on a Saturday at 9 PM. I'll let that sink in for a minute.
Ready?
My preliminary placement was for Brooklyn, which I really really want. Now, I'm in sort of a scared holding pattern for it, because I've been looking at housing, and it's freaking me out. Grenada offered the safety of the dorms to kind of satellite out the housing options in the area until you inevitably lost the housing lottery or went insane from the construction noise, so you could scurry out to an apartment and scurry back which offset the high cost of living and allowed you to get familiar with the area.
Of course, I say this with the comfort of someone that lucked into an apartment I really really loved that somehow wound up relatively cockroach free and proud despite being in the tropics. Others were not so lucky.
So now reality's back, and it needs a place to live in Brooklyn.
I realized that NYC housing would be a challenge, but figured I'd grown accustomed to astronomical housing rates due to Grenada and I don't have a problem with small spaces or lack of light. On that note, apparently, an apartment that doesn't have an actively running meth lab requires an application fee, a credit check fee, an income, a guarantor, your first month's rent, your last month's rent, a security deposit, and possibly a broker's fee, which is also equivalent to first month's rent. Possibly also your firstborn.
The problem? I don't get my loans until the start of clinicals and I've been off in neverland studying for the step 1, which doesn't give me 5000 dollars worth of free spending money to drop on my first month's rent when I was planning on a much more reasonable month's rent plus security deposit. It would, on an unrelated note, give me enough money to have a luxurious month-long diving holiday in Borneo though. Just saying.
It may get easier once I get the final word on the placement. For the time being, I think part of the stress is in the hypothetical. I can't start ferreting out roommates or arrange appointments until I have an active placement lest risk backing out on someone at the last minute, but I feel the burden of time ticking away, plus I'm in California, so I can't just alleviate my fears by going and *looking* at places, even casually, to get a feel for it in the interim. Google maps street view is helping somewhat. I'm also surfing craigslist, which is kind of inundating me with a billion apartments and roommate options, any one of which could prove either my dream apartment (meaning no roaches, reasonable distance to the hospital, and internet), or could provide me with the opportunity to have to utter the phrase: "Officer, I swear it's not mine!!" or worse, "Why am I in a bathtub full of ice?"
So I've got a little case of the cold feet.
On a not "holy crap I need a place to live" note, I headed up to the little town of Columbia, CA yesterday, which is a pleasant little gold mining town from the wayback that reminds me of a more mountainous version of Old Sacramento. Then, since it was pouring and I was carrying more than one portable electronic device, I headed to the Moaning Cavern, which probably has the distinction of being the only cave in gold country without gold. Since I dislike yellow gold and like limestone, I consider this a plus. It also has the distinction of having a number of people fall through it's cleverly disguised top opening over the last few thousand years, so when it was formally discovered, there was a pile of bones at the bottom of a 160 foot drop. Kind of a "we are the world" moment when you realize the number of people over the centuries that shared the exact same "walking through a fiel ahhhh" moment regardless of class, culture or creed.
For something that's been a tourist attraction since the gold miners went "hey, there's no gold here", it's actually not hokey, the cave itself is gorgeous, and the winding spiral staircase that goes down is old (but tested) and made out of a recycled ship, so I got a more authentic feeling out of it, which I appreciated.
I also got to meet an awesome fellow-guitar player that lives and works up there, so that was a highlight.
Diving on Tuesday, aka Cinco de Mayo, so we'll see what my return to cold water diving after nearly 3 years looks like. I'm guessing it'll involve a lot of shivering.
I got an email today saying I had US health clearance and that was being sent to the clinicals, which means, crossing my fingers, I may get my final placement soon! Woot!
It also means that someone at SGU was working on a Saturday at 9 PM. I'll let that sink in for a minute.
Ready?
My preliminary placement was for Brooklyn, which I really really want. Now, I'm in sort of a scared holding pattern for it, because I've been looking at housing, and it's freaking me out. Grenada offered the safety of the dorms to kind of satellite out the housing options in the area until you inevitably lost the housing lottery or went insane from the construction noise, so you could scurry out to an apartment and scurry back which offset the high cost of living and allowed you to get familiar with the area.
Of course, I say this with the comfort of someone that lucked into an apartment I really really loved that somehow wound up relatively cockroach free and proud despite being in the tropics. Others were not so lucky.
So now reality's back, and it needs a place to live in Brooklyn.
I realized that NYC housing would be a challenge, but figured I'd grown accustomed to astronomical housing rates due to Grenada and I don't have a problem with small spaces or lack of light. On that note, apparently, an apartment that doesn't have an actively running meth lab requires an application fee, a credit check fee, an income, a guarantor, your first month's rent, your last month's rent, a security deposit, and possibly a broker's fee, which is also equivalent to first month's rent. Possibly also your firstborn.
The problem? I don't get my loans until the start of clinicals and I've been off in neverland studying for the step 1, which doesn't give me 5000 dollars worth of free spending money to drop on my first month's rent when I was planning on a much more reasonable month's rent plus security deposit. It would, on an unrelated note, give me enough money to have a luxurious month-long diving holiday in Borneo though. Just saying.
It may get easier once I get the final word on the placement. For the time being, I think part of the stress is in the hypothetical. I can't start ferreting out roommates or arrange appointments until I have an active placement lest risk backing out on someone at the last minute, but I feel the burden of time ticking away, plus I'm in California, so I can't just alleviate my fears by going and *looking* at places, even casually, to get a feel for it in the interim. Google maps street view is helping somewhat. I'm also surfing craigslist, which is kind of inundating me with a billion apartments and roommate options, any one of which could prove either my dream apartment (meaning no roaches, reasonable distance to the hospital, and internet), or could provide me with the opportunity to have to utter the phrase: "Officer, I swear it's not mine!!" or worse, "Why am I in a bathtub full of ice?"
So I've got a little case of the cold feet.
On a not "holy crap I need a place to live" note, I headed up to the little town of Columbia, CA yesterday, which is a pleasant little gold mining town from the wayback that reminds me of a more mountainous version of Old Sacramento. Then, since it was pouring and I was carrying more than one portable electronic device, I headed to the Moaning Cavern, which probably has the distinction of being the only cave in gold country without gold. Since I dislike yellow gold and like limestone, I consider this a plus. It also has the distinction of having a number of people fall through it's cleverly disguised top opening over the last few thousand years, so when it was formally discovered, there was a pile of bones at the bottom of a 160 foot drop. Kind of a "we are the world" moment when you realize the number of people over the centuries that shared the exact same "walking through a fiel ahhhh" moment regardless of class, culture or creed.
For something that's been a tourist attraction since the gold miners went "hey, there's no gold here", it's actually not hokey, the cave itself is gorgeous, and the winding spiral staircase that goes down is old (but tested) and made out of a recycled ship, so I got a more authentic feeling out of it, which I appreciated.
I also got to meet an awesome fellow-guitar player that lives and works up there, so that was a highlight.
Diving on Tuesday, aka Cinco de Mayo, so we'll see what my return to cold water diving after nearly 3 years looks like. I'm guessing it'll involve a lot of shivering.
Apr 22, 2009
Not dead yet
But whirlwindy. Would my life be anything else?
Quick update: New Orleans: Freaking WOO HOO... so so so awesome. So so so much liver damage. Oh, and street cred for taking a vampire tour on Easter. I finally beat my curry Christmas. Bonus tip: don't do a mule cart ride immediately after drinking something that has the word "octane" in it. More details later (hopefully) and Dave took good care of me, which is fortunate, since a couple of times, caring for myself was spotty.
After: packed up to move out of New Bern almost immediately. Figured since there's no furniture and I only have to fit stuff in my car or take it to a storeroom, that "this time, moving won't be so bad."
It's always that bad. It just always is. I need to stop pretending that it isn't. So far my easiest move out was from Grenada, which still sucked, but also allowed me to leave tons and tons of stuff for my housekeeper and whoever else wanted it, rather than having to get every item out of an apartment, including the fifty pens everyone accumulates but then doesn't want to throw away, but who wants to pack fifty pens, half of which are dead?
I planned a stop at Slappy's along my way, and she had written to me if I wanted to see a play the night of my final moveout. Forgetting the above paragraph and firmly in denial, I said "Sure, I'll be out of my apartment my around noon, maybe 2 at the latest, which will give me plenty of time." Fortunately, she didn't buy the tickets since I called her at around 2 or 3 to tell her I still wasn't out so I'd miss the play, and around 6 PM to tell her I'd be in at midnight.
Freaking. Hate. Moving.
But stayed with her for a couple of days and fantastic time. Went in my first Ikea store.
And now, driving to Modesto, CA to stay for a couple weeks before clinicals start and hoping like hell they don't pass off my Brooklyn spot while I'm waiting on varicella. So I'm currently at a motel in the middle of New Mexico. Huzzah.
Addendum: People who think the South is creepy should drive through Oklahoma.
Quick update: New Orleans: Freaking WOO HOO... so so so awesome. So so so much liver damage. Oh, and street cred for taking a vampire tour on Easter. I finally beat my curry Christmas. Bonus tip: don't do a mule cart ride immediately after drinking something that has the word "octane" in it. More details later (hopefully) and Dave took good care of me, which is fortunate, since a couple of times, caring for myself was spotty.
After: packed up to move out of New Bern almost immediately. Figured since there's no furniture and I only have to fit stuff in my car or take it to a storeroom, that "this time, moving won't be so bad."
It's always that bad. It just always is. I need to stop pretending that it isn't. So far my easiest move out was from Grenada, which still sucked, but also allowed me to leave tons and tons of stuff for my housekeeper and whoever else wanted it, rather than having to get every item out of an apartment, including the fifty pens everyone accumulates but then doesn't want to throw away, but who wants to pack fifty pens, half of which are dead?
I planned a stop at Slappy's along my way, and she had written to me if I wanted to see a play the night of my final moveout. Forgetting the above paragraph and firmly in denial, I said "Sure, I'll be out of my apartment my around noon, maybe 2 at the latest, which will give me plenty of time." Fortunately, she didn't buy the tickets since I called her at around 2 or 3 to tell her I still wasn't out so I'd miss the play, and around 6 PM to tell her I'd be in at midnight.
Freaking. Hate. Moving.
But stayed with her for a couple of days and fantastic time. Went in my first Ikea store.
And now, driving to Modesto, CA to stay for a couple weeks before clinicals start and hoping like hell they don't pass off my Brooklyn spot while I'm waiting on varicella. So I'm currently at a motel in the middle of New Mexico. Huzzah.
Addendum: People who think the South is creepy should drive through Oklahoma.
Apr 10, 2009
Party!!!
It's off to New Orleans I go for the weekend, with the wonderful Dave, who made this is birthday present to me in November, so he gets to take leave of his Island Prison briefly to lovingly show me around his old haunts. Naturally, I'll be drinking grenades out of novelty cups.
Woot!
Woot!
Apr 7, 2009
We're talking mega-ecstasy-bliss
So I was going to write an encouraging blog post about the major depressive episode that is the last few weeks leading up to taking the Step 1, but then some housing stuff went foul for a couple of days and I found myself envying the dead again, so it seemed like a poor time.
But that's resolved, and now... holy crap, there's nothing left to study. I have very very few responsibilities for the next few weeks other than those shared by the general population. It is indescribable.
It's not like right now my life has undergone such a drastic change. I don't know people very close by, I'm lazily packing up my apartment to spend a few weeks back in Cali before the march to Brooklyn, trying to struggle through the school's deathweb of red tape, and spending a lot of time vegetating in front of my laptop.
But prior to the exam, I was experiencing a depression that was creeping up insidiously. Started with just an "oh, I'm sick of studying", but it wasn't even so much that, since I actually liked most of the material I was reviewing and stuff was beginning to mesh together and make sense in ways it hadn't before.
No, it's more that there is this constant and unending pressure. ANY time I wasn't studying, I felt guilty. Days off, I felt guilty. Taking too long to go to sleep. Felt guilty. Watching tv. Guilty. Talking to my family. Guilty. Walking the dog. Guilty. And gradually, while not feeling actively miserable, I was experience what I would call a "happiness black hole" in which normal situations that would induce pleasure no longer did. So I would go out, take my dog for a walk in a beautiful night, look up at the stars, look out at the river near my house, and then walk him up to the town hall, which is still lit up and old style Dickenesque, and think "huh".
And not even "I need to finish off the glycolytic pathway by noon tomorrow so I can get started on the..." or being *distracted* from what I was seeing, since I was far too braindead for contemplation, but more "Hmmmm. That used to make me happy. Ah well." And walk home.
It's sort of like I bypassed acute panic because you just can't suffer from it for 10 weeks or your heart will explode, and went beyond it. Even the morning of the exam or the night before wasn't panic so much as just a more elevated tachycardic depression.
I would recommend after the exam, NOT suddenly having your personal life go to shambles, because it makes the transition more confusing, and that tingling peripheral neuropathy in your limbs and tightness in your chest sticks around.
But then... ahhh... It's beautiful. I enjoy the taste of food again. I enjoy the church bells I can hear from my bedroom (yes, I am currently living in a town *that* quaint).
In the meantime, I'm preparing for yet another fantastic birthday adventure provided by Dave, so I get to meet him this weekend in New Orleans, also notable as being one of my favorite cities outside San Francisco and Prague. Upon my arrival back, I'll be piling into a car and driving cross country (again!). It'll be on I-40 this time, so I'm guessing I'll amass a lot of pictures of bleak nothingness. On the good side, I think the scenery is generally so uninteresting that you're legally allowed to bury the needle on whatever car you're driving to make the time go faster.
My "task" at the moment other than packing, consists largely of sorting out my health forms for SGU. They changed the TB requirements from two in a year (which I had) to two in six months (which I didn't), necessitating two TB tests in two months.
Ohhh, and my varicella titers aren't sufficient (A-FREAKING-GAIN, I can't get chickenpox! Just accept it and stop charging me astronomical amounts of money to stab me in the interest of preventing a disease no one gives a crap about!). Oh, and my still-not-two-years-old mumps part of my MMR underachieved too. I hate my stupid antibodies. Except the Hep B ones; those RULE.
This is also relevant because (and fortunately by harassing the nurse I got this info), had I gotten the MMR and V vaccines *1st* as I initially intended, this would have negated the TB test for the next 4-6 weeks, which is definitely relevant since I NEED TO START CLINICALS THEN. Sigh.
Also fun is that one overpriced chickenpox vaccine isn't good enough; I need two, and they need to be 30 days apart, which starts to cut it close... which adds to the fun because no one wants to give a varicella vaccine to an adult, so even finding a place to overcharge you for it is a rare thing.
I got my TB test read today after spending 48 hours willing there to not be a mark. The one I got a month ago reacted so little, I finally just circled it because you couldn't see where the hole had been. This one got the proper wheal when it was inserted and then... freaking stayed red for a while, so I'm just going "if you false positive me and I have to then arrange a stupid chest x-ray on top of everything else, I am going to cut that section out of my arm."
It was impressed, and retreated. 0 mm! Suck it!
I've also been faxing the physical and first TB test, the receipt from the testing facility for the USMLE, completing my MPNs and all that other fun stuff that reminds me why I wanted to be a doctor and not jobs that involve mass quantities of paperwork. Oops, except doctors do. I also got to do the NY health requirement CE course, a newly introduced (after last term was up) cultural sensitivity class the school made up. This is particularly important because if you are SO thick that you can't become culturally sensitive after attending a medical school that has representatives from like 150 countries, that is actually located in another country, I'm sure a last minute online class administered in your USMLE study period will cement in the love-of-fellow-man. Oh, spoiler alert... if your patient has not-Western-medicine beliefs and you like, point at the patient and openly mock his culture, religion, and ways, that may harm patient communications, and could, potentially, get you sucker punched by a holy man. I hope that doesn't constitute giving away answers.
But that's resolved, and now... holy crap, there's nothing left to study. I have very very few responsibilities for the next few weeks other than those shared by the general population. It is indescribable.
It's not like right now my life has undergone such a drastic change. I don't know people very close by, I'm lazily packing up my apartment to spend a few weeks back in Cali before the march to Brooklyn, trying to struggle through the school's deathweb of red tape, and spending a lot of time vegetating in front of my laptop.
But prior to the exam, I was experiencing a depression that was creeping up insidiously. Started with just an "oh, I'm sick of studying", but it wasn't even so much that, since I actually liked most of the material I was reviewing and stuff was beginning to mesh together and make sense in ways it hadn't before.
No, it's more that there is this constant and unending pressure. ANY time I wasn't studying, I felt guilty. Days off, I felt guilty. Taking too long to go to sleep. Felt guilty. Watching tv. Guilty. Talking to my family. Guilty. Walking the dog. Guilty. And gradually, while not feeling actively miserable, I was experience what I would call a "happiness black hole" in which normal situations that would induce pleasure no longer did. So I would go out, take my dog for a walk in a beautiful night, look up at the stars, look out at the river near my house, and then walk him up to the town hall, which is still lit up and old style Dickenesque, and think "huh".
And not even "I need to finish off the glycolytic pathway by noon tomorrow so I can get started on the..." or being *distracted* from what I was seeing, since I was far too braindead for contemplation, but more "Hmmmm. That used to make me happy. Ah well." And walk home.
It's sort of like I bypassed acute panic because you just can't suffer from it for 10 weeks or your heart will explode, and went beyond it. Even the morning of the exam or the night before wasn't panic so much as just a more elevated tachycardic depression.
I would recommend after the exam, NOT suddenly having your personal life go to shambles, because it makes the transition more confusing, and that tingling peripheral neuropathy in your limbs and tightness in your chest sticks around.
But then... ahhh... It's beautiful. I enjoy the taste of food again. I enjoy the church bells I can hear from my bedroom (yes, I am currently living in a town *that* quaint).
In the meantime, I'm preparing for yet another fantastic birthday adventure provided by Dave, so I get to meet him this weekend in New Orleans, also notable as being one of my favorite cities outside San Francisco and Prague. Upon my arrival back, I'll be piling into a car and driving cross country (again!). It'll be on I-40 this time, so I'm guessing I'll amass a lot of pictures of bleak nothingness. On the good side, I think the scenery is generally so uninteresting that you're legally allowed to bury the needle on whatever car you're driving to make the time go faster.
My "task" at the moment other than packing, consists largely of sorting out my health forms for SGU. They changed the TB requirements from two in a year (which I had) to two in six months (which I didn't), necessitating two TB tests in two months.
Ohhh, and my varicella titers aren't sufficient (A-FREAKING-GAIN, I can't get chickenpox! Just accept it and stop charging me astronomical amounts of money to stab me in the interest of preventing a disease no one gives a crap about!). Oh, and my still-not-two-years-old mumps part of my MMR underachieved too. I hate my stupid antibodies. Except the Hep B ones; those RULE.
This is also relevant because (and fortunately by harassing the nurse I got this info), had I gotten the MMR and V vaccines *1st* as I initially intended, this would have negated the TB test for the next 4-6 weeks, which is definitely relevant since I NEED TO START CLINICALS THEN. Sigh.
Also fun is that one overpriced chickenpox vaccine isn't good enough; I need two, and they need to be 30 days apart, which starts to cut it close... which adds to the fun because no one wants to give a varicella vaccine to an adult, so even finding a place to overcharge you for it is a rare thing.
I got my TB test read today after spending 48 hours willing there to not be a mark. The one I got a month ago reacted so little, I finally just circled it because you couldn't see where the hole had been. This one got the proper wheal when it was inserted and then... freaking stayed red for a while, so I'm just going "if you false positive me and I have to then arrange a stupid chest x-ray on top of everything else, I am going to cut that section out of my arm."
It was impressed, and retreated. 0 mm! Suck it!
I've also been faxing the physical and first TB test, the receipt from the testing facility for the USMLE, completing my MPNs and all that other fun stuff that reminds me why I wanted to be a doctor and not jobs that involve mass quantities of paperwork. Oops, except doctors do. I also got to do the NY health requirement CE course, a newly introduced (after last term was up) cultural sensitivity class the school made up. This is particularly important because if you are SO thick that you can't become culturally sensitive after attending a medical school that has representatives from like 150 countries, that is actually located in another country, I'm sure a last minute online class administered in your USMLE study period will cement in the love-of-fellow-man. Oh, spoiler alert... if your patient has not-Western-medicine beliefs and you like, point at the patient and openly mock his culture, religion, and ways, that may harm patient communications, and could, potentially, get you sucker punched by a holy man. I hope that doesn't constitute giving away answers.
Feb 15, 2009
Happy belated Jason Voorhies Day
And no, haven't seen the remake yet.
I drove to Catawba yesterday to see my good friend Krash and get some much needed study materials. Sadly what would have turned out to be a nice lunch of Chinese food was turned on its head when I decided to unexpectedly get ill, a steady state which continues, so I'm going to be passively studying videos while lying on my bed feeling sorry for myself.
That state also carried over to dropping by Winston Salem to see my dad, whom I'd promised a nice dinner at Nawab's Indian cuisine. The thought of stuffing my fatigued, overdriven, congested body full of delicious curry; however, wasn't to be, so we headed to Wendy's so I could bring some nice safe chicken nuggets back to his place. But he did get to see my pretty artwork of the HIV virus, since I've taken to drawing stuff that's confused me since first term, so I have quite the notebook put together.
Then it was a drive home coupled with a massive crackdown, giant police wagon and lane shut down and full of police cards drunk check. Thank goodness I finally found my driver's license (in my wallet where it has been glued to the back of my insurance card, thus I didn't find it for six freaking months, figured I'd dropped it in Europe, and only found it when I was pulling out my insurance card to see if they'd cover my physical).
Then I got home and discovered my awesome boyfriend, despite being in Grenada, had arranged to have flowers and a card sent to me for J-VD, oh, okay, just VDay. I generally hate this Hallmark-contrived holiday (yes, and Thanksgiving; I'm a grinch), so why did the sight of flowers and a card make me go all croonie and cooey? What can I say? It was thoughtful; they're pretty, and I miss the guy like crazy. Sniff. Naturally being a complete emotional cripple, I sent him a facebook hockey mask for Friday the 13th...
I drove to Catawba yesterday to see my good friend Krash and get some much needed study materials. Sadly what would have turned out to be a nice lunch of Chinese food was turned on its head when I decided to unexpectedly get ill, a steady state which continues, so I'm going to be passively studying videos while lying on my bed feeling sorry for myself.
That state also carried over to dropping by Winston Salem to see my dad, whom I'd promised a nice dinner at Nawab's Indian cuisine. The thought of stuffing my fatigued, overdriven, congested body full of delicious curry; however, wasn't to be, so we headed to Wendy's so I could bring some nice safe chicken nuggets back to his place. But he did get to see my pretty artwork of the HIV virus, since I've taken to drawing stuff that's confused me since first term, so I have quite the notebook put together.
Then it was a drive home coupled with a massive crackdown, giant police wagon and lane shut down and full of police cards drunk check. Thank goodness I finally found my driver's license (in my wallet where it has been glued to the back of my insurance card, thus I didn't find it for six freaking months, figured I'd dropped it in Europe, and only found it when I was pulling out my insurance card to see if they'd cover my physical).
Then I got home and discovered my awesome boyfriend, despite being in Grenada, had arranged to have flowers and a card sent to me for J-VD, oh, okay, just VDay. I generally hate this Hallmark-contrived holiday (yes, and Thanksgiving; I'm a grinch), so why did the sight of flowers and a card make me go all croonie and cooey? What can I say? It was thoughtful; they're pretty, and I miss the guy like crazy. Sniff. Naturally being a complete emotional cripple, I sent him a facebook hockey mask for Friday the 13th...
Jan 7, 2009
A scary new year
But an exciting one.
Winding down to when I stop my shameless recreating, playstation 2ing, warcrafting, beading, and so forth, dive headfirst into a slew of books, notes, advice, mp3s, and videos, and cram like I've never crammed before.
Krash and I had a conversation about whether medical school can be crammed, and the answer is yes... kind of. Cramming, as she pointed out, starts earlier in medical school, so what was a 36 hour coffee-addled stress fest in college, in medical school, lasts two weeks. But does that mean it's not crammable? Ask most of the people who passed micro whether medical school is crammable. Sometimes. Kind of. If you plan it right.
So the USMLE kind of proves the ultimate cram session for terminal procrastinators like me. 7-9 weeks in which I must recapitulate the entirety of my basic sciences, and then be tested on them against a national scale, meaning if the school dropped the teaching ball on genetics one year, gotta fix it. If I decided biochem was way more important than embryology and as such, COMPLETELY blew off the later for the entirety of the final exam, counting on my anatomy to coast me through, now's the time to pay in blood by having to learn, pretty much for the first time, the entire formation of the human nervous system. Didn't read the antivirals in pharmacology because you didn't get to that packet in time, and it was only 5 questions on the second midterm in a curved class? Ha ha sucka, time to learn it now. Only the stakes are higher.
So how am I going to study... uhhh... videos, Goljan lectures, a mishmash of review books, particularly those from which I could not be separated during basic sciences (BRS physio and Lippincott biochem, I'm looking in your direction), and a possibly misguided dependence on the First Aid. Hopefully that'll work out since I decided that given my attendance history in lecture over basic sciences, signing up for a 4000 dollar class in the hopes I would resurrect as a completely different person and cheerfully skip off to 8 hours of high yield lecture beginning at the crack of Starbucks opening was a complete pipe dream.
Time will tell.
On the plus side, I'm in a quiet pretty town with some good walking areas, which will facilitate being jumpy by allowing me to listen to lectures on my ipod, I have my own room with a set up study center, and even my own printer! After two years in Grenada, I've come to view having my own printer like most people view getting their first car.
My room has a view of the river from one side, and city hall from the other, which is one of those old class small town brick models with colored lights on the clock tower. It's very nice.
And since it's America, it's also got a Walmart (fortunately NOT in view of my window) where I can buy more printer cartridges, paper, and chex mix at 11 PM. Or grab fast food at 3 AM. Awesome.
Sooo, my Dad's been here since right near Christmas, and surprisingly, has enjoyed watching me play God of War while taking out my frustrations for having it take 90 minutes for me to kill a hydra by having my avatar destroy inanimate objects. And yes, I'm immature.
I spent New Year's in Carolina Beach, since I refused to spend the evening glued to the Times Square feed again, and I'm hoping to be IN Times Square (for the first, and probably last, time) next year. Carolina Beach was a pretty cool time though. We watched the lighted beach ball drop from the ladder on a fire engine (small town), a surprisingly impressive display of fireworks over the pier, and best yet, found a honky tonk bar right near the water that even featured the requisite jukebox featuring a disproportionate ratio of Journey and old time Aerosmith. Don't ask. Oh, and I'll say it, to anyone who complains about Grenadian brews, Budweiser is still 10 times worse than Carib.
Drove dad back over to Winston Salem yesterday, stopping by Greensboro to retrieve some of my textbooks from Krash, who magnanimously took about 20 pounds of them into her luggage when I realized that my estimations of my bag weight was hideously optimistic. So I've been reunited with my Netters, and there was much rejoicing. It was also weird/cool to see someone from the Rock in the real world, since I still am carrying this sort of sadness about wondering which people from Grenada I'm going to get to ever see again.
Needed a Nawab's curry fix in Winston Salem. Holy crap, that stuff is good. I thought Grenada had ruined my taste for anything remotely resembling Indian food, but I was wrong. Now I have to spend the next three months not only studying, but getting rid of the results of my beer, meat, wine, ethnic food, fast food vaccum impression. Gods.
Good luck to all you other exam takers, and good luck to all you SGUers heading back soon!
Winding down to when I stop my shameless recreating, playstation 2ing, warcrafting, beading, and so forth, dive headfirst into a slew of books, notes, advice, mp3s, and videos, and cram like I've never crammed before.
Krash and I had a conversation about whether medical school can be crammed, and the answer is yes... kind of. Cramming, as she pointed out, starts earlier in medical school, so what was a 36 hour coffee-addled stress fest in college, in medical school, lasts two weeks. But does that mean it's not crammable? Ask most of the people who passed micro whether medical school is crammable. Sometimes. Kind of. If you plan it right.
So the USMLE kind of proves the ultimate cram session for terminal procrastinators like me. 7-9 weeks in which I must recapitulate the entirety of my basic sciences, and then be tested on them against a national scale, meaning if the school dropped the teaching ball on genetics one year, gotta fix it. If I decided biochem was way more important than embryology and as such, COMPLETELY blew off the later for the entirety of the final exam, counting on my anatomy to coast me through, now's the time to pay in blood by having to learn, pretty much for the first time, the entire formation of the human nervous system. Didn't read the antivirals in pharmacology because you didn't get to that packet in time, and it was only 5 questions on the second midterm in a curved class? Ha ha sucka, time to learn it now. Only the stakes are higher.
So how am I going to study... uhhh... videos, Goljan lectures, a mishmash of review books, particularly those from which I could not be separated during basic sciences (BRS physio and Lippincott biochem, I'm looking in your direction), and a possibly misguided dependence on the First Aid. Hopefully that'll work out since I decided that given my attendance history in lecture over basic sciences, signing up for a 4000 dollar class in the hopes I would resurrect as a completely different person and cheerfully skip off to 8 hours of high yield lecture beginning at the crack of Starbucks opening was a complete pipe dream.
Time will tell.
On the plus side, I'm in a quiet pretty town with some good walking areas, which will facilitate being jumpy by allowing me to listen to lectures on my ipod, I have my own room with a set up study center, and even my own printer! After two years in Grenada, I've come to view having my own printer like most people view getting their first car.
My room has a view of the river from one side, and city hall from the other, which is one of those old class small town brick models with colored lights on the clock tower. It's very nice.
And since it's America, it's also got a Walmart (fortunately NOT in view of my window) where I can buy more printer cartridges, paper, and chex mix at 11 PM. Or grab fast food at 3 AM. Awesome.
Sooo, my Dad's been here since right near Christmas, and surprisingly, has enjoyed watching me play God of War while taking out my frustrations for having it take 90 minutes for me to kill a hydra by having my avatar destroy inanimate objects. And yes, I'm immature.
I spent New Year's in Carolina Beach, since I refused to spend the evening glued to the Times Square feed again, and I'm hoping to be IN Times Square (for the first, and probably last, time) next year. Carolina Beach was a pretty cool time though. We watched the lighted beach ball drop from the ladder on a fire engine (small town), a surprisingly impressive display of fireworks over the pier, and best yet, found a honky tonk bar right near the water that even featured the requisite jukebox featuring a disproportionate ratio of Journey and old time Aerosmith. Don't ask. Oh, and I'll say it, to anyone who complains about Grenadian brews, Budweiser is still 10 times worse than Carib.
Drove dad back over to Winston Salem yesterday, stopping by Greensboro to retrieve some of my textbooks from Krash, who magnanimously took about 20 pounds of them into her luggage when I realized that my estimations of my bag weight was hideously optimistic. So I've been reunited with my Netters, and there was much rejoicing. It was also weird/cool to see someone from the Rock in the real world, since I still am carrying this sort of sadness about wondering which people from Grenada I'm going to get to ever see again.
Needed a Nawab's curry fix in Winston Salem. Holy crap, that stuff is good. I thought Grenada had ruined my taste for anything remotely resembling Indian food, but I was wrong. Now I have to spend the next three months not only studying, but getting rid of the results of my beer, meat, wine, ethnic food, fast food vaccum impression. Gods.
Good luck to all you other exam takers, and good luck to all you SGUers heading back soon!
Dec 30, 2008
Deep breath out
Ahhhh... so that's what a real vacation feels like. One with no looming return to island life, and you'd think that whole USMLE would be hanging more over me, since I still only have a vague idea of what I'm going to do for it, and I've ordered my books and bought my USMLE World subscription, but it's still too esoteric for me to grasp, so instead, I've been indulging in things like dog parades, House marathons, walks around town, making wire jewelry, playing guitar, shopping, stuffing myself with varietal goodies, downloading World of Warcraft, and waiting for the arrival of my Playstation 2. Vive indulgance. Or something.
Christmas has awarded me a Blackberry Storm and some other wonderful things, leaving my meager last minute desperate panic shopping attempts even more pathetic in comparison, but I've done with cellular communication something similar to what I did when I upgraded from a Sega Genesis to a Playstation 2 without any transitions. I have gone from my 5 year old bottom-of-the-line "only stays charged for 2 hours" flip phone which meshed nicely with my equally antiquated "can't even figure out how to lock the keys" Grenada cell phone to a phone capable of holding medical applications, pictures, music, and movies, web surfing, a camera, and countless other features I haven't even figured out yet.
Naturally, I've been using it to play Alleyway during commericials for House and South Park, but it's the PRINCIPLE. I'm such a gadget junkie.
Christmas has awarded me a Blackberry Storm and some other wonderful things, leaving my meager last minute desperate panic shopping attempts even more pathetic in comparison, but I've done with cellular communication something similar to what I did when I upgraded from a Sega Genesis to a Playstation 2 without any transitions. I have gone from my 5 year old bottom-of-the-line "only stays charged for 2 hours" flip phone which meshed nicely with my equally antiquated "can't even figure out how to lock the keys" Grenada cell phone to a phone capable of holding medical applications, pictures, music, and movies, web surfing, a camera, and countless other features I haven't even figured out yet.
Naturally, I've been using it to play Alleyway during commericials for House and South Park, but it's the PRINCIPLE. I'm such a gadget junkie.
Dec 25, 2008
That time of year
Merry Xmas or Winter Holiday of Choosing everyone!
Here in New Bern, it has gone from being "holy crap, I finally acclimatized to the Caribbean and now this" cold to being "holy crap, I didn't acclimatize enough to the Caribbean" warm, so I broke down and briefly turned on the AC.
I grabbed my tree today, and late in it (thank you, Walmart, and your willingness to torture your staff), so now the apartment proudly sports a fake tree made entirely out of green tinsel both because I didn't read the box carefully enough, and because the only other tree they had that didn't involve the words "fiber optic" or "red" in the title was 200 dollars. Nooooo.
Surprisingly, despite my initial scoff of disdain upon opening the box, it came out looking fairly decent, particularly once I covered it with ornaments. I thought I'd ended up with something that was on the sliding scale between "pastel glowing nativity" and "singing plastic fish".
So the presents are all carefully wrapped; the stockings are not exactly hung by a chimney nor with any care, since no chimney due to no fireplace due to fireplace being obsolete when it's 70 degrees.
Woot! Holidays! Double woot! No studying until January 5th-ish, at which point I delve back into my books to torture myself for the Step 1. Maybe Santa will bring me a smart kid to take it for me.
Here in New Bern, it has gone from being "holy crap, I finally acclimatized to the Caribbean and now this" cold to being "holy crap, I didn't acclimatize enough to the Caribbean" warm, so I broke down and briefly turned on the AC.
I grabbed my tree today, and late in it (thank you, Walmart, and your willingness to torture your staff), so now the apartment proudly sports a fake tree made entirely out of green tinsel both because I didn't read the box carefully enough, and because the only other tree they had that didn't involve the words "fiber optic" or "red" in the title was 200 dollars. Nooooo.
Surprisingly, despite my initial scoff of disdain upon opening the box, it came out looking fairly decent, particularly once I covered it with ornaments. I thought I'd ended up with something that was on the sliding scale between "pastel glowing nativity" and "singing plastic fish".
So the presents are all carefully wrapped; the stockings are not exactly hung by a chimney nor with any care, since no chimney due to no fireplace due to fireplace being obsolete when it's 70 degrees.
Woot! Holidays! Double woot! No studying until January 5th-ish, at which point I delve back into my books to torture myself for the Step 1. Maybe Santa will bring me a smart kid to take it for me.
Dec 20, 2008
That was an interesting two years
and now it's over. Whoa.
Merry Christmas! Hopefully I'll have gifts for some of you at some point because I pretty much came crashing back in from Grenada full handed and empty walleted. Flights were surprisingly good, though two hours late on the first and a half hour late on the second, but everyone affiliated with said flights was pleasant and neither delay compromised anything, I got my luggage, and they didn't destroy my guitar, so huzzah! Also, though the first flight from Grenada to Miami seemed to consist of a 50% ratio of young children and large dogs, I didn't hear screaming, barking or barking then screaming for the entire flight.
Also, that whole 737 from Grenada thing? Where has that been all my life (two years)? Trying to cram bags onto those tiny American Eagle puddle jumpers while getting sniped at for the size of your carry on luggage is not fun. But after having to deal with that, it made the coach class of a 737, lamented by most, seem positively roomy by comparison and I was saying "I can cross my legs? Is this first class? My backpack can fit in the overhead bin AS can the carry on luggage of the other two people on this side of the row? I didn't know such a thing existed anymore in the world of man!"
The flight attendants weren't even mean. What up?
So now I have officially arrived at my new home in New Bern, NC, having been to Old Bern (Olde Berne?) over the summer. So that's cool. It's a pretty little town with a pretty little bedroom with a pretty little desk-I'm-going-to-be-desperately-chained-to-for-3-months. Well, after January 1st. Until then, it's time for a meat and microbrewery bender running through Christmas. My dad arrives here tonight for Christmas, though unlike two years ago, going out to a curry house for Christmas dinner has been vetoed. I still thought the vindaloo was good.
Merry Christmas! Hopefully I'll have gifts for some of you at some point because I pretty much came crashing back in from Grenada full handed and empty walleted. Flights were surprisingly good, though two hours late on the first and a half hour late on the second, but everyone affiliated with said flights was pleasant and neither delay compromised anything, I got my luggage, and they didn't destroy my guitar, so huzzah! Also, though the first flight from Grenada to Miami seemed to consist of a 50% ratio of young children and large dogs, I didn't hear screaming, barking or barking then screaming for the entire flight.
Also, that whole 737 from Grenada thing? Where has that been all my life (two years)? Trying to cram bags onto those tiny American Eagle puddle jumpers while getting sniped at for the size of your carry on luggage is not fun. But after having to deal with that, it made the coach class of a 737, lamented by most, seem positively roomy by comparison and I was saying "I can cross my legs? Is this first class? My backpack can fit in the overhead bin AS can the carry on luggage of the other two people on this side of the row? I didn't know such a thing existed anymore in the world of man!"
The flight attendants weren't even mean. What up?
So now I have officially arrived at my new home in New Bern, NC, having been to Old Bern (Olde Berne?) over the summer. So that's cool. It's a pretty little town with a pretty little bedroom with a pretty little desk-I'm-going-to-be-desperately-chained-to-for-3-months. Well, after January 1st. Until then, it's time for a meat and microbrewery bender running through Christmas. My dad arrives here tonight for Christmas, though unlike two years ago, going out to a curry house for Christmas dinner has been vetoed. I still thought the vindaloo was good.
Aug 13, 2008
Dear SeaFrance
6 hours for a 1.5 hour crossing without apology. Well done!
Speaking of irritation, not only do we suddenly have mystery clickers with the school, but there's yet another mishap with my loans, which I found out today, so no money for Ishie until I fax something from a youth hostel! Woo hoo!!!
ONNN the other hand, Canterbury, and my current hostel, rocks. More later!
Speaking of irritation, not only do we suddenly have mystery clickers with the school, but there's yet another mishap with my loans, which I found out today, so no money for Ishie until I fax something from a youth hostel! Woo hoo!!!
ONNN the other hand, Canterbury, and my current hostel, rocks. More later!
Aug 9, 2008
I heart air conditioning
I'm in Dijon, France, at present, trying to deal with yet another keyboard change, which this time involves far more letters than just the "y" and "w", which are flipped in Hungary, Prague, and Germany.
I'm in a hotel tonight, since it was comparably priced to a hostel, and I HAVE A/C!!! The last few nights were so hot, surprisingly, especially in Basel, despite how far north it is. It's a beautiful thing, especially considering the necessity of preserving the Swiss chocolate I got in Zurich. MMMM good, and you pay for the privilage.
What I found of Switzerland is that despite their reputation for being one of the most expensive places you could ever go, they were far cheaper, as a rule, than Italy. Now, if you WANT to spend money, which, as a starving medical student, I don't, you can definitely find places to spend it, and lodging is expensive, but all in all, way fewer unexpected fees, ripoffs, and such, and a rail pass will let you go anywhere, rather than having certain cities fully unavailable unless you're willing to pay a fee.
Yesterday, we were in Bern and quickly saw the sites, including the bear pits, featuring an adorable ursine named Pedro, before heading to France. So far, almost everyone has been really nice, which was very pleasant, because the way France gets built up, I pretty well expected people to start yelling at me the minute I stepped off the train. Fortunately, not the case.
Also saw the kickoff to the Olympics, sans commercials, so that was kind of cool. I'd write more, but the hunt and peck method required for this keyboard is seriously affecting my stream of thought. So is, no doubt, the half bottle of local wine.
I'm in a hotel tonight, since it was comparably priced to a hostel, and I HAVE A/C!!! The last few nights were so hot, surprisingly, especially in Basel, despite how far north it is. It's a beautiful thing, especially considering the necessity of preserving the Swiss chocolate I got in Zurich. MMMM good, and you pay for the privilage.
What I found of Switzerland is that despite their reputation for being one of the most expensive places you could ever go, they were far cheaper, as a rule, than Italy. Now, if you WANT to spend money, which, as a starving medical student, I don't, you can definitely find places to spend it, and lodging is expensive, but all in all, way fewer unexpected fees, ripoffs, and such, and a rail pass will let you go anywhere, rather than having certain cities fully unavailable unless you're willing to pay a fee.
Yesterday, we were in Bern and quickly saw the sites, including the bear pits, featuring an adorable ursine named Pedro, before heading to France. So far, almost everyone has been really nice, which was very pleasant, because the way France gets built up, I pretty well expected people to start yelling at me the minute I stepped off the train. Fortunately, not the case.
Also saw the kickoff to the Olympics, sans commercials, so that was kind of cool. I'd write more, but the hunt and peck method required for this keyboard is seriously affecting my stream of thought. So is, no doubt, the half bottle of local wine.
Aug 7, 2008
Titlis ho!
Yeah, I wasn't going to make the requisite Mt. Titlis joke, but I'm only human, and an immature human at that, so deal with it.
I went to the Alps today! It's weird to type that. Got on the wrong train at first but transferred quickly so no real delay and headed to Engelberg, largely on the advice of a travel magazine we picked up for free in Basel, a town we'd only discovered because there were no hostels in Bern, so we booked the first night in Basel and the second night in Zurich.
Of course, once we got to Zurich, instead of seeing this famed and fabulous city, we immediately booked it into the mountains, though before heading to Zurich to drop off our stuff at the hostel, we did manage to see the Rathaus in Basel and cross the river on a ferry. The ride from Luzerne up to Engelberg and back was amazing: a three car red train through the Alps, punctuated by alpine streams, cows with big traditional bells around their necks, and all the other Heidi stuff. I kept feeling like none of it was real due to the sheer magnitude of the scenes, all with mountains jutting up sheer around it. We walked around, saw the base of Titlis, though no time to take the cable car to the top, and then on the way back, got a thunder and lightning show at dark as the train regularly whistled through the towns. Surreal.
Dijon tomorrow, and we've booked our hostel in London on the 14th, so the only question is what to do between Dijon and London. These are the difficult sorts of decisions that consume us in life... that and "how am I going to pass my 5/6th term classes while being a week late getting back?"
I went to the Alps today! It's weird to type that. Got on the wrong train at first but transferred quickly so no real delay and headed to Engelberg, largely on the advice of a travel magazine we picked up for free in Basel, a town we'd only discovered because there were no hostels in Bern, so we booked the first night in Basel and the second night in Zurich.
Of course, once we got to Zurich, instead of seeing this famed and fabulous city, we immediately booked it into the mountains, though before heading to Zurich to drop off our stuff at the hostel, we did manage to see the Rathaus in Basel and cross the river on a ferry. The ride from Luzerne up to Engelberg and back was amazing: a three car red train through the Alps, punctuated by alpine streams, cows with big traditional bells around their necks, and all the other Heidi stuff. I kept feeling like none of it was real due to the sheer magnitude of the scenes, all with mountains jutting up sheer around it. We walked around, saw the base of Titlis, though no time to take the cable car to the top, and then on the way back, got a thunder and lightning show at dark as the train regularly whistled through the towns. Surreal.
Dijon tomorrow, and we've booked our hostel in London on the 14th, so the only question is what to do between Dijon and London. These are the difficult sorts of decisions that consume us in life... that and "how am I going to pass my 5/6th term classes while being a week late getting back?"
Aug 6, 2008
Completion Bonus
Woo hoo! Got through all five villages and just as the sun was setting with some village eating, sightseeing, and of course, a mandatory dip in the Mediterranean.
Cinque Terre is amazing, as mentioned previously, and I'd never heard of it before Lori told me just how amazing it is, and it still is difficult to be believed until you're here. It's the sort of Italy I've always thought about, the people are wonderful, and the scenery is endlessly breathtaking. I'm really sorry to leave.
We're catching a train to Basel today, which is on a three country border. Our initial goal was Bern, but we couldn't book a hostel, nor could we find one in Zurich until tomorrow night, so fortunately, Switzerland is small enough to train around it, because I needs me some COLD. Italy is great, but predictably hot, and I am by nature, a cold weather creature.
In other news, my apartment is flooded but at least they let me know, so I'm just crossing my fingers that everything's okay, but in the interim, wooooo Switzerland!
Cinque Terre is amazing, as mentioned previously, and I'd never heard of it before Lori told me just how amazing it is, and it still is difficult to be believed until you're here. It's the sort of Italy I've always thought about, the people are wonderful, and the scenery is endlessly breathtaking. I'm really sorry to leave.
We're catching a train to Basel today, which is on a three country border. Our initial goal was Bern, but we couldn't book a hostel, nor could we find one in Zurich until tomorrow night, so fortunately, Switzerland is small enough to train around it, because I needs me some COLD. Italy is great, but predictably hot, and I am by nature, a cold weather creature.
In other news, my apartment is flooded but at least they let me know, so I'm just crossing my fingers that everything's okay, but in the interim, wooooo Switzerland!
Aug 5, 2008
Italia!
Sorry for no updates, but having to pay for every minute of sporadic internet access is taxing to the blog!
So I've now been to Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Venice, Verona, Bologna, and Cinque Terre. Whew! And by way of too many cities to name!
Italy... Italy... Italy... Cinque Terre is probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen and has people that are amazing, food that's fantastic, and views to die for. I am full of gratitude to Lori and Grace for cluing me into this place, because I'd never heard of it prior.
Venice... uh... very pretty canals. The square is amazing... the fact that my friend got screamed at for sitting in front of some guy's plants in a public square, smacked by a woman for being in her way, and so forth shouldn't influence my views of Venice, nor should the billion tourists stands separated only by ridiculously overpriced food, but it totally does.
So despite staying in Venice (Mestre, where the people are marginally nicer) for three days, we only spent one of those days in actual Venice, and spent the other two booking it to friendlier locals. Though our hostel/campground was absolutely amazing, which is why we used it as a homebase.
We found a guy to show us around Verona because he noticed we were wandering around lost. Nice guy from Ghana, showed us all the main sites and then got us safely back to the train station, while the entire time refusing any form of compensation for his efforts. Thank you, Derek, we love you!
So off to the 5 hour hike!
So I've now been to Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Venice, Verona, Bologna, and Cinque Terre. Whew! And by way of too many cities to name!
Italy... Italy... Italy... Cinque Terre is probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen and has people that are amazing, food that's fantastic, and views to die for. I am full of gratitude to Lori and Grace for cluing me into this place, because I'd never heard of it prior.
Venice... uh... very pretty canals. The square is amazing... the fact that my friend got screamed at for sitting in front of some guy's plants in a public square, smacked by a woman for being in her way, and so forth shouldn't influence my views of Venice, nor should the billion tourists stands separated only by ridiculously overpriced food, but it totally does.
So despite staying in Venice (Mestre, where the people are marginally nicer) for three days, we only spent one of those days in actual Venice, and spent the other two booking it to friendlier locals. Though our hostel/campground was absolutely amazing, which is why we used it as a homebase.
We found a guy to show us around Verona because he noticed we were wandering around lost. Nice guy from Ghana, showed us all the main sites and then got us safely back to the train station, while the entire time refusing any form of compensation for his efforts. Thank you, Derek, we love you!
So off to the 5 hour hike!
Jul 29, 2008
Hallo from Hungary
And having left Kate's keyboard behind in Prague, I'm back to mixing my z's and y's and typing extremely slowly. It's like being a kid again learning to type.
Yesterday was my last day in Prague, so na shledanou to the Czech Republic and děkuji for your hospitality. We checked out the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul, the St Vitus cathedral, and the tower of the Charles Bridge before racing back to pack up a month's worth of clothes from every corner of the apartment. I also got to experience the Czech postal service in Wenceslas Square, and I'm really hoping my doctor clothes make it to Grenada, because the clerk had no idea where it was even after a drawn map as well as a Pirates of the Caribbean reference, since that worked during my neurosurgery rotation... "Caribbean? Jack Sparrow, yes?" Apparently Johnny Depp is pancultural.
So I got to ride my first night train (insert music) and ride in a couchette, which is like people-storage. But with sleeping pills, a night shade, and earplugs, it's no problem. The number of stars is quite incredible. Unfortunately, when we booked the tickets, our brilliant ticket agent booked our tickets on the 9:53 train and our couchette on the midnight train... not really sure how that was supposed to work, and despite checking our tickets when we boarded, the conductor rousted us at 5 in the morning to charge us 40 euros for being "on the wrong train". So that was fun.
Now, I'm waiting to check into my hostel in Budapest and then go sightseeing. Hard to imagine how fast everything's going. But train is now officially my favorite way to travel. Cramped or not.
Yesterday was my last day in Prague, so na shledanou to the Czech Republic and děkuji for your hospitality. We checked out the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul, the St Vitus cathedral, and the tower of the Charles Bridge before racing back to pack up a month's worth of clothes from every corner of the apartment. I also got to experience the Czech postal service in Wenceslas Square, and I'm really hoping my doctor clothes make it to Grenada, because the clerk had no idea where it was even after a drawn map as well as a Pirates of the Caribbean reference, since that worked during my neurosurgery rotation... "Caribbean? Jack Sparrow, yes?" Apparently Johnny Depp is pancultural.
So I got to ride my first night train (insert music) and ride in a couchette, which is like people-storage. But with sleeping pills, a night shade, and earplugs, it's no problem. The number of stars is quite incredible. Unfortunately, when we booked the tickets, our brilliant ticket agent booked our tickets on the 9:53 train and our couchette on the midnight train... not really sure how that was supposed to work, and despite checking our tickets when we boarded, the conductor rousted us at 5 in the morning to charge us 40 euros for being "on the wrong train". So that was fun.
Now, I'm waiting to check into my hostel in Budapest and then go sightseeing. Hard to imagine how fast everything's going. But train is now officially my favorite way to travel. Cramped or not.
Jul 27, 2008
Deck of picture cards
I have two cameras, and I'm using up enough space on their respective cards, of which I have multiple, that I'm going to end up with a sufficient deck of them to play blackjack.
Kutna Hora was awesome. The bone church is incredible, particularly the chandelier and the coat of arms, but the entire experience is pretty breathtaking, though the location is small. The smell is odd... very stale, very cryptlike, yet as Slappy pointed out (yes, she's here now!), then you see children skipping and singing through the smell and the sight, which creates a pretty cool juxtaposition. I thought about having a series of photographs on "Children in odd places in the Czech Republic", featuring all the kids playing in the Piss sculpture, the toddler on his dad's shoulders in the sex museum, and now kids singing in the bone church.
The town itself is beautiful too, with churches rising up, though by the time we did the full walk in, St. Barbara's cathedral was closed to inside tours, but the outside is breathtaking, and per usual, I took a ton of pictures.
The train ride back was really peaceful, and I tried to learn to be functional at braiding my own hair. Between this and actually regularly wearing make up this trip, this is the most girly I've been since I dressed up when I was 6.
It's been a whole interesting experience though, though I am becoming wary of Wenceslas Square. On my language lessons, I thought it was weird that the tutor took two places at seemingly random, namely Vodichcova ulitse and Voclavske Namesti (sp?) otherwise known as Wenceslas Square, and kept using including them in phrases.
So I tried to go out to a club there with some friends on Friday... first, the club was 200 crown cover to play what seemed like flashy boring house music, so I passed, though that was the reason we'd gone out. Then we ended up with a homeless guy threatening us with, of all things, his cane. "Polizie" and reaching for my cell phone made him eventually go away. Then, after all this, ended up with a guy acting pretty inappropriately to one member of our party, necessitating a call to the police. As another friend asked me where we were, I looked up at the bus station and realized we were, of all places, at the Voclavske Namesti stop, just like in the language tutorial, so apparently, knowing the phrase is useful. It also necessitating to translate the entire incident through a fourth party into German at the police station (And to think I promised myself to stay out of them abroad). Gods. So fun night, eh?
So not dissuaded by all of this, we'd found a cool sculpture that somewhat mirrors the main horse sculpture in the center courtyard that features a man sitting astride a dead upside horse and went back yesterday to take a picture of it (none of us had a camera at the time), only to find it surrounded by firefighters, news media and so forth, because apparently part of the building had caught on fire.
I think I'm sticking to the Charles Bridge. Though I won't have to, because we've got a night train to Budapest tomorrow night.
Last night (what, you want this in order?), we toured around Vyserad (sp? Again), which is a really nice place, and allegedly the site where Prague was founded, and at least the two times I've been there, isn't half as packed as many of the other popular sites, yet has a wonderful church, great views, nice courtyards with statues, so it was really peaceful. The night was topped off by a trip to U Sadlu, an excellent, if pretty darn expensive medieval restaurant. Huge portions though, so we offset some of the cost by eating leftovers throughout our day in Kutna Hora.
So disjointed, yes, but it's an update!
Kutna Hora was awesome. The bone church is incredible, particularly the chandelier and the coat of arms, but the entire experience is pretty breathtaking, though the location is small. The smell is odd... very stale, very cryptlike, yet as Slappy pointed out (yes, she's here now!), then you see children skipping and singing through the smell and the sight, which creates a pretty cool juxtaposition. I thought about having a series of photographs on "Children in odd places in the Czech Republic", featuring all the kids playing in the Piss sculpture, the toddler on his dad's shoulders in the sex museum, and now kids singing in the bone church.
The town itself is beautiful too, with churches rising up, though by the time we did the full walk in, St. Barbara's cathedral was closed to inside tours, but the outside is breathtaking, and per usual, I took a ton of pictures.
The train ride back was really peaceful, and I tried to learn to be functional at braiding my own hair. Between this and actually regularly wearing make up this trip, this is the most girly I've been since I dressed up when I was 6.
It's been a whole interesting experience though, though I am becoming wary of Wenceslas Square. On my language lessons, I thought it was weird that the tutor took two places at seemingly random, namely Vodichcova ulitse and Voclavske Namesti (sp?) otherwise known as Wenceslas Square, and kept using including them in phrases.
So I tried to go out to a club there with some friends on Friday... first, the club was 200 crown cover to play what seemed like flashy boring house music, so I passed, though that was the reason we'd gone out. Then we ended up with a homeless guy threatening us with, of all things, his cane. "Polizie" and reaching for my cell phone made him eventually go away. Then, after all this, ended up with a guy acting pretty inappropriately to one member of our party, necessitating a call to the police. As another friend asked me where we were, I looked up at the bus station and realized we were, of all places, at the Voclavske Namesti stop, just like in the language tutorial, so apparently, knowing the phrase is useful. It also necessitating to translate the entire incident through a fourth party into German at the police station (And to think I promised myself to stay out of them abroad). Gods. So fun night, eh?
So not dissuaded by all of this, we'd found a cool sculpture that somewhat mirrors the main horse sculpture in the center courtyard that features a man sitting astride a dead upside horse and went back yesterday to take a picture of it (none of us had a camera at the time), only to find it surrounded by firefighters, news media and so forth, because apparently part of the building had caught on fire.
I think I'm sticking to the Charles Bridge. Though I won't have to, because we've got a night train to Budapest tomorrow night.
Last night (what, you want this in order?), we toured around Vyserad (sp? Again), which is a really nice place, and allegedly the site where Prague was founded, and at least the two times I've been there, isn't half as packed as many of the other popular sites, yet has a wonderful church, great views, nice courtyards with statues, so it was really peaceful. The night was topped off by a trip to U Sadlu, an excellent, if pretty darn expensive medieval restaurant. Huge portions though, so we offset some of the cost by eating leftovers throughout our day in Kutna Hora.
So disjointed, yes, but it's an update!
Jul 26, 2008
Going to Kutna Hora!
So many going-tos; so little sleep.
Selective has come to an end, and I can barely believe it, since it seems like just yesterday I was looking at the outside of my apartment going "uh oh", and now, I'm heading off to Kutna Hora (site of the bone church, to put those anatomy skills to use) before a last day in Prague and a night on a train to Budapest.
Synopsis on the selective... very very cool, but a little organization could be in order as far as who gets what rotations (I got pretty lucky), organizing the final exam, informing hospitals and so forth, but I still got to see a lot of the differences between American and Czech medical care plus some general practice stuff on medical care.
For now, bedtime though. Late night at U Sadlu!
Selective has come to an end, and I can barely believe it, since it seems like just yesterday I was looking at the outside of my apartment going "uh oh", and now, I'm heading off to Kutna Hora (site of the bone church, to put those anatomy skills to use) before a last day in Prague and a night on a train to Budapest.
Synopsis on the selective... very very cool, but a little organization could be in order as far as who gets what rotations (I got pretty lucky), organizing the final exam, informing hospitals and so forth, but I still got to see a lot of the differences between American and Czech medical care plus some general practice stuff on medical care.
For now, bedtime though. Late night at U Sadlu!
Jul 23, 2008
Zebras are reactionary
Speaking of Simon and Garfunkel, "The Boxer" came on in the dermato OR right after a Czech pop song. Weird.
So, yesterday was the Praha Zoo, known as the 6-7th best zoo in the world, and since I never grew out of my little girl love of animals, I had to go.
Very nice, and notably, the whole time we were there, no one popped out of an unseen location and yelled at us in Czech, which doesn't seem like it would be unusual, but I can say there's been a fair part of my European experience that I described as "having someone pop out and yell at me in another language until I wander off". Or in Grace's case, until she produces money to get them to go away.
I went right after my selective, in which we saw a bunch of venous insufficiency ulcers and some contact dermatitis, burned out to the zoo after, in time to experience Prague's extremely temperamental weather. Dress in layers. Bring sunglasses and an umbrella. I needed my whole collection. Joined up with Grace and Neeta once their afternoon session had ended, and we promptly got to work awww'ing at the cute baby animals, snickering at the defecating and fornicating animals, and climbing on the metal statues to take pictures.
Realizing that the zoo was about to close, and we still hadn't seen Africa, we decided to wait around to see what would happen and see as much as we could. My experience in Czech, to date, has taught me that if you linger anywhere up to 10 minutes before closing, you will be chased out physically by security guards, and occasionally have people threaten to call the police if you attempt to inform anyone you have ten minutes left (Grr, I'm looking in your direction).
Not at the zoo.. we just wandered around as it got emptier and eerier, which was a time where we were near the wolves and hyenas, at which point, the zoo saw fit to post "caution: dangerous animals" signs around in English (neglected near the tigers) which increased the creepy. So finally, an hour and a half after closing, we wandered toward the exit, feeling decidedly like we'd gotten away with something, so that was nice.
Grabbed a train station potato pancake that inexplicably had a piece of chicken inside of it, and headed out to the Agharta Jazz Club, which is a very cool, if sort of expensive little place near the old town square. They were playing freeform jazz last night, which is definitely not my favorite, but the whole brick cellar experience was worth it and proved a drastic improvement over the previous night's venture which landed us in the middle of the projects in a club that had been shut down and replaced by a biker bar where as we walked in, not only did a bunch of scary men pull heads up from bar and stare us down, but one of them had a knife strapped to his belt. Eeeeeeeeeeeek. So we proudly sat down in a booth, pushed ourselves to the far back of it, and watched everyone eyeball us as I sucked down a beer as fast as my liver would allow, dropped the money out with a decent tip to the surly bartender in exchange for not having her colleagues beat me to death, and got the hell out of there as fast as possible.
On the plus side, we got to see the crawling baby sculptures on the TV tower at night, back lit by red light, which is creepier than I can even begin to describe. Good times!
Today, meeting the minister of health. Last week, meeting the ambassador of the US to Czech. Tomorrow, meeting my friend Slappy. Three guesses which one I'm most excited about?
So, yesterday was the Praha Zoo, known as the 6-7th best zoo in the world, and since I never grew out of my little girl love of animals, I had to go.
Very nice, and notably, the whole time we were there, no one popped out of an unseen location and yelled at us in Czech, which doesn't seem like it would be unusual, but I can say there's been a fair part of my European experience that I described as "having someone pop out and yell at me in another language until I wander off". Or in Grace's case, until she produces money to get them to go away.
I went right after my selective, in which we saw a bunch of venous insufficiency ulcers and some contact dermatitis, burned out to the zoo after, in time to experience Prague's extremely temperamental weather. Dress in layers. Bring sunglasses and an umbrella. I needed my whole collection. Joined up with Grace and Neeta once their afternoon session had ended, and we promptly got to work awww'ing at the cute baby animals, snickering at the defecating and fornicating animals, and climbing on the metal statues to take pictures.
Realizing that the zoo was about to close, and we still hadn't seen Africa, we decided to wait around to see what would happen and see as much as we could. My experience in Czech, to date, has taught me that if you linger anywhere up to 10 minutes before closing, you will be chased out physically by security guards, and occasionally have people threaten to call the police if you attempt to inform anyone you have ten minutes left (Grr, I'm looking in your direction).
Not at the zoo.. we just wandered around as it got emptier and eerier, which was a time where we were near the wolves and hyenas, at which point, the zoo saw fit to post "caution: dangerous animals" signs around in English (neglected near the tigers) which increased the creepy. So finally, an hour and a half after closing, we wandered toward the exit, feeling decidedly like we'd gotten away with something, so that was nice.
Grabbed a train station potato pancake that inexplicably had a piece of chicken inside of it, and headed out to the Agharta Jazz Club, which is a very cool, if sort of expensive little place near the old town square. They were playing freeform jazz last night, which is definitely not my favorite, but the whole brick cellar experience was worth it and proved a drastic improvement over the previous night's venture which landed us in the middle of the projects in a club that had been shut down and replaced by a biker bar where as we walked in, not only did a bunch of scary men pull heads up from bar and stare us down, but one of them had a knife strapped to his belt. Eeeeeeeeeeeek. So we proudly sat down in a booth, pushed ourselves to the far back of it, and watched everyone eyeball us as I sucked down a beer as fast as my liver would allow, dropped the money out with a decent tip to the surly bartender in exchange for not having her colleagues beat me to death, and got the hell out of there as fast as possible.
On the plus side, we got to see the crawling baby sculptures on the TV tower at night, back lit by red light, which is creepier than I can even begin to describe. Good times!
Today, meeting the minister of health. Last week, meeting the ambassador of the US to Czech. Tomorrow, meeting my friend Slappy. Three guesses which one I'm most excited about?
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