The Big "5"?

Congratulations to the American University of Antigua for finally getting California approval! AUA is the 5th Caribbean med school that now has approval of all 50 U.S. states. The other 4 being of course, AUC, St. George's, Ross, and Saba. Please note that AUA and Saba still do not have federal loans.

The campus is beautiful, to see it click here.

Incoming students looking for housing, help my friend out and check this listing

Two Bedroom Apartment at Lagoon View -- AVAILABLE

Two minute walk from AUC. Lagoon View is one of the closest buildings to campus. The building has a generator. This apartment is perfect for two people. There is a washer in the unit and the dryer is shared with residents on the same floor. This is perfect housing for students. The unit is equipped with a full kitchen, a glass dining room table, living room furniture, and two refrigerators. Each roommate can store their own food in their own fridges in the kitchen. Both bedrooms have their own bathrooms.

Each bedroom has a desk, bed, and full closet.

The price is $1200 per person.

If you are interested, please contact: tenphanthok@aucmed.edu

Looking for Off Campus Housing?

AUC updates the following link every couple of months. Last update was June 27th

http://www.aucmed.edu/pdf/Current-Housing-Availability.pdf

Birds eye view of all the residences available to AUC students. I'm over at Cupecoy Beach Club in the top left corner.

Also a great place to live and not shown in this picture is Porto Cupecoy!! A lot of my classmates are living there/in the process of moving there now. It's a 3 minutes drive from AUC (yes, you need a car or at least a bike to comfortably go back and forth). Get one or two other roommates and you can live there for $1100-$1200 a month. 

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• The Annoyance of searching for off campus housing culminating in pure joy for finding one kick-ass apartment (medschoolcaribstyle.com)
• Cupecoy Beach Club (medschoolcaribstyle.com)

The Atlantis World Casino

The Atlantis World Casino is a place you'll probably spend a decent amount of time in as an AUC student. It's the closest attraction to the school; only a one minute walk from the main building. On weekends students will come here to gamble or watch some of their sports teams, and during the week, most people come for some food or drinks at the local restaurants. The two most popular restaurants are Sugar Cane for standard blah-American fare and Thai Savanh which serves up an Americanized form of Thai.

The Italian place called Bella Napoli should be more popular I think. I've never had anything there except for the pizza, but damn is that pizza good. It's thin-crust, wood-grilled and sooooo much better than Pizza Dan's, but I get the feeling that nobody at AUC really knows about Bella Napoli. It's on the side of the casino facing the main road and no one is ever there. The pricing of the pizza may be part of problem, however. I think last time I spent $16 for a pie that I devoured in 5 minutes. If I was that owner, I'd definitely cater to the AUC students with some student discounts.  That's where I'm getting my dinner from tonight, maybe I'll pass on my thoughts if I see him. (EDIT: Just got my pizza and there is an AUC discount! $3 off if you are a student.... I still paid $15 though.)

For the best Italian food in the Caribbean, you should definitely try out La Gondola for a special occasion or anything really because it is that good. Before my parents arrived to the island, my mom does this thing where she likes researching for all the best restaurants for one of our trips and then compiles it all into a list. So for the two weeks they were here, we went out to every lunch and dinner spot she had on her list. La Gondola was definitely the family favorite. We even went back a second time the night before my parents left. I haven't been able to get over that fact that I have lived 10 seconds across the street from La Gondola all these months and I only discovered last week that it's probably the best restaurant on the island. Sure we went to the French side to Marigot and Grand Case, but I was not excited about my food over there. I can't help but feel most of those restaurants are riding on the curtails of former glory and they charge an arm and leg because they are all Frenchy and they can. They are located in prime, tourist trap location, and the owners/chefs just grow complacent, I guess. Or maybe it's just because it's the off season? Either way, not worth the money, which by the way is in Euros.  

There is one exception actually. My second favorite restaurant on my foodie adventure was La Villa in Grand Case. The food was delicious, the place was beautiful, the service attentive, anddddd if you pay in cash, 1 Dollar= 1 Euro! They have this amazing deal where you can order any appetizer, entree, and dessert from the menu for $49.  Seeing how most of the other restaurants in Grand Case have a $49 price tag for one entree, this 3-course meal is actually pretty fair. My family and I loved all our food. We even ended up getting free champagne. When the waitress was serving us our drinks, my dad took a picture with his ridiculously huge camera and intense flash and blinded our waitress who then dropped a glass of champagne on my brother's girlfriend. Nice.  La Villa is rated number one in Grand Case on Trip Advisor. If you guys want to see what other people say about it, click here.

Intro to Clinical Medicine: Auscultation Sites of the Heart

Check out my sweet name tag

My free afternoons have been taken from me! But unlike Biostats and anatomy lab, I actually enjoy the two hours spent in ICM 2(Intro to Clinical Medicine) each day. We started class last week, but from this point on, all AUC students have to take ICM 3, 4, 5, and 6 for the duration of Basic Sciences on the island. The purpose of the course is to prepare students for the clinical years of medical school where we will be expected to know how to properly record a medical and family history and perform a full physical exam on a patient.

ICM 2 includes both lecture and small groups. The lectures were a bit boring since they mainly covered professionalism, communication skills, and cultural competency, but luckily we finished all the lectures last Thursday. From Monday to Thursday for the next two weeks,  my classmates and I will be meeting in our "small groups". Each group is headed by one doctor and is comprised of 12 or so students. We spend the first hour of class practicing our interview skills on some "patients." These patients are pretty much always spouses from the Spouse Organization on campus. They get paid to learn a few characters and act them out for each student. It's somewhat awkward trying to interact with a "patient" when everyone in the room is just watching you and analyzing everything you do wrong. It's all just a little too contrived for me and I just feel like I'm a terrible, terrible actor struggling to remember my lines and cues.  Nothing is coming naturally during my interviews. Not my introductions, not when I ask questions, not even when I smile. In real life, I like to think I'm not socially inept and that I actually interact pretty well with patients in an office/hospital setting, but this is ICM world. I need to get over my stage fright sometime.

The second hour of ICM is spent learning how to conduct the various exams for the eyes, head, neck, etc  and how to use some of our medical instruments like the stethoscope, ophthalmoscope, and sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff/pump).  We did some blood pressure work yesterday and learned how to do an eye exam today, but I'm going to quickly go back to last week where we learned where and how to listen for the heart. We went to Harvey lab and all students were given a wireless stethoscope linked to the lecturer's stethoscope. Wherever he put his diaphragm/bell on the fake, large, rubbery body that is Harvey, we could also here the heart beat our ear pieces.  The following diagram quickly summarizes the main points for heart auscultation. Click on the diagram to enlarge.

note: "ICS" stands for intercostal space
Systole/Diastole= Lub/Dub= Ventricular Contraction/Ventricular Relaxation

Physiological Heart Sounds:
S1= Closure of AV valves (Tricuspid and Mitral)
S2= Closure of Semilunar valves (Aortic and Pulmonary)
S3= Filling of Ventricle (normal in young people and the physically fit)

Pathological Heart Sounds:
S3= Filling of Ventricle (abnormal in people over 40 years of age)
S4= "Atrial Kick" during diastole (if heard, always pathological)

I'm already tired of writing. I'll probably do a couple more posts on ICM at a later date. 

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• ICM Physical Examination Equipment (caribbeanmedstudent.com)

AUC Graduation Rate 2011

Just got some new stats today.
I believe the attrition rate still stands at 13%
-Of the 239 students who graduated this past June, 65.3% (n=158) graduated on time.
-82% secured PGY1 Residency Programs
-Median Loan Debt incurred: $252,560

Approximately 70% of AUC graduates get Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, OB/GYN, or Pediatrics

Just Said Bye to My Family

This is what we do for entertainment

My parents and brother spent the last two weeks here in St. Maarten and my brother's girlfriend also arrived a later and spent this past week with us too. Although I love my family and all the great perks they provide (taking me out to nice fancy dinners and buying me groceries), I'm happy that they are heading home today. Sorry MOM and DAD, love you guys, but I need to study!! Despite that fact I haven't done anything whatsoever after class the last two weeks, I'm not that far behind. I've managed to stay productive in class with my notes and flashcards so I'll be spending the rest of the day catching up on the last couple lectures in Immunology and MCB. Hopefully I can start reviewing everything by tonight and spend tomorrow committing all this to memory.

My parent's didn't stay with me in my apartment. My landlady probably would have charged me like $200 a night if I wanted to keep them here (I'm being serious, she's a greedy woman) so my parents ended up renting a beautiful Villa instead. The place is called "Fields of Ambrosia" and is 5 minutes from my apartment next to Porto Cupecoy.  Here are some photos of the Villa.

If you or any family members are traveling to St. Maarten, renting a villa is the way to go. If you have any interest in "Fields of Ambrosia" or other St. Maarten villas, you can check them out at this site.

Thoughts and Prayers to the People of Norway

The problem with being on a tiny little island for med school is that everyone is pretty much living under a rock. They have no idea of what's happening in the United States and even less with what's going on in the rest of the world. I just wanted to take the time and clue some people into the happenings of Norway today. A CHRISTIAN fundamentalist (everyone yesterday just loved jumping on the Muslim terrorist train) was responsible for the bombing and shooting spree at a children's camp where he left over 90 people dead. The suspect is in custody and police are still determining if there was another person involved.

My condolences go out to the children, family members and the people of Norway for this senseless act of violence.

If you want an article visit any major news organization on the web.
For starters you can click here.

Thank You, Readers!

A little over a year ago, I wrote my first post and wasn't sure if I was ever going to write again. To be honest, I'm very surprised I kept up with this blog as long as I have.... but actually, the more I think about it the more I realize I shouldn't be. Just the fact I had a few of you coming back every so often was enough for me to keep writing. You see, I have this odd, but very characteristic propensity of never wanting to let anyone down. I like to be dependable, someone that others can count on and somewhere along the way I've convinced myself that if I stopped posting cold-turkey, at least a couple of you would be disappointed. Maybe this isn't the case at all, but the thought is already firmly planted in my head. This is what keeps me posting.

I just wanted to thank you guys for coming to visit me here everyday. I've been hitting well over 200 pageviews a day the last couple of weeks and my lifetime visits just passed the 30,000 mark. Also and somewhat of an anticlimactic moment, I wrote my 100th blogpost on Monday. For number 101, just wanted to say thank you to my readers.

Thank you!!!

To the Incoming Sept 2011 Class, it's Official....

Just had an SJC meeting and we have decided that the September 2011 incoming class will be reading "Short White Coat" by James Feinstein. For those of you coming in late August, you will be receiving an email shortly about the book. It may seem annoying to have to read something before getting here, but it should be an enjoyable read and it will really give you a good picture of what to expect during clinicals in the 3rd and 4th year of medical school.

Since we are on an island, we never do get to see the 3rd and 4th year medical schools at AUC (because they are in the United States) and consequently we have no exposure or even a real idea of what the second half of medical school is like.  I'm finishing up my second semester now and I still don't have a clue of what to expect after my Step 1 exams. I'll also be reading this book during the break. Most likely on the flight back home to Boston.

Two posts in one day?!?!?! This is definitely a first and likely to never happen again. haha So enjoy!

Semester 2: Block III Results (finally)

MCB II-
Average: 81.67%
Me: 86%

Physio I-
Average: 81.69%
Me: 86%

Immunology
Average-79%
Me: 78%  [side note: this marks the first time I wasn't above average this semester... sad face]

As I said earlier, grades weren't too great this block, but they still didn't hurt me enough to prevent me from making Dean's List. I need an 87% average of all my classes of the semester to make it (the three above plus Biostats which I already got an A in) and I'm sitting right there on the cusp. It's right there for the taking and it's just a matter of whether I seize this opportunity or not. In order to capitalize on my situation, I need to refocus and strengthen my commitment to actually studying/memorizing material in the evenings after all my notes are written up. I know I said I would do it last block, but I never did. It wasn't until the weekend just before exams that I started memorizing my notes. And since I had such a ridiculous amount for MCB in particular, my whole weekend was pretty miserable with minimal sleep and maximal stress.

 I also need to start taking full advantage of the weekends that are left. Aside from this coming Friday (where I plan on celebrating my friend's birthday in a big way), I don't anticipate doing any sort of partying for the remainder of the semester. Somehow I'm going to have to trick myself into thinking it's block weekend and go all out studying. We'll see. I hope this turns out like I wrote it.

Four more weeks. Four more weeks.

Until next time,
Andrea

Related articles

• Semester 2: Block II Results (medschoolcaribstyle.com)
• Semester 2: Block I Results and Revisiting the Idea that AUC is the Best Medical School in the Caribbean (medschoolcaribstyle.com)

Getting Involved

The Phi Chi January 2011 Pledges

I don't sit alone in a study hall and read slides all day and everyday. Believe it or not, I actually do some other things at AUC that do not include schoolwork.  There are plenty of clubs and organizations at school and it's just a shame for someone not to be a part of at least one of them. If you want a full list, Benji does a pretty good job summing up all the clubs here!

During my first semester I joined 3 organizations: the Latin Medical Student Association (LMSA), the Van Wormer Student Judiciary Committee (SJC), and the one that's taken precedent over the others-- Phi Chi.

For LMSA, I took Salsa classes every Wednesday night first semester. I would have continued the advanced course this semester but since I was so busy for the first month of school, I missed a bunch of classes. LMSA also holds a number of Spanish workshops throughout the semester teaching students certain medical terms in Spanish that would help communicate with Spanish-speaking patients.

SJC meets once every block to mediate student-student conflicts, but generally we only get one or so cases a semester. The main responsibility of the SJC is to hold the Ethics Workshop for the incoming students during Orientation and more workshops throughout the semester. We also do the "Student of the Semester Awards" (accepting applications for this semester right now) and  choose the book first semester students read before arriving to the island and administer the quiz that goes towards 1% of the anatomy grades. If you guys remember in an earlier post, I was shocked I even had required reading before coming to the island. I had to read the book, "Stiff" and frankly, I did not really understand how it related to becoming a doctor. Sure we were about to start anatomy and we would be dealing with cadavers, but aside from the first chapter, the book hardly talks about cadaver's role in a medical setting.  Instead the author focuses on the history, the strange uses, and the breakdown and composting of cadavers. It's simply a book about cadavers, not medicine.

Sell tickets for the 50/50 raffle during the Phi Chi
Poker Party. I did wear shorts with that dress.

I feel like the SJC did a better job selecting the book "Short White Coat" for the May incoming class, although I have no yet read it. I bought it just recently and plan on reading it, along with "How Doctor's Think" during the upcoming break. Since I am now on the SJC board, I'll try to support a book that will be more applicable to the common medical student and way more interesting! The more I look into this subject matter, the book I've read the best reviews about is "House of God" by Samuel Shem. People insist that all medical students should read this book at one point or another. I just ordered my copy on Amazon. I'll throw that on the list too for this upcoming break. If it's good, I'll try recommending it to the rest of the SJC board. To all my lovely readers, if you guys have any book suggestions that would be appropriate for an incoming class of medical students, please don't hesitate to let me know.

And now on to my last club, and then one I spend the most time with-- Phi Chi! Phi Chi is the largest organization on campus with 80 or so members and we are the only medical fraternity at AUC... both men and women are welcome to join. We are responsible for many of the social events here on campus like the AUC Beach Party, the Poker Tournament, boats for the Heineken Regatta, and my favorite event of the semester the Wine and Cheese Gala. Unfortunately we won't be holding Wine and Cheese this semester, but we will hold it again this upcoming November/December.

This is horribly staged, but this was my role for the HIV
Screening during the St. Maarten Health and Wellness Fair

 In addition to our social events, all Phi Chi members are required to do a community service project sometime during the semester. Popular choices are HIV screenings, Diabetes screenings, and take out/play with children at some of the local orphanages like ICAN and Crystal House. What I also love about Phi Chi is that you meet and become friends with many other students from the other semesters. This past semester we implemented a Big Brother/Big Sister program for pledges to be matched with members. We realize making the initial transition to the island for the start of medical school can be both difficult and frightening, so we hope having a "Big" will help smoothen the move by being available for any questions or provide advice. The plan for next semester is to pair people during the "Interview" night in the second week of classes.... we did the pairing process a lot later than what we would have liked and I'm not sure if it's been beneficial. I have yet to hear from my "Little" about anything.

To become a member, pledges must go through an interview process the second week of school, then help organize the Poker Tournament, attend a session of "Team Building" and lastly, do community service. Initiation night is usually a delicious dinner at Bamboo Bernies at the end of the semester where all of Phi Chi members attend. It may seem like a lot now, but being part of club isn't as demanding as it sounds. Once being a full-fledged member, you have to attend meetings once each block and dinner is provided.

Anyway, for all you guys coming this September, I better see a good chunk of you pledging. I'm thinking of becoming a Pledge Master (or is it mistress?).

For even more pictures of Phi Chi Events:
-HIV Screening at the St. Maarten Health and Wellness Fair
-Wine and Cheese Gala

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USMLE Step 1 Update

As I hope most of you know by now, after your 5th semester of basic sciences on the island, students have to pass the USMLE Step 1 exam before they can move on to clinicals. Of the 5th semester students who just left the island a few months ago (at the end of my first semester) the first batch just received their scores!

So far 100% of the students passed Step 1 and 48% of them scored a 99!

More results will be trickling in for the next few months. I'll definitely keep you guys updated.

Related articles

• AUC 2010 USMLE Step 1 Results (medschoolcaribstyle.com)

Exhausted

My personal quest for the ever-elusive Dean's list just got a little tougher. Preliminary grades are out and they aren't what I expected. I already know they have to drop at least one question in MCB (since they had the correct answer choice appear twice) and I'm hoping maybe a couple more questions will be dropped in some of my other exams. Hope isn't totally lost yet. I still have Block 4 exams and Finals, but this is going to require me to put solid hours in every day for these last 5 weeks. But the major problem is, no matter how much I say I need to study, I never really start going all out till Block Week. Hell, I don't even actually memorize anything until the weekend before exams! This is a problem. It might have worked out well the first two blocks but it's only because they are three weeks long. Blocks 3 and 4 are each four weeks long, and jamming in that extra week of material in my one weekend causes all sorts of problems.

Sunday night I slept three hours. I went to bed at 2 am and woke up at 5 am to review all the material before my exams. For anyone who knows me, you know how much I hate sacrificing sleep. I love sleeping almost more than anything and I make sure I get 7-8 hours every single night. 3 hours of sleep the night before block exams? Eh. My mind wasn't really functioning for most of the morning, but at least it kicked into gear by exam time. Another problem? My family's in town. They came Saturday of Block Weekend and I ended up going out with them Saturday night! NO BUENO. 

So much to work on, but still plenty of time to get myself right. Although...

 Let's just say I'm not off to the best start since I skipped classes today to go around the island with my family. After I finished my exams yesterday, I ended up going to the French side of the island with them to eat at Cafe de Paris in Marigot (awesome food, highly recommended). We finished around 10 pm and I made my way to Bamboo Bernies to celebrate my friends' birthdays and then we all went to Brother Jimmy's and Tantra to drink/dance the night away. Tomorrow is another day. I hope I can seize it.

Drowning in Block 3

Immunology and Physio are both fine, but man oh man is MCB II a killer this block! I'm literally drowning in information right now. I've been making flashcards for MCB the last few months (and they have been working fabulously) so the following picture just goes to show how much more information we are responsible for this block.

Part of the problem is we didn't finish all the lecture material during block 2 because of the holidays. To remedy the situation the professor just figured he would shove a few extra lectures in with what we were already doing. I'm up to about 350 cards at the moment, and we still have 3 more class days of new material :(

Block 3 exams in 5 days, 13 hours, and 40 minutes.

Wish me luck, I'm going to try memorizing 20% of those cards tonight.

Let's Talk about Me (or mostly about my family)

Just a "change-of-pace" post that isn't completely about AUC. I feel like I had a few more posts like this when I first started writing my blog, but they still were about how I ended up in the Caribbean and why. I'll add the links at the bottom of this entry if it interests you.

Today I will just throw in fun facts about myself. Most common question I've gotten since I've arrived to the island has been, "what's you ethnicity?" or the mistaken question, "what's your nationality" wherein I reply "American". Yes, I am an American national, born and raised in the great state of Rhode Island.  When people ask me that though, I know what they're really after..... my ethnicity. To answer the original question, I've got two actually!  I am half Colombian and half Lebanese. Crazy mix, right? But somehow more common than one would expect since there is a sizable Lebanese population in Colombia. Hell, even Shakira is half Lebanese and half Colombian.  

Next question is usually "wow, how in the world did your parents meet?" This is a cute story. They met in Boston, Massachusetts at a Kaplan center when they were studying for the USMLE Step 1. They're both doctors. My mom attended medical school in Colombia and my dad went to medical school in Moscow because of the Lebanese civil war at the time. Think going to a Caribbean med school is hard? Try going to med school in the tundra that was the Soviet Union when you don't even speak Russian. As a result, my dad is now fluent in Russian as well as 4 other languages (I know you guys are LOVING these fun facts).  But once each of my parents were done with med school, they came to the United States in hopes of practicing medicine there. So just like everyone else, they had to pass all the Steps of the USMLE and they did. 

Next was residency... my parents are actually very intelligent. I wonder why I didn't get more of those genes? My dad is in Internal Medicine and ended up doing his residency at Rhode Island Hospital (the primary teaching hospital for Brown University Medical school) and my mom got her Pediatric Neurology residency at Mass General (the teaching hospital for Harvard Med). And that is the fascinating story of how my parents met and how we came to be Rhode Island residents.

Next question I get most often: "Do you have any siblings?" Why yes I do! I've got one younger brother named Mark. He has no interest in medicine though, definitely the black sheep of the family. He is a finance major at Quinnipiac University. I know, I know, I realize 97% of people have never heard of that school, but I added the link just to prove that it exists. 

Random fact that most people don't know about me: I've been to 35 countries. At least that's how many countries I could count just now. My family and I are just a bunch of globe-trotters. Since I was 10 years old, we started traveling to other countries twice a year. We would go two weeks in the spring and 3-4 weeks in the summer to all sorts of places. I've been to most of Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, but no Australia sadly :( sorry to my few Aussie readers, but I'm sure we'll make it over there soon.  

Favorite trip: 3 way tie. African Safari in Botswana, Machu Picchu and all the wonderfulness of Peru, and lastly the beauty that is southern Italy (i.e. Positano and the rest of the Amalfi Coast)  

Least Favorite Trip: France. Love the buildings, monuments, art, food, WINE but it's amazing how rude so many of the PEOPLE are. I'm sorry but French people are simply rude. Especially Parisians. And it's not like I'm forming this opinion from a one time trip. I've been to France on 4 different occasions with friends and family and it's always the same story. I even have French cousins I go out with over there and French people are rude to THEM and they are French! I don't know what it is. Sorry Pizza Dan, but Parisians are not the nicest population in the world.

Countries I *really* want to go to, but have not yet visited: Morocco, Egypt, India, Argentina

I just uploaded a couple of family photos from the trips. I feel like my parents and I look about the same in these pictures, but you can tell how much time passes with the dramatic growth of my brother.

Russia

Botswana

China

Portugal. The last trip I took with my family  before getting to St. Maarten.

This is my friend Alba, by the way. 

The "Big Trip" this year? St. Maarten. My family is coming down to see me next Saturday because they simply couldn't bare the thought of going on without me. I think that's what they call love. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as I did. If you have any random questions you want to ask about me, go right ahead and put in the comments section and I'll be happy to answer. Also any questions pertaining to AUC or medical school in the Caribbean in general, leave a comment and I'll answer it. I'm averaging around 150 pageviews a day right now, so I'm sure some of you guys have questions! Anytime on any of my posts. Leave a comment and I will get back to you. Until next time!

~Andrea

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