Community Action Day!

Yesterday Phi Chi and many of the other organizations on campus organized Community Action Day, an event that allows students to give back to the St. Maarten community by participating in one of a variety of projects which include: HIV screening, Diabetes screening, Alzheimer's screening, teaching breast self-exams, playing with the little kids from the ICAN orphanage, or the older kids from Crystal House. The day kicked off at 7:00 a.m. with a free breakfast for all the volunteers and also free T-shirts. Naturally my friend and I aren't morning people, and we managed to crawl into the rotunda at around 7:40 when pretty much all the T-shirts disappeared. My friend accepted the XXL shirt that was left and I did not, hence my not wearing a T-shirt in the above picture... but at least I was wearing green anyway. One of the coordinators did end up finding me a Small, so I was a happy camper in the end.

Seeing as I had already done HIV screening in a previous semester, I thought it would be more fun to spend the day at the beach playing with little kids from ICAN. The following are a few pictures I took for the day.

Aside from a bad sunburn, a few near-drowning experiences ( I realized I'm not a very good swimmer with children on my back) and a couple of wardrobe malfunctions (actually one girl just kept pulling down my bikini top when she was trying to catch me), it was a good day. The kids were very enthusiastic and had a great time at the beach. I got to meet some new people from the other classes and I was happy to spend the day with friends.

Related articles

• Getting Involved (medschoolcaribstyle.com)
• Community Action Day (caribbeanmedstudent.com)

Block II-Trending in the Right Direction

I figured out how to study for Micro, the Phys dept still sucks, and I'm actually decent at Path without having to do anything. At the end of the day though, it's still the same old story for me. Block II can be characterized as a daily struggle with procrastination and complacency, punctuated with a five day study freakout phase that always ultimately keeps me in the clear.  I did better in grades overall since I studied more, but I still need to go up from here. Today is the third day into block 3 and I'm doing something I have never done before, I'm getting ahead... for one class, but it is Med Micro, the class that's been taking roughly 90% of my time. It's also the class that students here can get 100s in. It's fair, you just have to memorize every last single detail about each virus, bacteria, and fungus. My flashcards have been working out pretty well for this class so far.  With a little more time, I'm convinced I could have scored perfection on this last exam. I'm aiming for the 100 for the next one. We'll see.

Med Micro:
Average- 84%
Me- 88%

Physiology:
Average-80%
Me- 86%

Pathology:
Average- 80%
Me- 77%

Back from my hiatus

Hi friends, I know it's been awhile.
I wish I could tell you that my lack of blogging has been due to a betterment of my study habits, but I'd be lying. Block I for this third semester has been my worst block in awhile.  I didn't start studying until 5 days before the exams so it wasn't really a shock to see how much I fell off from the type of grades I was getting last semester.

I certainly didn't plan for this. When I got back to the island for round three I still felt absolutely exhausted from all the went on at the end of semester two. I had a sort of mental lapse in my last month of school and it really spoiled all the excellent grades I had achieved prior. The result was a demoralizing   86.6% for my final overall grade of the semester. I was a lousy 0.4% points away from Dean's list. Not only that but I cost myself the opportunity to honor both MCB II and Immuno. I was fractional points away from that sexy "H" on my transcript.  Ah well... it's not a huge deal but I still feel sad I didn't achieve my goal I set for myself. This has all really taken a toll on my motivation to study, hence my less-than-stellar block 1 performance.

But I'm going to stop complaining now. I'll stop feeling sorry for myself. I need to just shut up and get back to work, because med school really is the worst place to stall. After this first week, I've stayed caught up in Med Micro and I've been spending the majority of today catching myself up on pathology. I'll spend tomorrow morning working on physio and spend that rest of the day watching football.

Oh football how I love and hate you.

Fantasy Update: I'm in four leagues and I'm currently 2-0, 1-1, 1-1, 1-1. Players that I have in the majority of my leagues- Larry Fitzgerald, Beanie Wells, Rob Gronkowski, Santonio Holmes, James Starks, Darren Sproles.

I'll update you all with my Block I exams when the final grades come out:

Pathology I-
Average: 83%
Me: 77%

Physiology II-
Average: 86%
Me: 79%

Med Micro-
Average: 80%
Me: 72%

Football is Taking Over my Life...

...And I realize the season has hardly started. Packers-Saints are playing tonight and I couldn't be more excited for the football season to finally be underway.

If I wasn't trying to be a doctor right now, I honestly would be doing an internship or something over at ESPN in the Connecticut offices to try and get my foot in the door in sports journalism. I could be one of those side line chicks who chase after the quarterbacks at the half/end of the game and get a few meaningless quotes. Kidding.

I would actually HATE that, because there is nothing more useless than those women. And I feel bad for them because I'm sure they do know a lot about sports, but they get relegated to that role.

I started up a fantasy football league at my school. That's what's been taking all my time. Since I came to the island 3 days late, it really was difficult running around spreading the word about fantasy football. Not only am I a heinous/very nervous public speaker, but the person I was going around with who actually does a decent job with speaking to large groups knows absolutely nothing about fantasy football. Our announcements left a lot to be desired.  So I am very appreciative of those who did sign up (mostly the third semester and the fourth semester students). This whole fantasy football thing was supposed to be a means for raising money for the third semester class. The money is meant to go towards our 5th semester party next summer. And I'm happy to say we made $700, so that's great. A chunk of that money will be going to the winners of each fantasy league, but if I win the two leagues that I'm in, I plan on donating it all back to the class (my fantasy teams are looking good at the moment).

As for school..... I don't think it surprises anyone that I'm behind once again. Pathology has taken most of my time, so this weekend will be spent catching up with Physio II and Med Micro. I guess there won't be a better weekend then this one since Tropical Storm Maria is coming to town! I've been warned by my cleaning lady that I should not leave the house Saturday. She wouldn't leave me alone until I promised her that I wouldn't so now I definitely won't.

I'm sorry this post was a little eh. I know it sounds rushed and I feel rushed right now. We have Phi Chi interviews for the new set of pledges tonight and I need to get some more work done before I leave for that. I hope you guys are doing great, I love you all, and I'll post again soon.


Lastly, GO PATRIOTS!!!!!

First Day Back--Third Semester

I don't really know what was going on today in class. But that's what you get when you miss the first couple days of lecture.  I had trouble focusing and when I actually managed to pay attention, nothing was making too much sense to me. I definitely need to dig deep and force myself to do some studying later tonight even though my mind is saying "no, let's watch TV, eat, nap, or skype instead."

The classes one must take for third semester include: Pathology I, Physiology II, Microbiology, and ICM 3. I haven't bought any new textbooks this semester, but a couple of students I've spoken to have encouraged me to get the Robbins and Cotran "Pathologic Basis of Disease." But I'm also thinking of buying Goljan's Rapid Review Pathology instead because it is the best USMLE review book out there for pathology. I'll let you guys know which one I go with.

My first impression of third semester so far is that the classes are finally beginning to look like they are medically relevant. We are learning material that we will need to recall when we are in clinicals and potentially for when we are doctors. Pathology focuses on what's wrong with the body and microbiology discusses the viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi people can be exposed to. The material is nothing I've ever learned in college and I think this is the case for most of the students in my class. Overall it looks like it will be a more interesting semester, but a harder one too.

I hope football season doesn't get in the way of my studying too much this semester. I'm also helping my class raise money for our fifth semester party by organizing a few fantasy football leagues for the AUC students. By next Wednesday, I hope I can finally be done stressing out over this. I hate chasing people for money, and I especially hate speaking in front of large groups of people.